Akinator, the Web Genius

Akinator, the Web Genius

Hello! Sorry I haven't been posting to my blogs the past week or so but I just received my new Android phone, a beautiful white HTC Evo 4G. Its such a pleasure to have a device more than capable of handling any app you can throw at it. I will talk about my new Evo on my tech blog later but here I will review some new apps I've been playing around with since I got the Evo.

The first one is Akinator which is a neat 20 question type of program, the link above will take you to their home page where you can play online or download the ap to your device.

Think of a character real or fictional and answer the questions and Akinator will figure out the name of said person, its a great game to play with friends. We've had alot of fun using it and it never fails to impress us when it comes up with the right answer, I couldn't believe how it guessed Orson Welles or Mozart in just 7 or eight questions.

You can download the lite version for free and give it a test drive, the full version will set you back $2.30 on the Android Market.

Netflix - Android Market

Netflix - Android Market

Netflix finally? For some yes but for most not just yet. I was not able to find this app on the market using my phone but here it is in the above link from the Android Market via the Internet. Personally it won't let me install it from the net saying my Samsung Intercept is not compatible.

For this review I used the Netflix app on my iPhone and from what I've read it is the same as far as features except the iPhone has subtitles available and the Android does not as of this moment.

Everyone will have a different experience with Netflix on their handheld device depending on several factors, connection speed, processing power and of course the resolution of your device. On the iPhone 3G that I use for testing the picture is beautiful and aside from being 4 inches it looks as good as the HD viewing on my monitor.

Since I'm streaming wireless at home and have the highest speed available there is no stuttering whatsoever, in a word it is fantastic. If you have Netflix and your device is able to handle it then get the free app and give it a whirl, you may not have a very good experience on 3G but any wi-fi signal will do the trick.

I don't know how well it will do say for watching a movie streamed while your a passenger in a car or on a train, I can only imagine it would not be good. Regardless since the app is free and if you have a Netflix account then you should definitely try it out and see where and when it will work out for you.

If you don't have an account with them then you can try the service for free for one month at home and on any of your Netflix capable devices such as Android, Xbox etc. So give it a shot and let me know what you think.

PhotoFunia - Android Market

This is a great free app that i actually use on my PC through the Internet version, so you can do this at home on your computer or on the go with your android device.

This program is very simple, fun and handy. Basically it takes any picture you choose and puts the subjects face into a different scene such as a magazine cover or on a billboard. There are hundreds of different choices, I love the Warhol template that uses the iconic artists famous four color style.

Once you make a photo you can share it with friends and family straight from within the app via email or social networking sites. If you don't like your work simply click undo and try again, put your head on a bodybuilder or in an astronaut's suit!

Some of the choices won't look very real but many will have friends truly thinking that's your wife on the movie poster with Brad Pitt. Here is just one example, your face on television with a captive audience.
PhotoFunia - Android Market

Shazam - Get Shazam (Or Not)

Shazam - Get Shazam

So I've known about this app for ages and thought it seemed like a cool idea but never downloaded it. I just couldn't think of a circumstance where I would use it, driving down the road hearing a song on the radio and using my phones app to figure out what song it is?

Tonight I was watching a movie from South Korea called The Good, The Bad and the Weird. Awesome movie by the way, anyway this music started playing during a long battle scene on horseback and I recognized it as a disco song from my youth. It was driving me crazy and then I remembered this app for Android or iPhone caled Shazam, I downloaded it right away while I paused the movie.

I tried 10 times using Shazam to find out the song with no luck, then I remembered you could alsome sing or hum the tune since the film had background noise from gunshots and explosions. So I hummed it a few times and again it could not make a match, guess I'll never know what the song was since I couldn't read the Korean credits at the end.

I can see how the social networking aspect could be cool, sharing musical likes with your friends via tagging. The thing is you can already let people know what, who, where and everything else using Twitter or Facebook. I can see people reading about this app and getting it, I just don't see where many folks would keep it and use it long term.

Jenga - Android Market

Jenga - Android Market

OK took a day off for my birthday so just a quick review to save people some money. Jenga is a popular board game and many people might just purchase this on impulse.

I was excited to see this game hit the Market thinking it would adapt well to play on a handheld device, I was wrong. The game just doesn't play right, its very hard to just choose a piece and remove it from the stack. It is just a game that will frustrate you and waste your time and for $2.99 you expect a perfect game not some buggy unplayable garbage.

I don't like to use such harsh language in my reviews but for a game they charge 3 times more than many smash hits you would think this was beta tested before release. I'm sure they made tons of money just from name recognition and Android owners appetite for new games, any games.

