Android App Review - Speedtest.net by Ookla

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

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Android App Review - Kik Messenger by Kik Interactive

Android App Review - Kik Messenger by Kik Interactive

Android App Review -  Kik Messenger by Kik Interactive. A messenger that does not use the smartphone's number but allows you to create and use a Kik account, which we're not sure is a good or bad thing ... It does allow one more freedom but apps like Whatsapp that use the smartphone's number for identification insure the user's identity and prevent impersonation, with the drawback that if you change your phone number (for instance, changing carrier sometimes forces you to change your number) you'll lose you Whatsapp conversations. Kik does possess a simple and intuitive interface while still having features such as pic sending, user status updating and group conversations.

Kik Messenger app is advertised to be faster than any other messenger. Our testers have indeed confirmed the app is fast, though they're not sure its the fastest messenger app they ever used .. All together, a good and simple app to use and we can heartily recommend it. The only thing is, just like in any other messenger, is to find out what messenger your contacts are using and use it too ... Just one more thing. Since the Kik accounts can be annonymous, you can never be sure who you're talking to, just like in Internet chat rooms, with all their advantages and drawbacks because of anonymity, adult possible and the like. Just search for Kik 'sexting'.

• Score. 4.5 out of 5. We took half a point away because of the user account management. In our opinion, using the smartphone's number to ID contacts is better. Still, if it doesn't matter to you, this app is great. 

• Description. 
• Good Points. A very simple and intuitive interface. Having a Kik account and not having the messenger app use the smartphone's number has its advantages ... Kik messenger app has all the necessary features - text and pic messages, notifications, group conversations and more.

• Bad Points. Our testers disliked the colors that came with the update. Boring, they called it ... Setting up an account and using it can be difficult at times, as is having to locate your friends (since you usually know their phone numbers anyway).

• Experience. 
• Longevity. Most of our testers liked Kik app, but eventually some returned to Whatsapp Messenger, citing simplicity, ease of contact locating and an interface that a little more appealing.
• Google Play. Google Play Link - Kik Messenger by Kik Interactive
• Google Play Score 4.4 

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Android App Review - Firefox Browser for Android by Mozilla

Android App Review - Firefox Browser for Android by Mozilla

Android App Review -  Firefox Browser for Android by Mozilla

Score	Under Construction
Description	Under Construction
Good Points	Under Construction
Bad Points	Under Construction
Experience	Under Construction
Longevity	Under Construction
Google Play	Google Play Link - Firefox Browser for Android by Mozilla
Google Play Score	Score 4.3

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Android App Review - Dropbox by Dropbox Inc.

Android App Review - Dropbox by Dropbox Inc

Android App Review -  Dropbox by Dropbox Inc

Score	Under Construction
Description	Under Construction
Good Points	Under Construction
Bad Points	Under Construction
Experience	Under Construction
Longevity	Under Construction
Google Play	Google Play Link - Dropbox by Dropbox Inc
Google Play Score	Score 4.6

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Android App Review - Google Drive by Google

Android App Review - Google Drive by Google

Android App Review -  Google Drive by Google

Score	Under Construction
Description	Under Construction
Good Points	Under Construction
Bad Points	Under Construction
Experience	Under Construction
Longevity	Under Construction
Google Play	Google Play Link - Google Drive by Google
Google Play Score	Score 4.3

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Android App Review - My Data Manager by Mobidia Technology

Android App Review - My Data Manager by Mobidia Technology

Score	Under Construction
Description	Under Construction
Good Points	Under Construction
Bad Points	Under Construction
Experience	Under Construction
Longevity	Under Construction
Google Play	Google Play Link - My Data Manager by Mobidia Technology
Google Play Score	Score 4.6

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Track App Data Usage - Android Manual

