Monthly Archive: January 2016

Apps form the cornerstone of any mobile platform; however, Apple has with its iOS distinguished itself, since it is this protected ecosystem more than any other factor that sets it apart from all of its rivals to the highest quality product, with its apps typically rated as best in class.

The task of finding the best apps amongst this dizzying variety of high quality products actually makes it even more difficult to distinguish a truly great app from amongst a horde of good quality apps that failed to distinguish themselves. The apps discussed below is an attempt at alleviating the situation.

Interact is a newfound solution to the native Contacts app found on Apple mobile devices, Interact delivers numerous features not offered on the native iOS software. For example, the native app does not allow users to delete or create complete groups while Interact does so with aplomb. In addition to its capability to manage multiple contacts simultaneously, its users can create and send grouped emails or messages from within any of the native iOS apps and still enjoy the benefit of its capacity to attach files, images, video clips, and more. Interact even offers a cool Scratchpad use while updating and creating contacts by copying text found in web pages, email signatures, and other applications. As an added boon to iPhone 6S owners it offers universal control with full 3-D touch support, so it’s a snap at $4.99 from the iStore.

With currencies fluctuating due to a lot of codswallop normally served up by politicians it is nice to know that the creators of Nanu think of our gaming budgets by providing an app that delivers truly free calling. Nanu are determined to make good on their promise of free calls everywhere to everyone with their latest update released on version 2.1 of their app it even includes users stuck with an old 2G network. The new version delivers a brand-new GUI, an add contact feature, as well as improved call quality and the delivers its services to 48 different nations, with 20 of those nations supporting free calling between mobile phones. As one would expect Nanu says there are no restrictions on any calls made between two of its app users, this should inspire its users to spread the good word as fast as possible.

Daily life has already settled down into its routines for 2016 and a multitude of apps released in the run-up to the festive season as well as numerous newly introduced apps this January is making the Google Play Store’s virtual walls bulge. Amongst this bewildering array of new apps it is easy to lose track of the ones worth gracing the insides of your precious new smart device, which is a real shame. Shame lies in the fact that numerous of these unsung hero apps might imbue your phone with a new improved life and extend its tremendously usability, but only if graced with the correct applications. The apps in review and discussion below might just accomplish such a task.

Habitica’s makers introduced the app at the absolute perfect time, since so many of us are still rubbing the rough edges off and massaging our New Year’s resolutions into a more workable shape. If you made resolutions that intend keeping and work towards as definite goals will find great assistance with this app that is a quite defined ability to keep you working toward your goal keeping you on track. The app is a quite unique approach at mixing working toward your goals with the fun of playing an RPG or role-playing game, its uniqueness lies in the fact that unlike other RPG’s it allows the player-user to set their own targets. This allows any player-user to improve themselves in the real world, in real time, by improving the user’s Habitica character. This provides a fantastic new manner in which to challenge yourself and stay motivated because you’re always confronted by a visual representation of your personal progress.

Chromer may just represent one of the most fantastic new apps to ever have graced the shelves of Google’s Play Store. The best way to describe it would be to call it a full-blown web browser specifically for apps that allows users to utilise custom Chrome tabs with no need for the app developers to actually implement any of these features themselves. It is a modern day miracle, that few understand, but which works pretty flawlessly. Once the app’s initial configuration is properly done, to open web pages directly from within other applications occurs quick with little drama. This does away with the frustratingly slow process of repetitive selection of a single app that you wish to utilise to open any hyperlinks directly from within other apps. The app is free and completely secure.

This year Apple start off with a major revelation by announcing one of the most important and surprising stories for this coming week. Cupertino in a surprise move unveiled shining new OS versions for both its iOS as well as tvOS, both being still in beta stage. Cupertino showed versions iOS 9.3 and tvOS 9.2, both of which now include features that unbelievably were not already part of the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV packages respectively.

IOS 9.3 beta incorporates Night Shift that now finally utilises the device’s geolocation and clock features to establish sunrise and sunset in the user’s locality. The inclusion of Night Shift in its repertoire might be one of the most important iOS UX improvements in a number of years. If the device determines that it is nighttime the screen automatically removes blue light from its spectrum, according to studies blue light increases difficulties in falling asleep.

In what will be good news to students and educators alike, iPad in its new beta version now delivers multi-user support via its Classroom app, allowing teachers to take advantage of the new app by launching all student apps simultaneously. Classroom facilitators can then guide what their students are viewing on their iPad via content directly under the facilitator’s control. It even allows educators to project any student’s efforts from their tablet onto an Apple equipped television screen.

