Sameed Khan

Executive Editor
Electronics engineer | Writer/Blogger | Technology & Graphic design enthusiast | Avid PC gamer | Twitter | Google+

LifeDropper For Android Uses The Camera To Identify Colors Around You

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Our life is full of colors, with each color appearing in umpteen different shades. The problem, however, arises when you're required to correctly identify between any two shades. The perplexing combinations of RGB and CMYK make it even more difficult to come with an exact match of the color that you have in your sights or mind. Developed by XDA member sudo.adam, LifeDropper for Android is a simple, handy tool that lets you capture and identify colors from your surroundings. The app uses your device’s camera to capture the color within a user-defined area (number of pixels at the center) of the scene in focus, displays its RGB and CMYK values and hexadecimal code and lets you save said info to your device. LifeDropper is particularly useful for graphic designers who often find themselves looking for a quick and simple way to collect real-life colors on the go and replicating them in their work. Hence the tagline, “the eyedropper tool for real life”. The app is in beta as of this writing, and we'll be reviewing it past the break. Read More

Magic Hour For Android & iOS – Create, Edit & Apply Custom Photo Filters

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Can’t find a photo editing app that grants room for creativity yet isn’t a hassle to use? Magic Hour For Android and iOS is a (snazzy looking) photo styler that comes with lots of built-in photo filters, its very own Filter Market stacked with countless of downloadable filters and the option to create custom filters. That’s right. You can create your own filters, edit existing ones and apply them to snapped or imported photos in just a few taps, producing a unique result each time. More after the break. Read More

CirrusManager Gives You Easy Remote Access To Multiple Android Devices

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CirrusManager for Android is a Google App Engine powered web app that, in combination with a mobile client, gives you remote control over multiple Android devices through a user-defined Google account. The app lets you monitor device status, location, call and SMS logs, running apps and activities, system logs, allows SMS composing and forwarding to mail, viewing and adding bookmarks and contacts, recording audio and more right from the comfort of your computer through an extremely well-crafted user interface. How does it compare to the previously reviewed AndroidLost? Join us after the break to find out. Read More

AndroidLost Gives You Remote Access To Your Lost Android Phone

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The private data that you carry around with yourself on your smartphone can really hurt you if your phone gets misplaced and lands in the wrong hands. AndroidLost is a free app for Android phones that, in combination with a web interface, allows you to remotely sound an alarm on or send a popup message to your misplaced Android phone from your computer, view your phone’s location on a map, lock it with a pin code of your choice, read its status (battery, temperature etc.), toggle WiFi and/or GPS, send SMS, read received SMS, forward incoming calls to a number of your choice, wipe your phone’s SD card or order it to execute a factory reset via web or SMS commands sent from another phone. The app is in beta as of this writing. Read More

LBE Privacy Guard For Android Monitors Access Requests, Guards Privacy

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The chance of stumbling across a malicious Android application, as little as it may be, is one that you don’t want to take. There are more than a few anti-malware apps in the Android Market that help you safeguard your privacy, like the freshly released LBE Privacy Guard for rooted devices, for instance, which employs a method unique to the Android world. The freeware features a background service that constantly monitors app activities, alerting you whenever an app attempts to send or access SMS, location, phone ID or the internet and allowing you to permit or deny requested access from within said security alerts or the app itself. The developer, XDA member eoc, claims it is the “most powerful privacy protection app for Android” and has good reason to think so. Read More

SwiftKey X Beta For Android Brings Cloud Personalization & Better UI

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Successor to TouchType’s award winning onscreen keyboard replacement for Android phones, SwiftKey X has finally hit the Android Market. The app is available as a free beta as of this writing, but will only remain so for a limited amount of time. We don’t usually review paid apps, but this time, we had to make an exception. And for an input method that evolves based on your writing style, who wouldn’t? SwiftKey X comes packed with loads of new features and improvements over its predecessor. Prominent changes include a new, more user-friendly installation process, cloud-based personalization, a new prediction engine and improvements in the user interface. Join us after the break for more. Read More

