Google Keyboard: High performance direct from Google [review]

Third-party keyboards are an essential part of the Android experience. Throughout the years, our beloved operating system has given users the choice of using different keyboard apps if they didn’t like what their manufacturer provided. As is always the case, talented developers throughout the world have come up with innovative and useful ideas to change how we type in our tiny screens. Google has always had a solution, but it was either scrapped by manufacturers or only shipped with Nexus devices. The company then decided to introduce Google Keyboard to the masses, providing consumers a highly-performing, stock experience.

Developer: Google Inc.

Price: Free

Highlights:

• Setup process longer than it should be, thanks to Android’s way of doing things.
• Astounding performance.
• Choice between dark and light themes.
• Gesture typing.
• Decent amount of options.

Setup

Google Keyboard’s setup process.

I will always believe that Android’s way of activating a keyboard is unnecessarily complicated. If you’re a newcomer to Android (welcome!) or someone who’s getting started in all of the benefits of the platform, you shouldn’t need to go through multiple screens looking for what you want. Modern apps make things easier and give you instructions on what you need to do, and Google Keyboard is no different, but a keyboard should be activated at the touch of a button, no more.

Anyways, Google Keyboard takes you first to a screen where you need to enable the keyboard from a list of your installed input methods. Android will show a very threatening alert, informing you that keyboards can capture your passwords and payment information (which they can, but that’s why privacy policies exist).

Then, you have to select Google Keyboard as your default input method. Finally, the app will give you the option of configuring more languages. Dozens of languages (and configurations within the same languages) are supported, so you’ll most likely find your method of communication in that list.

Features

Being a Google app, Material Design is predominant in this rendition of Google Keyboard. There are no borders between keys, and the top row has little numbers above them, indicating that you can long-press them in order to type the number instead.

Google Keyboard’s interface follows Material Design.

At the bottom, you’ll see keys for numbers and symbols, a shortcut for inserting commas and periods, an emoji key, and the spacebar. If you have selected more than one language, Google Keyboard will show a key for changing it (shaped like a world globe), and also its name inside the space bar. There’s also a dark theme, for those of you that still mourn the killing of black interfaces when Material Design was introduced.

There’s a dark theme, too.

From the moment you start typing your first words, you will notice that Google has put a huge emphasis on performance. This is definitely one of the most fluid keyboards you’ll find in the app store. It appears on screen and dismisses swiftly, and the few animations it has are really fluid. Compare its performance with SwiftKey, for example, and you’ll see that everything is faster and with less lag than competitors.

When typing, a popup with the letter you’ve tapped will appear. Unlike other alternatives, this popup does not hinder performance at all. Pressing the symbols icon will do exactly what you expect. Instead of opting for two pages of symbols or a similar solution, you can long-press a symbol and it will show a popup with alternative special characters.

Pressing the emoji button will take you to the emoji selection screen, where the ubiquitous icons are ordered by categories. The newer emojis introduced at the end of 2015 by Apple and Google through software updates are included as well.

Gesture Typing works flawlessly.

Google Keyboard also supports swiping, which Google calls Gesture Typing. Instead of tapping the keys, Gesture Typing lets you slide your finger through the letters to form a word.

If you aren’t a fan of this alternative, nothing of what Google has done will entice you to use it. However, for those of us who rely on it, I have found that it is quite accurate, both in English and Spanish (my native language). The keyboard will show you a trail behind your swipe, and a popup will follow your finger with the word you are forming.

Google’s voice typing is also supported, and it’s as accurate as ever. I had absolutely no problems commanding my keyboard with either Spanish or English. Your mileage may vary, but I’ve always found this feature really precise for me.

There are several settings to choose from.

Pay a visit to the options screen and you’ll discover that, contrary to other apps developed by Google, there are several options to choose from. For starters, and like mentioned before, Google Keyboard lets you change its color between Light and Dark. However, apps like Swiftkey and Fleksy offer more robust theme support.

Other options include vibrate on keypress, gesture typing configuration, text correction options, and auto-capitalization.

Google also offers synchronization of your personal dictionary between devices using your Google account. Just choose and account and activate Google Keyboard Sync, and the juggernaut will do the rest.

Conclusion

Having Google decouple its keyboard from the core of Android was a great idea, since it lets the company constantly improve on it without needing a full system update. Unlike competition, Android has had support for third-party keyboards for years, so developers have built several noteworthy alternatives to the often ineffective solutions that manufacturers provide. Apps like Swiftkey, Swype, Touchpal and Fleksy offer more features and customization; on the other hand, Google has focused on providing a good experience with a high-performing keyboard, and it has succeeded.

Download from the Play Store.