Android Manual - How To Track App Data Usage

Android How To Manual

How to track app data usage manual? Today's smartphone is online twenty four seven and apps can go online all the time to check for updates, new data, report on their users activities and more. It has become increasingly important to find out what apps and going online, sometimes without their users knowledge, and how much of the smartphone's data plan they are using. The solution to that comes from a number of apps, each capable of monitoring an android smartphone data usage and apps, which allows the user to find out which of the installed apps consumes data from the data plan and how much. One example of a data usage monitoring app is Onavo Count by Onavo. Another is My Data Manager by Mobidia Technology. Both of these apps monitor the installed apps and provide a comprehensive history and analysis of app data and web usage stats. We recommend using these apps to monitor your smartphone's data usage - vital to those with limited data plans and also important to those who want to know exactly what app goes online.

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Android App Review - Battery by MacroPinch

Android App Review - Battery by MacroPinch

 

Battery by MacroPinch app. A simple but very useful app that works on a very large variety of Android devices - from smartphones to tablets. The battery app monitors the battery, displays in the notification bar and a widget the current power percent and the smartphone's or tablets working time left before the battery is drained.

We liked this app a lot. Simple yet effective, it only has one problem which is probably unavoidable.
  

The battery app also has advanced battery monitoring features which allow you to monitor to battery's health. If a smartphone develops a tendency to drain its battery quickly, you can use the app's advanced features to see if its healthy and use to app the open Android's power monitoring app which shows you which app is using how much power, in case something in the smartphone is draining the power too quickly. 

Some of our testers were confused by Battery app's feature which shows how much time there is before the battery is drained. What confused these testers is the fact that the app shows time remaining according to current power consumption. So, if you have a heavy game running over WiFi, the battery app will indicate the battery will drain quickly. If you turn off the game and then check the battery app again, it will show a much longer battery draining time. 

Aside from that time indication which may be confusing, the app was very much liked by our testers. Useful and simple, it became indispensable in an instant.

• Score: A 5 out of 5, because it does exactly what it says it does, simply and easily.
• Description: A battery monitoring app that displays the battery's remaining power by percentage and also shows how much time there is before the batter runs out of power. Has notification bar and widgets display.
• Good Points: Very simple to understand and use. Has widgets and notification bar displays. Has time remaining display in addition to percentage of power used.
• Bad Points: The time displayed till the battery runs out depends on current power usage, i.e. which apps are running, whether WiFi and GPS are turned on, etc. So, checking on different times may show wildly different results, which confused some of our testers.
• Experience: All our testers found the app very useful, whichever Android version they had. All turned the notification bar display on (which makes you ask, why was it turned off as default after installing) and went right on using it.
• Longevity: Almost all kept the battery app installed on their smartphone or tablet for good.
• Google Play Link - Battery by MacroPinch
• Google Play Score: 4.7

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Android App Review - Tango Text, Voice, and Video by Tango

Android App Review - Tango Text, Voice, and Video by Tango

Tango Text, Voice, and Video by Tango. Well, this is quite embarrassing since Tango is no doubt one of the most popular chat and video conferencing apps for Android smartphones. Nevertheless, though no doubt millions of people have downloaded it and installed it and it does have a 4.4 score on Google Play, we didn't like it. 

It didn't work for us. Maybe its our carrier, or the quality of the internet here or whatever, but we kept getting interrupted calls, we kept failing to communicate with our contacts and we kept getting irritated by this app.

The irritating message in the notification bar that you have to update the app and it won't go away till you perform the update ... very irritating! The difficulty in setting up and managing user accounts ... 

In conclusion, most of our testers didn't like it. Too complicated, it never seemed to work properly even on brand Samsung smartphones and we didn't like several interface decisions the programmers made. 

