Yearly Archives: 2011

Ask The Readers: Do You Want Us To Cover Paid Apps?

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There is one topic that we have been debating internally for a while and we need feedback from our readers for that. We would like to know what you think about AddictiveTips covering paid apps? We are known for covering tips, and apps that are freeware. Lately, we have focused more on covering free apps since there are plenty of them around and nobody else seems to be covering them. The rate at which free apps are released every day for all platforms leaves us no choice but to cover them. However, there are some instances where there are paid apps that are worth covering too. Apps that solve some serious problems/annoyances and make life easier for users. We have been ignoring them, simply because they are not free. As a result, we have avoided covering some very nice apps. Read More

Smart Lyrics Auto-Fetches Lyrics When A Song Is Played [Android]

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Unlike its (arguably superior) iOS counterpart, the stock Android music player does not auto-fetch lyrics for songs. There are a few third-party audio players for the platform that sport said feature (MIUI’s iOS-inspired native music player, for instance). But if you prefer the stock music player for its simplicity or, like me, fancy a third-party music player that doesn’t have support for lyrics (Ubermusic), then Smart Lyrics has got your need to sing along covered. While it is activated, the app automatically fetches lyrics from the web whenever a song is played – be it using the stock player or any other third-party music player – and displays a shortcut to viewing said lyrics within the notification drawer. That is the app’s primary function but that’s not all it does. Join us after the break for a rundown of its other features. Read More

Email Large Files From Your Desktop With Kicksend

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Email attachments sizes are limited from the best services to the worst. While Gmail allows you to attach files of 25MB, you cannot send them to to any other account except to a Gmail one. With restrictions like these and the fact that file sizes are now only getting bigger, Kicksend offers you a viable solution. Kicksend is a web service that comes with an Adobe air based desktop application for Windows and Mac. The service can be used to send files of up to 150MB but the desktop application lets you send files of any size you want. You can add contacts or import them from Gmail. Files that you send as attachments are uploaded to the service, a link to the file is sent in the email for the recipient to download from. All files that you upload are deleted automatically after two weeks. The desktop application only allows you to send or download files, to add contacts you will have to use the web interface. Read More

Flipping Book Reader – View And Flip PDF Pages Like A Book

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Flipping PDF Reader as the name suggests is a PDF Reader which can be used as an alternative to your default PDF Reader. It has an interactive interface where you can flip pages like in a real book. It provides a number of stylish and unique features such as the option to switch to a two page view, book shelf for all accessed documents, a thumbnail view of the table of contents, a customizable interface and the utility to scroll page up/down using the mouse pointer. Read More

WeeDuplicateDetective – Delete Duplicate Files By Size, Name & Content

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Many duplicate finders search for files only by their name or size. This limits the potential of such applications as sometimes a file containing the same or similar content can have a different size or name. For this reason, it can be quite effective if a tool can locate duplicate files not only by size and name but also by content. WeeDuplicateDetective is duplicate file removing utility which provides the option to locate duplicate files from specified folder according to file name, size and content. All duplicate files are displayed in convenient sub-menus with the option to move (to a directory) or delete the selected files. Read More

Google Music Frame Brings Google Music To Ubuntu System Tray Sound Menu

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A few weeks back we covered Google Music Manager for Linux, which helps users upload songs to the Google Music web service. Unfortunately, Google Music does not currently provide a desktop application to stream music from Google Music. Having said that, 3rd party efforts have already begun to integrate Google Music features with the desktop environment for different operating systems. Google Music Frame is an Ubuntu application which adds Google Music options within the Ubuntu Sound Menu to control your music collection. So far it looks like a perfect Google Music integration in Ubuntu. It also provides NotifyOSD (bubble messages) notifications for currently playing album or song. Read More

What’s Up! for Facebook – Desktop Alerts Of Facebook Activity [Chrome]

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Facebook addictions vary from mild to serious; you might login and spend a couple of hours on it or you might stay logged in all day and check it as frequently as your email. For whatever kind of addictions you might have, it must cut in to your productivity to have to check back for new notifications. What's Up! for Facebook is a Chrome extension that gives you desktop alerts of your Facebook activity. Read More

