Sameed Khan

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

Aggregator Is A Simple Yet Efficient RSS Feed Organizer For Android

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News and RSS feed readers are great in a way that they bring you the updated content from your subscribed channels under one hood, thereby preventing you from visiting multiple websites and news sources. However, if you have subscribed to one source too many, chances are that you might feel intimidated by the rather extensive list of 'unread' posts in your feed reader. So, is your Android RSS feed reader getting overly cluttered? Tired of scanning through the countless feed items that appear in your reader everyday? Fret not, because now there is a solution that vows to bring some much needed discipline and customization to your Android's RSS feeds.  Aggregator for Android is a free (ad-supported) RSS feed organizer that can save you loads of time while you’re sifting through your feeds. The app allows you to choose separate update intervals or disable background updating for each feed you add. Update intervals can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as a day. Said feature along with the option to filter feed items by title lets you organize and peruse your feeds a lot more effectively than conventional RSS readers. More after the break. Read More

Snapbucket Is Photobucket’s Free Photo Styling App For Android & iOS

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The smartphone industry is flourishing at a faster rate than anticipated, and a large contribution of this success has been made by the awesome apps that exist across app stores of various smartphone platforms. To state it more precisely, it's been the ever-improving quality of mobile cameras and equally formidable companion apps belonging to the photography genre that have enticed many a user towards going for the smartphones instead of medium-range digital cameras. That being said, the Android Market, as well as the iTunes App Store contain plenty of photography apps, each featuring more or less the same set of goodies.  Good Android and iOS photo editing and styling apps are hard to come by, which is why the genre is ruled by a few head honchos in both the Android Market and iOS App Store. Acclaimed image hosting website Photobucket has entered the foray with Snapbucket for Android and iOS, an excellent addition to the genre that allows you to snap, style and share photos via Photobucket, social media (Facebook, Twitter) and Email. Read More

Feed Your Inner Sci-Fi/Fantasy Geek With Blastr For Android

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Looking for ways to feed your inner geek on the go? Look no further than the official Android app for NBC’s Blastr, a subsidiary of the SyFy website that keeps you updated with all the latest news for sci-fi, fantasy and supernatural TV shows, movies, comics, video games, books and more. The iOS variant of the free “geekertainment” news app has been around for quite some time now and as is the case with most apps that are available on both platforms, the Android version lacks slightly in UI looks and user-friendliness. Read More

OpenCaching For Andriod & iOS – Find, Hide, Log & Share Geocaches

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Are you fond of treasure hunts? Did you know that there could be several treasure troves lying hidden somewhere near your home, school or office, ready to be discovered? Yes, we’re talking about geocaching. If you’re an Android or iOS user and are fascinated by the concept of the worldwide sport, then you’d be happy to know that Garmin has released the official client for its geocaching web service/community, OpenCaching. OpenCaching for Android and iOS lets you find, log (rate & comment on), share, navigate to and register your own geocaches right from your Android or iOS device. Whether it's some information hidden by your mates from the OpenCaching website itself, or using the mobile app, you've now got a chance to immerse in the unending fun by exploring the unknown. Plus, the touch of social media integration makes sharing all the fun stuff with your online buddies a breeze. Read More

Permissions Denied For Android Lets You Block User App Permissions

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Given all the hoopla surrounding the security loopholes in Google's mobile operating system, Android, and the extent of damage that certain apps can cause using your personal data/information by just being granted access to specific aspects of your device, it is only fitting to have a solution for managing these permissions accordingly. If you have root access on your Android device and feel the need to tighten the reigns on certain user apps (prevent social media apps from accessing contacts or GPS, for instance), Permissions Denied may be the answer you’re looking for. The freeware allows you to monitor, block, restore and back up permissions for all apps installed on your device. It even lets you block and enable each of its own permissions. Read More

Search, Rate & Review Books On The Go With Goodreads For Android

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Frequent travelling and an ever-increasing work load keeping you away from your weekly book club meetings? Join the world’s largest online book readers community to search for, rate and review books that you have read or are currently reading and add new books to your to-read list on the go, with the official Android app for Goodreads, available for free from the Android Market. More after the break. Read More

