Madhukar's Blog

Test drive Rupee Exchange Rates app in your browser

2012-01-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

Amazon has added a great feature to test drive the android app in any browser when you visit the Amazon Appstore page of any app. You can test drive the Rupee Exchange Rates app in your browser by going to it's Amazon Appstore page and clicking on the big green 'TEST DRIVE NOW' button.

Test drive the app and if you like it, download it either from the Google's Android Market or Amazon's Appstore for Android.

Australian Dollar to Rupee exchange rates

2012-01-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

Now you can use the Australian Dollar to Rupee exchange rates website to track and compare the Rupee exchange rates provided by the most used banks for Australian Dollar. You can compare the live exchange rates from Axis Bank, SBI Sydney, ICICI and Remit2India side-by-side, view historical data, check the recent changes with the help of a line chart and see what other users are recommending.

If you have an Android phone or tablet, download the 'Rupee Exchange Rates' app from the Android Market and check the exchange rates on the go. If you have an iOS device, you can follow these steps to install the mobile version of the webapp to your home screen. All other mobile devices can use the mobile version in browser.

Thanks for your patience and let me know your feedback.

Rupee Exchange Rates app on Amazon Appstore

2011-12-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

'Rupee Exchange Rates' app has been on Android Market for a few weeks now. It has received good reviews and huge traffic. A big thank you to everyone who downloaded it and also to those who wrote the nice comments. Now there is one more way to download the app. Rupee Exchange Rates app is now available on Amazon Appstore for Android too.

You can download the app on to your Kindle Fire and other Android phones / tablets using the above link.

Singapore Dollar to Rupee exchange rates

2011-12-17T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is for all the NRIs living in Singapore. Now you can use the Singapore Dollar to Rupee exchange rates website to track and compare the Rupee exchange rates provided by the most used banks. You can compare the live exchange rates from Axis Bank, HDFC, ICICI and Remit2India side-by-side, view historical data, check the recent changes with the help of a line chart and see what other users are recommending.

You will soon be able to use it on your Android devices. If you have an Android phone or tablet, download the 'Rupee Exchange Rates' app from the Android Market (SGD rates will be added in a few days).

If you have an iOS device, you can follow these steps to install the mobile version of the webapp to your home screen. All other mobile devices can use the mobile version in browser.

Thanks for your patience and let me know your feedback.

Euro to Indian Rupee Exchange Rates

2011-12-14T22:47:00.000-08:00

Many people have requested me to start a website similar to Doallr to Rupee exchange rates for Euro. Your wait is over. Euro to Rupee exchange rates website has just gone live! You can compare the live exchange rates from Axis Bank, HDFC, ICICI and Remit2India side-by-side, view historical data, check the recent changes with the help of a line chart and see what other users are recommending.

I have published an Android app too. If you have an Android phone or tablet, download the 'Rupee Exchange Rates' app from the Android Market now.

If you have an iOS device, you can follow these steps to install the mobile version of the webapp to your home screen. All other mobile devices can use the mobile version on your device's browser.

Thanks for your patience and let me know your feedback.

Access Rupee exchange rates on Android

2011-12-06T18:55:00.001-08:00

If you have an Android phone, you can now access the Dollar to Rupee and Pound to Rupee exchange rates on your phone in the form of a native app. You can download the 'Rupee Exchange Rates' app from the Android market now.

Please understand that this is the first version of the application and hence only few important features are available at this point. Do send your feedback to me and I will take all your feedback to improve it.

Dollar to Rupee and closure of Citi Online Remit

2011-11-28T17:10:00.001-08:00

As Citi Online Remit will be closing in few weeks, I have updated the Dollar to Rupee web & mobile exchange rates websites to remove the exchange rates of Citibank. Though the 'Preferred Rupee Checking' account will keep on working, the exchange rates they publish on the web are not for this account.So, as of today, you will not be able to view Citibank exchange rates on the live values page.

I have added HDFC Quick Remit exchange rates in place of the Citibank values. It will take few weeks for it to show up in charts as the values are getting stored only from today.

Pound to Rupee exchange rates on your mobile

2011-11-21T17:13:00.001-08:00

One of the most requested features for the Pound to Rupee exchange rates website is the ability to access it on mobile devices. I'm launching a mobile version of the website today so that you can access the rates on the go. Please visit http://m.pound2rupee.net/ on your iPhone or Android devices for a mobile optimized version. On iPhone you can even add a bookmark to the home screen by tapping the '+' button and then selecting 'Add to Home Screen'.

