First things to do with your new Android phone or tablet

First things to do with your new Android phone or tablet

blognet   Thursday, April 23, 2015   Comment  

So you just unwrapped a brand new Android phone or tablet. You’ve set it all up, downloaded Facebook, and now you’re thinking “what else can I do with this thing?” Android is wonderfully personal, fun, different, and powerful. Here are the first things you should do with your new toy.

We don’t know what device you just unwrapped, but there is a good chance we’ve covered it already. Below we have a list of first things you should do with specific phones. If you have those devices it’s a great place to start.

Download Apps

One of the most obvious things to do with a phone is download some of those apps you’ve been hearing everyone talk about. You know about Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and all those common apps. We’ve got a list of some apps you may not know about. Check it out.

	Inbox Inbox is a new email app from the folks at Gmail. It automatically organizes everything and only notifies you of the important emails. It’s great if you’re just a casual email user.
	Flipboard If you’re looking to do some casual reading, Flipboard is the app for you. It curates stories from across the web to match your interests. The animations are beautiful, and it’s easy to use.
	Pocket Casts Podcasts made a big comeback in 2014. The best podcasts app you can find on any platform is Pocketcasts. It can sync progress across devices, play to a Chromecast, auto download new episodes, and so much more. *cough* Mobile Roar Podcast.
	Swiftkey One of the great features of Android is the ability to download keyboards. SwiftKey is an awesome alternative to whatever keyboard your device came with. The more you use it the more it learns about the way you type, which makes typing even easier.
	VSCO Cam There are thousands of apps that can edit photos, but our favorite is VSCO Cam. It does much more than simply slap a filter on top of your photo. This is a powerful photo editor, but the interface makes it easy for anyone to use.
	reddit sync If you’re a Redditor you will be looking for a great Reddit app. You can’t go wrong with reddit sync. The Material Design is beautiful, and it comes with many different views for reading subreddits.
	Messenger by Google The SMS apps that come with most Android phones leave a lot to be desired. Like keyboards, you can swap out SMS apps. If you’re looking for something quick and simple you can’t go wrong with Google’s elegant Messenger app.
	Timehop If you’ve been using social media sites for years you have a time capsule full of stuff just waiting to be seen. Timehop displays your old tweets, status updates, Instagram photos, and more every day. It’s like a time machine for your life.
	AccuWeather Checking the weather is an important part of most people’s days. Most Android devices can check the weather by simply doing a Google search. If you’re interested in more in-depth forecasts and information you should check out AccuWeather.
	Wunderlist A to-do list can play an important part in making your life more productive. Wunderlist is one of the best list apps out there. It can sync across tons of different devices, and it’s great for collaborating with others.
	Waze Google Maps is great on Android devices, but if you travel a lot you may want to take it up a notch. Waze is crowd-sourced traffic information at your fingertips. Get alerts when cops are ahead or if traffic is slowing down.
	Google Wallet Some Android phone have the ability to do mobile payments. Apple Pay has made this feature much more mainstream, which benefits us too. Google Wallet is one of the best mobile payments apps for Android. Give it a shot and pay for things with your phone!
	Pushbullet Arguably the best app from 2014 is Pushbullet. With this app you can easily push things to other devices, but so, so much more. It can show your phone notifications on your PC, allow you to reply to SMS from your PC, and even sync your clipboard across devices.
	IFTTT IFTTT (if this then that) will automate your life. With this app you can create “recipes” that will do things for you. Get an alert when it’s going to rain. When you’re tagged in a Facebook photo save it to Dropbox. Automatically mute your device at work. And much more.
	Phandroid Now that you have an Android device you’ll want to be in the know about all things Android. With the Phandroid news app you can read everything we post. We’ll tell you about new phones, new apps, great games, and much more.

For a more expansive list of apps for new users keep reading here. We’ve also got a bunch of more specific app lists for many different things. Here are you few you might be interested in 

Download Games

Sometimes you just want to have fun. Good news: the Google Play Store is chock full of games from every genre. You won’t be missing out on any popular games with an Android device. Here are a few of our favorites that you should check out first.