Application Folder Creates Customizable Folders On Android Homescreen

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Although folders are nothing new to Android, their proper use has always been in question by hardcore users. Perhaps the rather bland and monotonous concept of folders in stock Android firmware has led many custom ROM developers to come up with goodies of their own. As a result, we are getting to see many uniquely designed and much purposeful folder apps arriving at a constant pace in the Android Market these days. Once such app that we recently came across is Application Folder -  a free (ad-supported) homescreen widget for Android that can be used to create highly customizable folders containing shortcuts to a user-defined group of apps, bookmarks and/or contacts. Now, you might be wondering how it is any better than the built-in folder creation feature seen in iOS-inspired Android launchers the likes of GO Launcher EX and MIUI’s native launcher. For starters, you can choose a separate icon for each folder that you create using Application Folder. Furthermore, folders can be set to display contained shortcuts (when tapped) in either a side-scrollable badge or the conventional window view. Application is all about hyper-customization; it packs quite a few interesting features that we shall explore past the break. Read More

Texty For Android Lets You Sync, Send & Receive SMS On Your Computer

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While you’re busy working on your computer, attending to a barrage of incoming SMS can prove to be quite a hassle. Texty for Android, in combination with its extension for Google Chrome, turns your computer into an SMS gateway that makes sending and replying to text messages quick and painless. The app syncs your contacts, incoming and outgoing SMS over the web with its Chrome extension, allowing you to send and receive SMS from within Google Chrome. As of this writing, the app is available as a private beta on the Android Market and the extension is available for download on  You can download both the extension and Android app but to have access to them, you’ll have to apply for a beta invite. Read More

SocialCamera For Android – Tag Photos Of Friends Faster With Face Recognition

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There aren’t many apps on the Android Market that allow you to tag your friends or phone contacts in photos before sharing them over the web, and none that do so automatically via facial recognition. None except Viewdle’s SocialCamera, the mobile counterpart of ViewdleUploader for Windows 7. SocialCamera is a free photo-sharing app for Android that syncs with your phone, Email, Flickr, Facebook & Twitter contacts, allowing you tag them in the photos that you choose to share, while providing you with tag suggestions using face recognition. The more you tag your photos, the more accurate the suggestions get. Still in beta as of this writing, the app is yet to include the option to tag Twitter contacts. However, said feature will soon be included in a future update. More after the break. Read More

fring For Android & iOS Updated To Include Free Group Video Calls

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One of the best multi-platform video calling apps just got way better. fring for Android and iOS has been updated to include the group video feature that, up until a day ago, was part of a limited beta version of the app. The feature allows up to four users at a time in a video conference call. This is a first for the world of mobile apps and a fringin’ awesome addition to the app, indeed. Read More

Facebook-Page Likes Widget For Android Shows Page Likes On Homescreen

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From the developers of the recently reviewed Twitter Followers Widget for Android comes Facebook-Page Likes Widget – a similar homescreen widget that displays the concurrent number of Likes of a user-specified Facebook page and provides a one-tap shortcut to accessing the page via Facebook Mobile. What makes the widget even handier than its twitter counterpart is the fact that, as of this writing, the official Facebook app for Android is yet to incorporate similar functionality i.e. the option to monitor Facebook pages. The widget is in beta as of this writing and is available on the Android Market for free. Read More

Google Docs For Android – Create, Edit, Upload & Share Documents Online

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The much awaited official app for Google’s web-based documents service has finally been released to the Android Market. Google Docs for Android allows you to create, edit, upload and share documents online via your Google/Gmail account. In our test-run, we found the interface sufficiently fluid, efficient and user-friendly and thought the app as a whole was adequate. Though, judging from the first few reviews on the app’s Android Market page, it seems a majority of users are disappointed with the overall quality and we don’t blame them. It is Google we’re talking about here. Anything less than 'fantastic' ends up disappointing. Most of the disappointed lot have called the app a mere front end for the the mobile website. True, the app's editing interface is an exact replica of its mobile web counterpart. However, most would agree that it is most definitely a faster, more efficient alternative to the mobile web interface. More after the break. Read More

Location Cache For Android Lets You Monitor, Clear & Block Location Data Collection

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The controversy involving the iPhone and anonymous location-data collection has now expanded to the Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms, too. While the iOS and WP7 dev communities are yet to join the fight for user privacy, Android developers are already on the move. Developed by XDA member mopodo, Location Cache is a free tool for rooted Android devices that not only allows you to view and wipe all cached cell-tower and WiFi hotspot locations, but lets you block location caching altogether and unlike the alternative method that involves disabling location collection through wireless networks (Settings > My Location > Use Wireless Networks), the app does so without slowing down location fetching. Join us after the jump for more. Read More

