Monthly Archive: August 2015

The following apps should help to pick your favourites if you are lucky enough to scoop up the new Note 5, these apps were designed specifically for use with the the Galaxy Note 5 S Pen, to take notes, create art, and doodle in your free time.

The ArtFlow app, provides one of the very best apps for casual as well as true artists that not only prefer digital media but it can create true paper art with a huge variety of pencils, brushes, colour palettes, and many other options. The app offers layer support, which allows artists and doodlers to add and delete layers as necessary on the go, thereby allowing continuous overlay sketching and prevent modifying of the layers the artist are satisfied with. Menus are easily hidden whenever you require a blank canvas to create new art. Completed images are easily scalable to nearly any required size.

Sketchbook from Autodesk provides an alternative and excellent choice for budding artists, or even artists that may see an image worth capturing while on move. The app provides a simple easy-to-use interface that supports layering, delivering loads of control over its tools that a potential artist may wish to use in the creation of their masterpieces. It is free version presents an overkill functionality to casual users, for its full version serious artist will have to shell out $4.35 that will provide a near infinite number of additional artist’s tools, even offering the capacity to create custom brushes, pencils, and other drawing implements in addition to the standard offering of over 100 tools.

Inkredible will thrill practitioners and lovers of old school calligraphy. The variety of fountain pens created specifically for calligraphy that are available in this app will definitely make any calligraphers day, on a professional or even a casual level. Its notebook paper even comes ruled, creating the feeling of writing on real paper. The app introduces a feature called palm rejection which allows calligraphers to rest their hand on the screen without smudging or affecting the writing. Digital calligraphers are offered control of the pen thickness with the option of purchasing different pens at $2 a pop, with other in app purchases, allowing for unlimited notebooks and various differing types of paper, all costing somewhere between $2 & $3 apiece, and all notes can be shared as PDFs via email.

The influx of thousands of new apps into Apple Store on a daily basis creates a daily opportunity to reap improved functionality over apps that have been serving well over years, but have been surpassed by newer fresh ideas. IOS users will do well to give careful consideration to the new apps listed below.

Mytape offers iOS users a new look at social video functionality that allows its users to shoot their amazing videos, and follow people, as well as watch other users shoots of what’s happening around your location. After opening the app, tap its white record button, then tap once more to share your newly recorded video via a multitude of social sites that include Twitter, Facebook, Windows Messenger, WhatsApp, and a number of others. Similar to Meerkat or Periscope, MyTape notifies all your followers whenever you are recording any new video material, in order for them to be able to post their comments in real time.

Begroupd is an alternative iOS instant messaging app that endeavours to make it simpler to organize activities and plans for your social meetings with family members and friends, and even enjoys personal endorsement from social luminary Khloe Kardashian. Over and above all its standard texting functions one would be expecting from Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp users can poll their friends to ask yes and no questions and collect event RSVPs.

Donde a fashion conscious iOS shopping app, because shopping for fashionable clothing presents a massive pain, especially for someone requiring something very specific. That is where Donde’s Fashion app will assist you by searching through millions of items from over 6,000 brands , with the use of visual filters that allows for specific clothing types, desired colours, or length, and even patterns, within a specified price range or even a set price. It features a visual search indexing tool that utilises no keywords, instead, it makes use of images to assist in finding a specific look its user requires making the process much quicker than driving store to store, or even Internet shopping.

Google Play offers a mind-boggling array of apps and discerning users would be hard pushed to find out which would be the most applicable to their particular requirements, especially considering the equally vast amount of new additions that are continually added on a daily basis.

The following should highlight and assist in new app choices:

Stagefright Detector created by Imperium, the discoverers of a new form of malware called Stagefright. The app will scan and make users aware whether their mobile device has been infected by the new security vulnerability called Stagefright. The new security breach allows hackers to upload malware to your mobile device via an MMS.

