Truecaller: Your New Phonebook

Ever wondered if somehow you could know who’s calling you even if you don’t have their number saved in your phonebook?

Well, that has become reality now.

Truecaller delivers an experience that goes beyond the limitations of today’s phonebook apps so that people always have access to the right information, people and businesses they need.

Truecaller does everything your phonebook can do, and much more. It lets you search for contact information, identify incoming calls, block calls you don’t want to receive, and make personal contact suggestions based on time and place – so you never have to leave the service to find the right contact.

Let’s have a look at some of the great features Truecaller provides.

LIVE CALLER ID

This is the most powerful feature of Truecaller. Instantly know who is calling before you pick up. Now you have the power to decide if you want to pick up a call from a number not in your phonebook. It could be an old friend, or someone you know calling from another number. 

You can also see whether the number has been marked as spam by other Truecaller users. This helps you avoid picking up unnecessary calls and of course, brings down frustration.

SEARCH BEYOND YOUR CONTACT LIST

Search within your contacts just like a normal phonebook, or search for numbers and names with an extensive search of more than 1 billion matches.

1)     Suggestions

Get smart suggestions based on the time of day, location and frequency. This ensures that you can stay in contact with your loved ones without having to search through your phonebook.

2)      History

This is basically your call log, just easier to use, and packed with more features.  Just swipe to call or message any of the recent contacts and tap on any contact to know more about them. For instance, if you get a call from an unknown number, and you weren’t connected to the internet at that time, you can simply open history and know who was calling!

3)     Contacts

Find all your contacts here, but with an awesome new feature. Simply opening a contact will update it with the latest photo and details such as email ID and location, so you can stay in touch with your friends.

BLOCK

No more spam calls! Truecaller has an expansive list of top spammers, allowing you to block all numbers marked as spam by the hard-working users who contribute by reporting them, making the Truecaller community smarter.  

You can also choose to block any specific number from your call history, phonebook etc. and the Advanced option allows you to set rules for blocking numbers based on digits they start with.

1)      Top Spammers: Enabling this will automatically block all known spammers from the Truecaller database.

2)      Hidden Numbers: Calls that don’t display their Caller ID will be blocked. Useful when you are getting spam calls from hidden numbers.

What are you waiting for? Get these awesome features and more for free now!

Get Truecaller for Android!

Get Truecaller for iPhone!

Also, Download Truedialer, the quickest and most convenient way to find your contacts.

Truecaller - My favorite App

So what exactly is Truecaller? I don't even need to explain because everybody with a smartphone in their hand probably knows that it is the world’s largest verified mobile phone community.

Gone are the days when you used to pick up calls only to realize that someone was trying to convince you to get that credit card or that insurance you don't need.

So, how did this brilliant idea come to Nami Zarringhalam and Alan Mamedi? It is well known that "Necessity is the mother of invention", Nami and Alan were frustrated when numbers from abroad would call, and they could not find a place to identify them.

The idea of being able to know who is calling, no matter what country or location, caught people's attention. Today, Truecaller has more than 80 million users and +1 billion numbers and names, and these numbers keep growing even as you are reading this post.

Truecaller

My Experience with Truecaller

For me, Truecaller has been one of the most important apps on my phone. It tells me who is calling, and helps me to organize my phone book. It knows exactly who's calling and blocks all spam calls. This saves my time and frustration of dealing with telemarketers trying to desperately sell something I don't want. My friends are quite surprised when they call me from their parents' or relatives' numbers and hear me answering "Hey, xyz" courtesy of Live Caller ID that shows me who's calling before I even pick up the call.

It also protects me from international spam calls which may, sometimes, also be tricks to tap phones.

How it Works

Truecaller users from all over the world share their phone books, which are securely stored, and together create the world’s largest phone directory. The users use crowdsourcing as their way of helping each other identify numbers, and keep each other informed about spam numbers. When you download Truecaller, your phone book helps to add to the ever-growing database. Truecaller provides you features such as searching for names with the numbers, finding a way to contact people, and requesting contact details. When you are connected to the internet and you receive a call from an unknown number, the Live Caller ID helps you to decide whether to pick up the call.

Safety and Privacy

Is is safe to upload your phone book and give away your numbers like that? Absolutely. Firstly, the numbers are stored securely and safely. Secondly, the data does not contain any private information such as social account passwords. It is completely your decision if you want to provide a profile photo and other details. You can also set your contact details to "Request Only" so that you decide who sees your number and other details. If you still aren't okay with that, it is very easy to completely remove all info (Unlist) from the database.

Overall, it is the best application to know who's calling and to connect with your friends and family.

If you still don't have Truecaller, get it now from here and start enjoying your life, free from spam and interruptions.

Android 4.4.4 Update For Moto E, Moto G and Moto X in India

UPDATE : Motorola India acknowledges the roll out of 4.4.4 for all three devices

We've begun rolling out Android, KitKat, 4.4.4 for Moto E, Moto G & Moto X this week in India! Expect an update on your #Moto soon!
— Motorola India (@MotorolaIndia) July 5, 2014

UPDATE : Screenshots are here!

Rejoice! Indian Moto E variants start getting 4.4.4
Image Credit: Akil Kotawdekar

The much awaited 4.4.4 update for the Moto Devices in India is here! The rollout began with the Moto E (why?) getting the OTA Update. Moto G and X are expected to start getting the updates this week. Here's what @MotorolaSupport has to say -

@NikRamakrishnan Yes, we started rolling out KitKat 4.4.4 for our Moto E users in India and expect Moto G and Moto X to follow soon.
— Motorola Support (@MotorolaSupport) July 3, 2014

The Moto G GPe got 4.4.4 directly. Moto devices in India will also skip 4.4.3

Why So Late?

