Google Sound Search Song Recognition Widget Comes To Play Store

The official mobile clients of various cross-platform online music recognition services like Shazam and SoundHound are hugely popular for the level of ease they offer to identify and track information regarding any music you come across, be it anywhere. Inspired by the success of these tools, Google decided to incorporate one of its own within Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in the form of a neat little home screen widget. Call it a Christmas gift or Google’s decision to spread the feature to masses, the same Sound Search widget is now available in the Play Store for any device running Android 4.0 or higher. As with Shazam and SoundHound, the idea behind this widget is the same - to help users easily recognize any playing song. In addition, you can also purchase the detected songs from Google Play’s gigantic online music repository. Read More

SportCaster For Android Gets UI Makeover, News Alerts & CBS Articles

Christmas is still nearly a couple of weeks away but early presents are already heading the way of smartphone users in the form of app updates. Here’s another one for you; OneLouder Apps – the renowned developer of many Android and iOS apps like FriendCaster, Slices For Twitter & 1Weather – has just pushed a significant update to the official Android client of their dedicated social sports news & scores app, SportCaster, which is now available in the Play Store by the name of CBS SportCaster. As its name suggests, the app now features news articles from the globally acclaimed services of CBS Sports. As far as other changes in the update are concerned, sports fans now get a completely redesigned UI that allows you to quickly jump to sections for your favorite sports teams, leagues, conferences, news, scores, standings and tweets through a dedicated sidebar as well as a dropdown menu. Furthermore, the newly added support for real-time breaking news alerts makes sure that you don’t miss out on the most happening stories of your favorite sports. Read More

Google Currents For Android Gets Huge Facelift, Sidebar, Widget & More

Justifiably slotted at the number one spot on our list of best Android apps of 2011, Google Currents is arguably one of the best news readers apps available to Android and iOS users. The Android variant of Google Currents has just been bumped to v2.0 with numerous highly-anticipated features, including a dedicated scrollable home screen widget. When it comes to the UI, the main screen of the app has been totally revamped to include an Edition sidebar that allows instant access to editions falling under various categories including news, sports, entertainment, feeds and pick of the week etc. Navigation to your desired content has been improved drastically with the introduction of various gestures that help users quickly sift through their editions as well as news stories falling under a particular edition. The app now provides even better control over management and customization of content. Moreover, stories can be bookmarked for quick access, and read stories can be easily identified on the feeds with the added semi-transparency effect. Read on to learn more about the update. Read More

Text-To-Audio Transcription Service SoundGecko Releases Android App

The official mobile app of SoundGecko - the highly regarded text-to-audio transcription service - has been around for iOS and Windows Phone for quite some time now, and it was about time that an Android variant was made available to the widespread user-base of Google’s mobile OS. The wait is finally over, as the official Android app of SoundGecko is now available in Google Play Store for free. For those uninitiated with it, SoundGecko utilizes its native online transcription tool to convert various text-based resources such as web pages, emails, RSS feeds and PDF documents to audio, thereby allowing you to listen to your favorite content the same way as you would listen to a podcast. The app has proved to be even more advantageous for mobile users, as they can enjoy listening to their desired audio content while on the move. SoundGecko also features quick access to articles fetched from a slew of crowd-favorite news service providers. Read More

Maxthon Cloud Browser Boasts New UI, Cross-Platform Sync & Sharing

We already have several options when it comes to feature-rich and visually attractive cross-platform web browsers, and the newest addition to the list is Maxthon Cloud Browser – Maxthon’s freshest attempt to compete with the likes of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and other major players in the industry. Just released for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, Maxthon Cloud Browser v4.2 introduces plenty of cloud syncing options for its desktop and mobile clients to offer users a seamless and unified web browsing experience across their various devices. Besides a complete interface overhaul, the app brings the option to remotely push URLs, photos, text, tabs and downloads to your dedicated Maxthon Cloud as well as other devices connected to your home network. The app’s stern integration with its dedicated cloud service ensures that you can access your personal data, browsing sessions and downloads regardless of the platform you’re currently using, whether you’re at home, in office or in transit. Read More