Free PDF To Text Converter Extracts Text From Protected PDF Documents

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Many important documents and reports come as protected PDF files. Take for example WFP (United Nations World Food Programme) or any international N.G.O. While performing research, it becomes impossible to quote or give reference to any section of the report since extracting text from such PDF files is near impossible. Meet LotApps Free PDF To Text Converter. It is a portable application to convert a single or multiple PDF documents into a simple text file. If more than one PDF document is selected, it extracts and merges the document to create a single text file. The app does not require a PDF reader to be installed on your computer and provides seamless PDF to Text conversion in a matter of seconds. With Free PDF To Text Converter, you can even extract text from password protected and encrypted PDF documents. Read More

Forkly For iPhone – Food Discovery & Sharing With Twitter Integration

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iOS is a pretty well-populated platform when it comes to apps (and users). Think of anything, and there’s the likelihood that there’s an app for that. Not only that, there’s probably more than one app for a similar function in the App Store. So, it’s up to the user to choose which app best suits his or her needs. Food-related apps are pretty common too and you have giants like Foursquare offering food finding services. A new addition to this field is Forkly, which not only lets you find the food you want, but also allows you to stay in touch with your Twitter followers by sharing what you are currently eating. The app serves the dual purpose of letting you find the best place to eat, and sharing all your culinary updates over your social network. In addition to all that, you can also use Forkly as a food journal! Read More

‘Prevent Duplicate Tabs’ Keeps Chrome From Opening Pages From Same URL

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The number of tabs you have open in a window can quickly get out of hand; the number of tabs might get particularly out of control if it’s early morning and you’re going through your feeds and feeling all trigger happy or click compulsive. Prevent Duplicate Tabs is a Chrome extension that prevents you from opening multiple tabs of the same site. The extension can ensure that there is only a single page open of a particular domain or that there are no duplicate URLs open across any one window. Read More

WhiteLight: LED Flashlight Finally Available For Windows Phone 7 Mango

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Gone are the days when Windows Phone 7 was the subject of every Android (and iOS) user’s scorn and ridicule. We now have hidden Wi-Fi connectivity,  SMS photo and music sharing and lots more coming to Mango. One thing that’s still missing though (officially at least) is the long-awaited LED flashlight for WP7 devices. There are a lot of apps that claim to do it, but all of them do little more than bringing a white screen on your mobile. Not anymore! White Light is here, which is a third party app for WP7 Mango, using the actual camera LED to light up your world. Read More

Mobile Aircraft Encyclopedia – Android App For Aviation Enthusiasts

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Ever since the Wright Brother took off their first flight, to the inception of modern-day jets, there has been a burning desire in avid aviation fans to learn about the art of flying, as well as the hard work that is put in getting these flying entities ready. In the prime days of computers and laptops, there used to be the highly informative CDs and DVDs covering the art and crafts of aviation that provided users with the audio-visual content of interest. Then emerged the era of high speed internet and smartphones that changed the way most of us were used to accessing required information. Thanks to the highly competent developers, we now have mobile apps for our devices that are well capable of doing the job that the aforementioned destop apps used to do back in the old days. Mobile Aircraft Encyclopedia, as suggested by its name, is a free, informative and extremely useful Android app for users who are interested in or are studying aviation and love exploring information about models and designs of various aircrafts. From Boeing Airbuses to Monocoupe Aircrafts and from sonex planes to jet fighters, Mobile Aircraft Encyclopedia has got everything in its rich repository along with detailed information for each. The app provides Technical Data, Climb Performance, Descent Performance and other useful info taken directly from Doc 8643 of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Read More

Initiate Custom Web Search From Mac Menu Bar Using MenuSearch

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Plenty of application launchers allow you to search quickly without opening up the browser first. MenuSearch is an app for Mac OS X that puts customizable search on system menu bar. Switching between widely used search engines and defining your own list of websites to search is also possible. The app supports pre-defined hotkey combinations to quickly set focus on search bar to initiate search. You can also set post-search behavior, such as, make search field active after searching and show and save history. Read More

