Top 5 Apps to Know and Test Sensors Android Device

Android devices usually have a bevy of sensors onboard and accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and e-compass sensor are a few common mentions. But, there many instances of non-functioning sensors on the Android devices and if you are experiencing such an issue, you should remember that you are the only one in the Android ecosystem. Now, how would be able to detect if any sensor(s) on your device is in proper working condition or not? The process is pretty simple and it can be checked using some sensor testing applications that are available on the Google Play Store. Check out some of these applications that are listed below for assistance. 

Sensor Kinetics 

The Sensor Kinetics app is an advanced monitor for the standard sensors that are available on Android devices. It offers a comprehensive look at the dynamics of the combined functionality of the sensors. The app demonstrates the use of each of the sensors and provides a look at the charts associated with each of them to know how fast the sensors are operating. The chart viewers allow users to measure the accuracy and behavior of the sensors. 

Sensor Test

The Sensor Test application is a capable tool that is ultimately designed with the aim to detect the functionality of each of the sensors that are available on the user’s Android device. It displays the default sensors and shows the real time data and information of each sensor. This app provides support to Triggers sensors and supports devices running on Android 4.3 and above. 

Android Sensor Box 

The Android Sensor Box detects all the sensors that are available on the user’s Android device and shows their functionality with stunning graphics. The app also intimates the users about the sensors that are supported by their device’s hardware. It has to be noted that this app only detects the changes in the sensor operability and it may not show the accurate values if there is no change. 

Phone Tester 

The Phone Tester is an application that lets users to analyze and detect if the components and hardware of their device are operating correctly. Apart from checking the functionality of the sensors on the device, users can also detect Wi-Fi, telephony, GPS, multi-touch, battery and system information. The app also comes in a Pro version that shows more information including phone memory, CPU speed and SD card memory without any ads. 

AndroSensor 

The AndroSensor is a complete diagnostic tool allows users to know everything about their Android device and its status. It supports all the sensors on the device and detail on which of these sensors actually work or which of them are supports by the device hardware. The tool displays the real time sensor details in both graphical and text form and users can also record sensor data using the AndroSensor QuickBar into a CSV file.

Other Similar Apps

Applications that help the Android device users to check the sensor functionality are not only limited to the aforementioned ones. There are numerous such apps on the Play Store and some of them include Sensor Test, Advanced Sensor Tester and Sensor Checker.

Conclusion

Monitoring or detecting the sensor functionality on Android devices is quite simple with these applications. They help the users to understand the use of each sensor on their device and keep them informed about their device capability constantly. For those users who prefer to understand the in and out of their Android device, such sensor testing apps are highly recommended.

Top 5 RSS reader apps for Android

With our fast changing lifestyles, smartphones are becoming an integral part of us. We are constantly on the move and in a hurry so we tend to skip the news every now and then. Today we have for you the list of top 5 RSS reader applications for Android devices which keep you updated and never let you skip a single thing, all on the move.

1. gReader App For Android

gReader is a simple, fast and intuitive feed/RSS reader for Android which comes with podcast support and full offline support. It helps you read all your RSS/feed news in one place and it lets you do that as easily as going through your mailbox. It relies on Feedly and the Older Reader for serving you the RSS feeds. It comes with widget support too and can read out your articles as well. gReader is one of the most simple, quick and intuitive RSS reader apps out there on the Play Store. 

2. Flipboard App For Android

How can Flipboard be missed when we are talking about RSS readers. Flipboard has a magazine like user interface and you can catch up on the news, read stories from around the world and browse the articles, videos and photos friends are sharing through the application. Refreshing the content through RSS apps integrated with it takes a few swipes and once you get the hang of things, it become pretty easy to navigate. The user interface is quite user friendly. 

3. Feedly App For Android

Feedly is one of the most popular RSS readers that have gained immense popularity post the Google Reader going into oblivion. Instead of having to hunt down for news, feedly aggregates the contents of your favorite sites and delivers them as a fast mobile-optimized experience. Feedly is an RSS news reader that has been optimised pretty well for android phones and tablets. It makes browsing faster and more fun: the content of your rss feeds, news sites and blogs are transformed into pocket-sized cards which load very fast and are easy to browse. This one is actually my personal favourite and I run it on a tablet and smartphone both so can actually vouch for it.

