Google Gives Spotify A Run For Its Money

Google has a bit of a habit of looking at a successful product in a lucrative market, and then doing their best to make a better version of it. In launching Google Play Music All Access with an 18 million+ song catalog, track streaming, unlimited skips, virtually unlimited number of downloadable tracks and intelligent mixing of your own library music, all at $7.99/month (introductory offer), Google is trying its best to beat Spotify on Android and the web.

Be sure to check out our review of Google Play Music All Access.

Unified: Google Talk, Google+ Hangouts, Google+ Messenger Merge Into “Hangouts”

Hangouts for Android, iOS and the web is the ultimate, all-in-one messaging app. It combines Google Talk’s instant messaging service with Google+ Hangouts’ group video chats and Google+ Messenger group messaging features. What’s more? Support for Google Voice and SMS on Android is on the way!

Google+ Gets Redesigned; Adds Amazing ‘Auto Awesome’ & ‘Auto Enhance’ Photo Enhancement Features

Just about every techie I know agrees that Google+ is – features and looks-wise – miles ahead of Facebook. At Google I/O, the tech giant announced awesome features that make Google+ even better! Firstly, Google+ now follows the cards-based design language introduced with Google Now. Secondly, photos uploaded on Google+ are analyzed by Google’s algorithms and then automatically tweaked for noise reduction, tonal distribution, skin softening, red-eye reduction and more, in what Google is calling ‘Auto Enhance’. Lastly, ‘Auto Awesome’ finds patterns in your uploaded photos, and creates animated GIFs of shots taken a few seconds apart, panoramas of photos taken at same location, and choosing the best smiling photo out of a bunch of chaotic family photos to create amazing family portraits.

We have already discussed both the new unified Hangouts messaging platform and updates to Google+, so give it a read for more details.

The Next ‘Nexus’ Smartphone: A Galaxy S4 Running Stock Android

One of the most surprising announcements at Google I/O 2013 was that of a Samsung Galaxy S 4 running Stock Android, without any customizations from Samsung whatsoever. With a price of $649 for a 16GB model, it is the most expensive Nexus device on the market to date, but that is fine considering that – compared to the $349 Nexus 4 – it has a Full HD 1080p display, a 13 megapixel camera, a faster processor, LTE support, expandable storage and a removable battery. The phone will be available fully contract-free on Google Play starting June 26th.

Google Maps Redesigned On Desktop And Android

Google Maps is the most popular as well as most powerful consumer maps application in the world, and the new updates for its Android and desktop web apps further cement this fact. The updated web app follows a new “The Map Is The UI” approach, where the actual map takes over most of the screen, with only the header and a little search bar at the top – no more sidebar! Google Earth, vector maps, Google Offers and Zagat’s trusted restaurant reviews are integrated right inside Maps. To make for a more personalized experience, your home, workplace and local points of interest are also included automatically in the map based on data from Google Now.

The new Google Maps for Desktop is slowly rolling out to invited users. You may request an invite at maps.google.com/preview. Android users should update their apps from Google Play to get the new Google Maps.

Google Search Integrated With Google Now For Voice Search And Other Commands

The rumors were right after all. For Chrome and Chrome OS users, Google Now is now integrated with Google Search. Saying “OK, Google” activates voice search – no typing or tapping required. Voice search has been developed to be more intelligent, so Google remembers what you last searched for, and predicts future searches. But that’s not all; you can also send emails, set reminders and more – all without leaving google.com or the Google Search app.

Google Play Books Allows User-Uploaded EPUBs / PDFs; Syncs Everything Across Android, iOS & Web

Google Play Books has always been at a distant third/fourth place in the eBooks reading app market, but a new feature update is bound to push it up ahead: the ability to upload your own collection of eBooks to the service, and to keep your page positions, bookmarks and notes synced across all platforms on which the service is available, i.e. Android, iOS and the web.

Check out our post to learn how to upload EPUBs to Play Books and read them on Android, iOS and the web.

Developer Features for Android

Rather unexpectedly for an I/O event, Google didn’t reveal the next version of Android this time, though that doesn’t mean the world’s most popular mobile operating system was completely neglected at the event. Google did announce several new features and improvements to Android, but most of them were targeted at developers rather than end users for now. However, it will be the users who will benefit from the fruits of these labors in the end.