Lightbox For Android Lets You Capture Photos, Apply Filters & Sync With Web

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We finally received our private beta key for Lightbox for Android yesterday and because we’re a little late to the party, here’s a comprehensive, screenshot-abundant hands-on review of the alleged future head honcho of mobile camera apps. We’ll start by saying that Lightbox is certainly an app to look forward to, and a more feature-rich alternative to your stock camera app and gallery, but only after major improvement in the photo filter feature will it be able to become the “Instagram killer” that it is being called. Read More

GO Weather Update Brings 3 More Awesome Widget Skins

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The GO dev team has updated their prized Android weather app to version 1.9.1, finally adding the three widget skins that you have been drooling over for so long. GO Weather for Android now has a total of five awesome skins for its widget, namely the Default Style, Simple Style and the new MIUI, M9 and HTC Style skins. Each skin is significantly different than the other, in both look and layout, unlike the downloadable skins that come with Beautiful widgets and its free version, which are essentially variations in font and color. Join us after the break for more. Read More

Hound For Android & iOS – Voice Search For Music

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From the developers of the highly acclaimed, immensely popular music recognition app, SoundHound, comes another gem of an application for Android and iOS-sporting music buffs. Hound for Android and iOS is a free (ad-supported), comprehensive online information portal for music. The app lets you speak to search for songs, artists and bands, purchase songs and albums, listen to song previews, browse related YouTube videos, bookmark, share and view detailed information for search results. Said info includes top songs, Wikipedia pages, biographies, albums and tour dates for artists or bands, lyrics and album appearances for songs, and track lists for albums. More after the break. Read More

Transfer Apps & App Data To sd-ext And Back In CyanogenMod 7 [Android]

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Do you own a Nexus One, an HTC Desire or any other Android device with ridiculously low internal memory? Constantly find your device out of memory while installing a new app even though you’ve transferred every last one to the SD card via Apps2SD? If your memory-deprived device supports CyanogenMod 7, then in S2E lies the end of your memory woes. The Apps2SD or Move to SD card feature partially transfers apps to the SD card, leaving their data in the internal memory. This CM7-only freeware can transfer user apps and their data, private apps, dalvik cache and/or download cache to an ext partition on your SD card and back in just a few taps and a system reboot. Read More

Smart Rotator For Android Toggles Auto-Rotate For Individual Apps

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Tired of switching auto-rotate on and off on your Android device? Wish you could decide which apps are allowed to switch orientation? Smart Rotator for Android is a free, simple tool that’ll allow you to do just that. The app lets you enable or disable auto-rotate for individual apps, saving you the trouble of returning to your device’s display settings or a global orientation toggle widget on your homescreen over and over again. Very handy, indeed. More after the break. Read More

How To Play Tegra Zone Games On Non-Tegra Rooted Android Devices

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Wish you could play those awesome-looking Tegra Zone games on your non-Tegra Android device? Thanks to XDA moderator/developer Chainfire’s configurable OpenGL driver, Chainfire3D, now you can. The app’s primary function is to control certain aspects of OpenGL rendering and features a supplementary NightMode feature for reduced battery consumption by the display. However, it is its ability to install and employ plugins allow it to add support for Tegra Zone games on your unsupported Android device. Read More

Beautiful Widgets For Android – Free Version Released

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Beautiful Widgets, one of the most popular and applauded widget suites on the Android Market, now has a Lite version. Though Beautiful Widgets Lite sports less than half the features of the full version, it is still better than most other free clock and weather widgets out there. If you’re new to Android, live in a region where purchasing from the Market isn’t supported or simply want to try out the widget sensation without having to spend a dime, here’s your chance. And you might want to hurry up. The Lite version “might be a limited offer”. Read More

Cloudy For Android – Guide Your Paper Plane To Safety

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From the developers of Fruit Slice, Jewels and iRunner comes Cloudy, an innovative Android-exclusive puzzle game with mild visuals and challenging gameplay. The objective of the game is to guide a paper plane to a point on the screen while avoiding storm clouds and collecting every last golden star on the screen along the way. Your performance in each stage is ranked by the time it takes you to complete it. The game features a total of fifty stages (5 tiers with 10 stages each) as of this writing and, according to the description on its Google Play Store page, more will be added soon. Read on for more information and our brief review. Read More

