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The 20+ Apps To Know About In 2013

Education got a lot more mobile in 2012 as in-school iPad initiatives, the iPhone 5 launch andonline learning providers in general made classroom experiences more interesting—and don’t expect to see teaching head back to desktop PC’s in 2013. In fact, as MOOCs andhybrid programs continue to evolve, mobile should have an ever more significant role to play.

Looking back at some of 2012′s most significant app launches and updates, Education Dive assembled a list of a few of the best apps on iOS and Android devices that we think educators should know about for 2013. Some of these are already out in the wild, and some are still twinkles in their developers’ eyes. All of 23 of them stand to be important, however, in the new year:

1. SPIN
Publisher: Net Power & Light
Platform: iOS (iPad – requires iOS 5.0 or later)
Audience: Anyone who wants to learn collaboratively
Price: Free

Spin is bringing interactive learning into the 21st century—the TogetherLearn mobile app allows online learners to virtually recreate traditional classroom elements. Users can pause or fast-forward lectures, skip to another video, write on a digital chalkboard and debate with other users.

2. COURSERA
Publisher: Coursera
Platform: Unreleased
Audience: MOOC participants, presumably
Price: N/A

The coming year will have far-reaching implications for massive open online courses (MOOCs) and, consequently, the future of education. Coursera, the for-profit online learning provider founded by two Stanford University professors, is quickly rising to the top of an emerging market. Coursera, like the other big players, is expected to release a mobile app to sate their technologically adept users. In fact, a job listing on Coursera’s website indicates that the company is currently looking for mobile engineers with iOS expertise. Look for this to be one of the more memorable mobile app developments if something ships in 2013.

3. DESIRE2LEARN CAMPUS APPS
Publisher: Desire2Learn
Platform: Android, iOS and BlackBerry devices
Audience: Students, educators and campus administrators of many types
Price: N/A

Desire2Learn’s suite of options for its campus apps is always evolving. For instance, the company recently added security features from Guardly to its offerings. Look no further than Desire2Learn.com to read more about the grading and campus life options that are already accessible, but read up on Desire2Learn Binder if you want to know more about what to expect in the coming year.

4. UDEMY
Publisher: Udemy
Platform: iPad (with more to come)
Audience: Udemy students & instructors
Price: Free

Udemy’s mobile app already brought online learning to the iPad. Users can take classes, save lectures for offline viewing and interact with other users from their iPads to make the most of the burgeoning online learning experience. Looking ahead, the company just announced $12 million in new funding, and as President and COO Dennis Yang told us, new mobile apps on platforms such as iPhone, Android and Windows devices are going to be a big part of Udemy’s new year plans.

5. VERIVO HIGHER EDUCATION PLATFORM
Publisher: Verivo
Platform: Android, Apple and Blackberry
Audience: Universities
Price: N/A

Verivo’s platform for higher education furnishes universities with a comprehensive mobile app. Institutions can commission a customizable app that gives students access to grades, schedules, campus alerts and contact directories, among other things. Faculty can use it to track assignments, post a class schedule and communicate with their students while alumni can receive university news, view/post job opportunities and donate with one click.

6. GENIUS SCAN
Publisher: The Grizzly Labs
Platform: Android (requires 2.3 or later) & iOS (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad – requires iOS 5.1 or later)
Audience: Anyone in need of an on-the-go scanner
Price: Free (Apple)/$0.99 (Android)

Tired of saving receipts? Hate going to the library to scan one page? Look no further — the Genius Scan app transforms hand-held devices into a mobile scanner to create digital copies of documents.

7. MIND NODE
Publisher: IdeasOnCanvas
Platform: iOS (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad – requires iOS 5.1 or later)
Audience: Anyone who wants to map out their ideas
Price: $9.99

Mind Node is an elegant mobile mind mapping app with which users can readily structure their ideas.