The biggest new developer feature has got to be Android Studio – a dedicated IDE built by Google to make developing for Android easy. Apart from that, new APIs and developer features were announced for Google’s Maps and Location services, and Google Cloud Messaging. Several new features were added to the Google Play Developer Console as well, making it much easier for developers to optimize, translate and beta test their apps, with the ability to automatically roll out a beta update to a percentage of users first, and then gradually increase that percentage towards a full release. Lastly, a few major APIs were announced for game developers, allowing them to implement features like cloud save, achievements and leaderboards without having to use their own or third-party cloud services for the purpose.

Synced Notifications Across Android Devices

A major new feature for the end users was also announced: notification syncing across all your devices, meaning if you dismiss a notification from your phone, it’ll automatically disappear from your tablet as well. We will likely have to wait for the implementation of this feature in the next (likely minor) update to Android.

So which announcements do you think were the most significant? Join the poll below to let us know. You may select up to 3 answers out of the 9 available.

Haroon Q. Raja contributed to this post.

Read [Ask The Readers] Which Google I/O 2013 Product Announcements Excited You The Most? by Awais Imran on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Pheed for Android sports an eye-catching interface. You can start using it by connecting to the service via your Facebook or Twitter. Though you can also alternatively sign up (or sign in if you already have an account) using your email address. If it’s the first time you’re using the service, you’ll have to provide your user account details, along with optional info for your profile such as a short bio, your photo and so on.

Pheed has strict policies regarding the type of content it allows users to share on their timelines. Therefore, make sure you specify an appropriate channel rating like G, PG, PG-13, R, or X. The rating feature also makes it sure that you don’t encounter channels that you may find inappropriate or offending. Next up, you can specify a few initial channels to subscribe to (NASA, Linkin Park, Snoop Dog are already in there), and invite friends via Facebook, Twitter or email.

Once past account setup wizard, you’re presented with Pheed’s landing screen that shares a few similarities with Twitter (Hashtags, anyone?). It presents a similar looking timeline that you can scroll through vertically. Though where Twitter only contains text based contents and with a few exceptions, shows links to related media, Pheeds display all shared content right within your timeline.

Tapping the miniscule buttons at the bottom let you navigate between timeline, search, new pheed (post), notifications and account settings. Pheed’s search feature lets you quickly discover content under pheeds, channels and hashtags. In terms of what you are allowed to share, you can attach pictures, music and videos to any of your pheeds.

Al in all, the Android app does justice to the service and provides a complete Pheed experience right from your smartphone. Pheed can be downloaded for free from Google Play Store.

Download Pheed

Read Popular Twitter & Tumblr Mashup Pheed Comes To Android by Waqas Ahmed on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Vobok offers three sign up options, including Facebook, Twitter and email. The welcome screen also lets users associate a profile picture with their new account. One signed in, Vobok displays a list of all of your contacts who are already on the service, while letting you send an invitation to anyone who is not using the app yet. Apart from personal contacts, people who have chosen to keep their Vobok profile public can be followed by anyone as well. These friends and followed users help populate the ‘Feed’ section of the app.

The Vobok feeds display a list of all the recordings posted by your contacts. These recordings can be played in-line without leaving the feed. The title of a post, along with its associated image (if any), also show up. Swipe across a recording if you want to re-post, add it to your favorites, or post a clip of your own in reply. The reply option only works for posts from people who follow you as well.

To create a Vobok recording of your own, hit the ‘Broadcast’ button from the bottom bar. To help keep things organized, you are strongly advised to give your posts a title. Attaching an image with the recording can also looks pretty good as the post’s cover. Thanks to the two button at the bottom of the recording area, users can choose to publish their posts to other social networks as well as on Vobok. To view your past posts, head to the ‘Profile’ section of the app, where you can also get an overview of your followers and people you are following.

Vobok has been around for a few months but before its latest update, the invitation method wasn’t exactly convenient. Now, however, this free app is truly uncomplicated, letting users focus on creating recordings rather than inviting friends.

Download Vobok For iOS

Download Vobok For Android

Read Vobok For iOS & Android Is Like Twitter For Short Voice Recordings by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

The ability to upload your own eBooks to the Play Books makes for a killer feature, as this means you longer need to worry about carrying your entire eBook collection with yourself all the time, and then doing manual labor to keep things synced across multiple devices.

