App Bites #41: Fotor

Welcome back to another App Bite. Before the break we were talking about some of the best apps found on Windows 8 and we will continue this trend today with Fotor.






Fotor:

Fotor is a photo-editing app that lets you play around and do all the very basic type of editing things that you might like to do. I like to think of Fotor as a the photo editor tool for the people of casual intentions. So what can you edit? Well basic things like the tint, temperature, contrast, brightness, etc. You also can add borders, captions, effects, and you can crop the picture. So like I said these are very basic photo editing tools, but this isn't what makes the app great. What makes it great is how nice the setup is, how smooth everything works, and how great the overall experience is. For someone who just wants to quickly make some minor adjustments to their photo this app is perfect. So to those people I recommend checking out Fotor in the Windows 8 app store, or just follow the link here. (Note that Fotor is also on Android here and iOS here) (Second Note: Fotor is free on Windows 8 and Android but three dollars on iOS)

The Artist's Picks: RealCalc

RealCalc:


Hello all, and welcome to the Apocalypse! Which is evidently not happening. (If it was happening, then you wouldn't be reading this, so I'm safe :P)

Continuing last week's talk about calculators, here we have RealCalc, an app that pretty much turns your smartphone or tablet into an old-school scientific calculator.

It's pretty cool when you first look at the screen-- it looks exactly like a calculator, no  status bar or anything!

As you can see, it has a pretty fleshed-out group of features, and works very well in my experience. My favourite thing about the interface is that you can press and hold on a button and it will activate the yellow secondary function without having to reach up and press the SHIFT key first.

Since it is just a scientific calculator, there is no fancy graphing mode or anything, but for basic calculations it excells.

Also, it works at night, unlike those old scientific calculators which had solar panels on them. It has no ads, but doesn't come with fraction support; you have to buy the Pro version for that.

Anyways, see you next week for more of my Android favourites.

The Artist's Picks: handyCalc

handyCalc:

http://dft.ba/-handycalc

Welcome back to another Artist's Picks.

Lets talk about calculators for a bit. handyCalc is simply the handiest calculator you'll ever need. Ever. It has graphing capability, it's able to solve algebraic functions, and even has a currency converter. 

No matter what your need is, handyCalc delivers, from simple calculations to advanced transcendental functions.

In addition (ha ha, a pun!) to the regular keyboard of numbers and arithmetic signs, you can access the range of advanced mathematical functions like the trigonometric operators and higher power exponents. If you can't find a certain function, you can type yours in using a QUERTY keyboard. This keyboard is also used to input variables so you can solve complex equations like:

If only I had something like this while going through high school!

When calculating, you also can get little popups before you hit the equals button, like the value of your last answer if you're including it in the current calculation, or, in this case, it states the sum and average:

You can also graph functions about x, but I find that the graphing option is a little lacking compared to other calculator apps on the Play Store. It's still massively better than my old TI-84 though.

This calculator has no ads at all, so download it for free and take advantage of the handiest calculator ever!

The Artist's Picks: Ultimate Star Wars Lightsaber

Ultimate Star Wars Lightsaber:

http://dft.ba/-ultimate-lightsaber

Welcome back to another Artist's Picks, and as you can see, I managed to get Star Wars into my recommendations!

But seriously, this app is super fun. Pretty much what this does is turn your phone into a mini lightsaber. You can set any colour imaginable, and even change the hilt design.

When you activate the lightsaber by tapping on the screen, it starts up by making the characteristic hummmmm noise we're all familiar with. When you swing your phone, the app makes a very cool vwummm noise, like in the movies. The best part is when you swing downwards hard enough, the sound the phone will emit is what happens when two lightsabers clash in the movies, and if your phone has a flash, it will light it up.

If you're feeling in the mood, you can also set the app to play background music; which includes many of John Williams' classic pieces. (My favourite is Duel of the Fates, the battle theme in Episode I)

The cumulative effect of all this is to provide you with the sensation of holding a lightsaber (or as close as you can get without an actual laser sword), and it's pretty fun to just swing it and pretend you're a Jedi (or Sith).

If only I'd had this when I was a kid!

It is ad-supported, but still free, so go to the Play Store and start swinging your very own lightsaber!

May the Force be with you, and see you next week!

Recommendations of the Week: December 5th

Well it's that time again, December! And with December comes winter break, delicious feasts, and of course shopping. "But Ernesto you're forgetting the most important thing that December brings", you might say, and in response I'd say "Oh right silly me, December also brings more Angry Birds!"