Motorola released 4.4.3 to users in the US just the day after Google announced it. The rest of the world was deprived of the facilities given to fellow Moto owners in the States. But after 4.4.4 was released, people say that Motorola somehow already knew of the OpenSSL bug in 4.4.3 and had decided to roll 4.4.4 directly to rest of the world. 

It is quite interesting that they revealed that Moto G and Moto X should follow soon, because people usually got this -

@NikRamakrishnan We do not provide exact dates and details of future updates and releases. Thank you for your interest.
— Motorola Support (@MotorolaSupport) July 3, 2014

They have this on their clipboards, ready to paste it as a reply to any tweet that questions them about future updates.

Anyways, good news is here. I haven't seen a screenshot of an Indian Moto E variant with 4.4.4 on the internet yet, but they'll be all over soon.

What's New?

The features Motorola promised in the latest update

• Improved camera image quality for Moto X including better consistency of exposure, more realistic flash coloring, and improved photos in low light conditions using front camera. 
• For Moto X and Moto G, pausing for video recording with a convenient pause/resume button on the viewfinder.
• Motorola Alert in this update for Moto X and Moto G users. This new app helps give peace of mind by sending periodic messages to the contacts you choose.

Did you get the update on your Moto? Look out here for more updates and news as Motorola rolls out 4.4.4 for the more devices.

NVIDIA Graphics card, "display brightness not changing" issue Solved

(Note : It is recommended that in some cases, when the latest drivers don't solve the issue, the 314.21 driver should be installed and the registry tweak should be performed as given here. If this works, you might be able to update to the latest drivers without a problem)

For more than a year, I didn't download any NVIDIA Driver Update because I feared that it would initiate the brightness problem again. A few days back, I contacted them asking about the current status. They said that the bug had been fixed and I wouldn't have to visit my registry this time.

I updated to the 337.88 (https://goo.gl/DYa3XI) driver on my Windows 8.1 Lenovo G460 and Voila! It worked, and I happily sat there changing my screen brightness for a few minutes with the satisfaction that it had been fixed.

The link provided above is only for some Notebooks. Please check the "Supported Products" Tab before downloading the 333 MB update. If you don't see your GeForce model in the list of supported ones, you can visit this page to get the latest driver information.

If you don't know your device configuration or product information, open NVIDIA Control Panel, click on Help → System Information.

If you still aren't able to change your brightness, see this post.

Did this fix your problem? Are you facing any issues? Feel free to leave a comment and I'll be glad to help.

NVIDIA Graphics card, display brightness not changing

UPDATE : The new drivers have fixed the issue. Please see this post for more Informaiton

Have an Nvidia Graphics driver and cannot change your brightness? I also had the same problem after upgrading my Lenovo G460 to Windows 8 Pro. I contacted Nvidia and they have given me the solution. Here are the steps to follow to enable your brightness setting:

1) Download the latest 314.21 beta driver (haven't  tested this on the current driver) here: http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/59436 and perform a clean install.
2) check if "Enable adaptive brightness" option is enabled and if yes try turning it off to see if that will help. This option is located under the Windows 8 power options. You can access it via the Windows control panel > Power Options > Change plan settings (which ever plan is active) > Change advanced power settings > Display > Enable Adaptive Brightness.

3) Check if you are able to change your brightness.

3) If the "Enable adaptive brightness" option does not impact issue then try following the steps below to add a registry and see if that helps.

4) How to add registry key:

1. Make sure you are running the 314.21 driver.
2. Download the "DispRegEdit.exe" tool from http://goo.gl/f0wUt to your local system. This tool will take you directly to the registry location where all the graphics drivers registry entries are stored.
3. Run the "DispRegEdit.exe" tool. It should bring up the registry editor and take you directly to the location where all the NVIDIA driver settings are store.
4. Create a new key by right-clicking on the right-hand pan of the registry editor window and then select "New" > "DWORD (32-bit) Value".
5. Label the name of the new key as "RMBrightnessControlFlags".
6. Once key has been created, double click the new key and then add the "0x800" to Value data area. Click OK to save.
7. Restart Windows.
8. Check brightness control again

5) This solution is for selected laptop models. If this did not work for you, here's an extract from my Personal Assistance question -

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That should be fine but it may be best if the other users impacted by this problem submit a bug to NVIDIA. Again the registry key will be targeted for specific laptop models only so unless we know which laptop model is impacted it will not be added to our future drivers. Adding this registry key is more a temporary workaround until we can get this fixed in a future driver. Have other users submit a bug to the link below with "[For Ray]" in the subject so I can pick those up. Have user include the following information in the bug submission.

1. Brand/model of the laptop.
2. Run dxdiag.exe and save log. Upload the log with the submission.

http://nvidia-submit.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia_submit.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php


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6) My friend Ray will help you with your brightness problems or any other problems with your display drivers. Mine took a lot of time to be solved but don't worry, we now know the right solution for mostly all systems having an Nvidia graphics card.

The Large Hadron Collision

Hey! This is my first post and after lot of thinking, I decided to write something about recent events..

The Large Hadron Collider

So. What is it? The biggest physics experiment ever, CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The international project, whose design was approved in 1994, costs over $6 billion. Thousands of powerful magnets, cooled by tons of liquid helium to 1.9 Kelvin (just above absolute zero), guides two beams of protons as they travel in opposite directions around a 27-kilometer tunnel at close to the speed of light; then magnets at two locations pull the beams together for the highest-energy particle collisions ever achieved. By identifying the products of these collisions, physicists tested the standard model of physics and discovered new subatomic particles which will be discussed in the next post.