Bolo: An insight into Google's learning app

There are a ton of apps these days to help kids learn something new. It could be a new language, it could be science, it could be history, or it could be about maths or to learn about something just out of curiosity.
But Google has done something that's an instant success and an evolving tool for not just kids but also adults to learn a language.
Initial reports in the media said that it is an app to learn reading Hindi, which is wrong. It is a multi lingual app and supports the below language/language-pairs as of today:
English only,
Hindi-English,
Telugu-English,
Marathi-English,
Bangla-English,
Urdu-English,
Tamil-English.
Spanish-English,
Portuguese-English

The first thing you notice about bolo is its user interface which is very simple and doesnt need too much of navigation. Just tap the story that you want to read/learn and it starts off sentence by sentence.
The screen scrolls automatically as the kid reads out the sentence appearing on the screen.
Another feature that is surely going to create interest among kids is the mini games that were included: simple games like pop the balloons, jumbled words and speed reading are available right now, but may get accompanied by many others soon.
Being an early access version, the app could have some bugs here and there, but so far during my 1 week of testing, I found none.

Important thing is if you kno how to read a language, even if you are an adult, you can get help from this app to improve your pronunciation in various languages, mainly Indian. for example, I can read Tamil apart from Telugu, English, Hindi and Kannada but to learn pronunciation in that language, this is going to definitely help me.
As the name itself suggests, it is meant to teach you how to speak a language and it is definitely worth trying it out.

With love.. Anil

Custom Site for Share

Add Your Favorite Site To Share

This tutorial will explain you the steps to add your favorite website to the Share extension. We assume that you have successfully installed the Share Tools extension. If not, please install it from this link.

If you have installed it successfully, you can notice its icon on the toolbar as shown in the following screenshot:

To add your website, follow these steps:

• Click on the extension icon, which should open its pop-up panel as shown above.
• Now, click on the last (gear or wheel) icon.

• This should launch the options panel of the extension, as shown in the following screenshot:

• From this options panel, you can set two options for the extension: change the default opening behaviour and add a custom website.
• To add a new website or service, you must provide a valid template in the input box. You can find many valid templates on this page. Detailed list is available on this link.
• For example, if you want to add Skype, you need to copy the line # 29 and paste in the input box. This would be:

https://web.skype.com/share?url={url}

• The extension supports only url and title parameters, so remove any other parameter present, like text in the above example.
• After pasting the code, save the settings. Now, this added site would be available with the Share extension. 

With love.. Anil

SHARE. Simple and Straight Forward

I have been looking at so many different ways by which we can share the websites that we visit daily.
How to make sharing as simple as possible and one that involves just 2 clicks?

That is when I stumbled upon an idea to create an extension or modify an existing extension and enhancing its features.
Being the first of my browser apps, it is indeed a challenge to learn how to do it. Technology? Its ready. Coding expertise? ready.
The only missing thing is the infrastructure and means to publish the idea, however simple it may be.

Thats when I tried my hand at the first chrome web app: SHARE.
Below is the link for the same:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/share/imfnjaolefblebhdphcenbeihpljinkn

Since this is the version 0.0.1, expect many more updates and feature additions as and when needed and based on feedback.

With love.. Anil

MCU's perfect culmination of the Avengers series!: Avengers EndGame.

It has been a long time checking out an epic movie that actually feels epic in theaters.

When I say long, it really felt like a long wait! The last time I felt like this was Avengers Infinity War(April 2018) and before that, it was Padmaavat(early 2018) and the biggest Indian movie of that time and still the highest grossing movie in Indian market: Baahubali: The Conclusion(2017).

But Marvel's Avengers Endgame is completely different in tone and expectations when it arrived: It had massive expectations to reach, massive plots to hide, massive stars' fans to satisfy. In a way, it is the biggest multi starrer in terms of having super stars like Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, leading others.

When it did come out, it wowed everyone, not just the fans of Marvel or the stars, but even others who might have started to follow MCU from 2018, thanks to the other biggie: Avengers Infinity War.

The experience was perfect: The crowd was able to react in a way that directors want them to: They were pin-drop-silent when the plot was moving with all seriousness. They laughed when the funny scenes seamlessly mingled into the storyline. They screamed when the action started. They whistled when the "Marvel Studios" logo came up. In short, they made it their own movie and started experiencing it much in a much closer and intimate way.

The difference between this and Infinity War is this: There was higher emotional connection with the characters now. The plot was perfectly set to show off the dynamics of the characters not just in the present but in the time travel as well. By the time the intermission break came in, everyone were holding to their seats and discussing the plot and many of them avoided going out.

I particularly loved Tony having the chat with his father as well as how Steve Rogers lived his life to the fullest by finally having the date with Peggy in the past, and also the brilliant emotional moment
between Thor and his mother, how she listens to him patiently, and asks him to eat
salads so he could slim down! There were so many moments to list out here.

Of course when they did find out that there were no mid-credit scenes or post-credit scenes, they were disappointed, but still waited till the end, till the red "Marvel Studios" logo and "Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures" came up on the screen! This is what it meant to them: Experience the full movie, including the small details!

Such interest was second to none in all my movie experience. The only instance when the crowd was so excited and interested in watching a movie in theater was for the Indian biggies like: "Baahubali: The conclusion" and "2point0".

Now the debate has started about if it will break Avatar's USD2.7 Billion record or not. But as far as I am concerned, it doesnt matter as it has won the hearts of millions of people!

With love.. Anil