Featured Android App Review: Sharpee – Powered by Behance [Social]

by Robert Nazarian on
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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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Featured Android Game Review: Protoxide: Death Race [Racing]

by Robert Nazarian on
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HeroCraft Ltd is no stranger to TalkAndroid since we have reviewed many of their games. They recently released a new one called Protoxide: Death Race, and it’s a lot like Wipeout. This one was actually shown over a year and half ago, but it didn’t hit the Play Store till about 2 weeks ago. Every game has to have a premise, and this one is based on the “world after 2012″ as in after the apocalypse. Let’s face it, none of that matters because this game is all about speed and little bit of destruction. It’s a matter of either passing or taking out your enemies on some pretty fast tracks.

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Featured Android App Review: Clean Master [Tools]

by Robert Nazarian on
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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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Featured Android Game Review: Robo5 [Brain & Puzzle]

by Robert Nazarian on
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We have already covered a few games from Animoca, but a new one recently hit the Google Play Store called Robo5. This is a steampunk influenced puzzle game in which you play a robot in a strange decaying future world. Your job is to climb mountains of boxes and crates. Each level presents a different scenario, and you need to get to the top in order to advance to the next level. Climbing in itself sounds easy, but you will need some strategy in order to make it happen. For example, you may have to push or pull some boxes in order to actually continue to move. Some boxes might float and others will crumble. You will even find some boxes that transport you. There are actually 10 different types of boxes in all: floor, wood, metal, suspended, fragile, leaking, explosive, transporting, secret, and final.

Throw in the fact that you need to get to the top as fast as you can without running out of energy, and you have yourself a really cool and addictive game. You can gain energy by picking up energy packs, but ultimately you will be graded based on how long it took you as well as how many pieces you picked up. The star system is in play here, but you will need to achieve a certain amount of stars in order to open diaries, so the incentive is there to try to rack up as many as you can. Diaries aren’t fully explained, but it appears to be more of the same, just a lot harder. So much so that I spent a considerable amount of time solving the 1st diary, and you could hear my sighs in the neighboring states.

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Featured Android Game Review: Space Defense HD [Arcade & Action]

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If you like old school games, you need to check out Space Defense HD by BeeGroove. It’s just like the very popular 80′s hit, Missile Command, with a few variations. What’s interesting about Missile Command is that it’s one of the few games that actually improves with the transition to a touch screen device. The original Missile Command was played with a trackball, which was cool and innovative at the time, but it was still hard to launch your missiles fast enough. By using your finger, it gives you more accuracy and efficiency.

If you’re not familiar with Missile Command, it’s your job to protect your city from missile attacks. You do this by launching your own counter-missiles that will explode at the precise point that you aim them. You want to aim your missiles so that when they explode, enemy missiles will be close enough to be destroyed.

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Featured Android App Review: PushBullet [Productivity & Tools]

by Robert Nazarian on
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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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Featured Android App Review: Moment – Live Wallpaper [Personalization & Customization]

by Robert Nazarian on
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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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Featured Android App Review: SayIt Voice Launcher [Productivity & Tools]

by Robert Nazarian on
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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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Featured Android App Review: Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus [Tools]

by Robert Nazarian on
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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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Featured Android App Review: Open Garden [Communication & Tethering]

by Robert Nazarian on
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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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