Pages

Monday 31 December 2012

10 Best Free Music and Radio Apps for iPhone

10 Best Free Music and Radio Apps for iPhone

Here is the list of best free music and radio apps for your iphone. These are very cool music and radio apps that every iphone owner should download. Most of these iphone music and radio apps are free to download and use and to download some iphone music and radio apps you have to pay a little money. We have compiled a list of top and most popular music and radio apps for iphone.

1. Live365 Radio App for iPhone

Live365 is the world’s most diverse radio network. Live365 app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad puts thousands of free online radio stations into the palm of your hand.

Live365 has 250+ genres of music, Radio365 showcases artists and radio producers ranging from Roy Orbison, Pat Metheny, and Carlos Santana, to commercial and public radio stations, to individual DJs who program stations in every style.

2. SHOUTcast Radio App for iPhone

The SHOUTcast Radio Directory features over 50,000 professional and community programmed radio stations from around the globe. SHOUTcast offers tremendous depth and breadth of stations with genres ranging from Rock, Alternative, Jazz, Electronica, Bollywood, Latin to Zouk across a broad set of languages including Spanish, French, German, Swahili and Portuguese. SHOUTcast  even have public radio, talk and police scanners available in a wide variety of cities worldwide.

3. Pandora Radio App for iPhone

Pandora Radio is free personalized radio that only plays music you’ll love. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a custom "station" that plays similar music.

4. TuneIn Radio App for iPhone

TuneIn lets you listen to the world’s radio with music, sports, news, talk, and comedy streaming from every continent. You can enjoy 70,000 live radio stations and 2 million podcasts, concerts or shows on your iPhone, iPad and iPod, all for free.

5. Jango Radio Mobile App for iPhone

Jango Radio Mobile is free, personalized radio that plays the best music by artists you love. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, and Jango will create a custom station that plays similar music. Or you can tune in to hundreds of expertly programmed genre stations like Top 100, Hot in Hip-Hop, Indie Dance Hits & more... All with far fewer ads than Pandora.

6. Spotify Music App for iPhone

Spotify gives you instant access to millions of songs on your iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch. With the Spotify iphone music app, you can choose to listen for free, or subscribe to Spotify Premium.

7. MixCloud Music App for iPhone

Mixcloud is an on-demand radio platform, allowing you to stream your favorite Podcasts, DJ Mix sets and radio shows direct to your iPod or iPhone - free for a limited period only.

8. SoundTracking Music App for iPhone

SoundTracking is an easy, fun and expressive way to share your favorite songs and current jams with your friends, family and fans. Instantly identify the music playing around you and then share the song with a photo, location, and a comment. With a few taps of your phone, you'll be able to not only share your music moments, but also follow the favorite songs of friends, music artists, DJs and celebrities.

9. SoundHound Music App for iPhone

SoundHound Music App for iPhone is equipped with following features:

A) The world's only singing and humming recognition
B) LiveLyrics: see lyrics move in time with the music
C) SoundHound Headlines: brings you free song streams, new artists, and more
D) SoundHound Player: your iPod music with LiveLyrics and artist info
E) Real-time Facebook and Twitter updates from your favorite artists
F) Facebook and Twitter sharing, listen-on-startup, and geotagging
G) iTunes links, YouTube videos, Pandora station launching, and much more

10. Shazam Music App for iPhone

Shazam Music App for iPhone has following features:

A) Tag any song to instantly watch the music video at YouTube
B) Save & listen again (30 sec preview)
C) Buy tracks easily on iTunes & find more by tagged artists
D) When you see the Shazam prompt on TV, tag for extra content
E) Share on Facebook, Twitter & email
F) See streaming lyrics in time to the music
G) Discover new music in Shazam Friends & Charts
H) See when an artist is touring
I) Watch music videos & concerts from YouTube
J) Tag without Coverage

5 Tricky Job Interview HR Questions and Answers

5 Tricky Job Interview HR Questions and Answers

From answering technical interview questions to responding appropriately to seemingly silly ones, interviews aren’t exactly easy to nail. Often, what you think is a straightforward question could actually be that ‘make or break’ question. Mess that up and your recruiter may want to rethink his decision. So how do you prepare for some of those obvious yet tricky interview questions?

Here are five tricky interview questions to expect and how to answer them too.

1) Aren’t you overqualified?

You typically hear this one when you are being interviewed for a position that’s similar to the one you are currently in. The recruiter is afraid that you may be the type to leave the job soon because of boredom.

How to answer: Tell the recruiter that you are aware of what the position demands and that your experience and expertise will give the required value addition to the job and also the company. Don’t forget to mention that you think that this post will let you grow on the job too. After all, he needs to be convinced that you won’t just up and leave.

2) Why do you want to change your job?

Since most of us do not leave our current jobs without a back-up in hand, we have to be ready to answer this. Your interviewer wants to understand whether you can stick to a job for long or not.

How to answer: It’s good to be honest but a little diplomacy never hurt. For instance, if you want to leave your current job because you realised that the salary structure robbed you of a chunk of your salary, avoid mentioning that to the new company. Instead a simple ‘better growth opportunities’ would suffice.

3) What did you think of your previous organization?

What the interviewer really wants to know when he asks you this interview question is whether you quit on a bad note or if you still have good relations with them.

How to answer: You should not badmouth your previous workplace. More importantly don’t display any bitterness towards your boss or colleagues. This will give him a wrong impression of you.

4) Tell me about yourself

Remember, all your interviewer really wants to know is whether or not he should hire you. So though you think this is the easiest interview question ever, it can get difficult since it is so vague.

How to answer: Make sure you have a list of qualifications and achievements you can talk about. Wind up by saying why you want the job and what qualifies you for it. Above all, keep it short.

5) Why do you want to work here?

This is not your cue to start patronising your interviewer or flattering the company. This is the interviewer’s way of finding out what you know of the company and what you are looking for.

How to answer: Avoid flattery and stick to the facts. You have to research the company and its work to make him believe that you are worthy of the post. Mentioning certain milestones, acquisitions, projects etc of the company would be good at this point.