8. WORDFLEX TOUCH DICTIONARY
Publisher: Schematix
Platform: iOS (iPad – requires iOS 4.0 or later)
Audience: English language enthusiasts & anyone looking for just the right word
Price: $11.99

Wordflex Touch Dictionary is a visually engaging mobile dictionary that takes full advantage of the touch-screen platform by giving users the means to sweep through expansive word trees with a flick of the finger.

9. BLACKBOARD MOBILE LEARN
Publisher: Blackboard
Platform: Android (varies with device), iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 5.1 or later) & Blackberry (4.3 or later)
Audience: Students, faculty & administration at Blackboard-friendly institutions
Price: Free

The Blackboard Mobile Learn app brings the Blackboard platform to hand-held devices. Students can access assignments, view grades and engage in discussion boards while professors can post assignments and manage their classes on-the-go.

10. SOCRATIVE STUDENT CLICKER
Publisher: Socrative
Platform: Android (requires 2.1 or later) & iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 4.3 or later)
Audience: Students & faculty (6-12 & Higher Ed)
Price: Free

The Socrative Student Clicker platform enables a new form of interactive classroom engagement — teachers can create shareable activities, gather feedback and test students all from their mobile devices.

11. VOICETHREAD
Publisher: VoiceThread.com
Platform: iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 4.2 or later)
Audience: Preschoolers to professors
Price: Free

VoiceThread is an interactive multimedia app which enables collaborative communication — write, draw and record your thoughts on shared documents, images and videos. Although early versions were met with mixed results, the concept behind VoiceThread has the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate in our increasingly digital age.

12. POWERTEACHER
Publisher: Pearson School Systems
Platform: iOS (iPad – requires iOS 4.3 or later)
Audience: K-12 schools
Price: Free

PowerTeacher is a classroom management solution for the iPad. Teachers can post assignments and grades, access classroom statistics, take notes and communicate with students. However, for use, school districts need to already be using the PowerSchool informations system.

13. TEACHER AIDE PRO
Publisher: In Pocket Solutions
Platform: iOS (requires 2.2 or later)
Audience: Teachers
Price: $7.99

Teacher Aide Pro is a classroom management app that empowers teachers to take attendance, fill in their gradebooks and communicate with students and parents from their mobile devices.

14. SCREEN VNC
Publisher: Edovia
Platform: iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 5.0 or later)
Audience: Those who need to control their computer(s) from their device(s)
Price: $19.99

Forgot your computer at home? Can’t quite bring your PC to class? Have no fear – Screen VNC enables computer-to-device synchronization. With it, users can control far-away computers from the palms of their hands.

15. EDUCREATIONS INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD
Publisher: Educreations
Platform: iOS (iPad – requires iOS 4.3 or later)
Audience: Teachers
Price: Free
Educreations enables users to galvanize presentations with interactive text, diagrams, audio and video.

16. EZPDF READER
Publisher: Unidocs
Platform: Android (requires 2.1 or later) & iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 4.3 or later)
Audience: Anyone who needs an interactive PDF player
Price: $3.99

ezPDF Reader allows users to read, highlight, fill out and take notes in embedded multimedia documents from a mobile device.

17. DRAGON DICTATION
Publisher: Nuance Communications
Platform: iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 4.0 or later)
Audience: Anyone who wants to turn speech into text
Price: Free

Dragon Dictation records speech and churns out a reliable text transcription. Dictate ideas, record lectures or simply send an email without typing. But it does require an Internet connection.

18. PENULTIMATE
Publisher: Evernote
Platform: iOS (iPad – iOS 3.2 or later)
Audience: Anyone who wants a mobile notebook
Price: $0.99

From the makers of Evernote, the best-selling note-taking app, Penultimate enables users to hand-write thoughts and ideas, take notes, sketch designs and save them all to their iPads.

