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Best Siri Cydia Tweaks & Add-ons

Sameed — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:00:18 +0000

Following the announcement and subsequent release of the iPhone 4S, an escalating hype began to surround one of its most prominent new features – the system-wide voice assistant that was instantly recognized by many as the game changer in speech recognition applications. Although the excitement died down shortly after, it was rekindled by the release of untethered jailbreak for the device, and the many Siri-exclusive Cydia tweaks and add-ons that began to roll out with it. Seeing as it’s been a while and a lot of tweaks have made there way to the store, we decided to compile a list of the best ones. If you own a jailbroken iPhone 4S, read on past the break for ways to enhance your Siri experience.

Assistant Extensions (Free, BigBoss)

AssistantExtensions is a plug-in architecture for Siri. It is a Cydia tweak that provides developers with a platform to enhance Siri’s capabilities through third-party add-ons. Though, it does come with a few built-in plug-ins of its own. These include a chat bot that, when activated (say “let’s chat” to activate), makes Siri more receptive to casual chit-chat than usual, and the option to search videos from YouTube (say “search keyword on YouTube”).

SiriToggles (Free, BigBoss)

SiriToggles is a Siri-enhancement tweak that adds commands for toggling or adjusting certain system settings (“enable WiFi”, for instance), adjusting brightness (“set brightness to 50%”), checking battery level (“how much battery do I have left?”) and launching stock and third-party apps (“launch Settings”). It’s one of those tweaks that grow to become a regular part of the way you use the OS.

Read the full review

Sireet (Free, ModMyi)

A must-have Cydia tweak for avid Twitter users who happen to own a jailbroken iPhone 4S. Sireet lets you dictate your tweets to Siri. Simply say “Tweet” followed by whatever you want to post to Twitter, and your Sireet-powered voice assistant will do the rest.

Read the full review

TweetLine (Free, ModMyi)

A simple tweak that, after being granted access to your Twitter account, enables Siri to display the last five tweets from your Twitter feed whenever you say “Timeline”.

Read the full review

Lingual (Free, BigBoss)

A free AssistantExtensions add-on that lets you use Siri to translate English phrases to over 30 languages. The operation is simple; launch Siri, say “what is phrase to be translated in language”, and Siri will display the translation along with the original phrase (as shown in the screenshot above). Natively, Siri is only capable of translating single words to the most common languages.

Note: AssistantExtensions is a Cydia tweak that provides developers with a platform to enhance Siri’s capabilities through third-party add-ons. The tweak will be installed along with this add-on if you don’t already have it.

AnyVoice (Free, ModMyi)

Although AnyVoice doesn’t really enhance Siri’s capabilities, it is a lot of fun to play with. The tweak provides you with the option to apply English accents from major localities to Siri’s voice.

Read the full review

iJokes for Chatbot/Siri (Free, BigBoss)

iJokes is an AssistantExtensions plugin that teaches Siri enough jokes to keep you busy while you’re bored, or lift your spirits while you’re down. The addon works in combination with AssistantExtension’s chat bot, which can be activated by launching Siri and saying “let’s chat”. While within said mode, say “tell me a joke” to have Siri tell you a random joke out of the iJokes library or “goodbye” to deactivate chat bot.

Read the full review

Awesome Facts for Chatbot/Siri (Free, BigBoss)

Another AssistantExtensions addon that is an excellent addition to the ways you can use Siri to pass some time. The mechanism is the same as that of iJokes; launch Siri, say “let’s chat” to activate AssistantExtension’s chat bot, then “tell me an something awesome” to hear a random fact about the world we live in. Saying “goodbye” returns Siri to normal self.

Read the full review

Custom Siri Background (Free, ModMyi)

Custom Siri Background is a simple cosmetic tweak that lets you replace Siri’s default grey texture background with an image of your choice. From within the tweak’s settings, you may either capture a new picture or import one from your photo library.

SiriSports (Free, BigBoss)

Initially called NBASports, SiriSports is an AssistantExtensions plugin that endows Siri with the ability to keep you informed of NBA, NHL & MLB scores and fixtures. The add-on does not require a set command for asking Siri for score or fixture info. It responds well to indirect questions and even recognizes team nicknames.

Read the full review

MyAssistant ($0.99, BigBoss)

Encompassing the cosmetic and functional enhancements provided by most of the aforementioned tweaks and addons, and enabling you to control almost every aspect of your system through Siri, MyAssistant is, as of this writing, perhaps the most comprehensive Siri-exclusive Cydia tweak out there.

Not only does the tweak let you specify custom commands for toggling/adjusting system settings, performing common system functions such as rebooting or powering off, tweeting, taking pictures, checking battery percentage, viewing lyrics for the current song, downloading files from the web and launching apps, it even allows setting a custom background for Siri, reducing the height of the bar that appears when Siri is launched and specifying custom answers to questions of your choice.

Though what really makes MyAssistant stand out from the crowd is its ability to create commands for Activator events, meaning you can link voice commands of your choice to any system function at all, from launching the native Tweet box or opening a particular section of the Settings app, to launching the Phone app to its Keypad tab or skipping the currently playing track. The name that you specify for each event is the command that you’ll have to use to activate it.

SiriLoveLyrics ($0.99, ModMyi)

Why is SiriLoveLyrics in this list when MyAssistant can fetch lyrics through Siri too? Well, in our experience, MyAssistant often fails to fetch lyrics for certain tracks, whereas SiriLoveLyrics is yet to disappoint. The tweak adds a couple of commands (“show text” and “show lyrics”) that can be used to have Siri display lyrics for the currently playing song.

AssistantLove ($1.99, BigBoss)

AssistantLove is a feature-rich tweak that, apart from letting you toggle common system settings and launching apps through Siri, integrates the voice assistant with Spotify and a turn-by-turn GPS navigation app of your choice. That is, it allows you to ask Siri to provide turn-by-turn directions using a preferred navigation app (an excellent provision for users who live in locations where Siri does not provide directions), or play songs from both your local library and Spotify’s endless online repository. You must have the Spotify client and one of the supported navigation apps (Waze, TomTom, Navigon and MotionX GPS) installed, of course.

Another interesting feature of the tweak is that, like MyAssistant, it lets you specify a custom command or alias for apps that you wish to launch through Siri – particularly useful for apps that have long or hard-to-pronounce names.

So tell us, which ones do you use and which of them are your favorites?

Conversocial Is An Efficient, Collaborative Social Media Management Web App

Sameed — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:00:48 +0000

Keeping up with social media chatter can become increasingly tedious if you’re equally active on two or more networks. Most users turn to social media aggregation apps such as TweetDeck and Seesmic, though for companies (or individuals with multiple online businesses), such simple tools seldom suffice. They requiring a comprehensive suite of social media management and analysis tools the likes of Conversocial. The web app allows managing multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts and pages from one place, supports team management (pro version only), provides analytics for each individual account as well as for all social media accounts combined, lets you add multiple RSS feeds and set them to be published to any or all of your social media accounts, automatically populates a Priority Inbox with social media interactions containing certain pre-defined and user-specified keywords (helps separate interactions that might require your immediate attention), and lets you mail yourself interactions within a time period of your chocie in the form of a CSV text file.

Setting up your Conversocial account is pretty straight forward. As with most other social media aggregators, once you’re past specifying an email address, password and other account info, you will need to authorize the app to access each of the social media accounts that you add to it.

Once you’re done with the simple setup, using the options on the left side of the web app’s management page, you can post updates for the currently selected channel (Facebook/Twitter), view separate or collective analytics, go through, respond to, archive or delete all of your incoming social media chatter (@Mentions, Direct Messages, Comments etc.) separately or under one hood. Updates can be published or scheduled for multiple accounts simultaneously, and archive/delete/reply functions can be performed through pre-defined shortcut keys displayed along the bottom of the page.

That’s not all; you can add notes to and assign each incoming comment, mention or message to a member of your Conversocial management group (that is, if you have a group, creating which requires you to upgrade your account to Pro).

Where the Inbox section for Facebook accounts, or the @Mentions & Direct Messages sections in Twitter accounts might suffice in most cases, the Priority Inbox can play a pivotal role in helping companies or individuals with large and extremely active social networks manage their interactions in a more efficient manner. As its name signifies, the Priority Inbox automatically separates incoming posts and messages that contain certain user-defined keywords, allowing you to prioritize posts by topic or nature. By default, the app automatically prioritizes all posts containing common keywords that indicate need for assistance (What, Where, Help, Problem, Question etc.) or profanities. You can add more priority keywords within Settings > Priority Keywords Lists > Add.

From the same page, you may set how each priority list effects incoming posts for each social media account (prioritized, deleted or left alone). For example, you may set posts with profanities to be automatically deleted from your Facebook page (this feature is more suited for Facebook, of course, as Twitter only allows you delete your own tweets).

The Settings menu also allows you to edit your profile information, add and manage social media accounts (Channels), Conversocial Team Members and RSS Feeds.

As mentioned earlier, you can set Conversocial to publish each of your RSS feeds to any or all of your social networks at a publishing frequency of your choice. All feeds are checked for new items after five-minute intervals. To regulate publishing frequency, you may set new feed items to be published instantly or during a specified time of day, and choose the number of feed items to be published at a time.

For larger businesses or companies spread out over social networks other than Facebook and Twitter, Conversocial might not be the ideal choice, but it is, in essence, as comprehensive a social media manager as they come. It primary aim seems to be helping businesses better utilize their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages to analyze progress and provide customer support and it.

Visit Conversocial

Download Our Windows 8 Metro Wallpapers

Sameed — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:50:57 +0000

Have Windows 8 on your PC but can’t find Metro-themed wallpapers to match the new look? The consumer preview comes packed with a single default wallpaper and, as of this writing, you’d be hard-pressed to find Metroish Windows 8 wallpapers on the web. So, we decided to make a few of our own and compile them in one place to save our readers some time and effort. Hope you like them!

Download [1920 x 1080 | 1366 x 768]

Download All 1920 x 1080 Wallpapers (ZIP File)

Download All 1366 x 768 Wallpapers (ZIP File)

Go ahead, grab a couple and try them out. Do let us know which ones you liked the most.

How To Download APKs Of Android Market Apps To Your Computer With APK Downloader

Sameed — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:30:18 +0000

Certain Android-powered mobile device manufacturers (Amazon and Barnes & Noble, for instance) design their variants of the OS without the Android Market, forcing users to make do with the limited number of apps in their native app stores. You could always install apps of your choice on a Market-sporting Android device, extract their APKs and side-load them onto such devices, but why go through all that trouble when you can use APK Downloader, a Google Chrome extension that lets you download Android Market APKs directly to your desktop. The extension seems to bypass any location or device restrictions, allowing you to easily side-load apps that aren’t yet available for your region, or try out those that are supposedly incompatible with your device. APK Downloader hit the blogosphere a couple of days ago, shortly after which the developer took it down, fearing that it would be used for pirating paid apps. Fortunately, courtesy of the persuasion of a few users, the developer has now released a new version of the extension that only allows downloading free apps.

