Category: Software (Android)

Getting your app to stand out from the crowd

Creating your own app is hard enough. Learning to code, getting it right, making something popular and then hoping it’ll be downloaded lots is a long and bumpy road to travel. However, if you’ve got a thoroughly enjoyable and addictive game, or a useful and interesting app, it …

Teen Developers – Josh Trommel

Thinking of creating your own app? It’s not as hard as you think, provided you put your mind to it. In our regular feature we take a look at teenage developers, how they got started, what drives them and the challenges they face on the way. This week, …

Laundrapp expands. Get your clothes dry cleaned easily

After starting in London, the on-demand laundry and dry cleaning app known as Laundrapp has just launched in Edinburgh too. They’re planning to launch in another four cities over the next fortnight. The idea is pretty simple. Instead of having to carry your suit or smalls across town, you instead …

WhatsApp rolling out voice calling features

The super-popular WhatsApp multi-platform messaging app looks to be rolling out of their highly-anticipated voice calling feature. A WhatsApp user from India has posted some screenshots of the new UI and explained how the whole procedure works. According to him, the voice calling option will only show up once …

NENX Review

Roulette and card games haven’t really ever been my forte if I’m honest. However, I do like the challenge of making an educated guess, so when the guys at NENX gave me some free cash and told me to simply guess which way the financial markets were going …

CarLock Review

Tracking your car is possible with just a smartphone. Various apps will let you do it, but it’s a matter of having a spare smartphone with a data plan and GPS, plus you have to leave it plugged into the 12v charger and that alone will probably attract …

Skype on a Chromebook in minutes

Gah. The amount of emails I’m getting about this is insane. I updated my instructions on how to get Skype working on a Chromebook earlier this week and I’ve already got people saying that I’ve hacked my Chromebook or done some other weirdness. Others have stated that this …

Softmaker Office Suite for Android goes free

The hunt for the perfect office suite has been a long one, dating back to Windows Mobile. The hunt for the ideal office suite continues today. I and many others just want to quickly and easily edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint files on the go. The problem is …

Skype on a Chromebook in 10 easy steps

A few months ago I posted a method of getting Skype on a Chromebook. Recently I found that this older method didn’t actually work any more, so here’s a new way of doing it which does. Before I start, please do follow us on Twitter and I can …

Skype on a Chromebook. Things have changed

Update – We’ve now got a fix, click here to read the update! I added a post back in October which detailed how to get Skype working on your Chromebook. It got a few hits, as did the video demo, which was recorded on the floor in my …

WWE Network finally launches in the UK

Grappling fans rejoice, as finally after a false start the WWE network has launched in the UK. Offering On Demand access to a vast library of Wrestling footage, TV shows and Pay Per View events, British Wrestling fans have been eagerly waiting its launch. Access to the service …

HTC M8 Developer & Unlocked Editions Receiving Lollipop Update

When Google released Android 5.0 Lollipop in October last year, HTC boldly announced that they would update their flagship device within 90 days (oh how we sniggered). Well it appears we shouldn’t have laughed so hard as HTC was able to keep that plan in tact. According to a …

HTC release HTC Internet app onto the Play Store

HTC and many other manufacturers have published their apps onto the Google Play Store, it helps manufacturers release updates quicker and it circumvents carriers/networks for small things like web browsers or gallery apps. Obviously you’re going to need an HTC device to install this, which at the moment …

Quick and easy taxi rides – Addison Lee app reviewed

So you’d like a taxi and you’re in London. There is, if we’re honest, quite a selection of options. One company making a name for themselves (since 1975 no less) is Addison Lee. They offer a guaranteed car at peak times and pick up in under 10 minutes …

Samsung launches “Look at me”

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects about 1.5% of the population to a lesser or greater extent. It is not all to the extent of the film “Rain Man”, but it does affect how people communicate with others. This varies with each individual but is often demonstrated …

Amazon dishes up stacks of free apps

The sales and offers seem to arrive earlier and earlier with each passing year. Although Amazon usually give away one paid-for app per day, today they’ve gone a bit bonkers. Their free apps offer is running from now until Boxing Day (26th) and they have up to £150 …

Getting some grub, quick – Just Eat Mobile App Review

At this time of year we’re probably all thinking of a nice home-cooked meal. Brussel sprouts, turkey, roast potatoes and all the trimmings. Problem is though, this is all a lot of work. So give yourself, your mother or whoever a break and get yourself a takeaway instead. …

Google Maps now introduces 3D Cardboard-friendly Street View

Remember my Cardboard Review? This low-cost VR headset is easy to construct and a proper fun gadget. Just drop your phone in the front, run the Google Cardboard app and off your go. You’re in a world of virtual reality and it’s not massively expensive, plus if you …

