Send Location Triggered Messages To A Contact

It’s common practice to check in with someone, or to have someone check in with you when they’ve reached home. You might be going home alone, or you might be worried about a friend or family member reaching home safely. In either case, people will send a quick message or make a short phone call to reassure whoever is waiting that they’ve arrived at their destination safely. Buzzer is an Android app that automates that. You can save different locations to it such as work and home, and each time you arrive at the location, a message can be configured to be sent out to one or multiple contacts...

Darkhotel APT Malware Targets Global CEOs Using Hotel Internet

A seven-year-old cyber espionage campaign has targeted senior level executives from large global companies by using a specialized Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), zero-day exploits, and well-developed keyloggers to extract information from them when they stay in luxury hotels during their business trips...

Dear Developer, This Is Why I Won’t Buy Your App

In my line of work, I get to test a lot of apps. I hunt for them, I judge their usefulness, I try them out, and then when I find an app works well enough or addresses a real problem, I review it for our readers. It sounds like a fun job and as I’ve continued to test and review more and more apps, I’ve picked up on tell-tale signs of what makes a good app. But I’m not overly clever to pick up on these signs; it’s a by-product of experience and where I can identify if an app is good or bad just by looking at the screenshots and reading a brief description, it isn’t a foolproof check. Developers are just as clever (if not more) at the game  than I am and they give me the slip. It’s times like this that the true test of a good app comes down to one thing, and one thing alone; features...

Sleep Better Tells You How Well You’re Sleeping

Scientists still debate over why we sleep. There is no doubt that we need to sleep but the effects of sleep are simply amazing and worth every bit of research that is done about it. While scientists are figuring out the many mysteries of sleep, the REM cycle, why we dream, sleepwalk, talk in our sleeps, and that one time when Professor Utonium began robbing toy stores in his sleep, we wake up to the shrill call of our alarms wondering why it feels as though we haven’t rested at all. Sleep Better is an iOS and Android app by Runtastic, a popular name in heath and fitness apps, and it helps analyze your sleep patterns telling you how efficient your slumber was. Sleep Better integrates with iOS 8’s health app...

Oops! AppLock Uses A Volume Key Pattern To Prevent Access To Apps [Android]

Android Lollipop, when it finally rolls out to the masses, has a very interesting and exceptionally useful feature that lets you create guest accounts on your phone. This guest account has restricted access and is a great way to hand your device off to a child or a friend without fear of them poking around or deleting anything important. Until it rolls out, and it might be a considerably long time before it does for some devices, we will continue to keep our personal items safe some other way. Oops! AppLock is a free Android app that locks apps you select. The key to unlocking the apps and gaining access to them is what sets it apart. Where normally, users would fiddle with swipes or taps on the screen, codes, or patterns, this app unlocks from the volume keys...

What To Do If Android Device Is Not Listed After ADB Devices Command

A good while ago, we did a post on what ADB is and how to install it. If you’re even slightly adventurous with your Android device, you probably know what ADB is and why it’s so important. Overclocking? Xpose? Custom ROM? Rooting? It’s only possible after you have ADB installed on your desktop. Now, installing it is pretty simple and you need only read our guide to confirm it yourself but installing it is really the easy part. As you start on your journey to rooting an Android device, learning the terminologies, and downloading the seriously large files needed to modify your device, you will also encounter the many odd errors that occur seemingly without reason or cause. Some of these errors effectively stop you from going ahead with whatever you’r doing and you end up looking for a solution to them instead. One such problem is when the adb devices command executed in the Command Prompt doesn’t list your device when previously, it did so. Here’s a quick solution to fix it...

Here Are Some Security Improvements In Android 5.0 Lollipop

Android Lollipop was rumoured to roll out on November 3, 2014. The new Nexus devices are now available and those who get their hands on one will be among the first to use the stable Lollipop OS. Android updates are not like iOS updates; they roll out over extended time periods that are months long, and they aren’t made universally available to all devices running Android. Many device owners will wait a considerably long time for an update to become available. This is a given when you decide to use Android but with Lollipop, there is more excitement and anticipation surrounding this release and you may be wondering why this update, of all the others, is such a big deal. The shortest answer we can give you is Security. Android Lollipop is big on it and we’re detailing just what the new security features are...

