Moto E!!!!! Budget smartphone ---- Review

 Motorola in its comeback avatar appears to have geared up to overtake all competition in budget smartphone market in India which is otherwise dominated by homegrown manufacturers such as Micromax, Lava, and Xolo. Having already won much goodwill with its budget Moto G smartphone, the company on Tuesday introduced its much-awaited, low-cost Moto E smartphone, that packs in a lot of potential.

The Moto E has been launched in India at a price of Rs 6,999 and will be available in India only via online store Flipkart. Here are my first impressions on Motorola's entry-level Android smartphone from the brief period that I used it at the Delhi launch event.

The Moto E is in line with

 the design principles that the Moto G and Moto X are based on, making it look like the other two Motorola phones, but the absence of front camera and flash on the rear will make it easier for you to identify the phone. There are phones in this price range that come with front camera, but these cameras are so poor in quality that they remain more of a showpiece than of any value. The phone's 5 megapixel camera captures impressive pictures in terms of both colour and detail.

 

Motorola appears to have geared up to overtake all competition in budget smartphone market in India which is otherwise dominated by homegrown manufacturers.

I tested the camera in both soft-light and outdoor conditions, and the results were far better than what I had envisioned after first hearing the price. You may feel the absence of flash in low-light conditions. Given the experience it offers at this price, many would ignore the absence of flash, but I do wish Motorola had included the flash. Yet, I would not state the absence of front camera here as a major downside. The phone's camera settings offers limited options to customise images. It also lets you trim and edit videos shot on the phone in slow motion on the device itself.

The phone has a 4.3-inch display and therefore is compact. It feels comfortable in hands; its plastic back with matte finish has a slightly rubbery feel that makes it easier to grip the device. The 12.3mm thickness of the phone may make you presume it to be weird-looking device, but it is not the case. Its curved back makes it look less thicker than what it would have appeared otherwise. The phone looks sophisticated.

Its display has good viewing angles and produces vivid colours. The touchscreen is very responsive and it's smooth to navigate on the phone. The phone has a speaker at the front that produces loud music and fairly clear sound.

The phone is available in standard black and white colours, but its back panel is changeable. The swappable Motorola Shells for the Moto E come in a wide variety of colours, which will be listed on Flipkart, where the phone will go on sale starting Wednesday. The phone has three slots under the rear panel - two for SIMs and one for microSD card that supports up to 32GB of cards. The phone's internal memory - which stands at 4GB (out of which only 2.2GB is user accessible) - is unlikely to suffice users, so they have an option for additional storage. While its rear panel is removable, users can't take out the battery.

While some Android phones lack the built-in FM radio, the Moto E has it. The dual-SIM Moto E, as the company says, has an intelligent calling feature that learns your usage pattern to determine the best SIM for an outgoing call - which is actually based on your past behaviour.

On the software front also, the Moto E is a step ahead of other devices in this price range. The phone runs the latest version of Android - Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It comes with a guaranteed software update. The Moto E, Motorola says, will receive at least one software update to the current OS. Under the hood is a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor along with 1GB of RAM.

The phone looks promising, but I would like to hold my verdict until I test it on other parametres including performance and battery.