Following is a simple, step-by-step guide to setting up APK Downloader. Don’t be alarmed by the length or quantity of screenshots; the process is pretty straightforward. If you need the extension to side-load Android Market apps onto, say, your Kindle or Nook, you should know that you’ll need the device ID and Google account info of a regular (Gapps-sporting) Android device.

1. Launch Chrome, download and install APK Downloader from the developer’s website. An Options form should appear in a new tab right after you click Install.

2. If an error asking you to enable SSL error warnings appears above the login form, create a new Google Chrome shortcut, right-click it and select Properties from the context menu (Windows).

3. In the Target field, enter a space followed by –ignore-certificate-errors right after chrome.exe. The text at the end should now read

chrome.exe --ignore-certificate-errors

4. Once that is done, restart Chrome, this time launching it via the shortcut you just created. The error should now have been removed.

5. You should already have the address (Email) and Password of the Google account(s) registered on your Android device. To find out your device’s ID,

Open the dialer (Phone) and enter *#*#8255#*#* to launch GTalk Service Monitor. Scroll down to find the string labeled Device ID. The 16-character string after android- is what you need to enter in the Android Device ID field.
Alternatively, you may install Device ID from the Android Market. The app displays both the Device ID and the Emails registered on your device.

6. Hit Login, select a country and mobile carrier from the page that follows, click Save Settings, and you’re good to go.

You can now start downloading apps to your computer without even having to log in with your Google account.

Every time you open an Android app’s Market page, an APK Downloader icon will appear within the URL bar, which you can click to instantly download the app’s APK file to your computer.

Note: Step 2 is applicable for Windows only. For Mac and Linux variants of the step, and for further information on the extension, head on over to the developer’s website.

15 Best Free Photo Editing & Sharing Apps For iPhone, iPad & iPod touch

Sameed — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:58:41 +0000

The genres of photography, image editing, styling and sharing, being among the most popular on the iOS App Store (after platformers and games in general, of course), are becoming increasingly saturated, which makes it quite hard for both new users and seasoned iPhoneographers to pick out the good ones. Seeing this as another opportunity to help our readers out, we’ve compiled a list of fifteen of the best free apps from the aforementioned genres.

This list includes apps that allow capturing, editing, styling and/or sharing photos for free, which is why we’ve left out the likes of Dotti Disposable Camera, Hipstamatic Disposable, & PopBooth mainly because the apps themselves might be free but their core purpose or majority content isn’t. Also, note that none of the following apps are iPad-exclusive, though several do have iPad variants.

Instagram

Inarguably the most popular mobile photo styling and sharing app to date, Instagram comes packed with several beautiful filters, linear and radial tilt-shift blur effects and an auto-enhancement feature called Lux, that allows you to balance the contrast, tone and color of your photos with a single tap. The app lets you share your photographic endeavors on its network, follow other users as well as view, Like and comment on photos uploaded by them.

There are now more than a few Instagram spin-offs available on all major mobile platforms, but as the app was one of the first, and still is one of the best of its kind, it has a much larger and faster-growing userbase than its competitors.

Download Instagram

Photosynth

Microsoft’s Photosynth is one of the technology giant’s better contributions to the mobile world and perhaps one of the best panorama capturing and sharing apps out there. Unlike most other panoramic photography apps, Photosynth lets you capture 360 degree panoramas on both the vertical and horizontal access, enabling the user to capture the entire environment around a point. The capturing process is extremely simple, and the results are usually without much blemishes if not flawless.

Download Photosynth

Adobe Photoshop Express

Calling Adobe Photoshop Express the “Photoshop for smartphones” would be pushing it, but it is, nevertheless, quite a handy image editing tool to have on your device. The app sports essential image editing and styling options, including basic editing tools (Crop, Straighten, Rotate & Flip), color adjustments (such as Exposure, Saturation & Contrast), filters (such as Sketch, Sharpen & Reduce Noise), filters and borders, providing you with a quick, no-fuss way to enhance your mobile photos before you share them with friends.

Download Adobe Photoshop Express

Piictu

Piictu is a simple app based on a unique concept that makes capturing photos all the more fun. Users from all over the world upload photos to the app’s network and reply to each others’ uploads with more photos, or piics, as they are called. So if, for instance, someone uploads a screenshot of their favorite technology blog captioned “My favorite blog. What’s yours?”, you could reply with a screenshot of the AddictiveTips homepage. Just an example, of course.

Download Piictu

Pudding.to

The easiest way to describe Pudding.to would be to call it an enhanced, cross-platform (Android and iOS) Instagram alternative. In addition to capturing photos, applying filters (which, in this case, are better than those found in most other similar apps), linear tilt-shift effect, and sharing the results with the app’s own network, Facebook & Twitter, you can find and connect with Pudding.to users in and around your location, upload up to four photos at once in the form of a “photo story” of sorts, and emoticons add/or tags to each upload, signifying your mood, sharing your current location or tracks from your iTunes library.

Read the full review

Download Pudding.to

Magic Hour Lite

A rich photo styling app with a very well-crafted interface and styling mechanism. In addition to providing you with over 40 built-in filters, and endless collection of downloadable ones (uploaded to the app’s online repo by other users), Magic Hour allows you to create and upload your own, and adjust existing ones. You can tweak the hue, saturation and brightness values, adjust the curves, vignette, texture and frame of each filter, and top it off with a radial tilt-shift blur. Magic Hour’s simple yet comprehensive nature landed its Android variant a spot on our list of the best photo editors for the platform.

Read the full review (Magic Hour for Android)

Download Magic Hour Lite

iRetouch Free

iRetouch, as its name suggests, aims to help you enhance your photos, or clear even the slightest blemishes from them. The app sports a minimalistic interface and basic editing tools (resizing, cropping, rotating and color adjustment) and a collection of advanced tools that truly hold it apart from other apps of its kind. These include selective blur, smudge, color adjustment (involves painting the chosen effect over the photo with a brush size, softness and opacity of choice) and an excellent adaptation of the Photoshop’s clone stamp tool for removing unwanted objects from an image. Though a little slower and harder to use than that of TouchRetouch for Android and iOS, iRetouch’s clone stamp tool provides equally good (if not better) results. Moreover, the app is an excellent alternative to TouchRetouch, as the free iOS variant of the latter adds a watermark to each result.

Download iRetouch Free

Picture Effect Magic

With 95 impressive image effects (around half of which are adjustable), over 30 frames and graffiti, basic image editing tools (rotate and crop) and color adjustment, Picture Effect Magic is perhaps one of the most comprehensive image styling apps on the iOS App Store. Apart from the aforementioned, the app sports the option to draw doodles over images, retain or remove color from, or apply the mosaic effect on selective parts of an image by painting the selected effect over it with a brush shape, size and transparency of your choice.

Download Picture Effect Magic

GLMPS

There is no shortage of conventional photo-sharing iOS apps that bank on quantity, which is why apps that bring something new to the table are an instant hit with users, which, in turn, is why glmps has made this list. That app lets you capture photos and the few seconds that led to each. Each Glimpse consists of a photo along with a video of the few seconds before its capture, and can be shared over the app’s very own network. Glimpses uploaded by glmps users from all around the world can be viewed, Liked, commented on and re-shared.

Download glmps

Pho.to Lab

Pho.to Lab is a cloud-based image-styling app that has been included in this list courtesy of the inexhaustible amount of effects that it provides. As of this writing, there are over 450 effects, filters, frames, face montages and collages in the app’s online repository.

Read the full review

Download Pho.to Lab

Pixlr-o-matic

Developed by Autodesk, the company behind AutoCAD, Pixlr-o-matic is a quick and easy way to apply gorgeous filters, effects and frames to your photos. Although not as feature-rich as other apps from the genre, the app produces better results than most.

Read the full review

Download Pixlr-o-matic

Pinweel

Based roughly around the concept of Hipstamatic Disposable, Pinweel is the ideal app to have on your iDevice while attending a special event with friends or family. The app lets you capture and import photos, apply filters to them and upload them to an album that is shared between a group of contributors who you can invite from Facebook and Twitter. Photos captured by each contributor are shared with all others in real-time, can be Liked and commented on. That’s not all; you can set albums you create as public or private, allow anyone to upload to your public albums, follow friends and the photos uploaded to group albums created by them.

Download Pinweel

Pic Collage

A easy-to-use app with a simple yet extremely well-executed concept, Pic Collage is a downright treat to use. The app allows you import multiple photos from your local library, Facebook, and the web, capture new photos, and create and share gorgeous collages out of them within seconds. You can set a background of your choice, add stickers and text, resize, rotate and edit the border of each photo or set any as the background of the collage. To top it all off, the app comes packed with an Aviary photo editor for applying effects to and adjusting the brightness, saturation and color of photos.

Download Pic Collage

Retro Camera

Retro Camera is a quick and simple way of giving your photos a vintage look. The app focuses on simplicity and presentation, and its results are impressive. It allows users to pick from a collection of retro cameras (each sporting a different effect), changing the looks of the capturing interface accordingly. Results are instantly processed and saved to Camera Roll, but can also be viewed from within the app’s built-in gallery.

Download Retro Camera

Sketch+

Although there are countless sketch effect apps out there, very few get the effect right. Sketch+ is perhaps one of the best in this regard. The mechanism is the same, of course; the app lets you capture/import photos, and choose one of several effects that make it look hand-drawn. You can also choose to retain the color of the original photo in the (otherwise grayscale) result.

Download Sketch+

Did you find one or more of your favorites in the list? If not, which ones would you add to it? Feel free to leave us a comment, and if you liked this post, don’t forget to check out our compilation of great photo editing and sharing apps for Android.

AddictiveTips Now On Google+, Add Us To Your Circles!

Sameed — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:30:47 +0000

Recently, we’ve been getting numerous requests for the creation of an AddictiveTips Google+ page. We’ve had a Google+ page for quite a while now, but it has, as yet, been inactive. However, in light of the recent flurry of requests by avid users of the growing social network, we’ve decided to, well, spread the addiction. Starting from today, in addition to Facebook and Twitter, you will be able to catch our app reviews, guides, giveaways, tips and social media-exclusive posts on Google+ as well.

Head on over to the page now to add us to your Google+ circles, and while you’re at it, you might as well click on that +1 button and share the page with your friends too. Cheers!

Our other social media pages:

AddictiveTips on Facebook

@addtips on Twitter

APP Lock: PIN Or Pattern Protect Individual User, System Apps & Incoming Calls [Android]

Sameed — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:30:04 +0000

Not everyone likes to have a master password, PIN or pattern lock applied to their smartphones at all times. It becomes quite tiresome if a friend is playing around with your Android phone, and you have to enter the unlock code every time the screen times out. Then again, you might not want your SMS threads, gallery, Market, email and social networking apps unprotected while one of your mischievous friends is, as he/she says, playing Fruit Ninja on your phone. It is in such situations that apps like APP Lock for Android come in handy. The app lets you lock individual user and system apps with a PIN or pattern of your choice. The concept isn’t new to Android at all. A much older app with the same name (App Lock – App Protector) and previously reviewed Visidon AppLock are based on the same functionality. In fact, the latter even provides the option to set a face recognition lock for individual apps. However, when it comes to looks and simplicity, APP Lock races ahead of the two aforementioned (and most other) alternatives. If you’re setting an authentication screen to appear every time you launch a particular app, you’d probably prefer if it were easy on the eyes. That’s not all; the app even lets you PIN/pattern protect incoming calls.

