If you haven’t heard of Google’s social activities sharing and recommendation service Schemer, we don’t blame you. It hasn’t received as much press as it deserves (ironically, we missed out on covering it as well). Better late than never though, and what better time to check this gem out in detail upon the launch of its iPhone app. While the Android app has been around for a while, Google has just released the iPhone app for Schemer a few minutes ago, and we’re here to take it on a spin for you. Read on for our full review.
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By Haroon Q. Raja on May 17, 2012
Getting photos out of your iPhone is a fairly easy task. You don’t even need to launch iTunes to access your images. Nevertheless, you still have to use a cable, which is why there are still plenty of apps that make this task even easier. Air Projector is an iOS app that serves a similar purpose, but not just for extracting images. Using Air Projector, it is possible to display photos and PDF documents on any desktop computer without even transferring the data to it first. The app streams your media and documents to a web browser of your choice. The app doesn’t even need a desktop client as everything is done over Wi-Fi and HTTP.
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An iOS app that handles PDF files might not sound like something too exciting, but PDF Reader Pro has so much more to offer. The app lets you view PDF files on your iPhone or iPad, but that’s not all it does. It rises above the crowd owing to the staggeringly large number of additional features it has on offer and is undoubtedly one of the best if its kind out there. PDF Reader can handle images, videos, HTML, iWorks files, common document formats and, of course, PDFs. Most of the formats compatible with the app can be converted to PDF with a single tap, regardless of the file’s size. In addition to all this, PDF Reader Pro comes with some amazing sharing options, and you can get files in and out of the app over WiFi, via email, iCloud or just about any other cloud service you can possibly think of. The app’s reader is sleek, and comes with a lot of options to improve your reading experience.
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The stock Clock app in iOS is pretty neat, and serves its purposes without many frills attached. You can use it to simultaneously view accurate time updates from several places, and set up alarms. Having said that, there is no way of changing the interface of that app, and users are bound to get bored of waking up to the same old sound again and again. This is where TikTok can help you. This beautiful app for iPhone and iPad comes equipped with an impressive array of options related to time and alarms. It is a complete replacement app for the stock Clock in iOS, and brings a slew of new features to the mix as well. The app has quite a lot of beautiful clocks within, and if those aren’t enough for you, it is possible to design one of your own! TikTok also allows its users to set the music from their device’s library as their alarm tone. The app has a pretty decent music player, whose best feature is to automatically turn off music at any predefined time.
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No one can doubt the hardware quality of the camera in most iOS devices, especially the newer ones, but many have complained that the accompanying software is not up to the mark. Even something as simple as panorama mode is missing in the stock iOS Camera app. However, all these shortcomings don’t count for much, thanks to the large number of photography-related apps available in the App Store. 123D Catch is an iPad app that aims to turn panoramic images into a thing of the past. Using this app, you can convert simple images into 3D models, and view them from any angle using the 123D Catch viewer (available within the app). All you have to do is snap a bunch of photos, submit them to the Autodesk cloud, and within a few minutes, you will have a three-dimensional adaptation of the images. Read on for details.
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Back before the release of iOS 5.1, we covered a Cydia tweak named AnyAppLock (reviewed here), which simply allowed users to replace the iPhone lockscreen camera button with a shortcut to any app of their choice. A lot has changed since then, and camera grabber has taken the place of the camera button on iPhone’s lockscreen. This implies that now we need a new Cydia tweak that can launch an app (other than the stock Camera) when the grabber is slid upwards. Fortunately, such a tweak has already arrived in the iOS jailbreak store, and is named GrabberApp. Even if you haven’t updated to iOS 5.1 yet, the tweak can still be of use to you, as it will add the camera grabber to your lockscreen first, and then allow you to program it to open any app you want. Head past the break to know all about GrabberApp, the useful new tweak in the Cydia store.
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Despite all its positives, iOS has a few really annoying features that have managed to stay in the OS for a very long time. One such nuisance is the contacts deletion button. If you want to delete a contact from your iPhone, iOS seems to oppose this change with all its might. The Delete button is so well-hidden in the stock Phone app, that it is a nightmare trying to remove multiple contacts from your iDevice. You have to open each contact page individually, hit the Edit button and then scroll to the bottom of the page to find the Delete button. Why go through all this when you have OneByOne Contacts? It is a new Cydia tweak that lets users delete contacts quickly via a single swipe across contacts’ names. The tweak also lets you decide whether you want to remove a contact as soon as you swipe across it, or if you want the confirmation button to appear first.
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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
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
Widgets are something that have been exclusive to Android so far, and although iOS now offers a couple of native Notification Center widgets, they are not the same as Android’s ever-present and feature-rich ones. Fortunately, things have finally taken a turn for the better for jailbroken iOS users. Now, it is possible to have home screen widgets on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, thanks to the recently released Dashboard X Cydia tweak. The tweak can be considered a whole new platform for widgets that allows users to add several Notification Center widgets to the home screen. Not only that, you can make the lockscreen area of your iPhone more functional and productive as well, using the tweak’s Dock Mode, which lets users summon widgets at will, so that they don’t clutter the screen all the time. Sound interesting? Read on for details.
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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
The Cydia store is certainly an active place, and every few days, a new tweak is bound to create a lot of hype among the iOS jailbreak community. These days, this tweak happens to be Dashboard X (recently reviewed here). After all, who wouldn’t want to have some truly gorgeous and useful widgets on the Springboard of their iPhone? Dashboard X is a rather new addition to the Cydia store, and hence, far from perfect. For example, many people have complained that the widgets obscure app icons, as there are only a few empty spaces available on the Springboard. Also, what if you want the first screen of your iDevice to consist of nothing but widgets? All these problems can be solved using a simple Cydia tweak named HomeSpringPage. The tweak performs the sole task of adding a blank screen on the first slot of your Springboard, and you can use that screen for placing all the Dashboard X widgets you want.
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If you are even remotely concerned about your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad’s privacy, lock screen passcode is the most rudimentary measure that can (and should) be taken, and previously reviewed Cydia tweak, CleverPin, makes that passcode intelligent enough to automatically disable itself whenever the device is connected to a trusted WiFi network, for instance, the network at your home or any other location where the chances of your privacy getting violated are minimum. The tweak also offers some other useful options (like defining a time period during which the passcode will be disabled), but you have to pay $1.99 to get it. Meet AutoProtect, a new Cydia tweak that provides the same functionality for free!
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The thrill of discovering something that has been hidden from general view has always held a certain charm for people of all ages. Be it a treasure hunt, or just some small scavenging game, coming across a hidden stash is sure to make your day. This is the principle the new iOS app, Stashpix, is based upon. The app lets you view photos or albums shared by other users, but the distinguishing feature of Stashpix is that you have to be in the area where the image was originally shared in order to view it. Stashpix displays all the stashes of photos in your vicinity, and lets you add to them as well. In a similar manner, you can leave your mark on any area by creating a virtual stash there, so that future visitors of the location are able to appreciate your shares. It’s like geocaching, but for photos.
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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
