Guest Blogger – Page 3

Mileage: Tracking fuel consumption the easy way.

If you are anything like me, you are a fanatic about tracking the mileage you get with your vehicle. In the old days, this meant keeping a pad, pencil, and calculator in my glovebox. That was a tedious process, especially if I didn’t fill the tank to full each time.

Along comes Mileage. Mileage is an app for tracking the Miles Per Gallon (MPG) (or kilometers per litre) that you are getting between fill ups. That alone makes the app valuable to me, but there is so much more to Mileage.

To use Mileage you simply enter the price per gallon, gallons filled, and your odometer reading each time you fill up. Mileage will automatically keep track of that data for you to review. You can view a history of all your fill-ups and some nifty statistics about your fuel consumption. You can even view charts to get a visual representation of the different statistics.

The amount of statistics Mileage provides is staggering. It keeps track of things like amount of fuel per fill up, average cost per mile, and a whole host of other interesting information. One of its greatest features is that it allows you to export this data as a .csv file (comma separated values). That data can than be imported into spreadsheet software and manipulated to your hearts content.

Pros

Easy to use
Free
Tons of data and statistics
Ability to export data
Intuitive UI

Needs Improvement

If screen sleeps while viewing data, the data will not show when screen is activated again. (switch tabs in the app instantly shows data again)
Would be nice if there were some predefined service reminders with the suggested mileage between servicing.

Final Verdict
Mileage is a great tool for those who like to track their fuel consumption and cost. It will also allow you to enter service reminders for things like changing oil, rotating tires, etc. If you are someone with a car, this app is definitely worth checking out.

Note: This review was submitted by Andrew Frost as part of our app review contest.

3: A music player with a “wow” factor

Android is something that can be rooted, hacked, and themed but there’s one app that has not been themed yet, the Music Player. The stock music player works alright, but for me lacked the “wow” factor that iTunes has for the iPhone. That was until I found a program called 3.

The first thing you’ll notice when you first start the program, is it’ll ask you if you want to find all the album art for the music on your phone. This is extremely nice because most of the good album art finders are at a cost, and this is totally free. With it finding the album art, another nice feature is the option of choosing the album art. You have the ability to long press on the album art and it will bring to you a selection menu that’ll give you choices and you can select the one that you like.

3 is the first music player that uses the 3D Graphics of the phone to present some eye candy while listening to music. In the program you have a few methods to deliver the way the music is presented to you.

The first is 3. This will give you a cube feel to selecting your music. If you selected the option for the app to find all the music art, you’ll find that on your cube the album art will appear and look so pretty.

The second option available is Wall. This will give you a flat representation of your music. when you select an album it’ll give you more of a 3D feel of the music wall.

And the last is boring. Which is just that, boring. It’s just text that you’d select for the song you’d want to hear – nothing real exciting here. Much like the feel of a generic MP3 player, this will be something you’d want if you want something that looks like stock. In which case, I would recommend using the stock music player.

The Good:

Finally a music player that looks great
Free Album Art Finder
This could easily replace the stock music player

The Bad:

If you have a Ram Hack Rom this will run choppy (All 3D Suffers with RH)
The album art is only used in this app, meaning it doesn’t embed the art in the MP3 file. So if you have to flash another rom, you’ll have to refind the art.

Special Note: The app name in the Market will soon be updated to 3. For now, search for ‘rockon’ to find this in the Market.

Final Verdict:
This is finally a music player that can compete with HTC Music. Try it out and you’ll find nothing but good things with this app.

Note: This review was submitted by Alan Reboli as part of our app review contest.

Antennas: Find the carrier best for your area

If you have wondered what mobile carrier is best for you or your area, or simply wanted to know where your phone is getting its signal from, then Antennas is the app for you. Antennas can monitor GSM and CMDA networks while the app is open or in the background to collect data about approximate antenna locations and signal strength. This data is displayed on Google Maps, and can also be exported to a KML file.

This app does a good job of mapping the antennas, but it lacks in a few other areas. Currently settings are not preserved across application restarts. Running the application uses battery power very quickly, although this is just a reality of using the cell radio continuously. The application can also be killed by the operating system to free up memory if the battery is running low. When this happens background logging will stop. To avoid this, users should kill other unnecessary tasks when they run Antennas in the background.

Pros:

Record data about your carrier’s network.
Easily export data as plain text logs or KML files.
2/3G GSM and CMDA support

Cons:

Background scanning consumes battery power very quickly.
App gets killed by Android OS easily
CDMA support requires Android 2.0 (Eclair)

What’s next:
The developer has several new features planned for the next release which include addressing usability issues.

Final verdict:
If you want to gather information about the location of antennas that are serving you then this app is a must. Yes, it uses a decent amount of your battery, but if you plug your phone in while driving around town, battery power won’t be a problem. Once you’ve gathered data, export it and share it with others.

Note: This review was submitted by Kevin Jones as part of our app review contest.