Pilot Reader: Read & Save Tech News Catered Specifically To You

There are hundreds of ways to keep up with news; Twitter, Reddit, RSS, Newsletters, and whatnot. The demise of Google Reader certainly opened and enriched this particular niche and new apps and services are still developed to this day. Pilot Reader is an iOS and Android app that caters to people interested in technology news. The app is free and very Tinder-like in its functionality. Not only does it curate technology news but it also learns to recognize what you like and save, to give you more relevant news. Like Tinder, you can swipe an item right to save it, and left to dismiss it...

Weatheroux⁺ Is As Simple And Clean As A Weather App Can Get [Android]

Android Lollipop, is out now and Material design is a very real and happening thing. You can read about the many great new features in Android L in our features post here. Material design is going to be changing how Android apps look very soon and in honor of simple design, here is an excellent weather app for you; Weatheroux⁺. We review so many weather apps that we could probably create a top ten list out of just those but each one is selected for one outstanding feature that may appeal to the user. With Weatheroux⁺, we love the design and simple execution of it. It’s used and navigated entirely with a tap of your finger. If that isn’t simple and minimal, I don’t know what is...

New Features In Firefox 33 For Desktop And Android

Firefox 33 is out for both Desktop and Android. You should be prompted to upgrade the next time you launch it and if you’re a developer, you might want to upgrade right now. This latest instalment is a treat for developers with two new noteworthy features; a media sidebar in the Style editor and a paint flashing tool. End users will want to upgrade for the improved search functions and the more reliable session restore feature. Firefox for Android is also supporting the new Paint Flash tool for developers. For End users the new option to delete data when you quit the app is very promising as is the ability to stream video content to Chromecast and Roku...

Trigger Based Profile Switcher For Sound, Display, WiFi, & More [Android]

Sound and WiFi profiles need to be changed depending on where we are. Both are changed so frequently that complex automating apps like Tasker aren’t used and instead, apps dedicated to managing sound and WiFi profiles are sought, duly found, and used. SwiP – ProfileSwitcher  is an Android that doesn’t just manage sound and WiFi profiles but gives you a whole set of other options for the state of Bluetooth switch, brightness, Display time out duration, and more. Each profile comes with triggers which can be location based, time based, battery charge or state based, or triggered by a headphone jack being plugged in...

Calc+: Edit Numbers & Functions Mid Calculation And Add Constants [Android]

Calculators on our smartphones are a disappointment in everything except the design area. I know they get the job done but most work essentially like any old pocket calculator does. If you’ve made a mistake, tapped the wrong number, want to recall your last calculation, or  have entered an incorrect number in your haste, you will have to begin all over again. If I recall my scientific calculator which allowed me to save up to eight results to its memory, I realize how very basic and inadequate these stock apps are. Calc+ Powerful calculator is a calculator app that fills this glaring gap left by most apps; you can edit a number and a mathematical function any time. Long calculations are easy to follow, you can edit any number, clear it from the equation and even set constants that can be used any time...

Clean All EXIF Data From Your Photos Before Sharing Them [Android]

Cameras on phones have grown exceptionally sophisticated over time and not just in terms of photo quality but in terms of the digital data they can capture in addition to your photos. Date, location, compression, resolution, flash, exposure time, and more. If you’ve taken a photo with the Google camera app and made use of its blur feature then you know the image comes with additional information regarding depth and an entire depth map. All this means our phone cameras are great and super awesome but at the same time, they also give away information we might not want to share such as the location of where a photo was taken. It might not be as big a deal for photos that stay on our hard drives but for those we share, a little caution is always a good idea. Meet EZ UnEXIF Free (EXIF Remover), a free Android app that removes all the EXIF data in a photo and saves it as a copy or overwrites the original one, according to your preference...