App Roundup – Star Wars apps every fan should consider

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has been released digitally today. All of us here at AndroidGuys have Star Wars fever, so we’re bringing you five must have Star Wars apps to help get you ready to rule the galaxy with an iron fist as part of the empire, or fight the power with the rebel alliance. The choice is yours…

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5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

This is an oldie but goodie. Knights of the Old Republic is an in depth RPG that allows you to create your own character and participate in an epic campaign across the galaxy. One of KOTOR’s unique features is its ability to allow you to make decisions in the game that affect your character’s light and dark side. As of this writing, Knights of the Old Republic is free on the Amazon Underground App Store.

Knights of the Old Republic – Google Play Store

4. Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes

Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes is an RPG/deck building hybrid that has you collecting holo cards, building squads, and battling your way to the top of the galaxy. Combat takes place in a small arena/environment and plays out in a turn based style. Each character has a basic attack and a special ability. Combat is very simple and involves simply pressing an icon corresponding to the attack you would like to perform. Galaxy Of Heroes is a lot of fun to play and I definitely recommend it.

Star Wars: Galaxy Heroes – Google Play Store

3. Star Wars: Battlefront Companion App

If you’re playing Star Wars: Battlefront, then you definitely need the companion app to go along with it. The Battlefront Companion App lets you play as a commander from your phone or tablet, see your game stats, purchase star cards, edit your loadout and even see which of your friends are playing. This is a must have app if you’re playing Battlefront!

Star Wars: Battlefront Companion App – Google Play Store

2. Star Wars: Uprising

Star Wars: Uprising is an action RPG with a unique control scheme. Movement, combat, and environmental interactions all involve simply clicking on the screen. Uprising offers many RPG elements including character customization, character leveling, equipment unlocks and special abilities. Uprising is a lot of fun and is definitely worth you time. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to pick up and play.

Star Wars: Uprising – Google Play Store

1. Battery Lightsaber

Battery Lightsaber is a fun little widget that uses a lightsaber to indicate your device’s current battery level. By default, the app offers you a purple lightsaber, but more colors can be obtained via in-app purchases. Battery Lightsaber includes fun little quotes on the widget, and even has sound effects for when you plug and unplug your device. The widget looks great and is definitely worth a download!

Battery Lightsaber – Google Play Store

 

We hope you enjoy these apps we’ve chosen, and if you still haven’t gotten enough Star Wars, check out these 26 Star Wars wallpapers and our latest Steal This Look – Star Wars Edition!

AppLock+: Your phone’s security is at risk without it [Review]

AppLock+ offers a unique spin on mobile device security. Instead of being relegated to a one time pin unlock to access your device, AppLock+ offers you the ability lock and require a pin code for any and every app on your device.

Developer: AVIRA

Cost: Free (further features unlockable via in-app purchase)

Highlights

• Beautiful, simple, and effective user interface
• Affordable
• Unique take on mobile security

Review

At this point in time, most of us are pretty used to the standard unlock features for our mobile devices; we either swipe to unlock, hold to unlock, or, for extra security, we enter a pin number. There’s nothing wrong with this setup in and of itself, but some people just need a little more security for their devices. Enter AppLock+.

AppLock+ is unlike any security application I’ve ever seen. What makes it unique is that it offers you the ability to lock down individual apps and features on you device with and require a pin number to access them. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You can further customize these locks by scheduling a specific app, or group of apps, to lock and unlock on specific days and times of the week, and you can even configure apps to lock based upon your geographic location.

This also brings me to the next feature I really like about AppLock+: grouping. Some of us have tons and tons of apps on our phones and the idea of going through each of them individually and configuring a lock for them can seem daunting and troublesome. AppLock+ has you covered by offering app grouping. You can lock down apps in groups based on their function. For example, your social media apps will be grouped together under AppLock’s Group tab, and you can configure lock options for all of them in bulk versus configuring locks for each of them individually. If you decide that you want specific lock configurations for any of these apps, however, you still have the ability to configure them individually.

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Group locking in AppLock+ is not perfect. The default groups AppLock creates for you are pretty effective. You can also create and customize your own groups, but the default ones AppLock creates will suffice for most users. Unfortunately, you really start running into problems when you want to configure lock settings for an individual app that happens to be nested in a group.

Using social media apps as an example once again: if I want to configure a lock for, say, Google + by itself, I have to go into the Groups tab, select ‘Social media apps’ and then swipe the Google + entry to the left to delete it from the group. I then have to go back to the Apps tab and find Google +, select it, and then I can configure the lock options for it individually. This does not take that much time to do in the scheme of things, but it’s inconvenient and I would love to be able to just go to the Apps tab and configure the apps individually without having to mess with the app’s group if it happens to be in one.

