Technology Share: smartphone

Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts

Android App News - GetTaxi Launched in New York City

Android App News - GetTaxi Launched in New York City. The taxi booking app is now up and running in New York City. Tip: Look for GetTaxi coupons that could save you money for the rides. The app works with the Black Cabs, the more luxurious cabs in New York. The five dollar extra charge for GetTaxi is more than compensated by the ability to call a cab to your location and the flat rates, saving you a lot of money during rush hour traffic jams with meter running yellow cabs.

New Yorkers find that GetTaxi is really useful for those times a regular yellow cab can't be found, or during late hours. Calling a cab straight to your location is sometimes a necessity and not a luxury.

New York City now joins London, Moscow and St. Petersburg as Android mobile app technology strives to make life better (faster and actually cheaper) for us.

We will update on the progress of GetTaxi in the United States. Good Luck!

Android App Review - Find My Phone by Family Safety Production

Find My Phone by Family Safety Production. A very interesting app with very interesting applications, this app allows you to track with varying degrees of accuracy a smartphone, your own or of a family member who previously acknowledged the app's request to track. After that, you can easily track on a map the smartphone's location. Even when Google offers a similar service, this app is much more user friendly and more useful, showing the locations of your family members or spouse, for instance.

The most important thing to remember is that locations are mainly derived from cellular antenna triangulation, which means accuracy is not always that great.

In addition, testers outside of the continental USA reported significant location shifting when using this app. Some testers complained that the long update times between position updating was very irritating. In addition, other testers reported sometimes some of the family member's phones can't be tracked part of the time ...

The uses of this app range from keeping track of family members during trips, to locating lost smartphones to locating stolen smartphones, not to mention those that use it to find cheating spouses or find out when it is safe to cheat ...

Score: A 4.5 out of 5. This app really works, but everyone must check for himself or herself if it works for his or her specific configuration with enough accuracy.
Description: A location finding app that can locate a previously registered smartphone on a map and the user of the app can navigate to it.
Good Points: Naturally, keeping track of family members and our own smartphone's location. A good UI with map and address in the USA to show the tracked smartphone's connection.
Bad Points: Some problems reported mainly outside the continental USA. Locations updates are sometimes slower than needed. We understand this is to conserve battery power but maybe the user should be given a setting to adjust this period of time. In addition, sometimes locations can vary greatly or even jump, which makes tracking the smarpthone difficult.
Experience: The testers all reported that installing the app and registering the smartphones to be tracked was fairly easy, as was understanding what to do. However, a few testers reported that some of the smartphones could not be tracked at times, with no obvious reason but on other times they could be tracked.
Longevity: Medium. For those testers, mainly in the USA whose app worked perfectly, it became an everyday tool to find out where family members where. Those who had problems with it usually uninstalled it fairly quickly.
Google Play Link - Find My Phone by Family Safety Production
Google Play Score: 4.4

Android App Review - Camera360 Ultimate by PinGuo Inc

Camera360 Ultimate by PinGuo Inc. This is arguably one of the best, the most popular and one of the most feature rich and stable camera and photo editing app out there on Google Play, and it's free, on top of everything. With tons of features, filters, magic colors, collage building and cloud storing, this is really an astounding app that really has almost everything needed for a comprehensive smartphone camera app.

With a clean and neat interface, the user can access almost every conceivable photography and photo editing parameter, from contrast to sharpness to saturation to magic color to exposure time to zoom.

Additional effect such as scene pictures where a downloaded scene will the the background for a picture you take. Cool features include batch operations for doing the same thing for a group of pictures, say pictures taken on a single day.

Camera 360 allows to apply effects to a picture during its taking and also afterwards, which really turns into a fast and effective photo editing app. Pictures enhanced with effects can be quite stunning, citing Magic Color, Black and White, LOMO, RETRO, HDR and ENHANCE. Of course, several modes of shooting pictures exist, from self portrait to quick shoot to special effects mode.

Camera 360 Cloud is another great option for saving those albums for those afraid to lose their smartphone during a trip or just running out of place on their SD cards. Naturally, it's also a great sharing feature.

Unfortunately, apparently an app of such complexity must contain bugs and problems. We've had several testers reporting of crashes and freezes, and even some problems with pic management - old pictures stuck inside the Camera 360 folders and the app can't remove them and even rarely, an old picture will appear to be edited instead of the picture that had been selected. We've also had issues with too bright scenes - the Camera 360 light meters seems to take a long time to recover.