	TwoDots TwoDots is the addictive sequel to last year’s “Dots.” All you have to do is connect dots, but don’t fool yourself into thinking it will be easy.
	Threes! 1+2=3. 3+3=6. 6+6=12. 12+12=24. Got it? You’ve mastered the basic concept of Threes! Slide numbers together to stay alive as long as possible.
	Super Hexagon This timeless classic is still super fun, super hard, and super addictive. If you’ve never played Super Hexagon you really need to download it.
	Angry Birds GO! One of Rovio’s more recent Angry Bird games is “GO!” Think of it like Mario Kart meets the Angry Bird universe. It’s surprisingly fun.
	Monument Valley You’ll be hard pressed to find a more beautiful game for Android. The puzzles are tough, but you’ll be blown away by the visuals.
	Minecraft PE Everyone loves Minecraft. With the Pocket Edition you can play on your phone or tablet from anywhere. Never miss a block.
	Star Wars: Commander We couldn’t make a list without a Star Wars game. This is a combat strategy game that takes place in the original trilogy.
	Heads Up HeadsUp is the perfect game for Holiday parties. You simply hold the phone above your head and friends act out the word.
	Wordbase Think of Wordbase like aggressive scrabble. The goal is to connect words to make it to the other side of the board before your opponent.
	Trivia Crack Everybody loves trivia, and trivia Crack is trivia in its most addictive state. You can play against friends or random people from around the globe.

Mortal Kombat X is now available for Android devices, but only in select countries

Android Apps Games PlayStore

Mortal Kombat X is now available for Android devices, but only in select countries

blognet   Wednesday, April 22, 2015   Comment  

It’s been a little over a week since Mortal Kombat X was released for nex-gen consoles (and a few weeks since the iOS version became available). Today, the over-the-top gore fest finally lands on the Google Play Store for Android devices, courtesy of NetherRealm Studios and of course, is only suitable for ages 17 and up.

Gameplay is a bit different than that console versions, but anyone who’s played other “free-to-play” brawlers like Marvel Contest of Champions or previous Injustice will know what to expect. The actual fighting in the game involves mashing the screen to attack, with gestures cues and other quick time events popping up onscreen to execute some of the moves. It’s pretty basic and can get repetitive at times, but then again it’s the level grinding that really looks to suck players in.

The actual characters you use in battle are based on cards that can be leveled up the more you play, with successful matches netting you “Koins” (gold and silver) and “Souls.” Those are the currency in the game (freemium games tend to have at least 3 types of currency to keep things interesting) with the latter being the hardest to earn. Alliance points are earned with support cards, Koins are used to buy silver card packs for new characters or power up special moves, and Souls are the highest form of currency, used to gain access to gold characters.

All the violence you love from Mortal Kombat is here, with the series’ X-Rays and Fatalities making the successful transition to mobile. You can play online against other players in Faction Wars, or summon other players’ character cards for use in battle. Whatever your expectations of this game are, expect to spend plenty of time unlocking anything worthwhile.

If you look at reviews on the Google Play Store, you’ll find the game not running the best on older handsets. If your phone has 1GB of RAM or less, you’re probably going to want to stay away. The install takes up a whopping 1.5 GB of free space, so keep that in mind before downloading to your 8GB handset. The game is only available in select countries right now, but if you’d like to take a stab at it, Google Play link provided below.

Download on Google Play: Mortal Kombat X

How to install PS4 Remote Play on any Android phone or tablet

Android Apps Google PlayStore PS4

How to install PS4 Remote Play on any Android phone or tablet

blognet   Saturday, April 18, 2015   Comment  

One of the greatest features of the PS4 is the ability to play games from your PS Vita, PS TV or Sony Xperia mobile devices. If you have a supported Sony Xperia phone or tablet you can simply go ahead and install the app from Google Play. Luckily, there is a modified version of the app which allows you to install it on any device running Android 4.4 and newer. In addition to that, you’re also able to remotely control your PS4 using on screen buttons. Cool right? Let’s get to it

What is remote play and how does it work?

Before we get started I want to say a few words about remote play in general. With remote play, your PS4 basically streams the content it would show on your TV to your mobile device. You’re usually not restricted to certain games and with the recent 2.50 update Sony also implemented 60 fps remote play. While the experience varies from game to game, it’s a great feature to enjoy your games on-to-go.