• Score: Our own very subjective score - 3.5. The app has various problems and has some very irritating features. We know a lot of people like it very much, we just had a bad experience with it.
• Description: This is a video chat, instant messaging and communications app that allows the user to communicate with his or her contacts by various ways - the user can send a text message, a video message or a voice recording. The app is fairly sophisticated and can be used over tablets (unlike Whatsapp Messenger, for instance) and it also has a lot of clever features like informing the user when a familiar contact installs the app, allowing forming and communicating with groups and even informing the user when a new version becomes available. The interface is also very slick and follows the smartphone interface when Tango calls are coming in, ringing etc.
• Good Points: Video, voice and test messaging free over the internet (of course, using the smartphone's data plan), A nice interface ringing when a new call is incoming, a lot of sophisticated features, Works across tablets, smartphones and even PCs (haven't test the PC version, yet).
• Bad Points: Setting up and managing users - though supposed to be simple was very complicated and required frequent tinkering to hook the right email account with the right Tango user. When an update is available, Tango informs the user by an icon in the notification bar WHICH STAYS THERE UNTIL THE USER PERFORMS THE UPDATE! We found that very annoying! Okay, we saw an update was available, we'll update when we can, now clear the notification bar! Last and not least bad point was the fact we consistently failed in making calls. During our tests, running from several brand phones and tablets (notably, Samsung galaxy phones and Acer tablets) calls and video chatting were frequently interrupted.
• Experience: Installing the app was easy and eventless though the app has a significant footprint (several tens of megabytes) but then the problems started with configuring the Tango users and attaching them to the right email users. After this mess got sorted out, more or less, we started using the app and then we encountered all sorts of problem when trying to conduct long distance video and text calls. There were so much interruptions and disconnects that the testers were forced to stop their testing and resume them later. We understand long distance calls may be problematic but there are ways to handle these things by reducing frame rate etc. This app simply did not behave well in this regard though short distance calls usually were smoother.
• Longevity: None of our testers were enthusiastic about this app and most uninstalled it after our testing was done.
• Google Play Link - Tango Text, Voice, and Video by Tango
• Google Play Score: 4.4

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Android App Review - 3G Watchdog by Richard Gruet

Android App - 3G Watchdog

3G Watchdog by Richard Gruet. A small, simple and sophisticated app for those of us who are not fortunate enough to own an unlimited data plan on their smartphone or just want to keep track of their smartphone's internet usage. Again, the app is mainly intended for those who want to keep track of their data usage, receive notification when they are starting to use up all their allowance and even block internet usage when the limit is too close.

 
The app has settings for data plan start (day in the month), size and it will clearly notify you with a message and a colorful icon when the data plan is starting to be all used up.

Clearly its a very useful app - what would have made it even better is the ability to monitor specific app data usage - but that is reserved for the pro version of the app, which costs money.

• Score: 5 out of 5. This app does exactly what it sets out to do.
• Description: This android app monitors the smartphone's data usage from the data plan over 4G/3G/Edge/GPRS. The user sets up the data plan's size and start time and the Watchdog app constantly monitors data drain. It notifies the user when the data plan reaches its limit by message boxes and color symbols in the notification bar. In addition, there is a very useful optional ability to block data usage when a user supplied limit is reached, usually between 95 and 99 percent. In our experience, the app performs flawlessly, as monitored by other monitoring tools. The only gripe is the data plans themselves. As they are getting cheaper, the time when everyone will have a limitless data plan fast approaches, making this app redundant.
• Good Points: Clear notification of limit reaching. Ability to set the limits as wanted by the user.
• Bad Points: There is no way to monitor the data usage of specific apps - this ability is only available on the paid version of the app - 3G Watchdog Pro. Some testers also encountered a bug where the icon in the notification bar disappears (and not when turning their wifi on) but opening the app returns the icon and we think the app still kept track of the data usage even when the icon was not visible.
• Experience: Since installing this application we encountered no problem on several tested smartphones, it protected us from data usage overflow and the reports it generated where always accurate - we receive the "75 percent" data usage message from the app half a day before the cellular carrier sent us an SMS with the same message.
• Longevity: This app is here to stay.
• 3G Watchdog Pro - Android
• Google Play Score: 4.7

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