Score:4.5 out of 5. It would have been a perfect 5 if not for the few bugs and problems, rare but irritating. We hope a future update will make us give this Camera 360 a well earned 5 out of 5.
Description: A camera and photo editing app which lets you pick a filter, camera mode and edit the photo during or after taking it, creating collages, pictures in preloaded scenes or adding special photo effects.
Good Points:One of the best camera and photo editing apps, rich with features such as camera modes (we liked quick shot in particular), special effects (magic color is another favorite), filters and a useful cloud option.
Bad Points: A few rare but irritating bugs. Old pics that cannot be erased or that pop up when you want to edit a newer pictures. Several crashes. Adjusting to a too bright scene seems to take too long. Auto save feature that disappeared during the last update.
Experience:Every tester could use the app within moments after installing, which in our book makes for a good app. The special filters and effects were also very easy to use and even the testers with the least understanding in photography managed to produce outstanding pictures, which explains why this app is so good and why is it so popular.
Longevity:Excellent. Most if not all of our testers continued using this app, for the filters and special effects if not for the camera modes. Almost none uninstalled it.
Google Play Link - Camera360 Ultimate by PinGuo Inc
Google Play Score: 4.4

Android App Review - Hotels.com – Hotel Reservation

Speedtest.net by Ookla. A small and efficient app that measures a smartphone's cellular connection speed, including upload and download speed. In addition, it display a graph showing real time changes and saves results for comparison of tests performed on different times.

The app does what it\s supposed to do and our testers didn't really find any major problems. The graphics don't look too good and high resolution tablets and analyzing past results can be a little difficult, but for a free app, Speedtest.net does exactly what it said it would. In addition, the speeds it shows are sometimes very vary greatly, which makes it difficult to understand real connection speeds.

To begin the test, you pick a server and then the app sends and receives information from it. Of course, if there is no server close by, the testing results may vary because of real time conditions in the cellular network itself and not something that is connected to the smartphone or the Speedtest.net app.

Score: A 4.5 out of 5, because it does what it's supposed to do but with outdates graphics and results that are sometimes too varied.
Description: A cellular connection testing app that checks and shows the smartphone's or tablet's download and upload speeds over the cellular connection.
Good Points: Simple and intuitive, the app does exactly what it's supposed to do.
Bad Points: We would have liked better graphics and constant speed measurements. As it is, the app sometimes reports greatly varied speeds. This may be to the cellular network balance issues but the end result is you sometimes can't know what speed you're working with.
Experience: Our testers found out this app works on almost every device, though on high resolution tablets the graphics are choppy and Ookla needs to update Speedtest.net's interface a bit.
Longevity: Medium.
Google Play Link - Speedtest.net by Ookla
Google Play Score: 4.5

Android App Review - Photo Grid - Collage Maker by RoidApp

Photo Grid - Collage Maker by RoidApp. This is one of the best collage maker apps we had the pleasure of testing. Simple, intuitive, and fast - this app lets you pick your images, arrange them in one of a huge series of collages, crop and resize as you see fit (though the app now automatically crops the images to square shape for Instagram) and the you can go right ahead and post them wherever your like.

Most of our testers were very fond of this collage making app. Even the less tech oriented had no problem working with the many features of Photo Grid, mainly because of the simple and intuitive interface.

Of course, shaking the smartphone to re-arrange the photos in the collage was reported as one of the most fun features of the app ... Kudos to Roidapp for this feature.

We found we had almost everything we needed in this app. Picking the pics we wanted, editing them for the collage, picking the collage template we wanted out of a large variety and adding text, emoticons and everything else we wanted. Of course, sharing the collage through Instagram, Facebook and wherever else you want.

However, our testers did express a desire for a little larger variety of collage frames, stickers and backgrounds. There were now and then problems in logging in to Instragram and one tester reported that his hand shook, sometimes ruining a painstakingly arranged collage by mixing the pics again ...

Score: A 5 out of 5, because of its simplicity, great interface, shaking feature and the quick way it lets us produce a collage. It still needs some more collage frames and stickers but we're confident future updates will fix that.
Description: A collage making app with a simple interface that lets you quickly pick the images you want, arrange them on one of a predefined set of collage frames, edit and crop the images and then post the collage on Instagram etc.
Good Points: Very simple and intuitive interface lets everyone produce the collages they want very quickly. A shaking the smartphone feature that re-arranges the photos on a collage frame. Editing and cropping features for the images themselves.
Bad Points: Our testers reported several issues with logging on to Instagram and Facebook. Though rare, these instances were very annoying. In addition, Photo Grid needs more collage frames, backgrounds and stickers to successfully compete with the other collage makers on Google Play.
Experience: What we liked about this app is its simplicity. Everyone managed to produce a lovely collage within moments of downloading Photo Grid, even those testers who need to have everything explained to them in detail ...
Longevity: Excellent. Almost every tester kept this app installed, except those very few who HAD to have more collage frames NOW.
Google Play Link - Photo Grid - Collage Maker by RoidApp
Google Play Score: 4.6

Android App - Jotre Calendar by Jotre Inc.

Jotre Calendar by Jotre Inc. A simple yet feature rich calendar and task manager. With colorful graphics and icons, great widgets to show you upcoming events in the near future and synchronization with Google Calendar, Jotre Calendar app has almost everything a calendar should have. An instant favorite among our testers, the great majority have kept it even after the testing period was over.