Codeanywhere For Android Is A Code Editor With Built-In FTP Client

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Codeanywhere for Android is the mobile client for the free, multi-platform code editing web service by the same name. The app syncs with your codeanywhere account and like the web service, allows you to add multiple FTP or SFTP servers, browse through and edit the added servers’ files and folders, download and edit any HTML, PHP, Javascript, CSS and XML files on the go. Simple, fast and easy to use, the app is particularly useful for users who own a website and consistently find the need to make quick changes to it while away from their computers. While we may elaborate on the app's feature set past the break, let's first look at what the official Codeanywhere Android client has on offer. The app's long list of features comprises multi-platform support, an integrated FTP client, dedicated editors for PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript & XML, compete (S)FTP support, built-in file editor, search & replace, support for photos & videos, file permission management, support for SSL and lots more. Read More

Simple Text For Android Lets You Make Icons Out Of Text

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Simple Text For Android is a free (ad-supported), easy-to-use tool that allows you to create simple yet snazzy text-based icons with a few taps. Particularly useful for creating dock icons for home replacement apps the likes of ADW Launcher, LauncherPro and GO Launcher EX, the app lets you choose from two default styles (single and two-line text) and create your own templates. Icons created with Simple Text look surprisingly good as dock icon replacements, giving it a unique, elegant look. Read More

Hacker’s Keyboard Is A Full 5-Row On-Screen Keyboard For Android

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Android is a mobile operating system that thrives on customization. Ranging from changing the looks of your device's home screen to altering the amount of items to be appearing on it, and tweaking your preferred system settings to resorting to an alternative system app, Google's mobile operating system puts in control over modification of virtually the entire firmware. Same applies to custom keyboard replacement apps as well. While Swype is my all-time personal favorite among custom Android keyboard alternatives, there are certain solutions that have attracted many a user with their own set of features.Primarily meant for ConnectBot users yet a handy solution for users who wish to do extensive typing and/or command entry on their Android devices and particularly useful for tablet users, Hacker’s Keyboard is an onscreen input method for Android that simulates the conventional desktop computer keyboard. In addition to the conventional set of customizable options (settings button visibility, suggestions, auto-complete etc.), the IME comes packed with a few handy options of its own. These include altering the portrait and landscape height of the keyboard and the option to disable the full keyboard layout for portrait orientation. Read More

Unsupported Android Devices Get Netflix Mod With Device Check Disabled

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A day after the official Netflix for Android was released to the Android Market with support for a meager five devices, we covered a simple hack that allowed users with root access on their devices to fool the Netflix app into thinking their devices were among the supported lot. While Android users with root access were busy editing their build.prop files, XDA member ften modded the app itself to prevent it from checking the identity device, providing a simpler solution that works for both rooted and unrooted devices. More after the break. Read More

ShakeCall For Android Lets You Receive And End Calls With A Shake

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Do you often find yourself fighting with the receive/end slider whenever you receive a call on your Android phone? or do you hate waiting for the screen to wake after you take it off your ear to end an ongoing call? ShakeCall for Android is a free, handy tool that allows you to receive incoming calls by giving your phone a quick shake or simply holding it to your ear and lets you end both incoming and outgoing calls with a shake. More after the break. Read More

LauncherPro Developer Releases WP7 Music Player Look-Alike For Android

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Previously, we have seen Windows Phone 7’s simple yet elegant “Metro” user interface duplicated on Android in homescreen replacement apps the likes of Launcher 7, 7 Launcher and Metro UI. LauncherPro developer, Federico Carnales is working on a “WP7ish music app” for Android. The developer released an alpha preview of his Zune Music Player doppleganger yesterday on his Twitter account, mentioning that it was yet to be given a name. Apart from the fact that this Android ‘Metro Player’ (let’s just call it that for now) does not, of course, support Zune integration, it is close to identical to Windows Phone 7’s native music player. The user interface is an absolute gift for the eyes and the animations are smoother and faster than those seen in the aforementioned WP7-style launchers. We’re hoping that the player doesn’t run into legal trouble if and when it finally hits the Android Market. It would be a welcome addition to the shelves and an undoubtedly sleeker, less bland alternative to the stock Android music player. Read More