Friday 20 December 2013

Let's Get Back to the Basics!

Learning alphabet is a fundamental step towards learning a language. And, if you get a first step full of excitement and curiosity, then it would hardly take any time to learn the whole language. Recently, I got to know that one of my friends has just started learning language of Denmark i.e Danish and is facing a whole lot of problem in learning its alphabet only.

Learning A (a), Å (å), Æ (æ) of Danish has become his soul endeavor now a days but I wish I could help him the way I teach my little students to learn A, B, C of English. To learn the alphabet means recognizing, naming and learning to pronounce its letters. With kids it becomes easier to teach them alphabet through colorful letters and abc kids game but with an elder person the case differs a bit. The mind of a child is a ‘tabula rasa’ (a Blank slate), that grasps quite efficiently whatever we write on it. On the other hand, the mind of an elder person is like a slate that has been compacted with too many words alias affairs, leaving hardly any place for anything new.

The whole world becomes one to teach a little child alphabets of their world. At home parents buy them toys like balls, cubes, block with an imprint of letter over them to make the child familiar with the letters. Even they are served with Alphabet cookies so that they can literally consume the letter. Whereas, at schools, teachers show them some colorful pictures or object starting with some aimed letters to make their learning enticing and exciting.

But for sure, we can’t teach an elder learner in the same manner. A child’s mind absorbs everything seamlessly but our skeptic mind raises a sea of questions even over a letter. Like the question I asked from my friend why is here A (a), Å (å), Æ (æ) in Danish and not B after A?, are these 3 optional? hahaha...But alas! Instead of adding fun to the situation my question raised many questions in his minds and he jotted them down to injure his tutor with them.

But do we really need to worry this much when we are living in a tech-savvy arena? I don’t think so! There are many online games, learning apps like AOTW to aid the learners of all age groups alike. Through these you can have the letters with their respective cases, phonetics and pronunciations. Although the mode to learn alphabet is little different what goes same is the excitement but this time for everyone. Learning is always a fun no matter which way you have it and when it comes to learning something related to a different world it always carries with itself its share of mystery and mastery.

Friday 22 November 2013

Coming of the Ashes

There are three things wrong with this English team- they can’t bat, they can’t bowl, they can’t field.” Martin Johnson.
The aim of English Cricket is, in fact, mainly to beat Australia.” - Jim Laker.

The statements must have indicated you something by now. “The much hyped rivalry between Englishmen and Australians”. And Ashes Tournament comes out to be a live witness.

The Ashes Tournament has its roots deeply embedded in the soil of Cricketing History.
It is a form of test cricket played between England and Australia. There have been several games seen on the field of cricket- some well-contested and some one-sided hopelessly played. You name it dominance or gentleman spirit, nothing stands close to the reputation of Ashes. Such tournaments remain the highlight of the year with respect to their growing popularity and class cricket.

Trapped by our life’s hectic schedules, don’t we often miss out on some of the exciting ventures that we have been planning since long! It could vary from taking out time arranging tickets for Ashes to experiencing the gentleman’s game ‘live’. But today many resources have come up which allows you to stay in touch with your planned ventures wherever you go. Off late, a few good apps got launched on Ashes Test and have said to arrive the stores of ‘much talked about’ platforms- Android and iOS.

Go Ashes’ , ‘ECBCricket’ and ‘The Ashes’ are such few apps that carry all the useful information about such an event.

ECB Cricket:
ECB Cricket is a beautifully crafted app, yet full of desired information. This app is meant for the easy accessing of news scores, matches and updates. From the tickets of ongoing Ashes to updates on forthcoming tournaments, from match highlights to choosing a cricket wallpaper, from scoreboard to the fall of wickets, you will get them ALL.
It’s USP is that it comes on four platforms- Apple, Blackberry, Nokia and Android whilst the cost comes out to be absolutely free.