10 Awesome MIUI Themes [Android]

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The MIUI custom ROM for Android is rapidly growing in popularity owing, in part, to the flexibility and ease of customization that it offers. The ROM may not be the most stable one out there, but its slight instability is a small price to pay for the quality of its native applications and the degree of freedom it offers with UI customization. MIUI’s native Theme Manager allows users to apply skins to the lockscreen, native launcher, messaging and dialer applications, use custom icon packs, install custom boot animations and alter framework UI elements selectively or all at once with only a few taps – no flashing required. If you’re an MIUI user who doesn’t get the time to look for the best themes out there, are new to MIUI or use another ROM and are curious as to what all the fuss is about, join us after the jump for ten of the most popular and/or unique MIUI themes out there. Note that they are the top best themes out there. Read More

BITS For Android Lets You Create Your Very Own Homescreen Widgets

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Can’t find the perfect homescreen widget on the Android Market? Wish you could design your own? BITS is an editable homescreen widget that allows you to do just that. With BITS, you can choose from a wide variety of individually customizable elements (called “bits”) and add them in layers (one over the other) to a canvas size of your choice via simple drag-and-drop editing and additional controls for finer adjustment. Still in beta as of this writing, the widget is missing a few key features, such as, the option to assign actions to widget elements and importing custom graphics. However, most of these features, along with additional widget elements/bits, have already been listed on the developer’s website as possible additions in future updates. Read More

Twitter Followers Widget Shows Followers Count On Android Homescreen

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Want to keep track of all your followers on Twitter without having to open the Twitter app itself? How about being able to do so right from your Android home screen? Twitter followers Widget for Android is a free, handy homescreen widget that displays the current following and followers count of a user-specified Twitter account. The widget, which was released to the Android Market as a private beta four days ago, has just been updated and is now available as a free public beta. Read More

Follow The Latest News With Official CNN App For Android Phones

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The official CNN app for Android tablets was released in early February this year and now, a smartphone variant has finally found its way to the Android Market. The app allows you to view the latest headlines, receive notifications for breaking news, stream video reports, listen to CNN Radio reports, podcasts and interviews, save stories, share them with your friends and upload your own with an attached photo or video with CNN iReport (CNN’s online service for citizen journalists). For those Android users who find CNN to be one of the top sources of latest information, you can now get the latest from the Canadian network Read More

Learn On The Go With Official HowStuffWorks App For Android

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Every time a HowStuffWorks episode airs on television, I know that I am in for learning something new and totally unexplored. Same could be said about the website of this immensely informative platform by Discovery that packs loads of knowledge and learning material for those interested. New to the Android Market, Discovery’s official HowStuffWorks Android app is a comprehensive portal for feeding your inquisitive mind on the go. The app allows direct access to articles, quotes, facts and shows from the acclaimed website through a simple yet good-looking UI and comes equipped with push notifications for shows (both podcasts and blog posts) and two home screen widgets, one each for quotes and facts. Better yet, you can even interact with HowStuffWorks podcasters via Twitter and Facebook. For those of you who aren't in the habit of tuning in to the tube regularly, How Stuff Works is show aired on the Discovery Channel that explores, as the name implies, how everyday items are made and what makes them tick. Read More

Official AutoCAD App For Android Lets You View, Edit & Share Your DWG Files

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Android-using architects and engineers rejoice! The official mobile variant of Autodesk Inc.’s acclaimed CAD application just hit the Android Market. AutoCAD WS for Android lets you view and edit DWG files stored locally (on your SD card) or uploaded to your online AutoCAD WS account and share them via email with the help of just a few taps. The app comes equipped with essential Draw, Edit and Markup tools. You will also find the option to upload locally saved DWG files to your online AutoCAD WS account and view DWG files received as Email attachments. Read More

Add Toggles For WiFi, Bluetooth, Sound And More To Your Android Status Bar

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Not everyone prefers having their homescreens cluttered with toggle widgets. From amongst those who don’t, some flash custom ROMs that have built-in status bar toggles while others simply sweep said widgets under the rug. If you’re ready to do neither, we’ve got the perfect remedy for you. Notification Toggle for Android is a free tool that adds toggles of your choice to the notification bar. The freeware lets you choose from a list of seven toggles and four shortcuts and adds the chosen to the notification bar, each in a separate notification/line or up to five grouped in a single notification. As exciting and refreshing the concept of Notification Toggle may sound, it is one of the very first solutions of its type that we have come across so far. Read More