Monthly Archives: August 2012

[Giveaway] PDF PROvider For iPad: Convert Photos, Webpages & Documents To PDF Documents

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Most professional documents are stored as PDF files, because of the fact that the chances of accidentally altering the text and other content of the file are really slim. An iPad is used by a lot of people for business purposes, and that makes PDF files and iPad a good combination. Maybe that is why there are a lot of iOS apps dealing with PDFs, and most of them are really popular with iPad users. Despite all the competition from similar apps, PDF PROvider is surely among the most comprehensive PDF-related apps for the iPad. The app lets its users create PDF files out of webpages, images, maps and Dropbox documents. Not only is it a good PDF converter, it is also perfect for viewing PDFs, as the viewer in PDF PROvider lets you add annotations, stamps, text and illustrations to files. In addition to all that, PDF PROvider has the option to append existing files with content from sources you find at a later time. Read More

Hot Mouse Flower Is A Hotkey-Triggered Virtual Keyboard For OS X

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Working productively is not just a careful balance of how many times you’re going to check Facebook and look at cats between getting some actual work done. It also involves finding a comfortable arrangement to work with your mouse and keyboard. Not that this is difficult for the average user who can easily switch between using a mouse and keyboard without trouble. Conversely, if you use programs that require you to switch between the two devices very frequently (perhaps in Photoshop) it gets frustrating after a while particularly if you’re working with additional programs. Hot Mouse Flower is a free Mac app that puts a virtual keypad triggered by a hotkey on your screen. The keypad is arranged in a disc and the keys listed are the Function keys, a few letter keys and additional characters. Read More

DownTango: A Simple To Use, Eye-Candy Download Manager

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Download managers always got the upper hand when it comes to downloading internet files. Admit it, a dedicated download software is better than the one that comes packed with your web browser. Almost all the popular downloader managers have got resume functionality, browser integration and optimized use of internet bandwidth (some even boost the download speed). I personally use IDM (Internet Download Manager) for all my downloading needs. Although it’s paid, it's worth every penny and provides plethora of features and settings. Recently, after reinstalling Windows on one of my friend’s PC, I started looking for a download utility, which he wanted to be less resource hungry and ergonomically friendly. Surfing through the web, I came across DownTango and thought to give it a shot. It’s not only very minimalistic and clutter-free, but also fulfilled my fellow’s wish of being an easy-to-use downloader. DownTango supports almost all the major web browsers, including Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, and automatically grabs their download links. Is it something that might replace your current download manager? Read on to find out. Read More

Font Art: Add Stylish Text To Photos In Your iPhone & Online Accounts

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A couple of months ago, we covered an app named Textgram, which allowed users to create text-oriented photos for sharing over Instagram. Ever since discovering that app, I have kept it on my iPhone, and it has come in handy on quite a few occasions. Textgram offers a lot of options for making the text look beautiful and really fancy, but something that it more or less ignores is the background for the text snippets. There are just a few templates that users can apply to their text masterpieces in Textgram, and that is a big limitation of the app. Font Art is an iOS app that lets you add beautified text to any photo you want. This means that the number of background templates offered by Font Art is unlimited, and you can write anything over any image! Font Art doesn’t stop here, though, and offers the choice to import photos directly from Flickr, Instagram and Facebook, rather than just the usual camera and camera roll options. You can make some basic changes to the images before adding text to them, and when the time comes for actually writing upon the pics, you will have a lot of gorgeous fonts, text colors and styles at your disposal. Read More

Doodlecast Pro: Record Audio & Freehand Drawings To Create Presentations [iPad]

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There are not many people who can say they enjoy making presentations, but the fact of the matter is that slides offer the easiest way of explaining something to others. If you could somehow take away all the effort required to make presentations, they will surely start getting used more often. Doodlecast Pro is an iPad app that might be the perfect presentation-maker for most people. You cannot add too much fancy items to your presentations using this iOS app, but it gives you an end product that has all the basic components of a good presentation, and even lets you record your voice to accompany the slides you create. The presentations created using Doodlecast Pro consist of photos (imported from your iPad’s library), freehand illustrations/text and voice recording. The combination of these three things can then be exported from the app as a video, or in the form of static slides (minus the audio). Read More