The testers have generally loved this app. It's simple and effective and its widgets allow every user to select the area they want on their home screen Jotre is to occupy, thus one look at the home screen provides the user with instant information about upcoming events.

You can configure almost everything on Jotre Calendar. The color of the cells, the text, the icons, whether the language and the time changes when you go abroad, literarly hundreds of different options.

Some of our testers have actually turned Jotre into their main event and task manager app, using it to synchronize everything in their lives. The sync option with Google Calendar insures that all your events will be saved on a major company's hard drives and you can access them easily from you PC, or sync it with Microsoft Outlook, if your tastes take you there.

The only things our testers found difficult was setting up the app, since the bewildering amount of options confused some of our users, as some of them even had trouble understanding the different widgets and how to place them on the home screen. We understand these are less tech savvy people, but still ...
Yet, this is a great app and rightfully deserves our max score.

Score:5 out of 5. Even though some small problems exists, this is one of the best apps that we reviewed here on Android App Review Center.
Description: This is a calendar app that allows you to place, see and manage your calendar, including tasks and appointments in a visual way. One of the things which makes this app special is its widgets which allows the user to see a week, or two weeks or almost any time frame ahead right on your home screen and see what appointments are due and when. Another great thing is the ability to sync with Google Calendar, which brings the old dream a step closer to reality - the ability to sync your appointments and tasks from your desktop Outlook to Google Calendar to your smartphone. In addition, the usual Google Calendar notification pops up whenever an appointment is over due.
Good Points: The ability to sync tasks and appointments with Google Calendar, The widgets you can place on your home screen to see right away what appointments lurk in the near future, Almost fully customizable look, You can set a default for the appointment reminder that will be used for all the reminders of the appointments you set.
Bad Points: There is no way to customize the size of the text fonts on the widget which sometimes makes reading and finding out what appointments you have today a bit tough, From experience, some people find it difficult the understand how to install the widgets on the home screen, the Google Calendar notification is a little ugly - we would have preferred a Jotre specific notification instead.
Experience: We've been working with this app for almost a month now and have no intention of uninstalling it. It really is a very good interface for Google Calendar and it makes managing appointments and tasks easy and simple. We're certainly going to stay with this app for the foreseeable future.
Longevity: Excellent. This is one to keep and even convince the odd friend here and there to install it.
Google Play Link - Jotre Calendar by Jotre Inc.
Google Play Score: 4.4

Android Game App Review - Robo Defense by Lupis Lab Software

Robo Defense by Lupis Lab Software. Robo defense is a Tower Defense game with a twist. On several levels with different architecture, you have to stop a veritable horde of robotic enemies from escaping the level while they travel from their entrance point to the exit, marching in endless lines of robots, armored robots, armored cars, tanks and several types of aircraft.

You have to practice your defensive architecture by placing defensive towers in strategic locations. Machine guns, mortars, rocket towers, mines and more all serve to try to halt the endless robot stream in an explosion and action filled game.

We liked this game a lot. An addictive game that requires strategic thinking at the same time, the game appealed to the martial side of the of our testers as did the basic game design that didn't force you to touch the screen like crazy but plan and plant your towers carefully and then watch the mayhem they wreck on the tiny stream of machines.

The game has various upgrades you reach as you amass money by killing the robots, upgrades which allow you strengthen the power of your weapons or open up new possibilities like teleport mines.

The game is not free beyond several sample levels but after buying it you don't have to spend money on any upgrades or things like that.

Bottom line, this game, though not strictly free, nevertheless was an instant favorite among our testers.

Score: 5 out of 5, by an almost unanimous vote.

Description:A tower defense game where you have to strategically place different kinds of weapon towers to spot endless streams of robots, wheeled machines and aircraft as they try to cross the level and flee. Select rocket towers, artillery, flamers and other weapons to mow down the enemy hordes. Several available levels with increasing difficulty levels, you can play the same level again on a much harder enemy difficulty setting or even set up random levels.

Good Points: Catching and attractive graphics, nice to look at while not too flamboyant. A great selection of interesting weapons allow different strategies for different level architecture and affect different types of enemies differently. Thought provoking and addictive game play though not too repetitive. After buying the game, you don't have to spend another cent to finish the hardest levels.

Bad Points: Our testers didn't actually report any significant issues. A very rare crash. A few would have wanted a little more diversity in the levels.

Experience: Actually, quite a lot of our testers reported that after playing the free game they shelled out the few bucks needed for the full version. Then, with differing amount of enthusiasm among the testers, they went on playing the game for a long time, years in some cases. In short, most of our testers liked this game a lot.

Longevity: Excellent. Most of our testers keep this game installed, some for years already.