Discovery Channel App – Great clips for your “small screen”

Watching TV on a mobile phone is a relatively new venture that is increasingly available as networks experiment with ways to bring the shows we love to the “small screen.” Discovery Channel app does not make any grand attempts to deliver full length episodes, nor the full breadth of programming found on it’s Cable TV counterpart, but it does provide a good sampling of the most popular shows.

The app loads fairly quickly and you are greeted by the “Latest Videos” page. You can scroll down through about 25 videos in this section with small, finger friendly, thumbnail images of videos alongside the show title and clip description. Each show also has an info icon that brings up a brief summary description of the show and allows you to select the show as a favorite or share via Facebook, Email, and other methods.

Video clips can vary in length but none really go longer than about 4-5 minutes. That’s enough time for small segments of longer shows. I found the segments chosen to be fun and entertaining and certainly served as teasers to the full length shows to be found elsewhere. Once a clip is started, you can pretty much sit back and relax as the clips will continue to play back to back with a brief commercial in between each clip. During playback you can press on the video to bring up a surprisingly useful, dynamic menu that shows categories of other shows and convenient thumbnail images of each clip. A video progress bar is available at the top of the screen and it allows you to pause/play and jog forward or backward to any point in the video as well as showing you the download progress of the clip. I counted 20 shows to choose clips from and each show has about 20 clips or so. Video clips play back in landscape mode.

Not to be completely outdone by video clips of popular shows, a “Photo Galleries” section and “News” section can be accessed via the menu button pop up window. There are lots of photos to go through (about 25 slide shows). I find that low res video is more acceptable due to load times and bandwidth concerns, but the photo section really could have used some higher res photos. Pinch to zoom functionality wasn’t available, but a double tap on a photo zooms in and you swipe to get to the next photo. Zoom was pretty much useless as it’s not really helpful to zoom into a low res photo. The photo section only worked in portrait orientation and not landscape. Also, the sharing feature was missing in the photo section.

Also found on the menu button pop up window is a working search bar that returns relevant results during testing. The News section has more video clips and had over 30 clips available. The “more” button on the menu brings up additional neat features. Here you can pull up a full TV Schedule that goes forward as far as 2 weeks ahead. The schedule shows date, show length, title, and even a brief synopsis. A “Quizzes” section reveals mini trivia games and tests your knowledge of your favorite shows.

Pros:

Intuitive user interface
Ability to “share” content via Email, Facebook, etc.
Video progress bar. You can jog forward easily by dragging progress bar slider control.
Easy to navigate to other clips while viewing a video.
Search that works well

Cons:

Ads are everywhere and a bit repetitive. The same AT&T add played over and over again during testing.
Load times took as long as 1 minute before video begins playing over Verizon 3G. Once it begins playing you will still have to wait through an ad.
No full episodes.
Most videos don’t show up full screen (black bars surrounding video)
Video and photo quality is very low res.

Final Verdict:
The Discovery Channel App is a worthy download and a fine example of a polished app. A solid effort that makes up for its short video clips by having a good variety of popular content and a simple user interface that makes it easy to explore.

Special Notes:
Tested on a Motorola Droid over Verizon 3G data connection. Video load times are likely to improve with a WiFi connection. Discovery Channel Version 1.3

Note: This review was submitted by Jonathan Morales as part of our app review contest.

XDA Mobile App – Developer forums on the go

I’m pretty sure if you’ve been around the Android scene long enough, you’ve seen some mention of the website called “XDA-Developers.” While there are now several forums for Android development, XDA seems to maintain its position as the forerunner. XDA (the app) is not much more than the entire XDA website, formatted for the viewing pleasure of all its loyal Android readers.

All of the functionality of mobile formatting are all really there. Access to PMs, creating, reading, replying to forum topics, and main news are all very easy to get to, and back and forth from. Viewing images and adding posts to your favorites (by long holding on the thread and clicking subscribe) are easily my favorite reasons for this app.

There have been some complaints about the slowness of the app and, not to say it’s blisteringly fast, but in my experience I’ve found it actually easier to get what I’m looking for within the app than from the full site. There are some formatting issues as far as tags in posts coming across in plain text in the app that wouldn’t have been seen from the full website.

The Good

Free
Easy Access to XDA

Needs Improvement

A few small loading times in between jumps
Minor post tag formatting troubles

Final Verdict
If you’re a developer or just somebody who frequents XDA enough to visit the site from your phone more than once, you’ll probably get some real use out of it. It’s a neat little way to keep tabs on your favorite developers and projects. Knowing XDA I’m sure there’s going to be several updates to the app itself and hopefully work out some of the current kinks to the system.

Developer’s Webpage http://www.xda-developers.com

Note: This review was submitted by Max Whittingham as part of our app review contest.

Smart Keyboard Pro: The Missing Pieces of the Stock Keyboard

With a lot of attention going to Swype’s new Guiness record, reviewing a keyboard alternative app – especially a paid one – may sound a bit like grandpa praising the good ole days of basketball before the 3-point line. Nonetheless, I was unsatisfied with the stock keyboard so I explored a number of options. Smart Keyboard Pro seemed like the best bet so I dove into my wallet and fetched the American equivalent of 2 euros.

