People are taking more pictures than ever thanks to the growing popularity of smartphones, but it has also gotten quite popular to add effects to your shots. There are a number of apps that will give you this ability, but XnRetro is one that keeps things simple. All effects are based on making your images appear vintage-like. I don’t know about you, but vintage effects are my favorite. It has a certain class about it.

With XnRetro, you simply open the app and either take a new picture to work with or select a picture that’s stored on your phone or tablet. From there, you can either work with the entire picture or crop it. They give you predefined shapes such as a square and rectangle that you can resize. The next step will be to add the effect, and you will see various options at the bottom. I will start from the left. The first option allows you to fine tune the brightness, contrast, and saturation. The next option lets you select from up to 20 different Retro styles to apply to your picture. You can tap on each one to see how it will affect your picture. The third option lets you choose how much vignetting you want. As you increase it, the border of your picture will become more faded.The fourth option gives you another 15 effects to apply to your photo such as bokeh, glass, leak, and light. Last but not least, is the fifth option, which lets you add a frame. There are 26 frames to choose from including a couple that resemble older instant cameras.

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Whether you’re a creative genius or someone trying to be more creative, you might want to check out Sharpee  - Powered by Behance. If you’re not familiar with the Behance Network, it’s a an online site that allows creative professionals to share their portfolios. At the same time anyone can view these portfolios and utilize them for inspiration.

Anyone can create an account and set up a profile on Behance. Then it’s time to upload projects. For now it can only be done on the desktop, but that feature is coming soon to the Sharpee app. Projects can consist of just about any type of creative field imaginable including advertising, architecture, animation, drawings, graffiti, graphic design, illustrations, photography, visual effects, web design, and 57 others. Portfolios can be complete collections or simply a work in progress.

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Spring is in the air folks and you know what that means, spring cleaning. When people say, “spring cleaning” people always think about cleaning their house or office, but it doesn’t stop there. Your phone might need a little as well, especially if it’s not running like it was when you first took it out of the box. We actually did a post about that last year, but there is a newer app on the scene that will assist you in cleaning your cache, uninstalling apps, and deleting  files, bookmarks, and text messages. It’s called Clean Master from Ksmobile, and it reminds me of CCleaner for Windows. It’s so simple to use, that I guarantee that after using the app for a few minutes, your phone will be as good as new again.

The interface is simple, clean, and features the Holo UI. Those are three things I love in apps. The main screen will give you a quick glance at how much storage you have left on both your device and on your SD card (if  installed). You have four options: History, Privacy, Tasks, and App Manager.

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Transferring files or links from your computer to your phone or tablet can be cumbersome. I just came across a new app that simplifies things and does a lot more. It’s called PushBullet, and it allows you to transfer files, url links, notes, lists, addresses, and reminders to your phone or tablet. Want to send something to your spouse or friend’s device? No problem. You can even receive stuff from others as well.

It’s quite simple to set up. All you need is the app on your phone and the Chrome extension on your desktop browser. Then you sign up using your Gmail account on both your phone and desktop. You will see a PushBullet icon at the top right corner of your desktop Chrome browser. Just click it to push a url link, a file, list, or quick note to the device of choice. For file transfers, you will need to use the website. PushBullet allows you to store multiple devices like your phone, tablet, and any of your friend’s devices. Just choose the device that you need to push to and you’re all set. The receiving device will get a notification of whatever is pushed, so you (or they) can quickly open it. The notification will stay until you swipe it away, and you will always have access to all your past notifications from within the app if you ever need to see anything again.

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Live wallpapers can be really cool, but wouldn’t it be even cooler if you could just make your own? With Moment – Live Wallpaper you can because it will allow you to turn any video clip into your own interactive live wallpaper. These clips can be from those special “moments” in your life such as your kids, pets, panoramic views, or just about anything you can think of. It was created by SockMonkeySolutions, which we’re already familiar with from their previous apps, Gift Wizard and Task Radar. We have already covered a video live wallpaper app previously, but this one is a little different. Because it interacts with your swipes, you can create some interesting 3D effects. For example, you could film a flower from left to right in a circular rotation so it will appear as if it’s rotating on your home screen. You could also take a panoramic shot of an awesome view, and as you swipe different home screens, you will get different vantage points. If your child just scored a goal in today’s soccer game, you can relive that “moment” every time you use your phone or tablet.

