Category: Review

WhatsApp Messenger (Beta) Available for Android Tablet Users without SIM Card

It has been a long wait for the worlds most popular private messaging app to be free of the bounds of requiring a device with SIM Card with an active mobile number linked to the account. Before this Facebook (Meta) launched a web based version which can be linked to the mobile devices using the linked device feature, where you were able to scan QR code to link the web version of the application and use it for messaging. This was my go to for a few years for the web and then the desktop version of the application.

This feature was not seemless for the android tablets. We were able to use the web based WhatsApp (https://web.whatsapp.com) on android tablets, but it was not always working. You may or may not able to load the application at some times.

Last couple of months, whatsapp has started rolling out the Beta version of the WhatsApp application for Android users in a limited capacity. If you are lucky enough, you will be able to join there beta program to download the beta version on your android tablet.

beta program is almost always full

I am a beta user of WhatsApp from almost 8 or 9 years now. and thats where I was able to get the beta version of the application on my Samsung Tab S8 Plus. Meta is rolling out the beta version of the application also to limited users, that means even you have the beta program joined, you still may not be able to get the latest beta version supporting the SIM less operations on your Android Tablet. In case you are still looking for the tablet version of the application then you can use the sites like APKMirror to search and download the latest beta version of the application.

Either way, once you have the application installed, you will get a very similar experiance as that of WhatsApp for Web or WhatsApp to macOS or Windows Desktop. If your Android table is not having the SIM Card capabiltiies, then you will be presented with a QR code to link the application with your existing account on your mobile phone. Just open the settings of WhatsApp on your mobile and select linked devices to add new linked device. WhatsApp on your tablet will be acgtivated and linked to your existing account. Remember that this functionality still is dependent on the communication between the actual account holding device and the linked device. You are required to keep the main account holding device online for this to function. If your device is out of juice or network, then you will not able to use this on your tablet either.

I wish there was a option to have this service work without the connection with the primary device. The main reason which I believe is the end to end encryption for the communication between 2 people. A chat is encrypted by a unique encryption key between 2 parties and that is some how not sharable between multiple devices by the current design of the application framework. but if Meta makes there mind to do it, it should be posible in near future.

I am enjoying the application today, if you are able to get the version, please share your experience with us in the comments. Happy messaging!!

Is Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT Fibernet) the Worst Service / Customer Service?

My experiance with ACT Fibernet started almost a decade ago when I moved from then newly launced Relaince provided wireless Internet Services (which was assumed by me as the worst experiance of that time). ACT was able to bring a relief as they were able to quickly bring the internet to my doorsteps. …BUT

Soon I realized that thier infrastructure in Bangalore was very new and the distribution design was not efficiant. They were reliant on the local node setup on the rooftops of your neighbours. A detailed review at that time was posted by me on this site itself that time too. Though the nodes were battery backed up, but the power cuts where draining the batteries very fast. The whole echo system gose down with that. After continous / multiple complaints, they started improving. Over the years I will say that I have been a satisfied customer of this service. So satisfied that I have been refering my friends to prefer ACT over other service providers. Then this happened …

I moved from the locality where I was staying to a new area where the service was not so good. I remember telling my friends to go for ACT in this area and they always said no, and others in this Area is not having any good experiance with ACT, which always surprised me as I was happy. This all happiness all of sudden disapeared as soon as I realized myself that the service is actually bad in the area.

I have repetedly complained about poor internet speed, frequently getting disconnection and not being able to access all the sites / application most of the time. And My surprise the solution was alway received by a ticket getting closed without resolution.

Since I need to work, and need a internet connection all the time, i had to opt for a second service provider (Airtel) this time. To My surprise the service and customer service of Airtel is much prompt and stable. Since there is no other good service provider (except that shitty reliance service named Jio who has the only moto of sucking money) I had to keep both the connection for the sake of redundancy and backup.

ACT never improved, and Airtel started getting some connectivity issues too. which made me look back to ACT. I started using the same as my daily driver. But truly speaking it is a nightmare. Nothing works Netflix, Hotstar, Prime TV etc. many services and applications don’t work many sites are not accessible and you wont believe that search pages like Google and Bing wont work many times.

I open a ticket and the service team will suggest to restart the router or wait for some time so that the connection will be restored automagically, without them doing anything. The customer support is no more existing. Nodal officers are not responding or taking pain for the customer complaints. From last 2 months I have been following the tickets open and close game. I open a ticket they close the ticket.