This app substitutes for the stock Android keyboard, so it doesn’t open like a regular app. You have to enable it from the settings menu. If you set it to default you’ll notice it anywhere you would normally have a keyboard.

The first difference you’ll notice is that, similar to the Sense UI keyboard, the shifted buttons are visible on each key in a smaller font. A long press on the appropriate key will insert the number/symbol. Beyond that, Smart Keyboard Pro has more options than the New York Stock Exchange. Change the skin, the length of the vibration on a key press, the language, and a hoard of other features.

So why pay for this over the stock keyboard? First, its responsiveness to quick texting outpaces the stock keyboard. Give the free version a try if you don’t believe me. Second, options options options. Some have critiqued the spell check, but it even has additional options to improve spell checker results and word replacement. Third, Smart Keyboard Pro incorporates swiping to switch keyboards, toggle symbols or bring up the dictionary.

The last two benefits have conditions on them. For Droid users, it adds predictive input for the hard keyboard making it worth the hype of having a real keyboard (of course, this only matters for Droid users). The other benefit is voice input for all fields. If you’re already running 2.1 you’ve got this, but for those without 2.1 the mic button alone makes this worth the price.

Pros:

Responsiveness to multi-touch input
Options galore
Hard keyboard auto-correct (Droid only)

Needs improvement:

Auto-correct could still be improved

Special Note: Requires Android 2.0 or higher

Final Verdict: Smart Keyboard Pro is worth the investment for Droid owners wanting hard keyboard auto-correct or others wanting a voice input option while waiting for a 2.1 upgrade.

Phone used: Reviewed on a Droid running 2.0 (and again on 2.1)

Dev: Cyril Deguet

Note: This review was submitted by Chris Welter as part of our app review contest.

Opera Mini 5 Beta: A Browser Worth Singing About

Opera Mini has been available for Android for quite some time now, but with the beta release of Opera Mini 5 came some significant improvements. The Opera Mini browser works on almost all mobile platforms, providing fast page renderings and requiring less CPU processing compared to a native web browser. Opera Mini does this by transcoding the page you requested on its servers, independent from your phone. Upon entering a URL, the request is first processed on Opera’s servers and the page is converted to a more “lightweight” version. The page is then sent to the handset via the Opera Mini browser. This results in faster load times, as much of the work has already been done, but some websites may not be rendered correctly.

Some improvements made to Opera Mini in this release are an enhanced UI and the ability to remember passwords. New features include a very sleek tabbed browsing interface, a “visual dial” homepage which arranges bookmarks in a 3×3 grid of icons, a download manager which allows you to pause and resume, and the ability to synchronize bookmarks via Opera Link.

Upon a web page loading completely, you’ll notice that it is completely zoomed out so that the entire width of the page fits within the screen. Although at this point the font size is infinitesimal, the viewer can quickly navigate by swiping to a general area and double-tapping to zoom in. The address bar and Google search bar stay at the top of the page, unless you hit the Menu key. I prefer choosing “Fullscreen Mode,” in which the address bar and bottom controls stay hidden until you press Menu.

Pros:

Most pages load up very quickly, even on 2G networks.
The “Speed Dial” is a great home page for keeping your favorite websites one click away.

Needs improvement:

Many complex websites are not transcoded correctly by Opera’s servers, and therefore are not rendered correctly during page loading.
Several mobile sites I tested did not load correctly either. Problems ranged from awkward page renderings to content not appearing at all.
Some sites will not let you view the mobile site, and some mobile sites will not let you view the regular. Opera seems to be in control of deciding which version of the site it will render for you.

Final Verdict: With the best user interface I’ve seen yet in a free Android browser, a clean, intuitive menu, and fast page load times, Opera Mini 5 beta is a keeper. But most users will have to switch back and forth between browsers because of page rendering errors, which can be a nuisance. If Opera can give the user more control over which sites are transcoded and which aren’t, Opera could have all the features one needs in a mobile browser.

Note: App tested on T-Mobile MyTouch3G

Note: This review was submitted by Shane Manning as part of our app review contest.

Missed Call: Micromanage your notifications

My Droid needs to know something. Green is not the favorite color of every human being in the world. In fact, according to the Internet, the world’s most favorite color is blue. That said, I hate both of those colors. Personally, I enjoy yellow.

Don’t get me wrong! Android is a great OS and the phones that run it are getting better and better. You are constantly updated on new e-mails, text messages, tweets, and a variety of other notifications… which is awesome! But, despite all that awesome, there is one flaw to the system. With the exception of the Facebook application (which, by the way, apparently got it right with the blue) all of your notifications produce the same boring blinking green LED. If you’re like me and normally have your phone on vibrate, a blinking green light isn’t enough to tell you what kind of notification you’ve got.