Popcorn Player: Free Holo-Themed Floating Video Player For Android

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With the conception of the very first floating Android app, one thing was for sure: the idea is bound to become an instant hit among users. As expected, ever since then, Google Play Store has regularly been bombarded with numerous apps based on the concept of popup/floating/resizable window(s). In terms of free and most feature-rich video playing & streaming apps belonging to said genre, Super Video Floating & Popup and MoboPlayer by Mobo Team are the two that deserve a mention. If you’re still undecided over selection between both said candidates, we’re going to make the task even more difficult for you, as a new ‘player’ has just appeared on the horizon; it’s called Popcorn Player, and has simplicity and intuitiveness written all over it. Like both aforementioned apps, Popcorn Player supports playing and streaming high quality videos through an omnipresent resizable, movable and floating window, as well as in full-screen mode. Designed to run specifically on Honeycomb or higher Android devices, this Holo-themed app lets you simultaneously enjoy a couple of different videos, whether local or those fetched directly from YouTube. It supports playing/streaming videos in MP4 and WebM formats, lets you minimize player window to easily navigate to your required app/homescreen, keeps track of the last played position of each video, and on top of all that, doesn’t annoy you with on-screen ads. Read More

DisplayCandy: Change System Animations In Your iPhone

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When it comes to smartphones, customization is something that is really popular among the masses these days. Android’s rise to fame is a testament to this, as Google’s mobile operating system lets its users do just about anything they want with their devices. iOS has its positives, but no one can say that it is the most customizable smartphone platform in the world. Admittedly, there are a lot of tweaks and themes available in the Cydia store that allow users to do a lot of cool stuff, but the possibilities are quite limited compared to Android. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean the developers over at the jailbreak store are not trying to make your iPhone even more awesome. Tweaks like DisplayCandy keep reminding jailbreak fans of the true personalization potential iOS can offer. DisplayCandy doesn’t do much in terms of adding new functionalities to your jailbroken iPhone, but if you are looking to revamp your device cosmetically, it is the perfect tweak for you. Thanks to DisplayCandy, you can replace the stock system animations for closing/launching apps with any of the beautiful, new animations offered by the tweak. Read More

Start8 Updated, Brings Classic Start Menu, Skips Start Screen & Disables Hot Corners

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Ever since Microsoft released the preview of Windows 8, the decision to remove the Start Orb has been heavy discussed, with both positive and negative response about the move. Some time ago, Aatif explained why Microsoft have decided to let go of the Start Orb and replace it with the Start Screen. Whatever the reasoning behind it, one thing is for sure; the Start Menu is going to be majorly missed after being around in one form or the other since the birth of the Windows operating system. However, it has been the norm that whenever Microsoft decides to axe a feature or misses to include something, third party developers take the charge of providing the service to the community, and fill the gap left by Windows with useful tools. Same is the case with the Start Orb. As soon as the news broke of Windows 8 not having it, tools started coming out that added it back to the system. Previously featured on AddictiveTips, Start8 is one such application, which recently received an important update. Now, it allows you to skip the Start Screen entirely upon start, disable Hot Corners, and lets you view the Start Menu in its classic style. Read More

Mozilla Thunderbird 15: A Look At New Features

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For a while now, I have been wondering why Mozilla would announce to take a step back from the development of its Thunderbird email client. What didn’t click my mind is that it’s always been one of the most popular, open source desktop email clients around. Perhaps the firm wants to revitalize itself by putting the same resources on their other projects, such as Firefox OS or the far-famed Firefox web browser, especially on the mobile platform. On the flip side of the coin, the company rolled out an updated version of Thunderbird earlier this week, the Thunderbird 15. Not only does the new version look much more polished, after a few security fixes and a captivating design, but the folks over at Mozilla have also thrown in a couple of new features, such as chat support and Ubuntu One integration. Lets find out what’s so cool about the latest release. Read More

GO SMS Comes To iPhone With Themes, Emoji & Quick Reply Pop-Ups

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GO SMS is among the most popular SMS apps for Android, and has successfully turned many people away from the stock messaging app in Android devices. The app offers everything you could ever want in a messaging app, and its integration with GO Messenger is the icing on the cake. Due to Apple’s strict App Store policies, the GO Dev Team hasn’t been able to bring their famous SMS client to the iOS Store, but that’s where Cydia comes into play. The official GO SMS client for iOS has just been released in the Cydia store, and you can start using it on your iPhone right now if you happen to be running iOS 4. We know that most of you have upgraded to iOS 5 and won’t be able to use the app, but GO SMS for iPhone gives the impression of being in a really early phase of development, and we might see major improvements (and the addition of iOS 5 support) in the app in the near future. However, the app is fully functional even now, and has the full potential of becoming a complete replacement for the stock Messaging app for iOS 4 users. Read More

