If you are among those who like to create custom maps to share and publish them online, there might be a chance you have heard of the Google Maps Engine Lite.

Google has announced it is rebranding its Google Maps Engine Lite custom maps app to My Maps.

The company further revealed that it will upgrade all maps created in classic Google Maps Engine Lite app to the new My Maps by end of this year. However, users can get started right away by upgrading to the new My Maps.

Announcing the new My Maps, Google via its Google Maps support page notes, "In the coming months, you're going to see a new, more powerful Google My Maps. You can update your saved maps now or wait and they'll get updated to the new My Maps automatically."

The new My Maps Android app is now available for download on Google Play and the app's What's New section lists that the new app name and logo My Maps in place of the old Maps Engine, apart from improved search and marker adding.

The new app just like the classic Maps Engine will offer users option to save places, driving directions, add photos and videos, and more. Google has also added new features such as sharing a map (much like sharing a Google Doc); use different colours for parts of map; include images and YouTube videos; directly labelling features on the map; import locations from a spreadsheet, and organise places with layers.

For regular Maps Engine Lite users, the search engine giant notes that they won't be able to access, create, or edit the created My Maps from the classic Maps Engine any longer. Also, users who want to access the custom maps have to download the new My Maps for Android app. Google Maps for Android app or the Google Earth iOS app will not show the custom maps, notes Google.

Additionally, Google also announced expansion of its Google Maps Gallery, where publicly shared custom maps can be accessed. Google defines its Maps Gallery as an interactive, digital atlas where anyone can find rich, compelling maps from governments, businesses, non-profits and schools.

In a blog post Heather Folsom, Product Manager, My Maps said, "Starting today, you can get a little inspiration by going to Google Maps Gallery and browsing publicly shared custom maps of all types."

It's getting easier than ever to get high quality content on our mobile devices, but watching a full HD movie on a 4-inch screen doesn't really have the same impact as watching this content on a large screen television. It's possible to have your content on a portable device and stream it to a TV screen with the right accessories.

One of the cheapest ways to do this is using Google's Chromecast, which launched in the US at just $35 (approximately Rs. 2,100). However, the Chromecast was not launched in India, and importers have been selling it at Rs. 3,500.

Earlier this month, we reviewed the Teewe, an Indian Chromecast alternative, and we thought that it was a good option available at just Rs. 1,999. Since then, we've spent some time with another Indian product, the Esycast, which is very similar, but comes with a few extra features. It's also got a higher price - the Esycast has an MRP of Rs. 3,595, although you can buy it online for Rs. 2,870. The device comes with a one year warranty - a reassuring thing considering that it comes from an unknown company.

The Esycast appears to be a rebranding of a device called an EZCast, made in China - the box notes that the device was manufactured for ESY Technology Corporation in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. Using the dongle also requires an app called EZCast, which is the name of a Chinese dongle which has similar functions, though the body has a different design.

You can use the Esycast to stream videos to the TV using your phone or laptop. For the purposes of this review, we used the EZCast portable client for Windows on a Dell laptop running Windows 8, and used the EZCast apps on an iPad Air and a Moto E. We used it to play different games, watch 420p AVI videos and 1080p MKV videos, browse the Web, and view PDF and PPT files. We'll get to the performance in a second, but first, let's quickly talk about design.

The Esycast has a rather plain, plastic body, and a small antenna to one side. The Micro-USB charging port is on the other side. The HDMI jack is covered with a plastic cap that you have to remove to attach the dongle to your TV. This cap could be lost pretty easily, but that's not a big problem. The Esycast looks like a portable 3G dongle, and while it won't impress anyone in terms of style, it's quite portable.

The interface design on the other hand could definitely stand for a refresh. The Chromecast's start screen looks good, and even the Teewe interface looked simple and accessible. The Esycast interface on your screen looks extremely technical and intimidating. The whole screen is filled with text and icons, and at first, you might not even pick out the relevant information among all the visual clutter.

There is no wall adaptor given in the box for the Esycast (the Chromecast doesn't include one either, thought the Teewe ships with this) but you can use any standard adapter with a USB out like your phone's charger.

Getting the device up and running is straightforward. Plug in the dongle, and it creates a Wi-Fi hotspot. Download the app on your device, and then connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot. Start the app and set up the device to connect to your home Wi-Fi. That's it, setup is complete. To connect a second device is even simpler - just start the app, tap the connect button, and select the dongle in the popup menu.

