Ventrilode is a voice chat application that allows you to connect to your favorite Ventrilo servers. It’s the best way to stay connected with all your gamer friends on the go! Continue your conversation on the road, the train or at work.

Buy Ventrilode now, you’ll never have to miss another conversation ever again!

FEATURES –

* Support for both GSM and Speex servers
* Supports server 3.0 (and higher)
* Works over Wifi and 3G
* Great, user-friendly user interface
* Can run in the background
* Allows you to store multiple servers configurations
* List of channels with all connected users
* Push to talk button with auto speech mode
* Supports speaker phone and built in phone speaker.
* Inbound and outbound audio levels support

PRODUCT ROADMAP –
* Bluetooth headset support
* Storage of channel passwords
* iPad universal app










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Needless Facts

Needless Facts





Needless Facts is the very large collection of stuff you really dont need to know! Which also means its the stuff you will actually remember once you learn them!
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Daddy Ballon game for iphone,ipad

Daddy Ballon game for iphone,ipad

Daddy Balloon was created over many bedtime story moments by Eran and his daughter Noam. When A normal sized dad and his daughter let their imagination run wild, great creations come about.

Features:
* Read to me, Read myself and Record your own narration modes;
* Marvelous illustrations;
* Touch interactions which play into the story;
* Smooth page turning.
* High quality audio narration and sounds.
* Control over sound options.
* Purchase once and read as many times as you like, also when offline!

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Ventrilode Application for iphone

Ventrilode Application for iphone

Ventrilode is a voice chat application that allows you to connect to your favorite Ventrilo servers. It’s the best way to stay connected with all your gamer friends on the go! Continue your conversation on the road, the train or at work.

Buy Ventrilode now, you’ll never have to miss another conversation ever again!

FEATURES –

* Support for both GSM and Speex servers
* Supports server 3.0 (and higher)
* Works over Wifi and 3G
* Great, user-friendly user interface
* Can run in the background
* Allows you to store multiple servers configurations
* List of channels with all connected users
* Push to talk button with auto speech mode
* Supports speaker phone and built in phone speaker.
* Inbound and outbound audio levels support

PRODUCT ROADMAP –
* Bluetooth headset support
* Storage of channel passwords
* iPad universal app

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Wake Smarter application for iphone,ipod,ipad

Wake Smarter application for iphone,ipod,ipad

Wake Smarter is the first voice-controlled alarm clock for the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad.

This is the first app that lets you customize your alarm with the information that you want to hear, when you want to hear it. Set your alarm with the following options, in any order you choose:

• Internet radio or songs from your playlist
• Local or world news stories
• Weather & forecast reports for the day
• Events listed in your personal calendar
• Birthday reminders for family & friends
• Facebook postings or Twitter feeds
• Pre-recorded “celebrity” wake up messages
• Sport scores, traffic reports or your favorite blog
• Your horoscope, the joke of the day or a daily inspirational quote
• Your own voice recorded message
• Custom messages that you type and have read to you
• Over 20 unique alarm sounds

** Fall Asleep a Little Easier Tonight **

Fall asleep to your favorite music, relaxing ambient sounds, podcasts or even audio books and Wake Smarter will automatically stop the sleep timer once the time runs out that you set.

** Wake Up With A Smile Every Day **

Life is all about having fun…and so is this app…

• Wake up to “celebrity” messages from Homer Simpson, Beavis & Butthead, Stewie from Family Guy, President Obama and more!
• Get your partner or your children to record a fun voice message that you can wake up to while away on a business trip.
• Be a little mischievous and type in your own wacky message and have it read to you when you wake. Anything’s possible!!

** Visually Stunning Images & 3 Clock Designs **

Wake Smarter is not just a revolutionary new app that’s jam-packed with amazing features. It’s also a beautiful accessory to any bedroom or office. Choose from:

• Over 30 stylish background photos and designs
• 3 different clock faces (digital, analog and night view)
• Adjustable screen brightness with the flick of your finger
• 12- or 24-hour time formats

** All the Wake Smarter Features **

• Voice controlled – Ask and Wake Smarter answers!
• 100’s of different alarm combinations
• Choose from Internet radio, playlists, podcasts or audio books
• Adjustable screen brightness
• 12- or 24-hour time format
• Sleep timer with automatic shut off
• Over 30 gorgeous background designs
• Adjustable snooze time
• Current and accurate weather reports
• Over 20 different alarm sounds
• 11 ambient sleep sounds
• 1000’s of top news channels
• Set multiple alarms
• Shake to turn off alarm
• “Celebrity” wake up messages
• Record your own wake up messages
• Convenient reminder notices
• Back up alarm

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VIAM Game for iphone and android

It is a unique puzzle game that pleases your eyes and causes excess hair loss, all in one clean swipe.