Once you are prepared for the tricky interview questions, there is no doubt you’ll make a good impression. Always remember to practise your answers to the most obvious queries before you get to the interview.

Sunday 30 December 2012

Time Management: How to meet deadlines in your job?

Time Management: How to meet deadlines in your job?

We all face interruptions at workplace. Which, most of the time, disturb our to-do-list and work schedule. Most of us are not very efficient in time management at work as by the end of the day; we realize that the time has sneaked away, leaving us with unmet deadlines. Some workplace interruptions may not be in our control and can disturb our schedule and productivity. Things like a colleague stopping by to have a chit chat or seeking help, unscheduled meeting with boss/colleague, phone calls, unsolicited enquiries /consultancy etc.

All these interruptions can disturb the focus or thought processes and ultimately the work schedules. Following are some tips which can be used to handle work interruptions.

1. Prioritize – There may be 10 tasks to accomplish for the day. Divide them in the category of important and urgent and accordingly assign time. Try to finish the important tasks in the morning hours where the chances of interruptions are comparatively less.

2. Create and Share your schedule- While creating timesheet for the day keep buffer time to accommodate unscheduled urgent business requirements such as unplanned meeting/work assigned by your boss. You can use google calendar or Microsoft outlook to share this schedule of yours so that your co-worker/boss knows when you are free.

3. Learn to say NO – If you have to deliver a report in an hour’s time and someone walks to you for a casual chat or some favour and you know this may be something unimportant.  Hence, to meet the deadlines and keep your schedule in line sometimes you have to say ‘No’ to people or postpone a little bit. However you can choose a delicate way to say that.

4. Keep a check on Email and phone calls – Instead of keeping your outlook/personal mail open and responding to every email instantaneously, keep a fixed time to check and respond to emails like twice or thrice a day. Same goes with calls also. You can avoid unknown calls on mobile to keep the momentum of work going on and respond to them during lunch hour, coffee break etc.

5. I am in the middle of something – Don’t hesitate to say this whenever you get any interruption and you are working on something important. There is no problem in doing that. You also can add that I shall get back to you after this work or time. This way they won’t come and disturb you instead you can go to them whenever you have free time.

6. Rescheduling – However after managing the interruptions efficiently by above points, still your schedule may get affected little bit. So you can always reschedule your work a little.

80 Best Free Apps For iPhone: Features and Reviews

80 Best Free Apps For iPhone: Features and Reviews

There are thousands of apps for iphone are available in the market today. Many of those iphone apps are free. We have come with the list of 80 best free and popular apps for iphone. We are going to list the features and reviews of these iPhone Apps. All these apps for iphone are sorted alphabatically for your ease. You would be using a lot of iphone apps listed here but there might be some iphone apps which would be new to you.

The iPhone Apps listed below can be categorized as Social Networking, Finance, Drawing, Gaming, Travel, Navigation, News, Productivity, Health Fitness, Audio, Video, Browser, Movies, Reading  and Photography iPhone Apps.

These best free iphone apps help you keep in touch with friends, take fancy pictures, take notes by handwriting or typing, draw sketches, create colorful drawings or technical diagrams, convert your notes to PDF or image format, store your notes or share it with others through email or Facebook

1. Adaptu Wallet

Adaptu Wallet for iPhone is great for entry- to mid-level budgeting enthusiasts, packing many unique features. It's both free and ad-free. And it's the closest thing to a mobile wallet on an iPhone yet. Not only does the app display your latest account balances in real-time and send you bill reminders, Adaptu also tracks loyalty programs, forecasts your spending, and lets you photograph and store images of all the loose ends in your wallet, like your insurance, Social Security, and business cards. All of this sits under bank-grade security, which is more than you can say for your physical wallet.

2. Adobe Photoshop Express

Digital photography editing, until very recently, has been a task best suited for desktop and laptop computers, but Adobe proved that it could be done in the mobile space with Photoshop Express, a free photo-editing application for the iPhone and other iOS devices. Photoshop Express is a powerhouse of a mobile app, and can even handle noise reduction. All in all, Adobe Photoshop Express is a solid tool for making light photo edits on your iPhone.

3. Airport Utility

The free AirPort Utility manager from Apple lets you control your Wi-Fi network and AirPort base stations, including AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and Time Capsule, right from your iPhone. When you launch the app, you'll see a pictorial representation of your network and devices that will tell you what's connected to what and how. You can change the network and Wi-Fi settings, start or restore a base station, access networking information (like DNS server, router address, IP address), and more.

4. AA Drivescore

This is the latest example of an app designed to track your driving ability, then (assuming you're not the Maureen From Driving School of 2012) get you discounts on your car insurance premiums. You have to let the app track 200 miles of your driving before it calculates your score, and tells you whether you can save money – IF (and you surely saw this coming) you take out one of the AA's Drivesafe insurance policies.

5. Audiobus

Audiobus is (quietly) a rather big deal in the iOS world. It's an "inter-app audio routing system" for iOS music creation apps, meaning that musicians can finally use different apps together in a structured way. "Just like virtual cables" Audiobus handles the connectivity as you squirt sounds and loops from one app to another, with a number of apps including Rebirth for iPad, Loopy and JamUp already supporting it.

6. AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix

Want to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix? Good luck with that. But if you want to at least have a guitar that sounds like his, AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix may be able to help. It's a mobile guitar effects processor based on Hendrix's pedals and amplifiers, with its own single-track recorder and the ability to play along with Jimi's songs if you have them on your iOS device.

7. Amelia and Terror of the Night

If Tim Burton made illustrated book apps, he might make something like Amelia and Terror of the Night. It's the work of indie developer OhNoo Studio, and tells the dark and distinctly spooky tale of a girl called Amelia who hangs out with an oversized teddy, a blue two-wheeled cat and a shy tortoise for fun. Their adventure encompasses eye-catching animation, dress-up activities and four mini-games.

8. BBC News

Among news apps, The BBC's has one of the best interfaces—clean, with relevant headlines, good photos, and no advertisements. (Whether you agree with its angles and choice of coverage is another matter.) As far as international news organizations go, though, the BBC really does have correspondents in every corner of the globe, as well as varied and widespread topics. Another perk is that you can elect to view some news in other languages, such as Urdu, Arabic, and two kinds of Chinese.