MyRoll Gallery now supports Android Wear

MyRoll gallery has been around for a few months now, offering a nice gallery replacement app with a nice UI and it bundles your photos together into Moments. The developers have updated the app with a nice material style and rather interestingly they’ve added Android Wear support. So …

SimCity BuildIt is now available on iOS and Android

SimCity is one of those classic iconic games that has help to shape the video game industry through its many incarnations. There have been mobile versions of SimCity released previously although they have never quite managed to recapture the magic of the big screen original. This may be …

Never Fall Behind with Smartphones

At the train station today I noticed a stack of people just staring at their phones. I was one of them, and if I’m honest I’ve become a phone zombie too. However, despite how mainstream mobile phones have become in society, many people don’t use them to their …

Android App Review – Lazy Swipe

Large screen devices have a lot to answer for these days, they force me to wear trousers with large pockets, they force me to carry a man bag whilst I’m out and about and most of all they force my thumbs to stretch way beyond what they were …

Festive Fun apps to keep you entertained

OK, it’s that time of year already. Your bank account looks like a wasteland, there’s pine needles everywhere and that roll of sticky tape has mysteriously disappeared just when you need it. What apps do you need to ensure things go smoothly? Well, the Google Santa Tracker is …

WinZip now adds Dropbox support

If you’ve already grabbed the WinZip app for Android then you’ll hopefully have noticed a cheeky little addition lately. If not, grab it now and you’ll now find that the app lets you encrypt, squish and share files directly to Dropbox. It basically means that you have one …

HERE Maps is now available on the Google Play Store

For a while one of the unique selling points behind Nokia Windows Phone devices was the HERE Maps suite. It offered a truly offline mapping solution for free. It was one of the reason I always took a Windows Phone on holiday. Now the HERE maps team have …

Blow the dust off your old box and insert a tiny Android stick

It’s a few weeks before Christmas, which means I’ve got precisely 15 million emails in my inbox from various people wanting me to pimp things. Send me BEER people. I need BEER. My message doesn’t seem to be getting through, but either way this little gadget looks pretty …

Kabbee introduces a London superhero

Well OK then, I’ll give these guys some airtime as they’ve been bugging me to heck about their app. Kabbee is a licensed minicab price comparison and booking website for Londoners. There’s an app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone too. You just whack in your pick-up …

Can you really get something for nothing?

Free stuff. At this time of year it’s in short supply. If you, like me, are looking to get something for nothing then, via your smartphone, you can get exactly that. This, at least, is what my good friend told me after a few beers in the pub …

Nokia Z Launcher beta is now available on the Google Play Store

A while back Nokia shocked people by making an Android Launcher, around about the same time as they released a few Android phones. At that stage they were only available by signing up and downloading the apk file and manually installing it. Well now they’ve gone and published …

How did your relationship start?

I hate to admit it, but I’m old enough to remember a time before mobile phones were available. When I was a teenager we then started getting mobile phones, but apart from the odd text and a play with the ringtones there wasn’t a great deal you could …

That whole cartridge-buying nightmare. Sorted.

Watch out everyone, because I’ve had a few days off. This usually means that I have a number of articles where I need to get something off my chest. This is the sort of blog post that usually ends up on my personal blog but I guess, as …

When free really isn’t free

Wondering how the makers of mobile apps can afford TV advertising when they’re free to download? Well, we seem to quite like a model named “Freemium”. The word itself, which is a mash-up of “free” and “premium”, means that you get the entire game or app for absolutely …

Gmail Android app appears on even more handsets

If I’m honest, the Gmail experience you get on a desktop computer isn’t exactly “swish”. It’s a little clunky, a bit low tech but yes, it does the job. On Android it was a bit better, but still lacked some gloss. This morning that newly designed Android version …

The Poppy Appeal enters the smartphone world

This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday. It’s the Sunday closest to Armistice Day on November 11th, the end of the First World War hostilities in 1918. It’s also a chance for us all to remember, commemorate and pay our respects to those who’ve fought for the freedom we enjoy …

Quick flick: This is Inbox – Gmail revamped

OK. Right off the bat, it would probably be better to set expectations. This does not replace email. This does not make the underlying issues about email and the tonnage an average user receives in one day just go away. Having said that, the new Inbox app does …

Nexus 9 announced

The new Nexus tablet is here and it looks brilliant. Is it enough to compete on the market as it stands?  Well lets dig in and try to find out. I have owned and used both the previous Nexus 7 tablets amongst others, so I have been keen …