Google Play Link - Robo Defense by Lupis Lab Software

Google Play Score: 4.6

Android App Review - Booking.com - 330,000+ hotels

Booking.com - 330,000+ hotels app. The booking and reservation app from what is probably the biggest booking site on the world with arguably the largest hotel, hostel, apartment and even more kinds of accommodation, this app has almost everything that one needs to make a reservation quickly, even while on the move, and manage it including check in and notification, everything done simply with the Booking.com app.

The app itself aims for simplicity, with as few buttons as possible, just the searching button, filtering and sorting and then going over the hotels themselves, seeing their reviews, photos and scores. Everything you need to make an educated accommodation choice.

The booking.com account allows you to sync and manage your reservations on the Booking.com app, on a desktop and on the website itself, complete with checkin and notifications.

Naturally, we did have some small issues with some things. It seems Hotels.com has more last minute deals and promotions, though at this time we have yet to perform a comparison between the major booking apps. We would have liked to be able to review the hotel we're staying in right from the app.

After the last update one of our testers could not open the app and he had to uninstall it and then download it again from Google Play. Another made a reservation that turned to not exist - to this day we're not sure if the problem was in the hotel, Booking.com app or the tester himself made a mistake.

Score: A 5 out of 5, because of all of our testers found it easy to use, liked the map and it delivered exactly what it offered.
Description: A hotel booking and reservation app that builds on Booking.com extensive hotel network to provide the users a huge amount of hotels and other kinds of accommodations to select from. Including notifications, searching and filtering, map orientation and reservation managing, this is one of the best booking apps on Google Play today.
Good Points: Our testers liked the map, seeing all the hotels relative to their location. We also liked the simple interface, the amount of hotels available and the reservation notifications, which were very useful. Of course, seeing so many pics of the hotels to select was also great.
Bad Points: We didn't like the fact you cannot review a hotel from the app. Since you book it from the app, and you carry your smartphone with you all the time, why not let the user write a review right there on the spot? And as is the case with so many apps, we did encounter some problems after the last update.
Experience: Again, disregarding the update, the app worked almost flawlessly on almost every smartphone. Our testers found it easy to use and liked the ability to flick through images of the hotel they were interested in, including pics of the rooms. All in all, all agreed this is a superb booking app.
Longevity: People are keeping this app on their smartphones, no question about it, even if some have other app as well, such as TripAdvisor and Hotels.com
Google Play Link - Booking.com - 330,000+ hotels
Google Play Score: 4.6

Android App Review - Hotels.com – Hotel Reservation

Hotels.com – Hotel Reservation app. One of the most popular and liked hotel reservation app, this app uses Hotels.com website extensive network of hundreds of thousands of hotels to help you find the hotel you need, right now. The app shows you the best local hotels in your area or in a designated area, and you can choose the hotel you want, sorted by price, brand, reviews and score.

The app itself is simple and you reach any hotel you want in a manner of seconds, see a picture of it, prices and even deals.

The deals deserve special mention here, because they offer real money saving. The Hotels.com app shows you the local deals available, and has an extensive discount and special offers sections, for promotions, last minute booking and deals that can save you quite a lot of money.

Hotels.com is no doubt one of the best booking and hotel reservation app today and almost our testers reported a very positive experience with it, especially concerning last minute deals and real money saving. The testers liked the simple interface which gets you the information quickly and clearly, but some expressed the need to be able to post a hotel review through the app, which you currently can't. It would have been nice to enter an exact address for hotel searches as well.

Score: A 5 out of 5, because of its usability, simple interface, deals and other money saving promotions and extensive hotel network available almost everywhere.
Description: A hotel booking and reservation app that lets you find a hotel, deal or promotion near to you and allows you to book a room almost any place you are, any place you get there. You can also manage all your current and future reservations and collect WelcomeRewards for savings ...
Good Points: All of our testers liked the simple and informative interface. A few clicks and you can find, sort and filter to get the hotel you want. Good rates, last minute deals and managing reservations make for a great booking experience.
Bad Points: Our testers didn't really find a major problem with the app. One tester remarked he would have liked to be able to review a hotel straight from the app while another remarked that on two occasions hotels that were available on the Hotels.com website weren't available on the app. Very few crashes were reported.
Experience: On almost every smartphone for every tester the app worked without a hinge, though some very rare random crashes and failures to search did occur. Some of our testers who tend to travel more reported that they started to use the app during their trips and it allowed them to preplan a lot less and pay less money for accommodation. All in all, all our testers recommend this app whole heartily.
Longevity: Almost all of our testers are keeping this app installed, though a very few use the Booking.com app the compare prices and availability between the apps.
Google Play Link - Hotels.com – Hotel Reservation
Google Play Score: 4.3

Android App Review - Business Calendar Free by Appgenix Software

Business Calendar Free by Appgenix Software. A color full, very professional looking calendar application that has every feature a busy person might need. Starting with the ability to sync with Google Calendar, color coded display, configurable days, weeks and months display, recurring events and a very useful search option.