Games like Puzzlejuice and SpellTower proved that simple art styles can score large followings in the iOS community. VIAM piggybacks on titles like these with its minimalistic design, starring circles and triangles dressed in a catchy color scheme.

The goal of the game is to get your light blue circle from the left side of the screen to the green dot on the right side of the screen. This sounds simple, but as you progress through the 24 levels, new obstacles are added making your task increasingly complex.

To begin with, you will only have to deal with stationary gray obstacles. Later, you will face circles that move vertically when you move vertically, and others that vanish with each step you take. Land on one of the obstacles and you are sent back to the beginning of the level. With several different types of obstacles in the same level, things get extremely hectic, and at times you might be driven to the brink of insanity before solving a level. Hopefully you won’t go insane playing this game, but if you do, plug in your headphones and listen to the soothing background music.

However, the controls are the one thing detracting from the clean art style and difficult levels. At the bottom of the screen there are four arrows for movement: vertical movement on the left, and horizontal movement on the right. This layout works well enough, but there is some delay after you push a button before you can make another move. This delay forces you to play at a slower pace, and it makes things frustrating, especially after failing a level multiple times.

Apart from the controls, VIAM is a solid puzzle game. Achievements and leaderboards are included through Game Center, with achievements for completing each level, and leaderboards to see who completed the levels in the fewest number of moves. Even with the leaderboards, VIAM’s replay value isn’t great. More levels definitely need to be added, and a few new obstacle types wouldn’t hurt either.

With its crisp art style and simple yet challenging gameplay, VIAM is an engaging experience. While the puzzle masters among us might have little difficulty completing the levels, the rest of us will have quite the time scrambling our way through. If the developer continues to support the title and provide new levels, I can see VIAM building a strong following of gamers. Until then, see how long it takes you to beat all 24 levels.

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InstaCC Application for iphone, android

InstaCC Application for iphone, android





This app is similar to Idea Mix, another daily picture idea app, though this one is definitely a better package.

Sign into the app with your Instagram account. You will see a calendar view by month, with previous Instagram pictures on each day they were created.

If you have multiple pictures for one day, just the first one in the set is shown, though you can tap the day to see the others. Selecting the picture within this shows you how many tags you’ve attached to it, as well as how many comments and likes it received.

Selecting the lightbulb at the bottom of the screen will bring up the list of challenges. Three sets of challenges are offered, though two of them are in-app purchases. The “Just a beginning” set is free, and offers challenges with topics such as love, nature, and colors. Each challenge varies with the number of days to complete it.

Accepting a challenge will populate your camera icon with the required element for the day. You can either choose to take a picture that will tag with the relevant information or just take a picture.

Either way, the app will launch you into Instagram, where you can apply those retro filters that make them so Instagrammy. I’ll tell you one thing, your photos definitely receive a lot more attention if you post them with the InstaCC tags.

A smiley face will appear next to your challenge upon completion. Though if you’re short on ideas, you can always select the arrow to the side to pull a mosaic of other users’ photos. Touch anywhere on the mosaic to refresh it with more pictures.

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Triple Town Game for Iphone,ipad

Triple Town Game for Iphone,ipad





A deceptive little beast of a puzzler, Triple Town lures you close and sinks its teeth in before demanding you feed it more of your hard-earned cash. This clever hybrid of match-three puzzles and settlement planning gameplay from Spry Fox is insidiously addictive, but poorly conceived micro-transactions soon suck all the joy out of the experience.

Your quest to develop the biggest town possible starts with plunking down shrubs, trees, roaming bears, and other randomized objects into open squares on the land grid. Matching three of the same resource crafts a more valuable object and frees up crucial space on the playing field. Combining three trees produces a house, for example, earning your more points toward your town construction goal.

A lot of strategy comes into play in planning your expansions to keep the lot from locking up, and the gameplay is a blast once you build into a steady rhythm. Unfortunately, this is right about when everything grinds to a halt and you’re forced to spend an extra $4 to unlock more turns and additional content to keep playing. You can sit and wait for your turn quota to slowly regenerate, but by that point the game’s luster fades away.

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GroupMe Android Application

GroupMe Android Application

GroupMe is a free app that allows you to message multiple people at once. I know what you're thinking: Yes, you can already text-message multiple people at once--all you have to do is add multiple numbers to the 'To:' field in your texting app (even non-smartphones have this ability). GroupMe is different, though. Instead of just letting you send messages to multiple people, it also allows you to have a group conversation.

Let me explain. When you text multiple people at once, all you're really doing is sending the same message to a bunch of different recipients. However, if any of those people text you back, then their response goes only to you--text messages don't have a 'Reply All' button.

GroupMe is like a default Reply All button. GroupMe sets up a dedicated number for each texting conversation, so when you text multiple people at once, they get a text message from that number. Then, when they reply to the text message, their reply goes to everyone in your GroupMe conversation. So it's like a group-chatting app, except via text message.

