Saturday 31 March 2012

Download The Best Download Manager FULL VERSION

Download The Best Download Manager FULL VERSION..1st

Download - µTorrent - a (very) tiny BitTorrent client. 

Now download this torrent and open it with torrent client Download nOw or Download from here or From Here.. U r done..just extract what ever is there and Run setup/crack/keygen

Best Free MP3 Downloading sites

Best FREE MP3 Sites:
Here are my tOp FREE Mp3 download sites:   Mp3raid,
BeeMP3  ,
Mp3Skull ,  MP3hunting


How to Get Better at Managing Ur Time

If are you struggling to find enough time then read these best time management tips for some help. Is your leisure and family time taking a back seat to your professional life? Do you feel dissatisfied in your professional or personal life?

If you do it is okay as most of us feel like this on a regular basis. You may be under stress because you are not achieving enough in your professional life. Or you could be feeling guilty because you are not spending enough time at home with your family.

Don't worry, it may not be as bad as you think. There is a solution to your problems. Simply by changing the way you approach the use of your time you can find the hours to do all the things you want to, and even have some time left over. Not only will this help you manage your time more effectively, it can help you to achieve the things you really want to in life.

Best time management tips: Manage yourself


We have only so much time in each day. This is something that you have to accept because it will not change. You can not manage time, but you can manage yourself. This is where the answer to effective time management lies. You must look at the things that are important to you in life and devote your time to these. Forget about everything else.

Managing your time effectively will bring about some dramatic improvements in your life, but you must be prepared to make some fundamental changes. However, there is no need to rush, you can make the necessary changes at your own pace. It is best to go slowly, at least to begin with, as you may not succeed if you try to do too much, too soon.

Best time management tips: Know yourself

To take the first step in effective time management you need to know yourself. In modern society there are so many distractions we can easily lose our focus on what we really want in our lives. For most people, this is an unfortunate fact of life.

So this is the first step in effective time management - finding out what you really want from life. You need to get in touch with yourself and discover your vision. Remember a time earlier in your life when you felt anything was possible. What were your dreams and aims when you were that age? Your dreams and goals at this time may help you get in touch with your vision. It is likely that some of your priorities will have changed since then, but many will have remained the same.

You should also think about how you would like your life to be both in terms of your professional life and your personal life. You should also think about your capabilities and what is possible for you in life. We will call this your vision.

Where are you now?

By now, you should have a reasonable idea of what you would like your life to be like. The next step is tricky. I want you to compare this vision of your ideal life to your life as it really is now. For most people, the difference between the two can be quite daunting.

However, no matter how wide the gap is between your ideal reality and how you live your life now, it can be bridged. Many people think effective time management is all about calendars and diaries. Not so. Effective time management can transform your life on a much more fundamental level.

Living your life and spending your time the way you want to will involve a few changes - some big, some small. An example of a minor change would be eating healthier. A major change could be quitting your job to travel the world. However, if you put your mind to it you could achieve either of these. You will have to take a close look at how your hours are spent and make the necessary adjustments so you can achieve what you want to achieve.

Planning your day.

You should start by picking two things you want to achieve, one big and one small. Now, you want to think of one small step you can take towards achieving these that you can incorporate into one day. If you can complete the one step towards achieving each goal then you have made an excellent start.

In truth, there is much more to it than this but this will show you that it is far from impossible and can be very rewarding. However, doing this effectively requires a lot of planning so that you complete all of the tasks you need to do each day while ensuring that all of these tasks are in line with your vision.

This is where a time plan comes in. You need to have a very clear idea of what needs to be done, how long it will take, and when it is going to be done. If it is your first time using a time plan you may want to keep a time log for a week or two first. A time log is a detailed record of how you spend your time each day. This will show you exactly how long different tasks and activities take. Then you can really plan your days accurately.

The 4 Ds of time management

To truly manage your time effectively you have to look at the tasks that need doing and decide how to handle them. For this you will need the four Ds of self-management. These are:

* Do it - This can not wait and needs to be taken care of now. * Delegate it - Not the best use of your time. Pass it on to someone else. * Dump it - Anything that is unimportant now and in the future. Bin it. * Defer it - Something for the 'to do' pile. Come back to it later.

Most, if not all, of the tasks and activities day can be put into these categories.

Try to identify the time wasters that are holding you back and eliminate them from your life.

These were just a few tips to get you started. As a general rule, try to take it step by step and as you make a change maintain it until it becomes a natural part of your life. Each of these small steps will bring you closer to your vision and leave you with time to do all of the things you want each day.

Below are some more tips:

Setting Goals

Set yourself specific and clearly defined goals, and make sure that these are realistic and achievable. To do this, you first need to examine your present situation and assess what goals are important to you and what action you need to take to achieve your target. Have a contingency plan or alternative route to your goal in case you have to change your plans, for example, taking a relevant postgraduate course if you can't get a job.

Prirotising

Efficiency and effectiveness are not the same. Someone who works hard and is well organised but spends all their time on unimportant tasks may be efficient but not effective. To be effective, you need to decide what tasks are urgent and important and to focus on these. This is called prioritising. It's important to list the tasks you have and to sort these in order of priority, and then to devote most time to the most important tasks. This avoids the natural tendency to concentrate on the simple, easy tasks and to allow too many interruptions to your work.
Differentiate also between urgent and important tasks: an urgent task may not necessarily be important! When jobhunting, you won't be able to apply to every employer. You will need to carefully prioritise those you wish to apply to, based upon factors such as closing date, location, degree class required, and chances of getting in.

Avoiding Procrastination

Procrastination is the scourge of action planning. It's important that you manage 'Your fear of doing things' you don't want to do and realise that the fear is often far worse than any possible negative results. Try to take decisions immediately when possible and when you don't need to gather more information pertinent to the decision. The best time to do something is usually NOW. Taking action generates the impetus for further action. Many applications to prestigious employers now need to be made in the first term of your final year and if you procrastinate you'll miss the deadlines.

Breaking down tasks

Break goals down into their components so that you can accomplish them one step at a time. Write these steps down, and try to be as specific as you can when you do this. Try to complete one task before you go on to the next.
Reward yourself for achieving these goals to maintain your enthusiasm. For example, when you are invited to your first interview, treat yourself to a good meal with friends. Regularly review your progress towards your goals and revise plans as appropriate to take account of unforeseen changes.

Persevering

Inevitably, things will not always run smoothly as you progress towards your goals. When things are not working out, you need to persevere and learn how to take a positive attitude towards frustration and failure.
Mistakes are a crucial part of any creative process and each is a lesson leading you towards the right solution. Fear of making or admitting mistakes is a major handicap to taking effective action. It is said that the people who have achieved the most have made the most mistakes! Try to be aware that satisfaction comes as much from pursuing goals as from achieving them.
Work at effective strategies to deal with pressure - these can vary from taking exercise, to relaxation techniques such as Yoga, to simply sharing problems with friends.