Enter Missed Call: a free app from the Android Market. Missed Call does more than it’s name may entail. It allows you to set up profiles for a good amount of notifications you might get on your phone, including everything from missed calls and SMSs to your low battery status. This then gives you the ability to set a handful of options for things your phone should do upon receiving these notifications like the LED color, the length and type of vibrations, the ringtone used, and whether or not the notification should repeat. Some of the services, however, have less options than these four. Specifically, things like the low battery service can’t change the LED color from the default red, which I think is okay.

The process is pretty simple. You add a service from the main menu. Then you go into the settings for that particular service. For some services, like the SMS service, you have the option to set general settings for all of the notifications, as well as settings for individual contacts. After choosing the group you are trying to edit notifications for, you are then presented with the options you can change.

Pros:

The ability to fine tune notifications
Several options to customize the response to several notifications your phone can generate
Easy to use and manage interface

Needs Improvement:

Have to turn off the internal notification settings for some of the services before the app will work
The notification sound selector seems to be buggy (won’t select the right sound sometimes)
Control over other notifications, like getting e-mails and linking into specific applications are non-existent. Hopefully these will be included in the future, though.

Final Verdict: So, if you want to be able to micromanage your notifications this is the app for you; if you just want to be able to change the LED color from green, this is also useful. All in all, this is a pretty nifty little app that gives you access to options that probably should have been in the OS to begin with, and allows you to add that extra bit of color back into your life.

Phone Version: Droid with 2.1

Note: This review was submitted by Peter Janak as part of our app review contest.

SMS Backup: Save your text messages in Gmail, clean out your inbox!

SMS Backup is a great app for someone who texts often but chooses not to delete their messages, and saves them for future records etc.

This app enables you to backup every text message you send and receive into your Gmail account online.

During initial set up, you save your Gmail login details, and manually backup all your previous messages until you’re up to date. Backups can be done in batches of 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 at a time. Once you’re up to date, you can then set the app to automatically update texts as they come in and go out.

What makes this app great is that once your texts are stored in Gmail, you have permanent records that are easily searchable.

On phones such as the G1, memory can also be a concern as your phone fills up with more and more messages, so it’s great to be able to free up more memory by clearing your inbox, without worrying about losing vital information.

If you’re someone who has a rooted phone, and you’re constantly wiping, this is obviously a great way to ensure that you never lose your text messages.

Pros:

Option for automatic backups once the initial backup has been completed
There’s an option available to mark the SMS’s as read as they’re uploaded into your inbox.
The app automatically creates an SMS label in Gmail.
Free!

Needs Improvement:

Support for MMS. Currently, the app only backs up Text messages.
Ability to select specific contacts to backup instead of everything.
Ability to keep the conversation in one bundle and not in bundles of the amount backed up.

Special Notes: IMAP must be enabled on your Gmail account. See Settings –> Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

Final Verdict: If you find it difficult parting ways with your text messages in order to clear clutter and memory, this is the app for you! Very stable and easy to use!

Reviewer’s Device: Rooted G1 running Cyanogen 4.2.15.1 (Android 1.6)
App Version: 1.1.1

For more information, visit http://code.google.com/p/android-sms/wiki/UserGuide

Note: This review was submitted by Gareth Tiedt as part of our app review contest.

bTunes: a worthy iPod look-alike mp3 player for Android

Many of us have used Apple’s iPod UI at some point, namely the interface supplied with Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. Being a former (and proudly rehabilitated) iPhone junkie, one of the things that I wasn’t necessarily impressed with in Android’s OS from the beginning was the music player. Sure, it did the job, but finding certain songs in a thousands-deep library wasn’t always easy. Enter bTunes.

bTunes is an iPod look-alike application for Android. The entire UI is designed after the iPhone / iPod Touch application, which is one thing Apple is most famous for. From the look and feel of the touch interface to the graphics and functionality, bTunes does leaps and bounds over the stock music player.

It’s easy to build playlists on the go, rearrange the track order within them, add and remove songs at will, and shuffle the entire mix. When the phone is in sleep mode with the screen off, bTunes has a lock-screen overlay that gives easy access to “Next Track”, “Pause” and “Previous Track” buttons, while displaying downloaded album artwork in the background. Nice.

Each time you launch the app, bTunes searches your memory card for new media files automatically, so you’re always up to date with new additions to your music collection. Use the “Recently Added” queue to then take those songs and insert them into your existing playlists.

For advanced users, the Preferences list is a dream. It allows you to control all aspects of bTunes; from Last.fm scrobbling to shortcut key functions to search options.

Pros

Familiar and fully functional user interface
Modified lock screen with quick shortcuts for track selection
Fully bluetooth compatible (with ‘Mute’ function when using voice dial / voice search)
Great homescreen widget; similar to Pandora

Would benefit from

Cover flow browsing in landscape mode
Less active memory usage (approximately 30mb as opposed to stock music app’s 22mb)

Download bTunes from the Android market today. At $1.99 with lifetime updates, that’s cheaper than a cup of coffee from Starbucks – and it’ll last longer too! You’ll never go back to the stock music player again.