Yahoo Livetext is a brilliant new app that comes with a pretty twist big in the tail. At times you might be indisposed to be engaged in a video chat due to the fact that you might be in a meeting or in a class room, but would still like to see the person you’re engaging with while texting them. Livetext is not able to solve that particular problem you will now be able to see the person you’re chat-texting material of your surroundings always available from classrooms, to libraries, or even meetings. You will now be free to conduct a live video text-chat that only provides text and video, with no sound.

Accomplish offers a simple app with a to-do list that presents the capacity to assist users in remembering their important tasks they need to accomplish. Users can drag and drop items from the to-do list into a Day view calendar assisting them in planning their time in detail. The app is simple to use and streamlined without a multitude of additional value-added features, it simply does what it was designed to do, and that is to make it easy to advance plan your time.

Amazon recently launched their brand-new app for Android shoppers called Underground, it consists of a collection of free apps on offer in the Amazon Appstore. Their new app collects and makes available free versions of apps in the Amazon App Store with absolutely no hidden in app purchase costs, of apps that would normally be paid apps. According to Amazon Underground users are provided with access to free apps that would normally cost users more than $10,000 through app as well as in app purchasing, if these same apps were purchased through the conventional Amazon Appstore.

Amazon achieved this remarkable feat by working out a new deal with their developers where under the developers get paid on a new play-per-minute basis. A shortlisting of the newly free apps include Angry Birds – Slingshot Stella, Star Wars Rebels – Recon Missions, both of which are now fully free versions available only on Amazon’s Underground.There are some potential hiccups in their brilliant new offer, firstly it will depend on the offered free app’s quality. Secondly the Underground app will only be available for download from the Amazon website itself, since Google Play Store’s rules preclude them from advertising or offering apps of this nature.

Thirdly and probably Amazon’s Appstore’s biggest hindrance has always been that players are required to change security settings and there-after install another an apk in order to access products and content already largely available within Google’s Play Store and only the quality of the content Amazon offers will overcome that problem. The new Underground app will necessarily require all the support possible to make it successful, therefore Amazon simultaneously decided to end their free daily app, since Amazon now has an entire newly dedicated section to promote their apps offered completely free.

Amazon also got rid of its Free App of the Day, according to Gadgtspot, which is likely related to the launch of Underground. With an entire section dedicated to promoting completely free apps, it looks like Amazon has found a nice way to drop its daily free app program.

Modern society have become more attached to mobile devices especially cell phones in any other invention or device in history, as such they have become the Swiss army knife of modern society. However as we become more interactive and into connected we rely more heavily on this valuable little device to assist us in managing our daily lives by, saving time, simplifying tasks, remembering essential information, remaining in contact at all times in a variety of different ways. The following two apps will serve to further simplify and ease our lives.

CudaSign is a free app formerly known as SignNow, offers a simple yet once used to it and irreplaceable function saving tons of time sparing the user from countless headaches. It offers the capacity to undersign digital documents that might require a personal signature with no time to spare, or at least from having to print, sign, scan before users can return mail an important document. Now users can open the document with CudaSign undersign the document with your John Hancock save and return mail. The app has the ability to open files from Dropbox, Emails, Photos, as well as several other sources. It offers huge time savings with much quicker return confirmations to any traveller or tourist while on the go.

Hightail offers another free app formerly known as YouSendIt, few people has not felt the embarrassment of a promised email that failed to be on time or never reached its destination, all due to an oversized attachment that could not be handled by a standard mail server. This app serves to remedy this particular problem by permitting its users to upload large files to the app servers and simply share the attachment with a generated link in the user’s mail that also offers the ability to digitally undersign documents and store them to cloud.

As soon as cell phone users hear the word Satnav over 90% will automatically assume, or think of, or picture Google Maps because the most downloaded most widely used GPS map app of all time. Any savvy iOS user immediately replaces the proprietary iOS Navigator with the free Google Maps app as soon as his new device is first switched on. However there are people that prefer not use Google Maps for a number of reasons, they simply don’t like the look or layout, or they have become used to a specific type of interface.