When you launch the app for the first time, it automatically presents you with the PIN protection setup screen, followed by a screen that lets you specify a security question and answer for password retrieval and a hint for the PIN you entered in the previous screen.

Once your done with that, the app takes you to its homescreen, where you’ll find all system and user apps listed under the Application Lock tab. The System Lock tab lists system actions and apps that, when locked, will prevent new apps from being installed and existing apps from being uninstalled or reset. Locking the Market, Install/Uninstall and Application Manage (uninstall, force-close, clear app data) options are essential to protect APP Lock itself being uninstalled or reset from within the Market, system settings or even a third-party app manager.

You’ll find the aforementioned option to lock incoming calls under this tab as well. Enabling said option displays the PIN/pattern authentication screen every time a call is received.

The bar at the bottom of the app’s homescreen contains options to lock all apps/actions under the current tab, change the Unlock Setting (set PIN & pattern, switch between them), and the security question for password retrieval.

The app’s settings screen allows you to set the app to lock all selected apps every time you wake your device from idle state, and launch its lock service automatically every time the device boots up. The Allow short exit option here lets you keep apps unlocked for a specified amount of time after they are exited, so that you don’t have to enter the PIN/pattern over and over again while switching between apps.

If you happen to forget your unlock pattern but remember the PIN, simply launch APP Lock and select Change to number lock. If you can’t remember the PIN either, tap the Retrieve password option at the bottom of the PIN authentication screen and enter the answer to the security question that you set previously.

Note: If, by chance, you find your memory void of everything related to the app (courtesy of, say, a Falcon Punch to the head), and you have the Application Manage, Install/Uninstall and Market options locked, you won’t be able to delete the app by conventional means. You’ll have to have root access on your device, and a root-level file explorer already installed on your Android device. If you don’t have the latter, or if it too is locked by APP Lock, you can use a root-level desktop file explorer for Android to delete APP Lock or its data from the system.

APP Lock is available for free on the Android Market. The link and QR code provided below will take you to its Market page.

Download APP Lock

Join The Dark Side Of The Force With Darth Maul Me For Android

Sameed — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:59:52 +0000

If you’re a Star Wars fan, then you must be brimming with anticipation for the upcoming 3D variant of The Phantom Menace. For those of you who don’t yet know, Lucasfilm recently announced that a 3D version of Star Wars: Episode I will be hitting theaters around the globe on February 10, 2012. To promote the launch of the film, the production company has released an app for Android smartphones that is sure to keep you entertained till the film is finally released. It’s called Darth Maul Me, and is its name suggests, it turns photos of you or your friends into the saberstaff-wielding, crimson faced villain from Episode I. For details, screenshots and more from the dark side of the force, proceed past the break, you must.

Darth Maul Me has as amazing an interface as one would expect from an official Star Wars app. Slick transitions between screens and great sound effects take the “boring” out of the whole Darth Maul-izing process.

The app allows you to snap a new photo or import one from your local library. The selected/captured photo should, of course, be a front-face shot.

Once you’ve selected a photo, the app lets you zoom in and out, and rotate it to adjust the outline of the Darth Maul mask over the face within the picture, then lets you tweak the mask itself. After you’ve molded the mask to the edges of the face and adjusted the two ‘+’ icons over the pupils, tap the arrow in the bottom-right corner. Keep the bottom mask marker a little above the edge of the chin for the best results.

The app provides you with three different Darth Maul masks, the first being the original from the movie and my personal favorite. Tap the Darth Maul face at the bottom and the app displays an awesome animation of the mask appearing over the photo, followed by the result, which can then be saved to local storage and/or shared over Facebook.

The results don’t always come out looking perfect. For certain photos, you have to be very careful while adjusting the mask to get a respectable result. Though, needless to say, if you’re a fan, it’s all definitely worth the hassle. Besides, the app is absolutely free, after all.

We tested the app on the Galaxy Nexus, and found that while capturing a photo from within the app, the view from the front-facing appears upside down, and that photos picked imported from the gallery are automatically rotated 90 degrees. We had to use the native image editor to rotate photos 90 degrees in the opposite direction before loading them into the app. Hopefully, future updates will bring fixes for these issues, and maybe an improvement in the results.

Darth Maul Me requires Android 2.2 or higher to run. Download it to your phone from the Android Market link or QR code provided below.

Download Darth Maul Me

150 Best Android Apps Of Year 2011 [Editor's Pick]

Sameed — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:30:03 +0000

2011 has been an important year for Android. With devices like Samsung Galaxy S II, Motorola XOOM and Kindle Fire turning heads in the market, atop the release of what is arguably the best iteration of the mobile OS (Ice Cream Sandwich) yet, it was only a matter of time before the head honchos of mobile app development began hopping onto the Android bandwagon. Not only has the year seen many big names debut on the Android Market, but many novice developers make big names for themselves, and to top it all off, the Market is now home to over 400,000 apps. There is no denying the fact that it is still way behind the iTunes App Store in both quantity and quality (especially where the visual appeal of UI, in general, is concerned), but the degree of improvement that the platform and its apps have undergone the previous year surely exceeds the expectations of most of its fans. Here at AddictiveTips, we’ve been observing the progress of the platform and its app repository quite closely, bringing you the best apps in and out of the Market day after day. As the year ended, we decided to take a trip down memory lane, and compile a list of the ones we found to be the most unique or useful of lot.

1. Google Currents (Perhaps the best news reader and RSS aggregator for Android yet)

2. AirDroid (Remotely access, and control all the core features/apps of your Android device from any web browser)

3. Baconreader (Arguably the best reddit client available in the Android Market)

4. ZeroPC Cloud Navigator (Comprehensive all-in-one cloud data browser for Android tablets)

5. TeamViewer (Full remote desktop access and control)

6. Screencast & Recorder (Rooted devices only: One of the only apps in the Market that records smooth, high quality screencasts)

7. Espier Launcher (Remarkably accurate iOS Springboard clone)

8. LapseIt (The best time-lapse video creator for Android that we’ve come across so far)

9. Emit (Stream & download audio and videos from desktop and iTunes library over Wi-Fi)

10. Skitch By Evernote (One of the best annotation and drawing tools; integrated with Evernote)

11. iOnRoad (Augmented reality driving companion with collision detection alerts)

12. Yahoo! IntoNow (Identifies what’s being played on TV, and displays detailed program information)

13. SPRiiD (Remote file sharing between two Android device over the internet)

14. Boat Browser (Chrome and mobile Safari-like browser with tabbed-browsing, quick dial, and support for webpage scrolling via volume buttons)

15. Elixir 2 (Comprehensive system info tool and app/task manager, with a vast suite of homescreen widgets)

16. LBE Privacy Guard (Rooted devices only: Monitors access requests made by apps and alerts you of them, much like Windows’ UAC)

17. MiLocker (MIUI dev team’s lockscreen replacement app for all Android devices; has a large online store of downloadable lockscreen themes)

18. Iris (Siri-inspired voice-controlled assistant; indulges in casual chat, and helps you with calling, texting, online searching and launching apps)

19. Hipmunk (Track shortest and most economical flight routes to worldwide destinations)

20. Intel Pair & Share (Stream photos from Android to PC and/or other Android devices over Wi-Fi)

21. Viber (Free VoIP app to call and text other app users from your contact list; registration done through phone number, much like WhatsApp)

22. Remote Tablet (Remotely control one Android device with the other over Bluetooth)

23. Undelete Beta (File/data recovery tool for Android)

24. SHREDroid (File shredder; removes traces of deleted files from internal memory and SD card to prevent file recovery)

25. Pops (Custom animated alerts for your text messages, Facebook, Twitter and Emails)

26. Cloudless (Two-Way media sync between Android & PC over Wi-Fi without a desktop client)

27. TouchRetouch Free (Allows seamless removal of unwanted content from images)

28. Dropsync (Provides two-way sync between your device’s local storage and your Dropbox cloud)

29. Hearing Saver (Automatically changes media volume to predefined levels when headphones are plugged in or unplugged)

30. Plug In Launcher (Auto-launches an app of your choice when usb/power cable or headphones are connected)

31. Magic Hour (Lets you apply photo filters, edit existing filters or create your own from scratch; has a massive online filter repository as well)

32. MX Video Player (Media player with support for all popular video and subtitle formats; no additional plugins required)

33. Cheetah Sync (Two-way data sync between Android & PC/Mac over Wi-Fi)

34. Voxer (Push-to-Talk IM client that supports sharing images, location and voice messages; saves voice messages, and plays them while offline)

35. TalkBox (Cross-platform voice messenger that merges the conventional text chat interface with voice communication)

36. Merriam-Webster Dictionary (Official Merriam-Webster Dictionary app; the dictionary is offline and supports voice search)

37. Any.DO (An elegantly designed and feature-rich task management & reminder app)

38. SkyAMP (Stream music on Android device from your Windows SkyDrive account)

39. BitTorrent Remote (Remotely control torrent downloads/uploads on your desktop BitTorrent client)

40. WiFiKill (Rooted devices only: Lets you disable internet for any device/user from a WiFi network that you are connected to)

41. Sonalight Text By Voice (Text-to-Speech & Speech-to-Text based messaging app for incoming and outgoing text messages)

42. Wi-Fi Network Analysis (Provides a comprehensive collection ways to monitor Wi-Fi networks, and relevant information)

43. Say Cheese Camera (Voice-controlled camera replacement with an additional ‘stealth’ mode)

44. Steam For Android (Unofficial steam client with an ICS-like user interface)

45. Add Friend (Lets you add Facebook friends by touching your NFC-capable devices together)

46. MagicLocker (One of the best lockscreen replacements out there; has several downloadable themes)

47. WiFi QR Code Generator (Generates QR codes that can be scanned by Barcode Scanner to join WiFi networks)

48. MIUI Launcher (Clone of the MIUI custom ROM’s native launcher)

49. Gifinator (Easy-to-use animated GIF creator)

50. Agile Lock (Great HTC Sense 3.0 lockscreen clone)

51. DC Comics & Marvel Comics (Official DC & Marvel comics clients for Android with built-in, frame-to-frame based comic readers)

52. Visidon AppLock (Apply face-recognition lock to apps of your choice)

53. SkyDrive Browser(Unofficial SkyDrive client with dual-pane browser)

54. Nemus Launcher (Homescreen replacement with unique App Drawer and folder widgets)

55. Do It (Tomorrow) (Task management two days at a time)

56. GO Contacts EX (Enhanced version of the GO dev team’s popular, feature-rich contacts replacement app)

57. Outdoor Navigation (Swiss army knife for travelers)

58.Social Jogger 2 (Sleek social media aggregator for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr & Plurk)

