Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

170,000+ Recipes BigOven

| FREE | BigOven.com

Best Android cooking apps - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

Whether it's on a tablet or from your mobile phone, cooking with Android is a powerful tool. The Market is teeming with apps to help you out with timings and conversions along with more recipe guides than you can possibly imagine. So, whether it's tips from a professional chef or putting your trust in the web community at large (good luck), here are the very best Android cooking apps out there; ones we prepared earlier, you might say. On the whole, free cookery apps are not as good but one that really can compete is BigOven. You still get features like automatic unit conversions between metric and imperial, shopping lists and recipes based on ingredients you have, but where it suffers are things like adverts and a slightly slow, connected-only experience. On the plus side, you do get access to over 170,000 recipes with plenty of user-generated information including review comments and photos and such too. It'll also even tell you just how many calories are in each serving right at the very top. Market: Link Price: Free Rating: 3.5/5 We don't know what the timer app is like on your particular Android phone's UI but we do know that there's a huge amount of variation. Some are good, some not so good and some buried a little too deep inside clocks and alarms. Whatever the case, QTimer is well worth a download just in case it's better than yours. First up, it's free, but the good stuff is that you can very quickly set as many timers going concurrently and name them all in the process. So, perfect for a Sunday roast or fry up, you can set stopwatches for all of your pots, pans, dishes and trays with each one telling you that time's up rather than having to Read More

Amazon Mobile

| FREE | AMZN Mobile LLC

Best Android shopping apps - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

2 December 2011 18:01 GMT / By Dan Sung The best Android shopping apps come for free. After all, why would someone charge you for one when you're about to spend so much money with them because of it? So, picking a bunch out from the Android Market and downloading until you find the ones that work for you is not such a bad idea. At the same time, we're well aware that you're someone with little time on your hands and, besides, we don't want you to be wasting your data in the process. So, here are Pocket-lint's best Android shopping app suggestions and, if you care to make any of your own in the comments, then we'll be sure to add them in. There are already some pretty hefty internet market websites out there in the shape of Gumtree, eBay and Craigslist but somehow EggDrop has just about found enough of an angle to justify its existence. The focus here is that it’s not so much about what’s for sale but what’s for sale near you. What’s nice is that you still get the feeling that there are bargains to be had. The seller posts their item along with its location, a picture, description and a price tag, and it’s up to you then to make an offer if you see fit. The offers stay good until the seller decides to accept one and the deal is done. Pretty straight forward stuff. What it has over eBay is that it feels a lot more instant with everything a Buy It Now type scenario and no one sitting around until the last minute waiting for lots to expire. It also, of course, gives you an opportunity to shop according to what’s nearby and EggDrop really hammers this home by allowing you Read More

blippar

| FREE | blippar

APP OF THE DAY: Blippar review (Android & iOS) - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

18 November 2011 18:00 GMT / By Paul Lamkin Blippar, a London based startup, has just won 1st place in the TechWorld competition, in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), meaning that the company has won the opportunity to show off its app at the Eureka Park TechZone at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. So we thought we'd better take the app for a spin to see what all the fuss is about.... Blippar is an augmented reality app, which aims to make the mobile advertising arena a bit more fun, and to go a bit further than a QR code ever could. The premise is fairly simple. Whenever you see the Blippar logo - whether that be on TV, in a newspaper or magazine, grocery product or even on a 40-foot billboard, you simply open up the app, and point your device's camera in the direction of the interactive ad. You'll then be presented with a number of cool features, that sit - augmented reality-stylee - above the real world object. These features include digital apparitions such as buttons and controls that you can interact with on your screen and games that you can play which blur the lines between what is real and what is digital. Pocket-lint was given a demo of the app in action at the CES Unveiled event in London and we have to say that we were mightily impressed with just how quick the augmented reality layers appeared (albeit on a Wi-Fi connection) and the ease that our iPhone's camera picked up the object that it was "blipping". The most impressive demos were of a Heinz Ketchup bottle, which presented a book-like experience that unfolded from the label, a Waitrose cake advert, which turned the ingredients on the photo into a completed cake on Read More

Gigbeat

| FREE | Gigbeat

APP OF THE DAY: Gigbeat review (Android) - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