Note: This review was submitted by Mike Beauchamp as part of our app review contest.

TV-Guide USA: fast and free access to everything TV

One of the worst things I can think of is trying to remember that commercial I saw for the upcoming season of The Bachelorette, and not being able to remember what channel, what time, or what day it is on. I swear this has never happened to me, but many of you may have fallen victim to this atrocity. Whether it’s The Bachelorette, Lost, or a simple news broadcast, we all have at some point been caught in the dark and unable to remember the necessities of our favorite programming.

Look no further TV lovers, TV-Guide USA is your one stop shop for everything TV. This free application located in the Android Market will be your new best friend. Simply download the app, enter your zip code, and TV-Guide does the rest. This nifty little application loads real time program listings for ANY carrier in the United States. I’m not talking just Dish Network or DIRECTV – I’m talking everything. Even if it’s simple local channels, TV-Guide provides times, channels, and program descriptions for all your favorite shows. Not only that, but you can search by movies or sporting events as well. And here’s the best part, all you hopeless romantics can filter your movie search to bring back programs that would truly make your wives proud.

Click any channel, and TV-Guide will automatically populate the current showing (yes, it tells you how much of The Proposal you’ve missed), and give you show-times and descriptions for the rest of the day. Once you’ve found your desired program, simply long press on the show and TV-Guide will pop up a notification reminder. You can set reminders for the start of the program, 10 minutes before, 1 hour before, or 6 hours before the start.

What I loved: The versatility of the application was amazing. I loved how it would populate listings regardless of who my provider was. This function alone makes it more desirable than other apps that focus solely on one cable/satellite provider. The ability to set reminders for my favorite shows also came in very handy, and definitely contributed to an overall positive experience.

What they could improve: I would love to see the ability to set my DVR to record from the application. This would no doubt be difficult, and possibly induce a paid subscription by the developer, Jersey Productions. However, with that ability I believe it would be worth the money. Another gripe among fans is the inability of the app to tell us if an episode is new, or repeat, and the lack of search options by show name.

Final Verdict: TV-Guide USA has officially made it’s way to my homescreen, which is quite the accomplishment considering the saturation of apps that we have seen in the market recently. Keep in mind, this it’s free and takes up a mere 780KB. This app is definitely worth a download, and with a few tweaks may eventually obtain the coveted 5-star rating.

What’s next? Although there is currently no news to support upcoming enhancements or new versions, I have no doubt that Jersey Productions is plugging away at bugs and doing their best to drive more downloads. You can stay up to date on the latest enhancements and information at their site, here.

For this review I used a myTouch 1.2, running on Android 1.6. This app currently works on all versions of Android. The version of the app reviewed is 1.2.6.

Note: This review was submitted by Nate Peters as part of our app review contest.

Choice of Broadsides: An ocean of choice in a sea of text

With the salt spray in my hair and the taste of victory in the air, I ordered a full broadside against the smaller Gaulish schooner. But in my excitement I forgot that I was working with an undersized crew on a captured merchant ship. After the cannons were fired, my small crew couldn’t couldn’t keep up enough gunfire to keep the enemy ship away, and we were soon boarded. I ended up spending several years in a dirty prison camp.

While it turns out that my sailing skills aren’t all they could be, Choice of Broadsides was still an exciting ride. Choice of Broadsides is a choose-your-own-adventure type text game that puts you in command of a navy vessel from the legendary days of wooden sailing and iron cannons. The game is entirely text based, so don’t expect any flashy graphics, but it offers enough freedom to keep the most ambitious captain-to-be furling various sails and battening sundry hatches.

Choice of Broadsides is a followup to Choice of the Dragon, a similar, though not as deep, text based game built around, surprise, surprise, dragons. Unimaginative naming aside, Choice of Broadsides starts out by letting you set up a character. It can be man or woman, hero or dirt bag, personable or annoying, the choice is yours. As situations arise, you’re free to make decisions based on what you imagine your character doing, not just on what choice will yield the best outcomes, since there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer, merely different results. You can successfully play a selfish captain, seeking his own fortune on the bent backs of his tortured crew, or you can become a selfless hero, who’s altruistic exertions propel him from adventure to adventure. The end result is a universe of freedom seldom seen on the android platform.

Pros

Well written and engaging
Very real feeling of freedom of action
Interesting cross between a book and a game
It’s free (ad supported)

Cons

No graphics to speak of
Games only save at the beginning of each chapter

Special Notes: Based on the success of Choice of the Dragon, and how well Choice of Broadsides is doing, the publisher, Choice of Games, is almost certain to publish another game. If you enjoy the first two, keep an eye out for the next one.

Final Verdict: If you don’t hate reading, and can get past the simple look of the game, Choice of Broadsides offers a great retreat from reality, and a good way to kill a little time.

Note: This review was submitted by Adam Littell as part of our app review contest.

