Hamza Khalid

Handles Windows Phone, iOS and Cydia. A big WP7 fan, who just loves writing about anything and everything. Google+

Bamboo Loop Combines Collaborative Drawing & Picture Messaging On iOS

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Draw Something has enjoyed a lot of fame on iOS, and many people are still using it to laugh at the sketching skills of their friends. I play the game quite regularly, and there are times when a given drawing becomes more about getting a message across rather than winning a point. When you stop and think about it, a photo can convey a lot more than a paragraph of text (or as the saying goes, equal to a thousand words). With modern messengers, you can send photos as attachments with your messages, and one or two options are available for fans of doodling as well. Released by Wacom - the popular maker of styluses and graphics tablets - the new Bamboo Loop might look like a photo editor at first glance, but it is actually a messaging app. You can doodle on your favorite photos or beautiful background textures, and send these end results to any of your friends. Your friends can then send your creation back to you by making changes and additions of their own, thereby creating a loop of interaction. Read More

Shazam Comes To iPad With Auto Background Tagging & Interactive Maps

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Back in December, the famous music recognition app Shazam was updated with support for offline tagging, which seemed like a pretty revolutionary feature. Looking back, however, you have to admit that Shazam needs support for more platforms before it goes about adding novelty features to the mix. It was quite heartening to see Shazam arriving on Windows 8, but the owners of iPad continued feeling a bit ignored. Of course, the app has been around on iOS for a long time, but wasn’t display-optimized for the tablet. After taking a look at the new universal version of the app, we can safely say that the wait has been totally worthwhile. Not only does the iPad version of Shazam come with a gorgeous interface, it also debuts some features that will only arrive later on other devices. These include continuous scanning of your surroundings for new music even when the app is in the background, and a prominent place for popular tags from different TV shows. Shazam now also has an ‘Explore’ view, where users get to see trending tags belonging to a particular city or country. Read More

PC & Mac Remote Control App Splashtop 2 Comes To Windows Phone 8

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When it comes to apps that let smartphone users access their desktops remotely, Splashtop is sure to be among the first names that crop up. Splashtop became available for iOS quite a while back, and the Android app wasn’t too far behind. After some time though, the company behind the awesome remote access software decided to revamp it and came up with Splashtop 2. The new app became popular for its better streaming quality, and audio support. However, Windows Phone users could only watch in jealousy as their friends on other platforms went around using Splashtop 2 for playing PC games on their smartphones. Finally though, the situation has suddenly changed for the better. Despite the fact that the WP Store did not have the original Splashtop app, it has directly received Splashtop 2! The app isn't too different from its Android and iOS counterparts, but does have a few features designed exclusively for Windows 8 and WP8. Read More

Get Gestures For Quick Calls, Texts & Emails From iPhone Contacts App

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Thanks to its support for iCloud, Gmail, Hotmail and other similar services, the contact management in iOS is pretty good. You don’t have to worry too much about importing contacts to your iPhone manually, and the stock Phone app integrates the address book quite nicely as well. There are a few things, however, that might entice some users to shift to third-party contact managers for iOS. ReachFast Contacts is a pretty decent example of an app that offers something that is unavailable in iOS by default: gesture control. Admittedly, it only takes a few extra taps to make a call from the stock Contacts or Phone app, but if you have access to the Cydia store, it is now possible to have the best of both worlds. QuickGestures lets you make calls, send a text or start composing an email right from the stock Contacts app simply by performing different gestures on each contact’s name - no extra buttons added! Read More

Drive Awake For iPhone Scans Your Eyes & Prevents Drowsiness Behind The Wheel

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There can be no denying the importance of navigation apps for smartphone users, since they let them reach their destination quickly. Having said that, there is an even more important objective that you must always remember while driving, and that is to reach your destination alive and in one piece. Drunk driving, texting while driving and falling asleep on the road are among the biggest causes of automobile accidents. Of course, being sensible is always the best precaution you can take against these problems, but technology can also help you to some extent. Meet Drive Awake, an iPhone app that scans your eyes while you are driving, and literally raises the alarm as soon as your eyes start closing. Since Drive Awake has been developed in collaboration with Café Amazon, and points you to its nearest outlet whenever you are caught napping. Read More