Breaking down tasks

Break goals down into their components so that you can accomplish them one step at a time. Write these steps down, and try to be as specific as you can when you do this. Try to complete one task before you go on to the next.
Reward yourself for achieving these goals to maintain your enthusiasm. For example, when you are invited to your first interview, treat yourself to a good meal with friends. Regularly review your progress towards your goals and revise plans as appropriate to take account of unforeseen changes.

Persevering

Inevitably, things will not always run smoothly as you progress towards your goals. When things are not working out, you need to persevere and learn how to take a positive attitude towards frustration and failure.
Mistakes are a crucial part of any creative process and each is a lesson leading you towards the right solution. Fear of making or admitting mistakes is a major handicap to taking effective action. It is said that the people who have achieved the most have made the most mistakes! Try to be aware that satisfaction comes as much from pursuing goals as from achieving them.
Work at effective strategies to deal with pressure - these can vary from taking exercise, to relaxation techniques such as Yoga, to simply sharing problems with friends.

Breaking down tasks

Break goals down into their components so that you can accomplish them one step at a time. Write these steps down, and try to be as specific as you can when you do this. Try to complete one task before you go on to the next.
Reward yourself for achieving these goals to maintain your enthusiasm. For example, when you are invited to your first interview, treat yourself to a good meal with friends. Regularly review your progress towards your goals and revise plans as appropriate to take account of unforeseen changes.

Persevering

Inevitably, things will not always run smoothly as you progress towards your goals. When things are not working out, you need to persevere and learn how to take a positive attitude towards frustration and failure.
Mistakes are a crucial part of any creative process and each is a lesson leading you towards the right solution. Fear of making or admitting mistakes is a major handicap to taking effective action. It is said that the people who have achieved the most have made the most mistakes! Try to be aware that satisfaction comes as much from pursuing goals as from achieving them.
Work at effective strategies to deal with pressure - these can vary from taking exercise, to relaxation techniques such as Yoga, to simply sharing problems with friends.Being assertive can also help here, for example, politely saying no to the demands of others when you are pushed for time. Sharing tasks and problems with others will spread the burden and will bring a fresh perspective to them.

Organising your time

Identify areas of your life where you are wasting time and try to reduce these. A good way to do this is to log everything you do for a week in meticulous detail and then examine your record to see how you use (or misuse!) your time.
Develop a regular work routine. Keep your work space tidy so that you can work efficiently - it's hard to do this if things you need to find are buried under a pile of paper! Work to schedule so that you meet deadlines in good time - don't leave everything until the last minute. If you have a difficult essay to write, start by drafting out the structure first- this will break the ice.
When applying for jobs keep copies of all the applications you have made and keep a log of the date you applied, result, and a record of all your interviews, plus you were questions asked. This will help you to keep track of your progress and spot areas where you could improve.

USING A TIME LOG

Monday

  • 8.30 Get up
  • 9.00 Breakfast
  • 9.30 Read newspaper
  • 10.00 Lecture
  • 11.00 Coffee with friends
  • 11.30 Work in library
  • 12.30 Lunch
  • 1.30 Careers Information Room
  • 2.00 Lecture
  • 3.00 Seminar
  • 4.00 Sports Centre
  • 5.00 Dinner
  • 6.00 Listening to music at home
  • 7.00 Work on CV
  • 7.30 Chatting with neighbour
  • 8.30 Union Bar
  • 11.00 Party at Abigails
  • 2.00 Home and bed
One useful way to eliminate wasted time is to use a time log. First you need to make up a chart for the next seven days divided into half hour intervals starting at the time you get up and finishing at the time you go to bed. Write down what you did in each half hour of the day for the next seven days. Choose a typical week. An example for one day is given to the right.
At the end of the week examine your time log and ask yourself the following questions:
  • Are there any periods that I could use more productively?
  • At what time of day do I do my most effective work? Some people are most alert in the morning, whilst others concentrate best during the afternoon or evening. Schedule your most important tasks for these times of day.
A time log can be particularly useful at times of pressure, for example, when revising for examinations or jobhunting during your final year.
By now you should have been able to identify ways in which you could manage your time more efficiently, and know some techniques to allow you to do this. You might like to look at the section on action planning which identifies other ways of organising your work so that you achieve your goals.
One way that employers may measure your time management skills at interview is via an 'in-tray exercise' (in-tray exercise is a business simulation, usually part of an assessment centre where you play a member of staff who has to deal with the tasks of a busy day. You will be given a selection of letters, emails and reports in either paper or electronic format, which somebody doing the job might find in their in-tray or email inbox first thing in the morning.
You have to read each item, decide on the action to be taken, the priority to be allocated to it and complete related tasks such as summarising a report or drafting a reply to an email. There is a tight time constraint.
  • It will probably start by describing the background scenario. Subject matter is usually related to the job you are applying for.
  • There is a lot of work to get through caused by your return from holiday or having to cover the work of an absent colleague.
  • Typically you will be given one to two hours to complete the tasks which will consist of a large number of items (perhaps 20 or more) to see how well you can handle several complex tasks in a short period.
  • Some tasks may just require a yes or no answer. Other items may need a longer response, such as drafting a reply to a customer complaint, writing a report, delegating tasks to colleagues or recommending action to superiors. You may need to analyse information for some items (calculating budgets or sales figures, using information provided). New items may be added while the exercise is in progress.
  • As part of the exercise it's possible you might be asked to make a phone call to a "customer", role played by one of the assessors.
  • At the end you may be debriefed by a selector and asked to discuss the decisions you made and the reasons for these or you might be asked to prepare a memo outlining your priorities for action, or make a short presentation.
  • In-tray exercises are usually done individually but can be run as a group exercise).
.

Revising for examinations

Have a regular venue for revision such as the library where you are free from distractions. You should after a while become conditioned to starting work immediately in this location. Plan out a revision schedule or timetable so you devote enough time to each subject.
Summarise your lecture notes and use diagrams and graphics where appropriate - a picture is worth a thousand words! Use a highlighter pen or underlining to emphasise key facts. For last minute revision, make minimal notes occupying no more than a couple of sides of A4 and record key facts, diagrams and formulae.
Use past examination papers when revising to familiarise 'yourself with the sort of questions that might be asked. When revising, take a few minutes break every so often to clear and refresh your mind and allow some time off for complete relaxation.