Go Ashes:

Designed for both iPhone and iPad, Go Ashes acts as a perfect companion during your tour to the Tournament. It has a feature by an interesting name “Twickets”. It organizes all your Ashes twitter feeds at one place. Others include live scoring, series overview and history and news feeds w.r.t. both the teams.

Its makers say that “It is a must have for any visitor to Australia! “. Besides (in the app) you get food and drink suggestions to all the Ashes host cities.

The Ashes:
The Ashes is another commendable app on Google Play. It endows users with the latest information on the ongoing tournament. Here, all the content is powered by ‘The Telegraph’. This app has a simplified approach towards reporting on the Ashes and other cricket info.

All all, these apps are more fruitful & perfect to those having minimal time with no-fuss approach. Blessed with video content, live blogs, squad profile, photo galleries; they are match and news focused. Other apps in the line are Yahoo Cricket, Crickbuzz Cricket Scores & News, ICC Cricket and Cricket Companion App. 

 



Sunday 3 November 2013

My Sports Fanatics trip to Johannesburg - User Review

At the age of 12, I saw my neighbors fly to Johannesburg, South Africa to watch soccer and I thought how cool would it be to go there one day and watch soccer? And here I am. Initially I got into it for the thrill but recently discovered a different side of watching sports.. Touring. And so this blog exists to document my sports fanatics’ adventures.
Here is the postmortem of my epic 14 day adventure from California to Johannesburg and back. Lets start off with how I planned my trip. We all know planning a trip is not easy. You need to decide the place, look at the cost of traveling, estimate your budget, book your tickets and lodging. When you wanna go to a place to watch your favorite sports, you gotta know each and every detail of that place, every bit of information. And if we go about it the traditional way, googling each and every venue, it indeed is a Herculean task. I opted for a smarter approach (I possess a smartphone, you see). I picked an app called ED Sports Fanatics, which facilitated me with all the essentials.
ED Sports Fanatics let’s you create your perfect visit to the sports venues using smart data and maps. Touch the map to explore places where your favorite sports are played. It never allows you to get lost in way. It carves perfectly clear routes to get to the sports venue, which is why I was able to cover most of the places I planned to visit.
The app contains rich information on  world-class sports venues including stadiums, arenas, tracks, grand prix circuits, motor bike circuits and many more. It covers almost all the places and cities like London, France, Sydney, New York, Spain, Melbourne, Munich, Johannesburg, etc. around the globe. Knowing about sports venues in Johannesburg was fun with ED Sports Fanatics.
My first destination was FNB Stadium (First National Stadium) also known as Soccer City to watch a thrilling soccer match between South Africa and Mexico. Next in Johannesburg was Wanderers Stadium, where we dropped in to watch cricket match between South Africa and England. The cricket match had a nail-biting finish!
Won't annoy you with more details.
The whole experience during the trip was fascinating and I recorded my experience with ED Sports Fanatics. This app offers features like NOTES and JOURNAL. With ‘Notes’ you can share your own travel experience and with ‘Journal’ you can save day-to-day travel experience. I am glad to stumble upon this App.
- User

Thursday 31 October 2013

ED Sports Fanatics..The Making!

MediaAgility, already known for rolling out edutainment apps, has come up with another app for Sports travelers called ‘ExpeDiction Sports Fanatics’. Talking about the number of apps is as easy as it seems, though most of us are not conscious about the efforts and toil that it takes. Producing a single app may take 160 to 180 days of 25 to 30 constant workers. Lets sneak into behind-the-scene actions.

A little background before starting. It was planned to launch the app by the name of ExpeDiction with 13 major volumes covering arenas on History, Culture, Festivals, Art, Sports (of course) including many others. However, while testing for the bugs and errors, the active team of developers and app testers at MediaAgility found it (Expediction) ‘hefty’. They wanted it to be more specific and user-friendly. Thereby, during the testing process, it was discussed to segregate all the 13 volumes into 13 distinct apps.

