Weekend Watch: Google a Day in Your Classroom

This weekend, in-house discussions on the relationship between education and social media led us to these interesting ideas on the digitization of education, while providing a secure learning atmosphere. Take a look.

Weekend Watch: Social Media Loves Satyameva Jayate

This weekend, star power and social cause came together to create a mega wave in the Indian television industry. 

Amir Khan's Satyameva Jayate turned out to be a refreshing break from regular shows and an eye opener too. Most of the country was eagerly waiting to watch the issue based chat show on Sunday morning. And within no time, appreciation poured in from all quarters on social networking sites everywhere. People were busy sharing photographs of the statistics aired on the show and of course the heartfelt song that was the only Bollywood touch at the end of the episode. 

While most celebrities tend to trend on social networking sites for their scandalizing comments and  eye popping pics, Amir Khan seems to have reversed the order in his own way. 

By the end of the day, the show's Facebook page received a whopping 42,000 likes, a number which has now touched more than six lakhs. There were nearly 3800 tweets about the show by the end of Sunday. And the website too reportedly crashed twice due to excess traffic. Not to mention the entire episode has been viewed more than two lakh times on Youtube and is being aggressively shared on Facebook and Twitter. Even before the episode went on air, the title song had been trending on networking sites adding to curiosity about the show.

While the success of the program was expected, a look into the social media stats, reveals just how popular it has turned out to be. What do you have to say about this?

Weekend Watch: Five Apps You Wouldn't Want to Delete

This weekend, we decided to put together a list of apps that are surprisingly simple in concept, amazingly addictive, and very clever. You won’t be removing any of these at any time from your phone. Check them out!

1.      Paper Toss

Yep, this iPhone, Android app is exactly like it sounds. Crumple a piece of paper, toss it in the waste bin and compare scores with your friends. On your phone. This classic game to pass time at work is just as addictive as the real experience.  Especially with the extra features that recreate the office environment-  verbal abuse from co-workers, various office-like sounds and also a fan with varying speeds to affect the paper toss.  Once you start, it’ll be hard to stop.

 2.The Imppossible Game

The fact that this is perhaps one of the hardest games ever, makes it all the more addictive. Guide a bright orange square along a series of barriers and hurdles to get to the next level. A small mistake and you can find yourself back at the starting line. An Xbox Live Indie Game and a popular app for iPhone, The Impossible Game is also available for Android users.

3.     Path

It’s a journal that functions like a regular social networking site.  Share the music you’re listening to, where you’re at, who’s with you, when you go to sleep, the time you wake up…Path lets you share it on your journal page and also has the option to share it on Facebook, Twitter and the like.

4.       Dragon Dictation

We love this one! Feel too bored to text? Get the Dragon Dictation app and save plenty of typing time. It’s a voice recognition application that allows you to dictate your message, status update or memo and the text instantly shows up on screen. You can then email your message, or submit it to your Facebook or Twitter page. It’s fast and simple and supported by plenty of global languages.

5.    Red Laser

A must-have app for every shopaholic! Scan the bar code of the item you’d like to purchase and it throws up a list of stores where it’s available. You can compare prices and also find online and offline retailers who stock the item of your choice. Definitely makes shopping quicker and smarter. Take a look!

Know of any other interesting apps. Give us a shout! 

Weekend Watch

Here's what we stumbled upon this weekend:

A clever little cross between Pinterest and Evernote. What do you think? 

Weekend Watch

Here's what we mulled over this weekend:

Facebook Acquires Instagram 

The news garnered mixed response from across the world. Several rooted in favour of the acquisition  while many others feared it might dilute the very reason that made this photo sharing app popular. Facebook seemed to be touted as the big bad wolf and Instagram, the poor helpless lamb.

It certainly is hot news, but one wonders if Instagram was ever big enough to pose as competition to Facebook? Did Facebook need to fear this app so much as to buy it out? And is the acquisition as much of a bad news as it is made out to be?

Mark Zuckerberg has stated that he’d be working with the team more closely and help it grow independently as well. This seems to be a smarter move than integrating all the features of the app to the social networking site. And can also prove to be good news for Instagram users. Face it, it was a simple app that grabbed attention mainly for being the first of its kind. With the experience, infrastructure and engineering available with Facebook, there could be a lot more to look forward to than rebel against.

What do you think about this?

Google+ Has a New Look

Oodles of white space to create a “simpler, more beautiful Google”, a ribbon of apps on the left that can be dragged to arrange in the order you want, and live video on Hangouts are some of the new features that are grabbing eyeballs.  Another interesting addition is the Explore page that shows what’s trending across the network.

It’s clean and simplistic with a host of interesting new features. Check out the video posted on the official blog.

Like the new look? Let us know. 

Spotted any other interesting development over the week? Give us a shout.