One of Android’s biggest strengths over competitive smartphone and tablet platforms is the operating system’s allowance for customization. Indeed, when it comes to Google’s offering for smartphones, there’s hardly an area that you cannot change to you liking and will, ranging from something as mundane as a wallpaper, to theming the whole OS with various launchers, customized lock screens, widgets and whatnot. It was also Android that made popular the concept of live (interactive) wallpapers, and the widgets that the OS has on offer are nothing short, either. In such a scenario, any customization app becomes worth a look, especially if it offers something new.
We've all been in that situation where the ringtone we've chosen bellows loudly in a quiet environment, and the embarrassment caused is further amplified by our regrettable decision to select a ringtone we really ought to have changed. Sometimes, of course, we need a loud ringtone, so while we may sometimes draw unwanted attention, it's worthwhile going for one of the louder settings in order to never miss a call. With Intelligent Ringer for Android, you get the best of both worlds, for the app uses your device's mic to detect how noisy your surroundings are, adjusting the ringer volume accordingly.
Smartphones, in general, have evolved greatly over the course of past few years, with the recent of them seeing the most significant, defining moments in the mobile device technology. With its Retina display introduced in iPhone 4, Apple started a feud that particularly focused on higher resolution screens with remarkably deep blacks and crazy contrast ratios. The trend didn’t stop there, either, as certain manufacturers continued to raise the bar in the pixel density arena even if the Cupertino giant never took it above a certain level. These days, several high-end Android smartphones are boasting a true HD, 1080p screen packed in just about 5” of diagonal real estate, giving the crispiest displays that we’d ever dreamed of, to date.
Google's Gmail is seen by many as the authority when it comes to free e-mail management, and as well as being among the most popular, it's notoriously easy to use. Never is this more evident than in Google's own Gmail app on Android, and today, that very app has been updated with a bucket-load of new and exciting features which you’re going to love. Gmail for Android 4.3 includes, among other things, direct notification replies for those on Jelly Bean, and we've got all the details, as well as the download link, after the break.
GApps for Android provides a solid base of highly functional apps for the many millions on the company’s mobile ecosystem, and with Android 4.2 bringing a deluge of new features to the table, it’s only natural those floundering in wait of an OTA update would wish to get their hands on GApps 4.2.
Wii Title ‘The Conduit HD’ Makes Its Way To Android, Features Stunning Graphics And Gameplay [VIDEO]
The Google Play Store is crammed not only with more recent, mobile-adept releases like Cut The Rope, Temple Run and Angry Birds, but also those older, cherished titles from various other platforms. Yet while it's not uncommon to see old PlayStation and Xbox games being optimized and enhanced for the modern gaming world, the titles made famous by Nintendo consoles have been conspicuous by their absence. Nintendo's decision not to bring any of its own titles to the mobile realm, aside from its own DS and 3DS range, is a major factor in this trend, but today, Wii title The Conduit has made its way to Android.
Handheld gaming consoles are desperately trying to cling onto a market which smartphone and tablet devices are readily muscling away from them, and it’s also quite evident when we consider adoption rates. So how fitting, perhaps, that the first PSP emulator for iOS (jailbroken devices only), BlackBerry, Android, Windows and Linux should be a smooth, impressive experience which, besides a few to-be-expected frame rate issues, is surprisingly well put together. It's named PPSSPP, and as you'll see from the video below, its performance is exceptional for such an early build hardware emulator.
No matter how advanced and multipurpose smartphones become with time, their core function will remain the same; communication and keeping in touch. Then, it also remains no hidden fact that, at least for the foreseeable future, voice calls and SMS messages are not going anywhere, either. On that note, since you’re note always looking at your phone’s screen (hardly anyone ever is), it’s imperative that the device alerts you to the presence of new items that need your attention and addressing, and for that reason, we have notifications – ringer alerts, message tones, LED flashes, vibrations et al – which let us know when our smartphone has new notifications that need to be catered to.
I like playing games on my Android smartphone, and to be really honest, that’s a good part of many users’ daily routine, be it casual gaming to kill time, all the way to serious, multiplayer online gaming on your handheld device. So, what happened yesterday was that I was running really long and fast in Temple Run 2, when suddenly, an SMS message arrived. Had it remained to that point, I’d have chosen to ignore the message and continue with the game until I had time to address such trivial matters, but the notification that was displayed caused the game to stutter, thereby making me fall to my fate in the already-tricky temple.
In a world where we all live our lives on our smartphones, one of the scariest and personally affecting things that can happen to us is the loss of that smartphone. It might not sound like the end of the world on the surface, but if all your personal data, photos of your children and documents for work are saved on a smartphone that's gone missing, you'll no doubt feel its loss.