Angry Birds Seasons: Winter Wonderham

As always Rovio releases an update to their Angry Birds Seasons game which packs in another set of themed levels to the already massive Angry Birds archive. Like in years past, the levels from this update work like an advent calendar. Each day of the holiday season a new level becomes available for you to launch some birds at pigs (but with holiday spirit). Of course only a few levels are available at the moment, but so far nothing is new as compared to past Angry Birds games. Personally I would have liked to see an Angry Birds Star Wars Christmas themed level pack, so for now I'll just slash my lightsaver on some snowy levels and pretend its Christmas.

Of course the levels are still fun, so I can't complain. Yes I'm tired of playing Angry Birds (though the Star Wars version was great and definitely renewed my interest in the game, if only for that one app though) but I still feel I need to mention every time Rovio updates one of the many games.

If you don't have Angry Birds Seasons then you can grab it here for iOS or here for Android.

The Artist Picks: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Welcome back to The Artist's Picks. An offline dictionary is what's being reviewed today, and I must say it comes in handy an awful lot.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

http://dft.ba/-merriam-webster

One of the awesome things about the Internet is that you can look up any word, any time. No more lugging your dictionary around when the time comes to crack open a big technical book. However, sometimes the Internet is unavailable; you're out in the woods camping, or simply out of range of WiFi when someone asks you to look up what 'excoriate' means.

So I present to you the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the mobile counterpart to that big book that you likely have on your bookshelf in one place or another. This app has definitions to almost every word imaginable, and so far I have not run up against any words it doesn't know.

It supports voice search, and also has a 'word of the day' which gives you a random word every day. In case a simple definition is not enough, the app can also tell you the word's pronunciation, its origin, and it even has a built in thesaurus.

But the absolute best thing about this app is that it stores all of its considerable amount of definitions offline, so you don't have to look for Internet access next time you need to look a definition up. However, storing all this data does make it one of the larger-sized apps out there. However it only comes to about 120 megabytes in total, so unless you're really tight in terms of internal storage, you should be fine.

Like every other app I review, it is free and waiting for you to check out!

The Artist's Picks: Bump

Happy Friday, and welcome back to the Artist's Picks. I'm reviewing Bump today, a pretty cool file-sharing app.

http://dft.ba/-bump-app

In the eventuality you want to share pictures with someone, your only option is usually to email the shots to them. You could also post the pictures to Facebook, but what if your friend wants the pictures you took to be downloaded to their phone? Well, just start up Bump, and tap your phones together and you're done! The photos are magically transferred over.

Photos aren't the only things you can Bump. You can also transfer contact information and app suggestions. You can even transfer your pictures to your computer, if you go to http://bu.mp and tap your phone on your spacebar.

I don't use this app too often, but in case I take a bunch of photos with a friend and want to share them quickly, it's good to know that I have it installed.

If you're like me and enjoy sharing photos quickly and instantaneously, go ahead and download this app.

Apps Bites #36: Happy Street

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I am a fan of the app Happy Street.

In Happy Street you basically build houses and stores and other buildings for the people of your street and you try to complete all the missions the populous asks of you. You can also craft things and go fishing and play a few other mini-games in the app. This is a casual kids game all the way but man is it ever addictive.

Happy Street reminds me a lot of the extremely popular app Smurfs Village where you build a village for your Smurfs. Smurfs Village remains to date one of the highest grossing apps ever- even though the game is free- because of a little thing called Smurf berries. These berries speed up times to build things, go you special items, as well as other bonus things and just all around made the game better. But you get the berries you had to fork over real life money, which has earned the creators millions and caused a insane jump in the number of games that were based of this simple philosophy. This is why if you look at the top twenty grossing apps in the App Market, you'll notice that usually around 16 or more of them are free and rely solely on in app purchases. And this is exactly what happens in Happy Street, except instead of Smurf Berries, you're prompted to buy Flooz.

Regardless Happy Street is still an addictive (in a good way) and fun game that I encourage you to check out. You can get it for free here on the Play Store.

Halloween Special: Halloween Apps

If you're looking to play some Halloween themed apps then you've come to the right place. Below are some apps that have some sort of Halloween theme to it that I recommend checking out.




Cut the Rope: Spooky Box

The latest update to Cut the Rope brings the all new "Spooky Box" full of ghosts and more. Check it out in the App Store here.

Doodle Jump:

Doodle Jump is back with 10 Halloween costumes available to buy for your Doodle character. Pick it up here.