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If you’re looking for something new and cool to launch apps, I have one for you. It’s called SayIt Voice Launcher, and it was developed by Rn Software. From the name of the app, you can probably tell that this involves your voice. SayIt Voice Launcher allows you to launch any app by just saying the app name, and it works flawlessly. Not only that, you don’t even have to say the exact name of the app. For example, you can say “file” for Astro File Manager. Of course you can say the full name if you want to.

There are four ways you can launch the app: the icon on your home screen, one of the widgets, the notification panel, or via a lockscreen widget that’s only compatible with Android 4.2. One of the widgets resembles the Google Now widget. You can open the voice launcher or their own custom scrollable app drawer. It organizes the apps by how often you use them so if you don’t want to use voice because you’re in a public place, you can quickly find those apps that you regularly use. The second widget is vertical. The top of it gives you access to the voice launcher and it also displays your six most used apps. Need to open a different app? No problem because it’s scrollable so you can quickly find what you’re looking for in the event that you don’t want to use your voice for whatever reason. Of the two widgets, this one is my favorite.

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When it comes to malware and viruses regarding Android, a lot of people like to put fear in you. I am not here to do that, because I personally think it’s unlikely you will get anything serious as long as you’re dealing with the Google Play Store or Amazon Appstore. With that said, it doesn’t mean you should go without a mobile security app because they serve several purposes. Bitdefender has always been one of the leaders when it comes to PC security so it’s no surprise that they offer an Android app. It’s simply called Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus and it’s has a lot of features for the money.

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I had heard about Open Garden a while ago, but I never got around to actually trying it. If you haven’t heard of it before, it creates a wireless mesh network among all devices using the app. Think of crowd sourcing the internet. I think everyone of us dreams of the day where an internet connection is available virtually anywhere and that’s what Open Garden hopes to achieve. Open Garden allows you to share your data connection from your phone with your tablet, desktop, or laptop, but more importantly, with others around you. That’s where the difference lies from traditional tethering. In traditional tethering you share a data connection from one phone to one or more devices, but with Open Garden it could be many phones. They could even be phones from complete strangers. It’s about pooling data, which creates an open and stable network for all to use.

Sure you can root your phone or buy a tethering plan, but even that can be a pain. You have to turn on your mobile hotspot and most of the time you can’t even use your phone at the same time. What you really want is your device(s) to always be connected just like your 3G or 4G phones. With those devices you don’t have to think about it, they are always connected assuming you’re not in a bad signal area. Let’s put it this way: If everyone were to install and use Open Garden on their phone, we would literally be connected everywhere. It would almost be impossible to find a place that wasn’t connected. Now obviously we aren’t at that stage yet and the technology is continuing to improve, but I think the folks at Open Garden are on to something.

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Several months ago I reviewed TunnelBear VPN, and I just came across a similar app called Hideman VPN. Connecting to a secure VPN from your mobile device serves two purposes. The first is security. If you frequent public WiFis, anyone on the same network could steal passwords or any data that you send via the network. Now I don’t say that to make you panic. Chances are you will be okay, but being extra safe never hurt anyone. That’s where a secure VPN comes into play, or in this case Hideman VPN. After you’ve connected to the public WiFi, you simply connect to Hideman VPN and everything you do will be completely secure and nobody will have access. Hideman VPN uses AES-256 bit encryption, which is as good as it gets.

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Do you always forget to call your loved ones or important work contacts? We are all busy with work, school, and family, but there are certain people in our lives that we want to make sure that we connect with regularly. It could be a close family member, an important work contact, or a friend. With our busy schedules, sometimes we just forget. If there was an app that allowed us to organize our important contacts so that we’re reminded when necessary, maybe we would be better connected. Appropriately named Keeping Touch, from Morice Keeping, does just that.

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