Manage Notifications For Each iPhone App From Home Screen With Badger

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Some Cydia tweaks end up being bit disappointing after a lot of hype has been created around them, but Velox did not prove to be such a flop. People were talking about it well before its release and now that it has been available in the jailbreak store for a few weeks, the large number of available Velox add-ons are a testament to its growing popularity. While most people have been focusing on its ability to display interactive widgets on the iPhone SpringBoard, there is something else the tweak can do: letting you view and dismiss notifications for any app simply by performing a few gestures on the app’s icon. If you like this feature but don’t want all the extra (albeit awesome) baggage that comes with Velox, Badger might be worth a shot. This tweak is a notification manager that offers a ton of customization options, and can work with any app that has pending notifications. It’s like having a separate Notification Center for each app. Read More

Track Your Habits, Activities & Work Hours With tenXer For iPhone

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The first step towards solving any problem is identifying it. If you feel your life needs some changes but you just can’t put your finger on the problem, there are some apps out there that can help you. The idea of an app helping you get your life back on track might sound a bit too outlandish, but the popularity of apps like Lift and Juice clearly shows how much people can get out of such tools. Both the aforementioned apps, however, are a bit limited because you can’t track everything about your life using them, and the level of automation they offer is close to zero. tenXer, however, has the potential to become a frequently used app on your iPhone by letting you keep an eye on your real-life routine and social media habits. The app can even track your working hours automatically by monitoring your location. Read More

Use Any Photo Or Color As Background For iPhone Notification Banners

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BannerImage has not been around in the jailbreak store for too long, but many people are already comparing it to the FlagPaint tweak. The comparison is justified to a large extent, since both tweaks are designed to let users change the appearance of notification banners, but we have to point out that BannerImage takes things to the next level. While FlagPaint renders quite good-looking results, it gets a bit monotonous after a while, since there are only so many colors or styles you can apply to your banners with it. With BannerImage, on the other hand, you get all that, plus the ability to use any image from your iPhone’s camera roll as the background for the banners. Although the newer tweak’s controls don’t look as refined as FlagPaint’s, we have to say that the customization options are certainly better. Read More

Discover Songs & Listen To Your Own Music Collection With Legato For iPhone

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exfm and MusicBunk are great music discovery tools but a lot of effort goes into organizing and collecting songs in your local collection, and it seems a bit of a waste to rely solely on online streaming to get your daily dosage of music. Legato is a new iPhone app that is part music player, part music discovery tool. You can view a list of songs that have been played by your friends from their iPhone collection, or just let the world know what your favorite song is these days, simply by playing it in the Legato music player. The songs you discover using the app can be previewed and purchased, and users can also leave feedback on them, thanks to the Legato rating system. Read More

Here Are Some Great Velox Add-Ons To Spruce Up Your iPhone Home Screen

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Velox hasn’t been in the Cydia store for even a month yet, but the tweak has made a huge impact on the jailbreak scene. Everyone expected a few add-ons to come out for Velox but nobody had the idea that in less than a month, the Cydia store would be bursting with extensions for the tweak. Velox already works with most of the stock apps but thanks to these third-party add-ons, you can now get a modified versions of your favorite Velox widgets for even the third-party apps installed on your iPhone, and make the tweak handle them. With so many of these add-ons available in the Cydia store, it has become a bit of a nightmare to find the exact extension you want. Searching in Cydia only yields a rather confusing mix of Velox-related themes and add-ons, so we decided to compile a list to help users who want to get the most out of this awesome tweak. Read More

