With more and more people gaining access to the widespread world of the internet, and with more effective means of communication and sharing being introduced via various online services, you stand a realistic chance of going viral among the global audience with your thoughts, creative skills or anything (however idiotic) that sets you apart from the rest. In this regard, die-hard music enthusiasts, who fail to impress the masses with their rather bland voices, have the option to resort to auto-tuning software or web services, which convert even the dullest of vocals into a musical masterpiece. When talking of similar applications for mobile platforms, not many have been able to entice a greater user-base than popular iOS app Songify. Songify transforms plain audio recordings into auto-tuned musical tracks with different beats in no more than a few taps. You don’t even need to sing to have the result sound like a song. All you have to do is speak into the mic and the app will do the songifying for you. Songify also has its own little social network that worldwide users can access to share their ‘musical masterpieces’ with others. Good news is, it is no longer exclusive to the iOS App Store, as an official Android variant has just hit the market.
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By A. Rehman on May 16, 2012
Looking for an alternative calendar app for your Android? Take a look at Infinity Calendar – a thoroughly customizable calendar app that sports Google Calendar and MS Exchange Calendar integration. In addition to fetching all your calendar events from multiple accounts, the app also keeps you apprised of national (gazetted) holidays. Using Infinity Calendar, you can create new events, complete with custom alert and reminder settings, and sync them across all your accounts. Moreover, the app lets you define your own custom holiday categories and fixed holidays. Last but not the least, the app sports a nifty widget that keeps you informed of upcoming events from the next seven days right on your homescreen. Details to follow.
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By A. Rehman on May 16, 2012
The official Android client of the popular cross-platform note-taking, syncing and sharing service, Evernote, has just been updated to v4.0.1. The favorite note-taking of many Android users (including me) looks an altogether new product as compared to what it looked just the last night, as the most recent update brings plenty of visual goodness, including a thorough ICS-style facelift, brand new homescreen interface with larger buttons to create notes, enhanced in-app navigation via various swipe gestures, context-sensitive action bars for every single app screen, map-view for notes, friendlier navigation while viewing/reading notes, new-look Notebooks and underlying Notes, revamped Notes list with option to switch between various views, and more user-friendly feel right throughout the app’s entire interface. We’ll look at all the various updated features in detail after the break.
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By A. Rehman on May 16, 2012
Although Google Play Store is filled with plenty of Android system optimization and performance enhancement apps, few live up to their claims of boosting your device’s performance considerably. As always, we’ve been trying our best to bring some of the best (and mostly free) quality options in this regard, with AirCover (read review), Bitdefender Power Tune-Up (read review), Android Speed Booster (read review) and MP Task Manager (read review) being some of the noteworthy few. Adding to the long list is Support.com’s Cosmos – a 3-in-1 system optimization tool for your Android that supports a built-in battery saver, junk cleaner and privacy scanner. Making a mark among users amidst such fierce competition is not possible unless you bring something relatively fresh to the table, and this is exactly what Cosmos thrives on. Sporting a neat, uncluttered interface, the app helps you analyze and get rid of all the problematic facets of your Android device, and in doing so, lets you resolve most of the issues with a mere tap.
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By A. Rehman on May 16, 2012
Previously reviewed MX Video Player is dubbed by many as the best video player for Android, courtesy of the app’s ability to flawlessly play almost any known video format. This, coupled with its great controls, and all the various additional features that it brings to the table, makes MX Video Player the first choice of most Android users when it comes to free video players. Ever since we reviewed the app, not many alternatives have been able to impress a great deal. However, this perception seems to be taking a pleasant turn with the release of Wondershare Player – a good-looking, comprehensive video player for Android that, apart from borrowing most of its features from MX Video Player, supports the additional ability of exploring and streaming high quality videos from top video-hosting web services, including YouTube, Hulu, Vevo, Dailymotion and many more. The app combines high quality video streaming with seamless playback of locally stored media, presenting you with what is arguably one of the most feature-rich Android video players available today.