Don't forget to let me know your feedback.

New look for mobile version of Dollar to Rupee

2011-11-17T23:55:00.001-08:00

I have updated the look and feel of the mobile version of the Dollar to Rupee website. I have removed the hard-coded amount value selection and added an input filed for entering the amount for which you want to see the exchange rates from all the providers. Just enter the amount you want to transfer and click on 'Go' to view the latest exchange rates.

As always, let me know your feedback and also if you notice any issues.

If you who have added the mobile version of Dollar to Rupee website to your iPhone home screen, you might see issues with loading. Please delete and add the website to home screen again to fix the issue. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update on Axis bank exchange rates on Dollar to Rupee

2011-10-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for informing me how many of you are using exchange rates from Axis bank on Dollar to Rupee website and also for being patient while I work on bringing them back.

I'm happy to inform that the work is done and I'm currently testing it for any issues. I will roll out the changes soon.

If you don't want to wait or if you want to help me find any issues, you can access the beta version. One known issue is that as there is only one week of data, you might not be able to see line chart for 'last two weeks' or 'last month' options. In few weeks this issue should be gone as the data gets accumulated. Please do not forget to inform me if you notice any other issues.

Sending iMessage to an Apple ID

2011-10-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

Just figured this out after wasting a lot of time. If you disable MMS messaging under the settings of Messages app, you will not be able to type in anything except alphabets and numbers. So, basically no @ symbol and other characters that you need to type if you want to send an iMessage to an Apple ID.

If you have friends who use iPod Touch or iPad and not an iPhone, you need to send the iMessage to their Apple ID as there is no phone number. And if you have disabled MMS, you won't be able to type in the email address. Just enable the MMS under the settings of the Messages app to fix this.

Citibank exchange rates are back on Dollar to Rupee

2011-09-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

One of the most popular demands for Dollar to Rupee has been the request to include Citibank exchange rates. I'm happy to inform you that they are back now on Dollar to Rupee website.

Due to some complaints about the rates not being accurate, I have removed them previously as the rates were being fetched from a non-Citibank website. Now that Citibank has added the rates to their website, I have added them back to dollar2rupee.net.

Due to space and performance constraints I have removed the Axis bank rates to add Citibank rates. Let me know in comments if you need them.

Update(15 Sep 2011) : Thanks for all the feedback asking for the re-inclusion of the exchange rates from Axis bank. I will work on it soon. As this is not my full-time work, it might take some time for me to finish the work.

Is anybody using the HDFC Quick Remit exchange rates? If not, I can replace it with Axis bank rates easily. Adding a new column involves more work.

Update (25 Oct 2011) : Thanks for being patient. I'm done with the changes and will roll out the changes soon.

Dollar to Rupee is on Facebook

2011-03-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

I have created a Facebook page (2INR) for the Dollar to Rupee and Pound to Rupee exchange rates websites. Please like us on Facebook if you have used any of these websites and found it useful. Your likes will help us spread the message.

You can follow the updates to these websites on Facebook or Twitter.

Dollar to Rupee and Pound to Rupee are on Chrome Web Store too. If you use Google Chrome browser, you can install Dollar to Rupee or Pound to Rupee and use it as a quick way to access these websites.

SBI removes direct debit through ACH

2011-02-28T16:06:00.000-08:00

I logged into my SBI Global Link Services - US account to transfer some money to India and was presented with this message ... "Due to regulations applicable in your state of residence in USA, we regret that, at present, we are unable to continue offering SBI Express Remit - US (our product using direct debit facility through ACH) till further notice. We are engaged in meeting the state's current regulatory requirements, and it will be our endeavor to restore to you at the earliest the convenience you have been enjoying. Meanwhile, you may use the aid of Rapid Remittance (Web-assistance for tracking wire transfers) when you use wire transfer from your bank to send funds to your beneficiary accounts in India."

Now it is not possible to transfer money using ACH debit (which is free) and we have to use wire transfer (most banks charge money for out-going wire transfers). Just last week they have restricted me from sending an amount larger than $1000 to my ICICI account in India due to some NEFT limitation and now they have removed the ACH debit. I'm going to look for another decent alternative.