What do I need?

You need a few things to use PS4 remote play on your Android devices. Here’s what you need:

• Android device running Android 4.4 or higher
• WiFi-connection (mobile internet is possible but not recommended)
• PS4 with remote play activated in rest mode
• PS4 Controller (for better experience)

Installation

The installation is quite easy and straightforward. You don’t even need root access for it to work 

1. Download the app on XDA. Make sure to pick the right version (there’s one with on-screen buttons and one without)
2. Install on your Android device (You need to activate unknown sources for that)
3. Enjoy

If you want to use your PS3 or PS4 gamepad, you’ll need the Sixaxxis Controller app .

That’s it – enjoy!

15 awesome uses for an old Android phone

15 awesome uses for an old Android phone

blognet   Friday, April 17, 2015   Comment  

So you have just received a new Android phone as a present and now you are wondering  what you should do with your now “old” device? Your previous phone likely still packs enough power to perform simple tasks, run games and the usual apps.

Now what do you want to do with the old Android device, except for selling it? Here are some ideas that might help you to figure out how to put your old Android phone to good use.

IP Security cam

Old Android phones can come in very handy when it comes to your own security. There are quite a lot of apps out there that allow you to use your Android device as a remote security cam.

IP Webcam is a very simple app that does exactly what it’s called. You don’t need to run a server on your computer, just download the app, start it and enter the IP address (shown on-screen) into any browser and see what your phone is seeing. With IP Webcam you can stream and record both audio and video.

Android Baby monitor

If you have a very young child and a spare Android phone on your hands, you don’t need to buy a baby monitor to check on your new family member. Numerous Baby Monitor apps will ensure that you hear everything that your baby is doing in another room.

Besides standard baby monitor features, this app can also play your baby a recording of your voice, track the times at which your baby can’t sleep and many other really useful things.

Smart TV remote

Old Android devices are great for controlling media around your house. A multi-functional TV remote with a touchscreen so to say.

My favourite combo is a Chromecast hooked up to my TV, Plex and Netflix. If your phone has an IR blaster built-in, you can also completely ditch your crappy TV remote if you download one of these apps right here (depending on your TV). Since I don’t watch cable at all, I, basically, have all the media on the tip of my fingers with this combo.

Kid’s device

With the release of Android 4.3, Google introduced so-called restricted profiles, that allow you to set certain limits for a user profile. These can include content filters, app download restrictions and many other things. These profiles are perfect to set-up for your kid.

Simply add a restricted user profile to your Android device, load it up with fun and educational games and give it to your kid to enjoy!

You can also add another layer of security to the device by enabling location tracking and reporting using Cerberus. This app allows you to track the location of the phone, take pictures and record video remotely, lock the phone and many other features, right through your browser.

Experiment!

An old Android phone can be an amazing playground for you! There are so many different things you can do with your phone, now that you don’t need to worry about losing all your data or destroying it completely…

You can start off by trying out the best Android launchers out there and see which one you’d like to use as your daily driver, root it and install various extensions with Xposed Framework or even completely disassemble it to learn how smartphones work. The latter can also be a great project for you and your kid! Just get yourself a smartphone repair kit for a few bucks and follow detailedguides from iFixit to disassemble (or even repair) your old Android phone.

Prepare for the zombie apocalypse

What if tomorrow we will experience the worst thing that could happen to the planet? We need to be prepared!

Use your old Android phone to supercharge it with everything you need (except for food, shelter, water and medicine) to survive the zombie apocalypse!

1. Download Wikipedia on your device (2 million articles, only 3.6GB)
2. Flashlight app
3. Outdoor survival guide
4. Cache offline maps with Google maps
5. Buy a shock- and waterproof case for your device
6. Get a portable solar charger
7. Download some fun multiplayer games to make the ride smoother

Help researchers cure diseases

Nowadays quite a lot of scientific advancements come from analyzing enormous amounts of data. And you know what? You can help researchers find a cure for diseases and even help to understand global warming.

Data analysis requires a lot of computing power! With BOINC you can share the unused computing power of your old Android devices’ processor with the researchers from all over the world. The only thing you need to do is download the app and you’re good to go.