9. Brewster

The Brewster iPhone app may be one of the most visually appealing contact managers you'll find, tapping into multiple social networks for images of people you know. It insists on having access to your iPhone Contacts and either Twitter or Facebook to work, though.

10. Bubble Safari

If you've been playing Puzzle Bobble / Bust-a-Move for a decade or more, the sudden enormousness of bubble-popping games on Facebook feels a bit surreal. Now they're all coming to iOS, with Zynga's Bubble Safari following King.com's Bubble Witch Saga and Wooga's Bubble Island onto the App Store. The gameplay here is similar: fire coloured bubbles at other coloured bubbles to make matches, with power-ups and Facebook functionality (oh, and in-app purchases, obviously) built in.

11. Cards

When Apple introduced its Cards app for iPhone, it created a very good tool in a particularly niche-y space, one that's easy to overlook but actually provides a lot of value to the average consumer. Using the Cards app to buy and mail customized greeting cards, with your own photos and text, is surprisingly cost effective, given that birthday cards and whatnot easily cost more than $3 at retail, not including postage. With the app, you can choose from a good number of well-designed templates across several occasions—congratulations, thank-you, birthday. The cards themselves are beautifully constructed.

12. Chrome

Chrome for iPhone is just Safari with a better interface and a few more features, but it's a must-have app for desktop Chrome users. Anyone who has fallen in love with the "Omnibox," or combined URL address bar and search bar, won't want to use anything else.

13. Converter Plus

This all-in-one calculation app, Converter Plus, delivers numbers on nearly everything, from currency conversions to loan-interest figures. It converts metric to imperial measurements for temperature, cooking volumes, length, and more.

14. Draw Something Free

Draw Something Free, the latest app craze, pits both iOS and Android users in simple gesture-based drawing competitions. Pick a word from a list of three, draw it on your screen with your finger using a variety of colors and brushes, and then send it to your friend to guess what you've drawn. You win coins if your friend guesses correctly. It's very simple and, like Words With Friends, the addiction lies in the robust social aspect.

15. Dropbox

If your files live all over the place—your office computer, home desktop, laptop—having a dependable syncing program is a must. Dropbox, the service and productivity tool that lets you store your files in the cloud and access them from anywhere you have a signal, fills that role nicely with a Dropbox iPhone app. It has a simple interface, easy uploading, and swift syncing across all accounts.

16. David Nash at Kew Gardens

Sculptor David Nash is currently exhibiting at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, with this app released as a way for visitors and potential visitors to view the sculptures and their locations within the gardens, watch video interviews, and read essays about Nash's life and work.

17. Elmo Loves 123s

There's a trend for educational apps using familiar children's characters: witness Disney's recent Letters with Pooh and Numbers with Nemo. Now Sesame Street's Elmo is getting in on the action with this mathematical app for young children. Focusing on the numbers one to 20, it includes songs, video clips, digital colouring and mini-games.

18. ESPN Score Center

ESPN's free app lets you check the game quickly, and discreetly when necessary (that is, with your phone under the dinner table), for your favorite teams in more sports than most other apps. It can pull game data from baseball, basketball, American football, the sport the rest of the world calls football (soccer, in the U.S.), ice hockey, cricket, rugby, and more.

19. Evernote

Without the Evernote app for iPhone, I'd be a lot less productive while I'm away from my desk. This free, straightforward note-making app outrivals most competing apps thanks to its strong search capabilities and effortless organization. But the real key to its success and popularity is that Evernote synchronizes all your files by saving them to a cloud service, meaning anything you create or alter from your iPhone will be there waiting for you when you log into any other version of Evernote. I use Evernote to write, take notes, and even snap pictures of whiteboards and PowerPoint slides in meetings, so I can remember details later.

20. Energy Flow

Energy Flow is an app to relax with: "A filmic dream rush of paintings in motion: Energy Flow is an immersive film experience that is unique every time it is played, exploring the complexity of how things are connected in our lives today – the fragile equilibrium between physical, political, and cultural tensions". Okay, perhaps "relax" wasn't quite the word! It's a thought-provoking digital art project.

21. Facebook

Social networks thrive with a reliable app—you've got to be social on the go—and Facebook for iPhone is solid. Despite occasional crashes, Facebook loads pretty fast and has a decent interface for viewing photos. The design is intuitive to navigate, too.

22. Flipboard

Flipboard, an app initially designed for the iPad that curates content from your social networks and Web partners (think periodicals, blogs, etc.) based on your interests and turns them into stunning magazine-like digital pages, is now available on the iPhone. The app is free to download and requires a free user account. Flipboard absolutely shines on the iPad, taking advantage of swiping gestures with both visual and interactive grace. On the smaller iPhone, it's elegant, if a little cramped.

23. Flow Free

Puzzles make for the best kinds of mobile games, in my opinion, because you can play them for 30 seconds or 30 minutes. Flow Free is one such game, with various modes that let you solve puzzles in a timed speed test, or more leisurely. You solve levels by connecting same-colored dots by tracing your finger around a grid, without cross lines and at the same time filing every square on the grid with a line. It's addictive and great for players of all ages.

24. Football Manager Handheld 2013

Sports Interactive's feted football management game is back on iOS, offering 14 countries to ply your trade in, fully licensed players and teams, deep tactics and training strategy, and now in-app purchases to unlock power-ups and extra tests for the game's supplemental Challenge Mode. As addictive as ever.

25. GAIN Fitness

The iPhone app GAIN Fitness acts as a total workout buddy, coaching you through a fully customized exercise routine as often (or seldom) as you want. While it does have optional in-app purchases to buy special workouts, like yoga, the free app comes preloaded with enough exercises and workout moves to make sure you never get bored.

26. GateGuru

No matter what app you use to book your travel arrangements or manage your frequent flier miles, you'll still want to pack GateGuru on your next trip to the airport. The free app is chockfull of suggestions and reviews pertaining to airports: food, retail, services, and even the amount of time needed to travel between gates and terminals. The next time you're stuck with a long layover and no idea if you can make it to the cleaner bathrooms by Gate B7, just consult GateGuru for some advice.