4. Press App For Android

Press is the best one out there if you can shell out Rs 180 for it. The buying applications in culture is still catching up in India but is still in its nascent stages. It syncs with Feedly, Feed Wrangler, Feedbin, and Fever and they have already showcased that they are the best in business. The sweetest deal in the package is the immersive mode which is meant for adjustment according to your reading but is available only on KitKat running devices. It gives you a good experience of going through your RSS feeds courtesy of its intuitive and elegant design. Things would have been better if it was free because the apps and websites it integrates with have released their own free apps such as the Feedly mentioned above.

5. RSS reader App For Android

How could we miss the app which is named after the category we are talking about. The application has a clean UI and it can easily  sync with your favorite sites, blogs, and more all in one place. It will provide you with a notification for an update and will account for a pretty good widget too. Its UI is its USP and it is the no-nonsense getting things done RSS reader app whose functionality you’d surely appreciate.

Conclusion

With Google reader put to rest about an year ago, these RSS reader apps have surely taken the charge pretty well. All of them are as functional and as useful as the other one. You wouldn’t be going wrong no matter which way you go with these apps. Do drop in with your comments to let us know your opinion about them.

Behold: The always-available bubble-based Twitter app for Android

I don't know if you've noticed, but Android is kind of going bonkers for bubbles.

Bubbles first went big with Facebook's "chat heads" setup and have slowly but surely been showing up in other places ever since. One of my favorite bubble-based apps is Link Bubble, which opens links in floating, movable bubbles that you tap to view whenever you want.
Now, the bubble concept is coming to Twitter. A new app called Tweet Balloon puts Twitter into a movable bubble on your screen -- and gives you easy pop-up access to your timeline whenever you want it.

It's an interesting concept -- and fairly well-executed, too: Once you activate it, the Tweet Balloon bubble floats at the left side of your screen. Anytime you tap it, your full Twitter timeline appears in a window on top of whatever else you're doing. You can scroll through the tweets, refresh the timeline, or post a new tweet right then and there.

The nice thing about Tweet Balloon is that its bubble automatically hides itself to stay out of your way as much as possible when you aren't using it. The bubble slowly recedes more and more off-screen over time, and you can always move it to a corner to make it less intrusive, too. When you want to get rid of it altogether, you simply tap the bubble and drag it down to an "x" that appears at the bottom of the screen.

Tweet Balloon includes a more standard full-fledged app as well, and it's pretty nicely designed, with customizable columns and a clean, card-based UI. Fittingly enough, the app uses code from Tweet Lanes -- the now-open-source project created by the same developer behind Link Bubble -- so a lot of its UI actually comes from that project.

Tweet Balloon is by no means perfect: The app currently lacks support for multiple accounts, for instance, and its introductory screens have some cringe-inducing broken English. A little copy editing would go a long way in helping this app make a better first impression.

I'd also like to see a little more customization in the bubble portion of the app, which is clearly its distinguishing feature; as of now, there's no way to switch that view over to show only mentions instead of showing your entire timeline

Statistics Helping You Decide Between Android App Development And iOS Phone App Development.

It’s really a dilemma to decide one between android application development and iOS application development or to prefer one over other or to go with both.

Let us help with following data you easily come to a concrete decision. Market shares of both platforms give you a clear vision of trend-changes and what people really like or use nowadays.

Market shares of last three years and 1st quarter of 2014

(Others – BlackBerry, Microsoft, Symbian, Bada, etc.)

The above given table shows that from 2011 to Q1 2014, Android OS market share and the shares of forked versions of the OS, are constantly increasing. Android is truly an emperor when it comes to market share. The Q1 2014 data from ABI Research suggest that 80 out of 100 smartphone devices are running regular or forked versions of Android operating system, and of course they have access to Android apps too.

So, Android application development is the best choice for those businesses which want to make available their apps to the maximum number of smartphone and other smart device users.

But making available an app to big mass doesn’t always make big money too. App revenue matters, particularly if a mobile app developer wants to make money only through selling app or putting ads in it. Such developer needs to know that which platforms can make good money.

App revenue: iPhone vs. Google in 2012.

(Source: App Annie Intelligence)

Above given is the Android Vs iOS app revenue and it shows that iOS App Store earned more revenue in comparison of Google Play. The more an app store earns revenue, more app developers are earning too. The same data also show that Google Play’s earning is constantly increasing.

But the gap in revenue cannot be applied on all forms of monetization model; still some gaps are rather narrower while others are certainly wider. See the data below.

App revenue Gap: iPhone vs. Android 2013

Top 200 Android vs. iPhone paid apps reviews, rating, and pricing

Top 200 Android vs. iPhone free apps reviews, rating and pricing

Top 200 Android vs. iPhone free apps reviews, rating and pricing(Source:Piper Jaffray)

The numbers of apps for particular platform do also influence smatphones users. The more an app store has apps, the more it is being adopted by mobile app developers who are of course influenced with a large volume of users of a particular OS.