Zedge: Customizing Your Phone With Art and Sound

Whether you’re looking for a new notification sound, ringtone, or a high quality wallpaper to make that home screen more enjoyable, Zedge has you covered. Zedge.com is a website for users to upload wallpapers and ringtones for download, and Zedge delivers with their free mobile application for Android.

Unlike Android’s default tabs that are placed at the top of the screen, Zedge uses a custom tab interface that places the tabs at the bottom of the screen for easier one handed use. To search, just slide up the Search tab, much as you would Android’s sliding app drawer on the home screen. Type in your keywords, and Zedge searches wallpapers and ringtones simultaneously lightning fast. Choose between the two to start looking at the results.

When viewing wallpapers, Zedge displays 10 images at a time. You can mark something as a favorite, or tap the image to enlarge it and bring up a download button. Once downloaded, tap “Set” and you’re done. Easy, simple, fast.

Where Zedge really stands out is how it manages ringtones. On the results page after a search, Zedge has a small play button next to each file, and tapping it automatically starts buffering and playing the sound without switching screens. While the audio is playing, the search tab transforms into a green download button, making it obvious how to obtain the selected ringtone. One minor annoyance when viewing ringtones was the titles of the files. Since Zedge relies on user uploads, the results will only be as precise as the user defined titles and tags. This can be irritating when looking for something specific. When viewing all available ringtones (as opposed to searching with keywords), there are 27 provided categories and genres to refine the results, in addition to the standard “Most Downloads”, “Newest”, etc. This method of searching often results in finding something really cool that you didn’t even know you were looking for.

The Good

Incredibly fast, responsive, clean, and intuitive user interface.
Fast searching
Links with a Zedge.com account for syncing favorites
Easy to set downloaded material as ringtones and wallpaper

The Bad

Search results are only as precise as the user defined tags
Music search results are sparse due to copyright
Permanent ads at the top of the screen

Application Note: 3G or Wi-Fi is recommended if you want your downloads to finish before your phone is obsolete.

Final Verdict
Zedge is a fast application with a great UI that delivers when you’re looking for new alert sounds, ringtones, or wallpapers to spice up your phone.

Note: This review was submitted by Jared Haren as part of our app review contest.

Toshl: Keep your expenses controlled

Do you have a lot of expenses to track? Do you need to know where your money is going? Now you can. Toshl has the capability to record the date, value, type of expense and also add a comment to the expense entry if you want.

With Toshl we can see our list of expenses in two ways, using the Timeline view or the Tags view so we can know rapidly where we are spending our money no matter where we are. Also we can define the month that we want to see in case we need to compare expenses with previous months.

The application can also sync with the online service provided by ThirdFrameStudios. After registering at toshl.com, we can see our expenses and can export for several file formats like Text, Excel, PDF and GDocs if we pay for the annual service.

Like the Android application, on the Toshl site we can control all our expenses using the Timeline or Tags view and also see graphs that help us understand where we are spending more money. Using the sync to upload the expenses from time to time and using the PRO subscription option to send emails reports, we can really keep our expenses controlled. If we pay for the PRO subscription we can also edit expenses on the website, search the expenses and see more advanced graphs. Another nice feature is that you always have a backup of your expenses on the Toshl website if you lose or change your Android phone.

Pros:

Easy to use
Online backup
Export capability to Text, Excel, PDF and GDocs with the PRO subcription

Needs improvement:

Graphs in the application
More services in the free mode

Final verdict: If you need one application to keep track and control your expenses, this application for you. Using it with toshl.com you can have graphs and reports for all expenses and help to keep them to the minimum.

Phone and version used: Nexus One and Toshl 1.5.1

Special notes: The application is free but to have all the features you need to pay the $19.95/year subscription.

Note: This review was submitted by Luis Sismeiro as part of our app review contest.

Shopper’s Paradise: Tower Defense meets Tycoon = Brilliant!

Tycoon lovers everywhere, Shopper’s Paradise is the game for you! A combination of ‘Lemonade Stand’ games and tower defense, Shopper’s Paradise captures your real estate mogul’s heart in your frantic search for mall domination. Featuring fast, immersive and challenging gameplay, this is a game that will keep you hooked for hours.

Similar to many games in the popular tycoon genre, Shopper’s Paradise has very simple objectives: Build stores, earn money and put your competitor out of business. And that’s where all the fun begins.

When you start, you are presented with a pile of cash and an empty mall. From there you can build 11 different types of stores (ranging from ice cream shops to cinemas). You can upgrade these stores, boosting their capacity and average sale, or sell them to your competitor (for a profit!) As the game progresses and spaces for new stores are taken, you can buy competing businesses and demolish your existing stores to make room for your new luxury retailers! To win, you must achieve specific goals, some which include owning only third level upgraded stores and no competitor stores.

The free version of Shopper’s Paradise is well worth your time, featuring 3 different maps (each on three different difficulties), different goals and 11 different store types. The paid version (currently $2.99) features 20 different maps, each with up to 4 goals! The games has cute, smooth graphics and responsive gameplay.