Halloween Pumpkins:

This is more of a little kids game. It's just a matching game but with pumpkins and a Halloween type themed look to the game. Grab it over here.

Halloween Speical: Angry Birds Halloween

Yes as suspected Rovio is back again for the third Halloween themed update so far for Angry Birds Seasons. So what is new? Ghost blocks that's what! Ghost blocks are these brand new block which, in the name of Halloween, are pure evil. Basically they can hold up other blocks, but if you launch a bird right at it, the bird will just continue right on through. The only way to destroy the ghost blocks are to have them tumble down causing them to split into four which, if they tumble enough, will then finally cause them to disappear.

Other then ghost blocks, though, there isn't really that much that is new. A new pig called Frankenswine is introduced and the other pigs have various Halloween costumes on, but other then minor aesthetics like that nothing has changed. The levels are still fun to play nonetheless and they get you in the Halloween spirit.

If you somehow don't already have Angry Birds Seasons you can click either of these links to pick it up.                                                            App Store | Google Play

Introducing Android 4.2

It felt just like yesterday that I was here talking about Android 4.1.2 and now I'm back again with another update to Google's mobile operating system, and this one is fairly substantial, so called Android 4.2.

Keeping the "Jelly Been" moniker, Android 4.2 brings to the table a few impressive new features. For one we've not got something called 'Photo Sphere' which is Google's own 360-degree panorama camera option which, as implied, let's you take complete panoramic photos. The software behind the feature does all the work for you of stitching together the multiple pictures you take of the 360-degree turn.

Another feature added is 'Gesture Typing' which basically let's you use the style of typing that tonnes have already been using for a while with the Swype keyboard. Basically you just swipe your finger through all the letters on the screen for each word you want to type which makes it quicker to write your messages- it's basically like handwriting but for your phone.

Google also added the whole accounts thing to your device. This has been a big issue recently what with the massive consumerism of tablets these days. People want to have a lock screen with multiple accounts on it just like they do on their computer. For whatever reason no tablet OS maker has put this feature in until now. It should also be noted that Microsoft just released a very similar feature that comes with their Windows 8 tablet- Surface.

As well there is now support for HDTVs using Miracast and an improved Google Now. Google Now is basically the Android version of Siri, except way better. And the improvements bring on new cards for flight information, restaurant reservations, hotel confirmations, and shipping details.

The Google Search app has also subsequently been updated and met with extreme consumer satisfaction. All in all version 4.2 boils down to yet another great improvement on an already amazing operating system. Good on you Google.

App Bites #35: Rayman Jungle Run

Welcome back to another edition of App Bites. Today we look at a relatively new app by Ubisoft Entertainment called Rayman Jungle Run available in the  Play Store for $3.02 (CA) and the App Store for $2.99.

Basically what you do in the game is just run around jumping through these various worlds trying to collect as many of these yellow "sprite" type creatures. The more you get the better of a jewel your awarded. This is one of those apps that you get to keep you entertained at the bus stop, in other words it's short. There are 40 levels in total in the game which span over four different "mode" styles. What I mean by mode styles is that there are, for instance,  ten levels where you can only run and jump, and then ten where you can hover, etc. Each of these levels are extremely short, but like I said it's more about keeping you busy for a few minutes when you have to kill some time.

The only complaints I have about the game is that it is short, and that it's on the pricey side. Three bucks is getting on the high end of the price point for apps, so for that money I expect a bit lengthier of a game. The game itself is great, I wouldn't change much about it except maybe the music- it's just the number of levels that bugs me. But who knows, maybe more levels will be added as is common place for such a thing to happen with apps.

At the end of the day though this is still a fun game, not worth three dollars, but fun nonetheless. Or maybe it's just the warm nostalgic feeling that I get playing this game as it reminds of the good old days playing Rayman.

6 Billion Phones Eh?

Because it's always a good time to show off a Galaxy

The International Telecommunication Union has revealed to the world a very interesting statistic. They found that at the end of 2011 there was 6 billion phone subscriptions, or active SIM cards (as is a better way to think about it), world wide. Considering that the world just passed the 7 billion mark in population, we can get a pretty good sense of just how important and common place phones have become.

Of course you have to keep in mind that we're talking about SIM cards here. There are quite a number of people who own two or more SIM cards, and since each card is counted as one phone, the whole "almost everyone must have a phone" argument doesn't hold any water.

If we break it down a little more, we find that developed countries rank in at 70% online and that developing countries come in at 24% online.

