Apps Android Reviews

ThickButtons keyboard app for Android Review

Description:

ThickButtons is a great app that solves a lot of people that get a brand new Android phone.  One of the biggest issues when switching to a smart touch phone is the touch screen.  Most people are not used to the touch screen and the skinny letters that are on the virtual keyboard.  People are used to the bulky buttons that they can actually press in and type on their phones.  Without these buttons, people feel lost and feel like they forgot how to text or literally can’t text because their fingers are too big to handle the virtual keyboard.

This app solves all of these problems because someone with bigger fingers decided to make an app that would help those people of us that have large finger sizes.  The Thickbuttons keyboard app integrates with the Android keyboard function.  The new keyboard that the app creates has bigger area size to be able to type.  this makes it much easier to touch the right letter the first time without having to correct your texts so much.  This is an answer to many android user’s prayers as they can’t use the keyboard that came with the phone because their fingers are too large.

While it does keep the old keyboard essentially the same, there are some differences.  This keyboard does not offer speed benefits and does not allow the voice to text for android 2.1 devices.  There is also no learning library on the keyboard so it won’t remember words that you use often. This is still a great app for people that want to be able to type out a text that have large fingers and can’t use the stock keyboard that Android comes with on their phone.

Features:

• wider surface area to touch letters
• easier to press to type texts
• does not offer voice to text features
• does not offer learning library
• does offer text and word prediction

People with bigger fingers will celebrate with us that this app has been made.  it really makes texting so much easier on a phone that may seem really hard at first.  if you feel that you have larger fingers, this is a great app to help you get your way around the Android keyboard.  Give it a try if you want to start having an easier time sending a Text.

Conclusion:

This app is free and has been given a 3 1/2 out of 5 star rating.

Qik Android App Review

Description:

Ok, this is a very cool app.  This works without an internet connection which is absolutely crazy that it does.  Qik is a video application that works with your Android phone video camera.  Well of course it takes video and everything, but the most amazing thing is that is streams the video you are taking to your web page.  I know!  Its crazy right!  this means that the second you hit record, you could have tons of people watching what is happening real time right on your Qik account web page.  This is really cool because the possibilities are endless.

Just think you can be at a concert for your little kids and hit record and whala, your wife or the grandparents can be logged in and see it happen in real time.  you could be at a church service or a funeral and hit record and family that can’t make it can feel connected and watch the video live on the web.  You could be at a sweet concert and hit record and let your friends see real time the artist rock out to their favorite jams.

I have been using Qik for a while now, and even when  i’m not on the Wifi network, the video is still high quality and smooth when it streams online off of the 3g network speed.  You can set the video quality and obviously if you set the video at high quality you will want to be on the Wifi network to handle  the high bandwidth.  The normal quality still looks great on the 3G network and is really cool!  Once again, this is for the application of one person being in a place that another person wants to see live.  This is perfect for capturing news, disasters, and covering criminal activities.  This app is completely free and that is just one of the coolest things about this app.

Features:

• streams live video from your phone to the internet
• perfect for concerts, school plays, and other functions
• allows you to change the video quality
• can work on the 3G network or on WiFi
• Must create a free Qik account to access the videos that are streaming when you hit record.

Once again, one of the coolest free aps we have seen in a while.  you should definitely give it a try.

Conclusion:

This app is free and has been given 4 out 5 stars and has been rated by other Android users.

Toss It Android App Review

Description:

Do you love  the show The office?  The reason most people love this game is because it takes place in an office setting that is kind of fun and has a very real feel to it.  The pranks and games that are played within the office are a lot of fun to watch.  Well even though at the office you work at you probably haven’t played the games shown on that show, there are still things that you do everyday to find some fun on the office setting.  If you have worked in an office, all of us have wadded up a piece of paper and tried to throw it into a garbage can.