There are several options available at this point. Photo lets you browse the pictures on your device; music, video and document are similarly self-explanatory. Camera opens the camera app and sends a live feed to the Esycast, while Web opens a browser window.

We tried these different functions and found that the Esycast works suitably well, but there is a fair amount of lag. Once a video starts playing there is usually no problem, but there is noticeable delay when loading anything. In the Web browser, for example, we could see a page load fully, tap on a link, and have the next page start loading before the first page showed up on the screen. If you scroll through photos in the app, it usually took a full second to show the next image. Since the actual stream is smooth, the delay doesn't really affect usage, but it can be a little disorienting.

The video playback - which is why most people would want to buy this - is reasonably smooth, though it includes the same lag we discussed earlier. Watching videos in 720p was perfectly smooth, though there was a slight stutter when loading the video. We switched to watching a 1080p video, and that's where things slowed down a bit and the screen pixelated once in a while. It's not unwatchable, but frame drops are pretty common.

If your device supports Miracast or AirPlay, then the Esycast can also be used for screen mirroring. This is a very useful function that the Teewe does not have - you aren't restricted to only the content that the EZCast app can handle. If you want to see Android or iOS apps running on the big screen, you can do so easily.

The catch is that the delay is even more pronounced with screen mirroring; if you want to demonstrate Temple Run, you can definitely do that, but trying to play by looking at the big screen is completely impossible. Airplay support also meant that we could use our favourite video app to play the movies, and still watch them on the big screen.

Setting up Miracast is a little more complicated than Airplay. First you need to install the Ezcast software on the device you want to connect with the Esycast. While the dongle will show up as an AirPlay device on your Mac or iOS device by default, to actually get AirPlay to work, you need to install the app on your Mac or iOS device. The experience on Android and Windows is similar. Once you have set it up though, screen mirroring on Android works as smoothly as AirPlay. It's perfectly usable for presentations and videos, but don't try to use it to play games, because of the delay.

One of the features we liked is that the EZcast software for the PC is available as a portable app - so you can load it on a USB drive and run it on anyone's computer, without any software installation required. The Mac app needs to be installed though, and it even requires you to reboot your machine.

Overall, though the Esycast is a pretty good option for sending content from your phone to a big screen - whether you're making a presentation or watching a movie, the dongle works well. However, if you're primarily buying this just to watch videos from your phone, then its price is a bit of a stumbling block. The Teewe lacks Airplay and Miracast support but it is also a fair bit cheaper so unless you really need screen mirroring, it's probably a better bet.

Qualcomm on Wednesday announced two new entry-level processors for smartphones and tablet devices in its Snapdragon 200 series - the Snapdragon 210 and Snapdragon 208. Both processors will be available in commercial devices in the first half of 2015, and the company is partnering with OEMs in 'growth' markets like China and India.

The company says that Snapdragon 210 processor will offer integrated, multimode3G/4G LTE-Advanced Cat. 4 and LTE dual-SIM with dual standby for entry-levelsmartphones and tablets, while the 3G-only Snapdragon 208 processor has been "designed for regions that are still on the verge of 4G LTE network deployment and consequently, 3G is currently more prevalent."

The entry-level Snapdragon 210 features quad-core (up to 1.1GHz ARM) Cortex-A7 CPUs alongside an Adreno 304 GPU, and supports up to an 8-megapixel camera with full-HD video capture and playback with hardware HEVC. The camera support feature on the SoC will also include Zero Shutter Lag, high dynamic range (HDR), autofocus, auto white balance and auto exposure.

On the other hand, the 3G-only Snapdragon 208 features dual-core (up to 1.1GHz) ARM Cortex-A7 CPUs, Adreno 304 GPU and can display up to qHD (540x960 pixels) resolutions. The camera support is up to 5-megapixel with HD (720p) video recording, and playback with HEVC.

The Snapdragon 210 and Snapdragon 208 SoCs also support Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 technology, which is claimed to charge batteries 75 percent faster than the usual.

Qualcomm also unveiled its first LTE-equipped tablet reference design, which according to company will enable OEMs and ODMs to create a new class of multimode 3G/4G LTE connected tablets. The company notes that the initial version of the tablet reference design will be available with the Snapdragon 410 and Snapdragon 210 processors.