So please save your money and remember if you buy a game you have 15 minutes to change your mind after installing it, I'm a firm believer in lite versions and am always skeptical of high priced games. Isn't it funny how all the best game apps are 99 cents? They make money by selling large numbers of the app via word of mouth. Big name games always charge a premium and like some big budget movies never live up to the hype.

They are just trying to make as much money as fast as possible before the public catches on, OK rant over. This game was tested by both myself and my wife, we both agree the graphics are outdated and while the game physics look and feel fine this is just a monotonous boring endeavour.

Robo Defense FREE - Android Market

Robo Defense FREE - Android Market


Today just a brief review about a game thats been around on the Android since 2009. Robo Defense is available in a free version with one level that reaches 11 degrees of difficulty. If you decide to upgrade and buy it you get more levels and unlimited upgrades and difficulty levels.

This is the classic tower based stratagy game that first became popular with two enormous hits on the iPhone, Fieldrunners and Star Defense. Robo Defense play mechanics are exactly the same as those but of course the machines, characters and weapons are different. The publisher Lupis Labs is very good about updating the app so there is always new content trickling in and bugs being ironed out.

These types of games are very addicting and easily the best suited genre for use on a small gaming device such as a cell phone. The full version is $2.99 which is the same price as Fieldrunners on the iPhone. Even so you can grab the demo and get a couple hours of gameplay before deciding yourself if its worth the money. Enjoy!

Wonderful World of Widgets

Today I wanted to talk about widgets that allow you to customize your phone. There are many clock and weather widgets available in the app markets but the most popular one is Beautiful Widgets followed by Fancy Widget Pro.

Both of these are paid apps although fancy Widget has a scaled down free version as well, they both have clock and weather widgets with customizable skins available. Beautiful widgets comes with a few extras such as blue tooth, brightness and a few other settings toggles.

Is it worth buying either app? In one word no. Yes these two apps have bundled together some widgets that will make your phones home screen look very nice but if you do a little searching in the app store you will find some free alternatives in no time.

Go ahead and download the Fancy Widget free version for the clock and weather, they are almost identical to the paid ones. My personal favorite is an app widget by the name of 3D Digital Weather clock by Factory Widgets. In my opinion this free widget blows the other two away in terms of looks and while it doesn't have different skins it does have several options to change the appearance subtly.

It also gives you the choice of displaying your battery level or turning on or off what city your in. You can also set what app should open when you press the time, for instance have the clock open to set the alarm. Pressing on different corners will also open either detailed system stats such as battery temp and sd card space and pressing on the weather will open a detailed forecast screen. Example of 3D Weather Clock Widget on home screen.

So now we have the clock and weather for free and making your Android look oh so pretty, what else can we get for free that comes with those paid apps? How about those toggles that save you opening up your settings to turn on or off blue tooth, wifi, GPS or brightness. Well if you didn't know it already Android has that widget built into the system, just press your home screen and when widgets appear choose the power control one.

There are a host of other free widgets out there in the market, just do a search for widget and you'll have pages of them to check out. Why spend money for something when there are plenty of free apps that look as good or better?

So here's a list of some widgets that are free and I use on my phone, I switch from time to time to keep it fresh. 3D Digital Weather Clock is definitely my favorite but you have to check out Minimalistic text as well. It takes a little time to get it setup but its well worth it for the all text look, here is an example. Some of you are lucky and have extra widgets available depending on what company manufactured your phone and all of us have a few built in to the Android OS. One of the main reasons to own an Android over an iPhone is the ability to customize the look of our phones and the widget is the wonderful tool Android has that Apple doesn't. So go crazy and start trying them out, make your phone your own!

Reckless Racing

Reckless Racing by Polarbit software was the winner of the 2010 best racing game of the year for Android awarded by Pocket Gamer. They are a British website and video game magazine with a very loyal following in the UK.

The game costs $4.99 on the Android Market, it is not available in the Amazon Android Marketplace. I have included the link above to the Lite version so you can try it out for free and decide if its worth spending the money for the complete game.

This is a very fun racer with excellent controls and beautiful graphics, they really went all out with the attention to details. The physics model is what sets the game apart, crashing and flipping the car or breaking through a fence and watching the splinters fly about make for realistic mayhem.

Single player mode only has five tracks and once you complete a course you can then play it in reverse, there are also a few different modes to keep things interesting. If that were all there was to the game then I would never recommend it, after a few hours and beating all the tracks there really wouldn't be any replay value.

What would make it worth buying? Multi player is where its at. Playing against other real humans has always been the best reason to buy a game where you would normally be pitted against artificial opponents. Reckless Racing allows you to play over wifi via the Internet. Choose a user name and click internet and you enter the game lobby, within seconds you can join a game or host your own.