59. SaveMeeting (Record, save and share audio recordings of meetings, and their text transcripts; transcripts are generated via Text-to-Speech)

60. DeskSMS (Forwards incoming texts as mail or chat messages to your Gmail or Gtalk account respectively; provides the option to toggle forwarding for each via a homescreen widget)

61. Hacker’s Keyboard (Full 5-row keyboard replacement)

62. ChannelCaster (A feature-rich news reader and social media app mashup)

63. Unlock With WiFi (Automatically disables lockscreen when connected to user-defined WiFi network)

64. Connection Checker (Automatically toggles WiFi or mobile data in case of weak signals until a stable connection is established)

65. IVONA (High Quality, realistic alternative to the stock Android Text-to-Speech engine)

66. Andie Graph (Emulator for TI graphing calculators)

67. Android Theme Launcher (Highly customizable launcher-style Live Wallpaper)

68. 360 (Easily create and share panoramic photos with other users and friends)

69. Limit Your Call (Set custom notification patterns and automatic hang-up time for your calls to cut down on phone bills)

70. ShakeCall (Receive and end calls by shaking the device)

71. Soundtracker Radio (Extremely feature-rich music discovery app that fetches lyrics for songs of your choice, and lets you explore musical taste of local users)

72. MightyText (Previously known as Texty; lets you send and receive your Android device’s text messages to and from your desktop)

73. Battery Calibration (Rooted devices only: Re-calibrates your device’s battery)

74. BITS Widget (Create your own clock and weather homescreen widgets)

75. AutoCAD WS (View, edit and share DWG files stored locally or on your AutoCAD WS cloud)

76. HDMwIn (Full HDMI mirroring for HTC EVO 4G; no root required)

77. Kernel Manager (Rooted devices only: Download and flash custom kernels for your device)

78. Angel Browser (One of the most feature-rich Android browsers to date)

79. Volume Sync (Mutes the media volume whenever the ringer volume is muted)

80. SD Maid (Clear your SD card and internal memory of residues left behind by deleted apps and other unnecessary files)

81. Hulu Plus (Official Hulu client for Android)

82. Dock4Droid (Adds a gesture area at the bottom of the screen for quick task switching)

83. PCAutoWaker (Automatically turns your desktop on when your Android device connects to the same WiFi network)

84. ZDBox (All-in-one system monitoring and management toolkit)

85. Ultimate App Guard (Scheduled lock/unlock profiles for apps with up to seven methods of protection)

86. NVIDIA Tegra Zone (Game discovery app for Tegra-powered Android devices)

87. GO Locker (One of the best lockscreen replacement apps to date; has its own online repository of downloadable themes)

88. Yahoo! Play (Identifies songs, lets you make mood-oriented playlists)

89. Lightbox (Capture photos, apply filters and sync with the web)

90. Wallpaper Changer (Automatically cycles through wallpapers of your choice after a specified interval of time)

91. Ripple Lock (Honeycomb-inspired lockscreen replacement)

92. Read It Later Free (Archive web pages/articles and read them later from within your device, desktop browser or other mobile platforms)

93. PicsIn Viewer (Aggregates images from cloud and social networks as well as from gallery, and lets you upload/download them from within the app)

94. Android Lost (Comprehensive anti-theft, remote access and control solution; now allows controlling multiple devices at once)

95. Mutli Texter (Send unlimited SMS to an unlimited number of contacts at once)

96. Smart Rotator (Allows you to specify apps for which you want auto-rotate to remain enabled)

97. UC Browser 8.0 (High speed, data saving web browser with support for caching browsed content)

98. Conimgo (Expense/budget management app for roommates)

99. SD Increase (Rooted devices only: Boosts read and write speeds of SD card)

100. Bird Bar Notifications (Drag and launch notifications drawer from within fullscreen apps)

101. Application Folder (Highly customizable folder widgets for your homescreen)

102. RemebAR (Facial recognition app to remember friends, and share meetings with them on your Facebook wall)

103. BrowsAR (Scan QR codes to view Facebook profiles in profiles in augmented reality)

104. MXHome Launcher (Homescreen replacement with unique App Drawer concept and 3D graphics)

105. Regina 3D Launcher (Homescreen replacement with amazing 3D graphics)

106. SemiSilent (Enable ringer for calls from specific contacts while keeping your device in silent mode)

107. Strimz (Stream live video recordings to your Facebook Wall)

108. Draw n Chat (Real-time virtual drawing board sharing between two Android devices over the internet)

109. Tablet Market (Medium for finding great Honeycomb-optimized apps on the Android Market)

110. Voice Control Without Internet (Launch Android apps via voice commands without an internet connection)

111. Cisco Connect Express (Remotely manage & monitor your Cisco routers)

112. Invisibright (Allows you to control brightness by swiping along the edge of the screen or tilting your device)

113. Trulia Rent A House (Helps you find the best places for rent around your location)

114. MIUI Music Player (Standalone MIUI music player app for all Android devices)

115. QISS (Comprehensive IM and social networking browser with support for sharing texts & photos across major micro-blogging web services and social networks)

116. Call Master (Customized, schedule-based settings for incoming calls and texts for individual contacts & groups)

117. The Social Radio (Reads your Twitter feed out loud, with music of your choice playing in between tweets)

118. K-Adroit (Comprehensive online encyclopedia for Android smartphones and tablets)

119. Meporter (Citizen journalism app that allows you to share geo-tagged news & photos)

120. Hitlantis (Music discovery app with an intuitive UI)

121. Alfred (Personal virtual concierge that suggests eating places as per your preferences)

122. goHow Airport (Comprehensive airport finding and flight tracking app that fetches real-time information directly from some of of the top airports around the world)

123. ViBe (Create & set custom vibration patterns for individual contacts or groups)

124. Evoqu ShopAdvisor (Find red-hot shopping deals, scan barcodes, analyze recent market trends, and check user reviews of technology products from major online merchants)

125. Volume Rocker (Switch between as many as 5 customizable sound profiles from within the app or its homescreen widget)

126. Weather Services (Detailed weather forecasts with live weather cam images from various regions of the world)

127. AppAware (The easiest and most convenient way of finding and sharing trending apps and games from the Android Market; supports displaying local apps)

128. Calendar Silencer (Syncs events from multiple calendars, and automatically silences your device according to selected activities in your schedule)

129. Birthday Scheduler for FB (Automatically sends personalized wishes to your Facebook friends on their birthdays)

130. Ask.com (Official Android client of the famous web-based Q&A platform)

131. Prox (Uses your device’s proximity sensors and accelerometer to read hand gestures, and perform various actions)

132. Mobli (Instragram-like photo and video-sharing app for Android)

133. Student Timetable (Easily the most feature-rich student planner for Android that we’ve come across)

134. SMS Board (Forwards incoming SMS to email as well as Facebook and Twitter as private messages)

135. Mr. Mouse (Motion-Tracking WiFi Mouse)

136. Speaklib (Clipboard manager that reads copied text out loud in multiple languages)

137. Snapbucket (Photobucket’s photo styling app with customizable effects; lets you unlock additional filters by snapping more photos)

138. AppPlus (Check latest price drops of apps in the Android Market)

139. Legimi (eBook reader & downloader with option to sync local library over the internet, and publish highlighted text to Facebook)

140. N3xGen Theme Manager (Comprehensive gallery for Android themes and launcher skins from the Market)

141. MyAlbum (Download entire Facebook albums to your device with a single tap)

142. Quick Event (Automatically creates calendar events from simple text; identifies information within the text and enters it into appropriate fields)

143. Sleep Timer (Automatically plays, pauses or stops multimedia during user-specified time intervals)

144. Wi-Fi Chat (IM that lets you chat with users connected to the same Wi-Fi Network)

145. Default App Manager (Clear, set & edit default apps)

146. ProCapture (Handy camera replacement app with multiple capture modes)

147. Autodesk Inventor Publisher (View 3D assembly instructions on the go)

148. CNN for Android (Official CNN client for Android; lets you submit your own stories via iReport)

149. NASA App (Official NASA client; lets you explore the best from space)

150. Hotmail (The official Hotmail client for Android)

So which of the above fall into your list of favorites? If you didn’t find one or more of your favorite apps in our list, feel free to tell us about it in the comment section below. If you liked this list, you might also want to check out the following:

150 Best Windows Applications Of Year 2011

100 Best Mac Applications Of Year 2011

85 Best iPhone & iPad Apps Of Year 2011

30 Best Windows Phone 7 Apps Of Year 2011

20 Best Cydia Tweaks Of Year 2011

Add Facebook Friends By Touching Your NFC-Capable Android Phones Together

Sameed — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:00:31 +0000

If you thought NFC (Near Field Communication) was just a means for wireless monetary transactions, Add Friend for Android is bound to open your mind to a plethora of possibilities. This simple yet inspiring free app employs NFC to lets two users become friends on Facebook simply by touching the backs of their phones. Being one of the few NFC-based mobile apps out there, and the only one (we’ve come across) that links the technology with the world’s leading social network, the app is a welcome addition to the Android Market. Head on past the break for further details and a demo video.

Using the app is as simple as it sounds. It only has one prerequisite – the official Facebook client for Android. Ensure that you and your friend have said client installed and NFC enabled (Settings > Wireless & Networks for Android 2.3.x and Settings > More in Android 4.x), launch Add Friend on your device, have your friend launch the app on his/hers, touch the backs of both devices together, and weight for slightly over a second. This should launch the official Facebook client, taking you straight to your friend’s profile page, wherefrom you can befriend him/her by hitting the Add Friend button.

If the app doesn’t find the Facebook client, it automatically launches Market and takes you to its download page. If it does, it requests authorization to your account. Every time you use the app to add a friend, it posts an alert to your Wall.

The video below shows the app working on a pair of Nexus S devices.

Add Friend may not be of much use as of now, but as the number of NFC-capable Android devices increases, the app, along with possible upcoming Twitter and Google+ variants, might grow to become a must-have accessory for social media enthusiasts. The app is available for free on the Android Market. If you have an NFC-capable Android device, download it from the link or QR code provided below.

Download Add Friend

[via Redmond Pie]

How To Disable/Hide Google Search Bar In Android 4.0 ICS Stock Launcher

Sameed — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:00:55 +0000

Among the many features and interface elements that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich took from the tablet-exclusive Android OS variant, Honeycomb, is the static search bar that it displays at the top of its stock launcher. Being static (accessible from each of the five homescreens of the stock launcher), it eliminates the need for you to make room for a search widget on the homescreen. That said, users who don’t use the search application that often might consider it dead weight doing nothing more than making their homescreen look all cluttered. XDA-Developers member oscillik has found a workaround that allows you to hide the search bar. Read on past the break to know how it’s done.

The method involves disabling the native Google Search application, so while it may hide the search bar from the homescreen, it will also prevent you from using Google Search itself. That is, hitting the Search key on your device while on the homescreen or within the app drawer won’t launch the search application.