We found this app very useful, configurable and generally our testers were impressed with its quality and professional looking interface. The Google Calendar notifications of events are not that bad, though the pro version of the Business Calendar adds notifications of its own. There are a ton of options such as the ability to send emails to participants of events and much more.

Rare problems were found when updating (one of the testers lost her events and was very pissed) and it seems it does drain the battery more than people would have liked. In addition, several of our testers did not have Google Calendar notifications turn on and did not receive notifications for their events. The adds appear in an unobtrusive way.

In conclusion, a very profession calendar app for time management with lots of options and abilities and it is highly recommended. We believe the rare bugs will be solved in upcoming updates.

Score: We gave it 4.5 out of 5 because of the battery drain problem and the rare buy annoying deletion of events.
Description: A very feature rich calendar app that takes time management to the next level ... Fully configurable with widgets, colorful events and more, this app allows you to keep track of your appointments, send emails to meeting participants and turn your smartphone into a mobile office ...
Good Points: Very feature rich and colorful, this calendar app has almost everything one could wish for. Widgets for the home screen, colors, and slick interface make this a very professional looking app. Searching is another very useful feature.
Bad Points: The relevant opinion here among our testers has been that Appgenix Software gave its full attention to features and testing was demoted to a less critical role in development. There are a few bugs here and there, from events that refuse to be created to events deleted when the app is being uninstalled. Rare, but still annoying. Add a too large battery consumption problem ...
Experience: There were a few problems in installing and uninstalling, mostly the bugs were quickly solved. Our testers loved the many features of the Business Calendar app, especially the email option.
Longevity: Most testers stayed with this app for a good while, but some preferred the Jotre Calendar which is simpler but with less bugs, at least for now.
Google Play Link - Business Calendar Free by Appgenix Software
Google Play Score: 4.5

Android Smartphone Review - Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Unlocked

Android Smartphone Review - Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Unlocked

Score:
Description: A collage making app with a simple interface that lets you quickly pick the images you want, arrange them on one of a predefined set of collage frames, edit and crop the images and then post the collage on Instagram etc.
Good Points:
Bad Points:
Experience:
Longevity:
Link:
Specifications:

Android Game App Review - Scrap Metal Mech ( 3D PvP ) by Wolf Mobile Design

Scrap Metal Mech ( 3D PvP ) by Wolf Mobile Design. Well, it is a game but it's not complete, yet. But it is really worth downloading and it would really be a shame if Wolf Mobile Design won't complete the marvelous work they started here.

This is a gladiator like game where the players pit their mechs one against the other. You can pick weapons and types of mechs (the higher level they are, the tougher and stronger they are) and go on to fight other players in one on one spectacular battles.

Of course, some players choose to spend a few real bucks to buy some decent equipment at first and then go online to fight others. We usually frown on this practice but if this will help ensure the game gets finished and fleshed out, it's worth it.

So, for a quick tournament of mech metal, of rockets against shields and online mech on mech, this is your game. We'll just have to wait and see when improvements and updates arrive.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. The game is great as it is, it only needs fleshing out - Single player missions and campaign and so on. Hope this arrives soon ...
Description: A gladiatorial mech game where giant robots fight each other in a player vs player online mode, which is the only mode. Game earned cash (and real world cash!) will buy you upgrades, in higher level mechs who are tougher and better.
Good Points: Great play with good graphics and non stop player vs player action. A lot of upgrades to mechs, from speed to weapons to better mechs.
Bad Points: Aside from very rare cases of crashes and freezes, there really aren't that many bad points to report. At the beginning it may be a little difficult making kills and purchasing more advanced weaponry. In addition, the very nature of the game as it is annoyed a few of our testers who would have preferred to practice in solo mission in one player campaign mode.
Experience: Most if not all of our testers loved this game, even those who weren't mechwarrior fans before. It may be still difficult at times to find players to play against but we hope more people download the game. In addition, at the start of the game it is a bit hard to advance but all of our testers eventually managed to advance, even without paying.
Longevity: Most players will keep this game installed, except some die hard Candy Crush Sage fans.
Google Play Link - Scrap Metal Mech ( 3D PvP ) by Wolf Mobile Design
Google Play Score: 4.2

Android Game App Review - Destroy Gunners ZZ by GREE

Android Game App Review - Destroy Gunners ZZ by GREE. One of the best if not THE best mech games on Android today. We'll start with the graphics which a gorgeous, at least on par with any smartphone game or app. True 3D rendering of surfaces, terrain and enemies, lasers blazing away while missiles leave smoke contrails all over the sky - this game is really something. (If anyone thinks we sound like a bunch of excitable teens here - it's just because the game brought up the best parts inside of us ..)

You get to pilot a mech, a giant fighting robot, equip it and send it into missions to destroy other mechs, destroy boss robots, prevent enemies from reaching a target and even against high placed fixed enemy artillery. You have the selection of weapons (missiles, cannons, guns, lasers, grenades and much more, upgrades to armor or speed and various equipment like jamming devices and various enhancers. This game is as gorgeous as it is complex. Sheer fun.