Your friends don't have to have GroupMe installed for it to work--which is a good thing, because it means that people who don't have smartphones can also partake in the fun. Only the conversation starter needs to have GroupMe installed. However, if you want to message someone directly through GroupMe, the recipient of the message will need to have the app installed on their phone.

GroupMe isn't just about texting, though; it also has conference calling, a mapping service (which gives the approximate locations of the other chat participants), and a still-in-beta 'Ask a Question' feature.

GroupMe's main screen looks like a texting app--it has all of your grouped conversations, a search button, a prominent 'Start a Group' button, and buttons for Home, Contacts, Featured, and News. The Featured button takes you to a list of GroupMe "partners" (such as the TV show Dexter and the artist Ke$ha) and lets you start groups focused on said partners. The News tab is just a random newsfeed of sorts.

Starting a group is as easy as pressing the green plus button at the bottom of the home screen and adding a couple of worthy contacts. Message them once, and your contacts receive a couple of texts, including a note declaring that they have been added to a group, as well as a list who else is in the group with them. Any member of the group can start a conference call by dialing the phone number your group has been assigned for the duration of your group conversation.

The original conversation starter can also disband the group--but once a group is disbanded, its private group number ceases to exist.

GroupMe is an innovative way to get multiple people involved in one conversation. It can be annoying to have your phone constantly go off whenever someone replies to the group, but the tool and service are great if you're trying to get a group of people together to meet, or if you have a bunch of friends who really love to talk to one another.

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GroupMe Android Application

GroupMe Android Application

GroupMe is a free app that allows you to message multiple people at once. I know what you're thinking: Yes, you can already text-message multiple people at once--all you have to do is add multiple numbers to the 'To:' field in your texting app (even non-smartphones have this ability). GroupMe is different, though. Instead of just letting you send messages to multiple people, it also allows you to have a group conversation.

Let me explain. When you text multiple people at once, all you're really doing is sending the same message to a bunch of different recipients. However, if any of those people text you back, then their response goes only to you--text messages don't have a 'Reply All' button.

GroupMe is like a default Reply All button. GroupMe sets up a dedicated number for each texting conversation, so when you text multiple people at once, they get a text message from that number. Then, when they reply to the text message, their reply goes to everyone in your GroupMe conversation. So it's like a group-chatting app, except via text message.

Your friends don't have to have GroupMe installed for it to work--which is a good thing, because it means that people who don't have smartphones can also partake in the fun. Only the conversation starter needs to have GroupMe installed. However, if you want to message someone directly through GroupMe, the recipient of the message will need to have the app installed on their phone.

GroupMe isn't just about texting, though; it also has conference calling, a mapping service (which gives the approximate locations of the other chat participants), and a still-in-beta 'Ask a Question' feature.

GroupMe's main screen looks like a texting app--it has all of your grouped conversations, a search button, a prominent 'Start a Group' button, and buttons for Home, Contacts, Featured, and News. The Featured button takes you to a list of GroupMe "partners" (such as the TV show Dexter and the artist Ke$ha) and lets you start groups focused on said partners. The News tab is just a random newsfeed of sorts.

Starting a group is as easy as pressing the green plus button at the bottom of the home screen and adding a couple of worthy contacts. Message them once, and your contacts receive a couple of texts, including a note declaring that they have been added to a group, as well as a list who else is in the group with them. Any member of the group can start a conference call by dialing the phone number your group has been assigned for the duration of your group conversation.

The original conversation starter can also disband the group--but once a group is disbanded, its private group number ceases to exist.

GroupMe is an innovative way to get multiple people involved in one conversation. It can be annoying to have your phone constantly go off whenever someone replies to the group, but the tool and service are great if you're trying to get a group of people together to meet, or if you have a bunch of friends who really love to talk to one another.

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OneMediaHub Android Application

OneMediaHub Android Application

You can find quite a few cloud backup services for Android phones out there, but Funambol’s OneMediaHub has a few extra tweaks that make organizing and securing your digital content that much easier.

OneMediaHub isn’t a new app so much as it is a rebranding of a cloud service that has been around for Android and iOS phones. Previously called MyFunambol, the app is sold as a white-label service to carriers and device makers all over the world. Since it is open-source, manufacturers and carriers can tweak its appearance and features to align with their branding. The app is also available as a free download in the Google Play Store, and that is the version this review covers.

Setting up OneMediaHub is a cinch. After you download the app, it asks you to create a OneMediaHub account. Then, it takes you to the OneMediaHub app homepage, where the app will perform its initial sync with your phone’s content. While your phone is syncing, you can sign in to your OneMediaHub account on your PC; from there, you can start syncing your multiple social media accounts to your OneMediaHub account. For instance, you can sync your Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube accounts so that you can send photos from OneMediaHub to them. Also, when you add your Facebook account, your friends' profile photos pop up in your address book.