27. Gmail

Speed, better search functions, and color-coded threading make the standalone Gmail iPhone app preferable to the built-in Mail app (where you can access Gmail). Google's Gmail app gives users another choice for managing email. It allows iPhone users to decide what they want in an email app. Do you value search capability over text displayed at readable sizes? Is it more important for your various email accounts to be managed in one app, as Mail arranges them, or would you rather have a dedicated app just for Gmail that looks more like Gmail on the Web, with color-coded threading? The Gmail app searches your entire email so much easier and faster than the pre-installed Mail app.

28. Grimm's Puss in Boots

It's been a very strong week for new children's app releases, which is good news for parents who may be in need of digital distractions over the Christmas holidays. This is the latest app from StoryToys, which specialises in turning fairytales into faux pop-up book-apps. This time Puss in Boots is getting the treatment with a mix of storytelling and mini-games for children to enjoy.

29. Gojee – Food & Drinks Recipes

Magazine-like in its display, Gojee is a source for recipes that will leave your mouth watering with stunning photos of gorgeous food and cocktails. You can explore the catalog by searching for something you crave based on suggestions, like "lunch" or "pork," or more specifically by keying in ingredients you want to use. Every result has an ingredients list right on the screen with the image, and you can link to the original source, whether it's a blog or magazine website.

30. Google Search

Search giant Google has many excellent free apps (as evidenced by the fact that more than one is on this very list), but its namesake search app is the one closest to its founding business, and thus, bursting with some pretty intense features. You can search by typing keywords, or by speaking, or by snapping a photo, as there's a toggle for Google Goggles (in the settings), which lets you take photos of books, landmarks, logos, artwork, barcodes, and more, to find out more about them. You can also save pictures you take, and the app will scan and read any text that appears on them as well. The Google Search app does a lot more than just search the Internet, making it well worth the free download.

31. Google Translate

With more than 30 languages supported and delivering impressively accurate results most of the time, the Google Translate app is one of the most remarkable programs you can load onto your iPhone. Most people probably won't need it too often, except when traveling or studying a language, but it can be amazingly useful in unexpected circumstances.

32. Google Maps

Turn-by-turn navigation is included, and Google is releasing an API for app developers who want to hook their apps into Google Maps rather than Apple Maps.

33. iHeartRadio

With the free iHeartRadio app, you can choose any one of 1,500 live radio stations to stream, even if you're not within the radio signal's reach (because it pulls from a digital feed, rather than radio signal). The app has a feature that lets you create customized "all-music" stations based on a music group you like and music similar to theirs. Charge your iPhone before a storm, and, if the power goes out, you use the iHeartRadio app to get updates from your local radio station.

34. iBooks

If Kindle and Nook don't tickle your fancy, Apple has its own little online bookstore where you can download and save novels, magazines, newspapers, and other reading material—and, yes, many of the books and periodicals are free! This personal digital library works on iPad as well, so you can browse for books on the go from your phone and save them to read on the tablet later.

35. iTunes – 12 Days of Christmas

With heaven knows how many new iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices being unwrapped on Christmas Day, Apple is standing by with its annual 12 Days of Christmas app. As ever, the app will offer a different freebie song, music video, app, e-book or TV episode every day from 26 December for the customary dozen-day giveaway.

36. IMDb Movies & TV

"What was the name of that movie… the one with Ally Sheedy and Fisher Stevens?" The next time you can't remember the name of an actor, television show, or film (Short Circuit, by the way) IMDb saves the day. One of the handiest reference websites on the planet, IMDb never fails when it comes to looking up anything that has to do with TV, film, or Hollywood. The IMDb Movies & TV app also lets you find which movies are playing at your local cinema, and even purchase tickets. With an IMDb account (free or paid for Pro), the app provides even more features, like the ability to create a watchlist of movies you want to see.

37. Kindle

Read books, magazines, and newspapers right on your iPhone without ever buying an e-reader. From within the Kindle app, you can buy or download for free hundreds of thousands of books, and more than 100 different newspapers and magazines.

38. Knights & Dragons: Rise of the Dark Prince

And another freemium game angling for your in-app purchases. This one looks like a keeper though: a fantasy-themed strategy game where you build a castle, battle other players and unlock all manner of knights, armour and items to bolster your power.

39. LevelUp

LevelUp is an iPhone and Android app that lets you make purchases using your credit card via QR codes that the app displays. Participating merchants simply scan the QR code on your screen, which initiates a credit card transaction, and you're on your way.

40. MenuPages

The free app and website MenuPages keeps a database of restaurant menus, with prices included. If you've ever gritted your teeth at a restaurant's online menu that omits the prices, try MenuPages for unbiased information. Admittedly, MenuPages is not a great app for every location, but in major U.S. cities, it's awesome, especially when Yelp's recommendations seem skewed by college students who give five-star ratings to fast-food burgers and less-than-fresh sushi. With MenuPages, you can make your own decisions about a restaurant's dishes and prices. The app and website won't give you much insight into quality, but it will help you quickly weed out places that are too pricey or don't serve the kind of food you have in mind. It's also useful for ordering take-out.

41. Mint.com

The website and service Mint.com helps you keep detailed account of your finances by connecting to your bank and credit card accounts and tracking all the money you earn and spend. The Mint.com iPhone app extends the experience so you can keep an eye on your spending better while on the go. Just enter a few data points in the iPhone as you spend, and you'll be able to see your spending patterns as an easy-to-read chart.

42. Mozy

Online backup service Mozy lets you access all your backed-up files securely right from your iPhone, letting you essentially take your computer with you in your pocket. Mozy, which is a freemium service, lets you read documents, browse photographs, play your music, and share files anywhere you have an Internet or 3G connection. A MozyHome or MozyPro backup account is required.

43. Monsters, Inc. Run

Disney is getting into the endless runner games ... game with characters from its Monsters, Inc. film. It sees you choosing tag teams to run through 48 levels booting other monsters out of the way, and grabbing power-ups to help your progress. Although a paid game, in-app "bucks" are also sold to speed your way.

