Icons are great and all, but you know what's really great? Icons made out of photos of things. If you own the right kind of phone, such a thing isn't too far away.
If you take the slightest interest in politics or current affairs, you are likely aware that President Obama is being inaugurated for his second term today, in a ceremony that will drag the attention of large crowds in Washington, DC. But if you live in any other part of America, or the world, and are not able to join Obama in person, there is a new app for iOS and Android, made by the White House itself, which makes it easy for you to celebrate this occasion.
One of the most distinguishing features of Android, among it being open source and much rapidly developing as compared to its major competitor, iOS, is the ability to use widgets. Not only they decorate the launcher’s home screen aesthetically, but also provide much needed functionality without the need to launch the applications that they cater to themselves.
A new tweak for the Samsung Galaxy S III has just been released which allows the clock on the system’s status bar to be customized. While not necessarily significant for everybody, this tweak will be welcome by users who have found it difficult to check the time at a glance from the status bar, or maybe for visually impaired users who could use with a slighter larger font on their Android clocks. Or maybe you’re just tired of the old Android look and are looking to try something new.
Been put off using AirDroid thanks to the rather odd invite system the developer had going on? Now's your chance to see what all the fuss is about - the invite system is no more and a beta release of version 2 is at your fingertips.
I’ve lately been writing a lot about data backup solutions. Of course, they’re extremely important, since that’s necessary to protect your data and secure your personal information. No matter what platform or device you’re using, there are always backup applications and solutions available that would help you achieve the said purposes. Android, just like the rest, has no shortage of such apps, some of which are advanced enough to perform backups at the very basic level, copying complete partition images of your device to a safe location for future recoveries (nandroid backups, anyone?). Even just yesterday, we brought to you a backup solution that could save everything to a desktop PC – both Windows and Linux – without requiring root access, unlike the most famous backup tools.
It’s rather hard to overstate the importance of backing up personal files and data for the sake of their protection. In the digital age of today, the content stored on our PCs, smartphones, tablets etc., is perhaps more valuable to some than their lives. While some people worry too much for trivial items like holiday photos (and I repeat, I do not downplay their importance – I just don’t consider them a matter of life and death), others might have much more sensitive information that could differentiate between the success and failure of their businesses. Data security is the top most priority for most users of digital forms of storage, and hence, backup solutions are a must have to be of the safe side.
The three major mobile operating systems are all very advanced, but they are certainly far from perfect, and still lack some quite standard features many users would like to see. The ability to block calls and text at will, for instance, is something we shouldn't have to request or pine for - it should just be there - however, developer Cristiano Tagliamonte has come through with a noteworthy solution in the form of an app called Sanity.
Our smartphones play such an important role in our day-to-day lives that it is extremely easy to think of them as a digital companion that is there for us whenever we need them. Having that reliance on technology brings with it a set of pros and cons, but just like any real-world companion it isn't feasible to expect that we can have access to our phones 24 hours a day to accept and reply to incoming messages. The developer of SMS Replier has obviously given that issue some thought and has developed his own solution for Android owners.
Whenever manufacturers make the decision to go through the upgrade process and release a new version of one of their devices into the wild, they always put extra effort into attempting to make sure they get the maximum possible life out of the battery. They may not admit it, but hardware producers like Samsung, Apple and especially Motorola would trade-in a number of features on their phones if they could guarantee exceptional power performance, as it is just so important to users. With that said, we've all been in the situation where our smartphone dies just at the wrong time.