Get Better at Managing Ur Work -Simple Tips

So here are 10 tips to make you better at managing your work:
1. Don’t leave email sitting in your in box.
“The ability to quickly process and synthesize information and turn it into actions is one of the most emergent skills of the professional world today,” says Mann. Organize email in file folders. If the message needs more thought, move it to your to-do list. If it’s for reference, print it out. If it’s a meeting, move it to your calendar.
“One thing young people are really good at is only touching things once. You don’t see young people scrolling up and down their email pretending to work,” says Mann. Take action on an email as soon as you read it.
2. Admit multitasking is bad.
For people who didn’t grow up watching TV, typing out instant messages and doing homework all at the same time, multitasking is deadly. But it decreases everyone’s productivity, no matter who they are. “A 20-year-old is less likely to feel overwhelmed by demands to multitask, but young people still have a loss of productivity from multitasking,” says Trapani.
So try to limit it. Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users suggests practicing mindfulness as a way to break the multitasking habit.
3. Do the most important thing first.
Trapani calls this “running a morning dash”. When she sits down to work in the morning, before she checks any email, she spends an hour on the most important thing on her to-do list. This is a great idea because even if you can’t get the whole thing done in an hour, you’ll be much more likely to go back to it once you’ve gotten it started. She points out that this dash works best if you organize the night before so when you sit down to work you already know what your most important task of the day is.
4. Check your email on a schedule.
“It’s not effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately does not mean that you have to respond to them immediately,” says Dan Markovitz, president of the productivity consulting firm TimeBack Management, “People want a predictable response, not an immediate response.” So as long as people know how long to expect an answer to take, and they know how to reach you in an emergency, you can answer most types of email just a few times a day.
5. Keep web site addresses organized.
Use book marking services like del.icio.us to keep track of web sites. Instead of having random notes about places you want to check out, places you want to keep as a reference, etc., you can save them all in one place, and you can search and share your list easily.
6. Know when you work best.
Industrial designer Jeff Beene does consulting work, so he can do it any time of day. But, he says, “I try to schedule things so that I work in the morning, when I am the most productive.” Each person has a best time. You can discover yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then you need to manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.
7. Think about keystrokes.
If you’re on a computer all day, keystrokes matter because efficiency matters. “On any given day, an information worker will do a dozen Google searchers,” says Trapani. “How many keystrokes does it take? Can you reduce it to three? You might save 10 seconds, but over time, that builds up.”
8. Make it easy to get started.
We don’t have problems finishing projects, we have problems starting them,” says Mann. He recommends you “make a shallow on-ramp.” Beene knows the key creating this on ramp: “I try to break own my projects into chunks, so I am not overwhelmed by them.”
9. Organize your to-do list every day.
If you don’t know what you should be doing, how can you manage your time to do it? Some people like writing this list out by hand because it shows commitment to each item if you are willing to rewrite it each day until it gets done. Other people like software that can slice and dice their to-do list into manageable, relevant chunks. For example, Beene uses tasktoy because when he goes to a client site tasktoy shows him only his to do items for that client, and not all his other projects. (Get tasktoy here.)
10. Dare to be slow.
Remember that a good time manager actually responds to some things more slowly than a bad time manager would. For example, someone who is doing the highest priority task is probably not answering incoming email while they’re doing it. As Markovitz writes: “Obviously there are more important tasks than processing email. Intuitively, we all know this. What we need to do now is recognize that processing one’s work (evaluating what’s come in and how to handle it) and planning one’s work are also mission-critical tasks.”

Biggest Weapons of the World

Tsar Cannon – World’s largest Howitzer Ever Made


Image Source
The massive Tsar Cannon which was built in 1586 with a length of 5.34 meters or 17.5 ft is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the largest howitzer ever made. The cannon is almost 38 tonnes in weight, has an external diameter of 1,200 mm or 47 in and has a caliber of 890 mm or 35 inches. This enormous cannon is located within the walls of Moscow Kremlin in Russia.

Pumhart von Steyr – World’s Largest Known Wrought-iron Bombard by Caliber


Image Source
This medieval supergun with a ball diameter of 80 cm from Austria is the largest known wrought-iron bombard by caliber. The cannon was produced in the early 15th century and could fire, according to modern calculations, a 690 kg stone ball around 600 m, loaded with 15 kg of powder and set up at an elevation of 10°. It is currently on display at Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna.

Monster Mortar – World’s Largest Cannon Ever


Image Source
The Monster Mortar has a caliber of 975 mm. It was produced by France in 1832. It was invented by Henri-Joseph Paixhans, a French artillery officer. Using 500 kg bombs, the Monster Mortar was used to terrible effect in the Siege of Antwerp in 1832.

Schwerer Gustav and Dora – World’s Largest Caliber Rifled Weapons


Image Source
Schwerer Gustav and Dora were the names of two massive World War 2 German 80 cm railway siege guns. These were the largest caliber rifled weapons in the history of artillery to see actual combat and fired the heaviest shells of any artillery piece. The Little David mortar of the US surpassed these railway siege guns in caliber but it was never used in actual combat. These railway siege guns weighed almost 1,350 tonnes and could fire shells weighing seven tonnes to a range of 37 kilometers.

Karl Gerat – World’s Largest Self-propelled Weapon


Image Source
Karl-Gerat was the largest self-propelled weapon to see service. It was a World War II German self-propelled siege howitzer designed and built by Rheinmetall. This 124 to vehicle was used in attacking Soviet fortresses, in bombarding Polish resistance and participating in the Battle of the Bulge. Only two exist today, the others were scrapped after the war.

Tsar Bomba – World’s Largest and Most Powerful Nuclear Weapon


Image Source
The Tsar Bomba of the former USSR is the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated with a mass of 27 short tons (24,000 kg). It zone of total destruction is 35 kilometer radius and its fireball has a radius of 3.5 kilometers.

Image Source
It was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT; however, the bomb yield was reduced to only 50 Megatons — one quarter of the estimated yield of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa — in order to reduce nuclear fallout. The most powerful weapon ever constructed by mankind was exploded on October 30, 1961, in Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Sea.

Father All of Bombs – World’s Most Powerful Conventional Weapon


Image Source
The Russian-made air-delivered/land activated thermobaric weapon nicknamed "Father of All Bombs" (FOAB) is officially named Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP). It is the most powerful conventional weapon in the world. This ultimately destructive weapon kills everything that is alive. All that is alive merely evaporates. It is 4-times more destructive than the US’s Mother of All Bombs. The bomb was successfully tested on September 11, 2007.

Mother of All Bombs – One of the World’s Most Powerful Non-nuclear Weapon


Image Source
The American-made Mother of All Bombs is officially named GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance. This 9.17 meter-long weapon is a large-yield conventional bomb is regarded as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed at the time of its development. It has a diameter of 102.9 cm and weighs 10.3 tonnes. Its blast radius is 137.61 m and capable of destroying 9 city blocks. It was field-tested on March 11, 2003 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, USA. It is reported that a larger version of the MOAB exists, weighing 13 tons.

B53 – One of the Most Powerful Warheads in the World


Image Source
The B53 nuclear bomb is one of the most powerful warheads in the world. It is no longer in active service but 50 are retained as part of the "Hedge" portion of the Enduring Stockpile. The B53, which was built by the US, has a yield of 9 megatons of TNT (38 PJ) is one of the last very high-yield thermonuclear bombs in U.S. service.