17 November 2011 18:00 GMT / By Dan Sung Every now and then an app comes along that really makes a difference and today’s App of the Day on Pocket-lint is one of those apps. The bad news for lots of you out there is that it’s only on Android. The good news for those of you that can get it is that you get some bragging rights over your iOS mates. If you like music and you’re looking to get out a bit more, if you’re always jealous when your friends boast on Facebook that they’ve just got some tickets to go to a sold out gig, then today we’ve got a no-brainer for you. It’s clever, it’s well executed, it works and it’s free. It’s... Gigbeat is a superb app. It’s seriously easy to use and you don’t have to spend any time whatsoever setting it up, giving it a bunch of different permissions, figuring out how it works and then getting wound up when a) it doesn’t and b) when it starts hogging up your battery and bandwidth. So what does it do? Well, Gigbeat is a music service that lets you know when a band you like is on tour. It scans your phone for music files and takes note of which artists you listen to. Then it’ll bring back a list of them altogether. Most will have the words “Not currently on tour” next to their profile pictures but some will give you details of where and when they’ll be, all the way to individual venues on individual dates. If you find a time and place that’s suitable - and you have the inclination - you get options to buy tickets via the Songkick service as well as allow Gigbeat to show you where it is Read More

Skitch

| FREE | Evernote Corp.

APP OF THE DAY: Skitch review (Android) - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

14 November 2011 18:00 GMT / By Chris Hall Sometimes people just don't seem to be able to spot what you are talking about. You send someone a funny photo, they see the you, but they don’t notice the person in the background walking into a tree. Or sometimes you want to highlight some changes you want made - someone has sent you a picture of something with a "you mean like this" note attached. They always get it wrong, of course, which is when you want to just scribble on their picture and send it back, like you would on a sketched drawing. Today's App of the Day has exactly that in mind. Skitch comes from Evernote, the note-taking application that has successfully bridged mobile platforms. It is, as we've already outlined, an app that will let you annotate pictures with a range of options at your fingertips. From the outset you have three options: you can take a photo, open an image, or just start with a blank page.  If you've mastered taking a screenshot on your Android device (which some phones currently allow, but will be much easier in Ice Cream Sandwich) then you can easily select a screenshot from your Gallery too. As with any drawing package, Skitch then gives you a run of options for annotating your image. This isn't about image manipulation and isn't designed to let you edit photos, but will let you write and draw on them. So it might be something as simple as putting an arrow on a picture or adding text. You can zoom images to get to a particular thing you want to highlight as well as change the colour and size of the annotation.  You also get a neat selection tool, so once you've made your annotation, you Read More

Skifta

| FREE | Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.

Skifta Android streaming app launches with 3G functionality - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

27 October 2011 8:20 GMT / By Ben Crompton Qualcomm has announced the launch of Skifta 1.0, a new Android streaming app which enables Android users to stream their media to any DLNA connected devices worldwide. Pocket-lint covered the beta launch of Skifta back in February, and it's nice to see the final app come around within the year. Skifta is the first DLNA Certified application capable of streaming personal media to any DLNA-certified gadget, which includes TVs, IP-connected stereos like Sonos systems, PlayStation 3 game consoles and Windows 7 PCs. Playing media over 3G and Wi-Fi is also no problem, and to make it even easier Skifta comes with support for 3G video, allowing you to play anything from your home media library when out and about. Working for Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems Skifta has the unique feature of a Channel library, which means you won't have to mess around managing multiple apps if you want to grab media from the cloud.  Skifta gives you access to web-favourites such as Facebook Photos, Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket, Soma.fm, Napster, ShoutCast, Revision 3 and TED Talks. Qualcomm analysts estimate that there will be nearly 2 billion DLNA Certified devices in homes worldwide by 2014 - so this is a growing area, of which Skifta is one of the early players. It's available to download now from the Android Market. Downloading Skifta? Let us know what you think. Read More

Google Play Movies

| FREE | Google Inc.

APP OF THE DAY: Android Film Rentals/Videos (Android) - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

21 October 2011 22:06 GMT / By Chris Hall Accessing films or movies on Android has never been much of a problem. Support for a range of video formats, including Flash, means that streaming or playing local content is pretty simple - if you're prepared to do a little fiddling around. Apple haa its movie offering tied up: iTunes has been doling out the goods for years, making it easy to grab yourself a movie for your iPhone or iPad, or just for playback on your PC. Whilst US Android customers have been better served than those in the UK, the arrival of film rentals for UK Android owners gives Google a foot in the door, ahead of probable rivals Amazon/Lovefilm or even Netflix UK. This is a slightly odd App of the Day, because films arrive on your Android device through the Android Market but they are actually handled by the Videos app, so we're dealing with both parts of the process here. Browsing and buying films takes place through Android Market, which has been updated (for some) to include a Films tab, joining Apps, Games and Books. Dive into Films and you get the normal breakdown into categories, featured, top rentals and new releases. There are also Staff Choices within the featured section.    Then it really is as simple as finding a film you fancy and tapping the Rent button. We've been browsing the selection of movies on offer and they seem to be priced at £3.49 for a newer release, or £2.49 for older movies.  These prices match those on iTunes, unsurprisingly, but the selection of films isn't as comprehensive. Fortunately it doesn’t cost you anything to browse, as there is no subscription involved, unlike streaming from a service like Lovefilm. Once you've made your selection and Read More