Tumblr Gets Revamped Posting Options On iPhone & Web

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With the news of Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr still no more than a few hours old, everyone was a little surprised to see the service’s iOS and web versions getting significant updates. Almost certainly though, the updates don’t have anything to do with the acquisition because the new features don’t deal with any additional Yahoo! integration, and the service keeps getting updates pretty regularly anyway. The focus in both the updates seems to be on enhancing the user experience and offering a better interface. This doesn't mean, however, that the main Tumblr UI has been overhauled. The changes have mostly occurred in the options that deal with posting new content to Tumblr blogs. On the web, you get a much cleaner ‘compose’ box for text posts, and a photo upload dialog that support drag-and-drop. For iPhone users, the app might appear unchanged at first glance, but when you try to compose a new post, a revamped selection list for post types shows up. Read More

Itsdagram Is A Neat Instagram Client For WP8 With Upload Capability

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Apps like Metrogram and InstaCam were the only way for Windows Phone users to get a taste of Instagram on their devices, until recently. While both these apps look great and have some nice features, they can never be true alternatives to an official Instagram client, since you cannot upload photos to your account using them. In a bid to get the official Instagram app on WP8, Nokia even came out with the #2InstaWithLove campaign, but that hasn't done much good so far. Things took a turn for the better recently though, when Instagraph was released. The app was the first for WP8 to offer the ability to upload photos to Instagram. People might have been content with it, but competition makes everything better, so it is good to see that another app with support for uploads has appeared in the WP Store. Itsdagram has a really neat interface, which resembles Instagram’s UI on other platforms. The app offers a variety of filters and account management options, and unlike Instagraph, has a free trial version. Read More

Remotely Track & Control Your Lost Or Stolen iPhone With inner

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Anyone who takes security seriously, or has had a mobile phone snatched from them in the past, might already be using apps like Prey on their smartphone. Prey is arguably the most popular anti-theft solution available on iOS and Android but if you own a jailbroken iDevice, there are also some less feature-rich yet effective alternatives to the Prey app out there. ICaughtU might not track your stolen device for you, but it can be used to get a photo of the thief. There is certainly a lot of potential in Cydia apps when it comes to countering phone theft, and inner demonstrates that quite clearly. This app has a ton of features, which make sure that every base is covered in case your phone gets stolen. inner can spring into action automatically when an unauthorized SIM is placed in the device, and also allows you to send commands to your phone remotely using the app’s desktop companion. Read More

myQuests Is A Great Gesture-Based iPhone Project Manager For Teams

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It is a common practice among developers these days to make to-do list apps that rely heavily on gestures and color-coding. Clear kicked off this trend, but more recently we have seen similar concepts implemented in apps like Listacular. Since the whole point of using gestures in a task manager is to make it uncomplicated, these apps aren't too heavy on features. The new myQuests though, clearly shows that it is possible for an app to be feature-rich without making things too tangled up. The app can prove to be a great tool for project management, specially when you have to work in a group, because it lets users share tasks with others, and has an elaborate commenting system of its own that can be used to stay up to speed with all the latest happenings regarding any to-do list or individual task. Read More

Export All Media Files Sent Or Received In iOS Messages App From One Place

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Just the other day, while testing the tweaks that allow users to attach long videos with their iMessage and MMS, I realized that for anyone who texts a lot, finding media files in the Messages app is a real headache. Even the search feature in the stock Messages app is limited, and only works for parts of threads that have been loaded manually. In this situation, a section maintaining a collection of all media files saved in the Messages app might have been really useful. Since no such feature exists in iOS, the Cydia store has a pretty decent solution up its sleeve. MediaExport is a Cydia app that shows photos and videos saved in all of your message threads. You can then save these files to the camera roll, or share them using the service of your choice. Read More

