Category Archives: Apps

Hand held device applications

Bad Piggies

Bad Piggies

Get ready to see pigs fly!

From the creators of Angry Birds: an all new game from the PIGS’ point of view!

“Extremely fun and very challenging” — Kotaku

“The best title Rovio has released yet” – IGN

“4/4 – Must Have” — Slide to Play

“Bad Piggies is awesome, and needs to be a part of your iOS game collection just as much as the rest of the Angry Birds series” – Touch Arcade

“If you can’t enjoy watching a pig drive a badly constructed car off a cliff and onto a pile of dynamite, you probably don’t have a soul.” – Yahoo/BGR

Create the ultimate flying/crawling/rolling/spinning/crashing device and pilot the pigs safely to the eggs!

The Bad Piggies are after the eggs again — but as usual, nothing is going according to plan! Can you create the ultimate flying machine and steer them safely to their destination? Those tricky pigs have a few objects they can use, but they need your help to turn these into the perfect transportation!

With more than 72 levels, and free updates coming up, you have hours and hours of pig-crashing, exploding, and flying fun! Get three stars to unlock 18 more levels! HINT: Sometimes you need to play the level several times to achieve all the objectives — try building a new device or steering in a different way to earn all the stars!

Top apps for iPad 2 – picked by Wired

Which of the 65,000 iPad apps should you download? From utilities to games, here’s Wired.com’s quick list of must-haves for your brand-new iPad 2.

 

Dropbox

 

Dropbox

We rave about Dropbox all the time at Wired.com. That’s because it’s an indispensable addition to the iPad. It is an online storage service that works on an iPad, iPhone, Android phone, or any Windows or Mac PC. Your Dropbox folder is where you put all the files you want to access with any device, and the service automatically syncs so they’re available to you everywhere.

Say, for example, that you’re a student with a Mac and you want to read research papers on any of your devices. On your Mac, drop some PDFs in your Dropbox folder, then on the iPad launch the Dropbox app and you can read those PDFs on the tablet while you’re on the bus. You could also launch the PDFs with the Dropbox app on an Android smartphone or iPhone.

Besides PDFs, you can put video, pictures and music in your Dropbox, too. You have to have this app: It’ll save you a ton of time that you’d otherwise waste syncing to iTunes over USB.

Freedownload link.

 

Air Video

 

Air Video

Let’s say you’ve got a lot of video files on your PC that aren’t iTunes-compatible, or were acquired through (ahem) less than legal means. With AirVideo, you can quickly set up a server on your PC and choose a folder that you want to share with your iPad.

Then hop on your iPad and launch AirVideo, and you can instantly stream most videos inside that folder. AirVideo will even live-convert videos while you’re watching, so it’s all an instant, seamless experience.

$3, download link.

 

Friendly

 

Friendly

There isn’t an official Facebook app made just for the iPad. Until Facebook comes up with something better, Friendly is basically the best option.

It’s polished and its looks resemble Facebook’s own style, so you’ll feel right at home. After you log in with your Facebook ID, you’ll be wasting time stalking your Facebook buddies in no time.

Free, download link.

 

GarageBand

 

GarageBand

Made by Apple, the GarageBand app is simply stunning. The app packs a virtual piano, guitar, bass guitar and drum set to record songs.

Especially neat are Apple’s “Smart” instruments, which contain preset chords and rhythms for each instrument, so anything you play can sound good. This way, people of all ages will be able to pick up an iPad and compose some neat tunes.

$5, download link.

 

Infinity Blade

 

Infinity Blade

Originally made for the iPhone, Infinity Blade has been rescaled and beefed up for the iPad. While it works on the first-generation iPad, it’s even better on the iPad 2.

This 3-D sword-fighting game puts the iPad 2’s powerful graphics processor to good use. Swipe your fingers on the touchscreen to attack, parry or dodge. It’s a superfun game that should provide hours of entertainment.

$6, download link

 

Instapaper

 

Instapaper

We’ve featured Instapaper before, but we have to mention it again, because it’s just too crucial. Reading through a web browser can be a chore, with all those distracting ads, ugly sidebars, etc.

Hit Instapaper’s “Read Later” button on your PC web browser to add a page to your reading list. Then on your iPad you can launch the Instapaper app to read everything you’ve saved with just the words and pictures, stripped of all the junk.

It’s great for concentrating, and it might just change the way you read.

$5, download link.

 

Flipboard

 

Flipboard

We can’t get enough of Flipboard, a beautiful social magazine. Fundamentally, it scrapes content from URLs shared on Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds.

But that doesn’t do justice to the elegant way it lays out the stories for easy browsing. It’s even better on the iPad 2 now because of the performance boost.

Wired.com is an official partner of Flipboard, too, so you’ll notice our site’s content has been optimized for Flipboard.

Free, download link.

 

PenUltimate

 

PenUltimate

If you come up with a great idea, you can quickly jot it down in this note-taking app that acts a a virtual Field Notes notepad. Unlike other note apps, where you have to type, PenUltimate just lets you scribble on the screen with your finger (or a stylus).

We love it because the design and overall feel of the app is just slick.