Image Source
This 3.8 meter long bomb has a diameter of 1.27 m and weighed 4,015 kg. It had five parachutes: one 1.5 m pilot chute, one 4.9 m extractor chute, and three 14.6 m main chutes.
.

B41 (Mk-41) - Most Powerful Nuclear Warhead Ever Developed by the United States


Image Source
The American-made B41, a thermonuclear weapon deployed by the US Air Command in the 1960s, was the most powerful nuclear warhead ever developed by the United States. Together with the EC17/Mk-17 and the EC24/Mk-24, they have a theoretical maximum yield of 25 megatons. The Mk-17 was also the largest by size and mass: about 20 short tons or 18,000 kg. B41 (Mk-41), a gravity bomb had a mass of 4800 kg, retired in 1957.
B41, which was 3.76 m in length with a diameter of 1.32 m and a weight of 4,850 kg, was carried only by the B-52 Stratofortress and B-47 Stratojet.

Agni Missiles – Most Powerful Missiles in the World


Image Source
Agni Missile III is considered as the most powerful missile in the world. This medium to intercontinental range ballistic missile developed by India has a 4500 km. range. It has been tested 3-times and the results were successful making Agni-III one of the most accurate strategic ballistic missiles of its range class in the world. A more powerful variant, the Agni V, which is under development, is an ICBM missile with a range of 5000-6000km.
Agni III weighs 55,000 kg, a length of 17 m and a diameter of 2 m. It can attain a speed of 5-6 km/s. The missile on the above photo is an Agni II.

Shabab 5 & 6 – Missiles with the Longest Range

See Image HERE
The Shahab 5 & 6 which belongs to Iran has a range of 10,000 km. According to intelligence reports, if these bombs have a range of 10,000 km, then they are capable of reaching the eastern coast of the US and most of Europe. These missiles are three-stage rockets will rely on stored propellant liquid fuel for the first two stages with the last solid fuel stage.

P-800 Oniks - Powerful Russian Supersonic Anti-ship Cruiser Missile


Image Source
The P-800 Oniks is a very powerful Russian supersonic anti-ship cruise missile. This missile can reach cruising speeds of Mach 2.9 and Mach 5.7 in a dive. The incredible terminal-velocity of a single Onyx missile, codenamed SS-N-25 Onyx by NATO, makes it a threat to any Aegis warship. This 3000 kg missile with a length of 8.9 meters and a 250 kg conventional warhead would sink a US carrier.

Sand Grains,Cells and Stars

"So how many grains of sand are there in the world? You could start
off by trying to guess how many grains of sand there are in a spoon of
sand. Use a magnifying glass to count how many grains fit in a small
section. Then, count how many of those sections fit in your spoon.
Multiply the two numbers together to get an estimate.
"Using this same principle, plus some additional information,
mathematicians at the University of Hawaii tried to guess how many
grains of sand are on the world's beaches. They came up with
7,500,000,000,000,000,000, or seven quintillion five quadrillion
grains of sand."
How many grains of sand are in the world?


That number is 7.5 x 10^18 or 7.5 billion billion.

How many stars, galaxies, clusters, QSO's etc. in the Universe?
"To get the total stellar population in the Milky Way [that is, in our
galaxy alone], we must take the number of luminous stars that we can
see at large distances and assume that we know how many fainter stars
go along with them. Recent numbers give about 400,000,000,000 (400
billion) stars, but a 50% error either way is quite plausible."

So in our galaxy alone, there might be between 2 x 10^11 and 6 x 10^11 stars

How many galaxies in the Universe?
"the Hubble telescope is capable of detecting about 80 billion
galaxies (although not all of these within the foreseeable future!). 
In fact, there must be many more than this, even within the observable
Universe, since the most
common kind of galaxy in our own neighborhood is the faint dwarfs
which are difficult enough to see nearby, much less at large
cosmological distances. For example, in our own local group, there are
3 or 4 giant galaxies which would be detectable at a billion
light-years or more (Andromeda, the Milky Way, the Pinwheel in
Triangulum, and maybe the Large Magellanic Cloud). However, there are
at least another 20 faint members, which would be difficult to find at
100 million light-years, much less the billions of light years to
which the brightest galaxies can be seen."

So the lower end estimate for the number of galaxies is 8 x 10^10

If we accept even the lower end of these Hubble figures, and if our
Milky Way has a typical number of stars in it, that puts the number of
stars in the universe to be at least
(2 x 10^11) x (8 x 10^10) = 16 x 10^ 21

So if we round the number of sand grains to, say, 10^20
and round the number of stars to, say 10^22
then there are at least 100 stars in the universe for every grain of sand on earth.
Galaxies, on the other hand, are made up primarily of stars. (At least, the portion of them that we can see is!)
So my quiz question for you is this:
Are there more cells in the typical human body or more stars in a typical galaxy?
The numbers are tremendous for both of these. Let’s start with humans. We start out as a zygote: a single fertilized egg cell.
From that, we grow up into full-grown adult humans, containing (are you ready?) 75 to 100 trillion cells! Now, things are even more interesting than that, because the cells that make up your skeleton and internal organs, your nervous system and your skin, your blood vessels and brain, only number about 4 trillion.
So where are the rest of them? Moving through your body, keeping you alive and functioning. Your body contains about one trillion white blood cells of various types, about two trillion platelets, and a whopping 30 trillion red blood cells! This means every time you donate a pint of blood, you’re losing 4,000,000,000,000 cells!
There are also about 40 trillion bacterial cells that live in your body (mostly your intestine), aiding in digestion. All told, that’s over 75 trillion cells in your body; fully half of them were made by you. That’s going to be tough to beat.
Let’s look at a typical galaxy now, like our own, or perhaps our nearest neighbor (above), Andromeda. Our Sun is not typical of stars in galaxies, it’s actually pretty bright. Only about 10% of stars are as massive as our Sun (a G-type star), which means 90% of them are dimmer, cooler, and smaller.
In fact, when you look up at the night sky, of the hundreds or even thousands of stars that are close to us (within about 30 light years), you know how many are type O? Zero. Know how many are type B? Also zero. Know how many are type A? Four.
Most of the stars that are there are not the stars you think of, much like the red blood cells and digestive bacteria in our bodies are not the cells that you think of when you think of our bodies. But when we count up all the stars in a typical galaxy, we get a pretty large number, too: 400 billion. That’s still nowhere close to the 75 trillion cells in a human body, but that’s the answer for typical galaxies. What about the largest galaxy in the Universe, though, can that compete?
In the center of one of the hugest galaxy clusters we’ve ever found, Abell 2029, lies a galaxy 6 million light-years across, or more than 60 times the diameter of the Milky Way (at only 100,000 light years). The number of stars in this galaxy? Estimated to be just over 100 trillion. The galaxy itself, the largest known galaxy in the Universe, is IC 1101:

Friday 30 March 2012

Calculate Day of Your Birth



When were you born?