Lastly, the company has introduced its latest 28nm transceivers optimised to support LTE and LTE Advanced devices in the mid and entry-level devices. It also supports next-generation Qualcomm RF360 front-end solutions, which will enable device makers to easily customize LTE Advanced products for global or regional bands, according to the company.

"We are committed to delivering high-performance connected mobile experiences across all tiers of our product portfolio," said Jeff Lorbeck, senior vice president and chief operating officer, Qualcomm Technologies, China. "These announcements further cement our commitment in broadly driving LTE and LTE Advanced to enable our customers the flexibility to deliver high-speed connectivity and an advanced mobile experience at affordable prices."

Google on Tuesday introduced a real-time feedback feature called Applause for its Hangouts On Air desktop interface.

With Applause, users will now be able to give simple thumbs up or thumbs down for any Hangout streaming on-air and Google will instantly chart them in real-time, below the streaming Hangout (see above image). Previously, the search giant had two other feedback options for Hangouts On Air - Q&A and Showcase.

Q&A allows Hangouts broadcasters to interact with their live audience in the form of question and answeres in real-time, whereas Showcase allows broadcasters to direct viewers to websites, merchandise, YouTube videos, Google+ profile and Google Playcontent, from the right-hand side of the Hangout On Air.

"With Q&A, Showcase and now Applause, we're excited to give viewers and creators more ways to interact live. So give Applause a try in your next Hangout On Air, and let us know what you think!" said Google's Ming Zhang on a Google+ post.

On Tuesday, Google reportedly started updating its Hangouts messaging app for Android (and its various desktop interfaces) to integrate Google Voice services, letting users chat via voice SMS and send voice mails. The changes are reportedly being made to the back-end, and users will not have to download an update.

Notably, the Google Hangouts app, which links both the text SMS and the Google Talk service, now delivers a notification about the integration via a pop-up window in the app's conversation list, giving an option to 'Migrate Google Voice to Hangouts.' The feature was earlier spotted in dogfooding stage in a video uploaded by a YouTube user in July.

Google's Chromecast promised to be an extremely low-cost way to turn any TV with an HDMI port into a smart TV, letting you stream content to the dongle from your smartphone, tablet or any other device running Chrome. While the device launchedover an year ago in the US it has yet to hit the Indian shores officially.

Yes, Chromecast is available through importers at Rs.3,500 or more online, but that's a lot more than the $35 (approximately Rs.2,100) that it costs in the US, which makes the main USP of the product - it's low price - redundant. A new product called the TeeWe, made by hardware startup Mango Man Consumer Electronics, aims to fill that gap, and the company's HDMI dongle is priced well at Rs.2,399, with a pre-order price of Rs.1,999.

You can stream content to the TeeWe from Android and iOS devices, with desktop clients for Mac and PC becoming available by the time the units reach customers.

We used the Teewe for over a week to see how well it works and how it measures up to Google's Chromecast.

Design

Given how many Indian products often struggle with design, we were certainly pleased with the look and finish of the TeeWe. It is very similar to the Chromecast in size, though a little bulkier. Instead of the key-like shape of the Chromecast, the TeeWe is a smooth rectangle - it's perfectly flat but the plastic body doesn't have sharp edges either. The HDMI jack sticks out along one of the smaller sides, and there's a Micro-USB port along the long side at the other end of the stick. This is used to connect the dongle to a power supply - the included wall adapter (Chromecast doesn't come with one) has a long cable so it wasn't very inconvenient to use.

The all plastic body doesn't really feel like a premium product, but it doesn't look cheap or tacky either. When you consider the price of the product, we think that Mango Man's design work is up to the mark.

Setup

Setting up the TeeWe is pretty straightforward. Connect the dongle to your TV's HDMI port, and connect the power. After that, follow on-screen instructions to set up the TeeWe's Wi-Fi.

To do this, you first connect your mobile device to the TeeWe-generated WiFi network, and use the connection to set up the TeeWe with your home Wi-Fi. Once this is done, you just select the content you want on the mobile device, and you can start streaming it to the TeeWe.

Features

The TeeWe is designed for entertainment - you can use it to stream local media (photos, music and movies) from your mobile or tablet to a TeeWe plugged into a big screen television without any trouble. You can also use it to stream video from the Web, controlled through the app on your phone or tablet.