19. ARTICLES
Publisher: Sophiestication Software
Platform: iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 5.1 or later)
Audience: Mobile Wikipedia users
Price: $4.99/$2.99 (iPhone)

A mobile Wikipedia reading app, Articles furnishes users with an engaging interface to swiftly search and browse Wikipedia’s expansive archives.

20. DOCERI
Publisher: SP Controls
Platform: iOS (iPad – requires iOS 5.0 or later)
Audience: Teachers
Price: Free

Doceri is an interactive whiteboarding and screencasting app — teachers can create and present projects all from their iPads.

21. NEARPOD
Publisher: Panarea
Platform: iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 4.3 or later)
Audience: Teachers & students
Price: Free

With Nearpod, teachers can administer content to their students while controlling the pace and flow of a given lesson, enabling simultaneous student engagement and teacher assessment.

22. WI-FI FINDER 
Publisher: JiWire
Platform: Android (varies with device) & iOS (iPhone, iPod touch & iPad – requires iOS 3.2 or later)
Audience: Anyone seeking a wi-fi hotspot
Price: Free

Having trouble finding a nearby internet connection to use one of these exciting mobile apps? Wi-Fi Finder solves that problem, supplying users with maps pinpointing Wi-Fi hotspots, free or otherwise.

23. LEARNIST 
Publisher: Grockit
Platform: iOS (iPad and iPhone)
Audience: Students and teachers of all things
Price: Free

Grockit put out one of our favorite new iOS releases of the year with their app treatment for Learnist, a sort of Pinterest for education. For swapping lesson ideas or teaching or taking quick video lessons on a vast range of topics, this app is all set. We’re eager to see if it hits any new platforms in 2013.             

                                             © Aditya krishnapavan

                     

           12-12-12 is the last repetitve date we will ever see

               

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD 

MY POSTER ON GLOBAL WARMING ISSUES

                                Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam

                              

Bugatti Veyron vs Euro Fighter - Top Gear - BBC

World's Greatest Drag Race!

Photography Courtsey: National Geographic Magazine September 2012

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                                                                 Courtsey :NASA

The Curiosity rover is a robotic, car-sized rover exploring Gale Crater on Mars. The Curiosity Mars rover carries a radioisotope-poweredmobile scientific laboratory and is part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission by the United States.

                                                           courtsey :NASA

                                                                  Eid Mubarak

beware of Apps

In a recent case reported in Ahmedabad, a company that developed applications was struck by data thieves - who were, in fact, the company's former employees. A group of four employees had suddenly quit one day, citing different reasons. A month later, the owner of the company discovered the theft when he noticed that an application developed by his firm was on sale with a different name and logo. Investigations revealed that the employees had stolen the data while leaving the company and had manipulated it.

According to experts, the theft exemplifies the future of cyber crime, in which mobile phone applications and new additions to technology - such as cloud computing - will be targeted by hackers. However, impersonation, data theft, espionage and phishing will remain prevalent in ever-changing forms. These were some of the insights presented by experts who gathered at a workshop organised by DSCI and GFSU in Gandhinagar on Friday.

Dr J M Vyas, director general of GFSU, said in his speech that cyber security had now become a basic necessity for everyone using internet and computers. He said that investigators as well as the public needed to become aware of cyber security's significance. "We hear about cyber attacks now and then, and the day is not far off when wars will be fought on cyber frontiers," he said.

Vinayak Godse, director of data protection, DSCI, told that the worrisome part about cyber crime was that it could not only affect individual computers but could also cripple a defence system or even the economy. "Thus, more and more strategic installations are going off the grid or developing their own networks to be safe from hackers," he said.

Experts emphasised that the Android operating system for mobile phones was vulnerable to such assaults. "Applications for this platform can be made by anybody and put up online," said an IT security expert. "While this is a boon for users, it can become a potential threat as a malware can steal crucial data when a user surfs internet from his tablet or mobile device. We thus advise users not to download any unidentified applications directly from websites."

9th July 2012.

