Best Cross-Platform Note-taking Apps to Enhance Productivity

When it comes to taking notes on the go, there are many solutions you can try out. You can carry a small notepad, you could take notes in a simple text file, or you could try out any app from the thousands of choices the Android Play Store offers. While there seems to be no dearth of good choices in this department, apps that are truly cross-platform are hard to find. That's why, in today's article, we'll help you find apps that you can use to take notes and refer to them from everywhere.

OneNote

OneNote is Microsoft's heavily publicized note-taking application. It is a simple, easy-to-use service that ties in perfectly with MS Office Suite of desktop tools. Compared to Evernote, OneNote stacks up quite well with its easy-to-use interface and cross-platform capabilities. You can take and access your notes on desktop, web, mobile, and tablets. The interface conforms to Microsoft's popular ribbon UI and anyone who has used MS Word or MS Excel (2013+) would have no trouble getting started with it. The best thing of all is that OneNote is entirely free to use with no premium tiers or restrictions.  Much like Evernote, there isn't a Linux version for OneNote. However, having tried the web version myself for about a few months now, Linux users won't be missing out on much.

Pricing: Free
Publisher: Microsoft
OpenSource: No
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Web, Mobile
Website: www.onenote.com

Evernote

Evernote is a frontrunner in the race for being one of the best cross-platform note-taking applications out there. It is stable, works across all major platforms, and has excellent features that are useful for users from all backgrounds. What's great about this application is that it seamlessly syncs all your data across all platforms. Be it bills, receipts, or even a complete novel, you can store pretty much everything in your Evernote account without having to worry about data loss. While there isn't a Linux version for this service yet, there are a couple of third-party applications you can try that will let you access your notes on Ubuntu and other distributions. Once such application is Nevernote, an open-source clone of Evernote ( http://nevernote.sourceforge.net/). The app provides a basic interface for accessing your notes and creating new ones. Other than that, you won't find any bells and whistles you usually find on the Windows or Mac application. The basic version is free to install and use and is enough for anyone who's looking for a solid cross-platform note taking solution.

Pricing: Free for Basic, $24.99 per year for Plus, $49.99 per year for Professional
Publisher: Evernote Corporation
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Web, Mobile
Website: www.evernote.com

Simplenote

Simplenote has been around for quite a while now. However, it never really got the attention it deserved. Its lightweight, clean interface is something that makes it stand apart from other feature-heavy applications and services. The application has a web-based interface and has apps that work perfectly well on iOS and Android. Simplenote, by living up to its name, ensures that you get the bare minimum features you need from a cross-platform note editor. That said, as simple as it is, the service supports Markdown thus letting you publish your notes on the web and share them with your friends and coworkers. Overall, Simplenote stands apart not only as a great note-taking tool but also an effective productivity app.

Pricing: Free
Publisher: Automattic
Platforms: Mac, Web, Mobile
Website: www.simplenote.com

Google Keep

Google Keep is the search giant's way of letting you know that it has its tentacles spread across all areas of your life. Just kidding. If you're an avid note-taker and are looking for something that ties in well with the Google ecosystem, this is an app you must try. It's simple, colorful, and does the job pretty well. You can group your notes in categories and tag them with different colors. Furthermore, it also allows you to show notes based on your location, thus letting you remember anything you have to buy whilst going out shopping.

Pricing: Free
Publisher: Google
Platforms: Web, Mobile, Chrome-based apps for Windows, Mac, Linux
Website: https://keep.google.com/

5 Best Calendar Apps for Google Chrome

Managing time has become so important these days. You have a meeting at 10 am, then lunch at 2 pm, and a lot of things in between. It is hard to manage so many things in one day. Thankfully, these days we have so many time management apps that it is barely a hassle anymore. As humans, we should be grateful to the wonderful technology we have at our disposal.