The app is straightforward, with the different sections laid out in scrollable rows. You have YouTube videos, and a curated list of free content on the Internet to make it easy for people to find free Indian TV shows and movies. There are also rows for locally stored content, so you can push your songs and videos directly from your phone without needing Internet access, as long as the two devices are on the same Wi-Fi network.

What's missing right now is a screen-mirroring option. According to the TeeWe team, this wasn't something in the initial roadmap at all, but the feedback they've received so far means that it's something they want to add in the near future via over-the-air software updates.

Performance

The TeeWe was able to stream plenty of videos from YouTube smoothly, changing streams as soon as we tapped the icons on our mobile's screen. Playing local content was similarly easy and the playback was completely without any stuttering or lag.

To test the local playback, we tried a number of video samples - this included 720p and full-HD content, in popular formats like AVI, MP4 and MKV. Full-HD playback stuttered at times, but 720p worked flawlessly throught.

The TeeWe app is the only way to send media to the dongle and using the app itself is straightforward. On our Android device, the app found all the movies on the tablet but on the iPad, it was a little less useful because like most people, we store our local media in different apps. TeeWe can find locally saved videos only if they're saved in your device's Videos or copied directly to the TeeWee app, but that's an OS limitation every app must live with.

Verdict

If you're looking for a low-cost way to stream videos from the Internet or your smartphone/ table to the big screen, the TeeWe looks like a pretty good choice. The companion app is easy to use, and the actual streaming worked without any difficulties.

The catch is that there are a number of ways to bring this kind of functionality to your television without having to use a TeeWe. If you have a laptop, you can probably connect it directly to the television with a simple HDMI cable. If you have a game console like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, then too you can share your videos over Wi-Fi quite easily. Not to mention other alternatives like HTPCs, Chromecast and indeed Apple TV.

However, all those options are either too expensive, inconvenient or suffer from a lack of portability. If you want something that can slip easily into your pocket and carried to a friend's house, the TeeWe is perhaps the best option officially available in India right now that doesn't cost a bomb.

So does that make the TeeWe better than the Chromeast? Not without the third-party support. As Google's official HDMI dongle, support for Chromecast has been integrated into a lot of apps on Android, and indeed iOS. If you have the Popcorn Time app on your Android device, for example, you can use it to download and stream movies directly to your TV using a Chromecast.

It is hard to imagine Popcorn Time adding support for Teewe unless Mango Man can somehow convince the developers to come on board. But the company doesn't seem too keen to do that, saying it wants to add Chromecast support to its own app instead, a move that indicates it's more keen to push its software instead of hardware.

While the Teewe may never get as popular as the Chromecast, it's still a solid choice for anyone looking to get started with streaming videos to the big screen.

Intel has finally discussed details of its much-anticipated new Core M lineup of processors, which appear inside many of the thin-and-light products unveiled at this year's IFA show. First unveiled by company President Renee James on stage during herComputex 2014 keynote address, Core M will be the first shipping processors designed and built on Intel's new, shrunken 14nm fabrication process.

The first of the "Broadwell" family, now known as fifth-generation Core, is an especially small processor designed to run without a fan, enabling thinner and lighter devices without having to step down to the level of current low-power Atom processors. The "Llama Mountain" prototype Intel showed off at Computex was just 7.2mm thin, and the Asus Transformer Book Chi announced at the same time will be 7.3mm thin.

Another promise is vastly improved battery life. The 14nm lithography combined with Intel's specific optimisations and architectural improvements should result in up to two hours more power on each charge cycle.

Three models of the Core M will be available: the 5Y70, 5Y10 and 5Y10a. All are dual-core processors with Hyper-Threading, and have integrated Intel HD 5300 graphics with 4MB L3 caches. While the 5Y70 has a 1.1GHz base frequency and can reach up to 2.6GHz with one or both cores, the 5Y10 models are clocked at 800MHz and can touch up to 2GHz. The 5Y10a and 5Y10 are identical other than the fact that the latter SKU is described as a "4W config down unit" which can presumably consume even less power. The 5Y70 also supports Intel's vPro feature set for business-oriented products.