Motorola Moto E: Detailed specifications
General Featires
In the Box	Handset with Built-in Battery, QSG and Warranty Card, Charger, Headset, Back Door
Brand	Motorola
Model ID	XT1022
Form	Bar
SIM Size	Micro SIM
SIM Type	Dual SIM, GSM + GSM, (Dual Standby)
Touch Screen	Yes, Capacitive
Call Features	Loudspeaker
Handset Color	Black
Platform
Operating Freq	GSM - 850, 900, 1800, 1900; UMTS - 2100
OS	Android v4.4 (KitKat)
Processor	1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, Dual Core
Graphics	Adreno 302, 400 MHz Single
Display
Size	4.3 Inches
Resolution	qHD, 960 x 540 Pixels
Other Display Features	Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Camera
Primary Camera	Yes, 5 Megapixel
Secondary Camera	No
Flash	No
Video Recording	Yes, 30 fps
Dimensions
Size	64.8x124.8x12.3 mm
Weight	142 g
Battery
Type	Li-Ion, 1980 mAh
Memory and Storage
Internal	4 GB
Expandable Memory	microSD, upto 32 GB
Memory	1 GB RAM
Internet & Connectivity
Internet Features	Email
Preinstalled Browser	Android
3G	Yes, 21.1 Mbps HSDPA; 5.76 Mbps HSUPA; HSPA+
Wifi	Yes, 802.11 b/g/n
USB Connectivity	Yes, micro USB, v2
Navigation Technology	GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, with Google Maps
Bluetooth	Yes, v4, Supported Profiles (LE)
Audio Jack	3.5 mm
Multimedia
Music Player	Yes, Supports MP3
Video Player	Yes, Supports H.264, H.263, MP4, HD
FM	Yes
Sound Enhancement	Front Ported Loudspeaker Orientation, Audio Chip
Other Features
Call Memory	Yes
SMS Memory	Yes
Phone Book Memory	Yes
Sensors	Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor
Additional Features	P2i, Single White LED
Warranty
Warranty Summary	1 year manufacturer warranty for Phone and 6 months warranty for in the box accessories

Check the moto e specs in flipkart here : Moto E - 6999 Rs

Source : CNN IBN, Flipkart.

Searching a word in multiple word files

Hi webies, last week I was working on some of the document activities. And for that I need to find some word files with some search criteria. And I tried manually but the problem is that it is very tedious and time consuming task, So I thought to create a macro for the same functionality and came up with the Search_text_in_word_docs macro.
So here is the source code of that macro

Sub search_text_in_word_docs()
    'search a text in the word documents saved in a folder and return the full document path of all documents which contains the text

    Dim filenm As String, folderpath As String
    Dim wordtocheck As String
    folderpath = "C:\Users\ADMIN\Desktop\sample files\" ' change folder here
    wordtocheck = "abc" ' change text to search here
    filenm = Dir(folderpath)
        While (filenm <> "")
            If InStr(filenm, ".doc") > 0 Then ' check word document
            If check_in_file(folderpath & filenm, wordtocheck) = True Then MsgBox folderpath & filenm
            End If
            filenm = Dir
        Wend
End Sub

Function check_in_file(filname As String, word_to_check As String) As Boolean
    Dim objWord As Object
    Dim objdoc As Object
    Dim content1 As String
    
    Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
    Set objdoc = objWord.Documents.Open(filname)
    
    content1 = " " & objdoc.Content.Text
    
    If InStr(UCase(content1), UCase(word_to_check)) <> 0 Then
        check_in_file = True
    Else
        check_in_file = False
    End If
    objdoc.Close
    Set objdoc = Nothing
    Set objWord = Nothing

End Function

Try it and comment your experience with this macro. Have a nice day!!!!!

Format Alternatives rows in Excel

I was preparing a marketing plan , in that I would like to highlight every other row in Excel (in gray vs. white) so it’s easier to read. I always did this manually, however if you ever make a change it is a nightmare to manually adjust all the rows. This was not only a pain in the rump, but it was also very time consuming. There are more ways to do that, but all are some what complex, I suggest you print out the below and try it the next time you need to shade alternate rows in Excel. I just did it and it worked great. Not my sexiest post, but I hope you find this as helpful as I did!

The trick lies in Conditional Formatting. (Of course you can use the built-in auto format feature, but we all know how the default settings of various Microsoft products are like).

• First select data part of the table you want to format.
• Go to Conditional formatting dialog (Menu > Format > Conditional Formatting)
• Change the “cell value is” to “formula is” (YES, you can base your formatting outcome on formulas instead of cell values)
• Now, if you want to highlight alternative rows, the formula can go something like this,
  =MOD(ROW(),2)=0
which means, whenever row() of the current cell is even, to change the coloring to odd rows, you just need to put =MOD(ROW(),2)=1 as formula
Also, if you want to highlight alternative columns instead of rows you can use the column() formula.
What if you want to change background color of every 3rd row instead, just use =MOD(ROW(),3)=0 instead. Just use your imagination.
• Set the format as you like, in my case I have used yellow color. When you are done, the dialog should look something like this:
  
• Click OK.
• Congratulations, you have mastered a conditional formatting trick now 

Post your comments or excel questions.