Twitter Update Brings Instagram-like Photo Filters To Android & iOS

Well, that was quick! Over the past weekend, Instagram decided to discontinue its image previewing support on your Twitter timeline, but Twitter pushing out its very own Instagram-like filters so swiftly for users of the popular micro-blogging network? That certainly wasn’t on the cards for even the most optimistic users among us. As it turns out, the recent update to the official Android and iOS Twitter clients brings as many as eight different Instagram-like vintage photo filters powered by none other than the renowned online photo-editing service, Aviary. That’s not all; prior to uploading, you can take a peek at the effect of each filter on your photos via a unified grid view, or by simply swiping sideways. In addition, the update introduces an auto-enhance feature to help you improve your photos’ outlook in terms of brightness and saturation, and also brings to the table several basic image editing tools such as cropping and scaling. Read More

Rallee Is A Walkie Talkie & Voice Chat Android App For Facebook Users

As long as you’re content with interacting with your Facebook friends via text chats, the official Facebook Messenger Android app has you covered, but what if you wanted to communicate with them through voice? How about an app that can be used as a walkie talkie to allow you real-time voice messaging with not just one friend, but with an entire group comprising select friends? That is what Rallee Walkie Talkie is all about. This free Android app puts the Push-To-Talk (PTT) communication mode to good use by converting your device into a handy walkie talkie, allowing real-time voice chat with your individual Facebook friends as well as public and private Rallee groups. Feeling bored? Just find someone to have a voice conversation with by using the app’s Random call feature! Continue reading past the break to find out more about Rallee. Read More

Zapya Brings Intuitive Gesture-Based WiFi File Sharing To Android & iOS

Wireless file transfer solutions for smartphones and tablets are available in abundance, but few make the entire sharing experience as fun-filled as Zapya – a cross-platform file sharing tool for Android and iOS with a touch of innovation. Using Zapya, you can easily and swiftly transfer data with multiple nearby devices over a Wi-Fi network as well as a Wi-Fi Hotspot established on one of the devices. The app has a built-in media, app and file browser to allow sharing of any type of data with an individual contact or a group of recipients. Another impressive aspect of Zapya is its various gesture-controlled sharing modes that can be used to share multiple files with select contact, or a particular file with several contacts. Read More

Floating Audio Player Overlays Music Playback Controls Anywhere On Android

Due to Android's excellent true multitasking support, there is a variety of apps based on the concept of a ubiquitous, movable and re-sizable popup window available in the Play Store. For instance AirCalc comes as a handy floating calculator, Floating Banner expedites multitasking & app launching, Floating Browser Flux! is a multi-window supported web browser, whereas Super Video is a feature-rich video player supporting said concept. Today, we have another floating app for you called Floating Audio Player - a free and fully customizable app for Android 4.0 and higher devices that does exactly what its name suggests. Equipped with all the basic music player tools, this semi-Holo themed app is capable of running actively on top of any screen you’re currently working on. Read More

Popular Photo Editing App Snapseed Now Available On Android [Review]

When considering powerful and feature-rich photo editing apps, one name that instantly comes to mind is Snapseed. This award-winning cross-platform tool by Nik Software has been offering a variety of photo editing, enhancement & sharing features to iOS, Windows & Mac users for quite some time now. Impressed by the company’s astounding success particularly on iOS, Google acquired Nik Software back in September, leading naturally to expectations for an Android version. The wait is finally over, as Snapseed has made its way to Android for Ice Cream Sandwich and higher devices with almost all the goodies that iDevice users have been enjoying for months. Furthermore, Google has also added deep Google+ integration to Snapseed, allowing instant photo sharing to the search giant's social network. Read More