In addition another new inclusion into iOS 9.3 beta is its Touch ID that is now directly supported in its Notes native app, this allows for improved customisation in its News app, the native Health and numerous other apps have also been seen to with a variety of improvements.

In further great news tvOS 9.2 beta finally saw the restoration of a major omission generated in its third and fourth generations of Apple TV; it once again now offers support for Bluetooth keyboards. In addition, the new tvOS allows for a new Podcast native app, a new folder support function, and a number of other minor upgrades.

In what could possibly be one of the best breakthroughs to users of non-native apps is the new iOS 9.3 beta’s ability to hide its native apps. Apple announced its intention to release the two new OSs early this spring.

While a vast multitude of new games are launched not just on a monthly but even on a daily basis, and few reached the level of popularity, notoriety, fame, or even hysteria with which the two games discussed below have been followed by gaming fans across the globe. The one game delivers the second in the series of one of the most popular categories of game-play, while the other may finally find its official way into the English-speaking hemisphere of the globe, either way both carry great news for their respective fans.

SNK Playmore’s brand-new soon to be released mobile game sequel ”Metal Slug Attack” to its exceptionally popular Metal Slug Defence will start raiding mobile device screens in the latter part of this year. One of the developer’s major achievements was when it brought its classical Metal Slug videogame series to mobile devices with a major scoop being its inclusion of the original port versions one through three as well as X, and as an added bonus it spin-off called Metal Slug Defence featuring a tower defence style of play. The yet to be released Metal Slug Attack is considered as an official sequel to the tower defence strategy game, with the addition of a number of new game modes that supports both single as well as multiplayer action. The new title incorporates card-based warring where players will summon their characters during fights to capture the enemy bases.

The remake of Final Fantasy’s Adventure saga could receive new English language support will making its transfer to mobile devices from its Game Boy origins. The Adventures of Mana title is a 3-D supportive, mobile compatible remake of its 1991 Final Fantasy Adventure that only ever appeared on Game Boy devices. Moreover on the official Twitter account for the game the developers release an official announcement of an overseas version adapted to mobile play. The Tweet included a link to the new revised game’s English site, whether listed Android As Well as iPhones as the compatible device OS platforms. Two things were omitted from this announcement, the one being the release date and the other the price both of which were not yet revealed.

The apps discussed below represent the best of their kind ever made for iPhones, with their ratings evaluated according to ease-of-use, productivity impact, user ratings, and international acclaim to name a few. These apps helped to tame workloads, improve response times and generally just turn any iPhone into an improved work tool.

Slack offers users one of the hottest complication chat platforms to aid in speeding up the tempo at which work can get processed in teams containing larger numbers of people. Superficially, the app and platform allow users to create chat rooms/channels through which they may send messages, but the real reason Slack became so popular is the scalability it offers to larger teams. It employs a highly customisable interface that allows users to connect to services such as Giphy. The developers that designed this app clearly display a higher level of talent, as is easily apparent in its seamless functioning with native apps and web-based clients, and excellent design features. Additionally it offers a digital assistant called Slackbot that shows such excellent AI functioning it quickly turns a lurker into a power user.

Sunrise saw the light of day after its initial inception started as a side project between two designers who made contact while employed at Foursquare. It began as an email daily digest; however, it quickly grew to become one of the greatest smart calendars in the market. The app initially attracted attention because the interface avoided any traditionally recognised calendar design while including additionally assistive functions such as maps and weather forecasts. The app came as a forerunner before the age of digital assistants such as Cortana, Siri and others; it also had the ability to connect with near all accounts anyone might have had, from social media, to emails, or even assist with productivity by searching for information its users might need.

Clear stands head and shoulders clear the rest of the to-do apps in the market, and did so way before Apple dreamt of its pre-installed Reminders app that currently arrive on all iPhone variants. It offers powerful, but simple reminders and to-do functionality that has seen in excess of 2.5 million downloads to date. One of its greatest achievements becomes clear via its flat, elegant user interface that speaks of a design language that has currently been incorporated into every major software tech imaginable. It offers functions such as swiping items right or left to mark tasks is complete, which today might not seem too innovative, but considering the date of its origins was quite revolutionary when the custom demanded users tap checkboxes to mark tasks is completed.

Over the previous 12 months, Android developers uploaded copious quantities of top grade, highly inventive mobile videogame apps, which spoilt the android community rotten, as they should be and now more of the same, but with improved graphics, more action, superior storylines, lower battery usage, and a whole bunch of other absolutely necessary improvements.