Shopper’s Paradise is available for Android phones version 1.5+ and only uses ~600 kB of storage space, making it easy and accessible for all Android phone owners to get it.

Pros

Great looking graphics and smooth gameplay
Good replay-ability with personal rankings and scores
Free version nets you a couple hours of play-time; full version much more!
No force closes, stalls or bugs (that I’ve ever experienced)
A very well polished app

Needs Improvement

Sometimes the game just progresses too slowly. The run/walk settings should allow faster playing.
It could use a level editor for users to create their own maps and mall designs!
Needs a career mode, where you start as a sales trainer and work your way up through challenges to become a real estate mogul!

Final Verdict
As a casual, pick-up-and-play game, Shopper’s Paradise shines with cute graphics, smooth and responsive gameplay and great replay-ability. If you enjoy ‘Lemonade Stand’ or other tycoon games, you will want to be sure to download Shopper’s Paradise and start building your empire today!

Note: This review was submitted by Christopher Bowal as part of our app review contest.

Tube Downloader – A different way to get videos and music to your device

Have you ever been looking for a song or video and you just can’t seem to find it anywhere else but YouTube, Daily Motion, or Google video? I’ve encountered that problem several times when the song on YouTube is a remix of a song I like. With Tube Downloader, not only are you able to download videos from YouTube, Daily Motion, and Google video but you’re also able to choose if you’d like to only download the music.

Tube Downloader Free by Koyote Soft Mobile allows you to search for the video straight from the app. It then takes you to the results page where you can find the video you’re looking for. When a video is selected a menu comes up with options in which you can preview the video before downloading, an information tab, download as video option, download as Mp3 (medium quality) option, and also a download as AAC (Highest Quality) option.

Pros

You can strip a song from the video directly on your phone.
Different formats – Mp3, AAC

Cons

It takes a really long time to fetch videos or even preview them.
Many people on the market have complained that the app has stopped working or gives constant errors. I’ve experienced a few of these errors but overall you can see past these errors but a fix would be much loved by everyone.

Final Verdict: This app is a definite must have on any phone. There is a free version and a paid version. The free version is a pretty awesome. The paid version is €1.99 and the developer well deserves it for such a great app.

Note: This review was submitted by Erick Romero as part of our app review contest.

Phone and version used: Nexus One, version 1.14

Torect: Burn time, build brain cells and blood pressure

So you arrived early to that meeting and already updated your Facebook/Twitter account about you’re punctual abilities. Now what? What better way to spend the rest of your time with a puzzle game?

Torect is cpedia Mobile’s only game available for Android and is available for 99¢. Torect is a slide and fit puzzle game that was inspired by Tetris and Phit. The goal is simple, to slide the blocks into a rectangle. It offers 1000 levels to keep you busy for the rest of your life. I know what you’re thinking… 1000 levels? That’s it? This game is actually really challenging. You can easily spend 5-10+ minutes on a puzzle when you get to around level 10+. There have been points in my Torect campaign where I would have to turn my phone sideways just to look at the puzzle in a different angle, because I was stuck. And trust me you will get stuck, frustrated, and possibly even suicidal at times. But that’s OK; Torect has an auto save feature to remember just where you last gave up in a startling rage. There is also a level selector you can back peddle down to earlier stages so you can regain your lost pride.

The only truly frustrating things about the game is having to move the blocks around to make room, and when you accidentally move blocks when you’re trying to insert others into your rectangle.

There is not much else to this game other than a level selector. The developer even offers the solutions to the first 20 levels on their website. If you end up getting stuck past level 20, a fine scholar (with too much time on his hands) also posted the solutions for levels 1-637 on YouTube.

Pros

Time burner
Addictive
Fun

Needs Improvement

More space on board for block movements
Make the edges less “sharp” on the blocks so you don’t accidentally push other blocks out of the way

Final verdict: Torect is a devilishly addictive game that I would suggest to all you masochistic puzzle nerds out there. It is definitely worth the price over the other free versions of the same game type available on the market.

Phone and version used: Played on a Sprint HTC Hero (1.5). Torect version 1.0.3

Note: This review was submitted by Christian Dahl as part of our app review contest.

Advanced Task Manager: The Advanced Solution for Task Management

Are you a “root” user? Have you customized or “modded” your phone with better performance and features? Then you know that behind the scenes there is a lot going on that can slow your phone down, drain your battery and even cause unwanted functionality that is not easily maintained by the base Android system. Even the stock system user experiences these dastardly effects, and for them, it may be more difficult to control. Though most problems could be solved with knowledge of your command line, the easiest solution for a common user, or one that likes to take the easy way out, is to use a task manager.

The Android Market contains quite a few task managers and system performance apps to help provide a solution. However, only a few stand out and provide a certain reliability one would hope to expect from a smartphone. Thus, leading us to choices. With so many choices, where do we start?!?