So give the trial version a shot and if you enjoy it then you can probably justify buying it just for the multiplayer action. Hopefully you have an Android with at least a 1GHz processor, anything less than that may have a hard time rendering the graphics in this processor hungry game.

The original title for the game was Deliverance and if your old enough to remember the movie you'll understand why when you hear the theme music as the game starts. This game could just as well have been called redneck racing lol, so give it a whirl and as always enjoy!

PAC-MAN

I mentioned a few days ago that the Amazon Android Market has a free app each day, PAC-MAN was one of those just a week ago. If you were to buy it today on Amazon it costs $4.99 but you can buy it cheaper on the Google Android Market for $2.99. The question is, is it worth it?

PAC-Man for those of you that don't know has been around for just over 30 years now, it was a huge hit in American arcades during the 1980's and has seen countless sequels and revisions ever since. The simplicity of the game was its greatest strength, using a single joystick you move the character around the screen eating dots and avoiding the bad guys. You can power up four times in each round by eating a big dot turning the enemies into ghosts which you can then eat for a limited time. Each level gets progressively harder and the baddies, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde move faster and faster.

Bonus points for collecting fruits that pop up periodically near the middle of the screen and for eating them when they are turned to ghosts. That's all there is to it, simple yet addictive. The Android version as well as the iPhone port are exactly the same as the original version that helped start the video game craze back in 1979. The secret to making a successful copy of PAC-Man for any device is the controls and they did it right for the Android.

I've seen the game done using the gyroscope and having to turn and twist the handheld device to move the character, this made for a terrible gaming experience. The game makers, Namco in this case the original developer of PAC-Man chose to use an on screen touch joy pad and it works extremely well.

Using your index finger you simply press down once and move your finger in any direction to make him move, he responds immediately and precisely to your gestures. This is the most important part of making this game enjoyable, the graphics are the same as the original game so all the work went into the control aspect of the game.

I'm very happy to see PAC-MAN on the Android, its still a very fun game and highly addictive. I'm not too happy people have to pay $2.99 to own it, 99 cents would have been a better price point. Why a two dollar difference between the two Android Markets is another weird one, I can only guess the high price to begin with is name recognition. Still it is an old game and they should be happy to make any money off of it all these years later, I would hold off spending the money until another deal surfaces.

In the end I do recommend it and if you can't wait for a price drop then by all means go ahead and buy it, you can always try it out online if you've never played it. There are many flash versions of the game you can try for free to see if its even your cup of tea, now if they would just bring Donkey Kong to our phones. enjoy!

Kindle - Android Market

I've read how popular ebooks are such as the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook. The Kindle has the most users of the three and it is their software app that is available to Android owners enabling us to read their selections on our devices. Studies say less than ten percent of Americans read books in digital form yet it is still a multi billion dollar industry and this app is worth a look.

The Kindle app is pretty easy to use, once installed you sign in with your Amazon account (you can create one free if you don't have one yet.) The main page lists the books in your library, it comes with three free books. Aesop's Fables, Pride & Prejudice and Treasure Island. I chose to read some of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice to get a feel for the reader on my Samsung Intercept with its 3 inch screen. There are only a few settings to choose from to change or enhance your view, they are white, sepia or black backgrounds and you can choose from 5 different font sizes.

Even on my small screen the text was easy to read at the default font size, I did however change the background from white to sepia for a softer look. You could easily read in the dark while in bed without any light as the screen gives off plenty. I can only imagine the reading experience would be even more enjoyable on an iPad or Android Tablet or of course the Kindle itself.

However this is a good little App to have if you find yourself stuck somewhere and feel like reading a classic novel for free, the Amazon store has thousands of free titles available and you can download them directly from within the app whenever you wish.

There are several helpful tools you can use while reading, press on a word and a menu appears with choices to bookmark the page, look the word up in the dictionary or jot down a personal note to be stored in your note log. I can see the last function being helpful to a student, teacher or researcher that needs to refer back to some piece of information in the future or perhaps the average reader just wants to remember a great line or passage.

All in all its a free app with tons of free content available so theres no reason not to have it on your Android.

Amazon Appstore For Android

I want to talk a little about the Amazon app for Android and its store on the internet. We may as well discuss the Android Market and app as well.

As most of you know the Google Android Market has been around since the beginning and Amazon opened their store in March of this year.

I prefer the Google Market that comes installed on all of our devices but I do visit the Amazon store each day for one reason, they give away a paid app for free. This app can be something you will never use or the next Pandora, so far the best one I got was the 99 cents Angry Birds Rio full edition.