Best Android PDF scanner apps reviewed

Android Apps PlayStore Smartphones Software

Best Android PDF scanner apps reviewed

blognet   Friday, April 17, 2015   Comment  

I often find myself in the situation where I need to scan an important document, but I have no scanner available at the time. The only thing that can help me in these cases is my beloved Android phone.

There are tons of scanning apps out there. Most of them are free, but with in-app purchases for “premium features”. However, the functionality is most of the time quite similar – you take a picture of your document, the app allows you to crop it, it increases the contrast to enhance readability and then it saves the file somewhere on your phone for future reference.

Android PDF scanner apps

Let’s look at how some of the top android scanner apps compare to each other. For this I will run a test with a single document. FYI, the room where the scans will be taken is lit comfortably bright, with mostly warm LED lighting. I will be mainly looking at the final results of the test and top-level features, rather than going into details on user experience and performance of the individual scanner apps. So, here are the results:

NEW: Microsoft Office Lens Review

Today Microsoft has released its own mobile scanning app Office Lens to Android and iPhone users, “just” one year after its release for Windows Phone. And, of course, we had to test it.

Office Lens for Android is probably one of the most minimalist scanner app out there. Once you launch the app, it will immediately go into camera mode. Just like with the apps below, Office Lens will automatically recognize the edges of the piece of paper you want to scan and adjust the perspective after you took the picture with your device.

To my surprise, even at a very inconvenient angle, Office Lens did a pretty good job at adjusting the perspective to make the final result look as if you have taken the snapshot from right above the paper.

In terms of readability the end result was quite alright. However, for some reason, Office Lens has troubles with color correction. Both tests resulted in overly blue- or red-tinted scans. For me this is not too big of an issue, since converting both to black & white right from the photo editor on my Nexus 5 made did trick. But hey, this feature should be built-in! Microsoft, get your stuff together!

Color correction issues

Scanning options

Choose resolution

Final result

Of course, you can save the scans as images straight to your phone’s storage, or share them via Android’s native sharing options.

If you are an Android user, you will first need to jump through some hoops do download the app. To do that, go to the official Office Lens Google+ community, join it and select “Become a tester” in the About section. iPhone users, you can download it straight from the App Store.

Pros

• Scan documents quickly
• Great quality
• Straightening works great
• Free forever
• Scans documents, whiteboards and pictures

Cons

• No color correction (beta?)
• Lack of integrations with popular services such as Evernote or Dropbox (but understandable, since MS hat its own OneDrive and OneNote)

My Scans

My Scans is a “freemium” app that gives you basic functions for free, with an option to upgrade to the Pro version for additional functionality.

Once you open the app, it will prompt you to add a document to your library. Tapping on the “plus” icon in the upper-left corner of the screen will allow you to create a document from your camera by scanning it. This option will fire up the app’s camera function right away, and now you can snap a picture of the piece of paper you want to scan.

My Scans automatically recognizes the edges of the document and creates an outline of the sheet of paper. This means, that it doesn’t matter at what angle you take the picture, the app will adjust the perspective itself and give you a result, which would look like you have taken the picture at a perfect vertical angle.

The final result, however, doesn’t look that great. You will be able to read the text, but the resolution is far away from perfect. It’s certainly not a camera-focus issue.

To share the scanned document with other people you will need to upgrade to the Pro version for €3.99 ($4.99) or watch a video ad right from the app.

CamScanner

The first thing you will see after downloading and opening CamScanner is the fact that it’s a very beautiful app, programmed with the end-user in mind. The experience is very similar to any other PDF scanner app for Android. On the bottom of your screen you will see a single camera button, which, obviously, will open the camera function within the app.

Where MyScan adds a nice outlining feature to the document, the CamScanner camera feature looks like a normal camera app would look like. No outlines and no extra AR whatsoever (not that this matters, we are only looking for the result).

After snapping the picture of the paper you want to scan, the app will recognize the corners of the sheet and outline it in order to crop it in a way that would result in a what’s look like a perfect perspective, just like the app before.

Similar apps, quite different results. With unchanged lighting, position of the document or change of device, the result is very different from the one before. The text is crisp and clearly readable. A document like this is safe to share with other people, whether it’s private or professional.