Well today, my good friend, we start with Advanced Task Manager for ROOT users by Arron La. Advanced Task Manager is exactly that, a powerful and advanced task manager. It is safe to assume that 98+% of Android users suffer from power and performance issues due to applications and background processes constantly running. If you are part of that percentile ATM (Advanced Task Manager) is here to the rescue! ATM has been around since 1.5 and provides users with a non-api, powerful means of controlling our systems. ATM has been built with tools to manage running applications, monitor running services, viewing the systems condition and memory usage, application management, and much more to come!

Advanced task manager provides the user with the ability to keep their system running smoothly, and quick, by controlling the apps and services running at any given time by executing Linux commands in the background with a touch of a button in a decent GUI environment.

A brief interview with Arron La revealed ATM’s future updates will include backup features.

The next release will see a number of backup features, so users can do backups and restore applications.Arron La Advanced Task Manager

As of this moment ATM utilizes ROOT (super-user control of your system), because there is no current support to control these services to provide a powerful and fully capable interface.

ATM also includes a handy widget that “Ends All.” Advanced Task Manager also gives the user the option to exclude certain programs that the widget and the program itself will not end; otherwise, when the widget is used it kills all currently running applications and background processes, providing a very quick and nifty way to keep our system clean and quick.

The app has a free version with ads and $0.99 for the paid version with no ads.

The Good

The ability to uninstall applications through its uninstall function. Providing the user an embedded application management tool right from Advanced Task Manager.
System monitoring: allowing a GUI view of the memory each system component is using, providing the user a thorough form of finding where all your memory is going.
The “all apps” function that displays all currently running applications and allows the option to end a particular application from within the tool.
Service monitoring function: services are known culprits of bogging down the system; this tool also provides the user with the ability to end a particular service. Of course, make sure you know what you are doing.

Needs Improvement

Possibly a timed end all function, that would set a maximum amount of time particular applications are allowed to run.
The fact that it utilizes ROOT can be a negative for some. And does not allow for all Android users to experience this wonderful tool.
Not much to complain about, maybe a fresh GUI?

Final Verdict: Advanced Task Manager does exactly what it is supposed to and performs the way you would hope. It is now in V4.0 and from what we’ve seen so far, it will only get better and more powerful!

Note: This review was submitted by Phil Toohill as part of our app review contest.

Aloqa – Always be a local

Aloqa is an app that makes you an everywhere citizen. It uses GPS to find your location and provide you details on anything you may need to feel comfortable in your locale. It claims with the app you can always feel like a local, and in my experience, doesn’t fail. With a steady stream of help from popular websites including Last.fm, Yelp, Match.com and more, Aloqa brings you information fast. I saw no lag at all moving from pet info, to movies, to singles and ATM listings.

Simply put, this app is well made. You can update the home page to show as many or few channels you want with a wide range of different categories from arts and culture to weather. Anything not provided can be found with a local search, which is available. In addition, the app does allow you to set how often the GPS is used. You can actually turn the GPS off, or throw your battery to the wolves and set GPS updates to once every five seconds (I can’t fathom why that many updates are necessary but it’s cool it can be done). Lastly, it should be addressed that with Aloqa you are able to set alert levels for each individual channel as deactivated, mute, buzz (vibrate), or ring.

The Good

Customization – allows you to show and hear what you want
Fast program overall
No overlay ads!
Up to date – Had the newest restaurants in my area and none of the closed restaurants or clubs

Needs improvement

Fast food listings should include more options (although you can use Yelp rest. To see all restaurants).
A forum or chat would be nice.
The ability to purchase directly from app.

Final Verdict: Aloqa is a fantastic app that I can’t believe is free. Whatever you may need to find in the city can be attained with phone numbers, websites, maps, and often reviews. Aloqa claims you’ll always be a local with the app, and after using it, I don’t see why anyone would want to be a stranger.

Note: This review was submitted by Darius Bazemore as part of our app review contest.

Handcent SMS: The Flexible Messaging App

Although the stock Android messaging application gets the job done, it remains a relatively bare bones utility. Handcent SMS is a messaging replacement application for the Android platform that offers a flexible and highly customizable user experience for all versions of Android.

Where Handcent SMS thrives is in the volume of customization the user is given. Functionality such as pop up messages, custom notification icons, LED colors, fonts, skins and background images are some of the major elements the user can take control of.

One of the most useful features of the application is the Quick Reply function. Akin to the application SMS Popup, Handcent SMS allows users to deliver a quick reply without having to pull down the notification bar and fully dive into the application. When multiple messages appear, the user can simply swipe through to read them all. This function, like many others in the application, can be toggled on or off and has several customization options.

Handcent SMS supports a slew of multimedia message options, supports Android 2.x voice dictation, offers several font packages, a flexible batch mode and a text-to-speech function for messages with a (free) download.

Pros

Free
Available to all platforms of Android
Deep user customization

Drawbacks

Sometimes laggy and sluggish

Final Verdict
Handcent SMS is a great messaging replacement application and can be made as useful as the user wishes. When considered against the stock Android messaging application, it wins hands down.

Note: This review was submitted by Brendan O’Neil as part of our app review contest.

Author: Guest Blogger

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