Technology, in many ways, has saved us from the hassle of being late to meetings, forgetting important birthdays, and missing out on some great parties. Be it an app, a web-based service, or a nifty command-line trick, never before has time management become so easy. One of the biggest proofs of this advancement is the way our calendars have been reinvented. From simple sheets of papers that we used to hang on the walls to the omnipresent "apps" we carry with us anywhere we go, Calendar has come a long way. If you're a person who lives in their browser, however, nothing comes more handy than these calendar apps. 

So, if you are looking to ramp up your productivity this week, read on as we list some of the best calendar apps for Google Chrome:

Google Calendar

Undoubtedly the most popular web-based calendar service out there, Google Calendar's omnipresence is hard to deny. Be it a corporate meeting or a family gathering, this nifty service makes sure that punctuality will be the last thing you need to worry about. What's great about Google's calendar service is that it allows you to share your calendar with your coworkers and friends. This means that they won't have to call you up every time they want to schedule a meeting with you. They can simply add an event to a calendar and you can choose whether to accept or to deny the invite (much like Facebook events). 

Another good thing about Google Calendar is that it syncs with most of your desktop applications thus helping you access it no matter where you go. This app for Chrome, though almost identical to the web app, lets you have a quick access to the service. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Boomerang Calendar for Gmail

While this might not be necessarily an app, it does give you some great functionality if you are someone who gets lost in a myriad of appointments and commitments to keep. Once installed, you'll be able to schedule your meetings with just one click. Whenever you get an invite, the extension goes through your schedule and checks for any available spots. If it finds any, it will let you book that spot in just one click. The add-on is pretty simple and straightforward and works quite well with Gmail. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Zoho Calendar

Zoho Calendar is part of the Zoho suite, a well-known competitor to Google Docs. While neither as popular or as feature rich as Google Calendar, Zoho seems like a perfect choice for those who want to unshackle themselves from Google's huge ecosystem. As far as the UI goes, the app looks pretty similar to Google Calendar, almost as if it is a clone. However, the fonts and many other UI elements do a good job at reminding you that this is a different application you are using. Also, Zoho allows you to embed your calendar on any website or blog. This can be very useful for bloggers who like putting out schedules and future post announcements on their site. 

Apart from being a solid, Google Calendar alternative, Zoho makes itself stand apart from the web giant by allowing you to integrate the calendar with various CRM applications.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Memo Calendar

This app stands apart from others on this list by focusing on simplicity rather than features. Memo Calendar acts and feels much like the memo calendars we used to (or still do) hang on our walls. On each date, you can stick a small note so that it could help you remember something important that you have to do that day. Be it a birthday, a meeting, or an award show, just write it down on the memo calendar and you'll be fine. If you are looking for a simple, clean alternative to Google Calendar, this is your pick.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Sunrise Calendar

Compatible with the aforementioned Google Calendar as well as iCloud, Sunrise calendar is what Wunderlist is to a plain-old to-do list. Gorgeous design coupled with all the essential features you'd want from Google Calendar or any other calendar app, Sunrise is probably the best calendar app out there (Yes, it's even better than Google Calendar). What makes it so special is the fact that it integrates with many of the important services that have similar features built in. In other words, you don't have to open Facebook to check your distant cousin's birthday, Sunrise brings your Facebook Events and GCal events together thus removing the necessity for you to keep checking multiple sites at the same time. Much like Google Calendar, Sunrise works offline and allows you to add maps to a particular event. If you are already using Google Calendar, try this. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

7 Best Chrome Apps and Extensions for Coders

Whether you are a code ninja or a budding programmer, having a good programming environment is a must. However, with the high amount of time we spend in our browsers and on our Chromebooks, finding any coding tools that are not native is a bit of a daunting task. Thankfully, Chrome with its huge repository of apps and extensions, has us covered pretty well. So, if you are looking for some great coding tools that work perfectly in your Google Chrome browser, read on as we cover the best of the lot. 