The sports affiliated volume has been given the name ‘ED Sports Fanatics’ (on both platforms- Android and iOS). This application is framed keeping in mind the thought process of a ‘Sport Enthusiast’ as it takes into account the places loved and preferred by all Sport fans. Plus, there are attributes like importance, timings and special features of the given entities.

When Senior Management was asked about the app’s structure, one of the officials said “ED Sports Fanatics focuses information from Travelers’ perspective.” From Data Collection to Testing, every strenuous task got pulled off smoothly in the end.
According to the team of app testers, features in ED Sports (Journal, Staples, Matchsticks, Potpourri, World Map to name a few) have been drafted to facilitate a hassle-free user experience.
Gradually, more people joined the team of this app. From Developers to Designers to Content Analyst to Creative Writers to App Testers, all worked in unison. “Making the best Sports cum Travel app” was the motto. Following roles were performed by the company’s workforce while working for Sports attractions:
  • Firstly, the tasks got pulled off by way of Content Analysts. Tasks like researching, collecting and refining of complex data into user-friendly mode were served in their plate. Summarizing all forms of content before being presented in written form was analysed by Content Analysts. The emphasis remained highly on objective evaluation of data than on being subjective.  The ‘said’ data included detailed information on related sports venues and complexes.
  • Up next, was the contribution of Designers endowing users ‘that’ feel towards the visibility of this app. The Designers have worked passionately on the User-interface (UI) and designing of App. Using their hands, heads and hearts; Designers invented new things and gave the app a feel good appeal.
  • Developers on the other hand worked on design, testing and maintenance of software programs. These developers created software programs suitable for a wide variety of users, while carrying out detailed investigations into software requirements. Whereas Coding was said to be their supreme forte.
  • When an app is ready from developers’ end,  App Testers enter into scene. In relation to the smooth functionality of features and icons, App Testers have to do the Quality Analysis, or QA as they say, of the functionality/ UI.
  • Then, there were FAQ’s and descriptions drafted by Creative Writers. These writers, through their creativity brought the exact expression of the usage, benefits, features and description of this app. Self-expression, creative imagination, open-ended thinking and exploration were few good traits of Creative Writers.
Data stays intact and does not loses out even when the app is used offline. Also, the little details of a particular place can be viewed whenever and wherever you want.

The Supportive Sporty Idea

It is very well said that sports are the epitome of hard work and dedication. The craze for sports among extremely enthusiastic people earn them a title of ‘super-fans’. The rapid increase in the ratio of rabid fans shows their tenacious love and undying sporty spirit. They cheer for their team with clapping, fist-pumping and shouting positive exclamations toward the field of play.
There is no surprise that we have ample number of online stores for sports t-shirts, hats, jerseys, polo, license plates, hoods, sweatshirts, tees, shoes,  team merchandise and accessories. Moreover iOS app and Android App cover so much of market. Being a part of Mediaagility, we checked out the passion for sports among the employees. Here are their rave reviews:
  • Robert, a fanatical basketball fan, wears scarlet red cap whenever he goes to watch the live basketball games in the stadium. He considers it to be lucky charm. And luckily the team he supports win each time. Once he had worn a black cap and the match was withdrawn. Ever since , wearing a red cap was considered as symbol of fortune according to him.
  • Paul loves playing chess with his best friend. He asks his wife to prepare hot coffee only and offer no appetizers, lest his hands would be soiled and he requires washing them. He wants no disturbance during the chess game and is totally lost in it.
  • Sports mania has influenced Jack so much that the wall of his room is filled with posters of the English former footballer, David Robert Joseph Beckham. Not only this, he got special sports themed room designed. He loves to play fantasy football.
  • Even Jack’s younger brother, Tom is reading Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2013. He is a die hard fan of cricket. He was so much engrossed reading this book that he forgot to wish his girlfriend's Birthday. This is unbelievable!!
  • Anderson's daughter, Elly, is not even 12 and asked her daddy to gift her the skirt as short as the one worn by tennis players. She loves Maria Yuryevna Sharapova, a Russian professional tennis player.
  • Ronald, who loves hockey as much as his girlfriend, gifted her beloved, two coffee mugs bearing the photo of Bobby Orr with a sporty quotation on the occasion of her Birthday. He gets so much fascinated by the latest hockey news.
  • Gracie uses custom colors for the face, body, hair and even nails. Gracie gets the poster designed for each and every cricket match and does not miss any of the matches ranging from test match to semi-finals or finals. Her poster had great quotation “Buck Up Australia With Leaps And Bound Just As Our National Kangaroo”. She was also awarded as the best poster maker of the match.
Surrounded with such sports maniacs and sportaholics all around, Mediagility envisaged the idea of coming up with the best sports app. Hence, the birth of ED Sports Fanatics. This sports animal app will have all the relevant information about different sports venue around the world. Featuring perfect schedules and world sports venues, this app is really going to be a boon for the people passionate for sports.