Here are a few resolutions they provide and close the ticket:

  1. don’t use Google DNS or any other Third-party services
  2. your internal network should be as simple as router to laptop as lan connection, anything else is BS and is not supported.
  3. if you are using anything which is not connected by LAN, will not get speed or may get issues in connection dropping or site not reachable etc. (this all in the world of wifi)
  4. I have a internet WAN load balancer setup just to keep high availaibilty in place, and the so called engineers of ACT are not aware of that how this works, they simply say the other provider is creating issues in their internet … lol.
  5. You have to use the service on their router only.
  6. it is your fault and no investigation is needed at the ACT side.

so basically totally crap.

I am sure many out of your have faced the issues with ACT Fibernet and many of you might have been happy customers of ACT, but it seems that we realise the truth only when we face problem. If the internet is working flawlessly then you never know the kind of support you are going to recieve at the end.

I wish ACT Fibernet improve their services and customer support over time.

and for you all reader of this honst and short grudgeful review please share your experiance with your serice provider in the comments. Thanks!

News: iOS 8 Brings in Flickr Integration

iOS 8 Brings in Flickr Integration on Board

Yesterday, 17 September 2014 Apple launched its next big update of iOS and reached to version 8. With this update they have introduced many new features and one among them is Flickr and Vimeo integration. iOS was already having twitter and Facebook on the board till yesterday. as you can see in the image below, now you can link your Flickr and Vimeo accounts with your iOS device.

iOS Settings Screen

Once you have provided your credentials in the iOS Settings for the Flickr, you will be able to see the Flickr share option in the Photos app. for demonstration I have opened a picture in my Photos app and clicked on share icon at the bottom left Corner. This popped up the sharing control center, showing all the sharing option available, Flickr being one of them.

Sharing Center in Photos App
Sharing Center in Photos App Showing Flickr

Now you can scroll through the images in the above pan and select upto 10 pictures, before the Flickr sharing is disabled (It seems that Apple has introduced a limit on number of images can be shared on Flickr at once). After selecting app the photos you pick Flickr to share your photos and the Flickr sharing option dialog opens up, something like this

Share on Flickr from Photos App
Share on Flickr from Photos App

Here on this dialog you can provide your sharing comments select the Album / Photo Set and select the Audience and commit the post.

Pros:

  • You Don’t need to rely on third party Apps in case you generally share a pic or two.
  • The Application which require Flickr access can receive it centrally from the iOS. You need not to manage the Application access individually.
  • It uploads the full size images to Flickr from within the Photos app.

Cons:

  • There is limit of 10 photos which can be shared at a time with Flickr using the Photos app and that is too small for Professionals.
  • There is no configuration where you can restrict the upload size. It always uploads the full sized image.
  • You can not create a new Photo Set or Album. The Photos can only be uploaded to an existing one or none.

Missing Feature:

There should be an option to see the Flickr photos / albums in the Photos app, which will be the nicest feature to be appreciated by most of the people.

Conclusion:

As it is a big step for Apple to bring more social media integration on board, they need to work hard to make the features likable by most if not by everyone. I kind of like the new Flickr integration to begin with. I hope Apple will be working hard to make the users of its iOS devices happier. Let us know what you all think about these features … leave a comment below.

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ACT Broadband Review – Pathetic Broadband Service

ACT Broadband Review

ACT Broadband Review – Pathetic Broadband Service

This broadband is good in terms of the Speed Only.

If you are a user who need high speed and happy with that, you can go for that. But as an IT Professional I consider many other things, like

  • Connection Speed and Price
  • Connection Downtime
  • Customer Care Support Availability
  • Initial Setup Hassle
  • Infrastructure Backend

I will discuss about that one by one here onwards.

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Google Hangout on Android – Immature Early Release

image Truly speaking, I really liked the way Google closes the projects which are not doing good, buggy, not getting good number of audience and are not getting good reviews form the lovers of Google. But, what happened to Google this time. Google got too much obsessed with its new Hangout project that it forgot its own very favorite application, which is there everywhere “Gtalk” (also known as Google Talk or Talk on some platforms).

When Google introduced Google Hangout, there was a huge crowd which appreciated this application and in no time it gained good popularity. Whatever, people were expecting from a social communication tool, was covered, including some fun stuff add-ons. It was a great step from Google, which gave a new face to social communication.

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