Zed Code Editor

Zed Code Editor is a nice, clean-looking code editor designed specially for Chrome. Fully capable of running offline, its dark UI makes you focus on coding and nothing else. What's great about Zed is that it allows you to edit files locally as well as the ones that are stored on your Dropbox or Github account. Zed also supports syntax highlighting for most of the popular programming languages and can complete your code thus saving you the usual typing trouble. Another unique thing about Zed is that it has no tabs, it exists in a simple Chrome window that can be navigated using the goto UI. Built using web technologies like HTML5 and CSS, Zed is probably one of the best code editors you can have not just on Chrome but on desktop as well.

 DOWNLOAD HERE

 

Code Cola 

If you are a web developer, you will love Code Cola. It is a simple little extension that allows you to edit an online page's CSS in a visual way. Once installed, you can treat the whole web as your playground as you edit pretty much any page that you find worth experimenting on. 

 DOWNLOAD HERE

Caret

Modeled on the famed Sublime Text, Caret is an offline-capable text editor with syntax highlighting capabilities. What is special about Caret is that it is a great companion for users who love their Chromebooks thanks to its syncing capabilities. You can edit a file on your home computer and then you can continue working on it whenever you're traveling. Just hook your Google account to Caret and it will let you carry on where you left off. 

 DOWNLOAD HERE

Text

What Text lacks in features, it makes up in simplicity. Though definitely not as feature rich as the other editors on the list, this one is capable enough to become your default text editor. It has a clean and simple UI and it handles opening multiple files pretty well. With syntax highlighting for most major programming languages, Text can serve as a great, lightweight companion for a budding coder. 

 DOWNLOAD HERE

Tailor

Tailor is an experimental code editor for Chrome. With support for Git, it lets you work on multiple files with full syntax highlighting enabled. Though it doesn't have as many features, it is still a very simplistic, bare-bones app that works perfectly well offline. Though still in heavy development, it will be interesting to watch out for future additions to this project.

 DOWNLOAD HERE

ShiftEdit

If you are a web developer, you'll love Shift Edit. The online IDE lets you develop in PHP, Ruby, HTML, CSS and JavaScript with full syntax highlighting. You can then publish those files through SFTP, FTP, and Dropbox to any location you want. Despite taking a freemium approach to an IDE, ShiftEdit does live up to the expectations many web developers have from a good coding tool.

 DOWNLOAD HERE

GistBox 

 
If you are a developer who spends most of your coding life on GitHub, this next app is just for you. Once installed, you'll be able to collect the useful code snippets you find on a daily basis and organize them according to a programming language, project, or goal. Another cool function of Gitbox is the ability to quickly search through your text files. Just enter your query with a # or a keyword and the results show up instantly. What stands out in Gistbox is its simple UI and easy-to-use layout that makes it a treat to work with. 

 DOWNLOAD HERE

5 Best Enterprise Apps and Extensions for Google Chrome

We have already covered a lot of enterprise applications on our site before. However, one would never expect apps in this genre to exist on a browser like Google Chrome. But, nothing could be further from the real truth. Google's effort to outsmart even the biggest players in the enterprise market are gradually paying off. Slowly spreading its wings into the business world, Google is venturing into arenas where Microsoft once reigned supreme. While the competition doesn't concern us much, but what has happened, in effect, is that the rivalry is bringing out the best in both companies.

Both Microsoft and Google are trying their best to give enterprise clients exactly what they need, and for consumers, this is a huge bonus. If you are a Chrome user or a Google fan that uses the search giant's services in their company, there's much more you can do with your browser. And, the following applications and extensions let you do exactly that. So, without much ado, here's a list of the best applications and extensions for Chrome tailored for enterprise customers:

Contactually

With the ability to integrate with CRM's, Contactually helps you manage your work relationships better. The way this service works is that it prioritizes your email contacts so that you can connect with the right person at the right time. If you are into business and are looking to build a network of connections, Contactually might help you take things up a notch. Its email-centric workflow is great for anyone who uses LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to make their work relationships easier. 

