Sunday, February 12, 2012

Photo a day


Photo a day is a new picture organization app by our very own Pakistani group "Smasherzz". The main purpose of the app is literally as its named, i-e a photo a day. Which in my view is also a negative point for the app. But we will get to the details in a moment, first lets have a get go at the app and its features.

Purpose
Photo A Day tries to make it easier for the android user to keep its "a memory a day" picture organized by dates. Its like the movie "Memento" . If he had this app, his life would have been a lot easier :). But unfortunately that's about it. The app does just that.
Though its a great effort but there is much to be longed for in the app.

My experience
I spent around 15 minutes on using and exploring the app for features, but as described above, its literally just "photo a day" app. Nothing more, nothing less. I have seen better apps for the purpose on the market which in my view also lack a couple of essential features which I'll be listing below.

Wishlist
If this app is to be popular or gain number in downloads, the developers will have to put focus on the following areas.

1- UI

The UI is a major turn off and definitely needs work and attention. Here is a screenshot of what the app actually looks like under the icon.


If this app is to make money, UI is the first thing that needs changing.

2- No flick ?

It was a surprise for me when the calendar month didn't change on swipe / flick of the thumb.

3- FC oh my!

If you click on the previous month's date appearing in current month, like in the screen shot above. The app will FC. (Force Close)

4- No ownership of files

I would never like an app to try and take over my base.. "All my base are not belong to you" as the wise Panda once said. It is recommended that the developers use a separate folder to save thumbs of the images assigned.

5- No Timeline ?

In an app that says "photo a day" should have a scroll-able timeline feature to be able to browse through the dates and images.

6- A photo a day ? literally ?

I would like my photos arranged by date, yes Sir. by Month, Yes Sir, but do I have one photo every day ? No Sir. This should be a more of a assign "photos" to a specific date instead of "A photo A day"

7- Sharing is caring

There should be a "share" button which allows sharing images via facebook, Gmail or say MMS ?

8- No cloud sync

If I were to keep this app for a memory of my say , son growing up or my valentine ;) I'd definitely want it to keep my memories safer than an SD card crash away. How about Picasa for sync ? its Google product. Or say your own cloud storage ?

Links :
Facebook
Android Market
QR Code


Saturday, February 11, 2012

Traffic Pakistan


Traffic Pakistan is a newly launched first of its kind traffic reporting service for Pakistan. Currently launched in three major cities:
  • Islamabad
  • Karachi
  • Lahore
Though simple yet a very useful and creative idea brought to life. In Pakistan, you are bound to get stuck in traffic blocks when you leave for someplace. But this innovative service can help you save your time. As it provides latest updates regarding different roads / places in the respective city.

Its a purely user contribution based service, relying entirely on the input by users. More the people start using and contributing it, more useful the service will get because it fetches updates based on users input. 

Amazingly, people of Islamabad have come up with a very unique way of utilizing this service, and that is Updates on CNG pumps in Islamabad.
For example:
  • F7 caltex is serving two lines at a time. Can be time saving
  • long bloody line for cng at pso f8 and caltex f8. Oh my!!
Given the chance, this can be a very useful community.

Using Traffic Pakistan

Getting Updated
Getting updates from Traffic Pakistan is as simple as 
  • Opening the website www.trafficpakistan.com and following your respective city. Search for your point of interest and you are done.
  • Getting updates via SMS is very intuitive and easy to remember, you just send an SMS to +92-312-5554065 containing this text: "traffic islamabad" for last 5 updates related to Islamabad. Or "traffic islamabad islamabad highway" for last 5 updates related to "Islamabad Highway" in Islamabad.

Similarly for other cities, your SMS should be "traffic CityName PointOfInterest" for specific updates about a point of interest or "traffic CityName" for city updates.

Contributing/Updating Traffic Status
Traffic Pakistan does not require any kind of registration to be a contributor, it is open for all. You can be a part of community in two ways,
  • Twitter: When posting updates meant for Traffic Pakistan, use the following "hashtags" in your tweet.And Traffic Pakistan will automatically get updated.
  • #lhrtraffic for Lahore
  • #isbtraffic for Islamabad
  • #khitraffic for Karachi 
  • SMS: If you don't use Twitter, you can still be a part of this fast growing community. You can SMS at +92-312-5554065 starting with the following keywords:
  • lhrtraffic for Lahore
  • isbtraffic for Islamabad
  • khitraffic for Karachi
for example : SMS "isbtraffic faizabad is blocked by protestors" will update Islamabad Channel with the post, its that simple.

On successful post, you will receive an acknowledgement from Traffic Pakistan indicating that your post was successful .

For help, simply SMS "help traffic" on +92-312-5554065 .  Don't forget to save this number/

We at Wired Soup think that given the restrictions and support by the Government in Pakistan, its a very useful service for the community, but its success depends on the usage by the community. Next time you plan to go out shopping, make sure you have checked www.trafficpakistan.com