While all of the main social networks have a fine selection of third-party apps proclaiming to enhance the user experience, the number of alternative Twitter apps is arguably the most thriving, with a vast collection available for those dissatisfied with the official offering. Carbon for Twitter, originally released for Windows Phone last year, has finally arrived on Android courtesy of dots & lines, and it offers an intuitive, clean interface which tries to keep all the relevant info in one, easy-to-digest window. One issue - if you can label it as such - with the current fleet of Twitter apps, is the fact that segments of Twitter tend to be separated, but with Carbon, all of your Timelines, Lists, Favorites and whatnot are on display from the main window, which is polished with beautiful, dark elements.
The fact that many Android smartphones and tablets offer expandable memory via the microSD slot means quite a few users need not worry about how much space they are using up as they accumulate new content. This cannot be said for all mobile devices though, and when a small amount of storage is coupled by the lack of cheap, expandable media support, one must be a little more economical with how much music, video, and images one retains. Image Optimizer, the brainchild of one XDA-Developers member, seeks to reduce the oft colossal file sizes yielded from taking high-res shots, but in turn keeping the quality loss of said images down to a minimal level.
Calling all Trekkies: your long wait for the next installment is now finally over! Well, that is of course, if you were waiting for the Star Trek app, which is now available for those on iOS and Android. Director J.J. Abrams’ next Star Trek release - Star Trek Into Darkness - is set to premiere in May, and in order to tide fans over until then, Paramount has launched an app offering a plethora of content as well as the chance to grab some prizes.
Using Android over other mobile operating systems draws many advantages, and as well as widgets, home screen alternatives and open source apps, the true multitasking is another feature setting it apart from the likes of iOS. With this in mind, XDA-Developers member and Android developer Mohammed_Adib has coded a beautiful app for Google's OS called Floating Stickies, which allows one to create floating, Post-It like notes at will. Said notes can be moved, resized, deleted or docked with ease, and the whole concept means one can easily make notes without deviating from whatever task is at hand. More details below.
One of the best things you can get out of technology is making your life easier by digitizing a huge chunk of your daily routine. Thanks to the smart devices that our phones have become today, we have gotten rid of a lot of stuff, like paper grocery lists, address books, pocket diaries and the like, replacing them with one intelligent device. However, there’s no limit to what you can imagine, right? So imagine if your phone was smart enough to perform various tasks for you on its own, without requiring you to perform actions like, say, triggering the text-to-speech engine through the device’s settings so that emails and messages can be read out load when you need your hands free. Having a smartphone that’s actually this smart would be cool, won’t it?
If there’s one thing that iOS hasn’t changed at all since its very inception, starting with version 1.0 and now to 6.1, it’s the look and feel of the interface. Granted, there have been various feature enhancements, and with iOS 6, there were some visual uplifts as well, such as the color-sensitive status bar and others, the overall feel of the operating system has remained the same. To be honest, this wasn’t a feel that was very catchy, either, so it’s not like Apple deserves any praise here either.
XBMC is the most popular open-source media center app known to man. It's the reason many seek to jailbreak their Apple TVs, for example, but since one has to jailbreak any Apple device in order to use such software, support for Android has been much more progressive. XBMC 12, otherwise known as 'Frodo', has just been released officially, and among a slew of features and improvements such as Live TV and PVR support, offers what's being described as "initial" Android support.
One of the key reasons of doing anything in life is the sense of achievement that it brings, from education to work and pretty much anything else you do. Sure, money, fulfillment and career count, but the fact remains that if you feel you’ve accomplished something, you’re more likely to be happy than with anything else. Studies have shown that even in workplace, those employees are usually happier who get recognition of their work in addition to compensation, as opposed to those who continue to perform their duties without their superiors acknowledging their efforts. As Homosapiens, we are programmed genetically to pursue this sense of achievement, and this fact adheres to basic human psychology.
If you were one of the Android users who found themselves a little disgruntled when Temple Run 2 managed to land on the iOS App Store more than a week ago then worry no more. The official second version of the Temple Run franchise from Imangi Studios is now available as a free-of-charge download from the Play Store, and as you might expect it offers all of the thrills and spills of its iOS flavored brother perfectly tailored for the Android OS.
The ability to run custom launchers on Android devices is something that, to many, gives the Google platform the edge on its competitors. We feature plenty of launchers here at Redmond Pie, each of which tends to offer its own unique quirk, and and today's offering is no different. Named SF Launcher, it is currently in early alpha stage, but already bears the hallmarks of a very promising home screen alternative.