HeadsUp: Get Android L Like Notifications With A Blacklist For Apps

Interactive notifications are now a thing; iOS 8 has already come out with interactive notifications and Android L has previewed them as well dubbing them ‘Heads Up notifications’. It’s only a matter of time before they become more functional. Unlike iOS 8 which rolls out to all devices indiscriminately, Android users are not going to get Android L at the same time as it is made available on devices like the Nexus 5. Some users might end up waiting considerably long so an app is the only way to bridge this gap. Meet HeadsUp, a free Android app that gives you interactive notifications, priority management, and a blacklist to block app notifications. Basically, it’s like Notific except it’s free...

Suggest Movie Searches For Movie By Year, Genre, & Rating [Android]

We have talked about a lot of movie discovery services; Netflix Roulette and Moveinr are just two of them. What both these services have in common are that they web services meant to be used from a desktop browser, ideally. I don’t doubt you could probably use Netflix Roulette on a mobile browser too but it leaves you wanting a simple app that does what these services do. Meet Suggest Movie, an a-supported free Android app that has basic year range, genre, and rating filters for finding a movie to watch....

Horizon Will Never Let You Record Another Vertical Video Again [Android]

Vertical videos are the bane of our time. As much as we all hate them when we click play, we don’t really remember to turn our device on its side so we can record a proper horizontal video. Google Camera came up with a solution to that with one of its earlier versions where the app doesn’t record unless it detects your device is held correctly and I think that was genius. It’s something Apple should consider brining to iOS. Horizon is an Android app that takes the fight against vertical videos one step further and lets you hold you device any way you want while it continues recording in the correct landscape mode. The free version of the app lets you record for fifteen seconds and an upgrade worth $0.99 will let you record without any time restrictions. With the free version, you also get a watermark at the bottom right of your video and promotional animation for Horizon at the end...

Chat Lock Prevents Access To Facebook, Messenger, & Whatsapp [Android]

Chat applications alert you to new messages in multiple ways such as in the notification area, or a push message. Depending on how you’ve secured your lock screen or your device, these message alerts may or may not be easily accessible. Chat Lock (Facebook Chat Heads) is an app that secures these message alerts with a password. The app will prevent access to the Facebook app, the Facebook Messenger app, and Whatsapp. Whenever you tap on a new message alert, you have to enter the password before you can access your messages regardless of which type of alert you’ve tapped on...

Call Planner Is An App That Schedules Phones Calls With Reminders [Android]

We’ve reviewed a lot of reminder apps for just about every platform out there. Reminder apps are more or less notes that you can set alerts for. They can be simple To-do list apps that can alert you to a task, or they can be calendar based task schedulers. Call Planner is an Android app that is in essence a reminder app but for a very particular niche function; phone calls. The app lets you schedule calls you need to make and if you like, it will automatically add missed calls to your To-do list and schedule birthday calls. Call reminders can have low, medium, and high priority and be put in to a planned or to-do category...

iLock Photographs Intruders Who Try To Access Your Android Phone

A picture is worth a thousand words and while that’s probably gotten old and more worn every time you’ve read it, it’s still true. To be perfectly honest, if it’s a picture of a sunset or some other landscape it is worth a thousand words but if it’s a picture of someone caught red handed in the act of thievery, it’s worth more than a thousand words and at least on triumphant grin. iLock – Anti-theft Lockscreen is an Android app that adds its own PIN lock to your screen and if anyone enters it incorrectly, it snaps a picture from the front facing camera. The app also has you enter a codeword which, when sent to the device over SMS, can activate the app as well as give you the device’s current location...

Master Password: Off-Line Password Generator & Vault For Desktop & Mobile

In light of recent security leak scandals, people are beefing up security on their personal accounts to paranoid levels. Security is always at a premium and to serve that end there are numerous solutions available. Solutions that secure images, individual folders, apps (android and iOS) and even bookmarks. The irony of security is that security providers seem to want more of your personal information to improve security. In order to really secure certain online services, you can add anything from fingerprint verification to phone confirmation, implying that in case of a security breach, not only is your web service compromised, so is your fingerprint ID and your personal phone number. However, Master Password for Mac, Java desktop, iOS and Android (beta) makes it easy for you to remain secure without the hassle of memorizing any complicated strings. Here’s how...