Tuesday 29 October 2013

Sports Fanatics and MediaAgility

MediaAgility holds a good news for all the sports lovers cum travelers. Any guesses? Ofcourse, it’s an app! Yes, it has information, we never compromise on that front!
Here it goes! The name of this app is Expediction Sports Fanatics. MediaAgility keenly considered the needs of Sports Travelers. Not only the app contains all kinds of Sports venues present on the globe, but the detailed information on them is sure to quench the thirst of Sports Travelers.
Arenas, Golf Clubs, Sea Surfing, Stadiums, Circuits, Ranges, Tracks and Sports Clubs among others form the broad categories in the app. Coming on the information, it  consists of Description, Address, Entrance, Size of venue, Era of the construction and Purpose of the venue. Not only that, a user gets answers to Why, When and How to go to the particular Sports venue, which leaves no scope for doubts and queries.
The features offered by ExpeDiction are unique and useful. There are various modes and views of app. While default mode goes from Map to Categories selection, user is free to go the other way round through ‘Magic Drill’. Like we bookmark the pages while reading, MediaAgility has introduced “Staples” in all the apps. Matchstix and Potpourri change the number of entities and information visible in one go. Like you maintain a travel book with experiences and comments, ED allows you to create and share notes on various entities. Plus, travelers can plan their trip with ‘My Journal’ and ‘Map’. 
ED Sports Fanatics has all the required features, views and modes to make it a comprehensive and useful package for all the Sports Fanatics. It is available on Android as well iOS. So, you can map a Sports tour today! What are you waiting for?

Tuesday 30 April 2013

Words at your hand with LD SAT


Preparing for an English language examination and memorizing words and their attributes can be a Herculean Task for anyone. But in this era of smart on-the-go devices, how can we not find an app that can raise our proximity to the expert level of the language. I found one- LingoDiction SAT, an app by MediaAgility. 




Let me elaborate on a few points why this app is among my favorites.

  1. It is more than a dictionary or thesaurus. This app offers the meanings, synonyms, antonyms, usage, origin and root for more than 6000 words. It was amazing to find out even the most unusual words.
  2. You can quiz yourself. Set the number of questions you want to take under the category of your choice and get quizzed! The app maintains a scorecard of your performance, which can pride or embarrass you later on.
  3. Play games. I fell into nostalgic state when I played the 8 mini-games including Scramble, Match it, Guess the Word and Army of Synonyms. It is a unique combination of education and entertainment. You test your English vocab while games maintain the thrill.
  4. Share your scores. I flaunted my quiz scores on my facebook timeline. You can do the same. However, you need to score first. Wink!
  5. It’s user-friendly. Unlike any other app, LingoDictionSAT never takes its users as already the master of language, it respects new users. With uncluttered interface and help screens, it was easy to sail across the first time.
  6. The combination of book and cube in one app emits that required touch of Edutainment. Edutainment, I believe is the best theme to facilitate learning process for any living being.  
  7. I can practice English language for as much time as I want. The boredom and monotonous text would not be able to bother me anymore. It is preparation for any exam in USA, UK, Australia or Canada, I know I can practice English for hours. While I am using this app for IELTS, my friends are using it for SAT, TOEFL, GRE and GMAT.
  8. If I don’t like anything in LD SAT, want to offer suggestions or feel like adding my knowledge to the app, I can do it! There is a feedback option that keeps me satisfied that this app is for our personal convenience.
  9. The words I have found difficult, the words I often forget and other important words can be stapled in self-fabricated categories. This allows me to keep those words handy for future reference. Hence, LD SAT became my ideal SAT tutor.
  10. I get an option to download 3 types of packages with 2,000 words each.