The warning message is a fact. The message from FBI warns millions of computer users around the world to have been attacked by DNS changer, and they may lose complete access to internet on July 9, 2012.

DNS stands for Domain Name System, which is a standard internet service that converts user-friendly domain names like www.hoaxorfact.com into numerical addresses, thereby allowing the computers to talk to each other. DNS connects your computer to the DNS servers operated by internet service providers. Therefore, without DNS and DNS servers, you will not be able to use any internet services.

What is DNSChanger

DNSChanger is a malware started by cyber criminals in 2007, which has infected millions of computers across the world. This malware in user's computer allows the criminals to control the DNS servers of your internet providers. As a result of this, the criminals have forced unsuspecting computer users to fraudulent websites, interfering with their web browsing and also making their computers vulnerable to other types of malicious software.

How DNSChanger Infects Your Computer

DNSChanger malware usually comes as a small file (about 1.5 kilobytes) which is designed to change the user's 'NameServer' Registry key value to a custom IP address. This custom IP address is generally encrypted in the body of the trojan. When a user's computer is infected with DNSChanger, it will contact the newly assigned DNS server and resolve names of different webservers. Further, this malware attempts to access other devices on victim’s small office/home office (SOHO) network(like router or home gateway) using common default usernames and passwords and, if successful, can impact all computers on the SOHO network. This is how criminals can change good DNS servers with bad DNS servers operated by them, and mislead users to fraudulent websites and other malicious activities.

the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) have deployed and maintained temporary clean DNS servers for victims of DNSChanger malware to clean their affected computers and restore their normal DNS settings. These clean DNS servers will be turned off on July 9, 2012, and so the computers which are still impacted by DNSChanger may lose Internet access at that time.

How to Check if Your Computer is Infected

To check if your computer is infected with DNSChanger malware, you need to check if your DNS server settings have been changed to a bad server. If your computer is connected to a wireless access point or a router, settings on those devices should also be checked.

If you are using a Windows computer, open command prompt and enter

ipconfig /all

Search for the entry that reads “DNS Servers………”
The numbers corresponding to this line and the line(s) below it are the IP addresses for your DNS servers. These numbers will be in the format of nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn, where nnn is a number in the range of 0 to 255. Make a note of them, and go to the official website of FBI   to check if your computer is using a bad DNS.

If you are using an Apple computer, click on the Apple icon on the top left corner and go to System Preferences. From the Apple System Preferences window, select Network to view a number of possible connections on the left side. Choose your active network and click on the Advanced button in the lower right corner. Then select DNS from the options to check your DNS servers.

If your computer is on a network, you should check DNS settings of your routers and other devices of your SOHO network. You should refer to the product documentation of the manufacturer to know how to find DNS server details.

What to Do if Infected

If your computer is infected with DNSChanger, the FBI website will warn you with the below message, when you check your DNS server.

Your IP corresponds to a known rogue DNS server, and your computer may be infected, please consult a computer professional.

If your computer is infected with DNSChanger, it is a serious issue and you need to do some intensive work to get rid of it. The easiest and safest solution is to back up your important data, reformat your hard drives, and then reinstall the operating system. Instead, you can try removing the DNSChanger with a good malware removal utility such as Kaspersky Labs' TDSSKiller  .

If your infected computer is on a network with a hacked router, you should reset it and confirm that all network settings are restored to the manufacturer's defaults. For instructions how to reset your router, follow manufacturer's guidelines.

When you are done with all that, you should verify that your computer is no longer infected with DNSChanger. Once this malware DNSChanger is eliminated, you will not be affected when FBI shuts down the ISC's temporary DNS servers on July 9th, 2012.

Note: If you are not comfortable with any of the above mentioned procedures, it is advised to consult a computer professional.

                                     courtsey::Hoax or Fact

Samsung GALAXY S3 III TIPS and TRICKS, HELPS :Part 1, review by GADGETS ...