Core M is a new product category for Intel that will sit alongside the existing Core i3, i5 and i7 and is specifically designed for fanless ultraportable devices. While "2-in-1" tablets with detachable keyboards are the primary use case scenario, the company expects that manufacturers will use it in a variety of designs including more traditional notebooks.

Intel claims up to 50 percent better CPU performance and 40 percent better graphics performance than the previous generation ultra-low-power Core CPUs. Thermal Design Power (TDP), or the amount of heat dissipated by the processor, is reduced by 60 percent.

The integrated graphics component, which will be called Intel HD Graphics 5300, supports DirectX 11.2 and can power a 4K (3840x2160 pixels, 24Hz) screen. QuickSync video promises accelerated video editing and transcoding, while 1080p and 4K video playback should not impact battery life as much. Intel suggests that you can get 1.7 hours more playback time compared to a device based on the previous-generation Core i5-4302Y processor operating in the same 4.5W thermal envelope.

Intel says over 20 products based on Core M are on the way, including the Asus Transformer T300 Chi and Zenbook UX305, the Dell Latitude 13 7000, HP Envy x2, Acer Aspire Switch 12, and Lenovo ThinkPad Helix.

Adobe on Monday announced plans to update its Creative Cloud video desktop apps and Adobe Anywhere for video.

The company revealed that it will preview the new upgrades for Creative Cloudprofessional video products and Adobe Anywhere for video at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam, while the updates can be expected to ship in the coming weeks.

Some of the updates include new media and project management tools in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, which brings new user-interface across all Adobe video desktop apps. The company stresses that the updates bring more streamlined production workflows for video professionals.

The company has listed some of the key updates.

• Support for cutting-edge hardware and standards is accelerated via Adobe Creative Cloud, enabling the company to respond quickly to new hardware and software standards.
• Key updates extend native file support, with the addition of AJA RAW.
• Performance enhancements include accelerated Masking & Tracking; and new GPU-optimized playback that delivers better performance when viewing extremely high resolution 4K and UltraHD footage from Phantom Cine, Canon RAW and RED R3D files.
• A refreshed user-interface across all the video applications supports HiDPI displays for both Mac Retina Displays and Windows 8.1, providing a cleaner appearance enabling video professionals to stay focused on their projects.
• Powerful new media and project management features, including Consolidate & Transcode; Search Bins; and Multi project workflows offer more ease and flexibility, at the project level, so Adobe Premiere Pro CC users can complete tasks more efficiently.
• Adobe Media Encoder now includes Destination publishing with preset options so users can render, deliver and share projects to multiple locations such as FTP sites and their Creative Cloud folder, automating the delivery process. Additionally, Extended Match Source support now includes added support for the QuickTime and DNxHD formats, simplifying the workflow for users who are transcoding or rendering content.
• Streamlined workflows and ongoing refinements make everyday tasks easier and faster inside Adobe CC video apps, including Timeline Views in Adobe Premiere Pro CC; Curve adjustments and Look Hover previews in Adobe SpeedGrade CC; and Rough Cut Dissolves and keyboard shortcuts for tagging in Adobe Prelude CC.
• Expanding Editing Solutions for Broadcasters with Adobe Anywhere for Video.

In addition to updates for Creative Cloud video desktop apps, the company also revealed updates for Adobe Anywhere, which is a collaborative workflow platform for users of Adobe professional video solutions like Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Adobe After Effects CC.

The update also adds support for Adobe After Effects CC and new options in the Adobe Anywhere app for iPad.

Commenting on the launch, Bill Roberts, senior director of professional video product management, Adobe said, "As the video and broadcast industries continue to rapidly evolve, so too does Adobe's video technology. With Creative Cloud, we have accelerated the rate at which we deliver the features our customers need to create compelling new experiences and transform the video industry with high-quality productions."

In July, Adobe announced Creative Cloud Market for users of its Creative Cloud services. Subscribers to Adobe's Creative Cloud could use the desktop app to access a remarkable selection of vector graphics, icons, patterns, UI Kits, for-placement images, and more.

Facebook has announced some changes to the way videos are displayed on the social network. The changes will roll out this week across platforms. The update adds a couple of YouTube inspired features, letting users see how many times the video has been viewed since the upload, and also view related videos after playback.

"Over the past year we've made several improvements to make it easier for people to discover and share great videos on Facebook. And with an update that will start rolling out this week, people will be able to see how many views a video on Facebook has received," stated Fidji Simo Project Management Director, Video, Facebook on a blog post.

