A. Rehman | AddictiveTips

TheftSpy Has Everything You Need In An Android Anti-Theft & Remote Management Tool [Review]

by A. Rehman on February 28, 2013

Android

We have previously reviewed quite a few remote device management, location tracking, and anti-theft solutions for Android, but it’s hard to recall a tool that matches the proficiency of TheftSpy. Fresh to the Play Store, TheftSpy (Alpha) is a multipurpose Android tool offering web-based remote management, location tracking and anti-theft features. Besides offering services like remote contact list, call logs & message inbox access, location tracking via GPS, data wiping, device locking, and system rebooting & shutting down, the app brings several relatively new features to the table, such as the option to remotely take device screenshots, snap images via front-facing camera, push custom text messages as full-screen pop-up alerts, toast messages or as Text-To-Speech (TTS), encrypt entire mobile content, read & delete WhatsApp messages, secretly record audio via your device’s microphone and lots more, all from your desktop web browser. Read More

Yandex.Store Promises To Be A Great Alternative To Android Play Store

by A. Rehman on February 27, 2013

Android

Whether you’re tired of not being able to access several Play Store apps in your country due to Google’s regional restrictions or just looking for a worthy alternative to Play Store and Amazon Appstore, we have some great news for you! Yandex – Russia’s largest search engine (often dubbed as Russia's Google) – has just released an Android app store of its own fittingly titled Yandex.Store. With a UI and functionality quite similar to that of Google’s own offering, Yandex.Store is already home to more than 50,000 free and paid Android apps as well as games upon launch, with many communication, socializing and navigation-based apps aimed particularly at the local user community. That being said, you are also going to find the likes of Twitter, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, SoundHound, TuneIn Radio, Skype, Opera Browser and many other other big names in the package. Just like Play Store, you can view detailed information about the apps before installation, and update notifications as well as automatic updates of installed apps are supported as well. Read More

snaplife Saves Clips, GIFs & Collages Of Best Moments In Videos On Android

by A. Rehman on February 26, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

It’s been a while since we last caught hold of a noteworthy photography app in the Play Store, but it seems the wait was well worth it, as we’ve just come across a remarkable tool in the form of snaplife. Available for free, snaplife is a multipurpose Android app that automatically analyzes your video recordings to present you with multiple thumbnails of some of the most significant moments in the entire clip, which can be saved as photo collages, GIF animations or MP4 video files. In addition, the app offers plenty of vintage-style filters so that you can make your life’s most memorable moments even more vivid and appealing. The images or video created with snaplife can then be shared with your friends and family members from within the app in just a few taps. Unlike a timelapse-oriented photography app or a routine video recording tool, snaplife puts you in complete control over selection of the moments from your video recordings that you wish to retain. Details to follow. Read More

Podkeeper Is A Free Android Podcast App With Batch Downloads & Management

by A. Rehman on February 26, 2013

Android

With likes of Volksempfanger, VoAudio and AntennaPod alreadya vailable on Play Store, no one can complain about Android not having enough quality podcast apps. To add to that tally, we have just found yet another promising candidate in the Holo-themed Podkeeper that seems to have all the makings of a brilliant podcast app. Barring the native vodcast streaming capabilities, Podkeeper boasts almost all the key features one expects to find in a good podcast player. The app lets you search for and subscribe to podcasts without having to register with any service. For each subscription and its episodes, it displays ample information and lets you download episodes in bulk. In addition, the app supports seamless playback, offers background playback support, lets you mark chosen episodes as listened or unlistened, complete with visual indicators, and allows you to define player behavior in case of phone calls or upon connecting or removing the headphone jack. Read More

Easy Touch Is An iOS AssistiveTouch-Inspired Multitasking Tool For Android

by A. Rehman on February 26, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

One of the biggest advantages of being an Android user is the broad range of apps and tools you have at your disposal for achieving various purposes, and when it comes to multitasking and app switching solutions, things are no different. While certain solutions add an interactive and personalized app drawer alongside your device’s screen edge, others offer an omnipresent on-screen trigger that you can interact with to switch back and forth between apps, or play around with various system features from anywhere in Android. Adding to the latter category is Easy Touch – an extremely lightweight and customizable Android app switching and multitasking solution with built-in 1-tap memory optimizer, system/power toggles, contact shortcuts and the ability to emulate various hardware buttons. More on Easy Touch past the break. Read More

Koush’s ClockworkMod Superuser Offers PIN Protection, Multi-User Support & More

by A. Rehman on February 25, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

ChainsDD's Superuser and Chainfire's SuperSU finally have some serious competition, as Koushisk Dutta (aka Koush) – the developer of the famous ClockworkMod recovery and several Android apps like Tether, Carbon, and DeskSMS – has come up with a root access management app of his own. Currently in beta, ClockworkMod Superuser by Koush aims to add more features and transparency to the process of managing root access requests by third-party apps. Besides being free and completely open-source, this Holo themed tool brings with it several nifty features such as multiuser support on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean tablets, support for x86 & ARM devices, PIN protection for approval of Superuser requests, user-specified timeout for denying Superuser requests to apps, ability to handle concurrent Superuser requests effectively and full support for Android's permissions model. Read More