Of course, we did manage to find some small caveats (wouldn't be much of a review otherwise ...). You have to earn a lot of money for certain upgrades, which demands a lot of missions. Some people would prefer it if you could reach those upgrades faster, though you have the ability to pay in real money for them. The complexity of this game may daunt some smartphone owners who got used to puzzle solving on the subway, though the missions are usually short in time - two minutes or less. And last but not least, the graphics can be really enjoyed on a tablet with a larger screen, though even on a smartphone the game is great.

Score: A whole hearted 5 out of 5. A game so complex and big, it truly deserves to be on an Xbox or PlayStation.

Description: A mech piloting and combat game, this game pits your fighting robot against other mechs, all equipped with a large variety of weapons and all sorts of futuristic war gear. Great 3D graphics, complex physics and a huge assortment of missions, enemies and weapons truly make this game (actually a series) a unique experience.

Good Points: Piloting a giant robot! Watching your mech fight your enemies in true colorful 3D. A huge variety of enemies and weapons make for a truly long and worthwhile experience. Tactical thinking is as important as dexterous fingers.

Bad Points: Complex game may be a surprise for others used for simpler and smaller Android games. You have to put it a lot of time to reach higher levels and mechs. Sometimes you miss some of the more beautiful graphics on a small smartphone screen.

Experience: Since learning of this game's existence, we had our testers download in and install it. All liked it very much, even those who hadn't played previous versions of the game. Very few problems were encountered, even on less powerful smartphones. A very rare crash or two and that's it.

Longevity: None of our testers uninstalled it nor do any have any intention of doing it. A really worthwhile game.

Google Play Link - Destroy Gunners ZZ by GREE

Google Play Score: 4.2

Well, we tried looking into it. There are several night vision, see in the dark and even thermal camera apps and we tried testing them - can we use them to really see in the dark? Well, the answer is mostly no, and we'll get into in a moment. The apps we tried are Night Vision Camera by Fingersoft, Night Vision Cam by andro iX, Night Vision by Crazy Apps Maker and Night Vision Camera by Night Vision Inc.
In addition, we tried Thermal Camera by Fingersoft, Thermal Vision Camera by Mister Borken and Thermal Vision Camera by M-Apps.

Our conclusion is simple. The thermal camera apps do not work, at least not in the way we might think. It's no secret by the way, some say it on their description on Google Play. The smartphone's camera cannot pickup IR wavelengths, so you cannot use the thermal camera apps to see at night. What you get, which is cool in itself, is a real time filter which gives pictures which look like the ones from the Predator movies.

What about the night vision apps? Those apps work a little better. What they do is, increase the light from ambient light sources and they take pictures in green colors, just like in the movies. On our testing, they were able to take reasonable (green tinged) photos in near total darkness.

So, in conclusion, night vision apps do kind of work, just be sure you understand what kind of pics you get.

Of course, Night Vision Camera by Night Vision Inc. prompted us to install AirPush which will put adds on the smartphone's nitification bar and home screen. Of course app developers should earn money for their efforts and ads are a great way to do that, but enough is enough. Ads on the notification bar and home screen is taking this too far.

Android App Review - LINE camera by LINE Corporation

Android App Review - LINE camera by LINE Corporation. This is a camera and photo editing app that allows the user to edit the photos taken by the app (or other camera apps, for that matter) and edit them by adding framers, stickers, text and graphics from a large collection of predefined objects. A very popular app, the user can share images created, enhanced and edited by the app to facebook and other social networks. Of course, the app has many useful features and many users (including some of our testers) have actually replaced their stock image taking app with this app, using it in preference to the native camera app. A fun app, and one that our testers profoundly loved.

Score: 4.5. Just short a few features from a perfect 5, nevertheless we loved it!

Description: An image taking and editing app, the Line Camera allows taking pics and editing them, passing them through filters and adding stamps, text and fun graphics objects from a large predefined collection.

Good Points: Pictures taken with Line Camera are sometimes even better than those taken by the Android native camera app. Editing and filtering pics is mostly easy and adding graphics to an image is also fairly easy.

Bad Points: There were a few rare cases where the app froze, even forcing us to shutdown and restart the smartphone. We would have enjoyed an even larger variety of graphical objects to add to pictures and some of our testers thought that the app's ram requirements and processing time were too long between images. And of course, we're waiting to be able to add the same effects to videos and not just photos ...

Experience: Installing and working with the app was easy and fun. A few testers reported some problems after an update but they sorted themselves out. It seems most of our testers loved this app more than other apps (like Camera360 Ultimate) but it mostly comes down to individual preferences.

Longevity: Most of the testers would keep using this app, a few even started using it in lieu of their native Android camera app. One thought it slowed down his smartphone and uninstalled it after the testing period.