The Facebook post adds that users would see the number of views only on a public video by people, as well as pages. The count will be seen right beside the 'like' and 'comment' area.

The social networking giant is also testing another YouTube inspired feature to show other related videos right after the current video being seen by a user ends. "Another feature that's currently testing on mobile aims to help people discover new videos: now, when someone finishes watching a video, we may show additional related videos that they might find interesting," stated that post.

The post added that the social website surpassed 1 billion video views per day in June this year with a 50 percent growth in video views from May. In addition, Facebook said 65 percent of the total video views come from the mobile platform.

Last month, Facebook was testing keyword search for older posts on its mobile app, which enables users to search through content posted by friends and pages followed by them. The move is part of the company's full implementation of Graph Search for mobile and tablet devices.

The market value of the social networking site Facebook has crossed the $200 billion mark, making it the 22nd largest company in the world.

The company's stock closed at $77.6 Monday - a new all-time high - giving it a market capitalisation of $200.26 billion, media reports said.

According to reports, future prospects for Facebook are bright because the firm is yet to monetise acquisitions like photo-sharing site Instagram and mobile messaging service WhatsApp.

(Also see: Facebook to buy WhatsApp in a $19 billion deal)

It is also some time away from placing a significant number of pricey video ads in users' news feeds.

Facebook has also purchased virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR Inc for nearly $2 billion.

The company also announced Monday it now has 100 million users in Africa.

The company now ranks just behind Verizon Communications Inc and ahead of Toyota Motor Corp on the list of the world's biggest corporations.

Recent media reports indicated that Facebook advertising has become costlier but the social networking site has cut down on the number of advertisements.

"The average price per ad was 123 percent costlier in the second quarter of 2014 compared to last year," Dave Wehner, Facebook CFO, said in the latest earnings call.

Facebook also displayed 25 percent lesser ads but revenues from advertising still increased by 67 percent.

"The price of ads correlates to the value that they create. We continue to focus on making those ad units better and better, more relevant and targeted for the people who use Facebook, as well as for marketers," Wehner added.

A design change in April this year left lesser space for advertisement on a page.

The company said "people will see fewer ads on Facebook so some advertisers may see increased prices at auction".

In our new weekly series we handpick the best deals going around on apps and games on various platforms. This week, we've got some great deals on PC games, and the apps include a business card scanner and a productivity powerhouse. Here's the list:

1. Assassin's Creed: Pirates

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series needs no introduction. You play as a member of a guild of assassins in each of the games in the series, with the setting in important eras of the past. In this game, you play as Alonzo Batilla, a young and ambitious pirate who operates in the Caribbean waters. You get good gameplay coupled with nice graphics on your phone or tablet. This game usually costs Rs. 300, but is now free on Android and iOS.

Download: iOS, Android (usually Rs. 300, now free)

2. Humble Indie Bundle 12

As we mentioned in the first paragraph, we have lots of great PC game deals this week. Humble Indie Bundle 12 just went live last night. For those who don't know, Humble Bundle is an excellent store for discounts on PC games. They regularly run bundles that let you set the price for a bunch of games. In this bundle, you get three games for any price you want to pay. These are Steamworld: Dig, a platform mining adventure; Hammerwatch, a hack-and-slash game; and Gunpoint, a stealth puzzle game. If you pay more than the average price, which is hovering around the $8 (Rs. 480) mark, you get three more games. The critically acclaimed game Papers, Please is one of these. You play an immigration inspector, whose job is to inspect people's documents and keep the terrorists and smugglers out of the country. The other two games, arcade shooter Luftrausers and interactive exploration simulator Gone Home are quite good too, which makes it worth paying the average price. If you pay $10 (Rs. 500), you can play a beta version of jail management simulator Prison Architect. Had you purchased these games separately, you'd have had to shell out $127 (Rs. 7,750).

Download: PC, Steam keys available

3. F.E.A.R. bundle

Bundle deals are all around us this week. If you like of first-person shooter games, you probably have heard of the F.E.A.R. series. Widely acclaimed as one of the best FPS horror games, three games in the series (F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin and F.E.A.R. 3) are available for $7.99 (Rs. 480) via Bundle Stars. You also get downloadable content (DLC) in this bundle. These include F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point, F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate and F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn. You get Steam keys for Windows in this bundle, which you can redeem on Steam to get your games. If you buy all of these games from Steam, you would have to pay $55 (Rs. 3,350).