Also, it doesn’t give you extra space on the homescreen. The space that the search bar takes remains unusable. Still, it does make your homescreen look a little less cluttered, and you won’t be losing much if you seldom use the search application. So without further adieu, here is what you need to do to remove the search bar from your homescreen:

Hit the Menu key while on the homescreen, and navigate to Manage Apps > All > Google Search.
From within the App info screen that follows, select Disable.

That’s all there is to it. You can get the search bar back at any time by returning to the Google Search App info screen and hitting Enable. You’ll find the Google Search application at the bottom of the list with all the other disabled apps (if any).

The method is quite simple, but if you do happen to get stuck somewhere, the following video might be able to clear things up for you.

Official App For New Social Network Chime.in Available For Android & iPhone

Sameed — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:02:33 +0000

From the developers of Ubersocial for Android (formerly known as Twidroyd) and the suite of Twitter mobile/desktop clients and browser extensions known as Echofon, UberMedia has stepped into the social media circus with their very own network, releasing iPhone and Android clients for it the very next day. Chime.in is essentially a mashup of Twitter, Facebook and Reddit that allows users to follow what’s going on around the web according to their interests and reap monetary benefits from their posts (called “chimes” that include textual status updates, photos, videos, links and polls) through the network’s advertising service or their own ad networks. More on the mobile client after the break.

The network has released its clients earlier than most would and so, it is only natural for it to be missing a few features. You can choose your interests from within the app, view your timeline (smartly termed “My Chimeline”), like/ comment on individual Chimes or share them with your followers, post your own Chimes, but you can’t register for a new account or follow other Chime.in users from within the app and there is no support for notifications yet.

However, one aspect that the company hasn’t compromised on is the interface, which is extremely smooth, innovative and easy on the eyes. The UI of the iOS variant is a tad better (aesthetically) than that of the Android version, but other than that, there isn’t much difference between the two.

You can attach a photo with each Chime you post using the app. Support for polls, videos and links is yet to be added. Adding interests to your Chime improves its chances of being viewed by people browsing the network for the relevant niche.

The search option of the client (Menu > Search in the Android variant) is, as of yet, my favorite part of the app and the network itself. Instead of just displaying interests, users, communities and Chimes that match your query, said option actually lets you follow every result that appears under that query. It’s like Twitter’s Lists feature but way faster. Just enter a query and the app will automatically create a feed of relevant Chimes from all over the network. Tap the Follow button in the top-right corner of the screen and the feed will be added to your Chimeline.

It’s too early to judge whether the network and its clients will be a threat to the current head honchos of social media. It isn’t as of yet; that much is pretty clear, but with its fast custom feed creation and provision for monetization, it does have potential to attract a large userbase.

Links to both variants of the network’s mobile client are provided below.

Download Chime.in for iPhone

Download Chime.in for Android

Get The iOS Springboard On Your Android Homescreen With Espier Launcher

Sameed — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:30:49 +0000

While most die-hard Android fans would cringe at the thought of iPhone-izing their devices’ UI, there is quite a majority of Android users who would actually prefer doing so. The iOS-inspired interface of the MIUI custom ROM and GO Launcher EX homescreen replacement for Android is one of the major reasons the two have such vast fanbases. Now, where the aforementioned only mirror certain elements of the iOS UI, there have been quite a few attempts to clone it entirely, the newest (and by far, the best) of the lot being Espier Launcher. Espier Launcher is probably the most accurate clone of the iOS Springboard yet. The launcher replicates everything from the look of the icons and folders to the App Switcher tray, Jiggle Mode and Spotlight search.

Being a carbon copy of the iOS Springboard, Espier Launcher does not have an app drawer. That is, it displays all your apps on the homescreen. Not necessarily a deal breaker. However, that isn’t the only thing you’ll be losing. The launcher does not support homescreen widgets (as of this writing). That’s right. Also, it does not allow you to add widgets to your homescreen.

Espier is the first launcher we’ve come across that replicates iOS folders so well. Most Android launchers (iOS-inspired or not) open folders as separate windows. They don’t part the homescreen the way iOS folders do. QQ Launcher is probably the only other launcher that clones the effect, still not nearly as well as Espier.

Folders can be created the same way they are in iOS – hold an app’s icon to go into Jiggle/edit mode, then drag and drop the icon onto another, as shown in the screenshot above (first from left). While in edit mode, in addition to creating new folders, you can rename and add/remove apps from existing ones (each folder can hold up to 12 apps), replace dock shortcuts (maximum of 4 allowed) and uninstall apps right from your homescreen.

The Spotlight search is where it should be – on the extreme left of the homescreen. As you enter your query into the search bar, it begins displays results in realtime, grouped together by type (SMS, Contacts, Media, Apps etc.).

Espier’s App Switcher tray differs only slightly from the real thing. Firstly, you have to swipe upwards along the screen to launch it. Secondly, it houses an Android-like power control widget with more toggles than those found in the iOS App Switcher. While the App Switcher is up, swipe left across the tray to access the widget, swipe right to view additional recently run applications, hold down on an app to go into edit mode and tap the little ‘-’ sign on the top left corner of an app to remove it from the tray.

The launcher seems to retain the apps saved to the tray (though not in the same order) even after reboot.

While we experienced no lag at all while test-running the launcher on our Samsung Galaxy S II, it is possible that it might prove to be a little heavy-duty for certain low-end devices. If the launcher lags on your device, try disabling Animation Effects from within Menu > Preferences. From the same menu, you can also enable/disable the option to tilt the device right or left to quickly move an icon or folder from one screen to another in edit mode.

Although Espier Launcher has only been on the Android Market for a little over two weeks, it already seems to have accumulated quite a fanbase, and deservedly so. It is as close to an iOS homescreen port as you’ll get. The launcher is available for free on the Android Market. Grab it while you can. As huge an Apple lawsuit magnet as it is, we’d be surprised if it isn’t forced to walk the plank soon

Download Espier Launcher

[via Android Police]

GO Launcher EX Gets Its Own Switch (Power Control) Widget [Android]

Sameed — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:57:49 +0000

As expected, the GO Launcher Dev Team is back again – barely a couple of weeks after their last endeavor – with yet another handy addition to their acclaimed home screen replacement app. GO Launcher EX now has a downloadable switch (power control) widget. And it’s not one of those run-of-the-mill toggle widgets. Switch GOWidget sports a total of 12 toggles, out of which it allows you to select 4 toggles to appear on the home screen. The widget takes after Tencent Switcher and QQLauncher’s native Quick switch widget in the way it looks and works but it does have a greater number of toggles and additional sliders for adjusting ringer and media volume levels. More after the break.

The widget only displays 4 toggles at a time on the home screen. Tap the ‘…’ button to reveal all 12 of its toggles arranged in a grid above the aforementioned volume control sliders. The switches in the top row are the ones that are displayed on the home screen. If you’d rather have another set of switches in the top row than the ones placed there by default, tap the Edit button in the top-right corner of the expanded widget to rearrange them. Hold down on a switch, drag and drop it over another to swap their places on the grid.

Apart from the usual set of switches (WiFi, Mobile data, GPS, Bluetooth, Auto-sync, Orientation lock, Brightness, Ringer, Vibration and Airplane mode), the widget sports a a handy Screen timeout toggle that, as its name suggests, allows you to cycle between default screen timeout settings (1, 5, 10 & 30 minutes) and a Lock screen toggle that requires the widget to be granted administrator privileges. Remember, once the widget is set as a device administrator, you’ll have to revoke its privileges manually from within Menu > Settings > Location & Security > Device administrators to be able to uninstall it.

Like every other GOWidget, the widget is available for free on the Android Market. After you’ve downloaded and installed it on your device, simply long-press on an empty space on your home screen and from within the context menu that appears, select GOWidget > Switch to add the widget.

Sadly, the widget does not seem to be compatible with the lone free widget skin on the Market as of yet. Still, its handier than most of the free, standalone power control widgets out there. Download it now from the Market via the provided link or QR code.

Download Switch GOWidget

Dolphin Browser Brings Webzines & Chrome-Like Tabbed Browsing To iPhone [Review]

Sameed — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:57:51 +0000

Just when we began wondering when one of the smartest, fastest and most elegant third-party browsers on the Android Market would make a (much-requested) transition to Android’s rival platform, the developers delivered. MoboTap released the smartphone variant of Dolphin Browser to the iTunes App Store (for iPhone & iPod Touch) roughly five days ago. From the looks of it, the browser is rapidly growing in popularity. No surprises there. Dolphin Browser is a comprehensive package of functionality, looks and perks and deserves all the acclaim it has received so far across both platforms. It’s not just the Chrome-inspired tabbed browsing, that impresses users. Dolphin Browser comes with a smart URL bar, gesture-based control and navigation, a Speed Dial home page and a Webzine feature with impressive social network (Facebook and Twitter) integration. We delve into the aforementioned and other features after the break.

Chrome-Like Tabbed Browsing

The Chrome-like tabbed browsing is a definite improvement over that of Mobile Safari. Not only does it look slightly better (not everyone would agree), but it is also far more efficient. Simply swipe across opened tabs and tap to select the one you wish to view. And for those who’d prefer Safari’s page view, the browser has a page view of its own (first button from right on the bottom of the screen).

Speed Dial

Every time you open a new tab, the browser greets you with a Speed Dial page containing a grid of shortcuts to up to 8 of your favorite websites. You can add shortcuts to said page either from within the page or by navigating to the required website and selecting Pin Speed Dial from within the share menu.

From within the same menu, you can access the browser’s Find on Page feature (searches for user-defined text within the page), add the page to bookmarks, share it with your contacts and assign a gesture to it.

Smart URL Bar

The URL bar provides real-time suggestions based on bookmarked websites, browsing history and terms frequently searched on Google. After a page starts loading, you’ll notice the Twitter logo on the left of the address bar. Tapping it allows you to share the page on Twitter.

Sidebars: Options & Bookmarks

Swipe left from the right edge of the screen reveals one of two sidebars. This one contains shortcuts to a couple of frequently used features along with the settings menu, downloads and the option to switch to full screen. The other sidebar displays all bookmarked websites, allows you arrange their order, delete them and organize them into sub folders.

Gestures

Like its Android variant, Dolphin Borwser for iPhone lets you input gestures to control a host of browser functions or to navigate to your favorite websites. Tap the hand-shaped icon at the bottom of the screen or within the aforementioned options sidebar to input a gesture. From within the black, semi-transparent canvas that appears, select New Gesture to create/ edit a gesture. Remember, if you save a gesture for every other website or action, you might experience a drop in the accuracy of results. Also, try to make each gesture as different from the other as possible.

Tab Restore

During our brief test-run, the browser did crash a few times (perfectly natural considering the app is relatively new to the App Store). No worries, though. The browser saves your tabs before crashing and, the next time it is launched, asks you whether you want to restore your session.

Webzine

Last but definitely not the least – the Webzine feature. I’ll maintain what I said in my review of the app’s Android variant. The Webzine feature is handy enough to be a separate app. Said feature is basically a built-in RSS reader that retrieves all the latest posts from a predefined set of the most popular websites and blogs arranged into 10 different categories. Webzine strips each website of its theme & ads and presents it in an easy-on-the-eyes, magazine-like format more suitable for reading on a mobile device. The feature also incorporates social media. As of now, it only supports Facebook and Twitter.