Update (March 1, 2011) : They have resolved the issue and direct debit through ACH is now working. But I can't send more than $1000 to my ICICI account due to this ... "The Amount range for NEFT transaction is 50$ - 1000$. Please enter an amount within this range.".

Update 2 (March 14, 2011) : I'm in California and I think the status is different in different states. The issue seems to be resolved in CA, but not in other states.

SmartyPig is a convenient online piggy bank

2010-10-31T14:05:00.000-07:00

SmartyPig is a smart savings account. It differs from the traditional savings account by acting like a piggy bank that is online. You start saving towards a goal like a wedding, a vacation or a flat-screen HDTV or any other future expense by specifying the name of the expense and the amount you want to save. If you have a specific date by which you want to have the money ready, SmartyPig will tell you how much you have to save every month. You can link any of your existing bank accounts and set a periodic transfer of the money to fund your goal. You can set up as many goals as you want and save for each goal at your own pace.

Where SmartyPig excels is the way it has integrated social layer into savings. You can share your goal, if you want to, with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. And you can even let them contribute towards your goal. All the money you have put in earns a nice interest rate that is highest in the country and there is one more element of surprise that is cash reward when you redeem your goal. You can just transfer the money to your other accounts when you want to redeem your goal or purchase a gift card from top retailers and travel companies. When you purchase gift cards, you will receive a cash boost ranging from 1% to 12%.

You don't need to reach your goal in order to redeem it and there is no penalty for early redemption. You don't need to put all the money you have saved towards a goal into a gift card. You can put a part of it into one or multiple cards and transfer the rest to your bank account or skip the gift cards all together. But you will receive the cash boost only if you purchase the gift cards.

SmartyPig is free to open and there is no monthly fee. So, start saving using this online piggy bank.

Enable audio over HDMI when laptop is connected to HDTV

2010-09-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

Most new laptops come with a HDMI port that can be used to connect your laptop to HDTV. HDMI supports both audio and video in one cable and is better than the old way of using the VGA port for video and the audio out port for audio. But some times when you connect your laptop to your TV using HDMI, audio is not transfered by default (my Dell Vostro 3500 laptop has this issue). If you are in this situation, here is what you can do to enable audio over HDMI ...

1. Connect your laptop to TV using HDMI port

2. Right-click on the sound icon in system tray and select 'Playback devices'

3. In the window that is open, you will see your TV listed. Double-click on that to transfer the audio to TV

Now you can enjoy your content on the big screen :-)

Yahoo Mail stagnates while others innovate

2010-09-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

You might have heard a lot these days about Gmail and Hotmail. Gmail has been and still is my favorite webmail application. There is so much happening with Gmail. Every few days you get to know that a new feature has been rolled out or something that's already there has been given a fresh new look. Priority Inbox, Voice Calls, Video Chat, Apps Search, Multiple Account Sign-In and many more. All this happened in the last three months. That's the pace they are adding or enhancing the features. I love the way they never stop making changes to every little detail of the application.

Hotmail has officially joined the race and they have started rolling out pretty good stuff too. All new interface that's way better than the old one, POP3 access, pretty good spam filtering and now exchange access. Even though they don't look like they can beat Gmail, they are at least trying to. But what's up with our old friend Yahoo Mail ? It's been months (years?) that they haven't rolled out a new feature. Yeah, they have definitely changed one thing. Big, full-length advertisement on the login page. No free POP3/IMAP access. Same old spam filtering that's wrong most of the time. And you know what irritates me every time I login to my Yahoo mail account? It takes six seconds once I click on the first message for it to appear in the preview pane. Oh my. That's ages when you compare with the speed of Gmail.

It's sad to see Yahoo ignoring it's biggest asset. I have moved on to Gmail a long time ago. But at least I had a Yahoo mail account that I used occasionally. And now it seems I can get rid of that. There is no fight left in Yahoo.

Shortest way to become an Apple fanboy is to buy an iPhone 4

2010-08-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

This whole post is just a funny thought that came to my mind and I don't mean to offend anyone. So, remember to just take it on a lighter note. This post has been in the draft status for a few weeks now. I just wanted to let the dust settle on 'antennagate' before clicking on that publish button. I still think iPhone 4 is the best phone out there and the antenna issue was just overblown. So, rest easy.

