Tag Archives: Apps

Facebook For iOS Updated To v6.0: Chat Heads, Stickers & UI Improvements Galore!

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Mark Zuckerberg and his band of world-class engineers have made a habit of regularly iterating on Facebook’s design and features every few months even though, to the average user, the website works just the way they like. Each time, after some initial backlash from its enormous user-base, people just settle down with the updates, that is until the company decides that the current state of affairs isn’t good enough and changes everything all over again. This, I believe, is one of the biggest reasons behind Facebook’s success – revising design and features regularly keeps the service “fresh”. Read More

Post To Multiple Social Media & Blogs Simultaneously With Polarbear

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Smartphones have become quite an integral part of our lives. Apart from using them for texting, watching videos, surfing the internet or taking notes, a lot of us use them to incessantly update our social media presence. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn – these social media giants have dominated our social lives. And if you use all these services for staying in touch with your friends, family and professional contacts, it may seem quite tedious to manage all these accounts from their individual apps or websites. Polarbear is a simple app currently available for BlackBerry 10 & BlackBerry PlayBook - with Android, iOS, Windows and Mac versions in the private beta stage - that allows posting status messages to multiple networks in one go. The app aggregates your social media and blog accounts so you can post status updates to them in one go without requiring to open their dedicated apps or visit their websites. The developers sent us a copy of the Android app, which we're going to take for a spin after the break. Read More

NBC News Comes To WP8 With Full Shows, Narrated Articles & Video Clips

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For some reason, the WP Store has a particularly strong news category. Windows Phone still can’t compete against iOS or Android if you are looking at photo editors or games, but almost all major news services have released their WP7 and WP8 clients. Last month, Al Jazeera became the latest big name to join the ranks of WP8 news apps, and now we have an even bigger release in the Store. The NBC network already had some Windows Phone presence, thanks to its Breaking News and Nightly News apps, but with NBC News, there is now a proper WP8 app of the news giant that takes full advantage of the features available in the OS. Read More

AVG TuneUp: Easy Task, Battery, Storage & Data Management In One Android App

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Ever since I switched from the iPhone to an Android Phone (Galaxy Nexus), there have been several changes in my smartphone usage habits, the most important ones being managing storage, ensuring that I don’t run too many apps at once (gets me confused, and slows down the phone), close apps every once in a while, and most importantly, save battery. There's no dispute that the Galaxy Nexus isn't as good as the iPhone when it comes to battery life , but I somehow manage to keep it alive till the end of the day. There are some key settings that determine the battery life of your smartphone, and case of Android, these settings are quite scattered. In addition, there are also other maintenance tools like tasks, data use and installed apps management that are scattered across Android Settings.  A common user doesn't really know if changing such settings can affect their device performance. Fortunately though, the user doesn't need to be worried much, since there are apps for this purpose. Unlike many such complex-looking apps (some of which we have covered earlier), AVG TuneUp is really user-friendly, not requiring the user to be tech-savvy to understand and interact with it. Read More

Customize iOS Lock Screen Slider & Disable “Slide To Reply / View”

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Although there have been some really comprehensive Cydia tweaks (like SliderWidth and SlideToMod) for letting users change the basic properties of the iOS lock screen, there are a few features that are just so deeply ingrained into iPhone’s operating system that no one has ever given much thought to customizing them. You can easily change the interface of your device’s lock screen if you are a Winterboard user. Other elements can be customized using some tweaks available in the jailbreak store. There is one thing, however, that has annoyed a lot of users, with no way of bypassing it, until yesterday. Whenever you get a new notification on the iPhone lock screen, using the unlock slider immediately opens the app to which the notification belongs. Some of you might like this feature, but a lot of users aren't too fond of this feature, and instead make the device sleep and then wake it up again in order to bypass it. Though that in itself is an inconvenience. SliderCustomizer is a new tweak that not only addresses this issue, but also offers some pretty decent customization options for the iOS lock screen. Read More