While on Speed Dial, swipe right across the middle of the screen to switch to the Webzine page. The Twitter and Facebook webzines should be there by default. Tap Add Columns to add more. The Add More Columns screen even sports a search bar for your convenience.

Articles and blog posts/ feed items are displayed very much like they are in an RSS reader. Tap to open a feed item and swipe left and right across the screen to switch to the next or previous one. Tap a featured image to enlarge it and the share button in the bottom-right corner to post a link to the article to your Facebook wall and/or Twitter feed. It’s as simple and convenient as that.

And that’s not all. The real potential of this feature is unveiled when you explore the social media webzines. Your Facebook wall and Twitter feed are displayed along with previews for attached images. You can update your status, view and add comments within the Facebook webzine while the Twitter webzine allows you to tweet, view retweets of, retweet and favorite any tweet in your timeline.

Tap a shared article and the entire article along with its featured image (if any) should be displayed, provided the website from which the article was shared is among the ones that have a webzine.

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap. Needless to say, Dolphin is definitely worth a try. In fact, it’s good enough (and fast enough) to be your default browser and unlike some other alternatives on the App Store, it’s absolutely free. However, don’t go thinking the developers have nothing more to offer. Remember, the app’s been in the Store for only a little over five days and it’s still missing a few handy features that are part of its Android counterpart (add-ons, for instance). Future updates are bound to close the gap between the two versions.

You may download the app for free from the iTunes App Store via the link provided below.

Download Dolphin Browser For iPhone & iPod Touch

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

Sameed — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:47:30 +0000

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. When 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 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.

While Smart Lyrics’ primary function is to auto-fetch lyrics for the currently playing song, you may use it to search for lyrics manually as well. In addition, you can to copy lyrics to clipboard (Menu > Copy Lyrics), share them with your friends (Menu > Share Lyrics) and set the app to save all lyrics locally (Menu > Preferences > Save Lyrics for Tracks) so you may be able to view them later from within the app (Menu > Stored Lyrics) or via the notification drawer shortcut without an active internet connection.

You may enable / disable the notification drawer shortcut (Notification) or delete all stored lyrics (Clear Offline Storage) from within the app’s Preferences menu (Menu > Preferences).

As mentioned earlier and exhibited in the screenshot below (first from right), the app’s notification bar service fetches lyrics for the currently playing track regardless of the app playing it.

During our brief test-run, the aforementioned notification drawer shortcut failed to appear at times when a track was paused and then resumed. Skipping to the next track and back seemed to remedy said problem. The app is new to the Android Market and it is perfectly natural for it to have a few bugs here and there. The bug we found is hardly large enough to mar its handiness.

Download the app from the Android Market via the provided link or QR code.

Update: The app seems to have been taken of the Android Market for reasons unknown.

Download Smart Lyrics

Free Version Of Electronic Arts’ Tetris Now Available In Android Market

Sameed — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:59:28 +0000

Some games are just eternal. Years over years pass by and people never seem to get tired of playing them. Tetris is one such game. It never gets old. If you’re a Tetris fan and own an Android device, you’ll be happy to know that EA very recently released a free version for their best-selling Android variant of the game. If you’re reading this then you probably haven’t tried the original (paid) version of the game and its fluid controls yet. The free version contains ads (displayed at the top of the screen in-game) and features the Marathon (classic) gameplay mode only. The alternate power-up based Magic Mode has been reserved for the full version.

The visuals are as easy on the eyes and the controls as fluid as those of the full version. Also, the ads aren’t distracting at all. So essentially, the only significant difference between the two versions would be the aforementioned gameplay mode. It’s highly unlikely that you’re unfamiliar with the objective of the game, but just in case you aren’t (you’re kidding, right?) or are just having trouble with the game’s controls, you may avail the tutorial option that appears at the beginning of each new game.

You can grab the game from the Android Market via the provided link or QR code.

Download Teris Free

Say Cheese Camera Lets You Snap Photos Via Voice Commands! [Android]

Sameed — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:00:21 +0000

We won’t lie to you. We’re fond of collecting camera replacement apps. After testing countless such applications on the Android Market, we thought developers had run out of ideas. Well, we were wrong. Say hello to Say Cheese Camera for Android – a free yet comprehensive camera replacement app that, along with a plethora of other handy features, comes packed with the option to snap photos via voice recognition. Other noteworthy features include the option to toggle talk-back (voice confirmation), a Stealth mode for capturing photos, a built-in gallery, batch uploading to Facebook and rainSlides – a Facebook app that lets you convert a group of photos into a slideshow. We delve into these and a few other components of the app after the break.

The app’s interface isn’t exactly one of its strengths. It’s user-friendly but not all that easy on the eyes. A slight improvement in its looks would be a welcome change.

The app provides you with four different ways to take photos.

Normal: Tap the capture button (at the top-right corner of the main interface) and the app should display a preview of the captured image, allowing you to save, discard or share it.
Quick Snap: Holding the same button down automatically saves the captured image to your device and skips the preview screen.
Voice Recognition: Toggle Voice Recognition on by tapping the button at the bottom of the column on the left and say “cheese”, “smile” or “ready” to capture photos. The app also has a few other voice commands that allow zooming in / out and switching between the rear and front-facing camera. All commands are mentioned under Voice Control within the app’s settings screen. During our test-run, we had success with only the first three.
Stealth Mode: Tap the third button from top on the left of the app’s settings screen to switch to Stealth Mode. The mode, as its name suggests, is meant to capture photos discreetly. In said mode, the talk-back (Voice Response) feature is temporarily disabled and all that the app displays on the screen is a barely visible toggle in the bottom-left corner. Tap it to exit Stealth Mode. To capture a photo, hold down anywhere on the screen and wait for you device to vibrate once (as the camera finishes focusing) and then a second time (when it captures and saves the photo).

Note: Capturing a photo in Stealth Mode causes your ringer volume to turn back on if muted. Apparently, the app mutes audio temporarily when you capture a photo and turns it back on regardless of its previous state.

Say Cheese Camera’s settings screen displays toggles for all major settings on the right and left side of the screen, with the settings menu in the middle. From within this menu, you can toggle auto-focus (Doc Scan), Auto-Save, timed capture (Timer), Stealth Mode, customize the talk-back (Voice Response & Voice Pitch), choose Effects and set your hardware shutter button to launch the app (Hardware Launch).

Another interesting feature in the Camera Settings menu is the Torch option under Flash. Selecting said option causes the camera’s LED to remain on constantly while within the capture interface. This can prove to be particularly useful while taking pictures in darker environments.

As mentioned earlier, the app has a built-in gallery for viewing pictures and sharing them over the web. Tap to select multiple photos (for uploading or deletion) and hold down on any photo to view it. The gallery also allows you to link the app with your Facebook account and upload multiple photos to your account and rainSlides with a single tap.

Among the few additional and somewhat unique perks that the app sports is the option to turn the app into an augmented reality compass (tap on the accelerometer indicator in the main interface to do so) and sending captured photos to Google Goggles and other third-party apps from within the preview screen.

You can grab the app from the Android Market for free via the provided link or QR code.

Download Say Cheese Camera

Connect To WiFi Networks By Scanning QR Codes With Barcode Scanner [Android]

Sameed — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:01:49 +0000

A couple of months back, we covered WiFi Joiner – an Android app that allows you to create QR codes for WiFi access points and share them with your friends, colleagues or customers so that they may simply scan these codes to connect to the affiliated networks – eliminating the need to share long access keys. However, to scan said codes, they would need to have the same app installed on their devices. Not to undermine the functionality that WiFi Joiner provides (they were there first, after all), but it’s highly unlikely for all your Android-wielding friends to have the app on their devices. Relatively new to the Android Market, WiFi QR Code Generator works roughly the same way but, however, the QR codes it generates can be scanned with Barcode Scanner – a free app that, owing to its simplicity and effectiveness, has grown to become the default QR code scanner for a vast majority of Android users. More than 10 million downloads and counting (as of this writing) are proof positive of its popularity.

WiFi QR Code Generator is quite simple to use. Enter the name (SSID) and password of the WiFi access point, tap Generate and the app displays its QR code in the space below. Tapping Save adds the network to the Saved access points list in the app’s menu (in addition to displaying its QR code).

To share a QR code over the web or via MMS, hit Menu > Share QR Code. During our little test-run, the share menu repeatedly refused to show itself. If the same happens with you, tap Generate or Save once again after opting to share and said menu should appear.

Whoever you share a QR code with does not need to have the app installed. All QR codes generated by WiFi QR Code Generator can be scanned by Barcode Scanner. The result of a scanned QR code displays the name of the WiFi network, the type of the security protocol (WPA/ WPA2, WEP and None) and a Connect to Network button that, when tapped, turns on WiFi (if off), saves the affiliated WiFi network to your device (Menu > Wireless and networks > WiFi Settings) and causes your device connect to it.

Although the app is handy enough as it is right now, it still has quite a bit of room for improved. For instance, unlike WiFi Joiner, it does not allow you to select from the list of WiFi access points already saved on your device. That is, you have to enter SSIDs and passwords manually, even for saved WAPs.

Also, while WiFi Joiner allows you to encrypt passwords, this app doesn’t. Which means that if you scan the QR code with an app other than Barcode Scanner (QR Droid, for instance), you’ll be able to see the password for the affiliated WiFi access point.

But bare in mind that the app is new to the Market and it’s only natural for it to be short of perfect. It is still as handy an app as they come and definitely worth a try.

Download WiFi QR Code Generator

Download Barcode Scanner

TS3 Remote For Android – Monitor TeamSpeak 3 Desktop Client Over WLAN

Sameed — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:00:31 +0000

In the beginning of the current month, the guys over at TeamSpeak Inc. released the Android variant of their group VoIP chat client in beta. Apparently, that wasn’t all they had in mind for the platform. Released to the Android Market roughly a week ago, TS3 Remote is a handy little Android tool that lets you connect to the TeamSpeak 3 client running on your computer over local WiFi and monitor whatever channel you are currently in. The app simply displays all users in the channel along with their nationality and status (mute, speaking etc.). It does not stream audio. So what’s the point? Join us after the break to find out.

The app can come in handy while the desktop client is inaccessible – for instance, while playing games or using full screen applications that do not support the desktop client’s DirectX overlay plugin. Additionally, instead of having your online gaming experience marred (even if ever so slightly) by the overlay plugin, you can launch TS3 Remote on you Android device and place it beside your keyboard, monitoring the activity in your channel only when you need to. Read on to learn how to set up your TS3 desktop client to allow TS3 Remote to communicate with it.

Setting Up TeamSpeak 3 Desktop Client For TS3 Remote [How-To]

1. Launch the desktop client and select Settings > Plugins from the menu bar.

2. Enable the ClientQuery plugin if disabled and double-click on it.

3. Within the ClientQuery Options dialogue box that appears, check Open telnet port for everyone, click OK .

4. In the Plugins window, right-click on the ClientQuery plugin and select Reload from its context menu. Alternatively, you may click on the Reload all button in the bottom-right corner of the window.