Syncing my contacts from Gmail was a messy process, as I got duplicate entries for multiple people. For one person, I had three entries with the same Gmail address and email info for each. I’m not sure why the entry duplicated, since I don't have duplicates for that person on my Gmail account. It is easy to delete contact entries via the OneMediaHub website, however, so I was able to clean up my contact list pretty quickly. Still, it was an annoying extra step to take.

If you wish to sync your Outlook contacts, you must first download the Funambol Windows/Outlook sync app from the OneMediaHub portal (you’ll see a 'Download OneMediaHub app for Windows' link). After you download that app to your PC, your Outlook PIM data (contacts, calendars, tasks, and the like) will sync to your cloud account. You can do the same if you have a Mac; just download the OneMediaHub for Mac program, and you’ll be able to sync your Mac Address Book with your account.

One other thing to note is that you can’t back up MMS and SMS messages. Honestly, I don’t really see the need for such a feature, as I tend not to text important information, but some people might find this omission to be a weakness.

A new feature of OneMediaHub is a “timeline view,” which lets you see your media in chronological order. Sort of like the Facebook profile timeline, the OneMediaHub view lists your photos in order of when you took them, and shows your music and videos by when you first acquired them. You can either download this media to your phone or stream it over Wi-Fi or your cellular network.

For organizing and sharing photos and videos, OneMediaHub is a useful, easy-to-navigate application. In my experience, however, contacts were a little more difficult to manage. OneMediaHub is a free service, but it gives you only 150MB of storage. You can upgrade to 5GB of storage for $35 for one year, or to 50GB of storage for $100 for one year.

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Hipster Application for Android

Hipster Application for Android

If you took a picture on your smartphone but nobody sees it, did you really take it? Hipster lets you solve that particular philosophical dilemma by offering a simple way to customize an image into a funky digital postcard and upload it for the world to marvel at.

To get started with Hipster, you'll need a picture that you want to customize. You can either take a new picture--using whichever camera app you have installed--or you can choose a picture from your gallery. Once you have an image to work with, you pick a look: Hipster contains a long list of preset styles, each with its own color effect and frame. Each preset has space for a caption which, by default, contains your location. You can easily edit the caption, and your text will carry through all of the presets as you pick and choose the one that's right for you.

Despite its variety of styles, image customization in Hipster ends up feeling limited. You can't mix and match frames or styles, and you can't control how the text looks on an image.

On the plus side, Hipster's community is fun and active. Both the app and the Hipster.com website contain a gallery where you can view and comment on other people's public photos. Several of the photographs I came across in the gallery looked quite beautiful, and you can spend a fair amount of time browsing the works of other Hipster savants. From the Hipster app, you can comment on images, follow other users, or "like" photographs--the same basic things you can do on the Hipster website.

Hipster may not rival other image processing apps for power and flexibility, but its vibrant community makes it a fun choice for sharing photos, and for looking at beautiful, spontaneous pictures from all over the world.

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Speaktoit Assistant Android Application

Speaktoit Assistant is an Android app that in many ways resembles Apple's Siri for iphone4s. It acts as a virtual assistant that can respond to voice commands and perform Web searches and other simple tasks. You can use Speaktoit Assistant to launch apps, find contacts, compose email or text messages, create calendar events, give directions, and more.

Speaktoit Assistant uses Google's voice transcription service to understand your spoken commands. The app lets you choose from among several iSpeech voices, all of which sound a bit more natural than Google's robotic-sounding text-to-speech (TTS) service. I ended up settling on a female voice with a British accent that I found quite pleasant and easy to understand.

The app has a fun feature that allows you to design a custom avatar for your assistant. The avatar doesn't do anything functional, but it does give the app a bit more personality and puts a face on screen to go along with the app's voice.

Speaktoit Assistant is easy to use: Simply press the onscreen microphone and tell the app what you'd like it to do. Like Siri, Speaktoit Assistant has a sassy personality and will occasionally offer somewhat snarky responses.

But even though Speaktoit Assistant is one of the best and most versatile voice-powered apps I've used, it had some hiccups and limitations. At times I had to repeat my commands multiple times or manually type them in, in order for Speaktoit Assistant to understand me. Also, the app could not read email or text messages aloud--a feature I had hoped would be included.

Still, overall, Speaktoit Assistant is a good voice-controlled app that supports a fair amount of integration with other Android apps. If you want a Siri-like app on your 'droid, this is one of your better options. Though Speaktoit Assistant doesn't work as a truly hands-free means to control your phone, it's a step in the right direction.

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GasBuddy Android Application

GasBuddy Android Application

The days of cheap gasoline may be gone for good, but the free GasBuddy app for Android can help you find the best fuel deals in town. GasBuddy is very easy to use: The app uses your GPS location to search for nearby gas stations, then returns a list that you can sort by price or distance. The list is conveniently organized into tabs for Regular, Mid-Grade, and Premium gasoline, as well as Diesel fuel. Clicking on an item gives you more details such as the gas station's phone number, services offered, and directions to help you get there.