 DOWNLOAD HERE

Presentme

Presentme is a great service that lets you create personalized sales messages. Integrated with Google Drive, the app is great for creating personalized sales messages you can deliver to your prospective clients. What's nice about Presentme is that it brings everything together in a neat little place. You can manage your presentations, videos, and other stuff all in one place and focus only on the task at hand. Another great thing about Presentme is that it lets you create full presentations from scratch and then publish them instantly to your clients. This way, you get an uninterrupted workflow that helps you manage things in a much more organized way. 

 DOWNLOAD HERE

BookedIn

Whether you have a salon, a small motel, or a big restaurant, you can use BookedIn to accept bookings online. This simple application lets you create your own booking webpage where your clients could look you up and then make their bookings. With web-based scheduling and client reminders, BookedIn aims to be a one-stop solution for booking and scheduling and it does do a good job at it. 

 DOWNLOAD HERE

Nutcache

Nutcache is a free multilingual online application for invoicing and time management. If you are looking for something to help you track your invoices, multiple projects, and lost time, this app claims to handle it all. Its web-based interface works great for tracking your time on those big projects. Within the app itself, you can create unlimited invoices and estimates and then track them when they are overdue. If you are more of a budget person, Nutcache also lets you keep an eye on your expenses. One of the nice things about this app is that you can monitor your spending and then bill your clients accordingly. Overall, it is a great free app for small businesses that are looking for a simple and cheap solution.

 DOWNLOAD HERE

Insightly

Insightly is a free CRM and project management application that is targeted towards small businesses. It integrates with Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Apps as well. What's noteworthy about Insightly is how well it handles its integration with the rest of the Google services. Be it client relations or project management, this app works well on many fronts together. The web app itself has a nice, sleek look with a search bar at the top that allows you to search clients, projects and many other things. The tab-based layout then brings it all together in one place making it easier to sort things out.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

5 Tempting Firefox Features That May Make You Ditch Chrome Forever

Chrome has transformed itself from a mere browser to a full-fledged operating system. It now has apps, extensions, themes, and a complete ecosystem built around it. Developed by Google, this browser, which is based on an open-source project, has become one of the most popular products made by the search giant. In fact, combined with Android, Chrome has the potential to become a formidable force that might be able to completely unshackle users from the clutches of Microsoft.

Chrome OS on the other hand, isn't lagging behind either. Its popularity is growing in huge numbers and a more tangible proof of that is Evernote, a company that has created an app just for them. This ever-growing presence of Chrome coupled with the domination of Android is like a Google fanboy's dream come true.

Having said that, despite its soaring success, Chrome isn't as great as it used to be when it first started. What used to be a blazing fast alternative to the then-reigning Firefox has now become a bit bloated. Too many features and tracking that may drive privacy conscious people a tad crazy has pushed a few people to go back to the mighty fox. While we don't think a regular Chrome user would be able to move to another browser so easily (given the amount of services it's tied to) we think Firefox still deserves another chance. It's a browser that has stood the test of time and has matured despite the strong competition.

1. Customization: This is a big area where Firefox's new Australis revamp has managed to take the browser a couple of steps ahead of Chrome. With the new design, you can customize pretty much any area of Firefox thus making it look the way you want. Be it a download button on the toolbar or an address bar that sits alone just like you have on Chrome, Firefox lets you shape your browsing experience any way you want.

2. Privacy: Google's main revenue source is advertising. And needless to say, that worries a lot of people who are concerned about their privacy. With Google's tracking built-in, Chrome tracks your searches in the Omnibox along with the suggestions. Also, most people don't like having all their data in one place, and that's why ditching Chrome might be a good idea. Firefox, on the other hand, has a strict focus on maintaining its users' privacy and this might help soothe any frustrations you have about making the switch. 

3. Better Extensions: When it comes to extensions, Firefox still reigns supreme. What makes its extensions so good is that they fit in perfectly with the rest of the browsing experience. Also, they allow you to change or modify pretty much every aspect of your browsing experience, something you'd rarely find in Chrome. Overall, Firefox's add-ons, though many of them require a restart, are much more mature and stable as compared to those on Chrome.