SwatchMatic: Capture & Identify Colors via Your Android’s Camera

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If you’ve ever had a chance to work with colors, you’ll be very well aware of the fact that finding the exact combination is not an easy task. There are plenty of different color shades scattered all around us, but precisely identifying and differentiating among most of them requires an expert eye. While designing your new website, application, game, artistic masterpiece, apparel or any graphics project, you might have the exact required color right before your eyes, but due to the lack of adequate knowledge or a proper color identification tools, you won’t be able to learn about the exact shade that you’re looking forward to use. What can you do at best in such situations? Look for and then sift through multiple pages of some color catalogue? Verbally try explaining to the shopkeeper or the graphics designer about the exact color that you’re looking for? Or, maybe, snap the object through your mobile’s camera and then try to solve the dilemma with the aid of some color picker tool. Well, if you own an Android device, all you need is SwatchMatic to be installed on it. This free app has the capacity to instantly identify virtually any color that comes within the sights of the viewfinder of your device’s camera. The core purpose of the app is to help you with finding instant information about required colors around you, look for matching/contrasting shades, analyze their HSV, RGB & web values, create new color palettes using custom combinations, and share the color-filled pallets to your friends with a tap. Read More

AnyShape Brings Easy Selective Photo Editing To The iPhone

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Despite the presence of some pretty comprehensive photo editors in the App Store, there are times when you just have to transfer a photo to your computer so that it can be edited on Photoshop. The most troublesome photo editing issue suffered by iOS apps is their difficulty in selecting a particular editing path with precision. You can try all you want, but it is next to impossible to achieve the neatness possible in desktop photo editing tools. However, if you are feeling too lazy to take your photo editing work to your computer, and want to do everything on your iPhone, AnyShape might just be able to help you. There are countless photo editors available for iOS, but in our opinion, none of them is likely to offer editing path selection options that are as convenient as the ones in AnyShape. The app is a comprehensive photo editor, complete with filters and image enhancement tools, but its main focus is on letting you select the exact part of the picture you want to edit or crop, and that is why AnyShape can prove to be useful for both casual editing and the more serious stuff. Read More

Freemake Video Downloader Adds Download Queues, Speed Control & Native iPad Conversion

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Although video streaming is not something new, bringing it to mainstream by (the now-Google-owned) YouTube was nothing short of a tour de force. The company executed a brilliant idea of how we can share multimedia content with other folks around the globe. Back in July 2010, we covered an incredibly useful software that downloads video streams for offline viewing. Labeled Freemake Video Downloader, the application would let you instantly download videos from plentiful video streaming websites. The application packs some punchier features, such as one click download, video conversion to other formats, eye candy interface and so on, which makes it one of the best streaming media downloaders around. It’s been quite a while since we first reviewed it, and it has come a long way since then, introducing new options and bug fixes with incremental updates. The developers recently let out another updated version (3.1) of Video Downloader, which has added some promising new features (some which I had always craved for). A quick look at the change log and thorough testing revealed the following additions. Read More

CamTime Adds A Countdown Timer To The Stock iPhone Camera

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When it comes to smartphones, most people like it if things aren’t too complicated. One of the reasons iOS has been so successful is the fact that Apple prefers keeping things simple, rather than stuffing too many features in all their apps. The stock Camera app for iPhone is a pretty simple one, and if you need a lot of photo effects or other photography options, you will have to rely on the apps available in the App Store. Having said that, this emphasis on simplicity has the potential to leave out a few feature that are really useful, and this can get a bit annoying for users. The camera in iDevices does not even have a countdown timer, and if you want to add a delay before a picture or video is automatically shot, you can’t do it with the stock iPhone camera. Luckily, the Cydia store can help you with that. CamTime is a new Cydia tweak that adds a timer button to the stock Camera app in iOS. This button works in all areas of the iPhone that make use of the stock Camera. Not only is the functionality offered by CamTime a really useful one, it is also really easy to use and requires users to just enter the desired delay period before each shot is taken. Read More

Pin Files, Folders And Shell & Library Locations To Windows 8 Taskbar

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Shortcuts allow you to easily access frequently used programs without having to navigate through a series of folders. Having too many shortcuts on your desktop can create clutter and confuse you, defeating the basic purpose of having shortcuts. We have covered a lot of useful shortcut managers that enable you to reduce the clutter on your desktop and still have all the required shortcuts in your reach. However, if you don’t like installing third party applications to your system, Windows 7 and Windows 8 provide you with the Pin to Taskbar option. It is the closest thing to have as a replacement for shortcuts. You can pin the executable application files and your favorite folders on the taskbar and launch them directly without having to open Windows Explorer. However, there are still some items, including Shell Locations, such as Control Panel, Personalization, Power Options, Recycle Bin etc, and default Libraries for Music, Video, Pictures and Documents. Today, we have an application for Windows called Taskbar Pinner that increases the scope of Pin to Taskbar option and lets you pin any type of file, folder, application, hard drive volume, shell location or library to the Windows Taskbar. Read More