There are several excellent alternative apps that will fulfil this function admirably, the first of which is BackCountry Navigator GPS Pro, which is a paid version but definitely worth the money. Excellent for day-to-day use while driving finding your way around town but if you’re a hiker or a camper it is a definite for you to look at. It offers full hi raise off-line topographical maps which makes it brilliant for campers since it does not restrict you to areas with cell phone coverage like Google Maps would. It offers handy features such as the ability to pre-mark waypoints along their route.

CoPilot GPS offers a fully voice guided navigation on a turn by turn basis, available in most countries globally. The features include 3D map displays that offer small but important little features such as driver lane indicators. It is available as a free trial version for a week after which a licence must be purchased, one small downside for users outside the US and Europe maps might not be as fully updated as those of Google.

GPS Essentials has been accused of an antiquated user interface however it works accurately every time which is what Satnavs are all about. This app will suit those users with a statistical bent since it offers a dashboard allowing the user to monitor a massive variety of statistics such as direction of travel, altitude above sea level, average speed travelled, moon phases, and ETA. Meant for the gadgeteer’s, but also very practical is its ability to offer a HUD that displays pre-programmed waypoints.

IPhone’s standard GPS app made after its introduction short work of nearly annihilating the purchase of personal navigation devices, and while still available their market has shrunk, forcing entrepreneurial manufacturers to shift the focus in creating better apps to be deployed on cellular devices. Many casual users are content with the standard iOS GPS navigation system which works well, but can be a little bare bones and short on value adding useful features that would ease the lives of regular travelers.

Smart phone users in general would expect their phones to come preloaded with virtual navigators offering turn by turn directions from companies that supply freeware apps with currently the most popular being Google maps. However there are also quite a number of premium solutions currently available for iPhones that also offer regular, free map updates, lane assistance, live traffic updates, delivered with clear concise and timeous voice instructions. Additional features would address safety, local information, route planning, and favourite waypoints as well as off-line maps.

Users would do well to consider a top end product such as Magellan RoadMate, able to offer 3D buildings, text to speech, lane assistance, as well as a very handy in app music volume control. Users receive updates in on speed camera locations, red light alerts assisting them in avoiding unnecessary traffic violations and its resulting fines. It also offers multiple voice choices, life long map and traffic updates, as well as a data base offering local search features.

A highly viable alternative would be TomTom for iPhones it offers loads of potential and the company has gone not just the extra mile but several extra miles to make its own brilliant and inexpensive technology available on iOS. Users receive TomTom’s own downloadable offline maps, together with lifetime free map updates that would perform essential updates for changes to daily maps, multi-stop routing, IQ routes, selectable 2D/3D screen views, as well as lane guidance, with yet many more features available in the standard in the standard app.

As would be expected from an always professional company such as Garmin USA despite the fact that the company’s very first iPhone app encountered and showed a few shortcomings and was even removed from App Store until improvements were made. Garmin USA continue to and has already been improved throughout comprising many of its areas. This trustworthy companion offers its own Garmin based offline downloadable maps, featuring turn by turn voice prompted directions, a lane assist feature, 3D landmark viewing capability, as well as speed limit alert functions, and multiple stop route planning.

The advent of digital photography allowed us take tens of thousands of photos recording the special moments in our lives in much greater detail than ever before, and since the advent of cameras in mobile handsets making it so much easier to capture those memory making moments with reasonably high-quality images. We all love watching these memories of our past moments unfolding in front of us… and then one day the hard drive crashes are not all lost in a digital rainstorm of tears. The next app in the discussion will prevent the heartache of lost photos on a crashed drive that they were unable to save.

Google Photos app that stands head and shoulders above the rest, since it offers you unlimited storage capacity for all your photos and videos with the app & storage capacity both totally free. And that provides most of us with more than enough reason to jump aboard, since this represents just the tip of the iceberg as a bonus it works on iOS, Mac, PC, and Android. The app provides fairly extensive but easy-to-use editing tools one of which offers the capability to compile albums and collages, followed on by the standard cropping, clipping, resizing, and contrast adjusting, sharpening tools. To any normal photo taking this would be a first and last answer to all their requirements.