4. More organized: Compared to Chrome, Firefox's browsing experience is much more organized. Firefox comes with Tab groups out of the box, which allow you to club various types of tabs together and thus reduce clutter. Think of it like virtual desktops for your browser. What's good about the feature is that it's easily accessible. Just press Ctrl+Shift+E and the browser zooms out allowing you to rearrange the tabs in groups. You can even search through your tabs in this zoomed out mode thus relieving some of the tab overload we face on a daily basis.

5. Completely open source: Last, but not the least, Firefox is completely open source. This means that you can trust on it more than any other type of software in the world. Chrome, on the other hand, is based on an open-source project called Chromium. As much as Google emphasizes the fact that it's "based on an open-source project," it's still not open-source, and many FOSS enthusiasts like us agree with the fact.

Conclusion: Firefox is not perfect. It still has some aspects wherein Chrome will beat it hands-on if there ever was a competition between the two. But if there were a war between all the browsers in the world, both Firefox and Chrome would come out on top making them the two best choices any Internet user could make.

Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

Top Offline Games for Google Chrome

Google Chromebook users sometimes have a hard time convincing Windows, Mac and Linux users why their laptop is a worthy purchase. This is because many people think that Chrome OS can't do much of the stuff the usual desktop OS can do. After all, it's just a browser in a laptop, right?

Well, not quite. Chrome has quietly evolved from a simple web-browser to a complete desktop powerhouse that has a plethora of applications to boast of. Also, many of these applications run offline. Well, but what about games then? Can Chromebooks handle gaming? Well, they are not as good as Windows if you want to run the latest Call of Duty title. However, they can offer some great fun with Chrome's little collection of classic games that even run offline.

That's why, for all the Chromies who are jealous of the Windows gamers, we are listing some of the best offline games out there.

Angry Birds

When it comes to mobile games, Angry Birds still remains a classic. While its huge popularity has waned over the years, the game still holds a top spot amongst gamers young and old. A part of its appeal lies in its easy-to-use control. Just pull back the slingshot, that's all you have to do. The rest seems easy, well, at first. Angry Birds is a game that progressively gets harder as you keep playing it. What's more, it gets even more addictive bringing out the perfectionist in you who wants to get the best score. If you are planning on having a productive week, good luck.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Entanglement

Entanglement is a popular puzzle game that has been around for quite a while now. What makes this game so special is its Zen-like ambiance that engages the player on a really deep level. The aim of Entanglement is to create the longest path possible by rotating and arranging a set of hexagonal tiles. You have to do all this without running into a wall thus adding a lot of challenge. Apart from letting you play on your own, Entanglement also has a multiplayer option wherein you can play against up to 5 people on the same computer in a hot-seat like variation. Even if you are not a big puzzle game fan, Entanglement is a title that definitely deserves a try. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Coconut Hunter

This game is ridiculously simple yet can get quite addictive as you keep playing it. All you have to do is slash coconuts across the screen simply by using the mouse. That's all, and yet, you would be hooked to this game for hours to come. Go ahead and give it a shot. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Cut the Rope

Feeding Om Nom on your smartphone? Now feed it on your desktop too. Bringing the same goodness of the mobile version, Cut the Rope for Chrome is a game that will keep you hooked for hours. No matter where you are, once you start this game, you'd probably not want to stop. Winner of BAFTA award, Pocket Gamer Award, and Apple Design Award, Cut the Rope is a must-have for all Chromies. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Offline Solitaire

If you are a Windows user who's recently moved to Chromebooks, Offline Solitaire will help you deal with the nostalgia that comes with missing out on Solitaire. The hot favorite of every Windows user, Solitaire is a game you can keep playing for hours together. What's even better is that it's available on almost every Windows computer thus serving as a sneaky little distraction in your workplace. With no ads, or connection requirements, Offline Solitaire for Chrome offers pretty much the same features that you'll find on Windows solitaire.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Web Quake