Download: PC, Steam keys for Windows

4. ScanBizCards Premium

If you have a stack of business cards that never make it to your phone contact list for want of time, you might want to use ScanBizCards Premium. There are quite a few of these apps in the market, but ScanBizCards's defining feature is that you can take a picture of the business card and submit it for manual transcription. Of course, you can also use the automatic scanning feature (just take a picture). In case that doesn't work, you can submit it for manual transcription and the developers will do it for you.

Download: Android (usually Rs. 120, now Rs. 59.75)

5. Full

Full is a productivity app that lets you set various goals and track your progress. Whether you'd like to read 10 books this month or if you want to practice yoga thrice a week, this app can help you track, measure and visualise all your goals. The app has a simple interface and can be useful if all you need is a little bit of motivation to get going.

Download: iOS (usually Rs. 60, now free)

Bonus: Some more great deals

The Rhythm of Fighters: iOS (usually Rs. 60, now free)

Red Crow: Legion: Mac (usually Rs. 420, now free)

Disk Space Tab: Mac (usually Rs. 60, now free)

Archos Video Player: Android (usually Rs. 300, now Rs. 59)

ProCapture Camera: Android (usually Rs. 250, now Rs. 59.79)

With the announcement of the Samsung Gear VR, consumer friendly Virtual Reality is looking closer to being a reality than ever. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, whose initial Kickstarter for the Oculus Rift can be seen as the start-point for the current interest in VR, also recently confirmed that the consumer version of the Oculus Rift will cost between $200 and $400, and he repeated that it will be as cheap as possible.

The Oculus Rift itself has gone through two iterations now, the first Dev Kit being released in March 2013, and the second version, the Rift DK 2, coming out one year later. Along the way, the Rift saw upgrades to the display and the tracking method it uses to create the sense of presence, and it is believed that the consumer version will launch sometime in 2015, with further improvements.

As we noted in our impressions of the Oculus Rift DK 2, the VR headset is an incredibly impressive creation, which makes you feel like you are literally inside virtual worlds. Staid old games that look reminiscent of early DOS games turn into immersive horror stories, and roller coaster rides feel real.

While it is our belief that the long-term success of the Rift will depend on reaching outbeyond the gamer audience, there is no denying that many videogames seem tailor-made for virtual reality. Since readers have been asking about the different games we played, we decided to put together the highlights from two weeks of trials. It's a fairly small list because there was a lot to experience beyond games, and also because getting things to run can be fairly challenging. Despite this, we did get to try out some amazing games that make us want to buy the Rift on the first day it's available. Here are the highlights:

1. AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaCULUS!!!

The original AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (shortened to Aaaaa!) is a fast paced and hilarious game on Android and iOS devices, along with a PC version. The game is all about jumping off a building and hoping you don't go splat against a wall or a girder on the way down, and with the Rift and a good pair of headphones, the game does a great job of making you feel like you're hurtling to your doom.

You can get a free demo of the Rift enabled version of the game, and there's minimal setup involved.

Aaaaa! is a very fast paced game and there's not too much complexity to it either - you jump off a building and try not to hit things on the way down. Each individual jump doesn't last for very long either. These things combined to make the game a good experience for getting used to the Rift, though the first few times were a little disorienting.

That's because, on the one hand, your eyes and your ears are telling you that you're falling down at a very high speed. On the other hand, you're sitting (or standing) and the only things moving are your thumbs. The sensation can be a little confusing, and takes some getting used to. 

2. Alone in the Rift

The Oculus Rift is incredibly well suited to horror games. Maybe it's just that we are experiencing VR properly for the first time, and so it seems even more real than it actually is, and over time we'll become desensitised to the Rift.

As a first experience though, Alone in the Rift feels pants-wettingly real. The game uses a good mix of audio and visual scares to frighten you and the end result was honestly terrifying.

For this to work really well, put on a good pair of headphones. The game is really designed to work with the Razer Hydra motion controller, though it does work with the mouse and keyboard as well.