I have closely followed this whole iPhone 4 antenna issue saga and came to this conclusion. The shortest way to turn into an Apple fanboy is to buy an iPhone 4. What made me reach to this conclusion ? Observing a lot of people who own an iPhone 4. See, phone they carry has become part of the personality or status symbol for many and people get easily offended if you comment on it. So, imagine what effect it had on these people when everyone was suddenly talking about their most prized possession and that talk is not about how awesome the phone is but about a small issue that they think is just overblown. That effect is turning some (again, some) of these people to defend iPhone 4 with all they can. And remember that they are not buying an Apple product for the first time. Many of these people already have a Mac / iPod or iPad. I have seen some people who never talked about Apple, before iPhone 4, jump into every conversation about Apple and talk as if everyone out there is trying to get a bite out of Apple. Isn't it the shortest way to become an Apple fanboy ?

One more thing ...

Is it possible that these people who publicly curse the media for overblown coverage of iPhone 4 antenna issue secretly thank them for the free cases they have received ? Because, judging by Apple's initial response, they would have never got those cases free if not for the extensive media coverage.

JavaScript - Check Dirty Data

2010-08-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

This one is for UI programmers like me. There are times when you are want to alert user about unsaved data on a page when the user tries to navigate away from the page without saving data. I had to write a small script for the same in a recent project and thought of sharing it with others. You can download the script from here.

Requirements : JQuery

Help : Read the included instructions on top of the script.

Tips - iPhone Usage Meter and Multitasking

2010-07-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

On you iPhone you can go to Settings -> General -> Usage to check usage statistics such as time since your phone was charged to the full, total talk time and cellular network data. But, do not count on it when it comes to the usage of cellular network data i.e. never go with the usage numbers shown on your iPhone to see if you have crossed your data plan limits. My iPhone shows less than 450 MB data under 'cellular network data' for both sent and received combined for lifetime. But, my carrier AT&T tells me that I have used more than 700 MB of data in just one month. So, always trust your carrier as they are the ones who collect money from you. If you are on AT&T, use their myWireless app to check your data usage.

iOS 4 comes with multitasking, finally. But, the problem with Apple's implementation of background apps is that all background-enabled apps go into the background whether you want them to or not. So, when you open a background enabled app and click on the home button, it now goes into background, even if you do not need it to be running in the background. This is a bit confusing to the users who think they have closed the app by clicking on home button (which was the behavior prior to iOS 4).

Currently there is no way to close a background-enabled app without it going to background on iOS 4. You have to close them later by going to the multi-task menu. You have to double-tap the home button to get to the multi-task menu and then touch and hold an app icon for few seconds until the icons start to shake. At this point, you will see a minus icon next to the apps running in background and you can touch it to close the app. Tap the home button to return to normal screen.

Bloatware on smartphones

2010-07-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

I came across a nice post on Gizmodo about bloatware creeping into Android phones. It's true. Some of the latest Android phones come with pre-installed apps that can't be removed. And when some of these pre-installed apps turn out to be trial software that you are not interested in, you are forced to live with them for the life of your phone as there is no way to remove them. But not all pre-installed apps are bloatware. Some of the Android phones are coming pre-installed with Swype, an app that makes typing easy on these phones when there is no physical keyboard. It is actually a pretty useful app that comes free with the phone which otherwise costs few bucks if you want to purchase it yourself.

When you compare, smartphone bloatware is worse than PC bloatware when you consider the point that you can at least remove the bloatware that comes with a new PC. But, you can always move the useless apps to a place where they are out of your sight and forget about them. In that case, bloatware on smartphones is more about taking up storage space while bloatware on PCs even consumed system resources to the point of slowing down the PC. So, the real problem with the bloatware on smartphones is the inability to delete them.

When you think of it, even iPhone comes with a few pre-installed apps that you can't delete. I know that these apps do not exactly fall into the bloatware category as they do not come with a trial period, it's not good to lock them down. Why can't I delete the Stocks app on my iPhone when I'm sure that I will not need it ? Why can't it be like the iBooks app that you can download from AppStore and delete it at your will ? So, the ultimate point here is that it is never a good idea to take the choice away from the users. How much useful an app may be, not everyone likes it. Each person has a different taste and it's always a good idea to leave the choice with the user.