Number of Android and iOS apps available in last three years and 1st quarter of 2014.

 The data displayed above suggest that Android is a leading platform and is being used by more than 80% smartphone users around the world. But iPhone and iPad apps are making more money even if the market shares of these smart devices are considerably low. Google has been working hard in improving the standard of its platform. It has almost removed fragmentation and offered Google Play services app to keep its own app up-to-data even if the maker of a device is not willing to update the OS. Google Bouncer is already fighting with apps having malwere and ensuring app security of Android devices at user-end. Now there are more apps on Google Play than the App Store.

Top 5 Android Apps to Record Slow Motion Video from Smartphone Camera

If you are a photography enthusiast who loves to explore new ways of capturing snaps and videos from your smartphone or tablet, there are several technologies facilitating it. To click slow motion videos, there are a plethora of applications that can turn your device into a tool for capturing such clips. As far as the Android devices are concerned, there is no such default feature in them, but their competent – iPhone 5S comes with a slow-motion video feature. Hence, here we have listed out some of the slow motion video apps for you to download and try them.

Slow Motion Video

The Slow Motion Video app helps you record videos with the highest possible resolution and then plays them back in slow motion. This way, you can view the clip frame by frame and choose the speed of the playback as desired. It also facilitates in renaming or deleting the videos and also lets you to choose any video in the gallery and play in show motion with this app.

 

ReAction Slow Motion Video

The ReAction Slow Motion Video assists in creating dramatic slow motion videos instantly with no loss in the quality. It does not result in any motion blurs or inter-frame artifacts that are common in slow motion clips. There are in-app purchases for slow motion Speed Bump profiles and they include The Wall and The Drop, while Smooth is included by default.

Slow Motion Free

Slow Motion Free is a slow motion video viewer and you can choose to view an already existing video from the gallery or to record a new clip using the app. Also, you can choose the desire speed of video recording. This app also has a Pro version with frame rate bar sensitivity option, limitless recording time, ability to choose between internal or external storage and no ads.

Controlled Capture Lite

The Controlled Capture app makes it easy to capture time lapse sequenced pictures and slow motion videos. With this app, you can record both slow and fast events and observe the intricate details in the clip later. Interestingly, it has two modes – Image Capture and Video Capture and the latter is what we are talking about. Using this Video Capture Mode, you can capture Slo-Mo videos and normal ones and share them instantly. All you need to do is set the time length and it will start recording.

AndroVid Video Editor

The AndroVid Video Editor is capable of trimming, merging, splitting, transcoding, adding music, applying effects, adding text, grabbing video frames, making slideshow and more. There are several video effects and the most important as of now is the Slow Motion playback. This app also allows you to set video frames as the wallpaper of the device.

Other Applications

Besides the ones that are mentioned above, there are few more slow motion video capture and playback applications on the Google Play Store. Also, there is a slew of video editing applications. Movie Studio Video Maker and Easy Slow Movie Player are some of the noteworthy mentions.

Conclusion

If you were looking for an option to shoot slow motion video clips the aforementioned applications could prove to be very useful and you can really benefit from them. Apart from these, there are settings that can be done in certain high-end devices to enable slow motion video capture, but sometimes they could be obscure.

Facebook Announces TV Show And Music ID App Updates For iOS And Android

According to multiple sources, Facebook will unveil a new service today that can identify television shows and music playing in the background. The new software, which will be available via an updated App Store app on iPhone and a Google Play app on Android, will work in tandem with your smartphone hardware’s microphone. Facebook is said to be integrating the feature so Facebook users can more easily share what music they are listening to or what TV show they are currently watching to their Timelines. In iOS 8, Apple will unveil a new Siri feature in partnership with Shazam to identify songs playing in the background. Update: Official announcement after the break…

Facebook has now officially shared the news in a blog post today

You may have seen a friend post a photo after a tough workout with a “feeling proud” icon. Or you’ve seen your friend check in at a coffee shop “drinking an iced coffee”.In the last year, people shared more than 5 billion status updates that included these kinds of feelings and activities, sparking conversations with friends in a more visual way. Today, we’re making those conversations quicker and easier by introducing a new way to share and discover music, TV and movies.
When writing a status update – if you choose to turn the feature on – you’ll have the option to use your phone’s microphone to identify what song is playing or what show or movie is on TV. That means if you want to share that you’re listening to your favorite Beyoncé track or watching the season premiere of Game of Thrones, you can do it quickly and easily, without typing.Here’s how it works: If you’ve turned the feature on, you’ll see an audio icon moving on the screen when you write a status update. If the feature finds a match, you can then choose to add the song, TV show or movie to your post.