Google Play Link - LINE camera by LINE Corporation
Google Play Score: 4.5

Android App Review - Cymera - Camera and Photo Editor by SK Communications

Android App Review - Cymera - Camera and Photo Editor by SK Communications. This is a semi professional camera and photo editing app, specializing in portraits and face editing in photos. The app has its own facial recognition software which identifies the face and then offers the user a rich variety of editing tools to enhance, change and edit the face, from changing eye colors to changing hair styles and applying make up and "beautifying" effects to faces. A very cool app, it also offers several kinds of filters and a large variety of graphical objects that can be easily incorporated into the photo. Last but not least, it also offers collage building services, to create a large collage of photos.

Our testers mostly loved the interface and learning how to apply the various effects was fairly easy, even for those testers who weren't especially computer savvy. Yet again, with a little work you can create great effects, especially with faces. Facebook fans would find this app very handy as its interface allows quick and painless Facebook sharing of photos.

There's no doubt this is one of the best camera and photo editors for the Android today, with its editing capabilities coming just short of professional editing abilities but with the ability to open the app, take a picture, edit it and post it remarkably quickly.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Most of our testers enjoyed it immensely.

Description: A camera app and photo editing app, this app has extensive photo editing capabilities to enhance and change faces, adding makeup, changing hair styles and rearranging faces to make them more "beautiful". In addition to filters and photo enhancing modes, this app also has the ability to add graphical objects from a large library to any photo and the user can also download for free additional effects and objects for adding to pics.

Good Points: Different lenses and editing effects providing great pictures and diverse editing abilities for the face. Beautifying capabilities to add makeup, change hair styles and bring out the beauty in faces on the photos.

Bad Points: Text editing - adding text to pictures is not intuitive and is a bit hard to find. The app appeals strongly to Facebook users who upload photos regularly - people who're not heavy Facebook users may find the interface a bit clumsy. There were some minor issues with some of our testers who couldn't turn the flash on for taking pictures or others that complained the pictures come out horizontal and stretched instead of vertical.

Experience: To be honest, some of our testers started examining Cymera Camera after working some time with Line Camera. Nevertheless, most of them were quite enthusiastic about Cymera. Most cited the face beautifying effects as one of the best features of Cymera. There were some small problems wtih taking pictures and editing HD photos but those were quickly remedied. In conclusion, the more a person uploads photos to Facebook, the more he or she love Cymera Camera more, at least in our experience. In our words, our teen testers loved it the most.

Longevity: All testers kept the app installed even a few months after started working with it. The ones who liked it most were the Facebook heavy users but none uninstalled it. We expect the Facebook users to keep the app for good ...

Google Play Link - Cymera - Camera & Photo Editor by SK Communications

Google Play Score: 4.5

Android App Review - Pic Collage by Cardinal Blue Software

Android App Review - Pic Collage by Cardinal Blue Software. This is a collage building app that places its emphasis on simple and intuitive interface. With just a few touches you can pick photos from the smartphone's photo gallery or the internet, retouch them, collect them together and add frames, stickers text and many other effects. If you stick to the frames and stickers available, you can create awesome collages simply and easily, of any size and with many effects.

Put pictures in heart shaped frames, combine many sizes together, create cartoon like collages - almost everything is possible with Pic Collage. Just add the pictures, pick backgrounds, add frames and graphical objects and you're set. Really simple and easy. All of our testers liked this app, which is really one of the best collage makers we tested. The only caveat is the app's simplicity. For the serious photo editing user, this app will not suffice.

However, to create great collages simply and effectively, this app is among the best of its kind. Just tap the photos, pick a background, arrange the photos and you're all set to go. Just don't try to do too complicated things.

Score: A conditional 4.5 out of 5. A very good, simple to use and fun app for those who want a fast and simple photo editing and collage making up.

Description: A collage creation app with simple photo editing capabilities Users can simply and easily pick photos for a collage, use a large variety of frames, crop and resize images to any size and add fun graphical objects atop the images.

Good Points: Very simple to use. Allows quick and simple photo editing and collage building. Has a lot of graphical objects that can be added and more can be freely downloaded. Has a large number of good and interesting frames and backgrounds for the collage building. There were very few if any bugs detected. It is a very stable app and only once or twice we discovered a problem in editing a number of photos starting from the fifth or so.

Bad Points: Simplicity is the main thing for Pic Collage so some of the options available in other pic editing apps are missing, such as picture enhancements transparent text and sophisticated filters. Of course, it is not a camera app which some would have preferred Some of our testers thought the photo limit of 15 pics was too restricting while others thought the app's space requirement from the smartphone was excessive. Some of the stickers were lost between app updates which irritated testers that were used to using them.

Experience: In our experience, it takes about one hour to really start using the neat features this app has to offer. In other words, users can learn to use it very fast as it has a very simple and intuitive interface. Only after a few days of working with it, a few of our testers expressed a desire for more sophisticated capabilities.