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By A. Rehman on May 15, 2012
I’ve never tried to hide my preference for iOS over Android, and for multiple reasons. While both platforms have a healthy share of strengths and weaknesses, iOS offers certain features (natively) that tip the scale, at least for me, in its favor, one of them being AirPlay. The formerly-labeled-AirTunes protocol received a feature and nomenclature overhaul back in 2010, whence it included not just audio, but any kind of media to be streamed to any AirPlay compatible device. Then, with iOS 5, Apple pooled in AirPlay mirroring, allowing you to replicate your supportive iPhone, iPod touch or iPad’s entire screen on the likes of compatible HDTVs, laptops, Macs etc. Speaking of Windows PCs and Macs in this regard, there’s perhaps no shortage of AirPlay apps for both platforms, paid or free, that offer pretty reasonable functionality. That’s why I was not too enthusiastic about AirServer, an AirPlay server application for Mac and Windows that claims to be way ahead of all its peers. Turns out, my skepticism was ill-warranted, as the app clearly blows away all the competition.
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By Aatif Khan on May 14, 2012
While installing an app on your Android device is as simple as searching for it in the Google Play Store and hitting install, or sideloading its APK on your phone, that always installs them as user apps (also referred to as data apps). At times certain apps need to be installed as system apps rather than user apps in order to utilize their full potential, and that’s where things get a little complicated. In this guide, we will show you how you can install any Android app as a system app on your Android device.
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By Haroon Q. Raja on May 14, 2012
We at AddictiveTips always love to bring to you apps that provide the users with instant and convenient solutions to their routine technology-related issues. When it comes to Android, things are no different at all. As can be seen in our compilation of 10 best Android file browsers, we have already come across quite a few feature-packed file management apps for the Android platform. Managing your Android’s internal and external storage content from within the OS through a nifty file explorer is one thing, but what if you wanted to avail these tools right from within your device’s recovery? If you often flash custom ROMs or mod ZIP files onto your device, you might have, at least once or twice, forgotten to move the flashable ZIP file to local storage before rebooting into recovery. You can always use your custom recovery’s mount USB storage option to remedy such situations, but now, there’s a better way to go about it. Fresh to the arena, AROMA File Manager by XDA member, amarullz, is among one of the very first successful attempts at providing Android users with a fully-functional root-level file explorer that can be operated from within system recovery; a custom recovery such as ClockworkMod (read all about the recovery here).
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By A. Rehman on May 14, 2012
SoShare is a relatively fresh private file-sharing web service that lets users instantly share photos, videos and other relatively larger files with each other without placing any restrictions on the storage capacity or the file type whatsoever. It is a social network of sorts that allows you to interact with your contacts and custom-created contact groups by sharing files and commenting on each others’ activities. The service has just launched mobile clients for Android and iOS, which lets you remotely access and manage your file-sharing activities on the network while on the move. Whether it’s sharing files with your SoShare contacts, downloading content shared by other users, commenting on each others’ activities, or creating custom groups with select contacts, the official SoShare client for Android has you covered. Details to follow.
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By A. Rehman on May 14, 2012
There is no better way of keeping yourself motivated to achieve your goals, and sharing them with the world. In this way, not only can you prevent yourself from going astray in pursuit of your dreams, but also serve as an invaluable source of inspiration for others. Based on said concept, ididit! is an online service that provides you with a unified platform for sharing your ambitions with the world. You can update your progress or distance from your goals, share success stories, and in return, extract motivation from the experiences of others. The service lets you announce your goals to the entire community, specify the deadlines by which you wish to intend to complete the goals, get timely notifications for each individual goal via a reminder, and share your entire progress on Facebook, Twitter or through email. The service released its official iOS client in the iTunes App Store last month, and now the Android variant has been released to the Google Play Store. Details to follow.