While this can be a competitive sport against your co-worker, this can also be done all by yourself to make a fun sport of the day to take some time and give you a break from looking at your computer screen during the day.  Well now you don’t have to be in an office to throw paper into a garbage can because Toss it for Android is here.  This app allows you to throw a piece of wadded up paper into a virtual garbage can.

This app looks really pretty and has some fun features to make the game very challenging. The thing that makes it so challenging is that there are of course things that make it difficult to get the paper into the basket.  There are fans in the office that give you a wind variable that makes it hard to get the paper in the basket.  you have to aim the paper to work with the wind variable to get the paper into the basket.  This in and of itself can be very challenging and make you have to really work for the ability to get the paper in the waste basket.

Features:

• several different wind variables that make it hard to get the paper in
• easy to use interface and controls
• striking visuals and fun sounds
• very fun and keeps track of your high score

This is a great time waster game and you can actually download the lite version for free on the phone.  This is a great way to improve your paper throwing skills and vary in some crazy wind from a fan.

Conclusion:

The full version of this app costs $1.99 and has been given a 3 1/2 out of 5 star rating.

PhotoSpeak Android App Review

Description:

Once in a while we get some apps that kind of break the technology barrier and are really cool to look at and behold.  This app is definitely one of the coolest apps we have seen in a really long time.  What exactly does this app do?  Well what it does is take still images that are on your phone and allows you to record a message up to a minute long.  it then takes the photo image and makes an avatar out of them that is semi 3d and the pictures talks and forms the words that you just recorded on your message!  I know this sounds crazy but it makes it very cool to watch a person that you took a picture of say all the words that you just said.  This is fun because you can record these small video messages and send them to your friends as a joke.

This is a very impressive app for bringing photos to life!  The ability to turn a still image into a 3d avatar that can speak.  The avatar is interactive.  When we say this the 3d avatar blinks, moves and follows your screen gestures.  The thing that doesn’t work really well is that the recorded voice messages are stored in the internal memory which don’t let you record a lot of time.

Photospeak is very innovative and very impressive.  You Literally just take a photo or use one from your phone gallery to bring it to life.  The Avatars are able to blink their eyes, have some movement and they follow your screen gestures and you can make it speak a recorded message.  You can send this avatar to people which is really funny for a great joke.  Creating music videos of your avatar is quite comical and really alot of fun!

Features:

• uses still photos on your phone
• 3d avatar moves and has personality
• the mouth movement is pretty realistic
• allows you to have the avatar to speak a custom message that you make

The only thing we have to gripe about is the fact that the audio message is saved in the internal memory of the phone instead of on the SD card.  you will have to make sure you have a lot of internal space on the phone before using this app.

Conclusion:

This app costs$4.00 dollars and has been given a perfect 5 out of 5 star rating for its amazing look and style.

BlueAnt Q1 Android App Review

Description:

If you have the BlueAnt Q1 device for you Android Phone, this is a fun add on to the hardware that you own to get the most out of it.  What this app can do is enables the headset device to enable the reading of text messages directly through the Q1.  Once installed the BlueAnt Q1 will read back all of your text messages to you through the headpiece.  The app is easy to use as it shows you how to pair to your device.  This is one of the first hardware extension apps that allow you to do even more than you planned to do with your hardware.

There are tons of pros to this app.  The pairing is one of the easiest we have seen between headsets and phones.  The app walks you through step by step to accomplish this.  The device uses the text messages  in your phone and reads them back to you.  The app also allows the device to read you turn by turn direction to help you find a GPS location.  The quick help tips, user manual, and access to customer service can all be accomplished through this app.

There are a few cons to this app add on for this piece of hardware.  Besides reading text messages in the ear, the reading really is not the most amazing thing ever.  It does not read you caller ID which would be a really cool feature.  This app is great to read text speech but sounds way too robotic.

Features:

• The app will read text massages through the ear piece
• reads GPS turn by turn directions
• Does not allow you to reply with voice commands
• customer service number can be dialed automatically
• has a male voice that reads all information to you.