Use Springpad to remember everything

2010-07-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

If you know about Evernote, you know what Springpad is. Springpad, like Evernote, is a tool to capture everything you come across. A note, bookmark, picture or anything else that you want to remember can be saved to Springpad. It has a bookmarklet that you can use to capture stuff you come across while browsing on your computer. You can use the apps for iPhone, iPad and Android to capture anything from your mobile or access the stuff that you have already captured.

On the web, all your data is organized into their logical folders like Bookmarks, Notes, Recipes, Lists, Files and more. There is an always visible search box on top to filter what you want to see and you can even save your searches. You can also use this search box to create a new item. You can share your data with friends and access your friend's shared content. Only thing strange is that there is no trash. If you delete anything, it is gone for ever. Though it looks a little slow, the interface looks better than Evernote on the web.

I have used the Springpad iPhone app and it is good. It syncs everything with the web and you can make changes or add new content directly from your mobile. The interface of the iPhone app is good and works without any issues. Though you can set reminders, they are limited to email or SMS. There are no push notifications on the iPhone app for reminders.

Finally, if you just want a simple app to take notes on the web and also sync with iPhone, try Simplenote. It doesn't have all the extra features of Springpad or Evernote but it is good for just plain text notes.

Read latest news from India using NDTV iPhone App

2010-07-13T19:53:00.000-07:00

I was looking for an app to get latest news from India for a long time and I couldn't find a good app so far. Just now I came across an app from NDTV.

It is free, loads fast and brings you all the latest news from India. As a bonus, it has push notifications for breaking news, weather for major Indian cities and live cricket scores. I was also looking for a nice live cricket scores app as the ESPN Cricinfo Mobicast app kind of sucks. Mobicast crashes frequently, fails to load data sometimes and has a very poor interface. With this NDTV app, I think I can delete that Mobicast app and use this app for both news and cricket. I like it.

Sync iPhone with new computer

2010-07-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

As many of you already know, you can sync your iPhone with only one computer. I don't like the fact that you have to connect your iPhone with a USB cable to your computer to sync and backup. And also that there is no easy way to move to a new system. When you have got a new computer or when you reinstall your OS, you can't just sync your iPhone with it directly. If you try, it will notify you that since you have synced your device with another computer, it will erase all the content first. Here is what you need to do to sync with the new computer without loosing any data.

There are two scenarios here. First scenario is where you have access to your old machine with which you synced your device so far and hence take a backup of your stuff. And the second scenario is where you no longer have access to your old computer (lost/stolen/died/formatted without taking a backup).

In the first scenario:

Copy your music, movies, photos, audio books, podcasts, ringtones and everything else you have in your iTunes to an external hard drive or flash memory stick along with the iTunes folder.
De-authorize your old computer and authorize your new computer.
Get all other dependent programs like iPhoto, Mail, Calendar etc working if you sync your iPhone content with them.
Replace all the iTunes folders with your backup copies and sync normally.

In the second scenario:

Get all other dependent programs like iPhoto, Mail, Calendar etc working if you sync your iPhone content with them.
Change iTunes settings to not auto-sync on connecting a new device.
Authorize your new computer and download any purchased content other than apps.
Connect your device and when it shows up in iTunes, right-click and select 'Transfer Purchased Content'. It will transfer all the apps and other purchased content from your iPhone to your computer.
Right-click in iPhone in the iTunes and select 'Backup'. It will create a backup just to be safe.
Now sync the iPhone.

I hope this little guide helps you. And as it is with all things, use it at your own risk.

Use iWebKit to make iPhone optimized website

2010-06-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

When I wanted to build a mobile version of the Dollar to Rupee exchange rates website, I did a little research and found iWebKit. iWebKit is a simple to use framework to create a website / webapp that is optimized for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and Android.

iWebKit is very easy to use and the user guide makes it easy to build a mobile website even without much knowledge of HTML, CSS or JavaScript. The sites built with iWebKit look and act like a native app. For an example, check this site in Chrome or Safari. I have finished the basic layout of that site within hours using this framework. The framework contains all basic navigational elements, form fields and other things necessary for any basic mobile website.

As iWebKit is optimized for WebKit based browsers, it works fine with all iOS devices and Android. BlackBerry devices will also be getting a new web browser based on WebKit. So, expect your site to work well on those devices too after that new browser is released. But it will not work well with other browsers such as Opera and Firefox mobile. So, if you wish to develop a site that truly works with any browser, this framework may not be for you.