In order to install Amazon's app on your phone you have to sign in to Amazon.com and enter the Appstore for Android. Then you request the app and they email it to you, once you click on it in the email it installs on your phone or tablet.

Like the Apple App store you have to open an account with a credit card even if you want to get free apps. Whereas with the Google Market you don't need a payment method on file. So I don't think many kids will sign up for Amazons service unless thier parents help them out.

Buying a paid app is definitely a much easier process with Amazon, it works just like Apple. You get an email confirming your purchase even if its a free app. Amazon app also keeps track of all of your installed apps as long as you got the app through their service. Google's Android Market works the same way.

I think most people myself included peruse apps through their phones and install them the same way but you can log into either market online from your PC and install them that way as well. The apps are sent immediately to your mobile device and begin installing. When your in the market it even shows which apps you already have installed although it doesn't have an online uninstall option.

So take the extra couple of minutes and sign up for the Amazon Appstore for Android, its worth checking out the free paid app each day and both stores have apps the other does not.

Oh one cool feature Amazon has that I forgot to mention is the ability to try certain apps on your computer before you decide to purchase whether its free or paid. Not all apps have this feature but it definitely is cool and helpful. Enjoy!

Music - Android Market

Music - Android Market



I'm listening to James Durbin right now, you might remember him from American Idol this past season. The neat thing is I'm using Googles new Cloud Music service, I'm not sure what to call it exactly. On the computer it's called Music Manager, on the web it's Google Music Beta and on the Android the app is simply called Music.

My guess is it will be known as Music or Google Music after the beta is over and its Googles answer to Itunes except it does something Itunes doesn't, it streams all of your music to any Android device through the internet.

At the moment you must get an invite to use the streaming cloud service, I signed up a week ago and just received my invite this evening.

After installing the program directly from the email invite the program asks you what directories to include for your music library. It then uploads everything to your cloud, you get twenty gigabytes of free storage (very nice) for your music on Google's servers.

The Music app on your phone from Google works as a normal player with music thats on your phone but once you join the cloud based service it will automatically add the streaming functionality.

Normally I would spend more time with an app before writing any review but I'm very excited about this program and once its out of Beta this will be the number one app to have on your phone along with the accompanying software on your pc. The music player actually doesn't reside on your computer but opens in your browser, still from the few songs I've played my first impression is wow.

It is clean and polished looking and has just the right amount of choices to listen to your music without any hassle. There are thumbs up and down buttons, shuffle and playlist creators. Also the Google dashboard is up top as with any Google app online so you have one click access to your Gmail, maps, photos etc.

When you sign up Google even gives you a bunch of free music and were not talking no name musicians but depending on how many genres you tell them your into such as rock, jazz or rap they load you up with music from Santana, John Mayer, Harry Connick Jr. and a host of others.

I uploaded one directory with 300 songs and it did everything in the background while I watched a movie on Netflix. I got on my Samsung Intercept and tapped the Music app and sure enough it had the new streaming feature ready to go, it just asked me if I wanted to sign in with my existing Google account and then all of the content I uploaded to the cloud based Google music server was now available to play on my phone.

There are several settings such as if you want to stream only when you have wifi or only upload when you are also in wireless range. The app also will cache songs so there aren't any pauses during streaming playback.

Google really hit it out of the ballpark with this one! My advice is to sign up for the Music Beta asap because I'm not sure what date it goes live to the public. Also Google aquired a company called Pushlife a while back for 25 million dollars and their technology enabled the new google uploader to upload your Itunes library to your cloud based locker! Yep you heard me, you can upload all of your Itunes music and stream it to any Android device you own and your laptop or computers.

The music player on the Android is nice and simple and very easy to use, it also has a widget so you can use it right from the homescreen. The mobile player also has most if not all the features that the browser version has.

While I was waiting for my invite I tried the already released Amazon cloud based version for use with the Amazon mp3 player for Android and was sorely disappointed. After uploading some music which took forever the player kept force closing my phone and when it did play I would get network errors and many pauses in music playback.

Google on the other hand has worked flawlessly from the moment I hit play. Well thats it for now folks, I could go on and on about this. It is very big news indeed for us Android owners and we have been a patient bunch indeed, so sign up and enjoy the sounds of music.

DropSnap - Android Market

DropSnap - Android Market


Just a quick post, I didn't do a single review last night because I added a top 10 list which took quite awhile. So I'm trying a new Google Chrome extension that allows me to post from within any webpage and automatically adds the link and title, so this post is a bit of a test.

I did however review dropbox the other day which is that great app that lets you share files among all of your devices so you might want to look into this app DropSnap. This program will automatically upload your photos from your phone to your Dropbox, so check it out. I plan on giving it a spin later today.