5. Now launch TS3 Remote on your Android device, hit Menu > Connect and enter the local IP address of your computer (for Windows users: launch command prompt and enter ipconfig to view your PC’s local IP address).

Download the app from the Android Market for free via the provided link or QR code.

Download TS3 Remote

Get The iPhone Lockscreen (And Others) On Android With MagicLocker

Sameed — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 09:00:59 +0000

If find the stock Android lockscreen somewhat bland or are bored of your custom lockscreen, you might want to take MagicLocker for a spin. As of this writing, the lockscreen replacement application comes packed with two different skins – a convincing clone of the iPhone lockscreen and a grungy 3-point lockscreen named Robot Lost. The quality that the themes present is impressive and, if the developers hold true to their promise, you should soon have a greater variety of lockscreens to choose from. The app is available for free in the Android Market. More after the break.

MagicLocker’s iPhone Lockscreen looks and feels exactly like the real thing. Plug your device in for charging and the lockscreen background is replaced by a battery graphic. The only two things that give it away is the status bar (which, of course, remains unchanged) and the unread message count that appears below the clock.

The Lost Robot skin has a completely different appearance and layout. The lockscreen features a 3-way unlock with shortcuts to the default Messaging and Dialer applications and a rustic background with what looks like an animated Android version of Mad-Eye Moody right behind the unlock button. Drag the unlock button down to unlock to your home screen, right for Messaging and left to unlock to the Dialer.

To replace your lockscreen with one of MagicLocker’s, launch MagicLauncher Setting, check Enable MagicLocker, select one of the two available lockscreens and tap Apply.

Note: As of this writing, MagicLocker (its Robot Lost theme in particular) seems to have a bug that causes it to become unresponsive at times. If that happens, simply hit the Home or Back button and you should be able to drag the unlock button. If the lockscreen controls continue to remain unresponsive, try pressing the power button twice more. Alternatively, you may disable the lockscreen from within Menu > Settings. Let’s hope the developers fix said problem in future updates.

Grab the app from the Market via the provided link or a QR code.

Download MagicLocker

22 Awesome ADW Launcher Themes [Android]

Sameed — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:05:00 +0000

Bring one of the oldest and most popular home screen replacement apps on the Android Market, ADW.Launcher has been adopted as the base for many other home screen replacement apps and as the stock launcher for the popular series of custom ROMs called CyanogenMod. The opensource launcher probably has the most active lot of theme developers out there. No surprise there. ADW.Launcher has a humongous fan-base – at least 63000+ strong as of this writing – all of whom are constantly looking to spice up their home screens with new themes, dock backgrounds and/or icon packs. If you’re one of the aforementioned lot, join us after the break our compilation of 22 of the best (free) ADW themes on the Android Market.

Applying An ADW Theme [How To]

Browse through the following themes and if you see one you like, simply click on the link below it to download it from the Android Market.

Once downloaded and installed on your device, return to the ADW home screen and,

Hit Menu and navigate to ADWSettings > Theme Preferences. If you’re using CM7’s built-in ADW.Launcher, simply select Settings > ADWLauncher > Theme Preferences.
Select your theme and tap Apply theme!

BBT Themes

Dev: Bujoban

Download BBT Black | Green | Blue | Red | Purple

Buuf

Dev: Fractal Systems

Download Buuf

Elegant

Dev: klinster

Download Elegant

Plus

Dev: kovdev

Download Plus

Minimalist

Dev: david1171

Download Minimalist

Download Minimalist Black

Matte Curve

Dev: Dave Tanquary

Download Matte Curve

Matte

Dev: Dave Tanquary

Download Matte

Honeycomb Theme

Dev: GFX Android

Download Honeycomb Theme

AndroidPhone7 (Windows Phone 7 Theme)

Dev: kovdev

Note: This theme comes with its own icon pack but does not automatically apply it to all apps. You can, however, manually change the icons for shortcuts placed on the home screen. Hold down on a shortcut and select Edit from the context menu that appears to change its icon.

Download AndroidPhone7

Symbian Theme

Dev: p@sco

Download Symbian Theme (Free | Donate)

Ubuntu Theme

Dev: Ryan Olson

Download Ubuntu Theme

Mac OS Theme

Dev: AkgloDev

Download Mac OS Theme (Free | Donate)

Metal & Metal Press

Dev: kovdev

Download Metal

Download Metal Press

Krom

Dev: kovdev

Download Krom

Iron Man

Dev: JsinLegacy

Download Iron Man

Rustik

Dev: Wysie_Soh

Download Rustik

Sense Glass & Black Glass

Dev: Dave Tanquary

Download Sense Glass

Download Black Glass

Shag

Dev: kovdev

Download Shag

Post-it

Dev: kovdev

Download Post-it

Faenza

Dev: GinLemon

Download Faenza (Free | Donate)

Suave HD

Dev: pvyParts

Download Suave

Pearly White TW

Dev: Dan Josiah

Download Pearly White TW (Free | Donate)

If you liked this post, you might also want to check out our compilation of 10 Awesome GO Launcher EX Themes.

MIUI Launcher Clone Brings The MIUI Home Screen To All Android Devices

Sameed — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:40:55 +0000

The iOS-inspired MIUI custom ROM for Android is known for its cosmetic flexibility and an impressive assortment of native apps. Android users with root access on their devices are often found yearning for said apps when an unstable build of the ROM (or a certain preference) forces them to shift to another one. Apparently, once you get used to the ROM, it’s hard to let go. Roughly a day ago, MIUI’s native music player was extracted from the ROM and made available for all Android devices. And now, users without rooted / MIUI-supported devices or those using other custom ROMs can enjoy the ROM’s native launcher – well, actually, the next best thing – a clone of the launcher. XDA-Devleopers member Vipitus has modified the free home screen replacement app QQLauncher (AKA TencentDesktop) to a remarkably accurate replica of the MIUI native launcher.

Like MIUI’s native launcher, this clone too has no app drawer. All apps are present on the home screen and can be grouped into folders for convenience. To add a folder to the home screen, hold down on an empty space on the screen and select Folder from the menu that appears (alternatively, hit Menu > Add > Folder). Pinch to zoom out or select Menu > Previews to edit the order of existing home screens or to add new ones. Holding down on a widget / icon / folder or selecting Menu > Edit allows you to remove or alter the arrangement of widgets, icons and folders (if empty) and uninstall apps directly from the home screen.

The launcher, however, does not allow you to customize folders to the extent the original does. It only allows you to rename folders. Open a folder and hold down on its name to type in a new one.

Apart from its MIUI look and feel, the launcher comes packed with QQLauncher’s built-in Quick Switch (Tencent Switcher) and Task Manager (Tencent Task Manager) widgets. The latter is the same (in functionality) as that of QQLauncher while the switches widget has been replaced with a variant that allows shuffling the order of toggle switches. Tap the arrow at the right end of the widget and a grid of toggles is displayed. Hold down on a toggle, drag and drop to reorder. The widget displays the toggles lined up in the top row.

And that’s not all. The launcher comes with its own Auto Sleep feature that, when enabled, causes your device to automatically switch to airplane mode for a user defined time of the day.

A shortcut to said feature can be found in the mentioned switches widget. Alternatively, you may access configure it from within Menu > Tools.

And to top it all of, the launcher has its own online theme store (though scarcely populated as of this writing). Courtesy of QQLauncher’s skinning engine, it allows you to alter selective elements of the UI (icon pack, wallpaper or apply whole themes with only a few taps.

Note: The MIUI Analog Clock widget you see in the screenshots is not part of the launcher. It can be downloaded from the Android Market for free.

All in all, the launcher is an excellent replica and should satisfy your MIUI cravings until the real thing is extracted from its ROM.

Head on over to the app’s XDA-Developers forum thread to download its APK.

Create GIF Animations On The Go With Gifinator For Android

Sameed — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:58:33 +0000

One of the first (if not the first) of its kind on the Android Market, Gifinator is a well-crafted, easy-to-use GIF animation creator for Android. The app allows you to take multiple snaps from your device’s camera, then chains them together in a GIF sequence with a user-defined resolution and frame rate. With enough creativity (and a few taps) you can create awesome stop-motion animations with your Android smartphone’s camera. You may then save these GIF files to your device or share them with your friends. The free version of the app lets you string up to 10 snaps only while the full version sports no such limitation. Also, the free variant only allows you to save GIFs in the lowest of the three available resolutions (160×120, 320×480 and 640×480).

I’ll be honest. When we first installed the app, we expected it to have a run-of-the-mill interface and nothing but the most essential features. Needless to say, the app far exceeded our expectations. The interface is extremely well-crafted and the app itself is quite flexible.

Each photo you capture within the Shoot screen makes for a frame in the resulting GIF sequence. As you capture one photo after the other, the app displays a preview of each at the top of the screen along with its serial number. Swipe left or right across the screen to scroll to frames that may have moved out of view. Select a frame and tap the “X” button below to delete it. You can even select one of three available effects / filters (Mono, Negative and Sepia) for each frame you capture.

Once you’re seuquence of photos is complete, tap the ✔ button below to proceed to the Edit screen. Said screen displays a preview of the resulting GIF file and allows you to alter its frame rate (speed with which the GIF file cycles between captured photos), resolution and orientation.

On tapping the ✔ button on this screen, the app creates the GIF file and displays the rendered result in a separate dialogue box from within which you can Share the GIF animation with your friends or Save it to your device. All saved files can be found within the mnt/sdcard/gifinator/ directory (the /gifinator directory on your SD card).

Download links and QR codes for both free and paid variants of the app are provided below.

Paid

Free

Download Gifinator

Download Gifinator Plus

GO Launcher EX Gets Skinnable Analog / Flip Clock Widget [Android]

Sameed — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:00:17 +0000

Another week, another GO Launcher EX update. This time, the GO Launcher Dev Team has released a clock widget for their home screen replacement app. Like all the other widgets, Clock GOWidget too is skinnable, though it seems to have a separate set of skins designed specifically for the widget. The Transparency GOWidget skin does not apply to it. The home screen widget comes in two forms – a 2×2 simple analog clock widget and a 4×2 MIUI-style flip clock widget. The former sports three built-in skins while the latter comes packed with two. Additional skins can be downloaded from the Android Market or from within the launcher itself.

To add the widget to your GO Launcher EX home screen, simply hold down on an empty space on the home screen and from within the context menu that appears, select GOWidget > Clock. To pick an alternate skin for a widget, long press on it and select Skin from its context menu. A few of the skins are set to change appearance with time. The default analog widget skin, for instance, turns a darker shade at around sundown.

As always, the widgets look amazing, especially the flip clock variant. Lets hope the GO Launcher Dev Team continues its active development spree. GO Launcher is already one of the most feature-packed home screen replacements on the Market and at the rate its developers are going, it seems it won’t be long before it is the undisputed head honcho of its genre.

Grab the widget now from the Android Market for free via the provided link or QR code.