Colors

| FREE | Five Pumpkins

APP OF THE DAY: Colors (Android) - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

4 October 2011 18:00 GMT / By Dan Sung Sometimes it's the simplest Android apps that are the most impressive and few are as simple as today's App of the Day app review on Pocket-lint. One of the major advantages to using an Android smartphone is that you can customise and personalise to your heart's content. The only trouble is that, with so many e-mails, browser windows open and app games to get yourself addicted to, it's often all too easy to overlook this plus point, but don't worry. Today's app will help you sort some of that out in one tap. Forgive the American spelling. Colors is still a fantastic app. As one review on the Android Market reads, “its odd that we need an app for such a thing, but its useful”. The thing that this user refers to is wallpaper. One of the big wow factors when the Nexus One arrived were those funky, interactive, live wallpapers that we could have spanning our desktops and secretly chewing through battery life and taking up precious RAM. So, eventually, these get a little dull and actually something more subtle and speedy becomes appealing. Step in Colors by developer Tim Clark. Colors is a very simple look at wallpapers for Android. Like the name suggests, the app offers you a choice of plain colours. All you do is pick one and it becomes your wallpaper. Now, that sounds rather dull but there are a couple of things to bare in mind. Firstly, there are lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of colours to choose from. Secondly, they sort of all look brilliant, and thirdly - probably the part we like best - is that you can chop and change whenever you feel like it without having to search Read More

Facebook Messenger

| FREE | Facebook

APP OF THE DAY: Facebook Messenger (Android) - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

20 September 2011 18:00 GMT / By Chris Hall Facebook has found its way into almost every phone, with custom apps, a mobile site and entire operating system updates dedicated to accommodating Mark Zuckerberg’s social network. Replicating all the features that Facebook offers is accommodated well on Android, with sharing options hooking into your photos, for example.  The Facebook app has been on Android for as long as we can remember (even if it seems barely functional in its current guise). Breaking out from this comes Facebook Messenger, giving you your own app just for chatting to friends, supplanting the existing provision for Facebook Chat. The app launched in the US back in August and has made it over to the UK for all to enjoy. Now, before you get exciting about something shiny and new, this is essentially a service you already have on your phone. It replicates the Chat section of the website which appears in the corner of Facebook in a browser, with messages appearing in both places simultaneously. Facebook Chat has been part of the Facebook for Android app for a while, but Facebook Messenger is a much cleaner way to use the service as you don’t have to negotiate the rest of the Facebook app. As such, we did find some oddities we’ve seen before with Facebook integration on Android. Notifications seems to be a slight stumbling block, as we found Facebook for Android (the main Facebook app) alerted us to some conversations instead. Tapping that notification takes you to Chat within the main app, rather than Facebook Messenger.     You can tell the difference between the two because Facebook Messenger uses its own logo, whereas Facebook for Android uses the face of the person talking to you, which to be fair, looks better. To resolve the problem, head Read More

Bouncy Mouse

| FREE | Munkadoo Games LLC

APP OF THE DAY - Bouncy Mouse (Android) - Pocket-lint - Pocket-lint - Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

30 August 2011 18:00 GMT / By Chris Hall Ask someone about mobile gaming these days and you’ll be surprised if they don’t say Angry Birds. Although we’ve probably all pretty much moved on from Rovio’s creation, it had a huge impact across all platforms - something that's really left a mark. The message is clear though. Games that ape console controls don’t hit the mainstream in the same way that the platform-style games can: fiddling with on-screen buttons and joysticks, isn’t as natural as using the simple application of physics. As far as we’re concerned, the less you have to do to control a game, the better it’s going to be. Following the likes of Angry Birds, Tiny Wings and Cut the Rope, comes today’s App Of The Day which is simple enough, but not always easy. With a name like Bouncy Mouse, you can pretty much imagine what the game is about, or at least who the protagonist is. Yes, you play a mouse that bounces. Said mouse doesn’t only bounce - he also has an elastic tail, allowing him to be catapulted through the level, attaching to magic pegs (green dots) as he goes. Essentially, catapulting is the primary method of movement in the game. So to start off, you pull the mouse back and let him fly. When he passes a magic peg his tail will attach to it. Using this method you can move through the platform-style game world, flying from peg to peg. The aim is to get to the end of the level where you can hit the cat guarding the cheese. It then releases the cheese and you complete that level. En route there are cheeses that you can collect, Mario style, and your choice of route will determine how many you can Read More