44. Mothercare

Mothercare is the latest British retailer to hit the App Store, with an iPhone app enabling "busy mums and mums-to-be" – although surely there'll be a fair few dads and dads-to-be using this too – to browse and buy products, watch videos, read reviews and scan barcodes in-store to get more information. There are also pregnancy checklists, baby-name search tools and music for babies: a very handy collection of features.

45. MyFitnessPal

The free fitness app MyFitnessPal is one of the best all-in-one calorie counter and exercise trackers for the iPhone. A simple design and interface make using the app a quick chore rather than a fatiguing project, which is essential when trying to reach a long-term fitness or weight goal. The biggest selling point of this app is its exhaustive food and nutrition database, which trounces every competitor's that we've seen.

46. Middle Manager of Justice

There's justifiable buzz around freemium game Middle Manager of Justice, launched by Double Fine Productions. It puts you in charge of a branch of Justice Corp, staffed by superheroes who buzz around the city fighting crime. It's very, very good indeed.

47. Nook for iPhone

Anti-Amazon book lovers might prefer an app by Barnes & Noble for reading on their iPhones, NOOK. NOOK and Kindle largely do the same thing (give you access to an impressive library of books, newspapers, magazines, and other things to read), although their interfaces and experiences are different. Whether you like Amazon or B&N is largely a matter of personal preference. The NOOK app feels a little more graceful in its design, whereas the Kindle app looks more utilitarian.

48. Onavo

The free app Onavo compresses data automatically to help you reduce data usage on your phone. In other words, it will save you money if you typically exceed your mobile service plan's data allotment. Additionally, anyone traveling abroad with an iPhone should absolutely have Onavo installed. Learn the settings well, but be forewarned that there's no compression for streaming video. Onavo is also not supported on Verizon accounts with iPhone 4.

49. Opera Mini

When the Safari browser that came pre-installed on your iPhone simply won't load, Opera Mini wins. The first true alternative browser for Apple's iPhone isn't a better browser than Mobile Safari—at least most of the time—but when AT&T's network totally collapses on you, Opera Mini pulls Web pages out where Apple's own browser stalls. Opera Mini is different than other so-called browsers. As a proxy browser, it doesn't actually load Web pages at all. Rather, it sends a request to Opera's servers, which loads the page, compresses it by 80 to 90 percent, and sends your phone a compressed image of the page.

50. Pay With Square

Pay With Square is a mobile payment app from a company called Square that makes another product/service, also known simply as Square, which small businesses can use to turn their iPads into credit card processing machines. Any merchant that uses Square can accept payments from wallet-less app-lovers, like myself, who carry Pay With Square on their smartphones. What makes Pay With Square unique is it's available at a lot of small businesses, from boutique shops to independent coffee houses, unlike Google Wallet (only available on select Android devices), which is mostly supported in large, corporate chain stores. Pay With Square works on iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.1 and later, as well as Android phones running version 2.2 and later.

51. Pokedex for iOS

From sculpture to, er, Skiploom (yes, I had to look that one up). Nintendo isn't yet bringing its game franchises to iOS, but The Pokémon Company has released this companion app for the Pokémon series of games, offering a guide to all the mini-beasties appearing in the games. Numbers 494 to 647 come in the initial download, with other batches available as in-app purchases.

52. Playmobil Pirates

The famous Playmobil characters come to iOS in a freemium game from Gameloft that sees you building a pirate village, sailing the high seas and looting treasure left, right and centre. It's certainly faithful to the look of the characters, although its use of in-app purchases up to £69.99 will make some parents uneasy, even if their IAP settings are locked down.

53. RedLaser – Barcode Scanner and QR Code Reader

RedLaser, an app that turns your iPhone's camera into a barcode scanner, has long been on every new iPhone owner's list of free apps to download. Over time, the app has only improved, and it's now a multi-functional scanner that works on QR codes, too. When shopping, scan any item with a barcode, and RedLaser delivers detailed information about the product, including whether you can buy it at a better price nearby.

54. Remember the Milk

One of the draws of the to-do list maker Remember the Milk is that it works with Apple's Siri—on the iPhone 4S only. For earlier-generation phones, it's still a great little app for keeping your tasks organized. Remember The Milk also syncs with a bunch of major Web apps, such as Outlook, iCal, Gmail, and Google Calendar.

55. Rounds: Parker Penguin

Children with an interest in the world around them (and its wildlife) will love this delightful book-app from Nosy Crow. It follows a penguin called Parker through its life from birth to parenthood, with a mixture of storytelling and interactivity.

56. Rework_ (Philip Glass Remixed)

There's a new compilation album of remixes of composer Philip Glass's songs by the likes of Beck, Amon Tobin and Cornelius. This is its companion app, offering an eye-popping "interactive visualisation" for each remix, as well as a separate "Glass Machine" section to make your own Glass-esque music. It's the work of Scott Snibbe Studio, which previously did Bjork's Biophilia album-app.

57. RunKeeper

Runners, fitness enthusiasts, and anyone trying to shed a few pounds might know that the iPhone is an incredibly powerful tool at helping you track your exercise. With the RunKeeper app, one of the most popular apps among outdoor runners in particular, you can tap into the phone's GPS technology to map where you've run, jogged, or walked. (You can also manually enter information from indoor runs.) RunKeeper figures out more statistics for you, like your pace, total distance covered, and so on. All your data is synced to RunKeeper.com, where you can view a history of all your activities. The app also has a coaching feature if you want audio some encouragement while you're working out.

58. Scrobbler for iOS

Digital music service Last.fm is trying something different on the App Store. Rather than personal radio, Scrobbler for iOS is all about helping you dig deeper into your own music collection, including songs stored in Apple's iTunes Match locker. It can create playlists on the fly based on individual tracks in a "more like this" way, and it "scrobbles" details of everything you play back to Last.fm to build a profile based on your preferences.

59. Shazam

If you hear a song and don't know what it is (or for the life of you, can't remember who sings it)—Shazam to the rescue! Launch Shazam and hold it as close as you can to the speakers, then let her rip. Within a few seconds, the app will tell you the title, artist, and sometimes even find the album art, too. Shazam is a whiz with most radio-play songs, new and old, originals and covers, but it occasionally gets stumped by obscure b-sides.