Seldom do we find such a vast English tutorial, which has a plus point of interactivity. I keep on adding words to my vocab, so that I can score better in English games. The more I score in English vocab games, the more I am assured of my performance in entrance examinations.

English language learning has indeed been made easy by LingoDiction SAT. I can leave my English vocabulary worries on this app.  

Friday 15 March 2013

Edutainment - How It Touches Our Lives?



The world is swooning by the concept of edutainment, and so are we. Edutainment has become the new buzzword these days, capturing the attention of everyone, from a 24-months old child to a 60-year-old business tycoon. And how?

It is because this unintentional and informal way of gaining knowledge is way more interesting that the conventional ways. And here learning is not just limited to gaining enough knowledge to pass the examinations, it is much larger than that. Countries these days are using means of edutainment to spread awareness about various fatal diseases and social issues like cancer and women abuse respectively. Movie makers and software developers now-a-days come up with entertaining products that help attract and maintain the audience, while blending in some deliberate message or sort of knowledge.

The consumer is more aware now- more aware of where he is going, what is he consuming, and what can be the possible outcomes of what he does. This is because he is open to learning now-- condition being it isn’t boring anyways! Products are being marketed in a way that the consumer trusts them completely, and gets important message in a much lighter manner. And hence, companies are raking in profits simply by presenting the consumers with sources that make sure we learn a lot while getting amused. Media has played a vital role in expanding this concept to every nook-and-corner of the world. Majority of computer games being developed these days ensure the same, and become instant hits with the people playing them. And the schools, where the future scientists and doctors of the Earth spend a major part of their day, have also come up with creative learning strategies that do not let children surround by boring vibes while going to schools.

That said, edutainment has a bright future ahead. And it is here to remain-growing bigger by the second!

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Tuesday 12 March 2013

Edutainment: A New Buzz Word



"Edutainment" a buzzword these days, for starters, is the portmanteau formed of two simple terms Education and Entertainment. Going into details, the idea behind coining this term was to come up with more effective ways to learn things. Learning the facts in traditional ways has become so out now, and it is all about indulging in fun ways to gain knowledge. To start with, the very basic medium of edutainment are our very own fables, games and that television-set sitting in the corner of the living room. This tells that though the word is new, it is in use since time immemorial. It’s just that we have started implementing it more seriously these days. Let’s see how a fable acts as a source of edutainment, and helps kids learn in a fun way.

Story of Cinderella, which has its roots in China is one fable nearly everyone has heard of in his/her childhood. In this classic myth, a lady from the lower class, through her kindness, physical beauty, and help from others, marries a prince and lives happily ever after. The basic moral of the story is that woman's happiness depends on a man and a woman needs to be transformed to fit into that man's world. While the Asian Cinderella is characterized by her non-individual qualities, such as her daughterly piety, the American Cinderella is admired for her individual qualities, such as physical beauty and resourcefulness. Both ways, the story is designed to teach a lesson about which behaviors the culture will reward.

This was just a short and very basic example to show how edutainment has entered our lives and is helping us learn. And it is actually changing the way we as a society think-- for good. Moreover, it is even helping companies market their products.