If you grew up in the late 90s, Quake was a phenomenon. The first-person shooter by id Software was a successor to the popular Doom series and since then the popularity of this game has spawned millions of loyal fans. With a dedicated offline version, Quake still lives on Chromebooks and Chrome browser. It is a must-have for all the old-school nerds who loved the 90's.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

How to Make the Most Out Of Pushbullet For Android and Chrome

Since its release, Pushbullet has quickly become a favorite amongst many Android users. This free application lets you "push" any link or image to your mobile phone right from your desktop or browser. This means that you don't have to get up and type in a link that you see on your desktop on to your smartphone.

However, besides pushing links, Pushbullet can be used to do a lot more. The following article helps you get more out of the service.


Use Pushbullet for Storing Directions to Places

Let's say you are on your desk working on that big project. Suddenly a friend gives you a ring and asks you to join along for a dinner. She simply tells the name of the restaurant and you ensure her that you'll look it up. You quickly open up Google Maps on your desktop and voila there it is, the restaurant is just 2 miles away from your home. But, the problem is, you don't know the directions to this place. Now instead of looking up that place from your phone again, you can use Pushbullet to push the link to the map on to your smartphone. There, the link will then open up in Google Maps and you can then easily navigate to the restaurant.

Furthermore, if you are a bit old school and like to ask people for directions on the street, no problem. Pushbullet lets you forward the complete address onto your phone so that you won't have to remember it.


Store your Own Address in Pushbullet for Convenience

You know those times when someone calls you and asks you to forward your home address via SMS and you go ahhhh! Yep, that feeling that usually comes with typing out your own address a dozen of times. Don't worry you can easily avoid that feeling using Pushbullet. A great tip you can use is that you can type out your own address from the Pushbullet site and push it to your smartphone once. That way it gets stored in the web app's history. Now, whenever someone asks you to forward your address via SMS, simply push that address from the history on your phone, and then from the phone app, share it via SMS.

Snap and Save Important Receipts

If you are gung-ho about going paperless, Pushbullet comes in quite handy. While apps like Evernote do that quite well, Pushbullet isn't exactly that bad. All you have to do is snap a picture of an important receipt or document on your phone and then push it to your desktop. For backup, you can use a service like Dropbox from your desktop.


Make Booking Movie Tickets Easier

If you book movie tickets online, Pushbullet can help you speed things up a bit. Whenever you book the ticket online, simply send a link to the movie ticket or the ticket itself (PDF forms for some theaters) to your smartphone. You can then show the ticket that's on your phone at the booking counter.


Use Notification Mirroring

If you've been using this app for a while, you probably already know about this. Pushbullet can help you mirror notifications across multiple devices. The following video demonstrates that feature pretty well:



Website: www.pushbullet.com

Android App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pushbullet.android

Best Chrome Apps and Extensions for Foodies

Chrome is not just a browser. It has managed to reinvent itself by first turning into a full-fledged operating system, and then an ecosystem. Thanks to the relative openness of the platform and the plethora of efforts developers have put in, extensions and apps on Chrome offer pretty much the same functionality as a big ol' desktop. If you are a foodie and spend most of your time looking for something delicious to cook, these few extensions and apps are just what you need:

BBC Good Food

BBC Good Food is an app that lets you try out more than 200 recipes. With a beautifully designed interface, the simple layout features pictures of mouth-watering dishes from various cuisines. Moreover, if you are someone who travels a lot, or has a flaky Internet connection, the app also lets you view recipes offline. For the health conscious, the app comes loaded with all the nutritional data and health facts so that you won't have to sacrifice your health regimen for a tasty treat. The app also has full-featured videos that help you cook up any dish you want.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Gojee