Play Any Game Boy Or GB Color Title On Windows Phone With VGBC8

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VGBC8 for WP8 might not support as many platforms as RetroArch for Android, and those it does support are nowhere near as high-end as what PSSP emulates on iOS, but this Game Boy emulator does everything it is supposed to do in a really efficient and lag-free manner. The app is capable of running any Game Boy or Game Boy Color ROM, offering full controls and game saving options. VGBC8 is not the first emulator of this kind for Windows Phone, as the developer of this app has previously released a Game Boy Advance emulator in the WP Store as well. The new app works flawlessly, and loading new ROMs is really easy. Any game’s save state is uploaded to SkyDrive so that your progress doesn't get lost even if the app is uninstalled, and you start playing it right where you left even on another device. Read More

Got-IT For Android: Beautiful To-Do & Notes App With Google Tasks Sync

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Got-IT might seem like just other task management + note-taking app, but with its intuitive and Holo-themed UI coupled with features like unlimited lists, swipe navigation, widgets and DashClock support, it could very well become the choice for many users for taking notes and managing tasks in a quick and simple manner. Developed by XDA-Developers forum member ‘Mikro ddd’, the app was built with inspiration from Google Now and Google Keep while adding drop-down menus and swipe navigation to the mix. We take a closer look at the app and see how well it fares, after the jump! Read More

Crossfader Lets You Mix Songs Like A DJ Just By Waving Your iPhone Around

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One often sees apps belonging to the same genre getting released by developers in quick succession. We covered Ninja Jamm just yesterday, and another remixing app has now reached the ‘New & Noteworthy’ section of the App Store. Crossfader for iPhone kets users create a remixed version of songs just like the Jamm app, but that’s where the similarity ends. The apps are as different as two apps sharing a genre can be. While Ninja Jamm is full to the brim with features, music controls and sound effects, Crossfader has exactly zero buttons for remixing. Still, the remixes created using Crossfader can hold their own against results of most iOS apps of this kind. Crossfader makes use of your iPhone’s gyroscope to add effects to song. You can pick two songs from the collection supported by the app, and then act like a pro DJ merely by tilting your device, swiping across it and using a few taps here and there. Read More

How To Install & Run Facebook Home On Unsupported Android Devices

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As announced at Facebook's "New Home on Android" event, and a few days after its APK was leaked to the interwebs, Facebook Home was released to the Play Store today, but only in the US, and that too for a limited number of devices, namely HTC One X, One X+, One, Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S4. Where Facebook might be justified in localizing their product, we're sure there are countless users pouting in disappointment at having such a major release kept out of reach, and that too without an ETA on support for other regions and devices. Now, if you're a resident of the US and happen to own one of these devices (two of which are yet to hit the shelves), you needn't read on. If you own a supported device, but are in an unsupported region, you should only need to sideload the APK of the final release. If, however, you don't fulfill any of these requirements, as should be the case with quite a majority of Android-toting Facebook users around the world, join us past the break for a step-by-step guide on making your device Facebook Home-compatible! Read More

Universal Unroot Offers One-Click Unrooting For Any Android Device

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If you’re reading this, you already have a rooted Android device, or you’re looking for reasons not to root it. Sure, rooting your phone opens up a plethora of new possibilities for your device that are otherwise restricted by its manufacturers. Root access and the mods that follow, such as installing a custom recovery, and consequently, a custom ROM, are not meant for every novice Android user, which is precisely why most manufacturers want you to stick to the stock firmware. So, in order to discourage this practice and prevent complaints that lie outside the scope of support that a manufacturers can provide, consumer devices are designed with layers of protection.  The procedure leading to the rooting your device not only makes you ineligible for troubleshooting support but also voids any warranty that you could have claimed from the manufacturer in case of a fault in the device. So you do what you can – you unroot the device before handing it in to customer support. However, this is not always as easy as it sounds, especially if you’re a novice who had his phone rooted by a friend. Enter Universal Unroot, the one root access removal app to rule them all! This app is the simplest one-tap unroot solution out there till date for any and all rooted devices. Details to follow. Read More