Saturday 9 March 2013

Edutainment - A portmanteau of Education & Entertainment



Edutainment (a portmanteau of Education & Entertainment), as the name suggests quite well, is any content that educates people while keeping the amusement quotient high. Edutainment is anything that helps one gain knowledge, but, in a manner that it doesn’t become burdensome. Though this sort of education is known to us since ages, but what’s new is the term Edutainment we have started referring to now-a-days. Thinking when did we learn something in a play-way method? Well, think about all the parables and fables? And various kid-games like alphabets and building blocks? Or even that show on the large LCD mounted in one corner of your wall?

This unintentional and informal way of gaining knowledge is what we now call Edutainment. And here learning is not just limited to gaining enough knowledge to pass the examinations, it is much larger than that. Countries these days use means of edutainment to spread awareness about various fatal diseases and social issues like cancer and women abuse respectively. Movie makers and software developers now-a-days come up with entertaining products that help attract and maintain the audience, while blending in some deliberate message or sort of knowledge. That said, edutainment has a bright future ahead. And it is here to remain.

And since, this concept soon became a hit, companies are raking in profits simply by presenting the consumers with sources that make sure we learn a lot while getting amused. Media has played a vital role in expanding this concept to every nook-and-corner of the world. Majority of computer games being developed these days ensure the same, and become instant hits with the people playing them. And the schools, where the future scientists and doctors of the Earth spend a major part of their day, have also come up with creative learning strategies that do not let children surround by boring vibes while going to schools.

This is the effect of Edutainment, and it is just growing bigger by the second, for good!!

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Wednesday 6 March 2013

Changing Paradigms In Gaming: Edutainment The Next Big Thing



There was a time when we played games just for having fun with friends and family. Gaming has had been a peer thing till the time technology didn’t breach in to let people knit their own virtual world in these games. Electronic gaming consoles literally abandoned those backyards and playgrounds at many places. Games, like Super Mario and Contra, danced on the lips of kids for years. And all this exhilaration over gaming received a huge kick with the arrival of immensely popular gaming consoles - PlayStation and Xbox.

Till that era, gaming was primarily a matter of individual engagement and achievements. However, the big vertical shift came in when games got that social flavor added with social platforms especially Facebook. In addition to bringing the multi-player style to the core, social media enriched conventional gaming with a flurry of other networking techniques that were hitherto not explored well.

Competition was sidelined, and on the contrary to the very essence of gaming, social games earmarked “forming associations” as an important tool to attain in-game goals. Zynga pioneered the notion of such collaborative associations with its blockbuster releases Farmville and Cityville. These games encouraged users to network to perform loads of activities and feel a sense of achievement and togetherness.

Gaming stalwarts soon sensed the trend and adapted to the change introduced by Zynga. Established gaming houses started churning out engaging social games and soon it became a highly crowded domain. A recent research conducted by the casual gaming experts Newzoo reported that as many as 39% of the total 215 million hours were spent in online casual or social media gaming, if that gives you any perspective about how colossal this industry has become.

The above discussion might give you an all-well feeling about the social gaming industry, but it’s not as easygoing as it looked. In fact, unlike the erstwhile scenario, a lot depends on the content of a game. Engagement has become a much broader term. Even a simple hit-and-run game today has so much in terms of letting people network through it. And people need more than just fun to remain glued to a game. Something extra, something can give them some value.

Talking about the value part, future games ought to have a design and content flow that impart some learning in addition to all the fun and frolic. Idea here is to empower users with something they can use when they’re not playing the game. To put it in more appropriate words, games that depict both education and entertainment, together dubbed as “Edutainment”, in a proportionate mix.

Edutainment-based games have already making inroads in the social media space. Just a little inquisition will show you a handful of games, such as “Words With Friends”, that have Edutainment as the central theme. But, having said that, these games aren’t huge in numbers, but going by the current, soon you will find companies doing away with barely useful action-packed gaming and hopping into the Edutainment space to capitalize upon the opportunities in this new form of learning.