$2, download link.

 

TuneInRadio

 

TuneInRadio

Listen to all your favorite online radio stations with this app. Plus, you can use this app to set an alarm to play your favorite station in the morning.

As there’s no built-in alarm app on the iPad, this should come handy. Sure, you’ve just turned your iPad into a $500 clock radio, but you can’t pick up the clock radio and read Google News on it, too, can you?

$1, download link.

 

World of Goo

 

World of Goo

This cutesy puzzle game involves stretching black blobs of goo at geometric angles to reach a goal point (a pipe that sucks up the goo). The sharp graphics and clever sound effects are a nice treat for a game that challenges your noggin.

$5, download link.

Angry Birds bonus level for Galaxy S2

The much-hyped Galaxy S II, which was launched in India about a month ago, is now widely available in the country and is proving to be as popular as it was predicted. Nevertheless, Samsung seems ever so eager to improve on what has been one of the best smartphones made by the company till date. The company is undertaking various media and commercial stunts to popularize the handset in the market. It is gearing up for a space launch of the handset on July 15, therefore it is for sure that Samsung is trying out every method in the book to grab attention. That could be, because one of the major markets for smartphones, North America is still awaiting the launch of the handset. Now, maker of Angry Birds, Rovio is offering an exclusive level for the owners of the Samsung Galaxy S II handsets around the world.

Galaxy S II Owners Get An Exclusive Angry Birds Pignic Level


This level can be accessed with the Angry Birds Pignic update, and will be hidden in the form of a golden egg in the game. When the golden egg is accessed by the user, they will be taken to a different location miles above in space, which is a changed and a never before seen environment. The kamikaze birds will then fight against the pigs in zero gravity. Rovio has uploaded a video demonstrating how to access the level and do a lot more.

iPad 2 achieves invisibility

http://www.techhim.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/invisible-man.jpg

Levity Novelty LLC has today released an iPad app that provides simulated invisibility of the iPad 2 screen on a table or other environment, even as the device is moved. The Invisibility™ app is available in Apple’s online App Store for US$0.99.

The Invisibility user simply takes a photo of the table, then lays the iPad flat on the table or lifts one corner. As the user rotates the iPad around its center, or a corner, a perfectly stationary image of the table underneath remains clearly visible.

By all appearances, the screen has disappeared and the user is looking through the iPad as it moves. Users can even see the inside edge of the iPad through the screen, as well as shadows seemingly cast on the table by the empty iPad frame.

Dream of Invisibility Achieved
From the Arabian Nights to the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter’s cloak, storytellers have dreamed of invisibility. Magicians use mirrors and sleight of hand to astonish audiences and make objects disappear. While the Invisibility iPad app can’t yet be adapted to the size and flexibility of a garment or cloak, its core method – combining cameras, motion tracking software, and a large display – can some day be combined to make a greater range of objects disappear.

Read more at the original website

Heist selling at the rate of one per second

http://tctechcrunch.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/screen-shot-2011-05-27-at-7-50-10-pm1.png?w=199&h=294For as long as I can remember, there has been one app that has constantly held the top paid app spot in Apple’s App Store: Angry Birds. Sure, other apps surge to the top briefly. But Angry Birds always comes flying right back. But a new app appears to be bucking that trend.
After a partial day 1, The Heist saw download numbers just over 25,000. This was already enough to overtake Angry Birds. But what’s really remarkable are the day two numbers. There were 89,798 downloads of The Heist on day two. Again, that’s for a paid app ($0.99).

There are 86,400 seconds in a day so… yeah, the app is selling at a pace better than one a second. Crazy.

In total, that puts downloads now well north of 100,000, and revenues are nearing $100,000 already. In fact, they’re likely well past that number as I write this seeing as the app is also still the top-grossing app in the App Store.

So what is fueling the surge? Well first of all, they had a good launch strategy. The team behind The Heist is the same team behind MacHeist, the popular OS X software bundle. They began hinting about The Heist game earlier this year, and actually hid clues in the initial version of Twitter for Mac (which they had a deal with).

That proved to be enough to push it to number one, past Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, and other insanely popular apps. And getting to number one has its own perks. Because everyone sees you’re number one, they get curious and want to download your app as well, which led to the day two surge.

Well that and the fact that the puzzle game is getting excellent reviews across the board.

The tap tap tap team behind the app is also behind the truly great Camera+ app, which happens to be the number seven paid app in the store. In other words, these guys know how to make good apps — and money.

You can find The Heist here in the App Store.

5 must have Android utilities

Android has a long lasting list of applications that can be used for this and that and what not. I have been trying various applications for my droid and some of them have been really awesome. Listed below are the 5 such applications that I found amusing as well as productive.

IP Webcam

https://ssl.gstatic.com/android/market/com.pas.webcam/hi-256-1-f73963e1d2a95e397af40cf510f17624d331feb5I came across this application when my XPS 1210’s cam went bad and I needed one more camera. This application connects to the Wifi network and broadcasts the video.