You can also switch to a view that shows the gas stations and their prices as thumbnails on a map, relative to your current position. Click a thumbnail to go to a page with more details about the gas station. I prefer the map view because to me it feels more visually intuitive than the list view.

GasBuddy has some other nice features like the ability to filter results by gas station brand, toggle between metric and imperial distance units, save searches, and save individual gas stations as Favorites.

I tested GasBuddy in Oakland, CA and soon discovered a spread of 32 cents per gallon between the cheapest and most expensive gas stations in my area (a radius of approximately five miles). That means that I could save as much as $3.84 the very first time I fill a 12-gallon gas tank. Think about it. Here is a free app that actually can save you a significant amount of money on a recurring expense. How awesome is that?

GasBuddy uses crowd-sourced reports from users to provide up-to-date prices, and each price listing also shows how recent the price report is. If you register an account with GasBuddy, you can join in on reporting gas prices for a chance to win a $250 gas card. It's worth noting that you can also log in to gasbuddy online with any Web browser to access your Favorites and saved searches. It's definitely worth checking out, as the Website has some interesting features, like regional and national gas price “heat maps,” that complement the mobile app nicely.

I uninstall many apps after I review them, but I like GasBuddy so much that I plan to keep it on my phone. The only thing it lacks is the ability for a user to rate or review an individual gas station. Such a feature could be helpful to warn other users of potential problems such as poor service, unsafe conditions, or bad gasoline.

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DroidWall Android Firewall

DroidWall Android Firewall

I review a lot of Android apps: Many of them are junk, some are so-so, and a small number are great, providing functionality that should be included in every Android device. DroidWall is among the elite few. Why? Because DroidWall allows you to specify which apps can access the Internet--giving you more control over your phone and enabling you to protect yourself against unauthorized data connections.

Unfortunately, many apps misuse their permissions in order to upload your contacts list without asking, report your physical location to third-party advertisers, or abet other invasions of privacy. DroidWall puts the power back into your hands. The app's simple dashboard controls how your installed apps can access the Internet. Each app is listed with two checkboxes: One is for Wi-Fi data access (useful for keeping apps that use a lot of data from eating up your cellular data), and the other is for cellular data. Check the box to allow access; leave it blank to deny access. When you're done, activate the firewall.

Of course, many apps (for example, your Web browser) have legitimate reasons to access the Internet. Blocking these apps may cause them to behave erratically or may prevent them from working altogether. If an app doesn't have any obvious legitimate reason to connect to the Internet, however, you can probably block it without adverse effects. If you do experience problems, you can always go back into DroidWall and re-enable an app's network connection if you must--or turn off the firewall entirely if you don't plan on using it.

It's worth noting that many free apps rely on in-app advertising for revenue. In such cases, the app may try to connect to the Internet in order to serve up advertisements. Using DroidWall to block the app will block the ads--but it will also block the app developer's revenue stream. On the other hand, many advertisers track your location and other information, and DroidWall can put a stop to that unwelcome behavior.

The privacy and security benefits of DroidWall are comparable to desktop PC firewall and justify the effort it takes to root your phone.

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Minecraft Pocket Edition game

Minecraft Pocket Edition game

Minecraft Pocket Edition is a smooth port of the PC game, with a few modifications to make it work on Android.

When you boot up Minecraft PE, it allows you to choose a game mode: Creative or Survival. In Creative mode, the goal of the game is to build, build, and build some more. You can fly around by double-tapping the jump button, and nothing impedes you from building to your heart's content. In Survival mode, you have a more defined objective, which is to stay alive by eating sheep and killing zombies, while, of course, building things. Survival mode also brings a day/night cycle similar to the one in the desktop version of Minecraft.

Gameplay in Minecraft PE is simple. In the lower-left corner, you get a virtual directional pad with arrow keys and a middle button for jumping. You'll rarely use the jump button (except to fly), because your character automatically jumps up to the next block. To look around (or change the direction you're facing), you can tap and drag anywhere on the screen.

At the bottom of the screen are three buttons that let you select building materials, as well as a button with an ellipsis on it. You tap the ellipsis button to access more building materials, including doors, ladders, and water.

Minecraft PE makes placing and destroying blocks easier than regular desktop Minecraft does. To place a block, simply choose the building material you want to use, and tap anywhere on the screen. To destroy a block, just tap it and hold your finger down; a circle will appear, and when that circle fills up, the block will explode.

In Creative mode, you have access to unlimited materials, so you don't have to worry about harvesting or mining. In Survival mode, you get survival tools (such as shovels and weapons), and you still have access to an unlimited supply of most materials. Some materials--such as mushrooms, flowers, and bamboo--require harvesting, however.