While this app is missing a lot of pieces that make it absolutely amazing, the concept is still really cool.  Its really cool to think that an app paired with a device can enable it to talk to you and read you messages.  This type of application is perfect for people that want to hear text messages read to them while they are driving.  This helps to keep your focus on the road and not take your focus off of the things at hand.

Conclusion:

This app is Free for the Android phone and has been given a 5 out of 5 star rating by android phone users everywhere.

Raging Thunder 2 Android App Review

Description:

If you like racing, and like 3d accelerometer games, this is one of the best games out there for Android Users Everywhere!  Because of the visuals of this game, it will download 20MB to your SD card the first time you play it to conserve time and playability.   The graphics really look like console style and quality graphics, but this is all on your phone!

The Pros are definitely the fact that the visuals are absolutely stunning and some of the best we have seen on the Android platform.  There is also multiplayer racing that can be done online which is an absolute blast and huge feature to this game.  The game in and of itself is very fun and challenging which in turn makes it very addictive to play.  The graphics are amazing.  The Sound is also amazing and the game play is very smooth on newer Android phones.  The AI drivers are also pretty good which makes the game very fun to play because the AI is not stupid like most other console games.

It seriously feels like you are playing a game on a console because of how smooth the play is and how great it looks.  The driving physics are actually really fun and quite impressive for an android game.  This is one of those games that proves that the Android platform is just as good as the iPhone apps and games.  This game pushes the limits and helps the Android rise above other platforms out there as it can do so so much with Google’s platform.

Features:

• 3d racer
• sophisticated AI drivers
• online multi player ability
• post scores online
• sounds and graphics are spot on
• fast game play and smooth framerate

This game is a WOW game for the Android phone market and you might as well download the free trial version to see what we are talking about.  This game is tops for 3d accelerometer games!  We are not joking!  i have been playing it for the last hour and it just amazes me that a game that looks this good can work on my phone without any problems!  It really is amazing and fun to be able to share these types of games with people and show people what the Android can do.

Conclusion:

This game costs $4.00 dollars for the full version and gets 5 out of 5 stars!!

HootSuite Android App Review

Description:

Do you have several accounts on Twitter that you want to keep track up and see who has written comments?  There is an easy way to keep track of all of these without having to find a computer somewhere and read through your tweets.  There is a great app for the android called hootsuite which does just that for you.  HootSuite helps you to compose, communicate and tweet on the go.  You can also manage multiple twitter accounts with ease and customize searches, upload photos, receive notifications, view click stats, and much more.  This app boasts an easy to use interface with a nice schedule function to schedule twitter updates from anywhere that you have your phone with you.

The pros to this app is that it give you full twitter control on you Android phone.  The scheduled tweets is really a nice feature to have to make things automated and very easy to control.  The ability to manage multiple twitter accounts is also something that is very nice and gives you a much more robust twitter account on the Android phone to manage all your tweets that you care about.

The only con to this app is that it is a little bit confusing when you are asked for a HootSuite account, but you can bypass it with twitter.  This really is the only thing we can find wrong with the app at this point.  Other than that, the app is fantastic and the best twitter app out on the market today.  Being able to do everything you can do in twitter from your phone is just exhilarating.  Responding to tweets, making changes, uploading photos, and everything else that you can do in Twitter is really empowering and makes life so much easier in the Twitter world.  The Pro version allows for twitter stats to be kept so that you can see social network functions such as facebook, linkedin, and ping.

Features:

• full twitter functionality
• read, respond, upload, and download
• schedule tweets
• pro version allows for other social site integration

If you love Twitter, this is your app that will keep you fully connected on the go and anytime you have your android phone with you.

Conclusion:

The LITE version is FREE, but the pro version is only $2.99 and this app has been given a 4 out of 5 star rating by Android phone users everywhere who have used this app.