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“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathersknowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”Isaac Asimov, writer 03SCI-TECH

Wireless ear-buds – ortrue wire-less ear-phones as

they are sometimes called—are getting popular day-by-day among buyers.

There are earbudsavailable in all priceranges and it gets difficultto select a particular ear-phone within the definedbudget that offers best val-ue in terms of features,sound quality and batterylife. Brands like Samsung,Nokia, Noise, Apple,Skullcandy, Sony havelaunched their true wire-less buds in the country.However, not all wirelessearbuds are of the samequality.

If you exercise due dili-gence when choosing a pair,you can probably avoid theworst models in the marketand hopefully, wind up withsomething that’s worth pos-sessing. To make thingseasier, we have put togeth-er a few points that oneshould keep in mind beforebuying true wireless ear-phones.

1Fit and comfort are importantand having an earbud that sitscomfortably in the bowl of the

ear is essential. Make sure it doesn’tdrop out the moment you start run-ning.

Shape and size of buds arecritical as there’s no wire tosupport them

2 The true wireless earbuds shouldbe lightweight so that they donot hurt the ears during those

long listening sessions.

Weight matters: Should belightweight

3 Look for size and design of eartips while buying earphones,these go a long way in provid-

ing comfort.

Size and design of eartips

5 Do check the battery backup of the buds as it should stay inears more than the charging case.

Earbuds should offer minimum battery back-up of 3 hours

11Noise cancella-tion is requiredas it helps min-

imise the noise from thesurroundings.

Noise cancellation isan important feature

12Companion appfor the true-wire-less earphones

comes with additional fea-tures like equaliser settings,gesture customisation, soft-ware updates, etc.

Look for companion app

13A built-in assis-tant in earphonesadds to the func-

tionality as it simplifies onhow a user interacts with thesmartphones to make calls,replying to a text or even lookfor weather updates.

Having a built-inassistant adds value

7 Before buying a true wireless ear-phone do check whether it supportsaudio codecs like aptX, SBS or LDAC

for better sound output.

Look for audio format; it should support all common formats

8 True wireless earphones should sport easy-to-use controls like gestures or buttons fortaking calls or switching between the tracks.

Should offer easy-to-use controls

6 The charging case of the truewireless earphones should haveenough juice to charge the buds

at least three rounds of charge cycle.

Look for earbuds whose charg-ing case also offers minimum12 hours of back-up

4 Having several connectiv-ity options is crucial as ithelps earphones connect

with the device faster. Thereare a few earphones that alsocome with NFC for faster pairing.

Look for connectivityoptions

9 Check whetherthe true-

wireless ear-phones offersome sort of sweat or water-resist-ance as it keeps the earphones safeduring a workout.

10 As true wire-lessearphones

rely on Bluetooth connectivity checking for theaudio delay is important.

Look for sweat and water-resistance

Check forBluetooth connectivity

things you didn’t knowyou can do on GMAIL

Increase the email recall timeSo what’s the use of this? It can bevery useful in situations whenyou’ve sent a mail that you were inthe process of drafting, or wasn’treally sure that you had to send, mis-takenly. Increasing the undo timeup to 30 seconds gives you that some

time to click on ‘Undo’ send and getthe mail back inside your Inbox.This option can be seen in the ‘Set-tings’ tab inside Gmail.

Mute unwanted mail chainconversations

It often happens that someone tagsyou in a single mail and then sev-eral others start replying to ‘all’and you’re buzzed every time a newmail arrives – even if it doesn’thave to do anything with you. Insuch cases, you can mute the mailconversation by selecting the mailchain and tapping on the three-doticon on the above bar to ‘mute’ it.

Now, you can scheduledelivery of an emailCompose a new email. Click thetriangle next to the blue “send”button. Select one of the suggest-ed times, or click “pick date &time” to customise when exactlyyou want the message to go out.Click “schedule send”.

Preview emails on GmailJust like Outlook, you can previewemails on Gmail as well. All youneed to do is to change the viewsettings. To activate it navigate toSettings; Advanced; Enable Pre-view Panel and save changes. Thengo to the Inbox and click on theview settings on top right cornerin the same bar from where youaccess ‘Settings’.

Send self-destructingemails

This feature was introduced byGmail last year. It lets you send anemail and set a timer to it. Thetimer, although not visible, turnson the moment it is opened by thereceiver. After the given timehe/she won’t be able to access thatmail. This option can be found asa ‘lock’ icon at the bottom whilecomposing a mail.