60. Skype

Skype is one of the best free communication tools for the iPhone, not necessarily because of how it works, but because so many people have Skype accounts.The app lets you make both video and audio-only calls, as well as chat with other Skype users at no charge. If you buy Skype credit, you can also call any other phone number, landline or mobile.

61. Slacker Radio

When I ask my colleagues at PCMag which music streaming service they like best, someone always mentions Slacker Radio, and everyone else's heads start nodding. The same outstanding service you'll find in Slacker Radio's online version is on the iPhone and has been for a long enough time for the company to have massaged the interface and performance to the point that you can appreciate it audibly.

62. The Snowman and the Snowdog

The Snowman and Snowdog swoop across the countryside while you tap on snowflakes and items, before flying over London landmarks towards the North Pole.

63. StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon, one of the most sophisticated and fun ways to explore new content on the Web, delivers an excellent experience on the iPhone, if you can cope with the inherent limitations of the small screen. Without a native mobile-optimized viewing option, it's a little less than ideal on the iPhone.

64. SugarSync
One of our favorite file-syncing services, SugarSync added an iPhone app to its offering in 2011. SugarSync gives you access to your files from a multitude of devices, no matter if you store them on your laptop at home, desktop computer at the office, tablet, and so on. You can use SugarSync to stream music, back-up photos, collaborate on projects, and more.

65. Strum

Strum is the latest app from music-apps developer Smule, which previously made Magic Piano, Glee Karaoke and Ocarina, among others. Strum wants to "turn your life into a music video" (no, not like Glee) by adding "audio filters" to your 15-second video clips, then sharing the results on social networks.

66. TED by TED Conferences

TED's tagline is "Ideas worth spreading," and what better way to spread the ideas from this series of education, explorative, and motivational talks than by carrying them with you wherever you go. TED once was a highly exclusive conference, closed off even to most press, and the organization's greatest accomplishment to date has been to open up the knowledge that comes from its speakers by making videos of their presentations and performances available online to the public. This official TED app works for both iPhone and iPad. If you're unfamiliar with TED, give Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight presentation a try. You'll be hooked.

67. The John Lennon Letters

Book publisher Hachette has released this collection of John Lennon's private letters, edited by author Hunter Davies, and read out by actor Christopher Eccleston. Each letter – and there are 88 of them – has a transcript and explanatory notes, with links to Lennon's music on iTunes.

68. Toca Hair Salon 2

Toca Boca is making a big name for itself with a series of colourful, creative children's apps. Toca Hair Salon 2 is the sequel to one of its most popular ones, getting kids to cut, wash, shave and blow-dry the barnets of four characters, while dressing them up in accessories. Joyful fun for parents as well as children

69. Trainyard Express

In this captivating iPhone game from indie developer Matt Rix, players lay down tracks to guide trains from their starting points to the stations, sometimes merging with other trains along the way. Trains, starting points, and stations are color-coded. Red trains must end up in red goal stations. A blue train can merge with a red train to become a purple one before it reaches a purple station. As the difficulty increases, the number of trains also increases, as well as the number of objectives in each level. Trainyard Express is an absolutely addictive and fun puzzle game for players of all ages.

70. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

The latest Final Fantasy game for iOS is less traditional RPG and more music rhythm game. Newly converted for Apple devices, it involves levelling up characters by playing through songs by tapping on the screen. Although free to download, it uses in-app purchases for the in-game content.

71. Top Gear Magazine

Top Gear Magazine has had iPad issues before, but now it's "fully interactive" – ie not just a digitised version of the print edition. What that means is more videos, photo galleries, live feeds from Facebook and Twitter and other interactivity.

72. Twitter

If you tweet, download the free Twitter app. If you don't tweet and have been on the fence about joining the masses, the iPhone app makes it easy and convenient to get on board the 140-character social network, or just watch what others discuss on the site without actually participating if you prefer to be a silent lurker. It's true that since iOS 5, a lot of Twitter functionality is now directly integrated into the iPhone so you can tweet photos or links that you want to share with greater ease. But you still need the Twitter app (or another Twitter client) to read tweets, see when other people mention you, and fully participate in the social experience.

73. WebMD

WebMD is much more than a diagnosis app, although you certainly can use it to input symptoms you are experiencing and find some clues as to what's ailing you. It also contains listings for healthcare professionals and pharmacies in your area, as well as first-aid guides—simple instructions for dealing with an emergency that everyone should have accessible to them at any time. This free reference app is one you hope you don't need, but the moment you do, you'll be glad you downloaded it.

74. Wikipedia

Half the fun of having a smartphone is looking things up when you're in the middle of a bar bet—and hopefully proving yourself right. Wikipedia is the go-to source for fact-checking in the mobile age, and the Wikipedia app usually returns results faster than a mobile search engine.

75. Wince – Don't Feed the WorryBug

The aptly-named Wince is a character who worries too much, not least when his "nemesis" the WorryBug hoves into view. This lovely looking book-app tells the story of how he learns to deal with the problem – the idea being that children may take inspiration. It's based on an existing printed book and plush-toy range designed to build kids' confidence.

76. Wink!

Wink! looks like it has potential if word of mouth starts to spread. The idea: you take a shot, and it gets beamed to the phones of nearby friends (if they have the app), tagging them in the process. It'll need an Android version to really spread, mind.

77. Yahoo! Axis

Yahoo! Axis brings a refreshing and desirable new take on Web search, getting rid of the middle man, those pesky link-filled result pages. The implementation of this new idea still needs more sanding and buffing, but Pinterest users will find it's better for pinning than the social site's own mobile app. Yahoo! Axis includes a Pin It button bookmarklet directly in the browser for all your mobile pinning needs.

78. Yelp

The most comprehensive review app, Yelp turns out to be an invaluable tool for finding businesses nearby, especially when you're in a town you don't know well. Yelp's mobile app has helped me find a hairdresser when I was in a pinch in Washington DC, and a suitable lunch while driving through Ohio (shout-out to Moreland Hills!). Need to find an acupuncturist in Austin? Or the most popular coffee shop in Charlotte (emphasis on "popular" and not necessarily "best," by the way)? Yelp's the app to do it.