Search WIKIPEDIA Now!

Search Wikipedia:

Search It with The DICTIONARY

Online Reference
Dictionary, Encyclopedia & more
Word:
Look in: Dictionary & thesaurus
Medical Dictionary
Legal Dictionary
Financial Dictionary
Acronyms
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
Periodicals
Literature
Other languages:
by:

Word of The Day

Word of the Day

Article of the Day

This Day in History

Today's Birthday

In the News

Quote of the Day

Spelling Bee
difficulty level:
score: -
please wait...
 
spell the word:

Match Up
Match each word in the left column with its synonym on the right. When finished, click Answer to see the results. Good luck!

 

Hangman

Opera Mini with Airtel M.O. free browsing Proxies

Some Working Proxies for Handler modded opera mini browsers to crack Airtel M.O. for free browsing:
Settings Detail
JUST open THE SETTING AS GIVEN BELOW
1.operator = AIRTEL-RIP_3K
THIS is for downloading and browsing both…
>>REQUIRES PROXY :- server4.operamini.com(or u can use any operas server like
1.bite4-cust.opera-mini.net:80
2.beta.opera-mini.net:80
3.server4.operamini.com:80
4.mobitel-cust.opera-mini.net:80
5.nokia-s40-6-cust.opera-mini.net:80(6 can be changed from 7-13 )
6.g4-genhirn1-opera-mini.net:80
7.g4-nerv2.opera-mini.net:80
8.nokiaovi-cust.opera-mini.net:80
9.global-4-lvs-nerv2.opera-mini.net:80
10.t03-15.opera-mini.net:80
11.t01-15.opera-mini.net:80
12.global-4-lvs-usa.opera-mini.net:80
13.gwt-t.opera-mini.net:80
14.apt.opera-mini.net:80
15.cust.tele2.de.opera-mini.net:80
16.global-turbo-1.opera-mini.net:80
17.labs1-turbo.beta.opera-mini.net:80
[all begin with http://]
opera4.2 (numeric)
91.203.96.125:80
64.255.180.253:80
80.232.117.41:80
195.189.142.91:80
195.189.142.90:80
195.189.142.69:80
195.189.142.132:80
195.189.142.176:80
94.246.126.253:80
94.246.126.31:80
64.255.180.63:80
94.246.126.63:80
port 80
apn airtelgprs.com
2.operator:- AIRTEL-CGI
>>use proxy and port server4.operamini.com:80
3.AIRTEL-IP
THIS IS IP TRICK REVERSE IP
>>USE MOBILE OFFICE DEFAULT SETTING… (i.e. airtelgprs.com)
this one is the fastest
4.AIRTEL-HTTPS
USE VIA AIRTELLIVE APN…..
Note 1: For this Airtel hack to work, maintain your balance below 30p after first time installation. If your balance is above 30p, don’t exit from the Airtel free GPRS browser to avoid balance curtailment.
Note 2: To make this airtel GPRS hack work for you, you should have “Zero Rental Mobile Office” (30p/50KB) activated. To activate, simply dial *567# and select Internet Activation.

Cell Phone Addiction


As we all know there has been great development in technology. This has resulted in invention of many gadgets and cell phone is one of them. Despite its usefulness, excessive use of this device has various negative impacts. A person suffering from such a phenomenon is referred to as a cell phone addict. He relies over his cell phone for all the various day to day activities not concentrating on anyone else near him. A person is suffering from this form of addiction can be predicted by the cell phone bills and the abrupt behavior in case the cell phone is missing.
Nearly one third of the students in china have shown signs of addiction as they felt uneasy and displayed abnormal behavior in case their cell phone went missing. The rest two third also consider their cell phone to be a very essential item for them. The teenagers suffering this addiction become really obsessed with the device and the usefulness it provides. They tend to ignore other important activities such as studies and sports. This leads to poor performance and depletion in their health. They take unnecessary risks by using their cell phones at the time of driving leading to many accidents. Excessive cell phone usage also increases problems on an interpersonal level.
In order to overcome this problem of cell phone addiction there is need to regularly monitor its usage, keep a track of the time that you spend talking and messaging. Note it down for reference later. Try using other things to serve your needs such as notepad to jot down anything and a watch for monitoring time. After finding the time spent over cell phone it is now required to reduce your dependence over it by slowly decreasing the time spent, this can be done by choosing the activity of less importance on the cell phone and reducing your dependence over phone for that particular activity.
The major reason for cell phone usage is to be with any other person. The usage can be reduced if you be with that person instead of conversing over the cell phone. Focusing on the person conversing to you is also very important and in order to do this you should keep your cell phone away when carrying out one on one conversation, this is essential for retaining people's respect. There is a need to believe that exchanging messages continuously on your cell phone is not the only way to enhance and make your social contacts instead it unnecessarily increases your level of anxiety. Even checking your email every 10 min is not necessary except for certain important people with corporate links. Another thing that can be done is to turn off the cell phone at night as it is not necessary to be used while sleeping
It is believed than the number of people suffering from this form of addiction is bound to increase greatly in future. Hence, there is a need for greater focus in this area by both the government and the people alike.

Universe seen from FERMI's Gamma Ray vision

Astronomers delight in the possibility of finding new types of gamma-ray-emitting objects within the "unassociated sources" that constitute roughly a third of the Fermi catalog. But Fermi's LAT is revealing gamma-rays from an increasing -- and sometimes, surprising -- variety of astronomical objects. To highlight the range of LAT discoveries, the Fermi team created the following "top ten" list of five sources within the Milky Way and five beyond our galaxy.


Active galaxies called blazars constitute the single largest source class in the second Fermi LAT catalog, but nearly a third of the sources are unassociated with objects at any other wavelength. Their natures are unknown. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The top five sources within our galaxy are:

The Crab Nebula. The famous Crab Nebula, located in the constellation Taurus, is the wreckage of an exploded star whose light reached Earth in 1054. Located 6,500 light-years away, the Crab is one of the most studied objects in the sky. At the heart of an expanding gas cloud lies what's left of the original star's core, a superdense neutron star (also called a pulsar) that spins 30 times a second. Until recently, all of the Crab's high-energy emissions were thought to be the result of physical processes near the pulsar that tapped into this rapid spin.

For decades, most astronomers regarded the Crab Nebula as the steadiest beacon at X-ray energies. But data from several orbiting instruments -- including Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor -- now show unexpected variations. Astronomers have shown that since 2008, the nebula has faded by 7 percent at high energies, a reduction likely tied to the environment around its central neutron star.

Since 2007, Fermi and the Italian Space Agency's AGILE satellite have detected several short-lived gamma-ray flares at energies hundreds of times higher than the nebula's observed X-ray variations. In April, the satellites detected two of the most powerful yet recorded.