Longevity: Most of our testers loved this app and would continue using it. Only a very few who wanted more sophisticated photo editing capabilities uninstalled it and installed other photo editing apps, with filters and image enhancing features.

Google Play Link - Pic Collage by Cardinal Blue Software

Google Play Score: 4.5

Android App Review - LINE camera by LINE Corporation

Android App Review - Dr. Driving by SUD. An upgrade of Dr. Parking, this is a very good game with great physics which lets you do one thing - drive! You get to complete missions in very realistically looking city scenes, earn money and then you can buy more expensive and fancy cars. The game is so good it can be used as an aid for car driving lessons but even the more experienced drivers among our testers loved this game. SUD tried and made a very good job in simulating real cars movements - from stops, to accelerations to turning to breaking.

It did have some very minor annoyances, such as forcing you to link your Google+ and Facebook accounts and the fact money is not so easy to come by so you have to put in a long time to earn enough to buy the better cars (just like in real life!) but still, our testers all loved this game.
Another small annoyance some of our more hard headed testers came up with was rear mirrors and side collisions. The game doesn't have either, so you can make any turns with impunity, which somehow diminishes from the game's fun, at least according to those testers.

Score: A very solid and deserving 4.5 out of 5. Just a few small things missing to give this driving game a 5 out of 5.

Description: A driving game that sends the user to drive one of a collection of cars through a city in missions to reach a certain place and park there, naturally. The cars behave in a very realistic way and the graphics are great. The game would have been perfect if it was easier to get the new cars and if rear mirrors existed, along with a way to see cars coming from other lanes when you turn.

Good Points: Great graphics, at least on a smartphone. Very realistic car behavior, from accelerations to breaks to parking to crashes ... Very addictive and with a simple interface which leaves the focus on the main thing - driving the cars through the city!

Bad Points: Okay, just a few minor points in a great game. You cannot look right and left when making a turn which is very unrealistic. What a driver earns in the missions is not enough to buy a newer and fancier car fast - you have to spend a lot of time for it ... There were some issues with the game forcing you to log on to your Facebook and Google+ accounts - which is a behavior we do not like on an app. Very few crashes and bugs - a very stable app.

Experience: Our testers all installed and ran this app quickly. The game has a smooth learning curve and even our teen testers got to finish the mission quickly, in some cases faster than some of the older testers with a driving license ... All in all, if you have a relatively new smartphone with updated hardware this game will run smoothly.

Longevity: In a relatively rare show of loyalty, all of our testers elected to have the app installed for good. Some are playing it more often than others, but several months after testing begun, none have uninstalled it yet.

Google Play Link - Dr. Driving by SUD

Google Play Score: 4.6

Android App Review - Google Maps

Android App Review - Google Maps. Probably the most popular navigation app in the world, and not only because it comes with every Android smartphone and tablet. Every navigation app knows how to get you to your destination but all strive to bring the user something new. Waze tried to make driving a social experience, by sharing traffic information from all the other drivers using Waze on the roads. What makes Google Map special is its comprehensive database of businesses, establishments and points of interest along the road.

Google Maps has really everything in it, every kind of hotel, restaurant, pub and almost everything else you would want. Google leverages its huge database and the result is actually having the whole internet available to you via navigation with Google Maps.

Of course, Google Map comes rich with features, such as navigating and directions for walking or public transportation in addition to driving, like we mentioned before searching for almost anything be it close or far away, getting several courses and picking the best one for you, using Street View to actually see pictures of any place you're getting at. Of course, there is the ability to download maps at the start of the drive (when you're in WiFi range) and then use them for you navigation. The list features goes on and on, including voice activation and navigation.

Even though some of our testers didn't like the new update (while others simply adored it), there have been some crashes of the app while navigating and some features have been hidden away in the new update. Other than that, this is one of the best and most useful navigating app for Android right now.

Score: We gave it 4.5 out of 5, an almost perfect score because some of our testers had problems with the new update, mainly with crashes and losing save data and waypoints, not to mention hidden features.
Description: A navigation app with incredibly rich features, from voice activation to free text locale searching to picture available of virtually any place to offline maps to more and more features ... This is a app worthy of the giant that is Google.
Good Points: Free text searching for locales is very important and useful, such as looking for the nearest convenience store. Street View is also very useful as it allows you to see what your destination looks before you reach it.
Bad Points: Some of our testers disliked the new app update, claiming the old interface and maps were better. There are reported crashes here and there, common to most navigation apps.
Experience: Our testers used the app extensively, some using the walking and public transportation routes the app gives. All were quite enthusiastic about the more special features like Street View and Google's extensive database (find a nearby pizza, will you?!?)
Longevity: Of course, it is installed on every Android machine, but most of our testers still continue to use the app, though most not exclusively.
Google Play Link - Business Calendar Free by Appgenix Software
Google Play Score: 4.5

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