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Girls' Generation Visual Dreams (Intel Collaboration Song) Music Video

Microsoft Surface tablet 2012 first look

June 5th Is World Environment Day

With the goal of “being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action,” World Environment Day is an annual event held on June 5th of each year.

A result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held from June 5th thru 16th, 1972, the first World Environment Day was held in 1973, and has since become one of the main ways the UN helps to stimulate awareness of the environment the world over, while encouraging political attention and action. It’s also a day for people of all walks of life to come together as one and work towards a brighter, cleaner, and greener earth that will last for generations to come.

World Environment Day is celebrated around the world in a variety of ways, including green concerts, bicycle parades, street rallies, tree planting, school essay and poster competitions, recycling events, local clean-up campaigns and much more.

                                                               GO  GREEN  PLANT ONE SAVE ENVIRONMENT

Top Corruption Scams in India

This is the season of scams and the biggest ever corruption cases in India have been unearthed more recently. So, we decided to dig deep to see which scams were the biggest and most damaging to the country and its citizens alike.

In our daily life, most of us must have been a witness to or a victim of the corruption thriving in some or the other part of the country. It could be in the form of a taxi-driver manipulating the meter to jack-up the reading or a government officer taking bribery to promptly transfer your file to the next department or even yourself offering bribe to a traffic police on breaking a signal.

An average Indian citizen is hard working and diligent, but it is the people in charge of the system (The Babu’s) or with whom the power lays, that act as a cancer spreading the venom, slowing down progress and what all not. But, somewhere down the line, we ourselves are responsible for allowing and being taken for a ride by these people, aren’t we?

However, it is during a multi-thousand crore scam, that a tax-payer actually realizes the heartburn of being cheated from his valued contribution of funds towards the development and well-being of the nation. But, that’s what a scam, be it big or small, means – the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme or action.

The Top Scams in India

1) 2G Spectrum Scam

We have had a number of scams in India; but none bigger than the scam involving the process of allocating unified access service licenses. At the heart of this Rs.1.76-lakh crore worth of scam is the former Telecom minister A Raja – who according to the CAG, has evaded norms at every level as he carried out the dubious 2G license awards in 2008 at a throw-away price which were pegged at 2001 prices.

2) Commonwealth Games Scam

Another feather in the cap of Indian scandal list is Commonwealth Games loot. Yes, literally a loot! Even before the long awaited sporting bonanza could see the day of light, the grand event was soaked in the allegations of corruption. It is estimated that out of Rs. 70000 crore spent on the Games, only half the said amount was spent on Indian sportspersons.

The Central Vigilance Commission, involved in probing the alleged corruption in various Commonwealth Games-related projects, has found discrepancies in tenders – like payment to non-existent parties, will-ful delays in execution of contracts, over-inflated price and bungling in purchase of equipment through tendering – and misappropriation of funds.

3) Telgi Scam

As they say, every scam must have something unique in it to make money out of it in an unscrupulous manner- and Telgi scam had all the suspense and drama that the scandal needed to thrive and be busted.

Abdul Karim Telgi had mastered the art of forgery in printing duplicate stamp papers and sold them to banks and other institutions. The tentacles of the fake stamp and stamp paper case had penetrated 12 states and was estimated at a whooping Rs. 20000 crore plus. The Telgi clearly had a lot of support from government departments that were responsible for the production and sale of high security stamps.

4) Satyam Scam

The scam at Satyam Computer Services is something that will shatter the peace and tranquillity of Indian investors and shareholder community beyond repair. Satyam is the biggest fraud in the corporate history to the tune of Rs. 14000 crore.

The company’s disgraced former chairman Ramalinga Raju kept everyone in the dark for a decade by fudging the books of accounts for several years and inflating revenues and profit figures of Satyam. Finally, the company was taken over by the Tech Mahindra which has done wonderfully well to revive the brand Satyam.