When Minecraft PE first came out, it featured only Creative mode--which, while fun, limited the game to block artists. With the addition of Survival mode, though, the game now caters to artists and traditional goal-oriented gamers alike.

The game's graphics render smoothly and look good (though there's not much to say about a retro-styled game that consists of blocks). The game world is a little small, and you'll find yourself reaching its borders fairly quickly. The title offers no real online multiplayer mode, but it does allow you to play with friends over a local Wi-Fi network. Options are pretty basic, though you can invert the Y-axis and switch the virtual d-pad over to the right side of the screen, if you desire.

Minecraft PE provides a nice balance between the classic desktop version of the game and optimization for a mobile platform. The general performance is excellent, the game doesn't drain a phone's battery too quickly, and the controls are accurate. If you've been looking for a way to play Minecraft while on the go, the Pocket Edition for Android is worth every penny.

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Lookout Mobile Security Application

Lookout Mobile Security Application

Lookout Security & Antivirus provides free security protection, contacts backup, and remote locating and screaming for both phones and tablets. The app requires you to create a free Lookout account, which can be accessed by going to mylookout.com and signing in with your account credentials. Upgrading to a premium account ($2.99/m or $29.99/yr) adds safe browsing, a privacy advisor, backup of pictures and call history, and remote locking and wiping.

The security protection automatically scans apps you install and update and (optionally) new files for viruses and malware. By default it also performs a full scan weekly, which you can schedule for a particular time or day, or turn off if desired.

The backup feature saves your contacts and, if you have a premium account, your pictures and call history to your online account. There you can view them and restore them to the same device should you accidentally erase your data. Premium account holders can choose to restore their data to another tablet or phone, a handy feature if you're migrating to a new device.. Lookout makes backups daily by default, though you can adjust the frequency in the settings menu.

The missing device feature lets you remotely control your device from your online account. By logging in to the Lookout website, you can locate your phone or tablet on a Google Map or make it scream so you can find it even if the device volume is set to low or silent. If you have a premium account, you can remotely lock your tablet or phone to prevent someone from using it, or wipe it to erase all your data in case you have no hope of ever getting it back.

If a thief replaces the SIM card in your phone with their own, the Lookout app will detect the change and show the new number on your online account. You can then use the number to help in catching the thief or, if you are especially devious, you can prank call them at all hours of the night--making them really regret stealing your phone.

If you upgrade to the premium account, the safe browsing feature automatically detects and alerts you if you visit a phishing or malware site. And the privacy advisor helps you identify apps that may be invading your privacy by listing apps that have sensitive permissions, such as those that can read identity info, access messages, or track your location.

When evaluating this app on my Android phone and tablet I didn’t find any major issues. Setting up the app was painless and took only a few minutes. By default, Lookout appears on the notification bar, offering a quick way to open it. Once you open the app, you find a simple, inviting, and user-friendly interface that is extremely easy to navigate.

Though Lookout uses the same uninstall protection as other security apps (setting the app as a device administrator), it would be great to see additional uninstall protection so it’s harder for thieves to remove it.

Overall, this is a great app to help protect your Android smartphone or tablet. However, it’s hard to recommend the premium upgrade for everyone given there are other cheaper or free apps out there that can provide similar protection. For most, the free version will be adequate and you can always upgrade later should you ever need to take advantage of the paid features.

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God of Defence game Review

God of Defence game Review

G. O. D.: God of Defence from MGame Mobile is a brand new tower defense title that offers a twist on the genre’s traditional game play.

Castle defense comes in all flavors and themes, but most games follow an army vs. army set up. Whether you’re fighting with stick figures, fantasy characters, or tanks, it’s a numbers game. G. O. D.: God of Defence is unique in that the player is not commanding an army, but building up the powers of the citadel’s “god of defence,” instead. This original game design lends G. O. D.: God of Defence a personality all its own but that's where the problems begin.

The player’s point of view is that of, well, a giant god that’s defending a castle. The game’s controls are fairly simple yet very hard to get used to. The player operates as the hand of the god, using fire, plasma, and ice skill attacks as well as special items but it takes too long to use these skills. The approach to the castle is approximately two screen lengths; to view different areas, the player can simply tilt the device to the right or left for horizontal movements and vertical movements are handled by sliding but this was probably one of the worst things the developer ever could of done, it's very uncomfortable and ruins the game. A target which blinks above the hand helps focus basic attacks, and appropriate indicators are used for items and special attacks, like placing mines. The controls are well placed to give a good view of the combat, which is essential—the player might be a god, but at times the opposing forces have to be taken out individually.

G. O. D.: God of Defence melds castle defense with RPG-esque skill development. This gives the gameplay a completely different feel than other games in the genre, because the player has all of his or her eggs in one basket, as it were. The player must formulate an effective defense against a large range of varied enemies, by developing one individual (albeit powerful) defender but this is basically impossible as it's obvious that the developer is greedy and wants the player to buy the in-game items. This might, initially, seem less complex than traditional castle defense, but it actually presents a fairly unique challenge, since the player is restricted to the skills and items with which he or she enters each stage, since the shop for upgrades and items isn’t available during gameplay. So players need to think out their strategies ahead of time.