Chainfire’s Hotspot Control Removes WiFi Tethering Restrictions From Unrooted Android Devices

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Native Wi-FI tethering support has been a feature of Android since version 2.2 (Froyo), but it is disabled or hidden from the Settings in many devices, thanks to their manufacturers or the carriers that sell them. On certain devices, the feature automatically gets disabled if no SIM card is present in the device. There have been several solutions out there to bring this functionality back to such devices, but almost all of them require root access. If you’re unlucky enough to have this feature disabled on your Android device and don’t want to root it to get it back, Chainfire has a solution for you in Hotspot Control. Just released on Google Play Store, it is a tiny app that allows you to easily toggle Wi-Fi hotspot mode on your unrooted Android device on which the native feature is present but hidden or disabled by the device manufacturer or your carrier. Read More

Upvote Is A Minimal iPhone Reddit Client With A Great, Snappy UI

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To be taken seriously, a Reddit client for any platform should support accounts. Apart from this, there are a few other features like search, voting and comments that are considered essential constituents by users of the service. Karma for iOS is a good example of a complete Reddit client since it has all these features, and a lot more. However, if you want a Reddit app that offers every single Reddit feature, you might as well open the Reddit website in Mobile Safari. On a phone, it is perfectly alright for most people to have a lightweight client of a service, if it wraps just the vital elements in a neat interface. Upvote is a Reddit client for iOS that is exactly that. The app isn't capable of doing everything redditers can normally do, but it is more than enough if you are looking for a way to casually browse through your favorite subreddits, vote on posts, and access all the major sections of your personal account. Read More

Piki By Turntable.fm Brings Taste-Based, Crowd-Curated Radio Stations For iOS

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You might say that the genre of music streaming apps has become a bit crowded in recent years. The competition among services like Last.fm, Turntable.fm and Pandora is quite fierce, which is evident from the barrage of updates and even new apps that are released by these streaming giants at frequent intervals. A few months back, we covered Fuzz Radio - an app that offers radio stations curated by music professionals. Turntable.fm’s latest iOS app, Piki is based on a pretty similar concept, with the difference being that you get a radio station of your own that is a mixture of several streams curated by users with similar interests. Another great thing about the app is its simplicity, since you don’t have to go through a lot of steps to configure a personalized radio stations - just pick your favorite songs (right from the stock Music app of your iPhone) and let Piki do the rest. Read More

Create Freestyle Electronic Song Remixes With Ninja Jamm For iPhone

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There are some really expensive iOS apps out there (specially for the iPad) that are good enough to be used by professional DJs in place of all the software and applications they use on their computers. On the other hand, there are some other apps that have the same basic concept, but don’t offer options that are as thorough. When we reviewed DJ Player back in December, it appeared to be a pretty good app for tinkering with a limited number of aspects of the songs in your library. After seeing Ninja Jamm though, we have to say that the things you can do to tracks with this app are just unbelievable. Despite the rather disappointing fact that Ninja Jamm doesn't let you import the songs you purchase via iTunes, the features it does offer are good enough to make you forget all its shortcomings. Read More

Documents by Readdle Gets iPhone Support & Web To PDF Converter

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Readdle offers some impressive apps in the App Store, but Documents by Readdle is their most popular release to date. There are plenty of other file managers available for iOS as well, but Documents comes closest to perfection. Until now, the app has been limited to iPad only, since people tend to prefer their tablets for reading and editing documents. Thanks to shifting trends and perhaps even due to iPhone 5’s larger display, Readdle has decided that the time is ripe for an iPhone version of their famous Documents app. Documents by Readdle for iPhone isn't much different from its iPad version, offering support for a multitude of file formats and document sources. The update has brought more to the app than just making it iPhone-compatible though. There is now a web browser within Documents that can be used to save webpages as PDF files. The app’s support list for sources has been also been extended to include iCloud. Read More