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By A. Rehman on May 14, 2012
Just recently, we’ve been treated to quite a few feature-rich Android alarm apps, such as iHome Sleep (read review), PipeUp! Voice Alarm (read review) and Morning Routine (read review). However, when it comes to the amount of features and extent of customization, none of the above come even close to the fresh entrant, Alarm Clock Ultra. It’s not your run-of-the-mill alarm app. Alarm Clock Ultra is laced with goodies, including fully customizable alarms, eye-catching themes, multiple homescreen widgets (depicting current time & upcoming alarms), various time presets to enjoy a Quick Sleep (nap), slick stopwatch and timer, built-in egg timer to help your mom prepare you a boiled egg of preferred hardness, option to dismiss/snooze the alarm by solving mathematical problems, playing games or by just shaking your device, and lots more. Details to follow after the break.
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By A. Rehman on May 12, 2012
The reliable computer and network security solutions provided by ESET are highly regarded among domestic and professional computer users all across the globe. When the company launched the public beta of ESET Mobile Security for the Android platform in June last year (2011), Android users were introduced to arguably one of the most comprehensive protection tools for their devices. This multi-lingual app encompasses several sought-after security features to secure your device and all the underlying data from any sort of unauthorized access. The app’s feature set includes real-time device protection from viruses and malware through on-demand (user-requested) and on-access (event-triggered) scanning, specifying blacklists for all incoming calls, SMS, and/or MMS from specific users, integrated security audit to identify the most vulnerable aspects of your Android device, multiple anti-theft tools (SIM matching, specifying a trusted SIM card via its IMSI number), and a built-in task manager. The app just recently shed its beta tag and is now available as a 30-day free trial, after which it requires you to purchase a 1-year license to continue availing all the security features. More to follow. READ MORE
By A. Rehman on May 11, 2012
Developed by 9spikes.com., Listen & Speak for Android is a free app that helps you improve your listening and speaking skills in various global languages by practising them through oral dictation. Listen & Speak sports an extensive online library, complete with various basic and advanced exercises in different foreign languages. The app uses your Android’s Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine to read aloud sentences or phrases from a selected exercise set. You can listen to a sentence as many times as you like, and then repeat it after the app to have your speaking skills analyzed. Based on the extent of your precision with the spoken sentence, the app ranks your speaking skills on a scale of 0-1, with intermediate scores represented in decimal figures. Apart from practicing with a specific exercise set, you can also set the app to translate all the sentences or phrases into a global language of choice. Details to follow.
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By A. Rehman on May 11, 2012
There’s no shortage of entertainment-filled apps across various mobile platforms, and it also comes as no surprise that most of these apps are based on the concept of photo-capturing, decorating and sharing. Even before the photo-editing and sharing sensation Instagram hit the Google Play Store, Android users had plenty of quality alternative options to pick from, and the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down. A new app, called meshtiles, has just stepped into the foray to provide Android and iOS users with an Instagram-like photo styling and sharing experience, but with a nice little twist of its own. Fusing the concept of content-aware photo exploration and photo sharing, meshtiles provides you with an unending stream of photos fetched according to your areas of interest. The app also keeps a detailed log of all the photos that you’ve shared on the network, and presents you with a visually appealing timeline of your activities. As a reward for the extent of your activities on the network, the app also awards you with specific titles and points that keep accumulating with time.
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By A. Rehman on May 11, 2012
The popular pinboard-themed social photo-sharing service, Pinterest, has a mobile client available for iOS users whereas Android users are currently out of luck. That said, the official iOS client of the service isn’t exactly an app entirely worth dying for. There are plenty of third-party alternatives present across app stores of all renowned mobile platforms that not only let you gain complete control over your Pinterest activities, but add plenty of eye-candy as well. One such unofficial Pinterest client that has been around in the iTunes App Store for quite some time is Galley+ for Pinterest that presents you with a neatly-built photo gallery, complete with all the photo and video collections shared on Pinterest in the form of various pinboards. Apart from managing your own Pinterest account and indulging in various customary activities associated with the service, you can also dive into the world of photo-packed pinboards to explore all the underlying images via high quality, animated slideshows. To the delight of Android users, the app is no longer exclusive to the iTunes App Store, as an Android variant has just made its way into the Google Play Store. Details to follow.
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By A. Rehman on May 11, 2012