Get Update & Price Drop Notifications For Any iOS App With Apps Notifier

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Ever since Apple started its crackdown on app discovery tools, vendors have started coming up with ingenious ways of slipping past the stringent App Store scrutiny, and pushing out apps that might help you in keeping your iPhone interesting. A few days back, we covered AppShopper Social that adds a dash of user-collaboration to app discovery. Push notifications are an important part of any app like AppShopper, but there are other tools available for different platforms that are designed to work in the background, and only alert users whenever there is something worth checking out in the app collection. For Android, Amazon App Notifier serves a similar purpose, whereas iPhone owners can now give the new Apps Notifier a shot. You just have to add your favorite apps to the Apps Notifier watch list, and then wait for any updates or price drops to come along. There's is no need to even repeatedly come back to the app, since it is based almost completely on push notifications. Read More

Vobok For iOS & Android Is Like Twitter For Short Voice Recordings

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On the surface, Twitter’s 140 character limit might seem like a hindrance, but in reality, this feature has helped make Twitter the social networking giant that it is today. The limit helps keep tweets interesting, and makes sure that people can easily go through their timeline even if they follow a large number of profiles. Vobok is a social network for smartphones that works on the same idea of intentional limitation, but instead of written words or links, Vobok focuses on audio. The app has been designed to let users record short voice messages, and then share them with their friends and followers. Even private messages can only be sent in audio form, making the whole network voice-based. In the past, Audiolip has offered a similar functionality for desktop, while mobile users have had VoiceBo. Vobok still has its own special place in this genre though, owing to the fact that it is a no-frills app, and enjoys integration with Facebook and Twitter. Read More

Keep Track Of Who Follows & Unfollows You On Vine From iPhone

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There are plenty of tools for all platforms that can be used to manage your followers on Twitter. On one hand, there are services that let you trim down the list of people you follow, while other apps raise the alarm as soon as someone tries to quietly unfollow you. As Vine is still not too old, we haven’t seen a lot of similar services for it just yet. Another contributing factor might be Vine’s iOS-exclusiveness. Thankfully though, now there is a very uncomplicated way of finding out if someone has recently unfollowed you on Vine, or if that’s just your paranoia kicking in. Followers on Vine is not a feature-rich app by any means, but it is enough to let Vine users keep track of their followers if they are conscious about keeping their Follower/Following ratio in a certain range. The app can also be used to find the people you follow who aren't following you back on Vine, and even see a special list of your new followers. Read More

iTunes 11.0.3 Brings Revamped MiniPlayer & Better Album Management

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Forget its status as the iOS management suite; iTunes is among the most popular music players on desktops. After all, not many players let you purchase songs and albums from right within them. When it comes to features, iTunes is good enough to hold its own against any competitor. The only area where it was slightly lacking was the interface, but that issue was addressed pretty efficiently in the iTunes 11 visual overhaul. The MiniPlayer was among the features that got a complete makeover in the November update, and people liked it so much that there have even been attempts to emulate MiniPlayer view on iPhone and iPod touch devices. Apparently, even the existing MiniPlayer wasn’t good enough for Apple, despite its popularity, and that is why it has been tweaked a little more in the latest iTunes update. There can be no denying the fact that MiniPlayer changes constitute a large part of the iTunes 11.0.3 change log, but there are other changes as well, including more efficient management for albums with multiple disks and and a ‘Song View’ that looks better than ever. Read More

Hipstamatic Oggl For iPhone Is Like Instagram, And Then Some

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After Twitter’s introduction of photo filters of its own, one might make the case that the future of standalone photo editors for smartphones is not too bright. For now, however, there are some things that just can’t be done without the help of apps that have been designed specifically for the purpose of tweaking photos. When it comes to third-party image editing apps, Hipstamatic is not a new name in the game. We have already seen some really good photo-related apps from Hipstamatic, including the popular IncrediBooth and Hipstamatic Disposable. That hasn't stopped the vendor from spotting room for more, and has come up with the new Hipstamatic Oggl. This app supports both real-time filters and post-capture editing. The main feature of Oggl, though, is its ability to let users combine different filters and lenses to come up with unique results. It is also possible to snap photos of your own using the exact filter combos used in any of the photos publicly shared by others. Read More