Gojee is an app that features some of the best hand-curated recipes out there. Be it a moist chocolate cake or a cool Martini, you'll get to see big hi-resolution pictures of your favorite dishes in the app itself. The recipes are written by some of the best food writers around and you won't have any trouble replicating the dishes that are shown in the picture.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Famous Food Finder

If cooking at home isn't something you want to do, then checking out a cool restaurant might be a great idea. But which restaurant to go to? Well, if it was some place that you saw on TV, this next app lets you find exactly that. Famous food finder is an extension that lets you locate restaurants that were featured on various popular TV shows. Once installed, the extension searches the site famousfoodfinder.com and gives you results laid out on a cool-looking map. By giving your location to the app, you can also find popular restaurants that are near your place. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Fridgg  - Food Fanatics

If you are looking for something more than just a recipe app, Fridgg is just the perfect app for you. It is a community of food photographers, food bloggers, and food fanatics where you will find photos of delicious dishes from all around the world. Fridgg acts more like a food blog or a journal that lets you post pictures of beautiful dishes. More than just finding food pictures, you can also discover recipes, blogs, and food tips. Anyone from around the world can post their pictures and the photos are upvoted by the community of bloggers. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Recipe Cookbook

Recipe cookbook is a simple application that lets you search through a database of recipes any time you want. The app works as a great kitchen reference with a page with nothing more than just a search box. Simply enter your query, let's say "strawberry" and the app presents you list of recipes involving strawberries. The results are full of pictures of the dishes you want to cook. It is a great app to keep in your App drawer if you are someone who loves to cook. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Myeatbox

If you are someone who would like to document your culinary journey, Myeatbox is an app that let's you do just that. Whether it be logging your meals for a diet or creating your own recipe cookbook, the app is quite versatile when it comes to letting you share your love for food with other people. While not quite as good as compared to other apps on the list, it is still a good addition to your list if you are a foodie.

Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

Best Fitness Apps for Google Chrome and Chrome OS

Having to keep track of your daily eating habits is quite a task. Oh, and there is those tedious workouts that you have to do. Being healthy is such a bore, isn't it? Don't worry, even the healthiest of people hate getting out of bed and going to the gym. Yep, that's true. Fitness isn't a pleasant experience, it's hard work and yes, hard work for some people is boring.

As prolonged tech junkies, we are used to having shortcuts or little apps here and there that help us cut our job in half, in other words, keep us lazy. We have apps for self-diagnosing, for reserving our table at a restaurant, and even ordering the menu. Just press a button and your job is done.

In this world of 'click-and-buy,' it is understandable how hard it is to not be lazy. So, if you are someone who wants to get fit and wants to do it the quick way, what to do? Well, there is actually an easy way! Thanks to many apps and extensions that are out there you can keep track of your fitness right from your Chrome desktop or your Chrome browser.


Bodbot

Bodbot is an application that serves as your own personal assistant. Designed specially for people who either can't afford a gym or don't have to join one, Bodbot helps you personalize your exercise as well as nutrition. Once installed, Bodbot will get to know your goals very well. So whether you want to lose fat or gain some muscle, Bodbot will create personalized plans for you depending on what your needs are. From the weight of your dumbbells to the amount of sodium in your diet, it is amazing how detailed this app is. If you are a Chromebook user and a fitness freak, Bodbot should be your first choice as far as fitness apps go. 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Bloody Weight

Bloody Weight is a simple app that lets you record your body weight and keep a track of it on a daily basis. Nothing fancy in the UI or in the features department, this little app is great for getting a bird's eye view of your weight-loss progress. If a neat calendar and a graph is all you need to keep track of your fitness, Bloody Weight is a perfect solution for you.

 DOWNLOAD HERE

Diet Diary

Fitness is not just about going to the gym and working out for hours. It's also about keeping track of what you eat and how much you eat. If you are lacking some focus in the latter part, Diet Diary is just the app you need. Once installed, Diet Diary will help you log the foods you eat, the exercises you do, and the water you take in order to create your complete fitness profile. The app shows you charts for daily, weekly, and monthly averages for weight, water consumed, calories consumed and exercise minutes. Overall, the app comes with four trackers: Food tracker, Exercise tracker, Weight tracker, and Water tracker. If you are someone who is looking for a free app that helps take complete control of your fitness then Diet Diary should be your best bet.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Lose It!