Input Complete Sentences In One Swipe with SwiftKey Flow For Android

Such is the versatility and effectiveness of Swype that I haven’t felt the need to look for an alternative Android keyboard replacement app since I laid my hands fingers on it. However, if you’re in love with gesture-based keyboards (which most of us Android users are), you’ll be glad to know that the developers of SwiftKey – one of the most popular third-party keyboards for Android – have just released a public beta of their latest product called SwiftKey Flow. Like most gesture-based keyboards, SwiftKey Flow supports one-motion text input by just gliding your finger over the required letters. However, to its credit, Flow takes it one step further. How? Let's find out past the break. Read More

Google Search For Android Gets New Now Cards, Song Recognition, Camera Search & More

The holiday season is just around the corner, and if your vacation plans involve a lot of traveling and sightseeing, you better grab the latest update of Google Search meant for Android 4.1 (and higher) devices. Powered by improved search capabilities, Google Now Smart Cards and voice commands, your Android’s stock search app is now equipped to keep you apprised of the weather and other information regarding your touring destination. To help you easily explore all the fun places and upcoming events around you, the app will display relevant cards and also show informative content about popular locations captured with your device’s camera. Read More

Live Image Widget Cycles Through Photos From The Web On Android Home & Lock Screen

Live Image Widget is a customizable home & lock screen widget for Android capable of displaying and automatically circling web-based images from various user-specified URLs. By automatically updating photographic content from your preferred URLs, CCTV devices and / or webcams at specific intervals, the widget helps you instantly preview pictures from required online sources. This can be especially useful where the images are dynamically updated at the target URL. You may place multiple widgets on your home screen and view any image in full screen mode with zooming option. Moreover, you can manually refresh the widget's content, switch between different images, and even save the current photo to your device. There is even more to Live Image Widget; keep on reading to find out. Read More

Share Any File Through Google Drive & SMS Using Send It For Android

Fresh to the Play Store, Send It is an innovative file sharing tool for Android smartphones and tablets. Using Send It, you can share any file stored on your Android device with your phone, email and / or social contacts without requiring the recipients to install any app on their end or register with a service. Basically, Send It utilizes your Google Drive storage to upload shared content to a dedicated folder. Once files are uploaded, the app then generates a short URL of the shared stuff that can be forwarded to the intended recipients via SMS, email or social media. A major advantage is that if sent via SMS, your recipients instantly receive the notification and download link of the shared content regardless of whether they’re currently connected to the internet or not. All Send It requires to work its trick is a valid Google Drive account (for storing uploaded files), a high speed internet connection for large uploads, and SMS credit available on your plan to share URL-containing texts. The app supports sharing virtually every file type with any number of recipients you desire, and integrates stringently with your Android’s universal file sharing menu to allow you to share content from the Gallery or any Android file manager. Read More

Launcher8 Is A Great Windows Phone 8 Style Android Launcher With Live Tiles

In LauncherWP8, we found a very effective solution to give your Android’s home and lock screen a Metro Modern makeover. Seems like our beloved launcher has just got some serious competition, as the QiHang Dev Team has just released a similar alternative to the Play Store by the name of Launcher8. Filled with Windows Phone 8 style Modern goodness, Launcher8 is a free Android home and lock screen replacement app that pips ahead of the aforementioned alternative in a number of ways. For instance, it sports live tiles for contacts as well as Gallery photos. It also has a dedicated lock tile to help you quickly lock your device without requiring to reach for the power button. Unlike LauncherWP8, this app allows you to switch the app drawer between list and grid views, and offers as many as four different themes for the lockscreen. Launcher8’s home and lockscreen is customizable in a number of ways, and to top it all, you can backup and restore the app’s themes, complete with your custom alterations. Read More

Volksempfanger Is A Holo-Themed Android Podcast App With Auto Downloads

Podcast apps for Android are abound in Google Play Store, but if you’re in search of a quality Holo-themed alternative, you’ve got to take a look at Volksempfanger. Available for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and higher devices, this multilingual freeware has got almost everything that you wish to see in a good podcast app. It lets you subscribe to and download your favorite podcasts from a plethora of popular sources including BBC, TEDTalks, DIGG, TWiT, YouTube and lots more. Not only can you browse and subscribe to podcasts from virtually any category – science, technology, comedy, literature, TV & Film etc – but also import local audio files from your device’s internal storage. The app’s playlist management feature helps you keep a close tab on all your bookmarked, new and downloaded podcasts. Alongside each episode, you get to see brief notes, embedded links and info relevant to it. As far as personalization is concerned, the app lets you set a custom refresh interval for updating content. Moreover, you may opt to automatically download episodes from your subscribed podcasts, and set the app to perform said task over Wi-Fi and/or while charging only. Read More