Considering the already launched games as well as this year’s early news reports, video clip previews, and secret leaks of new upcoming game titles it certainly seems as though they remain bent on meeting these demands/wishes/goals. Below are another couple of yet to be released games under discussion that will raise the excitement and adrenaline levels by another couple of notches.

Iron Marines is an upcoming new game development from the creators of Kingdom Rush, who after three extremely popular sequels of this fantastic tower defence game, just recently revealed their intention to launch their new Iron Marines videogame app somewhere in mid-2016. Iron Marines incorporates a number of core design elements from the successful Kingdom Rush that have now been adapted to deliver an action packed sci-fi based real-time strategy game. Iron Marines includes loads of action, brave powerful heroes, presented with a level of tongue in the cheek humour delivered on both Android as well as iOS gaming platforms.

Albion Online intends to deliver players into a cross-platformed, mediaeval themed, MMO that as of this moment remains enclosed beta development phase and is expected to launch in the first half of 2016. Albion promises to be an absolutely gigantic game with PVE, GVG, and PVP action that incorporates house building and farming into its new dose of videogame excitement. This new game promises huge potential to appeal and fascinate much larger audiences by the date of its cross platformed release that makes it compatible to both iOS as well as Android devices.

Marvel Avengers Academy, sees Marvel hanging partnered up with the well-known TinyCo with the intention of delivering a game featuring for more youthful representations of everybody’s favourite Marvel heroes. Players will enter the game as students at the Avengers Academy and will be required to go on numerous missions of the type that teens would be exposed to while at the Academy. The missions unlocks upgrades and bonuses that in turn allows you to customise Marvel’s student campus, while interacting with powerful friends like Loki, The Hulk, and Iron Man amongst numerous others.

Each month android developers launch numerous scorchingly hot new game titles onto Google Play Store’s well-stocked shelves, the two brilliant games discussed below was also once plucked as undiscovered diamonds from the obscure depths of the play store. These games represent the cutting edge in mobile video games entertainment apps and are definitely worth downloading and playing on your android device. Once you’ve played them you will also be able to tell your gaming buddies the ones that are worth playing at the moment.

Plants Versus Zombies 2 is free to play and is the new favourite of everybody that plays it, it is also the second rendition of the renowned classic tower defence game and the sequel is destined to be the new shining star of this genre. Plants Versus Zombies 2.0 once again sees the player convincing an assorted bunch of likeable shrubbery to assist them in defeating the approaching zombie horde. Creator developers PopCap now presents a newly remade addictive, colourful, and well-balanced game of strategy that offers a near endless play value. Each stage features its own reel set with unique traits that makes game-play continually inventive by encouraging players to employ new strategies since each stage presents them with new and different challenges.

The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, is another branded franchise theme that sees a television series provide the subject matter for a great android mobile video game. The franchise has proven to be as thriving as the endless supply of zombies found on its post-apocalyptic landscapes. This Road to Survival version provides the most fulfilling and exhilarating Walking Dead experience on android to date. This base building video game now require players to use Woodbury as the new location where they are required to construct the necessary training grounds, workshops, as well as forms to assist humanity in rising back from worldwide destruction. Venture outside your base to engage in raids and missions, with the letter challenging you to explore your surroundings while led by story and turn-based ground combat.

It’s combat scenarios offers players the opportunity to compete against other players online where you will fight for supplies as well as your reputation. Its storyline mode requires players to make certain decisions at specific key moments. This game is sure to develop its own fan base of highly enthusiastic followers.

The iPhone has over the years since its first introduction, become an extremely popular holiday gift item to select and given its sales figures recorded in the recent past festive season not much has changed. All those proud new iPhone owners have become holders of a stylish status icon with its iOS9 widely acknowledged as one of the better operating systems for mobile devices; however, what makes iPhones truly worth owning is the brilliant apps that are available for download and installation from Apple’s jam-packed App Store.

The question most raised by new owners when considering applications as which ones are worth downloading, the following list should provide an inkling of knowledge and insight to be able to choose your own apps according to your own preferences. Many apps have already been adapted to interact in new ways via the new 3-D touch pressure sensitive screen featured on the iPhone 6S.

Google Maps, free on iPhone, was at one stage included on all iPhone devices, but in latter-day devices sadly replaced by Apple’s inferior navigation app, fortunately it is still available as a separate download. Google’s Maps app proved itself to be significantly more accurate than its proprietary Apple counterpart, which it can match and exceed feature for feature, offers greater interactivity, smoother & easier map manipulation, and a multitude of other benefits.