Tweak Windows Using Command Line With GTweak

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GTweak is a portable command-line script for tweaking Windows. It has been designed to work in two separate modes; the Wizard Mode (for average users) and Normal Mode (for expert users, also known as the Advanced Mode). By default, GTweak runs in the Wizard Mode, but you can switch to the Advanced Mode for using command lines instead of keystrokes. The former is meant to provide simplified keystrokes for using the tweaking options, whereas, the latter runs GTweak commands (standard commands are not supported). With GTweak you can hide and rename of Start Menu items, disable, enable or verify system features such as System Restore, remove Internet Explorer policies, configure Autorun and system reactions, speed up system shut down, manage Hibernation settings, define Windows Explorer reactions to exceptions, etc. Read More

Enable 8-Point Multi Touch On Motorola Photon 4G

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So the Photon 4G with it’s impressive hardware and and an equally impressive 540 x 960 pixels 4.3” screen, is surprisingly limited regarding multi touch input. 2 touch points aren’t exactly categorized as multi touch now. If you’re into Android games, such as Fruit Ninja, Cut The Rope or use emulators on your device that use on screen joysticks and buttons, chances are this 2 touch point system in the Photon 4G is going to give you some serious limitations. Even if you do manage it somehow, if a 3rd finger slides onto the screen while playing, consider things going wrong in a second, and that has already happened to a lot of us. Thanks to XDA-Developers forum member michael0619 who originally brought out a multi touch mod for the Atrix 4G, the mod has evolved and found itself working for the Photon 4G, allowing 8 touch inputs on the device. Frankly, 8 points are a bit too much, but 2 were equally ridiculous.

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PleaseSleep Forces Your Mac To Sleep When Certain Apps Keep It Awake

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You must have noticed that Mac OS X turns its screen off after 5-10 minutes of inactivity. Although the previously reviewed Caffeine allows keeping Mac OS X awake as long as you want, sometimes you may want Mac OS X to automatically go to sleep without noticing those processes and applications which attempt to forcibly prevent Mac OS X from falling asleep. PleaseSleep provides one stop solution for this very problem. It’s a small application for Mac OS X that lets you put your system to sleep when some applications are keeping it awake. Read More

OpenWith Enhanced Adds More Features To Windows 7 ‘Open With’ Dialog Box

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The Open With dialog in Windows right-click context menu instantly opens a file in a selected program and sets default program association. This ensures that the selected file automatically opens with the pre-defined application. For example, if you were to associate all Mp4 files with VLC Player, then the next time you open a video in Mp4 format, it will automatically open with VLC. Despite being an essential part of the Windows operating system, the Open With feature still lacks many enhancements which can make it more useful. For example, it would be nice to be able to get suggestions for known and unknown file types within the Open With dialog and to disable file associations temporarily rather than completely binding them with another application. Read More

Translate And Listen To Text From Multiple Source With QTranslate

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QTranslate is a portable application for instantly translating text in several languages. Apart from fetching translations from Google Translate, it also provides the option to translate text using other online sources including, Bing Translater, Prompt Mobile, SDL and Yahoo Babel Fish. Compared to Linguarde and Transmiti, QTranslate  provides audio playback for both the input and translated text. Translations can be performed from within applications, such as browsers, word processors, PDF readers and so on. It has a built-in spell checking utility which ensures that all spelling from the input and translated text are of the correct spellings. Read More

Trover Brings Photo-Based Location Tagging & Discovery To iPhone

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You might be a little confused by the the title, but you read that right, it’s not location-based tagging of photos, but the other way around. The concept behind the Trover app is unique enough to warrant a caption like that. For iOS users, there are a bundle of apps dealing with travel and photo sharing, but this app somehow manages to combine these two utilities in one, allowing users to see what attractions lie near them. And by "seeing" we mean really see, as a picture uploaded by past users! So rather than merely reading about a place and the attractions it offers, you can actually see every notable thing related to a particular area, and learn loads more that way. Read More

ShakeOff – Shake To Turn Off Your Android Device’s Screen

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You might’ve given your Android device a nice handy shake to capture its screenshots via ShootMe. You might’ve also tried your hand at AppShaker – an Android app that launches apps when you shake your device. In fact, you might find plenty of apps on the Market that let you perform various functions by shaking your device. How about turning its screen off by doing the same? ShakeOff is a free Android app that lets you instantly turn off your device's screen and puts it into sleep mode when you shake it. This means that you no longer have to reach for the power button time and again to lock your device. Read More