Snapseed presents iOS users with Google’s very own photo editing app designed from scratch to ease users into tweaking their own snaps with as much fun as is possible on the limited real estate of touchscreen devices. Despite the simple design of the interface making it easy to manipulate with only your fingers, the app offers quite a bit of depth as well. You can use its tools to enhance and tweak photographs until they look as good as possible, and still be able to play with lighting filters which can transform your photos taken with a mobile handset into true breath-taking beauties.

Periscope is a live video stream capable app for Twitter and is definitely an essential tool to download for any Twitter subscribers who prefers the social channel’s immediacy, but still craves a more visual approach. Twitter subscribers can now create their own live video streams or even watch other subscribers streams, send and receive comments and emoticons real time. It even offers a 24-hour time window for re-plays.

The two fantastic apps discussed in the following article brings the flexibility and freedom of access open only to android users to the forefront, a openness and flexibility currently offered by no other mobile operating system. These two tasks highlight the flexibility and user-friendliness, as well as extremely high levels of customisability that is intrinsic to the android OS.

Nova Launcher is a free app that would appeal to owners of slightly older generation cell phones and tablets as well as who find the manufacturer’s preloaded bloatware unacceptable to live with. It requires no root access which might compromise manufactures guarantees and warranties, yet will negate the negative performance effects all the doodads and trinkets that manufacturers find necessary to install, but which most users never look at or use. Nova Launcher represents a highly customisable, sleek, fast, and modern interface that does away with all of the above yet provides extensive utility and appearance customisations with an absolute minimal effect on performance. It allows users to set up and screens according to personal preferences, offering tons of icon packs, a multitude of colour schemes, scrollable docks that provide app drawer customising, infinite settings for scrolling and folders. The magnitude of available options in all areas must be seen to be believed, yet remain rock stable while doing so.

Tasker task is available for a menial amount and will remove some of the menial repetitive trivialities that take up an unnecessary part of your life. The app offers several powerful features with ability to automate repetitive and trivial tasks determined by variety of job triggers. It offers task automation through user written automatic scripts offering a huge variety of possible actions with customisable triggers, that allows features such as automatic silencing of a fine wallet work, or switching off mobile data after the user arrives at home.

It will even launch a music player and the user’s favourite playlists whenever headphones are plugged in or connected via Bluetooth. Its potential uses are so wide-ranging it is virtually only limited by the user’s imagination and personal requirements in its base form, with the added functionalities gained after routing a phone providing even further functionality, customisability vine even greater number of customised task options. Users even have the ability to publish their own scripts or download other user’s scripts with the Tasker factory add-on.

IPhone users are spoilt for choice with a multitude that includes all kinds and types of apps available to them some paid for, some free and the perception that free apps are inferior persists with some. This is not the case as is borne out by the quality, usefulness and user-friendliness of the four free apps below.

BillGuard app connects to a user’s credit card on-line statements to flag merchants frequently charged for consumer products and services, which the user forgot about to prevent its users from running out or running short of frequently or even infrequently purchased items. No other company provides this kind of intuitive and fantastic service in a structured and informative manner as well as BillGuard.

Box app provides a cloud-based storage and file syncing service that easily unifies all the users work and personal items with no need to carry potentially sensitive data continually with themselves and handsets or laptops with a might be lost or not in the right place at the required time. It becomes doubly effective when installed on work and home computers as well as all user handsets simultaneously, you will never forget that important file or document at the office or at home again. The free Box provides 10 GB of free storage space, while offering fantastic collaborative business uses in shared folders.

Converter Plus app provides users with an all in one conversion tool and calculator with ability to provide statistics or converted tables on nearly every subject under the sun from loan interest figures, to currency converters, cooking volumes, temperature measurements in imperial and metric, length, electrical tension -resistance- amperage, and a multitude of others.

Digg app will deliver all the possible news and on-line content any user prefers to read through one convenient app in one easily navigated place. Digg comprises a great RSS feed reader, as one of the apps major selling points. It will also deliver all blogs as well as news in a user chosen custom feed with tons of other content that may be explored. This app is the end all and be all and with the users will need no other news reader or deliver.