Use Gmail even whenthere is no internet connectivity (offline)If you’re unaware, using Gmailoffline is also a possibility now.Although, the actual work willbe done only when the device getsinternet connectivity. If the of-fline mode is switched on, youcan at least access Gmail, com-pose emails and save them. Thisoption can be found in Settings;Offline tab.

Send pre-set repliesIn case you’re not willing towrite the same response to sev-eral people who have emailedyou, you can use canned re-sponses. Although you have totype that as well, it’s a one-timething. To access it, navigatethrough Settings; Advanced;Canned Responses (templates).

In the last few months,Google has added severalnew features to Gmail. Youcan now send emails thatexpire on their own afterthe time limit you have put,can set password for repliesand do much more...

PRODUCTIVITYAPPS forANDROID and IOS

6 FREE

FOREST: STAYFOCUSEDThis app encourages you to stopphubbing. It lets you set a timeruntil which the user is not sup-posed to look into the phone.Once the timer gets over, a vir-tual tree is grown. The user’saim is to build a forest.

TICKTICK: TO DO LISTWITH REMINDER, DAYPLANNERYou can use it to keep trackof all the agenda of the day.The planner tool gives you alist of personal goals, work orsomething else that you needto accomplish.

POCKETThis one is for those whowant to stay on top of newsand other things posted bypublishers online. The freeapp available on Android andiOS platforms lets users savelinks to news pages, videos,images and more.

SWIFTKEYThe SwiftKey app is backed bya powerful word predictionengine that shows the nextwords and changes it accord-ing to the app opened on themobile screen. The keyboardand can be resized, themed,and more to enable users totype easily.

PUSHBULLETPushbullet is another free appthat will save users a lot oftime specially while transfer-ring links, articles, text, imagesor anything else from mobile totheir PCs wirelessly. All thatthey require is to install the appon their smartphones and onthe PC Web browser.

ADOBE LIGHTROOMThe app is for photographyenthusiasts who want toapply some really fine pro-level customisations on theimages taken by the smart-phone’s camera. Sharing theend results directly via socialapps is also possible. You will love it!

PRODUCTIVITYAPPS forANDROIDand IOS

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■ PREDATOR LAND, NAT GEO WILD, 3.00PM: Experts provide an insight into thelives of predatory animals in Africa,focusing on their behaviour, physicalfacets, survival tactics and huntingstrategies.

1642: New Zealand was discovered byDutch navigator Abel Tasman.

1884: Percy Everitt received a patent forthe first coin-operated weighingmachine.

1913: It was announced byauthorities in Florence, Italy,that the “Mona Lisa” had beenrecovered.

1921: Britain, France, Japan andthe US signed the Pacific Treaty.

1937: Japanese forces took the Chinesecity of Nanking (Nanjing). An estimated200,000 Chinese were killed over the next

six weeks.

1991: North Korea and South Korea signeda historic non-aggression agreement.

2001: Gunmen stormed the IndianParliament and killed seven peo-ple and injured 18.

2003: Former Iraqi PresidentSaddam Hussein was captured

near his home town of Tikrit,during Operation Red Dawn

by US forces.

2006: The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin,was announced as extinct.

■ STORAGE WARS, HISTORY TV18, 5.00PM: Darrell and his fellow buyers dealwith a group of new auctioneers inCosta Mesa, California.

■ AMERICAN CHOPPER, DISCOVERY TUR-BO, 7.00 PM: The crew presents someof the best motorbikes ever made bythe company, which includes the B-2Bomber Bike.

■ WILDLIFE: BOTSWANA - BATTLE FORPRIDE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL,8.00 PM: The crew follows a pride of li-ons living in Botswana, a country inAfrica, and highlights their struggle.

■ HAPPY FEET 2, WB, 3.40 PM: Whenthe penguins face a new threat, Mum-ble takes the help of his family andfriends to bring together the entirepenguin population in order to savetheir species.

■ SAN ANDREAS, HBO, 3.48 PM: Fol-lowing a massive earthquake, Ray, arescue-chopper pilot, and his ex-wifetry to find the location of their daugh-ter before Earth's ultimate destruc-tion.■ THE OATH, &FLIX, 6.50 PM: Chris and

his wife areshocked afterlearning thatcitizens areought to signa loyalty oathto the presi-dent. A seriesof comical sit-uations ensueas the Thanksgiving deadline to signapproaches.

■ FANTASTIC FOUR, STAR MOVIES, 8.50PM: Four astronauts gain extraordi-nary powers after being hit by cosmicradiation.

MOVIES ON TV

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