Uploading books is great and all, but what really makes the difference is the second feature i.e. how you can then read these books on your Android smartphone/tablet, iPhone, iPad or desktop/laptop PC through the Play Books website and keep things synced. Apart from just keeping your eBook library itself in sync, the service ensures that the last page you read before dozing off last night, your personal bookmarks, any notes you added – everything is saved in the cloud, and can be accessed from any of the aforementioned devices, providing a seamless reading experience no matter where you open your eBooks to read them.

You have two options for uploading your personal collection of eBooks. You can either upload them manually, or have Play Books go through your Google Drive folder to look for compatible files and transfer them to Play Books. Both options are available on the Play Books Upload page after you sign in (shown above).

Speaking of signing in, you must be living in the US – or have some way of fooling Google into thinking you are in the US by using VPNs or proxy services – to be able to access the service and upload your books to it. This is one area where Play Books still lags far behind iBooks, Amazon Books and many other competing services.

Once you have uploaded your favorite books, you can download these books to your mobile device in the Play Books app for Android and iOS (linked below) for reading them on the go.

Now, whenever you read a chapter of Dune, add a note in 1984, or bookmark a page in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy on your way to work, it will be there on Play Books across all your devices.

Download Play Books For Android

Download Play Books For iOS

Read How To Upload EPUBs & PDFs To Google Play Books And Read On Web, iOS & Android by Awais Imran on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

The Google I/O keynote yesterday brought a lot of important announcements, but the revamped Hangouts service seems to have managed to cause the most excitement among them all so far, probably because it has already been rolled out for users all over the world. The iOS app is available in the App Store, while  lot of Android users have managed to get their hands on the Hangouts update for their Google Talk app as well. Google already offered its Google Talk (also called GTalk, Google Chat and Gmail Chat) already enjoyed integration with Google+ and Gmail but compared to the Hangouts feature of Google+, it wasn’t too heavy on features. Some of you might have wondered why the plain old chat can’t become as cool as its Google+ variant. Even if you have never thought of that possibility, Google seems to have been thinking along those lines. The new Hangouts can be considered a consolidation of Google Talk and Google+ Hangouts that works on Android, iOS, Google+ and Chrome. The service offers everything from video calling to group chat, and even a huge collection of emoticons.

Hangouts For Chrome

The new Hangouts extension is available in the Chrome Web Store and once installed, it makes sure you stay in touch with your friends even when Chrome is closed. If you choose to stay logged in permanently, the extension becomes active as soon as your computer is turned on like a system tray app (with an icon there too), ensuring not a single message is ever missed.

The first thing you have to do after installing Hangouts for Chrome is to sign in to your Google account. Upon doing that, all your Google contacts show up in the main screen’s list. To begin a new chat session (or Hangout), simply begin typing a contact’s name or ID in the field at the top of the window. You can chat with a single person, or start a group hangout. The chat window itself is pretty simple, and has two main views. The buttons at the top of the screen can be used to switch between text chat and video calling. During a video call, you can invite more people to join your hangout, control the call’s volume and switch cameras. If you are simply sending text messages, you can share photos or send any of the 850 available emoticons. From the extension’s settings menu, you can configure its chat windows to always stay on top  of all other windows.

The New Google+ Hangouts

Google+ has received a major overhaul today, and the new Hangouts improvements apply here as well. No matter where you are in Google+, initiating a hangout is never difficult. Simply click the green icon in the top-right corner and choose your ‘Hangout Party’. The chat windows aren’t too different from the ones that show up in Hangouts for Chrome, so basically it’s this Google+ version that has been used as a model for the other apps of the service, which makes sense since Hangouts launched as a Google+ feature in the first place.

Hangouts For iOS

Since there has never been an official Google Talk client for iOS, it is pretty big news that Hangouts has been released for iPhone and iPad as well. Although Hangouts were available as part of the Google+ app, having a standalone client that even lets you chat with your GTalk contacts has got to be welcomed by many. Not only does the iOS app let you stay in touch with your friends, but you can now swap video calls with any number of your friends as well. Group hangouts allow up to ten participants, which is more than enough for most scenarios.

Using the app isn’t too difficult, as Google has refrained from making things overly complicated. To begin a hangout, tap the ‘+’ icon from the top bar and begin choosing your correspondents. All ongoing sessions have entries of their own on the app’s main screen. These threads can be archived simply with a leftwards swipe. Your hangout archives can be accessed by tapping the gear icon located in the top bar. From the same settings screen, Hangouts users get to snooze notifications and manage received requests or blocked profiles.