79. YouTube

Formerly, YouTube came preinstalled on iPhones, but that's no longer the case. If you buy a new iPhone 5 , you'll want to install the YouTube app so that you can get quick access to all kinds of videos, from movie trailers to tutorials. I've relied on YouTube on my iPhone to figure out so many things in life that I am too embarrassed to ask someone else to teach me, like how to install additional RAM on my laptop, to how to knit in the round. I thank my lucky stars it's free.

80. 50 Christmas Recipes from Olive

Not decided how to roast the turkey yet? Frankly you're running out of time. But never fear: Olive Magazine is here with a festive recipe collection: 50 starters, mains, sides, desserts, bakes and cocktails/canapes, as well as a step-by-step guide to carving the turkey. 

Friday 28 December 2012

35 Tricky and Complex Unix Interview Questions and Commands (Part 1)

35 Tricky and Complex Unix Interview Questions and Commands (Part 1)

Here is the list of 35 complex and tricky unix interview questions and answers. A lot of complex unix commands which are asked in unix interviews are SED, AWK, DU, HEAD, TAIL, WATCH, GREP, CUT, PS, ZIP, UNZIP etc. A lot of tips and tricks are asked about these unix commands during interview. Following questions and unix commands might help you in your unix interview.

1. How do you find which processes are using a particular file?

By using lsof command in UNIX. It will list down PID of all the processes which are using a particular file.

2. How do you find which remote hosts are connecting to your host on a particular port say 10123?

By using netstat command

For example: execute netstat -a | grep "port" and it will list the entire hosts which are connected to this host on port 10123.
 
3. How to tell if my process is running in Unix?

You can list down all the running processes using [ps] command. Then you can “grep” your user name or process name to see if the process is running.

4. What is ephemeral port in UNIX?

Ephemeral ports are port used by Operating system for client sockets. There is a specific range on which OS can open any port specified by ephemeral port range.

5. How to list down file/folder lists alphabetically?

Normally [ls –lt] command lists down file/folder list sorted by modified time. If you want to list then alphabetically, then you should simply specify: [ls –l]

6. If one process is inserting data into your MySQL database? How will you check how many rows inserted into every second?

By using "watch" command in UNIX

7. There is a file Unix_Test.txt which contains words "Unix". How will you replace all Unix to UNIX?

By using SED command in UNIX

For example: you can execute sed s/Unix/UNIX/g fileName.
 
8. You have a tab separated file which contains Name, Address and Phone Number. List down all Phone Number without their name and addresses?

By using either AWK or CUT command.

9. How to check if the last command was successful in Unix?

To check the status of last executed command in UNIX, you can check the value of an inbuilt bash variable [$?]. See the below example:

$> echo $?

10. How to check all the running processes in Unix?

The standard command to see this is [ps]. But [ps] only shows you the snapshot of the processes at that instance. If you need to monitor the processes for a certain period of time and need to refresh the results in each interval, consider using the [top] command.

$> ps –ef

If you wish to see the % of memory usage and CPU usage, then consider the below switches:

$> ps aux

If you wish to use this command inside some shell script, or if you want to customize the output of [ps] command, you may use “-o” switch like below. By using “-o” switch, you can specify the columns that you want [ps] to print out.

$>ps -e -o stime,user,pid,args,%mem,%cpu
 
11 Your application home directory is full? How will you find which directory is taking how much space?

By using disk usage (DU) command in Unix

For example du –sh . | grep G  will list down all the directories which have GIGS in Size.
 
12. How do you find for how many days your Server is up?

By using uptime command in UNIX

13. How to check if a file is present in a particular directory in Unix?

Using command, we can do it in many ways. Based on what we have learnt so far, we can make use of [ls] and [$?] command to do this. See below:

$> ls –l file.txt; echo $?

If the file exists, the [ls] command will be successful. Hence [echo $?] will print 0. If the file does not exist, then [ls] command will fail and hence [echo $?] will print 1.
 
14. You have an IP address in your network. How will you find hostname and vice versa?

By using nslookup command in UNIX

15. How to execute a database stored procedure from Shell script?

$> SqlReturnMsg=`sqlplus -s username/password@database<<EOF
BEGIN
Proc_Your_Procedure(… your-input-parameters …);
END;
/
EXIT;
EOF`
$> echo $SqlReturnMsg

16. How to check the command line arguments in a UNIX command in Shell Script?

In a bash shell, you can access the command line arguments using $0, $1, $2, … variables, where $0 prints the command name, $1 prints the first input parameter of the command, $2 the second input parameter of the command and so on.

17. How to fail a shell script programmatically?

Just put an [exit] command in the shell script with return value other than 0. This is because the exit code of successful Unix program is zero. So, suppose if you write exit -1 inside your program, then your program will throw an error and exit immediately.

18. How to print/display the first line of a file?

There are many ways to do this. However the easiest way to display the first line of a file is using the [head] command.

$> head -1 file.txt

If you specify [head -2] then it would print first 2 records of the file.
 
Another way can be by using [sed] command. [Sed] is a very powerful text editor which can be used for various text manipulation purposes like this.

$> sed '2,$ d' file.txt

How does the above command work? The 'd' parameter basically tells [sed] to delete all the records from display from line 2 to last line of the file (last line is represented by $ symbol). Of course it does not actually delete those lines from the file, it just does not display those lines in standard output screen. So you only see the remaining line which is the 1st line.]

19. How to print/display the last line of a file?

The easiest way is to use the [tail] command.

$> tail -1 file.txt

If you want to do it using [sed] command, here is what you should write:
 
$> sed -n '$ p' test

From our previous answer, we already know that '$' stands for the last line of the file. So '$ p' basically prints (p for print) the last line in standard output screen. '-n' switch takes [sed] to silent mode so that [sed] does not print anything else in the output.
 