The game is set in a dark fantasy environment, and the enemy soldiers (at least the ones I’ve seen so far) consist of skeleton warriors of different classes and abilities. While there’s an enemy guide, it doesn’t preview the images for the classes the player has yet to face, though it does preview their stats and intriguing silhouettes. The menus are handled on the stage select screen; the player taps the tabs for inventory and skills to upgrade and equip for their next battle. The audio is a pretty run of the mill death-march with appropriate combat sound effects.

G. O. D.: (God of Defence) gives players a chance to experience tower defense in a new way, and it’s available for free in the App Store but I suggest staying away from it as there are much better games out there.

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Mohu Bounce Reviews

Mohu Bounce Reviews



The Bounce is essentially a WiFi focusing device. Made of high-impact plastic, and looking like an alien probe--saw something like it hovering over Manhattan once--the lightweight Bounce snugs right on top of most WiFi wireless antennae types. It really is quite simple to set up. You remove it from the box, install it on the rabbit ear or ears (need 2 for dual antenna models), and position it with the sleeker, more pointed end facing toward the direction where you are trying to boost or focus your signal the most.

In my case, I need to boost my signal upwards and towards the front of my house, so it was trickier finding an optimal position. The Mohu gadget does act like a top-weight on the antenna, and I would find that it had drooped down to a non-optimal position. The position that worked out the best was a few degrees off the vertical, tilted slightly away from my front door.



When I started my testing, I considered my WiFi signal strength on average. In the basement and first floor, of course I do not have any signal problems worth mentioning, but I seldom get more than a few bars in the upstairs rooms, especially my small office at the front of the house (the AP is not only 3 floors down, but also the other side). I often suffer signal and connection degradation and performance issues. I was skeptical that a weirdly shaped piece of plastic would make much difference through load-bearing walls. I was pleasantly surprised. I have rarely noted a drop below 4 bars on my upstairs computer since using the Bounce, and my iPad also gets markedly better reception as well.

General WiFI performance tips: I have played around a bit with WiFi over the years and figured I would throw in a few generic tips that might also help you get better performance from your local wireless if you are having problems...

1. Place WiFi as close to the center point of your home as possible for best coverage. Walls, electrical, other wireless devices and electronics all can interfere, so keep your AP away as much as possible from these problem areas.

2. Upgrade your firmware or even get a newer router/AP if possible. Latest WiFi devices offer superior performance and security over older models, especially any that support the latest wireless N standards.

3. Turn off encryption if you can. When people hear me say this they freak out, but I don't mean do your online taxes on that same connection. What I really mean: Set up a second WiFi router for totally non-private data usage--streaming music or AirPlay, etc--why encrypt the traffic? Encryption adds overhead, and sometimes problems, but of course for any kind of use than the basic examples I gave (ANYTHING involving login/password), you must encrypt. Of course, if you live at the South Pole or some super remote area...you could probably do anything you want then. I have an older router I use for testing and streaming music in my house for example. It doesn't connect to the internet or any but a few devices. I leave encryption off in that case.

4. Boost your signal. Some AP makers offer high-gain antennae that are similar in price (but mostly more expensive) compared to the Bounce. I would recommend that you just go grab a Mohu Bounce...

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Samsung Galaxy S III phone review

Samsung Galaxy S III phone review

So, the Samsung Galaxy S III (with roman numerals) is finally here.

And, although we haven't had time to review it fully - including a more in-depth play with TouchWiz and the user interface other than specific new features - it's looking good. Very good indeed.

The handset itself is massive, measuring 136.6mm tall, 70.6mm wide and boasting a waistline of 8.6mm - which is basically as thin as its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S II, but much bigger.

It's heavier, at 133g, although that's really because of the extra glass needed to front the gorgeous 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED touchscreen, which is eye-searingly vibrant. And that extra weight doesn't matter much in the hand, you'd barely notice (too busy looking at the tasty display).

Its resolution is HD at 1280 x 720 with a 306 PPI, so much sharper and clearer than on the previous model and, if pushed, we'd say it is better when looked at in direct comparison to an iPhone 4S Retina display, certainly with colour representation, anyway.

Our initial thoughts are that off-angle it performs better than the Samsung Galaxy Note, which can introduce a green tinge when looked at it acutely, but we'd have to spend more time with it to find out for sure. It can definitely shine brightly though, with the maximum brightness setting being dazzling.

The other thing you notice immediately is that - contrary to much of the rumoured nonsense that has littered the internet of late - there is a home button, which is solid and very tangible, and Menu/Recent Apps and Back icons either side on the fascia itself - they glow when in use, fade away when not.