Google Translate is another free app for iPhone users, that remains a must have on any mobile device. It features support in excess of 30 languages, with translations presented in an impressively accurate delivery that exceeds the precision delivered by any other product currently on the market that offer similar design goals on mobile devices. It quickly proves itself to be unmissable when visiting websites in languages foreign to its user’s it will translate all written text on-the-fly. Users were needed often, but its usefulness far outweighs its relatively small footprint that takes a very little of the precious, limited space on mobile devices.

Weather Underground is a free app for iPhone users that far exceeds the capabilities of the standard proprietary app that come with iPhones. It succeeds simply because it remains focused on doing exactly what a weather app should. It clearly presents loads of hyper- local weather information on an extremely customisable yet user-friendly interface.

In a recent study at the University of Cambridge, the researchers found 87% of all android devices are currently vulnerable to security breaches. Google, in the meantime announced security updates for its Nexus; however, that unfortunately will not repair or secure any other Android device’s security vulnerabilities. The research team revealed that the greater part of Android phones currently in use and on the market could be hacked via a simple MMS or multimedia file. The team’s research uncovered exactly how far Android’s ecosystem has fallen behind in relation to dealing with security issues and this comes despite all recent promises to further improve security via its monthly patches.

Nearly all Android platformed handsets remain open to security attacks, due to all handset manufacturers’ failure to deliver on its promised security updates in a timely fashion. The above is a summary of the conclusions discovered by the Cambridge University research team in their quest to identify and quantify the exact current level of security risk in Android mobile devices.

In order to do an aggregation and compilation of its data the research group uploaded a Data Analyser app to Google’s Play Store. It provided the capability to collect data from a vast number of participants, while at the same time ensuring Android smart devices that did not run Google Play Services, such as those currently targeted at newly emerging markets, were excluded from the final result calculation.

Resultantly the researchers acquired data from approximately 20,000 individual android devices, with the greater part being from major hardware suppliers such as HTC, LTG, Motorola, and Samsung, even currently uses free to download install and run this app for themselves to contribute by providing more data for the team to analyse.

The research remains current and ongoing, and benefits from partial Google funding. Part of the research was to ascertain the reaction time from all major hardware manufacturers were in applying the latest available security update patches to their own branded devices. The full results reveal a truly abhorrent picture, the research was conducted after the Stagefright vulnerability revealed the speed at which a single security issue could be utilised to become a threat to the complete Android community.

In part the problem exists due to the fact that Android updates bottleneck at their manufacturers that need to integrate the Google security patch into their proprietary versions of the OS before it can be distributed to each brand’s devices. In contrast, date Apple releases its updates is the date and minute its devices are secured; Android carrier branded devices experience even further delays since each carrier tests these updates before releasing them to their users. Fortunately for Nexus users, in this scenario they are at the top of the Android food chain since they receive updates directly from Google on the date of its first release.
In summation, not a single device aside from Nexus managed to score above 5/10 rating.

The research team at Lookout security recently discovered new adware that has the ability to dig its claws so deep into its Android host device that it presents a near impossible task to remove. As some android users may already be aware that most Android based devices can currently be hacked via a conventional multimedia file or MMS message.

The recent survey highlighted in excess of 20,000 adware containing apps that currently go around masquerading as the well-known Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and numerous other likenesses of popular mobile online services. The security research study highlighted a newly uncovered style of malware that remains hidden inside Android apps that look and act as if there are entirely legitimate service delivery agents.

The world-renowned Lookout Security firm characterised these new types of unsavoury practices by likening them to trojanized adware. They comprise of third-party lookalikes of Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, Twitter, and a multitude of popular apps. However, once users install these trojanized lookalikes, they employ an illegal capacity whereby the app assigns itself system/root level security permissions that enables it to liberally infiltrate ads throughout the complete OS to illegally generate money for its hacker/creator.

The security firm expressed concern, since this represents an entirely new level at which evil genius is employed, because these infections of virtually impossible to remove or uninstall. It is at current generally accepted that there exists only two solutions to this infestation problem once it exists, the first is to simply throw away the device, and the second is to download a new standard ROM and flash the infected device after which the newly downloaded from can be installed.

The two solutions above is an accurate realisation of the seriousness of this infestation since even factory resets will not get rid of these types of malware infestations. It is not a complete solution, but Android users can listen the risk by exclusively installing apps from Google’s Play Store and furthermore install all the latest Play Services and Android OS updates.