Using your keyboard, you walk through a dark forest, with just a little light from some lamps. By the time you come to the cabin in the woods, your heart is already pounding thanks to the eerie atmosphere, and then you see a little girl who looks like she belongs in the Ring. And that's just the beginning. This game is really not for the faint of heart. The 3D effect, of things coming right up to you works really well, and when something horrible moves towards you, the impulse to drop everything and scream and run can get overwhelming.

3. Half Life 2

This was easily our favourite experience on the Rift, although setting it up also took the most time. To get this to work, you'll first need to update your Steam client to enable VR. Based on the troubles we had, the best thing to do is to uninstall Steam first, and just start fresh.

In the library menu, you'll find SteamVR, and you need to install that. SteamVR only works with the Rift in Extended Mode, not Direct to Rift, so make sure your headset is configured properly as well. Restart Steam.

Next, if you haven't already bought the game, buy Half Life 2, and then after it's installed, go to the Betas tab and download the HL2 beta. Launch the game, and in options, enable virtual reality mode. Quit the game. Start again, and this time activate virtual reality.

You might need to quit SteamVR, or Half Life 2, or Steam, before it actually works. Quite a few times, in fact. Once you do all this though, you're left with one of the best virtual reality experiences right now.

Half Life 2 is old enough that it should play smoothly on most machines, and the actual gameplay remains as technically sound as ever. In fact, the slightly slower pace (compared to Team Fortress or Quake) also shows that the Rift can be great for a first-person shooter.

Although your movement is controlled via the keyboard, you can look around by moving your head, and the center of the screen is used for aiming with the mouse. You can also drag the mouse to the edges to turn around, though this involves some frantic mouse pulling. This does mean that lining up headshots can be really smooth, as you basically shoot where you're looking. The mouse is just used for fine correction, instead of first quickly shifting the view, and then lining up the shot more carefully.

The varied environments of Half Life 2 also make the game a great showcase for the Rift. You'll move between small chambers and wide open spaces, go underwater and jump through mazes - the last can be a bit of a problem - when you look down, can see the platform you're on, but it can still be a little difficult to time jumps perfectly. Small caveats aside, among the full-fledged games we've tried so far, this is the one we loved the most.

4. Quake 2

You'll need the original Quake 2, along with some extra files you can get at the Oculus Developer forums to run the game. Once you have everything in place though, Quake 2 plays extremely well on the Oculus Rift, and is relatively easy to get running, compared to some of the other demos we found.

And you certainly are running. This was one of the few games which left us feeling a little queasy. The graphics have all been updated with the mod, along with some changes like replacing crosshairs with a laser sight, which makes a lot of sense in the 3D world of the Rift. The problem with Quake in the Rift is that everything is just so fast. When you're playing a video game on the monitor, you don't realise how fast the characters are moving, relatively, but in the Rift, the walls loom large, and you rush about in a way that leaves Usain Bolt in the dust.

Like with Half Life, aiming and shooting feels much more natural than just the keyboard and mouse combination we're used to, and this is one of the benefits of VR we certainly enjoyed.

5. Star Wars: Battle of Endor

One genre that's making a comeback thanks to the Rift is space combat games. Eve Valkyrie, Elite: Dangerous, and Star Citizen are shaping up to be some of the top contenders, but there are some free games which show why the Rift is such a good fit for the genre.

The one which really made a mark on us was Star Wars: Battle of Endor which lets you recreate the famous space battle at the end of the last Star Wars movie. It's a little buggy, and only worked in Extended Mode for us, so be prepared for a little tinkering before you can actually play.

You control your X-Wing Starfighter with the mouse and keyboard, and you are seated in the cockpit, so you can see the ships "controls" in front of you, and you can look around the cockpit while you fly, so you can see where that blast of laser fire came from.

The gameplay is pretty basic, just challenging enough to be fun, and the Rift also helps create the sense of scale. When you play a space sim on a monitor in front of you, planets look tiny while spaceships can seem big. The Rift lets you get a real sense of the relative size of things, and although the graphics aren't the greatest, the game looks pretty good in motion.

These were our five favourite game experiences with the Rift, but there are a lot of free and paid games you can already buy. By the time the consumer kit arrives, hopefully the experience of finding, installing, and running games will be a lot simpler - that's the one area that still has a lot of trouble. In terms of actual gaming though, it's clear that the Rift is a must buy product for gamers.