However, the final result is, obviously, still far away from desktop-scanner quality.

Sharing the document is very easy. CamScanner gives you the following exporting options:

• Gmail
• Social media
• Save to gallery
• Upload / Print / Fax
• Others (your native Android sharing options drop-down)

Tiny Scan

As mentioned above, all scanner apps have extremely similar functionality. And Tiny Scan is not an exception. Just like in the previous apps, the home screen of the app has a camera button, which will fire app the camera to scan the document you need.

Again, TinyScan will recognize the corners of the document to adjust the perspective. You can manually reposition the corners in case the app gets it wrong, but in my experience it does it pretty well, as long as you have a different-colored background behind the document you are scanning.

The end result is certainly passable: the text is clearly readable, but slightly more grainy than expected. Quality-wise, TinyScan falls somewhere between My Scans on the low end and CamScanner on the high end.

With Tiny Scan you can share the scanned PDF file via email or by saving it to your Android picture gallery, where you can access and share it any way you want. You can also choose between Small, Medium and Large file sizes to share or save.

The Pro version of the app integrates with Dropbox, Evernote, Box, OneDrive and Google Drive (which has a scanning feature of it’s own).

SimplyScan

Reddit user AggieDev recently reached out to the /r/Android community to show everyone his new Android scanner app SimplyScan. According to the developer, most scanner apps have all the basic functionality, but as soon as you need more than just the basics you’d need to pay an extra $4.99 for most Pro versions. Usually, those expensive in-app purchases unlock features such as adding multiple pages to a PDF document, removing watermarks from scanned PDFs etc. SimplyScan’s mission is to make those features accessible at a much lower price, giving you all the scanning features you would for a price you can afford, packaged in a sleek app with our favorite Material Design look.

Before jumping to any conclusions from you will read below, please remember that this is a new app that deserves a fair shot. The developer is actively listening to the users and will certainly continue to improve the app. With that being said, here are my thoughts on SimplyScan:

SimplyScan is a brand new Android scanner app that has potential to reach the top and beat best-selling apps like CamScanner and Tiny Scan. The simplistic look (following all standards of Google’s Material Design) and guided instructions makes using it for the very first time very easy. The end-result is also comparable to the above mentioned apps. However, the flow and actual process result have room for improvement.

Pros:

• Beautiful look
• Guided instructions for first-time users
• Reasonable price – Pro version costs just $0.99 (removes watermark, multi-page scanning, organize scanned documents into folders, PDF quality controls)
• No “feature-overload”

Cons:

• No true black & white mode
• Auto corner-detection missions
• Re-taking a photo takes you back to the app’s home screen (instead of just resetting the camera)

Take a look at some screenshots from SimplyScan:

Results

Pro version features

Guided instructions

No corner detection :(

How to scan documents with Google Drive

Like many people, I user Google Drive on a daily basis, and store quite a lot of documents with Google’s cloud storage services. And, as it turns out, Google Drive offers you a native way to scan documents with your Android phone!

Scanning documents on your Android phone with Google Drive is very easy. Just follow the steps below, and you will end up with a high-quality scan (along the lines of CamScanner) right in your own Google Drive, where you can access it from any device with internet access.

1. Update to the latest Google Drive app
2. Open the app and press on the red “plus” button
3. Select the Scan option
4. Take a picture of

The only downside to Google Drive’s scanning feature is the automatic perspective adjustment, which might screw up the dimensions of your scanned document. So, if you hold your Android device parallel to the sheet you want to scan, you’ll be just fine.

Conclusion

Pro Tip: Send all your scans to Evernote, which will automatically recognize the text and make them SEARCHABLE!

The test above have been made with a Nexus 5 (which has an average-quality camera compared to other popular Android handsets), with a single A4 sheet of paper in an average-lit room with warm LED lighting.

Scanning documents, saving them as a PDF file and sharing them with other people is very easy. The best apps out there give you a pretty high-quality result, which you can use for both personal and professional use. However, desktop scanners are way ahead quality-wise, and you shouldn’t expect anything else.

If you find a way to get higher-quality scans with your Android phone, please leave your suggestions in the comments and we will make sure to test it out and update this article!