 

 

 

Whats APP

https://ssl.gstatic.com/android/market/com.whatsapp/hi-256-2-063cf3e73115676edd923ec74bb8f17ff93570baWhats App lets you chat to your friends whether they are on blackberry or OVI or any other service. Just add your friends and be ready to chit chat. It also supports group chat now.

 

 

 

Barcode Reader

https://ssl.gstatic.com/android/market/com.google.zxing.client.android/hi-256-0-a52603e4bfdf6e9176c504ee305bdde8c5825288This application is very amusing. It helps save lot of time in case you see some application online with the QR code. Just point your barcode reader to the code and it opens up in the market app on the phone.

 

 

 

Distance Calculator

https://ssl.gstatic.com/android/market/com.gebogebo.android.distancecalcfree/hi-256-0-7ea3f3f86fc5a307e16fad219cf2df89fc09c14bThis application uses GPS to measure the distance traveled along with the speed. It can measure the distance while walking, cycling and driving. This application is just for the sake of curiosity, to know how fast you are going.

 

 

 

Tiny Flash Light + LED

https://ssl.gstatic.com/android/market/com.devuni.flashlight/hi-256-0-fbd9acaaaa348d40833d6b3813635f4e1e8cb93cThis application is a good utility as well as some serious fun too. It turns the phones screen into a flash light. It also has various other modes which allow you the have fun.

Measure speed and distance travelled with Android

https://ssl.gstatic.com/android/market/com.gebogebo.android.distancecalcfree/hi-256-0-7ea3f3f86fc5a307e16fad219cf2df89fc09c14bThe Distance Calculator is a nice app to have a rough estimate of how fast you are going or how long have you gone. It tracks the speed and distance in 3 modes, walking, cycling and driving. It is a nice app to give a shot.

Features:
– calculates distance while you are walking, biking and driving
– calculates average speed, current speed and total time while calculating distance
– “capture” feature enables you to take a screenshot of your recent trip. this screenshot can be shared with your friends using networks like twitter/facebook (file manager like Astro File Manager is required)
– runs in background and hence is not interrupted by other activities
– “Pause/Resume” functionality to allow you to save battery if you happened to stop for some time while walking, biking or driving
– gives you an option to select action to optimize battery performance

 

https://ssl.gstatic.com/android/market/com.gebogebo.android.distancecalcfree/ss-1-320-480-160-2-2919e9b7c3003bf0f87b03e534bf82f47e000bedWarning: Be careful while using this app. Numbers shown by this app are as accurate as GPS in your phone. Do not get distracted by this app while walking, biking or driving.

Get this application from the Android market. Point your bar code reader to this QR code.

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/img.php?s=5&d=https%3A%2F%2Fmarket.android.com%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.gebogebo.android.distancecalcfree%26feature%3Dsearch_result

Measure any distance with a single click on your android

Surveyor is an android application that can help you measure distances with the help of camera and orientation sensors on your phone.

It uses data from orientation sensors and the camera image to determine 3D coordinates of the object you selected and then give you the distance from the object to you or another object.

All you have to do is simply point your phone to the object and then click its video image on the screen at the point where that object touches ground. Detailed guidance have been integrated in the Surveyor application for your convenience.

However the simplicity comes with 2 limitations:

1. It can only measure distances on a flat level surface, sloped or vertical surface won\’t work.
2. The altitude from the level surface to the device should be given to Surveyor as parameter. If a wrong altitude is set, the result will not be accurate.

Surveyor is a freeware, you can download it from Android Market by searching “surveyor” or click on the following link when you are viewing this page on the phone.

Get Surveyor from Android Market

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/img.php?s=5&d=https%3A%2F%2Fmarket.android.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dpname%3Acom.miian.android.surveyor

App Helps You Stay Under Your 3G Data Cap

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/epicenter/2011/05/Onavo_Monthly_Usage-151x300.pngIs your addiction to apps on your mobile phone or iPad driving your data usage right through the miserly caps?

Well, now there is an app for that.

Onavo, an iPhone and iPad application, says it can effectively double or even triple your data plan, by compressing much of the data you use while surfing the web or using apps. The company says it can compress e-mails as much as 80 to 90 percent. The app also currently smushes web pages, app data and Google maps — but not video.

Onavo attempts to solve the problem by routing downloads to your device through its cloud-based servers. The servers then compress the data before sending it to your device. Once it is installed, all of your data traffic — excluding internet phone calls — makes an extra intermediate stop on Onavo’s servers, without you having to do anything.

The detour, by its nature, adds a bit of extra time for your device to communicate with, say, Facebook.

But because the photo album from Facebook gets shrunk, the effect for users is that downloads are faster, according to Rosen, particularly for those who are in low-coverage areas where devices revert to 2G networks.

The app also shows you how much data you use and breaks it down by app, helping you manage which apps are data hogs.

As for privacy, the company says it doesn’t touch any of the packets that are sent through HTTPS (though users have an option to let Onavo compress some Exchange e-mail that uses HTTPS) and that it doesn’t store data any longer than it needs to. But privacy-conscious users should note that all data you send on your phone that’s not encrypted will be visible to Onavo (just as it is now to your mobile provider).