Like with any post, you choose who can see it. You can also turn the feature off at any time by clicking the audio icon in the top right of the screen.

If you leave the feature on, you will see the audio icon move and attempt to detect a match when you’re writing a status update. No sound is stored and you’ll always get to choose whether you post to your friends.If you share music, your friends can see a 30-second preview of the song.  For TV shows, the story in News Feed will highlight the specific season and episode you’re watching, so you can avoid any spoilers and join in conversations with your friends after you’ve caught up. This feature will be available on Android and iOS in the US in the coming weeks. To learn more, visit our Help Center.

LG L35: Soon To Be Released Android 3G Smartphone

LG L35 is an android based 3G smartphone that is soon going to be launched after first being showed off at the Mobile World Congress in February at Barcelona, Spain.

Here is the specifications available for the phone on German version of LG website.

Display	3.2 inch
Processor	1.2 GHZ Dual Core
RAM	512 MB
ROM	4 GB
Camera (Rear)	3.15 MP
Camera (Front)	No
Battery	1540 mAh

Now as you can see that specs are pointing towards the phone to be essentially a low-end smartphone especially with a Dual Core processor and a mere 512 MB RAM. Phone will operate with a Mini SIM and as told earlier it will support 3G technology as well as normal voice services over 2G. It is not known that which version of Android is seeded in this smartphone. Although the phone has support of external memory card up to 32 GB but it doesn’t seem that it would be of much use with such a poor processing power.

Even the 1540 mAh raises a red flag if you intend to use the phone for 3G purposes as the drain of battery while use of 3G is huge. You can use battery saving apps in order to secure some juice in your battery for a longer battery life.

This is going to be 2nd launch from LG in matter of few weeks as some weeks back, LG has taken covers off the LG F70, a 4G smartphone. image credit: gsmarena

Outlook.com Android App Leaves Email Messages Exposed

Researchers find Outlook.com emails unprotected by default on SD cards.

A Microsoft Outlook client app for Android devices stores, by default, email messages unencrypted on the device's SD cards, researchers say.

Erik Cabetas, managing director of Include Security, says the Outlook.com mobile client, which was developed by third-party app firm Seven Networks, leaves email messages in the clear on the removable SD cards. "Anyone can grab that and walk away," Cabetas says.

Android users must set up the device to encrypt the file system, something most consumers are likely unaware of, he says, noting that it's not a feature that's integrated with the Outlook.com service or app. "Users need to be aware so they can encrypt the file system of the SC card. Android has native tools to do that... but it's a [multi-click] setting and most don't know how to do that."

Outlook.com does have a PIN feature, but it only protects the user interface to the app, not the stored data on the file system, he says. "I could lock my phone with the PIN, but if someone gets the SD card, they still have all the data."

Other apps on the phone also could access the emails. "Any app on the phone can read that" information on the SD card. They don't need special permission. Phones nowadays come with preinstalled apps on them that could grab those emails."

Cabetas and his team contacted Microsoft's Security Response Center about the security weakness in the app, but Cabetas says Microsoft's response was that this was an issue with the device itself and outside the scope of the app and Microsoft's own security model.

A Microsoft spokesperson provided this statement in response to a press inquiry about the research:

Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For people using the Outlook.com app for Android, applications run in sandboxes where the operating system protects customers’ data. Additionally, customers who wish to encrypt their email can go through their phone settings and encrypt the SD card data. Please see Microsoft’s online privacy policy for more information.

Include's Cabetas says that, ideally, the app should alert users that it stores emails to the local file system. "As part of the app installation, it should alert the user that 'We store emails to your local file system. Would you like to encrypt it? Yes or no.' Even if a software vendor doesn't feel directly responsible for worrying about the local file system encryption, at least it should inform the user."

He recommends that users use full disk encryption for Android and SD card file systems, and the USB debugging (under the Developer Options setting) should be turned off.

Include says in a blog post that will be posted today:
Alternatively, Outlook.com for Android could use third-party addons (such as SQLcipher) to encrypt the SQLite database in tandem with transmitting the attachments as opaque binary blobs to ensure that the attachments can only be read by the Outlook.com app (perhaps using the JOBB tool). These methods would be useful for older devices (such as devices that run Android 4.0 and earlier) that do not support full disk encryption