Author Archive: henry

The following treacherously simplistic game apps featured on both Android, as well as iPhones will definitely thwart any attempts at productivity and communications, so please proceed with humorous caution to play them at your own peril.

QuizUp, a free app that will drive all Trivia Night enthusiasts enjoying regular weeknight sessions to break their routine possibly for ever with their addiction to this multiplayer trivia game app. iTunes quipped it to be the biggest trivia game in the world, and they were not far off in their summation, the app allows you to play a head-to-head style game against friends and family, or alternatively other users picked at random. Here you will have the opportunity to test your knowledge by facing-off on a range of topics that reaches from A to Z in any general knowledge encyclopedia, with a multitude of new searchable topics that would match any user’s interests while allowing you to simultaneously chat with other users that may have similar interests.

Threes, is another free app where players will require at least three hours learning the strategy of its gameplay followed by three months of totally addictive game play. Similar in entertainment style to 2048, where players are required to match up identical tile numbers in their attempt to complete a four digit code as a final goal, all completed combinations will have the numbers added together until one day in the far future, and is a total addict, you will eventually achieve a 3072 tile combination. This app should be programmed with an involuntary time period to allow visitation with friends and family before the player may resume his game.

Overglide costs $.99 on iOS, and unlike the two apps above is not a brainteaser, but an equally addictive test of skills where players are required to fly and guide a little paper folded aeroplane to overcome a range of simple obstacles. At first play seems simple and possibly even boring, I challenge you to attempt to communicate with this same player 10 minutes later, you will awaken his ire, or simply be ignored, because he’s hooked. Even sneakier, this app buries itself in the phone’s notification centre, so may God help you to resist and be productive if you ever attempt to read your notifications during a workday. All forms of productivity, emails, and communications will fly right out the door for the rest of the day.

Time lapse motion videography formats are very useful to condense extended video stories into much briefer action packed episodes that bind the watchers attention with much greater focus because the condensed format delivers a powerful message in a very short space of time. Condensing long boring videos of birthday parties were a holiday into a much shorter, interesting, potentially highly amusing, and attention grabbing timespan to upload to social pages, blogs, advertising spaces, and training videos.

Microsoft made a recent breakthrough when it developed and launched its brilliant new time lapse video app called Hyperlapse, and just to confirm Microsoft’s new technology has nothing to do with Instagram’s new app of the same name. The biggest problem experienced on any form of handheld video recording device while attempting to create by time lapse videos to date has been an inability to keep a steady camera which has an astoundingly negative effect on time lapse video quality.

The effects of external factors such as vibrations and unsteady jerky camera motion are now virtually negated by amazing new high-tech smart technology designed and developed by Microsoft. The company’s new software evolved to provide any handheld cellular device with a capacity to deliver near professional quality time lapse videos, offering additional functionality, such as the ability to record videos first and then turn them into time lapse videos with the Hyperlapse technology at a later stage. The app is already available to Windows and Android based smart platforms.

The Lapse It app available to Windows, Android, and iOS users has been around for quite a while and have garnered themselves a large number of hangers on since its introduction during 2011, with the paid Pro version representing a robust tool to create time-lapse videos with easy, user-friendly, intuitively navigable app interface and controls. It offers a brilliant tool to create stunning videos of sunsets, storms, family moments, or even that gnarly ski run or a first skydive adventure. The app offers a tiny footprint on mobile devices works brilliantly with non-retractable camera lenses commonly found on smart phones and still remains the second best option after the launch of the Hyperlapse app to create time-lapse video moments.

Apple Store and its content shines as a glowing beacon in a smart phone sea filled with, mediocre to – not worth it, applications the store reached its luminary position in today’s market by carefully choosing and holding its developers to the high standards through careful consideration and testing of their submitted app solutions. Yet we all still find it a bit bothersome at times to try and find the best of the best in its contents that most closely serves our personal preferences, the following advice will hopefully assist in choosing what most suits your own requirements in smart phone apps.

Feeday app, provides Instagram buffs with continual and instant feedback on the latest posts but offering a widget that provides an instant overview of a user’s latest preferred interests that they wish to follow on Instagram. The great benefit is that this app provides users with instant access to the posts and feeds without the need to continuously reopen and shut down an app. Customized features include free views of three tiles containing user interested posts, but for $0.99, the app will provide users with up to six or even nine tiles.

SayWhat, is a continuously updated knowledge base of street slang and popular phrases explaining the meaning of popular sayings and phrases such as “bae”, “chill”, or even “killing it”, by displaying 10 second video clip posts from its user community. As an alternative to searching for specific phrase, users can also enrich themselves by just browsing through the uploaded feed of definitions, making it the perfect solution to anyone not fully up-to-date on the latest slang used on the streets and in pop culture.

Pixcall, offers a very handy and useful photo messaging app that assist users in scheduling meetings with their friends, just socially or even when they are separated by a money miles. The app allows the user to set a timer which invites other users to their Pixcall event. Whenever a pre-set countdown timer ends, all of the users invited friends’ cameras shoots a photo simultaneously. Once the photo shoot is completed, all the photos are automatically shared individually or as a collage to each of the phones within their group.

Google Play store exploded in the past two years with a proliferation of new apps able to cater to any user’s every need, the main problem is that there are too many to properly assess and choose from the ones that best suit each individual person’s needs. This occurs despite categorising apps into Bestselling, Top Paid, Top Free, and Editor’s Picks to assist users in their downloading decision, finding the top apps remains difficult task, the following should make the choice easier.

Genius, originally an iOS app and now released on android allows users to retrieve the lyrics to their favourite song with the capacity to break down lyrics and news offering extremely entertaining and humorous, line annotations. After you search for the lyrics you can down-vote and up-vote the annotations. At this stage users cannot edit or create the annotations, but according to developers, the functionality is underway.

Microsoft Translator, is quite obvious as the name would suggest a translator tool by Microsoft. It performs nearly everything that is required of an app of this nature , translating text or voice into over 50 languages. The app also features built-in support functions to make it work with Android Wear, meaning users does not need to take their phone out continuously why they are travelling.

Snowball, is incredibly useful in that it will manage all formats of text messaging, as well as received notifications. Users can customise Snowball to gather, manage and present all messaging, but they require to be brought to their attention, including those they might wish to see less often. The app will draw user text messages into one handy app, from which they can not only read but also reply to texts, thereby dispensing with the need to open several different apps that offer basically the same functionality.

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.