Much like the Chrome and G+ versions of the service, the chat window has video and text modes. Video controls are located in the bottom bar, while you can view a thread’s options by tapping the contact icon at the top of the screen. During text chats, it is possible to share photos straight from your iPhone’s camera, or by attaching the ones that are already in your camera roll. For every thread, you can add more people, toggle notifications, or go off the record. Lastly, you can block contacts and delete or archive conversations.

Hangouts For Android

For Android, Hangouts has been rolled out as an update for the stock Talk app, and is gradually rolling out to all Android devices running 2.2 Froyo or later. The app is sure to be visible for everyone in the Google Play Store but if can’t seem to install it from there yet (it may tell you that you have the app already installed, basically referring to Google Talk), you have to wait for a while longer till you get the update notification in Play Store on your device.

There are some UI differences between the Android and iOS versions of Hangouts. On Android, the app’s settings are accessible right on the main screen, and you don’t have to go to a separate section for them. Rather than having to use the back button to go to the conversations view, users can simply swipe between the most recent chat window and the list of all active threads. Unlike the iOS app, Hangouts for Android has an emoticon button of its own, which lets you open the categorized collection of smileys from Google.

The biggest criticism that Hangouts has been facing until now is that there is no way of changing your availability status on it. So, if you like staying ‘Invisible’ until initiating a chat session, Hangouts is probably going to be a little disappointing. Also, there was a lot of speculation about Google integrating SMS support into the service, making it truly ubiquitous for all communication, but that hasn’t happened. Lastly, the chat section in Gmail still shows the old interface and hasn’t been updated to Hangouts yet, which is a significant omission since many of us use Google’s chat service in Gmail.

The Android and iOS apps are a little buggy for now, but we are sure the service will have Google’s constant attention so that it can keep getting better. You can start using the new Hangouts without downloading anything by heading to Google+, or grab them for Chrome, iOS or Android from the links provided below.

Download Hangouts For Chrome

Download Hangouts For Android

Download Hangouts For iOS

Read Hands-On With Google Hangouts Unified, Cross-Platform IM & Video Chat by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

WeatherSignal uses your location, and utilizes the different sensors in your device to generate a report for your current location. Be warned that it might impact battery life. To get started, launch the app and visit your dashboard. Here, you will see a summary of everything the app can measure. Tap one of readings to see the app take a live measurement, or see historical readings.

You can add your readings to WeatherSignal’s map. Go to the ‘Map’ tab and select your current location. The weather data that your device has gathered will be added to the app’s database, allowing for a more accurate calculation and prediction of weather for your region. If you would like to keep the weather report private, you can turn this feature off  in the app’s settings.

The ‘Report’ tab allows you to submit a report on the current weather i.e. if it is sunny, raining, snowing, or hailing outside. The app asks you if you are yourself inside or outside, which helps it judge just how accurate your report might be.

From the app’s settings, you can change the temperature units (Celsius by default), toggle the display of accelerometer data, and manage how frequently the app collects data when it is active and when it is running in the background. The data can be exported to a CSV file if you like. Lastly, WeatherSignal lets you add each one of the weather units to your screen as a widget. You can selectively add a few or all of them.

The app and its algorithms are experimental and if you don’t own a device with the supported sensors, WeatherSignal might not have a lot to offer. You can check out the app’s description page to see what your device is capable of measuring.

Download WeatherSignal For Android

Read WeatherSignal Uses Android Device Sensors To Read & Crowdsource Local Weather Info by Fatima Wahab on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Cydia? Substrate? Winterboard?

Before we take a detailed look at Cydia Substrate for Android, let us just explain all these terms, as many Android users who have never owned a jailbroken iDevice are not likely to be familiar with them.

Winterboard is a theming platform that is available as a downloadable package in the Cydia store for iOS. As you might already be aware, Cydia can only be installed on iOS devices that are jailbroken (loosely similar to rooted in Android). In case you aren’t sure what jailbreak is, our post on tethered and untethered jailbreak might help. Since Winterboard is a Cydia package, like all other tweaks and themes available in the jailbreak store, it requires Cydia Substrate to run. Cydia Substrate is a platform that lets other products (or extensions, if you want to be technically accurate) make changes to individual elements of the OS that are not open-source by themselves. Cydia Substrate extensions don’t require source code of the entire OS or the app being modified to function.