On the settings front, AppLock+ is pretty simple. The Settings menu consists of six items:

• Enabled
• Change Pin
• Change Recovery Password
• Device Administrator – AppLock+ needs this permission to allow you to lock down individual apps
• Unlock Duration
• Lock apps when screen is off

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My favorite setting in AppLock is the ability to set an unlock duration. I had mine set at five minutes. Essentially what this feature does, is it will not require you to enter your pin code for a recently used app, after closing it, for a designated amount of time; in my case, five minutes. This can be quite convenient and help eliminate potential frustration by having to enter your pin every time you re-open an app that you were using just recently. This is great for multi-tasking on your device.

User Interface

AppLock+ is beautiful. I bragged about it’s UI to a fellow AndroidGuy’s writer not long after installing it on my phone. I like that there’s not a lot of menus and sub menus to navigate. The white color scheme works really well. It almost has sort of a futuristic lab feel. In my opinion, AppLock+ defines what I would call minimalistic effectiveness, in that it offers a very basic and simple UI that still captures the power and features you would find in a complex and convoluted UI. I applaud AVIRA for accomplishing this.

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Apps tab

Groups tab

In-app Purchases

As much as I dislike in-app purchases, AppLock+ is very reasonable about them. The app will be effective and adequate for most users without requiring them to spend a dime. You can, however, unlock the geo-lock and schedule lock features individually, or as a bundle. The bundle unlock was $2.21 at the time of this review.

Conclusion

I am very impressed with AppLock+. It’s a great solution if you’re looking for a little extra security for you device. AVIRA definitely needs to make the above suggested changes to the app’s grouping feature, and I would also like to see them make the numbers on the pin screen bigger and with more space in between them. I found myself mistyping my pin if I was entering it very quickly. Despite these issues, AppLock+ is a great app and is definitely worthy of your consideration.

AppLock+ – Google Play Store

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FiiO X7 Android-powered digital audio player review

The growing desire for higher audio quality means that Android is showing more presence in the digital audio player (DAP) world. Folks may see it silly to carry around an additional device when our smartphones can play audio, but unfortunately, the quality isn’t great on phones yet. LG has recently shown an effort to remedy this with it’s B&O HiFi module for the LG G5.

Therefore, things are getting interesting in the portable audio market, as manufacturers try for the first time to power their devices with Android. A promising attempt that we’re reviewing today is the FiiO X7. FiiO is a Chinese manufacturer that has made a boom with audio lovers by producing great bang for the buck devices.

However, the X7 isn’t such device. It’s new territory for FiiO – a premium flagship (with a premium price). And Android is along for the ride. Let’s check out if that was a good move.

Design

FiiO takes the typical “premium” approach to design with the X7 by building it from a block of metal. That’s no understatement. It’s thick, as if FiiO doesn’t care whatsoever about device thinness like the rest of the industry does.

I’m personally not one to care for the thin fetish that surrounds mobile devices, but the X7 does manage find my limit. It shows through a pocket and is heavy (220 grams). It’s not a huge deal, but I wish that FiiO would have recognized the considerable girth and worked it down.

The X7 is 16.6mm thick

If we look at the profile, you’ll see that part of thickness is attributed to a hump on the back and an elevated display. It would have been nice if the front and back were flush with the body, and the protruding display is a bit worrisome. That makes the glass more vulnerable to life’s perils.

FiiO put in some nice looking design cues in the metal to up the aesthetics. The edges on both front and back have a shiny chamfer, the finish on the metal is super smooth, and the physical buttons have a flashy circular texture.

The panel under the display has a sweet brushed-metal look. Something you won’t notice until you turn the X7 on is that there’s a blue light embedded between the glass and metal. There’s no real purpose for it that I can tell, I think it’s just merely to look cool.

You’ll notice a symmetric button layout on both sides. The left side has the power button and volume rocker, and the right side has the play/pause button and back/forward track rocker. Also on the left is support for microSD expansion – always a welcomed feature. You can drop in up to 128GB extra on top of the on-board 32GB.

The bottom of the X7 is pretty simple; there’s the 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB port.

But there’s actually more than meets the eye here. The portion of the X7 below the display is the amp component and is removable via the T5 Torx screws on the sides. FiiO designed the device to be able to accept different amp modules for headphones with higher power requirements.

The unit comes with the lowest power module installed (which works just fine with most headphones), but if you find yourself needing more volume headroom, FiiO produced two higher power tiers that you can purchase. There’s also a module that can do a balanced output.

Lastly, on the top of the X7, you’ll just find a 3.5mm jack for line out or coaxial output.

Performance

Let’s take a look at what’s under the hood.