Download Clock GOWidget

HBO Releases Android, iPhone & iPad App For Cinemax’s MAX GO

Sameed — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 08:00:11 +0000

Encouraged, no doubt, by the huge success of their Android and iOS mobile clients for HBO GO (over 1 million downloads within the first week of release), Home Box Office Inc. has rolled out a mobile app for Cinemax’s (US-only) MAX GO online streaming service. The app provides on-demand streaming of 700+ hours of programming including popular Hollywood movies and series as well as Cinemax’s first original series Strike Back. The app itself can be downloaded free of cost from the Android Market and iTunes App Store while the service, too, is free for MAX GO subscribers.

The app’s interface and functionality matches that of its predecessor. You can stream Cinemax content over WiFi or 3G, create a Watchlist of movies and/or series that you plan to watch later and share your favorite shows with friends and family over Facebook and Twitter.

Although their is a separate MAX GO client for the iPad, a tablet variant of the Android client is yet to be released. Download the app for free from the Android Market or iTunes App Store via the links provided below.

Download MAX GO for Android

Download MAX GO for iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad

How To Share GPS From An Android Phone To An iPad [Guide]

Sameed — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:50:25 +0000

The absence of GPS capability in the WiFi-only iPad was termed a dealbreaker by some when it was released and again when its 2nd generation counterpart hit the market. With either of the two devices, the only time the OS allows you to view your location on a map or, say, geotag a photo is while you’re connected to a WiFi hotspot. Furthermore, location data returned via WiFi triangulation is only as accurate as the number of WiFi access points in range, that is, usually not that accurate. Looking for a workaround? Look no further. If you’re one of those tech enthusiasts who own both a jailbroken iPad and an Android phone, then the following workaround should make your GPS-deprived iPad whole. It involves a Cydia Store application by the name of BTstack GPS and a GPS-over-bluetooth sharing Android app. As of this writing, BTstack only works with select GPS units and, as you will see in the guide that follows, Android phones. The developers behind the app are still working to find a an iPhone-to-iPad GPS forwarding solution.

Following is a step-by-step guide for GPS data forwarding from an Android phone to an iPad.

1. Launch Cydia, search for BTstack GPS and install. To use BTstack GPS with other applications, you will have to purchase the $5 full version. The demo version of the app merely displays your location within the app, allowing you to test your GPS forwarding setup. The app requires iOS 3.0 or higher.

2. Download and install any of the following (free) apps on your Android phone. We tested this setup successfully with the first two.

2. Exit Cydia, open the Settings menu and turn Bluetooth off if it is on (BTstack uses its own Bluetooth stack to connect to external GPS devices).

3. Select BTstack from under Extensions and set BTstack as the Active Bluetooth Stack.

4. Launch BTstack GPS.

5. On your Android device, navigate to Settings > Wireless & network settings > Bluetooth settings, turn Bluetooth ON and check Discoverable. You should now see your device in the Devices list within BTstack GPS.

6. Under Bluetooth devices hold down on / select your iPad to pair with it, enter a PIN of your choice in the dialogue box that follows and tap OK.

7. A pairing request should now appear on your iPad. Type the same PIN you entered before and tap OK to confirm.

8. Once both devices are paired, you may launch any one of the aforementioned GPS forwarding apps to begin sharing GPS data with your iPad.

If, for instance, you plan to use Bluetooth GPS Output, launch the app and simply select your phone from the list of devices in BTstack. With ShareGPS, you can establish a connection either by selecting your phone from within BTstack GPS or by selecting your iPad from within ShareGPS (Menu > Connect Bluetooth device).

9. As soon as a connection is established, BTstack GPS displays your location, or rather, the location of your Android phone on a map below additional GPS data.

BTstack GPS remembers the last device you connected to, allowing you quick access to it next time you launch the app.

If you get stuck somewhere, feel free to leave a query in the comment section below.

[via How-To Geek]

12 Awesome CyanogenMod 7 Themes [Android]

Sameed — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:25:25 +0000

If you’re an educated Android user or, like many of us here at AddictiveTips, a power-user with ORD (Obsessive ROM-updating Disorder), then you’re probably aware of the CyanogenMod series of custom ROMs for select Android devices. The ROM is, after all, among the most feature-rich, fast and flexible ones out there. It may not have been even close to as cosmetically flexible as, say, MIUI up until the sixth version in the series (CM6), but that changed with the addition of the T-Mobile Theme Chooser application in CyanogenMod 7. Now, instead of flashing ZIP files through recovery, you can simply install themes that come in APK format and apply them from within Theme Chooser. For CM7 fans who love everything about the ROM but its stock Android look, following are 12 of the best CyanogenMod 7 themes out there (as of this writing). All of the following themes are free and can be applied from within Theme Chooser (no flashing required).

Installing a CyanogenMod 7 Theme Using Theme Chooser

The following themes are in APK format. To install and apply a theme:

Download / transfer its APK to the SD card and install. You will, of course, need to enable installation of non-Market applications (check the Unknown Sources option within Settings > Applications).
Launch Theme Chooser.
Swipe left or right across the screen to select the theme you just installed.
Tap apply and reboot (reboot is required to be able to view the changes to the notification power widget).

If you would rather not reboot after applying a theme:

Download Notification Restart from the Android Market. The app is free.
After applying a theme, launch the app and tap the button on its home screen to restart the notification bar.

If you have any problems downloading or applying any of the following themes, feel free to leave a query in the comment section below.

Honeybread (Honeycomb Theme)

Dev: GFX Android

Download Honeybread

Download Purpbread (Purple Honeybread Variant)

XDA-Developers Forum Thread

NTSense (HTC Sense Theme)

Dev: nhnt11

Download NTSense (XDA-Developers Forum Thread)

GingerBlur

Dev: kevin2516

Download GingerBlur (XDA-Developers Forum Thread)

TouchWizzed (Samsung TouchWiz Theme)

Dev: kevin2516

Download TouchWizzed (XDA-Developers Forum Thread)

Xperia Arc

Dev: kevin2516

Download Xperia Arc (XDA-Developers Forum Thread)

MotoBlur

Dev: kevin2516

Download MotoBlur (XDA-Developers Forum Thread)

DarkGinger

Dev: DJDarkknight

Download DarkGinger (Free | Donate)

XDA-Developers Forum Thread

BuuF

Dev: kevin2516

Download BuuF (XDA-Developers Forum Thread)

MinimalBread

Dev: david1171

Download MinimalBread

XDA-Developers Forum Thread

UpwardSpiral’s Themes

Dev: UpwardSpiral

Download Blue Bionic (Free | Donate)

Download Other Upward Spiral CM7 Themes

Download Theme Chooser Wallpapers

XDA-Developers Forum Thread

Steel Blue

Dev: Team Carbon

Download Steel Blue (XDA-Developers Forum Thread)

Rover’s Themes (Mix, Blue & Cyan)

Dev: rover.prince

Download Rover’s Themes (XDA-Developers Forum Thread)

If you liked this post, you might also want to check out our collection of 10 awesome MIUI themes.

Erase Unwanted Content From Photos With TouchRetouch Free For Android

Sameed — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:00:26 +0000

TouchRetouch is an acclaimed multiplatform (iOS and Android) photo editing tool and undoubtedly one of the very best in its sub-genre. The app allows you to erase unwanted content from photos without leaving a trace (for instance, a few weeds from within the photo of a garden or a people from within a landscape picture), save the results to your device and/or share them with your friends, all for a meager price of $0.99. And now, if you own an Android device, you can enjoy the app with (almost) all its features for free. TouchRetouch Free, a free (ad-supported) variant of the original, is now available on the Android Market. In addition to ads, the free version comes with a few limitations. A few minor settings and the Clone Stamp tool has been reserved for the full version and Images are saved in a lower (640×480) resolution. More after the break.

The operation remains the same. From the app’s home screen, you can snap a new photo or import one from the gallery. Once that is done, pinch to zoom in and drag to move the picture around until you have a good view of the area to be edited. select the brush tool from the tool bar at the bottom of the editing interface, adjust its radius (thickness) using the slider that appears just above the toolbar and paint over whatever you wish to remove from the photo. While the brush tool is easier and faster in usage in most cases, you may want to use the lasso tool for when you want to cover more area.

As you drag your finger over the photo with the brush / lasso tool selected, a seeker window of sorts appears in the top-left corner of the photo – a truly remarkable addition to the app. The problem with most mobile photo editing tools is that whatever you’re editing or drawing on the screen is blocked from view by your own finger (unless, like me, you too are unbelievably underweight). Not only does this “finger move hint” remedy said issue, it zooms in on the target, allowing for more precise strokes or selections. Drag your finger over the top-left corner and the window shifts to the top-right. Said window moves to the top-right corner of the photo if you drag your finger over the top-left.

Once you’re done with your selection, tap the go button and let TouchRetouch work its magic. The app takes some time to process the result so sit tight. The app replaces selected pixels with the ones immediately around the selection, giving the illusion that the removed object was never there. When the app completes its processing and if you’re happy with the result, you may save it to your device and/or share it with your friends.

The following video tutorial (from the developers’ YouTube channel) should give you an idea of how the app works.

In case you’re wondering exactly what you’ll be missing in the free variant of TouchRetouch, here’s a list of the perks that the full version:

No Ads

1:1 Image View

Full image resolution

Additional settings

Clone Stamp tool for advanced photo retouching

Contest participation

Links and QR codes for both the free and full version of the app are provided below.

Free

Full

Download TouchRetouch Free For Android

Download TouchRetouch For Android

Cut The Rope: Experiments Released For iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch

Sameed — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:00:00 +0000

The sequel to ZeptoLab’s smash hit, multiplatform mobile game (yes, the one that everyone has been talking about for the past one day and a half) is finally out. Cut the Rope: Experiments has hit the iTunes App Store and with it come 75 new challenging levels spread across 3 tiers (or level packs, as they are called), new gameplay elements and of course, the ever-adorable Om Nom who seems to have learned a few new tricks (does a handstand when tapped or idle). The sequel introduces a new character – a mad scientist who finds the little green alien in a carton on his doorstep and begins to run experiment after experiment to test the creature’s apparent lust for candy. Join us after the break for more.

New gameplay elements include rope shooters, trampolines and suction cups, the first of which appears in the second level pack (Shooting the candy) and the latter appears in the third (Sticky steps). The first tier (Getting started) is merely a revision of the original game and all its elements, though, as should be expected, is a tad more challenging than the initial levels of the original.

We played the first few levels of the second tier and found the new elements delightful. Like with all other Cut the Rope elements, you need to think before you leap and get your timing right.

In addition, the game also seems to have added an Album (Professor’s Album) section where there seem to be empty slots for five photos, one of which can be revealed by Liking Cut the Rope’s Facebook page while the rest may possibly be unlocked through achievements earned within the game.

Cut the Rope: Experiments is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch with iOS 3.0 or above. The iPhone variant of the game sports a meager $1.29 price tag while the iPad version (Cut the Rope: Experiments HD) will cost you $1.99. App Store links to both provided below.

Download Cut the Rope: Experiments

Download Cut the Rope: Experiments HD

AddictiveTips » Sameed

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