To account for these "superflares," scientists say that electrons near the pulsar must be accelerated to energies a thousand trillion (1015) times greater than that of visible light -- and far beyond what can be achieved by the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, now the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth.

W44. Another interesting supernova remnant detected by Fermi's LAT is W44. Thought to be about 20,000 years old -- middle-age for a supernova remnant -- W44 is located about 9,800 light-years away in the constellation Aquila. The LAT not only detects this remnant, it actually reveals GeV gamma rays coming from places where the remnant's expanding shock wave is known to be interacting with cold, dense gas clouds.

Such observations are important in solving a long-standing problem in astrophysics: the origin of cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are particles -- mainly protons -- that move through space at nearly the speed of light. Magnetic fields deflect the particles as they race across the galaxy, and this scrambles their paths and masks their origins. Scientists can't say for sure where the highest-energy cosmic rays come from, but they regard supernova remnants as a best bet.

In 1949, the Fermi telescope's namesake, physicist Enrico Fermi, suggested that the highest-energy cosmic rays were accelerated in the magnetic fields of gas clouds. In the decades that followed, astronomers showed that the magnetic fields in the expanding shock wave of a supernova remnant is just about the best location for this process to work.

So far, LAT observations of W44 and several other remnants strongly suggest that the gamma-ray emission arises from accelerated protons as they collide with gas atoms.

V407 Cygni. V407 Cygni is a so-called symbiotic binary system, one that contains a compact white dwarf and a red giant star that has swollen to about 500 times the size of the sun. Lying about 9,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the system occasionally flares up when gas from the red giant accumulates on the dwarf's surface and eventually explodes. The event is sometimes called a nova (after a Latin term meaning "new star").

When the system's most recent eruption occurred in March 2010, Fermi's LAT defied expectations and detected the nova as a brilliant source. Scientists simply didn't expect that this type of outburst had the power to produce high-energy gamma rays.

Pulsar PSR J0101-6422. Pulsars -- rapidly rotating neutron stars -- constitute about six percent of the new catalog. In some cases the LAT can detect gamma-ray pulses directly, but in many cases pulses were first found at radio wavelengths based on suspicions that a faint LAT source might be a pulsar. PSR J0101-6422 is located in the southern constellation of Tucana, its quirky name reflecting its position in the sky.

"This pulsar turns out to be a great example of the cooperation between the Fermi team and radio astronomers -- scientists working in widely separated parts of the electromagnetic spectrum," said David Thompson at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who co-led the catalog team.

The Fermi team originally took notice of the object as a fairly bright but unidentified gamma-ray source in an earlier LAT catalog. Because the distribution of gamma-ray energies in the source resembled what is normally seen in pulsars, radio astronomers in Australia took a look at it using their Parkes radio telescope.

Pulsars are neutron stars, compact objects packing more mass than the sun's into a sphere roughly the size of Washington, D.C. Lighthouse-like beams of radiation powered by the pulsar's rapid rotation and strong magnetic field sweep across the sky with every spin, and astronomers can detect these beams if they happen to sweep toward Earth.

The Parkes study found radio signals from a pulsar rotating at nearly 400 times a second -- comparable to the spin of a kitchen blender -- at the same position as the unknown Fermi source. With this information, the LAT team was able to discover that PSR J0101-6422 also blinks in gamma rays at the same incredible rate.

2FGL J0359.5+5410. Fermi scientists don't know what to make of this source, located in the constellation Camelopardalis. It resides near the populous midplane of our galaxy, which increases the chance that it's actually an object in the Milky Way. While its gamma-ray spectrum resembles that of a pulsar, pulsations have not been detected and it isn't associated with a known object at other wavelengths.


This all-sky image, constructed from two years of observations by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, shows how the sky appears at energies greater than 1 billion electron volts (1 GeV). Brighter colors indicate brighter gamma-ray sources. For comparison, the energy of visible light is between 2 and 3 electron volts. A diffuse glow fills the sky and is brightest along the plane of our galaxy (middle). Discrete gamma-ray sources include pulsars and supernova remnants within our galaxy as well as distant galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

The top five sources beyond our galaxy are:


Centaurus A. The giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 is located 12 million light-years away in the southern constellation Centaurus. One of the closest active galaxies, it hosts the bright radio source designated Cen A. Much of the radio emission arises from million-light-year-wide lobes of gas hurled out by the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center.

Fermi's LAT detects high-energy gamma rays from an extended region around the galaxy that corresponds to the radio-emitting lobes. The radio emission comes from fast-moving particles. When a lower-energy photon collides with one of these particles, the photon receives a kick that boosts its energy into the gamma-ray regime. It's a process that sounds more like billiards than astrophysics, but Fermi's LAT shows that it's happening in Cen A.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31). At a distance of 2.5 million light-years, the Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest spiral galaxy, one of similar size and structure as our own Milky Way. Easily visible to the naked eye in a dark sky, it's also a favorite target of sky gazers.

The LAT team expected to detect M31 because it's so similar to our own galaxy, where a bright band of diffuse emission creates the most prominent feature in the gamma-ray sky. These gamma rays are mostly produced when high-energy cosmic rays smash into the gas between the stars.

"It took two years of LAT observations to detect M31," said Jürgen Knödlseder at the Research Institute for Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse, France. Currently a visiting scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, he worked on the M31 study. "We concluded that the Andromeda Galaxy has fewer cosmic rays than our own Milky Way, probably because M31 forms stars -- including those that die as supernovae, which help produce cosmic rays -- more slowly than our galaxy."

The Cigar Galaxy (M82). What works for the Andromeda Galaxy works even better for M82, a so-called starburst galaxy that is also a favorite of amateur astronomers. M82 is located 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

M82's central region forms young stars at a rate some 10 times higher than the Milky Way does, activity that also guarantees a high rate of supernovae as the most short-lived stars come to explosive ends. Eventually, M82's superpowered star formation will subside as the gas needed to make new stars is consumed, but that may be tens of millions of years in the future. For now, it's a bright source of gamma rays for Fermi.

Blazar PKS 0537-286. At the core of an active galaxy is a massive black hole that drives jets of particles moving near the speed of light. Astronomers call the galaxy a blazar when one of these jets is pointed our way -- the best view for seeing dramatic flares as conditions change within the jet.

PKS 0537-286 is a variable blazar in the constellation Leo and the second most distant LAT object. Astronomers have determined that the galaxy lies at a redshift of 3.1, more than 11.7 billion light-years away. (Expressed more precisely, the blazar's gamma-ray photons have been traveling for at least 11.7 billion years before being detected by Fermi's LAT).

The blazar is the farthest active galaxy in the Fermi catalog to show variability. Astronomers are witnessing changes in the jet powered by this galaxy's supermassive black hole that occurred when the universe was just 2 billion years old, or 15 percent of its current age.