Sidebar Is Another Ubuntu-Style Android App Launcher With System Toggles

by A. Rehman on February 25, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

Canonical released Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview for a select few Nexus devices earlier this week, allowing many interested users like me to get a feel of this Linux-based operating system on our smartphones and tablets. Like most facets of the OS, its interactive vertical app switch list is quite commendable, since it allows you to quickly launch any app from anywhere in the OS with minimum effort. This convenience and easy of use seems to have inspired many Android developers to incorporate similar multitasking solution within their own offerings such as like Unity Launcher and Glovebox, and the latest entrant in this list is Sidebar by XDA sebuir member Mohammad_Adib – the same guy who introduced us to the previously reviewed Floating Stickies. Like most similar solutions we’ve already seen, Sidebar offers plenty of customizations to personalize the sidebar. However, the main advantage of this app is the ability to pin system toggles to the sidebar as well, in addition to your favorite apps. Read More

Atrium Is A Faster, Lightweight Facebook App For Android

by A. Rehman on February 25, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

The official Facebook Android app may have finally gone native in its last major update but despite that, it hasn't been able to impress many users with its speed improvements. As a result, avid Facebookers are left with no choice but to keep looking for better, faster and more responsive companion apps to keep connected to their social world through their mobile devices. Developed by XDA member radiantbits, Atrium is an unofficial Facebook app for Android that seems to have all the makings of a worthy Facebook mobile client. To begin with, the Holo-esque UI of the app is quite neatly built, allowing you to post status updates, check in to your favorite places, share photos & videos, chat with online friends, enjoy high quality photos in full screen, and explore detailed user profiles with ease. Atrium also lets you set a custom time interval to sync your Facebook content, this preventing it from constantly running in the background to save you precious battery life. More to follow. Read More

MovieBase Is A Holo-Themed Movie Discovery Android App With Play Movies Support

by A. Rehman on February 23, 2013

Android

In the past couple of months, we have seen quite a few highly attractive, informative and customizable movie discovery apps for Android arrive in the Play Store. First it was Movie Twist, then came Movie App HD, and today we have come across yet another promising movie exploration tool in the form of MovieBase, which seems as gorgeous and information-rich as its counterparts, to say the least. Retrieving all its movie-related details from the widely acknowledged services of themoviedb.org, MovieBase offers a wealth of information on your favorite, past, upcoming and top films as well as famous celebrities from all across the globe. Through a simply designed Holo UI, the app lets you browse movies by genre, rating, popularity, currently playing and release time. For each movie, you get to see relevant information about the actors, crew members, production companies, involved locations, budgets, revenues, move websites, status, genre, release dates, taglines, movie plots, full descriptions and what not. More to follow. Read More

Mokriya Releases Arguably The Best Craigslist App For Android & iOS

by A. Rehman on February 22, 2013

Android
iOS

Leave a comment

If you are looking for a neatly-built and user-friendly Craigslist app for your Android or iOS-powered device, try taking Mokriya for a spin. Fresh to the Play Store and iTunes App Store, Mokriya is an officially licensed Craigslist client for Android and iOS that offers super-easy ad posting, convenient browsing and advanced searching options. The app’s uncluttered interface is arguably the best we've seen in a Craigslist mobile app in a long time. Besides exploring the extensive Craigslist directory organized under a wide array of categories, you can use the app’s various filters and search tools to instantly find items matching your exact criteria and preferences. Almost every ad listed in the app is supplemented with a wealth of information including contact details of the owner/dealer, photo galleries, descriptions, location maps and plenty more. Read More

newscover Is A Preference-Aware Virtual Newspaper For Android

by A. Rehman on February 22, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

The likes of Flipboard, Google Currents, Pulse and a few other feature-filled news readers surely have their fair share of fans across both Android and iOS. Having said that, if you look past the big players, there are certain emerging candidates that seem to have what it takes to impress the masses, one of them being newscover – a free and personalized news aggregator for Android that keeps you updated about the latest and past stories from the world of sports, technology, business, style and current affairs in a beautifully crafted newspaper-like interface. newscover happens to be one of the few apps of its kind that let you head back to a date of choice to check out all the significant events that made the headlines for that particular day. Apart from that, the app sports various gesture-based controls to let you sift through news pages, choose the maximum number of news headlines you wish to see on your screen, and play around with various bookmarking and sharing tools you'd expect from a news reader app. Read More

91 Launcher: Android Home Screen App With Great Themes & Transitions

by A. Rehman on February 21, 2013

Android

Launchers are custom home screen replacement apps that rank among the most distinguishing features of Android, and they’re available in abundance from third parties. No matter how many high-quality and versatile Android launchers you might have already tried, there is always another one right around the corner. New to the market, 91 Launcher is yet another insanely feature-rich Android home screen replacement that seems to have been inspired from the Chinese-based MIUI custom ROM. Available in the Play Store for free, this promising app has almost everything you could ask from a quality launcher, including gesture-based controls for accessing system features anywhere in the OS, multiple fully configurable home screens and dock items, an impressive array of themes, wallpapers & transition effects, dedicated widgets, shortcuts & folders, native app drawer with folder support, option to import icons from other installed launchers, iPhone & Android 4.0 ICS-style folders with option to encrypt their content, predefined power-saving system profiles, system-wide search support, and needless to say, tons of customizations. Read More