I have tried several apps that automatically upload my photos to my Flickr and Picasa accounts, none of them were very reliable. Maybe one of them has ironed out the bugs and I hope to review one later this week after another tryout. Btw the extension I'm using is called Blog This by Google, if your a fellow Blogger I think you will love it. Goodnight!

Android Top 10 list

Please check out my current Android Top 10 List, just click the link on the left under pages or click the title.

Dropbox one very helpful App.

Dropbox is an awesome application, its like the old briefcase folder from Windows. You install it on your PC and also on your Android device, you will now have a new folder in Windows called Dropbox. I use the open from tray option so theres always a little blue Dropbox icon down on my taskbar, double click and the folder opens up.

Now I can drag anything I want from my computer into the folder and it will sync with my Android phone, music, photos, wallpapers I find on the internet..anything really. Everything is done over your wi-fi and if you don't have wireless set up in your home then it will use 3G or 4G if you happen to have it.

Some other cool things about Dropbox are the public folder option, this is a sub directory in your Dropbox folder where you can put things you want to share with others, such as music and photos. You can share the address for your folder and friends and family or co-workers can retrieve them. What a great way to get an important file to a colleague or share photos with family.

You can also download apps directly from the internet on your computer and toss them in the Dropbox, these are files that end with the APK extension. Now you can click on them from the Dropbox app on your phone and it will install the application on your Android device. You have to change the setting on your phone to allow unknown sources under settings/applications/unknown sources.

Now you can install apps that aren't in the Android Market, there are tons to discover on the internet. Of course you can install any app this way as well, I find it easier to browse the net and get my apps from the Android Marketplace from my pc or find them here and there and use the Dropbox method.

I hope I didn't make this App seem too technical, because it isn't. It takes less than 3 minutes to set it up on both your phone and computer. Then its just drag and drop and the great thing is it works both ways. Share anything from your phone to your computer. You will now have the option of sharing music, photos and anything attached to a text message or email to your Dropbox. Dropbox will now show up in all menus on your device as another sharing option.

So check it out on the internet, they have a fantastic video on their website explaining everything you can get out of it and btw it works on Apple and Linux as well. Enjoy! Dropbox

End of first day blogging.

This was my third attempt at starting a Blog, the programs I tried before were a little too hard for me to figure out. Therefore tomorrow I will be talking about one of my favorite Android apps, it was my first topic on my other Blog and it deserves to be discussed here.

I find Blogger very easy to use and I plan on posting about a different Android App every day. I hope to gain an audience and if you use an Android phone or even a tablet my goal is to find the best Apps out there and share my thoughts on them here.

The majority of the Apps I use are free but if I review a paid App I will let you know it costs money. Thank you for reading and look for my post later today on the wonderful App called Dropbox.

Enjoy the holiday!

Best Sms app for Android?

Well I've tried all the major players and switched back and forth many times but I always end up coming back to Handcent sms. GO sms and Handcent are really the only two alternatives to the stock Android sms, Chomp has nowhere near the features of the others so I won't even discuss it.

Both Handcent and GO can be modified in 100's of ways to change the look and sound of almost every aspect of your texting experience. They both offer the same features as far as pop up texts (where no matter what your doing on your phone the text message will pop up to the front so you can see it and decide what to do with it even if the screen isn't on or your in a different application).

The only advantage GO sms has on Handcent at this time would be the number of existing skins in the Marketplace available to change the look of the App. Handcent has a few but nowhere near as many. So why do I choose Handcent over GO? Speed!

GO SMS would be the winner for me but since I'm using a Samsung Intercept it opens too slow for me, it definitely uses up some memory and processing speed. The stock Android texting app is faster than any of the others but doesn't offer many of the features that cause people to switch. The main bells and whistles are 1. Instant pop-ups 2. Batch texting and 3. Customization.

So while I love GO sms and find myself installing it every few weeks, I end up removing it when it takes 10 seconds to open after I hit the sms button on my phone and I end up going back to Handcent.

So check them both out and see which you prefer, GO sms even has backgrounds with animations. Think leaves falling in the background as you read your texts and Handcent has a security option that allows you to keep any threads from prying eyes even if they get a hold of your phone when its unlocked. Chances are if you have a faster phone you'll stick with GO but then again there may be an option in one or the other you discover and all it takes is one feature to win someone over.



Cool new addition to Go SMS is the ability to see through the camera lens as you text, yes it actually uses the camera so you can text and walk without tripping over things I guess lol...heres a pic.



And heres a pic of the privacy view in Handcent in case someone snoopy and we all have one around gets hold of your phone.