2FGL J1305.0+1152. The last item is another mystery object, one located in the constellation Virgo and high above our galaxy's midplane. It remains faint even after two years of LAT observations.

One clue to classifying these objects lies in their gamma-ray spectrum -- that is, the relative number of gamma rays seen at different energies. At some energy, the spectra of many objects display what astronomers call a "spectral break," that is, a greater-than-expected drop-off in the number of gamma rays seen at increasing energies.

If this were a pulsar, it would show a fast cutoff at higher energies. Many blazars exhibit much more gradual cutoffs. But 2FGL J1305.0+1152 shows no evidence of a spectral break at all, leaving its nature -- for the time being, anyway -- a true mystery.
he brightest galaxies Fermi sees are active galaxies, which emit oppositely directed jets of particles traveling near the speed of light. Some, called blazars, are especially bright because one of the jets happens to be directed toward us. Astronomers believe that these jets somehow arise as a consequence of matter falling into a massive black hole at the galaxy's center, but the process is not well understood.

blazar 3C 454
CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER SIZE.   The radio jets of several active galaxies mapped by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) are inset into the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope’s map of the gamma-ray sky. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration and NRAO/AUI/MOJAVE Team/M. Kadler

To peer into the jets, Kovalev and his colleagues used the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a set of ten radio telescopes located from Hawaii to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. When the signals from these telescopes are combined, the array acts like a single enormous radio dish more than 5,300 miles across. The VLBA can resolve details about a million times smaller than Fermi can and 50 times smaller than any optical telescope.

The new findings are an outcome of the MOJAVE program, a long-term study of the jets from active galaxies using the VLBA. "We see the innermost few hundred light-years of these jets for even the most distant active galaxies seen by Fermi," Kovalev noted.

For decades, astronomers have wondered about the nature of these radio-emitting jets. Hints that they also emit radiation at higher energies came from NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, which operated throughout the 1990s, and, more recently, from observations by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

blazar 3C 454.3
The blazar 3C 454.3 lies 7 billion
light-years away. Nevertheless,
VLBA observations detect details less
than 100 light-years across in the
galaxy’s innermost radio jet.  
Credit: NRAO/AUI/MOJAVE Team/
Y. Kovalev


Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) scans the entire sky every three hours. These quick snapshots of the gamma-ray sky allow astronomers to better monitor sudden flares from active galaxies. The astronomers combined VLBA data of active galaxies with Fermi observations. Active galaxies detected in the LAT's first few months of operations generally possess brighter and more compact radio jets than galaxies the LAT did not see. Moreover, an active galaxy's radio jets tend to be brighter in the months following any gamma-ray flares observed by the LAT.

Kovalev and his colleagues also see a correlation between active galaxies with the brightest gamma-ray emission and those with the fastest jets. Because we see these jets nearly end on, and because the particles within the jets move close to the speed of light, the VLBA can study a phenomenon called "Doppler boosting." This makes radio-emitting blobs look brighter and appear to move much faster that the speed of light.

The VLBA data show that the bigger the Doppler boost seen in a radio jet, the more likely it is that Fermi recorded it as a variable gamma-ray source. In addition, many objects found by Fermi to be extreme in gamma-rays are broadcasting strong bursts of radio emission at about the same time.

NGC 1275
The VLBA observes radio-emitting blobs just a few light-years across in jets from the active galaxy NGC 1275, which lies 225 million light-years away. Credit: NRAO/AUI/MOJAVE Team/Y. Kovalev

All this points to the team's conclusion that the portion of an active galaxy's radio jet closest to the galaxy's core is also the source of the gamma-rays Fermi detects. The team's findings appear in two papers to be published in the May 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"For more than a decade, we have collected images of the brightest galaxies in the radio sky to study the changing structures of their jets," said Matthew Lister, a professor at Purdue University and a member of the research team. Lister leads the MOJAVE program and is also a Fermi guest investigator. "We've waited a long time to compare our measurements with the findings in the gamma-ray sky -- and now, thanks to this state-of-the-art space observatory, we finally can."