NPointer: Use Hand Or Head Gestures To Control Mouse Pointer

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Computer mouse is arguably the most fundamental element that let us interact with our PCs. It’s been with us  for several years now, and we heavily rely on it to perform everyday computer tasks. Similar to the fact how tech led us to use computer mice or touchpads to control curser movement, it has also introduced a handful of other techniques to perform the said operation. For instance, some computer applications can use your webcam to recognize hand movements to move the curser across the display. One such application that crossed my way is NPointer. It’s a gestural computer control software that records hand or head movements through a webcam, and translate them into mouse pointer movement. It’s an extremely handy tool for disabled folks who are unable to use a mouse. I have stumbled upon a few similar tools in the past, and to my astonishment, this one worked really well, in contrast to almost all those that we'd previously seen. It also provides an on-screen menu to perform key actions, such as mouse clicks, double-click, scroll wheel or drag. Keep reading for more details about NPointer. Read More

StatusBulletin Turns iPhone Status Bar Into A News Ticker For Notifications

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Apparently, a lot of developers over at the Cydia store aren’t big fans of the way notification banners are displayed in iOS. The main purpose of a banner is to notify users of a new change in an app, but without proving to be too much of a distraction. The stock banners in iOS are a bit too much in height for some people’s liking, and that’s why there are many jailbreak tweaks that focus on making the banners thinner and more pleasing to the eye. The latest to join the ranks of such tweaks is StatusBulletin. This Cydia tweak does make iOS notification banners thinner than before, but that’s not all it does. The best feature of StatusBulletin is that it gives your notifications the appearance of a news ticker. The banners will adhere to the status bar of your iPhone, and rather than ending the preview with the usual dots for long notifications, you will be shown the entire message thanks to the auto-scroll feature of StatusBulletin. Read More

A+ Folder Locker: Powerful Data Encryption, Steganography & File Shredding Tool

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Massive changes in information technology over the past few years, have almost doubled (or maybe tripled) the amount of data proliferation on our computers. This has also led to some major security concerns, that is, as more and more information is being available digitally, companies are trying to employ various security techniques to keep such delicate information safe. One of the most proficient ways to keep your files confidential - which include videos, picture, documents, credit card information etc - is to encrypt them using some security software. Folder lockers and other file handling tools come in handy to perform the said operation. Back in June, I covered a data encryption software labeled Toolwiz BSafe, which let you create file Safes and mount them as virtual drives. A+ Folder Locker is more or less a similar application, but with much more robust security elements. Akin to safes in BSafe, the application lets you create encrypted Lockers. These lockers can be password protected or pattern protected, whichever seems feasible to you. What’s more, it also packs steganography and file shredding features. Another benefit it has over other similar tools is that it lets you input encryption password using an integrated virtual keyboard, making it harder to crack. Read More

What Is Fast Startup In Windows 8 & How To Disable It

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When you shutdown your computer, power from its components, such as CPU, RAM, CD-Rom, and hard disk is removed in a controlled manner. As opposed to plugging the power cable out, or a power outage, during the shutdown process, Windows closes all the open applications one by one and turns off the system in the end. When you boot the computer, it starts in a refreshed state. You can customize your system to a great extent using default options, as well as third party applications. The local group policy editor is one such built-in set of parameters that allows you to control the behavior of your system. Many of these changes require you to restart your system in order to apply them. Windows 8 includes a lot of new features and one of these is Fast Startup. It is a newly introduced setting that enables your computer to start faster than normal by saving system information to a file during shutdown. The system information includes caching the registry, and saving many system files. Since this setting is enabled by default, in this post, we will explain how to disable and enable it, and when is it required to perform a complete reboot. Read More

Facebook Camera For iPhone Now Lets You Upload To Any Album & Adds Notifications

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Facebook appears to be taking iOS pretty seriously these days. Only a few days have passed since the Facebook app for iOS got revamped completely, and now Facebook Camera has been improved as well. The iPhone app now offers all the features that users have been demanding ever since Facebook Camera first came out. While the app wasn’t too bad initially, there were a few things that certainly needed attention. For one, the notification system in Facebook Camera was largely disappointing, and there was no way of knowing whenever there was some activity on any of your photos. Also, users could only upload photos to the app’s own album via Facebook Camera, and there was no way of adding new photos to other albums. Apart from that, the app suffered minor problems as well, like the lack of likes for individual comments and difficulties in reading of long captions. The latest update addresses all these issues, and then some. Read More