20. How to display n-th line of a file?

The easiest way to do it will be by using [sed]. Based on what we already know about [sed] from our previous examples, we can quickly deduce this command:

$> sed –n '<n> p' file.txt

You need to replace <n> with the actual line number. So if you want to print the 4th line, the command will be
 
$> sed –n '4 p' test

Of course you can do it by using [head] and [tail] command as well like below:
 
$> head -<n> file.txt | tail -1

You need to replace <n> with the actual line number. So if you want to print the 4th line, the command will be
 
$> head -4 file.txt | tail -1

21. How to remove the first line / header from a file?

We already know how [sed] can be used to delete a certain line from the output – by using the'd' switch. So if we want to delete the first line the command should be:

$> sed '1 d' file.txt

But the issue with the above command is, it just prints out all the lines except the first line of the file on the standard output. It does not really change the file in-place. So if you want to delete the first line from the file itself, you have two options.
 
Either you can redirect the output of the file to some other file and then rename it back to original file like below:

$> sed '1 d' file.txt > new_file.txt
$> mv new_file.txt file.txt

Or, you can use an inbuilt [sed] switch '–i' which changes the file in-place. See below:
 
$> sed –i '1 d' file.txt

22. How to remove the last line/ trailer from a file in Unix script?

Always remember that [sed] switch '$' refers to the last line. So using this knowledge we can deduce the below command:

$> sed –i '$ d' file.txt

23. How to remove certain lines from a file in Unix?

If you want to remove line <m> to line <n> from a given file, you can accomplish the task in the similar method shown above. Here is an example:

$> sed –i '5,7 d' file.txt

The above command will delete line 5 to line 7 from the file file.txt
 
24. How to remove the last n-th line from a file?

This is bit tricky. Suppose your file contains 100 lines and you want to remove the last 5 lines. Now if you know how many lines are there in the file, then you can simply use the above shown method and can remove all the lines from 96 to 100 like below:

$> sed –i '96,100 d' file.txt   # alternative to command [head -95 file.txt]

But not always you will know the number of lines present in the file (the file may be generated dynamically, etc.) In that case there are many different ways to solve the problem. There are some ways which are quite complex and fancy. But let's first do it in a way that we can understand easily and remember easily. Here is how it goes:

$> tt=`wc -l file.txt | cut -f1 -d' '`;sed –i "`expr $tt - 4`,$tt d" test

As you can see there are two commands. The first one (before the semi-colon) calculates the total number of lines present in the file and stores it in a variable called “tt”. The second command (after the semi-colon), uses the variable and works in the exact way as shown in the previous example.

25. How to check the length of any line in a file?

We already know how to print one line from a file which is this:

$> sed –n '<n> p' file.txt

Where <n> is to be replaced by the actual line number that you want to print. Now once you know it, it is easy to print out the length of this line by using [wc] command with '-c' switch.

$> sed –n '35 p' file.txt | wc –c

The above command will print the length of 35th line in the file.txt.
 
26. How to get the nth word of a line in Unix?

Assuming the words in the line are separated by space, we can use the [cut] command. [cut] is a very powerful and useful command and it's real easy. All you have to do to get the n-th word from the line is issue the following command:

cut –f<n> -d' '

'-d' switch tells [cut] about what is the delimiter (or separator) in the file, which is space ' ' in this case. If the separator was comma, we could have written -d',' then. So, suppose I want find the 4th word from the below string: “A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy cat”, we will do something like this:

$> echo “A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy cat” | cut –f4 –d' '

And it will print “fox”
 
27. How to reverse a string in unix?

Pretty easy. Use the [rev] command.

$> echo "unix" | rev

xinu
 
28. How to get the last word from a line in Unix file?

We will make use of two commands that we learnt above to solve this. The commands are [rev] and [cut]. Here we go.

Let's imagine the line is: “C for Cat”. We need “Cat”. First we reverse the line. We get “taC rof C”. Then we cut the first word, we get 'taC'. And then we reverse it again.

$>echo "C for Cat" | rev | cut -f1 -d' ' | rev

Cat
 
29. How to get the n-th field from a Unix command output?

We know we can do it by [cut]. Like below command extracts the first field from the output of [wc –c] command

$>wc -c file.txt | cut -d' ' -f1

But I want to introduce one more command to do this here. That is by using [awk] command. [awk] is a very powerful command for text pattern scanning and processing. Here we will see how may we use of [awk] to extract the first field (or first column) from the output of another command. Like above suppose I want to print the first column of the [wc –c] output. Here is how it goes like this:

$>wc -c file.txt | awk ' ''{print $1}'

The basic syntax of [awk] is like this:

awk 'pattern space''{action space}'

The pattern space can be left blank or omitted, like below:

$>wc -c file.txt | awk '{print $1}'
 
In the action space, we have asked [awk] to take the action of printing the first column ($1).

30. How to replace the n-th line in a file with a new line in Unix?

This can be done in two steps. The first step is to remove the n-th line. And the second step is to insert a new line in n-th line position. Here we go.
 
Step 1: remove the n-th line

$>sed -i'' '10 d' file.txt       # d stands for delete

Step 2: insert a new line at n-th line position
 
$>sed -i'' '10 i This is the new line' file.txt     # i stands for insert

31. How to show the non-printable characters in a file?

Open the file in VI editor. Go to VI command mode by pressing [Escape] and then [:]. Then type [set list]. This will show you all the non-printable characters, e.g. Ctrl-M characters (^M) etc., in the file.

32. How to zip a file in Linux?

Use inbuilt [zip] command in Linux

33. How to unzip a file in Linux?

Use inbuilt [unzip] command in Linux.

$> unzip –j file.zip

34. How to test if a zip file is corrupted in Linux?

Use “-t” switch with the inbuilt [unzip] command

$> unzip –t file.zip

35. How to check if a file is zipped in Unix?

In order to know the file type of a particular file use the [file] command like below:
$> file file.txt
file.txt: ASCII text
If you want to know the technical MIME type of the file, use “-i” switch.
$>file -i file.txt
file.txt: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
If the file is zipped, following will be the result
$> file –i file.zip
file.zip: application/x-zip

About the Author

I have more than 10 years of experience in IT industry. Linkedin Profile

I am currently messing up with neural networks in deep learning. I am learning Python, TensorFlow and Keras.

Author: I am an author of a book on deep learning.

Quiz: I run an online quiz on machine learning and deep learning.