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Wednesday 27 February 2013

LingoDiction - What All It Holds For You



It becomes one heck of a problem when one is out on a foreign land, and is not able to express his needs to the natives in their own language. And it becomes all the more embarrassing when one intends to speak something, after obviously looking into a dictionary, and the meaning turns out to be something else. 

Majority of the people who go out, for business or for leisure, face this problem, and roaming around with hefty dictionaries is no more a feasible option, when you have access to download a small translation app on your smartphone. But the major confusion then is which of the thousands available apps to choose from?

You need not to fret anymore since LingoDiction is all here to help you come over language barriers. This new app offers a wide range of features, assisting you with any sort of language-related problem you might come across while in an alien land.

With a user-friendly interface, LingoDiction has words clearly segregated into regions, and various other categories like Most Widely Spoken Languages, Romance Language, and the likes. The division of words into smaller categories helps cut-off any confusions that might arise otherwise. And the present count of the languages in which LingoDiction offers translation is 65, which is only growing bigger.

Coming over to the features it offers, the list is endless. If you find going through the categories boring, then you also have the option to select a language from the language atlas, and get going! And if you are one of those lazy souls who get weary over clicking the button to listen to the voice of words, Turbo Play is all for you. After clicking on it, you automatically get to listen to the voice of every word you click upon.

What’s more, you can always send in your suggestions to make the app more better. If, according to you, the data is not correct or is incomplete in any sense, you have the option to send it in, and then the mistake will get rectified. These are just some of the features of this unique new app, download now to explore more of it!


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Friday 22 February 2013

A Trip to Amsterdam - RouteIt Guided To Perfection


The other day I was fussing over my strict parents for they refused when I asked them if I too could be a part of the upcoming School Expedition to Amsterdam. They told me I wasn’t supposed to be travelling without them anywhere in that age. And this is when I explored RouteIt.

Since visiting Amsterdam has always been on my wish-list, I thought why not delve into the city first on RouteIt??! I explored my way to Amsterdam, and as the world map took me to my dream city, I was welcomed with a piece of info on it. On clicking the ‘Play’ icon, I was literally taken inside the city, where the route started for my avatar (and me too!) to go round the city on satellite view.

The first halt was Hermitage Amsterdam, for which I got to know a lot from the app. After I was done with my first Point of Interest, I resumed the journey. Secondly, the app took me to Museum Willet-Holthuysen, again giving a brief on it. I even had the option to share my expedition and every stoppage with my friends. I was astonished to find out that Amsterdam even has a Museum dedicated to all-girl-things: Museum of Bags and Purses.

Every now and then, while I was on the route, it came up with options for me to interact with my fellow travelers, or to share my experience with others on the network, the ongoing competitions, and such. My next stoppage was at Allard Pierson Museum which was followed by a halt at Dam Square. I even got to visit and know about The Royal Palace of Amsterdam, which otherwise might not have been possible. And with this the mesmerizing journey came to an end.

Though it was always fun to stop at every POI for a while to know more about it, but for the less-interested souls, it even has the option to change gears. Here’s how: if you feel like speeding up the journey, you can opt for running, skating or cycling the way up instead of walking.

What I liked the most was that apart from the satellite view, RouteIt also offers Street View for life-like experience. Since it even has the option to listen to one’s favorite music tracks, whenever I felt lonely on the route (which wasn’t often), I made music my companion. All through the journey I was feeling as if I was actually in Amsterdam- because of the structured info this app provides. With this app on my phone, I had a very edutaining trip to my favorite city- the city of museums!


Download Virtual Travel App RouteIt now for new enchanting experience.

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Wednesday 16 January 2013

Project World Tour - A Journey To Roots Through Routes



Amanda was feeling damn nostalgic today. It has been 13 years since she walked on the route to her alma mater. She could actually see a calico of her images, toying with her friends in bits and pieces, across that route. A short journey via that route rewinded her school-memories as if those were playing on a bioscope or something.