Installation

To run any Substrate extensions on your Android device, you have to install the Cydia Substrate package first. The package is compatible with devices running Android 2.3 and up, but you cannot use it unless your device is rooted. If these requirements are met, head to the link provided at the end of this post, and download the free Cydia Substrate package. To get started, launch the app and hit the ‘Install Cydia Substrate’ button at the top of the screen. Choose the ‘Allow’ option from the dialog box asking for root/superuser permissions. That’s it – you now have Cydia Substrate installed on your Android, but remember that this is just a platform, waiting for cool extensions to be added to it so that some visible changes can be made to your device.

Installing Winterboard On Cydia Substrate

For now, the only package available in the ‘Extension Gallery’ of Cydia Substrate is Winterboard. The other option in the gallery is there to let users recommend new packages that they think should be supported by Substrate. In the future, we can expect a lot more tweaks to be added here.

In order to use Winterboard, you have to download it from a separate Google Play Store link (also provided at the end of this post). Using Winterboard is simple, as you just have to install themes and packages from the Play Store. It is also possible to create a combination of multiple themes by selecting them all. If there are conflicts (for example, two themes having conflicting icons), the theme at the top always takes precedence. You can change the order of these themes by simply long-pressing an icon and then dragging it to a new position. For now, the two packages compatible with Winterboard are Tiny White Icon Pack (Free) and Flow Theme ($1.75). In case something goes wrong while using Winterboard (or any Substrate extension), you can disable the platform by long-pressing the Volume Up key and then deleting any troublesome packages.

For now, it is difficult to consider Cydia Substrate as much more than a proof-of-concept, but if the Android community starts developing extensions for it, we might see the package gain the lofty heights of fame that it enjoys on iOS.

Download Cydia Substrate For Android

Download Winterboard For Android

Read What Is Cydia Substrate For Android & How To Install Winterboard On It by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Pinterest should display an alert regarding push notifications when the app is launched for the first time after updating. Though in case that doesn’t happen or you dismiss it, you can configure everything by going directly to the app’s settings. The newly added notifications are shown whenever any Pinterest users leaves some feedback on one of your posts, or repins something you published on a board.

A great addition to Pinterest for iOS is the ability to share pins with users who are on Facebook or Twitter. You can also copy a pin’s link and then share it through other means. The Android variant of Pinterest already had the universal sharing feature.

Pinterest for Android and iOS has always had a prominent search tab, and it is nice to see that it has become better than before in the latest update of the app. Pinterest search has been enhanced with autosuggestions, with results including both keywords and user profiles.

When commenting on a pin or board, you can add a mention of any user by typing the ‘@’ symbol followed by the name of the desired user. Similarly, it is now possible to invite your friends to collaborate on your group boards. To cap the changes off, the option to pin images from the web has become more efficient and quickly lists all the photos found on the provided link.

The overall look-and-feel of Pinterest hasn’t changed a great deal, as it already had a pretty decent UI. It is possible to get a taste of all the aforementioned changes for both Android and iOS by updating the app on your device, or heading to the appropriate link below.

Download Pinterest For iOS

Download Pinterest For Android

Read Pinterest For Android & iOS Gets Push Notifications, Mentions & Auto-Suggestions by Hamza Khalid on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Note: Tilt Racer costs $4.95 on both the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store. It isn’t possible to give away Android apps due to lack of promo code or gifting support in Play Store, so we’ve arranged a giveaway for 5 promo codes of the iOS variant. Details on taking part in the giveaway at the end of the post.

What sets Tilt Racer apart from other similar solutions is its control scheme for acceleration and braking. Both are arranged on a single vertical slider, allowing you to quickly shift from acceleration to braking and back to make those sharp turns. The slider also lets you control the the intensity of the throttle or braking being applied, of course. Where many other apps might simply aim to clone the keyboard or conventional gamepads, Tilt Racer provides a different experience while trying to retain its practicality with this seemingly tiny addition. Needless to say, you will still need quite a bit of practice to get used to the controller. It is accelerometer-driven, after all.

The mechanics behind the way Tilt Racer works are roughly the same: it requires a server application to be installed on your PC that emulates a regular gamepad, acting as a bridge between your smartphone and the PC. The server application is currently only available for Windows. Download the setup from the link provided at the end, run it and install the Touch Pilot Human Interface drivers when prompted. You will also have to allow the app access through the firewall for it to be able to communicate with your mobile device.

Once the Touch Pilot Server application is up and running, simply launch Tilt Racer on your smartphone or tablet and wait a couple seconds. If your mobile device and PC are connected to the same WiFi network, the app should automatically detect and connect to the server in no time.

