Kiran Upadhyay

Being a freelance writer or journalist isn’t easy, particularly if you write in a language that isn’t your mother tongue. Yet, many foreign speakers are tempted to write in English because it promises a greater audience and thus better opportunities to earn a living. The drawback is that we are constantly struggling with the details of the little devils in the language. Regardless of how long, how thorough, or how well you have studied and mastered a foreign language, you’re always at a disadvantage to a native speaker. In writing, the accent is easily hidden, but the written word reveals many subtle misconceptions. That’s why you should always consult an online translation tool. Many more tools can help you correct slips of the pen and ensure you use proper English. Only few of these tools will catch your misuse of apostrophes, common phrases, or homophones and thus cannot help you gain a deeper understanding of the language. Not surprisingly, native speakers are jus...

On more than one occasion, I’ve found myself attempting to drag my finger around the keyboard on my Windows 8 tablet, only to be disappointed when only a single letter is entered. After typing so much on my Android phone, I’ve become accustomed to the Swype-like interface on the keyboard. It’s simple, intuitive, and fast. So why can’t a Windows 8 tablet do that? Well, it can—sort of. While Microsoft doesn’t seem to have given developers full reign over creating custom keyboards for Windows 8 as Google has done with custom keyboards on Android, there are a couple limited options you can choose from. They won’t be a perfect replacement for your keyboard, but they can offer some good Swype-style relief for those days when you really don’t want to lift your finger off the screen. TouchPal TouchPal looks similar to the default keyboard: modern-looking black with white text. On top of having Swype-style typing, the keyboard has an option for its transparency, can be split ...

PC gamers are spoiled for choice when it comes to free and inexpensive games, but those who enjoy consoles are not as lucky. There’s less selection, and development is closed, so free content is rare indeed. Rare – but not entirely absent. Grabbing free games for a console requires more effort, and may force you to settle for titles that aren’t exactly AAA. But if you’re willing to spend some time, or you don’t mind signing up for certain services, there is a modest selection of free console games available. Xbox Live And PlayStation Plus Yes, both Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus are paid services. But you need Xbox Live to play games online or use many other features, and the same will be true of PlayStation Plus on the PlayStation 4. If you own either console, there’s a very high chance you’re going to have one of these services. You may as well make the most of it. Xbox Live’s Games With Gold is a rotating promotion that puts a digital copy of a game up for free. T...

With dozens of iPhone photographers moving to and fro throughout the bustling city streets of social media, things may be getting a bit disheartening for photographers. Let’s face it: people can get some pretty great shots with their iPhones, and these same people don’t even have a technical knowledge of how a camera works. Of course, this isn’t to bash the photography profession. After all, iPhones realistically can’t capture images akin to those which are made with high quality glass, right? Regardless of how you may feel about the iPhone photography trend, you too can use the device ( and  its tablet counterpart) to your advantage. Below are six of the best iPhone apps for photographers, and while none of them are designed to replace your camera , they will definitely supplement it. Softbox Pro ($2.99) As you may know, lighting is the most necessary part of photography. As a photographer, you are constantly trying to  control  your lighting situation...

  Did you know that in just 1 Internet minute, over 72 hours of videos is uploaded to YouTube; 15,000 songs are downloaded from iTunes; over 500 new websites are created; and Amazon makes about $83,000 in sales. The Internet is a bustling place and various different things can be happening at the same time. To break it all down, Qmee designed this straightforward infograph depicting the various activities performed online in a single minute. How do you spend most of your time online?

Back in June, during its WWDC conference, Apple released the beta version of its iWork for iCloud applications to registered developers, but now the online programs are slowly being released to general iCloud members. iWork for iCloud is a suite of online office applications (consisting of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers) that sync with the Mac and iOS versions of the programs. The online versions of iWork mirror most of the main features of the desktop versions, and users will be able to import and edit Word files online as well. The final version of iWork for iCloud will likely be available with the public release of OS X Mavericks, sometime this Fall. But in the meantime, here’s what you can expect when you finally get your hands on iWork for iCloud. How It Works To use iWork for iCloud, you basically enable iCloud on your all your Apple devices . If the beta version of iWork for iCloud has been released to you, you should see all three application icons on the dashbo...

People set their phones to silent or vibrate mode when in meetings, lectures, theaters, or anywhere else where it would be rude if the phone made noise. But what if there’s an emergency and someone needs to quickly get in touch with you? We’ll show you how to have your Android phone override silent mode and play an alert when a text message containing something like “Emergency” or “SOS” comes through. There are multiple ways to do this and we’ll cover two. You can easily use a free app created just for this purpose or take the geekier route and create a task using Tasker. Tasker is a powerful Android automation solution that allows you to specify custom events that cause actions to happen. Go the Tasker route and you’ll learn how to automate many different things on your Android phone. The Easy Option: TeXTe and Silent Mode Bypass TeXTe is the easiest way to do this. It’s an app built for one thing and one thing only: alerting you when a text message containing a w...

With Google unveiling a completely revamped Maps, now available to all, creating your own maps has become easier than ever. You can create private and public maps, share the maps with specific individuals, add descriptions to locations, and choose from several map styles and appearances. The new Google Maps features makes map creation easier than ever, and with Google’s solid sharing settings, you have complete control over who sees the maps, who can add items to the maps, or if you prefer, you can simply keep the maps completely private. Getting Started After launching Google Maps , click on the settings icon and click on My Places . That will open up the sidebar where you can add locations to your maps. In order to create maps with multiple layers, however, you need to click on Get advanced features with Maps Engine Lite . This will open up a new window with a new map. With the latest Google Maps features, you’ll be able to add locations by searchi...