Was it with Amanda only? Or do we all share a special connection with routes? How many times have you seen yourself walking on those roads that were your inextricable companions to several destinations that you’d set from time-to-time? In fact, even if you replay your good old college days, a major part of the nostalgic drive will inadvertently cast the routes you trod with your friends.

That’s how our memories are essentially wired. We could still connect with the route we took when we went to the school for the first time. We could still live over the excitement when our bulging bags leaned out to pave the way for light trendy bags, and school uniform transformed into fashionable attires and cool accessories in college. That nervous yet ambitious walk to the office. A surreal walk with the first date on a beach or some other romantic spot. Believe it or not, you have pictures of all these, and many more life-changing routes deeply ingrained in your sub-conscious.

In Project World Tour, we have endeavored to weave those all important routes, and several others, into a series of knowledge sharing postings across multitude of platforms. The aim here is to build a community of and for travelers where they go beyond sharing about places. Instead, the community will further magnify their sharing by talking about different routes that run through as veins in any city.

Not just that, contribution in the Project World Tour can fetch you some exciting takeaways that you can show off on your friends. We are on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus, YouTube, and all the popular platforms. Just enter #ProjectWorldTour in the search boxes of your favorite social media site and join the league of the extraordinary travelers waiting for like-minded people like YOU.

Join #ProjectWorldTour on Facebook
Join #ProjectWorldTour on Twitter
Join #ProjectWorldTour on Google+
Join #ProjectWorldTour on Pinterest

Download free virtual travel app RouteIt to explore the world.




Monday 7 January 2013

Project World Tour - Bring Out the Sindbad in You


“Columbus”, “Captain Cook”, “Vasco Da Gama”! Now what’s the first thing that crashed into your mind for that fraction of a second when you were reading these names. Perhaps, pictures of stout European men clad in metal buttoned sailor suits, wearing the American dixie cups or the French “Bachi” bonnets on their heads. Apart from the attire, the thought that goes perfectly moussed up with their names is the very thrill of exploration and adventure these iconic voyagers must have enjoyed. Sailing and beating those soaring ripples to a destination unknown, that’s what traveling and exploration is all about. Rest is just a pleasure-seeking exercise to say the least.

We always wish to feel that thrill of unraveling something not very known to the world, at least to our neighbors and friends. We do show off our serendipitous explorations to our friends, and never miss a chance to tell them that how mediocre their trip to that place was just because they couldn’t find the place you somehow managed to discover. Having said that, some of us do have that honest urge to see what the world has to dish up. Curiosity to know the very planet they inhabit is what actually drives these souls. And then there’s a whole class of travel aficionados who simply live for traveling and wouldn’t mind crossing an ocean to know about an obscure and remote island somewhere.

Whatever may be the reason, owing to the very restless nature of human beings, we simply can’t stay glued to one place for long. Every third weekend we call friends, we chalk out plans to hit the not-so-far destinations, and then immolate those with lethargy, or sometimes with time and resources constraints we suffer on and off.

Just to save those plans from random butchering with giving due respect to your lethargy and the sheer willingness to achieve everything while sitting on a bean-bag, we announce the launch of Project World Tour”. This ambitious project is a part of RouteIt, a distinguished travel app, which houses the world’s choicest routes for you to dig into. Under this aspirational project, we’ll take you to different places while you’re logged into your favorite social network, be it Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Google Plus.

The aim of the Project World Tour is to make you aware of the places you always wanted to be at, and that too in an engaging way, giving you a feeling closer to the real world dynamism. In addition to virtual traveling, the Project also aims at building a community of like-minded travelers to instill an environment conducive for sharing. There will be contests and quizzes, rewards and awards, and lot more up for the grab.

So all fellow travelers, join the Project World Tour and discover the world in a way you might have never done before.

Join #ProjectWorldTour on Facebook
Join #ProjectWorldTour on Twitter
Join #ProjectWorldTour on Google+
Join #ProjectWorldTour on Pinterest

Download free virtual travel app RouteIt to explore the world.