5) Bofors Scam

The Bofors scandal is known as the hallmark of Indian corruption. The Bofors scam was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s; when the then PM Rajiv Gandhi and several others including a powerful NRI family named the Hindujas, were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India’s 155 mm field howitzer.

The Swedish State Radio had broadcast a startling report about an undercover operation carried out by Bofors, Sweden’s biggest arms manufacturer, whereby $16 million were allegedly paid to members of PM Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress.

Most of all, the Bofors scam had a strong emotional appeal because it was a scam related to the defense services and India’s security interests.

6) The Fodder Scam

If you haven’t heard of Bihar’s fodder scam of 1996, you might still be able to recognize it by the name of “Chara Ghotala ,” as it is popularly known in the vernacular language.

In this corruption scandal worth Rs.900 crore, an unholy nexus was traced involved in fabrication of “vast herds of fictitious livestock” for which fodder, medicine and animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured.

7) The Hawala Scandal

The Hawala case to the tune of $18 million bribery scandal, which came in the open in 1996, involved payments allegedly received by country’s leading politicians through hawala brokers. From the list of those accused also included Lal Krishna Advani who was then the Leader of Opposition.

Thus, for the first time in Indian politics, it gave a feeling of open loot all around the public, involving all the major political players being accused of having accepted bribes and also alleged connections about payments being channelled to Hizbul Mujahideen militants in Kashmir.

8) IPL Scam

Well, I am running out of time and space over here. The list of scandals in India is just not ending and becoming grave by every decade. Most of us are aware about the recent scam in IPL and embezzlement with respect to bidding for various franchisees. The scandal already claimed the portfolios of two big-wigs in the form of Shashi Tharoor and former IPL chief Lalit Modi.

9,10) Harshad Mehta & Ketan Parekh Stock Market Scam

11) Money laundering(Y .S JAGAN MOHAN REDDY) son of Late (Dr.Y.S.Rajasekhara reddy) Frmr CM of AP

  Andhra Pradesh high court last August, has accused Reddy of amassing huge assets through illegal means by allegedly using his father, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy's office, when he was the chief minister. Jagan Reddy had rebelled against Congress and floated his own political outfit YSR Congress, riding on the legacy of his father.

CBI has also accused many prominent business houses and industrialists from Andhra Pradesh to be part of the business web allegedly woven by Jagan Reddy to profit from his late father's influence. CBI has named 58 companies and 13 individuals in its first information report and has arrested four persons. CBI has accused corporates of investing in Jagan Reddy's businesses for alleged favours they received from the YSR governmentin the form of licences, allotment of projects, mining leases, and huge tracts of land and relaxation of norms.

CBI has also accused the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a helicopter accident in September 2009, of misusing public office to benefit his son. "The modus operandi followed by the duo was to dole out public properties, licences, SEZs, mining leases, ports, real estate permissions and other benefits to persons of their choice, violating established norms and procedures of the government," CBI said in its chargesheet.

Reddy, who had appeared before CBI on Friday for the first time in connection with his disproportionate assets case, was quizzed by CBI officials over the last three days for nearly 24 hours. The questioning centred on various favours allegedly doled out to corporates, in general, and Vodarevu and Nizampatnam Port and Industrial Corridor (Vanpic), in particular. Vanpic's Indian promoter Nimmagadda Prasad has invested nearly Rs. 1,000 crore in various businesses of Reddy.

On Sunday, Jagan Reddy was quizzed in the presence of his family auditor V Vijay Sai Reddy, the first person to be arrested in this case and now on bail, industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad and bureaucrat Brahmananda Reddy. Former minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, who was arrested and who is now in CBI custody, was admitted into a private hospital due to ill health. Prasad and Brahmananda Reddy, whose CBI custody ended on Sunday, were sent to judicial custody at Chanchalguda Central Prison.

So, can we live a scam-free life in India for a while now?

courtsey: Trak.in