Any.DO For Android & iOS Gets New ‘Moment’ Feature & DashClock Support

by A. Rehman on February 21, 2013

Android
iOS

Leave a comment

Any.DO is a cross-platform to-do list and task management app for Android and iOS best known for its elegant interface, gesture-based controls and the ability to keep your tasks synced online. The app has just been updated in the Play Store as well as iTunes App Store with a brand new feature called Any.DO Moment – a personal virtual assistant of sorts that keeps you informed about your upcoming tasks for the day and lets you plan them accordingly. Once scheduled, the Moment feature will automatically notify you about your various tasks listed for the day through a beautifully designed, animated UI. Using various task management options at hand, you can then check out all the upcoming tasks in a chronological order, reschedule them for some other time of the day, mark them as done, postpone them to a user-specified time, or delete them from your to-do list altogether. Apart from the newly introduced Moment feature, the latest update also brings several other goodies and performance improvements to both the supported platforms. Details to follow. Read More

Vire Launcher Is A 3D Android Home Screen With Stunning Transitions

by A. Rehman on February 20, 2013

Android

Developed by XDA members navdeepsangwan and winograd, Vire Launcher is a Android home screen replacement app boasting a visually refreshing UI with 3D effects & transitions, real-time lighting & reflections, super smooth navigation, and automatic theming of nearly every element in the entire interface including home screen widgets and icons etc. Currently in beta, Vire Launcher is an attempt to provide Android users with a 3D home screen offering tons of customizations. Besides being one of the most responsive and beautifully-crafted home screen replacements we've seen recently, Vire Launcher impresses with the realistic light reflections on its native metallic clock widget, determined solely by the readings fetched from the device's accelerometer. That’s not all – the launcher has its own applets, shortcuts, animations, themes, wallpapers, transition styles and several other UI tweaks that we shall look at in detail past the break. Read More

Glovebox Is An Ubuntu-Inspired Android App Switcher With Catchy Themes

by A. Rehman on February 20, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

From the creators of the previously reviewed Home Network Settings comes Glovebox - a remarkably simple yet effective Android multitasking and app switching tool based on more or less the same concept as that of Unity Launcher and numerous other app switching solutions we’ve recently covered, Glovebox by FBarrosoApps lets you instantly switch between your apps and various system features from anywhere in Android with the help of an interactive, customizable and vertically scrollable sidebar filled with your favorite app & system shortcuts, widgets and actions etc. The main difference between Glovebox and its peers is that this tool lets you switch back and forth between the items without even lifting your finger from the screen. That is, once you trigger the Glovebox switch list by interacting with an edge of your device's screen, you can launch an app or associated action by simply gliding your finger over the relevant icon. To add a visual appeal to the experience, Glovebox also offers you quite a few attractive themes that can be applied to your personalized app switch list. Read More

Add Custom Extensions To DashClock Lock Screen Widget For Android

by A. Rehman on February 20, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

Recently, we wrote about DashClock Widget - the brainchild of leading Google team member Roman Nurik - and the widget has already proved to be one of the most impressive and widely acknowledged Android app releases of the year. DashClock Widget basically looks to exploit true potential of Android lockscreen widgets announced in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean by presenting users with a plethora of information and notifications pertaining to various apps on the very same screen, which would otherwise mostly be accessed only by unlocking the device and navigating to the relevant apps. The widget’s own dedicated extensions aside, it’s the extensible nature of DashClock Widget that has done it a world of good. Almost every other day, a brand new third-party extension for the widget hits the Play Store, introducing us to yet another one of the countless possibilities offered by this simple little widget. Dashclock Custom Extension by Dominik Gross is one of the most interesting extensions we've seen for the widget so far. It lets you add a few customizable extensions to the widget that you can personalize according to your needs, complete with various user-defined actions. Read More

Greenify Allows iOS-Style Multitasking On Android By Hibernating Apps

by A. Rehman on February 16, 2013

Android

Leave a comment

While it’s an obvious fact that the more apps you install on your Android device, the quicker its battery will drain out, there are certain ‘culprit’ apps that tend to hog your device’s precious resources more than others by constantly and stealthily running in the background, even when they’re not required at all. Although there are numerous tools that help users track down such apps, not many offer an effective solution to control their behavior. Sure, you can freeze such apps, but that disables the app’s functionality almost completely while they're frozen. The countless Android task managers or system optimization tools have proven to be ineffective in this regard as well. This situation requires a solution that strikes a fine balance between functionality and efficiency, while requiring minimum input from the users themselves. New to the scene, Greenify claims to not just identify memory hogging background apps on your rooted Android device, but also puts you in control over their hibernation, so that their services come in to play only when required, making it a true battery saver! Read More