On the rear there's an 8-megapixel camera and LED flash, while the front houses a 1.9-megapixel webcam that is also employed for face recognition purposes. This is one of the SGSIII's stand-out new features, which Samsung has called Smart Stay. The phone intelligently sees when you're looking at it and ensures that the screen never dims when it has eye contact.

As Min Cho, senior manager of Samsung's Korean HQ's Sales & Marketing Team, Mobile Communications, told us in an exclusive chat: "The phone only sleeps when you do."

And that's not the only interesting new control function. There's also Direct Call, which allows you to call back someone who has left a message, sent a text or communicated with you in a number of other ways by simply lifting the phone to your ear. As long as they are in your contacts list, the Galaxy S III automatically dials the number. We tried it, and it worked as easy as you like. You can also turn off the mode if you don't want to call people accidentally when moving about.

Perhaps, though, the most useful feature, and one that is probably going to be talked about more than any other, is S Voice, Samsung's equivalent of Siri that does so much more than Apple's technology.

S Voice not only allows you to control certain functions, like with former Android voice recognition technology, but it now also understands a massive gamut of natural phrases. Plus, it can be customised with up to four separate wake-up commands. For example, you can set it to respond with the phrase "Galaxy" or "get up". This will unlock the screen and get the whole shebang going. And as that specific function will respond only to your voice, there's no concerns over security.

Samsung has also integrated voice recognition into certain embedded applications, such as the camera app. Where before you had to scrabble to find a button -either on screen or off - in order to take a shot, you can now just bark commands. "Hi Galaxy, picture," will open the camera app, for instance, then "capture" or "cheese" will take a picture. It's very effective, and a better use of vocal triggering than asking your iPhone aloud to find a nearby restaurant when on a crowded train (only to be met with "I can only look for businesses in the United States...").

You can also now control your music on the phone, even if it is playing a song loudly in the background. It's all quite similar to the way Microsoft has integrated Kinect voice recognition into its Xbox 360 UI.

The camera application has also had a few significant improvements. The Samsung Galaxy S III is capable of recording video in Full HD (1080p) - much like other Samsung top end phones - and 720p through the front-facing cam, and while you're capturing footage you can now also take stills without halting the process. Like with the normal photo modes, there's zero shutter lag too, and minimum saving time.

There's also a funky new mode called Burst Shot, which, when enabled, takes 20 photos in quick succession (at six frames per second) and automatically chooses the one it judges to offer the quality based on a number of parameters. As the phone's rear camera has multiple face recognition properties of its own, it will look to see if your subject is closing his or her eyes, whether they are smiling, etc.

Face recognition also comes into play with general shooting and the ability to zoom. Whereas you would formerly have to zoom individually on a subject using pinch on the touchscreen, now you can just double tap the box that appears around their head - the Galaxy S III immediately frames them in the picture. In addition, a new slideshow mode will zoom into faces when they appear on any of your photos, scrolling through them if there's more than one person in the shot.

And that's not all... the new software's abilities will also recognise people in the shots if they are already in you contacts list, displaying their info when hovered over and automatically sharing the picture with them through Buddy Share if you so desire.

And, if you have your contacts sorted into groups, the app will automatically detect and sort your photos into the same groups too, ensuring that your family shots are all neatly tidied into the one easy to access place. You can also tag friends and family in each photo for Facebook without having to leave the phone's camera application. Impressive stuff.

Sharing content with others has been made much easier too, especially if they also have a Samsung Galaxy S III. The new device is NFC-enabled and comes with Wi-Fi Direct in-built, so Samsung has combined both Android Beam and Wi-Fi Direct into one technology it calls S Beam. This allows you to simply touch two handsets together in order to transfer picture or video files regardless of their size.

It works a treat, based on our hands-on test, with transfer speeds of up to 400Mbps (via NFC). Presumably, the Wi-Fi Direct option (offering up to 300Mbps speeds) has been added so that it could potentially communicate with non-NFC devices. Time will tell.

Other wireless highlights are supplied by the now Samsung standard DLNA-enabled AllShare Play, which allows you to access files on the phone through a laptop, Smart TV, etc, and new feature AllShare Cast which allows you to transmit HD content on to a compatible TV, effectively mirroring the entire display. It's great for playing games on a much bigger screen.

The phone is HSPA+ for the UK but will be LTE (4G) in other supported countries. It's a shame we don't have the networks sorted out over here in time, but it's hardly an issue considering its peers are similarly hamstrung.

One last new feature we instantly fell in love with is a by-product of the Galaxy S III rocking Samsung's new 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad processor and a healthy 1GB of RAM; pop up video. When watching video - HD or otherwise - you can still multitask, use the internet, send a text message and whathaveyou, and the clip will continue to play in a small pop-up window. And the best part is that you can swipe it around the screen, allowing you to access whatever you need underneath.

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