LookAway Player: iOS YouTube App With Galaxy S4′s Smart Pause Feature

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Even if you aren’t a big fan of Android, there are a few features of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 that you just have to admire. I am not just talking about all the technical details like its 1080p display or the Exynos 5 Octa 5410 processor, but the little things like Smart Pause and Drama Shot. After all, everyone who isn't a geek cares more about these novelty features, rather than the amount of RAM their phone packs. For those of you who aren't familiar with Smart Pause, it is a Galaxy S4 feature that makes the device track the user’s face and eye movement to automatically pause videos whenever their attention gets diverted from the screen. The S4 hasn't even arrived in the market yet, and iOS already has an app that comes with a perfect implementation of Smart Pause, albeit with a limited scope. Meet the YouTube client, LookAway Player. Read More

Cinemagram Brings Its Vine-Like Short Video Sharing App To Android [Review]

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Creating and sharing GIF files has been a long time internet tradition, dating back to the 90s when broadband wasn't widely available and most people didn't have much of a choice but to use GIF animations due to their small size compared to traditional video formats. The concept has seen a recent surge, thanks to apps like Vine from Twitter. Almost a year back, we had Cinemagram that allowed users to do the same, but both Vine and Cinemagram were released for the iOS platform. While Vine still remains iOS-exclusive for now, Cinemagram has finally made its way to Android. In case you haven't heard about it yet, it lets you record, edit and share 'Cine', which are basically small 4-second animated clips or cinemagraphs. The app still has its troubles on certain devices when it comes to editing and the final file output. Let's dig deeper into it and take Cinemagram for Android for a spin right after the break. Read More

Buzz Launcher For Android Boasts Crowdsourced Themes, Multi-Themed Layouts & More [Review]

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Ever looked at a friends Android device and envied the home screen layout and theme on it, wishing you could just swap the home screen or replicate the same deal on your device? Android enthusiasts end up spending quite some time tweaking their home screen themes and layout to personalize it to their needs and aesthetic sense, and why not? This is the freedom we get with Android! But what if you were able to replicate home screens from around the world, without the need to have to follow up on complicated setup instructions as presently practiced. Enter Buzz Launcher – the home screen replacement app that brings crowdsourced themes to the home launcher arena. However, unlike themes seen before for launcher apps that more or less focus on just icons and wallpaper, Buzz Launcher themes can completely change the layout and behavior of your home screen whilst including widgets, and work in a smarter and more intuitive manner. In what follows, we take a closer look at the truly unique features of what could become one of the best home screen replacements apps out there for Android. Read More

Vtalkie Is A Push-To-Capture Video Messaging App For iPhone

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Almost every messenger available on iOS lets users share media files. You can send photos, documents, videos and even doodles to your friends via messenger apps from your iPhone. Vtalkie might appear to be just another messenger for iOS, but actually there is something really unique about it. The app lets you share videos with your friends, but it treats this transfer as a walkie talkie exchange. Instead of recorded voice messages, you get to record short video clips that are then sent to your friends straight away. Apart from this primary feature, the app can also be used to discover people near your current location, and comes with a nice collection of animated emoticons. Read More

Glass Booth Offers Tons Of Awesome Glass Photo Effects On iPhone

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As you can probably gauge from our list of best iOS photo editors, most of the popular apps of this genre offer a variety of image effects and editing options. This doesn't mean, however, that there isn’t any room in the market for photo editing apps that focus on just one genre of filters. The presence of apps like Vintique clearly demonstrate that people still like to give single-purpose apps a try every once in a while. Glass Booth is not the kind of app that will replace the photo editor you are currently using on your iPhone, but it will certainly lure you to keep coming back to it frequently. The filters offered by the app are built around the same theme - they are meant to give the impression that you are looking at your photos through glass. This might sound a bit too specific, but in fact there are plenty of customization options and variety of effects available to keep users interested for a long time. Read More