Once you see the “Connected to”  message in the top-left corner of the mobile app, you should see a similar entry in the Touch Pilot Server log, indicating a successful connection. Tap ‘Start’ on the mobile app to switch to the virtual gamepad.  Hit the buttons on the left, and you should see them being logged in the server application. You can turn off input logging from the server app’s Settings menu.

You can jump right into a game and start using the controller at this point. First off, navigate to Settings > Test and Calibrate in the server application, hit the ‘Calibrate…’ button under the Settings tab and follow the simple on-screen instructions.

After you’re done calibrating your new virtual gamepad, switch to the Test tab to check each of its controls.

Remember that you may still need to set up the new controller within the game itself. The screenshot below shows controls for Tilt Racer set up in Need For Speed Hot Pursuit.

As you can see, there are a few functions left unassigned. This is one area that Tilt Racer will need to improve in if it is to establish itself as a practical alternative to conventional gamepads. It needs more keys, and preferably, the option to switch an alternative, customizable layout for games that require them. As it is right now, Tilt Racer is more suitable for older or more basic games that don’t need more than the four keys it sports. Another tiny feature that we would like to see added to the app is the option to tweak accelerometer sensitivity, so you don’t twist your wrist trying to make that sharp bend.

That said, whatever capacity the app does work in at the moment should be enough for most users. Moreover, the control scheme it offers works like a charm and is very easy to get used to. Note that Tilt Racer doesn’t have to be used with a racing-only game. It should be suitable for games involving any sort of vehicle (except for the select few that don’t support conventional joystick input, such as GTA IV and NFS World). Just an idea: you could use it as a virtual steering wheel for vehicles in titles from the GTA and Battlefield series.

Check out the following video demo by the team behind Tilt Racer before heading down to the download links.

Download Tilt Racer For Android

Download Tilt Racer For iOS

Download Touch Pilot Server

Giveaway

We’re giving away 5 Tilt Racer promo codes to five lucky readers. The giveaway will last for the next 48 hours. Participation is simple.

1. Follow @addtips on Twitter.
2. Tweet/retweet the giveaway.
3. In the comments below, provide a link to your tweet. To do so, right-click the timestamp below your tweet and copy its URL.

Alternatively, you may comment on our Facebook or Google+ page, where the comment should be under the shared post and not on the page itself. Our editors will pick the 5 winners randomly. Good luck!

Update: The giveaway has been closed. Winners will be contacted shortly.

Read [Giveaway] Play PC Racing Games With Your Android Or iPhone Using Tilt Racer by Sameed Khan on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Google Now’s aesthetics and design have prompted quite a few apps to take some cues from that design language. Despite being practically like a live wallpaper, the appis not exactly that per se, and hence does not consume much battery either, the reason being that the wallpapers are themselves static and only change after the set time.

The app lets you choose from a collection of 11 wallpapers that can be set to change according to time, or simply applied without any time constraint. While it may seem that disabling the automatic time-based wallpaper rotation feature will defeat the entire purpose of the app, it can still be useful for those who simply like one of these wallpapers and want it set as their home screen’s background for as long as they’d like.

The times of the four phases can be customized by users to reflect the conditions in their local region. When you select a wallpaper, you will be alerted about the time at which it will automatically change. For this review, I had to change my device’s time manually to reflect the changes in the wallpapers but while doing so, I often had to re-apply the wallpaper for it to show the change. However, this will not be normal practice for most users, and should not be a matter of concern.

If you are interested in wallpapers for your Android device, you will find our compilation of the most visually stunning Android live wallpapers interesting. And should you want something more functional in nature, our list of the best functional live wallpapers for Android will keep you busy as well.

The app is available for devices with both standard definition as well as HD screen resolutions, and can be downloaded using the links provided below.

Download GoogleNowWallpaper For Android

Download GoogleNowWallpaper HD For Android

Read Auto-Set Google Now Backgrounds As Android Wallpaper By Time Of Day by Zayed Rehman on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Although mobile tracking and data wiping features are only available in premium version of the app, everything else is completely free to use, and works absolutely like a charm. To get started, launch the app and provide your email and password to sign up for an account. Having done that, activate Easy Finder feature by following the instructions provided. Next up, turn on Android security via PIN/password or pattern lock. This would ensure that the app alerts you in case an intruder tries to gain unauthorized access your device by trying to unlock it using the wrong password or pattern. You can specify your desired protection method directly from within the app interface, if you haven’t set one already.