It is said now that mobile phones are now twice as numerous as the traditional fixed or "house" phones.

I just find it really amazing how fast the world is adopting mobile phones. It's no longer a matter of comparing how many phones were used last decade, but how many were used last year. We live in a time when mega-powerhouse companies like Google are pumping in around a million added subscriptions each day, and that is just one company. Sure others like RIM and Nokia have taken a hit over the last two years. But there loses do not even come close to the gains made in the mobile phone market. We literally live in the time now when you can take a look down the street and confidently say that almost every single one of those people has a mobile phone.

These are fast moving days people. Sometimes it's just nice to stop and look at how far we've come.

The Artist's Picks: Any.DO

So I recently discovered the joys of owning an Android. Having a smartphone is absolutely incredible; it's like an extension of your brain. However, one of its best features is also the worst thing: the apps.

Have you, like me, ever searched for good apps? Cast vainly around the Play Store for good applications which will hold your attention? Do you as often as not immediately uninstall any applications that do make the cut, because they just don't live up to your expectations?

Well fear not, because I, the Cake Loving Artist, have gone through that exact same process many times. Throughout it, I have found several applications that I really like and which I have bestowed the honour of 'The Artist's Picks'. Every Friday I will be updating the blog with a new app that I've added to my list, so be sure to check it out!

One more thing: I'm a big cheapskate, so all of these apps are absolutely free!



We're starting off strong this week, with an app that will help you get organized and stay on top of the many things that you have to do in life.

Any.DO:

http://dft.ba/-anydo

This app is pretty. That's one of its best features, and it suceeds in that regard. It also contains some really great features under the hood, as it provides a great interface for adding tasks, supports sharing to-dos with others, and you can set repeating alarms for tasks if the need strikes you.

It also contains a smart algorithm for predicting what you're going to write for a task. For example, if you start typing in: "Call mom," it will pop up a whole bunch of predictions, such as 'Call back mom', or 'Call mom and dad'. I write very specific tasks and in my experience it doesn't come in useful that often, but it's nice to know it's there if I ever need it.

You can set reminders and due dates as well, but it also has a neat feature that you don't see on too many of these to-do list apps. You have the option to place a notification in your status bar up top, and it serves as a constant reminder of things you have to do.

Any.DO syncs with both Google Tasks and www.any.do (its website). You must create an account to use the latter, but in case you don't feel like creating yet another user account, there's always the option to sign in with Facebook. Signing in can come in really handy, as Any.DO also boasts of a Google Chrome extension, and an iOS app. This multi-platform functionality works very nicely, I find. For example, if you're browsing on your computer and remember something you have to do, you can just click the icon (or highlight some text and right-click), and your task is set. If you now leave your computer and go on your phone, the task you made will be right there in the app.

For a basic to-do list manager however, it excels. If you're looking for an app that will manage your everyday tasks and doesn't look too bad while doing it, feel free to check it out.

Android 4.1.2

Just a quick heads up that the latest version of Google's Android operating system has been released. If you are the proud owner of a Nexus 7 then you should be getting the update to 4.1.2 sometime today or tomorrow if you haven't gotten it already. Going by past releases we can expect to see 4.1.2 pop up on other Nexus devices like the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus soon too. But what does this minor but important nonetheless update bring? Well it's nothing big. There are the usual bug fixes and increases in performance, but that is really all that has been noted so far. Keep in mind this update has just come out so we haven't got a full look at all the new features. The only known feature added (besides what I already mentioned) is the ability to put your Nexus 7 tablet's home screen into landscape view.

With each successive update, Android slowly becomes even better then before. I'm still waiting out for some of that key lime goodness that we'll hopefully be getting soon.

Angry Birds on Consoles

If you thought Rovio, the creators of the world's best selling app Angry Birds, were starting to stray away from the birds and towards other things like there two relatively new apps Amazing Alex and Bad Piggies, then you thought wrong. The first three Angry Birds games; Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio, are all now coming together in one giant Angry Birds game called Angry Birds Trilogy available now on the Nintendo 3DS as well as on the X-Box 360 and PS3. But don't worry this isn't just another shameless port of the same game in yet another attempt at a massive money grab from all the millions of addicted Angry Birds gamers. Rovio has said that there will be "exclusive content, and stunning new visuals" as well as support for Street Pass features on the 3DS version and something called lightning modes for all versions.

