6 gadgets and apps to document your life

We tend to move through life so fast that it all fades into a blurry mess. Here’s how to use the right combination of apps and gadgets to keep everything digitally backed up and more importantly, in a way that is easily retrievable at a later date

1. HTC RE (Rs 9,900)

You want a wearable camera to be really light and unobtrusive. At the same time, it should capture what you need without much fuss.

The wide angle lens and smartphone control on the HTC RE helps you do all that.Plus, its waterproof, looks unique and captures high quality 1080p video and photos with just a couple of taps. If cheap, no-nonsense, high quality audiovideo is what you need, the HTC RE is hard to beat.

2. Narrative Clip (Rs 9,500)

When you start taking photographs of an event, you sort of detach from it. Well, that's what the makers of the Narrative Clip would have you believe.

The Clip is a tiny (20 grams, 9mm thick) automatic camera with storage for 4,000 pictures (5MP each) and 2 day battery life. Clip it to any part of your clothing and it'll keep taking photos of everything you see and everything you're part of. The AndroidOS app will let you view and sort everything later.

(Buy Now @ Amazon.in)

3. Samsung Note Series (Rs 23,900 onwards)

Thanks to the pressure sensitive stylus, Samsung's Note series of devices are the perfect choice of phonetablet for someone who constantly needs to draw, jot notes or annotate.

You can take a photo of anything and start drawing on it, scribble notes, save clips and images to combine later, take a screenshot and start drawing etc.The cheapest in the series is the Note 3 Neo and the newest is the Galaxy Note Edge with a curved amoled screen.

4. Portronics Portable Scanners (Rs 4,990 onwards)

If you often see something you need to save (reference books in a library, for instance), you can use a portable scanner. Portronics offers two versions that are truly portable ­ they have built in batteries and record to a micro SD card.

Scanny 6 is great for books and almost any flat surface ­ even a poster on a wall ­ you have to manually move it across the surface you want to scan. Scanny 7 is a portable auto sheetfed scanner and it works for leaflets, papers, business cards and so on (up to A4).


(Buy Now @ Amazon.in)

5. Portronics ElectroPen (Rs 5,500)

The ElectroPen converts any regular notepad into a digital one. There are two parts to it: the receiver (8 hour battery life with continuous use) and a digital pen (30 hours continuous use).

You simply clip the receiver to a book or notepad and it will digitize everything you write. It can store 100 A4 pages before you need to transfer to a computer. As a bonus, it can also be used as a writing device or mouse with the receiver connected to a PC.

(Buy Now @ Amazon.in)

6. Boogie Board RIP (Rs 5,990)

Ever thought of a million dollar idea, only to have lost it in a scribble somewhere? This is a device that lets you save all your scribbles ­ the screen lets you doodle or write anything you want and each page can be saved to the internal memory to be transferred to the computer later as a PDF.

Tap one button and the screen will flash, erase and you can start again. The rechargeable battery typically lasts a week or so.

7. Evernote Food

Evernote Food is a great way to remember details about the food you eat. Not only does the app let you store photos and location of where you ate, it also lets you add recipe details if available. You can add step-by-step details on how to cook a particular item and then share it with your friends through the app.

You can even search for recipes from the app's ample database. In addition to food, it lets you find and save details about restaurants worldwide.

8. Picr

Think of this free app like your selfie diary. It requires you to take a photo everyday and it even reminds you if you forget. No registration is required and there is no limit on the number of reminders you can set.

There are built-in tools (grid, overlay) to help align your face and you can also create a timelapse video of all the photos taken and share it with friends and family. The free app also has the option to create a specific holidaytrip journal if required.

9. DayCatcher Journal

DayCatcher is an easy-to-use and feature-rich journal app that can help record your day-to-day life events. It lets you link people from your contact list with logged events so that it's easy to remember later.

You can even set emotions for a particular hour in the app. Notes can be set up as reminders, you can use tags and add photos to add more details. If required, the app also has a paid Pro version that remove all ads and enables notification reminders.

10. Friday

Friday is a focused life-logging app. It keeps track of your phone usage: locations, calls, social networks, music and pictures. Data is quickly searchable from within the app to see the recording on a particular day.

If you perform a regular activity (specific day and time), Friday will record details and anticipate behavior. It even lets you share details regarding your entries with friends and social media.

11. Dreamboard

This one is a dreams journal.Developed in collaboration with psychologists, the app lets you log numerous details about your dreams such as their mood, type, and the emotions you experienced during the dream.

If available, you can add a detailed summary of what you saw.You can then use the app to track and analyse dream patterns to understand their impact on your daily life.

12. Wally+

Wally is a finance app that documents daily expenses.You can add income details and setup recurring expenses.

What makes the app great is that it lets you add location details to an expense so that it is easy to remember where the money was spent. In addition, you can also tag the expense to distinguish between personal and professional expenses.