Listing Some of the Best Android Apps & Games

1. Any.DO: To Do List | Task List (full AndroidApps review)
Funded by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Any.DO is the best productivity and to-do application tailored specifically for Android devices. The app’s elegant interface is optimized to limit actual typing through voice-driven commands. Users can swipe each task when complete, and shake their phones to clear them from the screen. The app also offers (mostly) seamless integration with Google accounts.
2. Lightbox – Photos & Effects (full AndroidApps review)
More than just an Instagram for Android, Lightbox offers features like photo journals and the ability to arrange pictures by personal timelines that make it unique and, to some, indispensable. The app’s stunning visual display and compatibility on multiple Android devices set the standard moving forward for photo-sharing apps on the platform.
3. Amazon MP3 (full AndroidApps review)
Along with Google Music (see below), Amazon MP3 is the best way for an Android smartphone and tablet owner to kick an iTunes habit. The app provides access to a library of nearly 20 million songs, 5GB of free storage, and reliable offline listening. Subscriptions to Amazon’s Cloud Drive service start at a reasonable $20/year for 20GB of storage, but you can store as much of your own music as you like with that subscription.
4. AirDroid (full AndroidApps review)
Android devices offer so many customization features that sometimes using a larger screen, mouse and full-sized keyboard will help you get the most out of your smartphone or tablet device. This free app lets users operate their smartphones from a PC with a Wi-Fi connection. Additionally, AirDroid emphasizes privacy protection with password changes for each use.
5. SwiftKey X Keyboard (full AndroidApps review)
After launching a beta app last year, SwiftKey X arrived on Android smartphones and tablets in 2011. The app has larger keys as well as superior word and sentence prediction algorithms than what is typically found on Androids. SwiftKey also learns from previously typed emails and messages, and offers three color schemes to simplify the process and brighten things up.
6. Skitch (full AndroidApps review)
Acquired by Evernote, Skitch lets users annotate photos with sketches, images and words. The app has dead simple editing tools and the ability for users to draw with multi-colored crayons. Skitch is a great app for kids in addition to serving as a functional and unique photo-sharing service.
7. BlueStacks Cloud Connect (full AndroidApps review)
While still in Alpha, BlueStacks is demonstrating how Android applications can run on Windows-based PCs. The Android app works in concert with the Windows-based BlueStacks App Player to run mobile applications on PCs. The venture-backed company and application, which has attracted more than 500,000 early adopters since launch, expects to debut a Mac OS version in 2012.
8. Qello (full AndroidApps review)
Available as separate applications for Android smartphones and tablets, Qello offers a great catalog of high definition concerts (mostly rock, but with other genres sprinkled in). Users can sample the 500+ titles for free, or lease any of them on a weekly ($1.99) or monthly basis ($4.99).
9. AccuWeather for Honeycomb (full AndroidApps review)
Developed specifically for Honeycomb-based tablet devices, this all-inclusive weather application showcases the beauty and utility of Android on larger form factors. The Lifestyle section, which informs users on things like whether it is a good day for biking or bad day for allergies, is a nice humanized touch.
10. HD Widgets (full AndroidApps review)
Android is all about customization, and there is no better and more comprehensive widget app available than this one. Optimized for Android tablets and smartphones, HD Widgets is great for Android experts and first-timers alike. Users will also appreciate the “fanatical” customer service of the developers.
Here are the five best Android apps developed by Google that were released or received significant updates in 2011.
11. Google Currents (full AndroidApps review)
As long as Flipboard remains exclusive to iOS devices, this new release from Google serves as the premier news reader on Android smartphones and tablets. More of a fast and elegant aggregator than social magazine, Google Currents benefits from an organized layout and dead simple third-party publisher platform. There is also — shockingly — nice integration with Google+, including curated content from the likes of Robert Scoble and Guy Kawasaki.
12. Google+ (full AndroidApps review)
Google became a relevant player in social networking this year with the successful launch of Google+. While the service is also available as an iPhone app as well as a web app through BlackBerry, Windows and Symbian platforms, Google understandably treats its own platform as first among equals. Check-ins for business, for instance, rolled out first on the Android app.
13. Google Maps (full AndroidApps review)
A November update to this trailblazing application introduced indoor mapping functionality to mobile devices. Google Maps 6.0 helps users more easily navigate within airports, shopping malls and other locations where GPS technology is spotty.
14. Google Docs (full AndroidApps review)
While no mobile application matches the utility of Google Docs on a desktop or laptop, this official version for Android is pretty close. If you’re a hardcore Google Docs user, this app will help you break free from your desk and still read and edit docs and spreadsheets on the fly.
15. Google Music (full AndroidApps review)
Like Amazon MP3 cited above, Google Music is a way for Android users to comfortably cut the cord (or cloud) on iTunes (at least on their mobile devices). The app lets users store up to 20,000 songs for free in the cloud, with a portion available for offline access.
These next 10 apps were initially released for iOS devices. They are included here for their utility, entertainment value and impact on the Android ecosystem.
16. Price Check by Amazon (full AndroidApps review)
When Amazon unveiled this price-comparison app to Android devices just before Black Friday, the company’s retail Death Star became fully operational. Sure, Price Check was available to iPhone owners a year earlier, and there are similar apps across all major mobile platforms. But having an Android app gives Amazon critical mass in this category, and allows the company to (again) upend physical retail as we know it. This includes offering discounts to consumers on their phones during the point of comparison.
17. Netflix (full AndroidApps review)
There were a lot of things that Netflix did horribly wrong in 2011. Releasing a killer Android app for smartphones and tablet devices was not one of them. As Android tablets become ready for prime time and more plausibly compete against the iPad, entertainment apps like Netflix will flourish.
18. SoundTracking (full AndroidApps review)
The most innovative music detection and discovery app of the year finally arrived to Android in December. SoundTracking not only identifies a song a user is listening to, but shares it with Facebook, Twitter and foursquare friends and followers. The advantage of the Android app, relative to the iOS version which launched earlier this year, is that users with Spotify and Rdio can listen to entire tracks (as opposed to 30-second snippets from iTunes).
19. Hipmunk Flight Search (full AndroidApps review)
Hipmunk differentiates from the run-of-the-mill flight search applications by predicting how painful your traveling might be. The app’s “Agony Index” takes into account factors beyond price including flight duration, Wi-Fi access and other variables. Once users choose the least painful flight, the app accommodates direct booking and provides access to third-party services.
20. Fooducate Shopping Scanner (full AndroidApps review)
This app translates nutritional information found on food packaging into plain English, and offers a letter grade as to how healthy or harmful an item can be. The app offers comprehensive coverage of both mainstream brands and niche delicacies via the scanning of barcodes. Best of all? The app suggests healthier, similar alternatives to the worst offenders.
21. Marvel Comics (full AndroidApps review)
Reading classic comics within this app works on virtually any size Android screen — which is no easy feat. Marvel Comics also offers panel-by-panel viewing that features beautiful art and more legible word balloons. While most titles require a subscription, there are an ample amount of classic comics available for free.
22. Syncplicity (full AndroidApps review)
For digitally promiscuous users who store and share files on multiple devices and operating systems powered by Android, iOS and Windows, Syncplicity is a useful way to manage libraries found within all of them. Unlike many cloud-based alternatives, Syncplicity uses encryption to secure files.
23. Starbucks (full AndroidApps review)
After launching initially on iOS and BlackBerry smartphones, the official Starbucks app finally arrived on Android earlier this year. Better late than never. The app lets users manage their Starbucks Cards and purchase coffee and the like at nearly 7,000 U.S. locations.
24. LinkedIn (full AndroidApps review)
After what seemed like an eternity in beta, LinkedIn finally launched an Android app ready for prime time in the spring. While not perfect, the LinkedIn app is a much better alternative than the company’s more limited mobile site. Finally, this indispensable professional networking service found a full-time gig on Android.
25. Path (full AndroidApps review)
A significant December update to this social blogging app on Android and iOS devices served as an early holiday present to its passionate and vocal adherents. Beyond sharing photos, users can now tell the world about what music they are listening to and other activities they are doing. The app’s new design and “Automatic” feature, which recognizes when users deviate from routine schedules, also separate Path from the pack.
And finally, we present the five best games to arrive to Android devices in 2011. Notably, they all first appeared on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
26. Cut the Rope (full AndroidApps review)
While not a household name like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope is among the most addictive and popular mobile games of all time. The graphics and music are superb, and Cut the Rope is optimized and plays very well on larger Android tablet devices. This is another multi-platform grand slam for (Angry Birds) publisher Chillingo.
27. World of Goo (full AndroidApps review)
One of the most original and well-crafted physics-based puzzle games around finally made its way to Android devices in late November. Originally an indie hit on PCs, World of Goo is a construction game in which users must connect goo balls together to build structures so that other goo balls can get to the end of each stage. The abstract art and imagery alone make it worth the five bucks to download.
28. Where’s My Water? (full AndroidApps review)
A clever and addictive puzzle game by Disney, Where’s My Water? combines whimsical design with killer gameplay. Players are tasked with keeping a sewer-dwelling alligator named Swampy clean and pristine while guiding him through urban terrain. Easier said than done, particularly with Swampy’s alligator buddies standing in the way.
29. Plants vs. Zombies (full AndroidApps review)
This classic title from PopCap, which was acquired by Electronic Arts in July, first came to Android earlier this year via the Amazon App Store. It was sold exclusively on Amazon until early December. Fans of the cartoony tower defense game will enjoy tapping into Plants vs. Zombies on Android devices.
30. Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD (full AndroidApps review)
The best racing game available for Android devices, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD combines plenty of cars and game modes — including a psychedelic “Adrenaline” boost — with superlative visuals and gameplay. This one deserves the checkered flag.