ET Recommendations: Buy Skullcandy Barricade; rugged, waterproof & buoyant

Skullcandy Barricade

Rugged, waterproof & buoyant Bluetooth speaker;
Get it for: Rs 6,199

You can take this Bluetooth speaker and chuck it around — literally. It is rugged, waterproof and floats on water. Skullcandy is bringing something quite innovative to the table. Not only does it sound great, it is priced well, has a battery that lasts up to eight hours, can work as a battery-pack to charge your phone and can also work as a speakerphone (thanks to the built-in mic). The loop on the side allows you to hang it on hooks or bags. Apart from Bluetooth, it has an aux input but the bonus is aux output — which means you can connect any other portable speaker to instantly double the sound. Get one for your next outing.

Samsung Gear IconX
Bluetooth earphones; Get it for: Rs 13,490



You have used Bluetooth headphones before, but these are different — way different. Samsung has taken the technology, miniaturised it and separated the two earpieces out. They sound pretty good for the size. If that isn’t enough, they are touchsensitive, switch on automatically in your ear and can measure your heart rate (who knew your heart rate can be measured from your ear)? The advanced features only work on Android — on iOS, it is only music. They come with a case that looks somewhat like a pill box — the box itself has a battery inside. The only downside to all of this is the weak battery life of a couple of hours. You can charge them by placing them in the case though, so you will be charging the case, not the earphones themselves. Overall, though, the design and functionality these earphones offer are amazing.

-Hitesh Raj Bhagat


Perchang
Game for iOS & Android; Get it for: Free



Perchang is a puzzle game that requires you to control various moving elements (blocks, fans, lifts and so on) in order to make sure that a bunch of tiny balls reach their target. While the entire game is done in black and white, the moving elements are identified in red and blue — these are the things you can control with onscreen buttons. As you move through the levels, the gameplay gets more difficult. You will need to try different combinations of moving elements to ensure that the balls reach their target. Depending on how fast you finish the round, you are awarded gold, silver or bronze stars. Graphics are fantastic, courtesy of the Unity graphics engine — good details and excellent physics. Since the game is graphics-intensive, there is a low power mode in the settings to save battery — it brings down the graphics quality and often leads to visible frame drops in gameplay. It is a good option for those who like puzzle games. — Karan Bajaj

PhotoScan by Google

App for Android & iOS
Get it for: Free

When you want to digitise an old photograph, you’ll naturally reach for your smartphone camera (not everyone has a flatbed scanner). But this approach is far from perfect: if it’s a glossy photo, it will probably have glare. You may not have held the phone perfectly parallel to the photo either. PhotoScan helps you correct this. It opens directly to a camera interface and you start a scan by placing the photo you want to scan within the bounding box. The app will then guide you to take an additional four captures, one for each corner of the photo.

All five images are merged into one — this helps remove glare/reflections. Finally, it does a quick auto-correct (image enhancement, perspective correction and automatic cropping). The app also works with other things like greeting cards, magazine covers and posters. The only downside is that it compresses photos far too much. If you are looking for a scanner app that does all kinds of documents, try Office Lens by Microsoft. — Hitesh Raj Bhagat