Lose It! is a free Chrome application that helps you create a personalized plan to track your food, exercise, and weight loss. With a built-in calorie tracker, Lose It! serves as a fabulous tool to help you get an idea of how many calories you take and how many you burn. One of the distinct features about this app is that it also lets you add sport activities so that you can subtract the number of burned calories from your chart. If you are using the app on mobile, it will also let you scan barcodes so that you won't miss out on tracking the foods you just bought from the supermarket. It is a great app to go for if you are calorie conscious. 

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Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.

 

Best Chrome Apps and Extensions for Developers

Google Chrome, the world's most loved web browser has come a long way. Once touted as a faster alternative to Firefox has turned itself into a significant player in the OS marketplace. With the launch of Chromebooks, Google has ensured that pretty much everything you do on your desktop can be done in your web browser. Taking this vision further, the search behemoth turned the web browser into a full-fledged operating system. Running on top of Linux, Google Chrome OS has become a crowd favorite. Its ability to sync seamlessly across all devices has made the initial naysayers give Chrome OS a second chance.

The soaring growth has many implications apart from the decimation of Microsoft's monopoly. Chrome's growth has propelled developers to create apps that are at par with the ones on Windows. Be it photo retouching tools or text editors, the Chrome Web Store houses pretty much everything. If you are a developer reluctant to switch to a browser-based operating system, think again. Chrome has some amazing developer tools to offer that will help you code the app that you want without being chained to a real "desktop".


Nitrous.io

Nitrous.io  is a cloud-based development environment platform that works in your browser. While you may be wondering whether what you just read is some shady marketing ploy, you're wrong. Nitrous does offer a full-fledged development environment that can be accessed from anywhere you want. This development environment involves a fully featured text editor along with a Linux shell loaded with all the development tools you need. Besides C, C++, and Java, Nitrous also supports Ruby, Python, Node.js and Go. The Linux shell from Nitrous actually runs in your browser and from the tests we ran, it runs almost as good as a native Linux shell. One of the best things about Nitrous is that it doesn't need anything to setup. Simply select the type of development you are going to do and you are done. Nitrous is free to start but charges you for extra "N20s" that add more features to your app.

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Text

Text is the text editor you need if you are serious about programming on Chromebooks or Chrome. It is simple, fast, and has syntax highlighting. If you are someone who travels a lot, coding on the go becomes much more easier with Text's ability to work offline. Once installed, you can work on multiple files at once and save them to Google Drive too. It is definitely worth considering if you are a coder who wants a neat text editor with powerful features.

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ShiftEdit

ShiftEdit is a Chrome-based online IDE for developing in PHP, Ruby, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. If you are a web developer, this app will tick all the boxes on your list. Allowing you to make the most out of a full-fledged development environment, ShiftEdit is another example of the blurring lines between web-based and desktop-based applications. The IDE is quite powerful, especially for a cloud-based app. It has real time syntax debugging along with offline capabilities. Furthermore, you can publish your files using Dropbox, FTP, or SFTP, and Google Drive. Overall, it is a great tool for web developers who want something powerful to code their apps on.

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Neutron Drive

Neutron Drive is a Google Drive-integrated code editor that lets you collaboratively edit your code. One of the very few apps with real-time collaboration, Neutron Drive makes it easy for coders who work in teams. Another advantage that Neutron Drive has is that it has a full-fledged editor, file browser, and built-in revision control that you can access from any device. Neutron Drive not only offers the basic development features, it also provides an interface that is highly customizable and easy to work with. The files that you are working on are automatically saved to Google Drive without you having to worry about any data loss.

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You  may also check out our previous collection of Google Chrome Extensions for Web Developers.