Snapseed has been a revelation in the increasingly-popular image editing game, but since Google acquired Nik Software - the firm behind the iconic app - last September, there have been few recent murmurings touting the demise of Snapseed. Those have been well and truly put to rest today, though, with the release of Snapseed for Android; and in more good news, it's also absolutely free of charge.
One of the biggest hindrances with buying a top-of-the-line smartphone, is the premium price that you have to pay for it. There are usually two ways of how high-end phones are sold; either you pay the full price to the manufacturer and get an unlocked device, whereby getting the freedom to go with whatever network fancies you. Or, you may opt to buy the phone through a wireless carrier, where you pay a much subsidized rate for a big trade-off: getting stuck with that carrier for the term of your contract. In the latter case, the carrier pays the full price to the manufacturer but sells you the device at a much lower rate, and in turn, locks down the smartphone to their network, so you cannot use a SIM card from another network just like that. That’s a generally agreeable rule for most users.
Rockstar Games promised, and has finally delivered a mobile version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. To commemorate ten years of the legendary title, a touch-friendly version has been created, and for those running on iOS, it is now available at the App Store for download.
The Apple iPad is so popular right now, that the word "iPad" is often used synonymously with the word "tablet." Although tablets already existed in various forms prior to the 2010 release of the first-generation iPad, Apple really forged a competitive market, and nearly three years and four generations later, the iPad is still by far the most popular slate of them all.
The Gangnam Style music track might be the most immediately recognized sounds of recent times, but without the power, that is YouTube, it is extremely likely that the majority of us would have never even heard of it. There's a good chance that the majority wish they never had heard it, but gathering the momentum of a runaway steam train and becoming the most viewed YouTube video of all time has propelled PSY's track into a worldwide phenomenon, and now thanks to the official Gangnam Style live wallpaper app, Android users can ensure that they are never without a small piece of that horse dance in their lives.
There’s no shortage of unofficial CyanogenMod versions for various Android devices, and sometimes, those even get merged in the mainline, providing better, more official support. However, it’s almost always more exciting to find out that a device is getting official ROMs from the get go. In that regard, the Nexus line up of devices has always received special love from the original CM team. It makes sense, too, since these devices are Google’s flagships, and whenever a new Android version is out, they’re the first ones to official receive it, even before the source code goes live on AOSP. The best should get treated by the best, don’t you agree?
It has always been a subject of curiosity as to why Facebook decided to make its Messenger feature a separate entity on mobile devices. The fact the version 1.0 of Facebook Messenger was riddled to the core with bugs certainly didn't help, but while many had seen the move to separate the two as merely arbitrary or for purpose of vanity, it appears there is, after all, some method to the madness. The Android department of the Facebook Messenger app will soon be releasing an update fairly soon to users in select countries, and intriguingly, it will no longer require users to own an account to log in and get chatting. A direct challenge to the likes of WhatsApp and the traditional SMS app? We think so.
Amongst all smartphone platforms, Android holds a certain appeal to power users. This is because none of its competitors offers the level of control and customization for that technologically elite crowd that Android puts on the table. From cooking custom ROMs based on a stock one, to concocting an entirely new mix from AOSP, to the likes of hybrid creations like the famous ParanoidAndroid series, which has now extended to a large number of devices, there’s always something for everyone in Google’s mobile operating system. Then, there’s that other kind of control – the one that lets the user play around with things like battery longevity, and factors associated with it. Among those, control over CPU is of great importance. Why? Because next to the screen, there’s nothing as bad as an over-hungry CPU drinking through your battery juice in a matter of mere hours. Don’t believe me? Ask someone who’s faced the recent bug with CM10, where the device didn’t go into deep sleep!
A new Facebook app? Does it really deserve a mention? What’s so special about it? Why should I consider recommending it to my readers? What does it have to offer that current ones don’t? These, and some more, are generally the questions I ask myself whenever I come across a new client for any platform – iOS, Android, Windows, or anything else – for the social networking giant. There are some obvious reasons for that. Being the largest social network on the planet, Facebook has no shortage of client apps – both official and third-party – for any platform. Some of these, like the one for iOS, are really functional and decent, while others are catching up pretty rapidly, and the Android counterpart is no exception. With all of that, a new player like oStream does make one raise eyebrows. However, after my run with the unofficial Facebook client for Android, I was pretty impressed, and satisfied enough to recommend it for your downloading pleasure.
Smartphones and tablets are playing an increasingly important role in our connected lives, something that is extremely evident by the versatility and number of apps that are popping up on the various app marketplaces for individual platforms. Things like email, messaging, social networking, server administration and even remote security monitoring can all be handled from the palm of our hands, and Android users can now transform their tablet or smartphone into a wireless mouse, thanks to the new WiFi Mouse app on the Play Store.