Once everything is configured according to your preferences, you’re all set. The home screen of the app lets you perform different actions and enables you to toggle the parameters on and off the way you want. The app let you send remote commands from your computer’s web browser for actions like backing up your contacts or tracking your device’s location. All of this can be done by logging on to http://find.nq.com and using your account credentials. The web-based dashboard is also fairly intuitive and lets you perform actions likes sounding an alarm on your device, locking the phone, backing up your contacts etc. Another useful feature is a map view that shows you the location of your device.

NQ Mobile Easy Finder can automatically take a picture of the person using the device with its front facing camera and send it straight to your email. The Settings screen of the app allows users to toggle alert parameters such as total number of password attempts before triggering the alert, locate their phone, take a snapshot of the intruder, backup your contacts etc. Users who have purchased the premium variant can also toggle data wipe and phone tracking features from here.

The app is available for free at Google Play Store and you can download it via the link provided below.

Download NQ Mobile Easy Finder For Android

Read Easy Finder Is An Android Anti-Theft App With Remote Contacts Backup by Waqas Ahmed on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

Upon launching ‘Schemes’ for the first time, you’ll get a Welcome screen that will help you log in to Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail (other email services aren’t supported at the moment). You can choose not to log in with any of the services you don’t use (or simply don’t want to connect), and keep pressing the Next button. You can always login later as well.

After completing the initial setup, you’ll be taken to the app’s messages list that’s empty for now since you haven’t added anything yet. Tap the Compose icon on the blue bar at the top, and a simple compose screen will pop up.

Note that since we haven’t logged into Twitter, Facebook, or Gmail, there’s only one usable option, and that’s SMS. In case you have signed in with the aforementioned services, their options will become usable as well. Now all you need to do is to enter your recipient’s applicable contact info for which you want to schedule the message, and type the message. Next, tap ‘Set time’ to set when would you want the message delivered to them. You can also tap ‘Set date’ to schedule the message for sending on any particular date, such as someone’s birthday. You can also skip setting a time and date (i.e. no scheduling) and hit the send button, and the message will be sent immediately, but there wouldn’t really be any point to using this app for the purpose. You’ll see the message preview on the main screen, and it will disappear once it has been sent (i.e. at the scheduled time).

In case you didn’t sign in to the online services during the initial setup, tap the options button at the top-left, followed by ‘settings’. Under login preferences, you can log in to any of the available services from here.

There’s also a ‘Show Notifications’ option here that’s unchecked by default. It will notify you whenever your scheduled message, post, tweet or email is sent, so it can be helpful to enable it.

I tested all 4 communication channels one by one. Facebook seemed to be a little bumpy, and it sometimes didn’t post, so better try it out yourself and see how it goes for you. Everything else worked perfectly, including Twitter, Gmail and SMS.

Note that you need to specify the appropriate contact information for your scheduled updates on every applicable service that you’ve selected. This would be an email address for emails and a phone number for texts. Though both needed to be entered manually, as the app didn’t allow me to choose the recipient from my contacts. Posting to Facebook doesn’t require any contact info, though this means you cannot post to someone’s wall. Similarly, tweeting doesn’t provide you with a ‘To’ field either, but you can simply add someone’s Twitter handle in an @mention in the beginning, the way I tweeted to @SameedKhn in the screenshots above. It would be preferable to see twitter handle suggestions too though, for the people I follow. Anyway, once all is set and you’ve scheduled messages the way you want, tapping the send icon on top will take you to the main screen, where all your scheduled messages will be displayed in a color-coded list based on the services they’re for (it looks pretty cool now).

If you want to cancel a scheduled message, tap and hold on it, and press the ‘X’ button that appears on the top. Once messages are sent, you’ll get a notification, as shown above. (And since I sent the text message and email to myself, I received notifications for them as well).

There are unlimited possibilities for the use of this app. For instance, sending perfectly timed ‘good morning’ message, scheduling tweets, making sure you’re the first one to wish your contacts a happy birthday, and much more. So go ahead, schedule your messages with Schemes and automate your communication. And yes, we didn’t forget: Schemes stands for ‘Scheduled Messages’. Now you know!

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Read Schedule Text Messages, Emails, Tweets & Facebook Posts On Android With Schemes by Usman Younas on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter