Talk Android Apps of the Week: November 1, 2015
It’s Sunday, the time of the week when Talk Android brings you a report on some of the very best applications we’ve been using over the course of the past seven days. Today we’re focusing our attention on an awesome calendar-based app, a fantastic battery saver for Qualcomm-powered smartphones and tablets, a great mobile security tool and a fantastic piece of tracking software.
Calendar Status
For as long as I can remember, I’ve yearned for Google to authorize users of its official Calendar app the ability to display their schedules in the notification drawer of their smartphones and tablets. Unfortunately, that still hasn’t happened. That’s why I decided to take it upon myself to try and find a third-party app that would do just that.
On Monday, I discovered Calendar Status, a fantastic free app that’s available through the Play Store, which enables users to show all of their upcoming appointments in their notification drawer – so adoptees no longer have to head into the calendar to see what’s next on the agenda. They simply pull down the notification panel from the top of their handset’s display to be presented with a full list of things scheduled for that particular day.
Calendar Status also bundles support for Google Tasks, which means you will be able to track all of your tasks and assignments from the notification panel, too. If you upgrade to the Pro version of the app for the one-time fee of $2.49, you’ll also get the facility to mark them as complete when done.
Snapdragon BatteryGuru
Whilst using an LG G4, I’ve become somewhat frustrated with the handset’s poor battery life. So, last Sunday, I explored the possibilities of improving its battery usage and discovered that someone had been using Qualcomm BatteryGuru, which they claim has significantly improved the amount of hours they get from their handset. Consequently, I decided to give it a try.
Ever since I downloaded the app, it has been continuously monitoring my daily usage and establishing patterns. Yesterday, the Qualcomm BatteryGuru informed me that it has observed that I open Facebook at around 11 PM every day, so it cut off all background tasks associated with the service during the day in order to conserve battery life. At 10:30 PM, it reactivates them, to provide me with the standard user experience I’m accustom to receiving.
I have noticed a slight hike in battery performance so far, but BatteryGuru is an app that learns over time — so the longer I have it installed, the smarter it will get, saving me more power as it picks up on new trends in daily usage. It’s important to note, however, that this app will only work on smartphones and tablets powered by Qualcomm processors.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Dislock
I recently retrieved my handsome Pebble out of the drawer and connected it to my smartphone. When reinstalling the official Pebble app, I noticed a companion app called Dislock that wanted to come along for the ride, too. At first, I was a little skeptical, but it had some pretty solid ratings in the Play Store, so I thought I’d give it a go.
Android has had direct support for Trusted Devices for a while now, but for some reason it has never played nice with the Pebble. Dislock makes use of the Administrator API which enables you to list not only your Pebble watch, but also your Android Wear as trusted Bluetooth devices – so whenever you’re connected to your Pebble via Dislock, you will be able to bypass lock screen security.
Android Device Manager
The fourth and final app we’re looking at this week is one that I feel all Android users should have downloaded on every smartphone and tablet they possess. Android Device Manager allows users to track, ring, lock, encrypt and wipe their handsets if they ever happen to become lost or stolen.
In order to use this service, you must first enable the feature in the Google Settings app, which comes installed on every Android device by default. To do this, open up the app, scroll down and select Security, then flick the switch to turn Android Device Manager on.
Previous Apps of the Week editions:
- October 25, 2015
- October 18, 2015
- October 11, 2015
- October 4, 2015
- September 27, 2015
- September 20, 2015
- September 13, 2015
- September 6, 2015
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Instagram unmasks new curated feed on Halloween
Embedding curated feeds within social media platforms seems to be all the rage these days. Recently Twitter launched both their Moments option and the advertiser driven Promoted Moments as a way to keep users within their app while delivery a more concentrated source of content to users. In a bit of a surprise move, Instagram revealed on Halloween they have their own take on a curated feed ready for users.
If you happened to open Instagram on Halloween, a holiday especially well-suited to a platform focusing on sharing photos, you probably noticed the new curated content option as its availability was front and center on the homepage. Instagram merely invited users to “Watch Halloween’s Best Videos” so it is unclear whether a snappy name has been given to the new feature.
The video channel was available for 24-hours starting at 1 pm on Saturday and showcased the best Halloween videos that Instagram’s staff of curators could locate. The internal effort was headed up by Amanda Kelso, a community director for Instagram, who led a staff of a half dozen team members who pored through user posts to find content for the feed.
Although the feed revealed on Halloween showed how Instagram can capitalize on an event by providing a high entertainment value – after all, what better way to spend a few minutes than watching videos of costumed candy collectors – it also shows how Instagram can get in on the news cycle. Instagram hopes to challenge Twitter as the source for breaking news as revealed by users posting to the platforms. Just like Twitter is working on features like Moments to help users discover trending information, the best videos feature on Instagram can do the same thing.
Instagram is on the look out for more events to feature on the new video channel. Reportedly there are no plans to make the feature available to advertisers ala Twitter’s Promoted Moments.
source: Wired
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