This sounds pretty good right? Well not really. If you were to buy all the games that come in Angry Birds Trilogy on your Android device it would cost a total of zero dollars, and buying it on your iPhone would cost you just under three dollars. The costs hover around plus or minus three dollars for the three games no matter where you look. But if you were to buy Angry Birds Trilogy on your 3DS it would cost you $29.99! That is ten times the cost compared with mobile devices, and you only get enhanced visuals and a few other minor features. And that isn`t even the worst. Buying Angry Birds Trilogy on your X-Box 360 or PS3 will cost you even more at $39.99! This is what I would call a rip off on a massive scale. Come on Rovio, enough is enough. I`d love to know what all of you think though. Would you fork over forty bucks for this?

App Bites #34: BBC News

I love my news, and I love my news apps. I've talked about one of my favourite apps called Pulse before which is a great app that puts all the articles from your favourite sources all in one spot. But for people who want perhaps what you could call a more "main stream" app for news, then I suggest checking out the BBC News app. The app is set up a lot like Pulse, the main difference being that the BBC is the source for the articles and as such there aren't as many articles. Pulse can tend to overwhelm you with articles to read, although that's not necessarily a bad thing, whereas BBC News is a little neater and split into categories a little bit better in my opinion. In Pulse you can only pick which sources you want articles from, and thus get every single article from that source. With BBC News you get all the articles, but they're split by category, as I mentioned. So if you want some news in one nice clean area and happen to love the BBC, then check out this app and pick it up for free over here in the Play Store.

Android Apps Galore

Remember when that good old saying "there's an app for that" came out and the only company that could actually say that and not be lying was Apple? Then Android popped out of no-where and slowly started amassing thousands of apps. And those apps grew exponentially in number. Apple's have too, but not quite at the same speed as with Google Play. Now, as of September 2012, Google Play has over 650 000 apps with over 25 billion downloads! Those figures are still lower then the App Store's 700 000 apps and 30 billion downloads. But the point here is that Android is getting close to Apple's iOS. Android already dominates the market as far as market share goes, and it will be only a couple more months now till Android dominates in apps too. The glory days are soon upon us.

App Bites #33: Best of Cracked Vol. 1

Welcome back to another edition of App Bites. Let's begin.







Best of Cracked Vol. 1:

So I talked about the official Cracked app for Cracked.com (one of my favorite websites ever) a little while ago. In case you don't know what Cracked.com is, it's a humor site that has articles, and videos and more that are all extremely funny and definitely worth reading. And they have an official Android app which has some of their articles and whatnot all in one convenient place. But there are so many hundreds and thousands of things to read on Cracked.com so what if you only want to see the best. Well that is why they came out with Best of Cracked Vol. 1 the app which has the top 25 most viewed articles, videos, and photoplasties of 2011 all one quick and easy spot to access. It's a really great app, and trust me you will not be let down by the articles, they're absolutely hilarious.

You can grab the Android app right here.

New Kobo Tablets

Earlier this week Kobo formally showed off their three new eReaders/tablets: the Kobomini, Koboarc, and Koboglo. Being a huge fan of everything Kobo I immediately checked out the new tablets and they look awesome. But how do the stats compare? Well I'll let the facts talk for themselves.



Koboglo:

Size: 114 x 157 x 10mm
Weight: 185g
Processor: 1GHz
Display: 6'' E Ink XGA Pearl screen, 1024x768 resolution
Light: ComfortLight technology
Screen: Non-glass touchscreen
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Micro USB
Storage: 2GB built in, 32GB expandable with Micro SD card
Battery: Over 1 month (55 hours of continuous use)
Colours: Black Night, Pink Sunset, Blue Moon, Silver Star

Kobomini:

Size: 102 x 133 x 10mm
Weight: 134g
Processor: 800MHz
Display: 5'' E Ink touchscreen, Vizplex V110 display
Screen: Non-glass touchscreen
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Micro USB
Storage: 2GB
Battery: Over 2 weeks
Colours: Black or white

Koboarc:

Size: 189 x 120 x 11.5mm
Weight: 364g
Processor: 1.5 GHz dual-core, 1GB RAM
Display: 7'' IPS
Screen: 1280 x 800 HD resolution, 215 ppi
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Micro USB
Storage: 16GB, 32GB or 64GB
Battery: 10 hours of reading
Colours: Black or white

Audio: dual front-facing speakers and universal 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with SRS TruMedia sound
Camera: 720p HD front-facing camera (1.3MP)
Operating System: Android 4.0
Software: Tapestreis (Kobo's interface)
Media: Music Player, Photo Gallery, Video Player
Web-Browsing: Android 4.0 browser