Gmail For Android Updated With Pinch-To-Zoom, Swipe-To-Delete & More

If you’re an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher user, you’ll be delighted to know that the latest update of the official Gmail app (v4.2.1) is now available for you, and brings along its several nifty features that were so far exclusively available to the lucky few Android 4.2 Jelly Bean users only. For starters, the app now supports the much-awaited automatic fitting and zooming feature for conveniently viewing your emails. In addition, you can now attach photos and videos right from the Gmail app itself, without having to rely on Android's native file sharing method. For your photo attachments, the app not only offers large thumbnail previews, but also lets you view them in full-screen via a dedicated gallery. While viewing your inbox items, you can now swipe sideways on an email to quickly archive or delete it. Besides all this, there are several routine bug fixes and performance enhancement tweaks to go along with the update. We shall take a closer look at all the newly added features after the break. Read More

Backup, Aggregate, View & Share Your Photos With NeroKwik For Android

Relatively fresh to the scene, NeroKwik is a gorgeously designed cross-platform photo backup, aggregating, sharing and browsing app that encompasses the core features of some of the top-notch services of their kind. For instance, it has Dropbox, Google+ and Facebook’s Photo Sync-style instant / automatic photo uploading feature to save your precious images on a dedicated online server. It can also aggregate your local and online photos in a way similar to ZeroPC Photo Connect, Pictarine and Pixable, and present them all on a Pinterest-like unified gallery. What’s somewhat unique with NeroKwik is that it lets you pick your favorite photos from different sources and place them under various custom-created themeable collages referred to as ‘Tapestries’. You may also bookmark & rate your favorite images, share the best ones with your friends, and play full-screen slideshows of pictures present in your tapestries. Read More

MediaMonkey For Android Available In Public Beta With UPnP/DLNA Support

MediaMonkey is a power-packed media player and library management application for Windows that needs long introduction. The team behind the app has just released a public beta of MediaMonkey for Android equipped with several great features including playback support for your music files, audiobooks, podcasts and videos etc., extended playlist management, browsing multimedia content in a number of ways, UPnP/DNLA support (with integrated download manager), content bookmarking, replay gain, lyrics support, and last but not the least, the option to wirelessly sync content with the MediaMonkey desktop client. In addition, the app presents you with a sleek music player UI, complete with the option to rate your tracks, set the favorite ones as the ringtone, share the best ones with your mates, switch between tracks via swipe gestures, edit track details and lots more. The beta variant of the app is currently available for download via the official MediaMonkey forums only, and we've got the download links and further details for you right after the break. Read More

Flakka Brings Real Time Photo Streaming With Group Chatting To Android

Gone are the old days when transferring multimedia content over long distances via MMS, email attachments, file sharing services and other similar means was considered to be the most effective solution to instantly share stuff with your loved ones and colleagues. As we have already seen with certain mobile apps like Familiar and Intel Pair & Share, you can now remotely stream photos straight to the recipient's monitors in real-time directly from your smartphone/tablet. However, the catch with both said solutions is that they require a dedicated desktop client to be installed on the recipient's computer. This is where Flakka – a cross-platform photo sharing service for web, iOS and Android – looks to create the difference. The companion app of Flakka is available for free, and is capable of streaming photos from your smartphone and/or tablet to any web-enabled device (TV, mobile or web browser), thereby not requiring your recipients to set up any desktop client applications whatsoever. Streaming is supported over Wi-Fi as well as the internet, and all the participants can also share their thoughts about the shared stuff with each other through real-time chatting. To find out how to use Flakka, continue reading past the break. Read More