• Chipset: Rockchip RK3188 SoC (quad-core @ 1.4GHz) and 1GB of RAM
• Display: 3.97″ IPS LCD, 480×800 resolution
• Storage: 32GB internal, with microSD expandability up to 128GB
• Battery: 3,500mAh (non-removable)
• DAC: SABRE ESS ES9018S
• Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz, 802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth 2.4GHz V4.0 + EDR
• Software: Android 4.4.4 (KitKat), customized and FiiO Music app
• Supported audio formats: WAV, FLAC, APE, ALAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, DXD, DSD64/128, and PCM (up to 384kHz/64-bit)

The core specs are yesteryear, but this is a digital audio player first and foremost. FiiO packs the X7 where it counts in that regard – there’s a hefty battery, plenty of storage, and a proven digital-to-analog converter (DAC).

The performance is where you’d expect from a lower spec’d device. It gets the job done, but doesn’t necessarily fly. In my use, there was the occasional hiccup, but navigation has been surprisingly smooth overall.

The same can be said for the display. It functions just fine. The low resolution is a little hard to swallow if you’re a snob like me, but the fact that it’s a small 4″ size helps the ppi a little bit. Viewing angles are decent; the image slightly dims but you can see the content at even the most extreme angle.

The 3,500mAh battery performed well in my experience. I typically stream HiFi music using TIDAL over WiFi and the battery dissipated roughly 10% an hour.

With my on/off usage, I was glad that the X7 minimally sips battery on idle. You can further efficiency by setting the device to turn off after a certain time. And of course, the battery life is a little better on offline mode.

Software

*It’s crucial to update the firmware upon receiving the X7. FiiO has since made important updates, such as sound quality improvements and additional software features. This review uses Firmware v1.8.

I was somewhat surprised to see that the X7 runs a pretty old version of Android – 4.4.4 (KitKat). Any newer Android device should be at least running Lollipop. But it is what it is. The X7 is meant to be a digital audio player with Android capabilities. Let’s go over what that means.

FiiO subtly but heavily customized Android for its own. When you boot up the X7, you’re greeted with a fairly bare-bones, stock interface. You’ll however find significant tweaks here and there. For instance, the top pull-down has a tile layout of different functions, as opposed to notifications.

This isn’t a phone, so notifications aren’t so crucial. Weirdly, sometimes the pull-down does show me notifications. And I, for the life of me, can’t figure out how the system decides to show me either the tiles of functions or notifications. I’d be nice if FiiO incorporates a way to flip between them.

The lock screen always shows the basic playback controls – play/pause and previous or next track. Fortunately, the controls aren’t just tied to FiiO’s own music app, but third-party services as well. That goes for the X7’s physical button controls too. I use TIDAL for my HiFi listening, and had no major problems with integration on the X7. The only bug that I found is when you pause the music for a while, the play button doesn’t reinitiate it. You have to go back into the app and hit play.

You’ll also find that FiiO made some additions to the system settings. Under Sound Settings, you can change the Gain (amplification) between High and Low, or alter the L/R channel balance.

Some folks (including myself) found that blue light on the front of the X7 to be annoying in dark environments. Within the Display settings, FiiO considerately added control for its brightness and status when the device charging or playing (the light can be lit, pulsing, or off).

A few more notable, custom features:

• Powertimer setting – Set an idle timer, for X7 to sleep or power off.
• Power-on mode – FiiO has two modes that the X7 can operate, in Android mode or FiiO Music only. The FiiO Music mode only gives you access to the music app. It saves battery if you only plan to use the X7 to listen to stored music.
• USB DAC function – The X7 can be used as an external DAC, if you wish to use another source.

Unfortunately, there is no global EQ setting. The custom FiiO music app keeps its 10-band, customizable equalizer for itself.

Speaking of the FiiO music app, it’s nicely user-friendly. The app scans device’s storage for any music and organizes it in the interface. Navigation is pretty intuitive, except, you may not know what some of the icon buttons mean until you try them.

Tap the Now Playing bar on the bottom to expand it. You then have typical playback controls, a favorites button, and a shortcut to the EQ. The settings cog shows up on the top left corner. There’s not much more that the app’s settings offer than the system’s sound settings, it’s mainly options for the app’s UI.

Sound

*For my testing, I used the X7 with Sennheiser IE 800 and Shure SE846 earphones.

Being that the X7 is FiiO’s top-end audio device, you can probably guess that the sound is killer. Indeed. Let’s go over how it excels and what you should know.

Overall, the sound is clean and concise. This is what a DAC should do – articulate the signal so that you can clearly hear each element of the sound. You won’t find muddied frequencies here.

The treble and the soundstage are two aspects that stood out to me, and made my headphones shine. The X7 gives highs a wonderful presence, where sometimes inferior DACs allow the detail to get lost in the mix. The soundstage is satisfyingly wide. It brings another level to the music and experience.

The mid-range frequencies are right behind. Shure’s headphones are known for prominent mids, and together with the X7, I get full power from my SE846 earphones. Guitar strums feel like they’re right on your ears. I have heard deeper vocal details from the iFi Micro iDSD DAC I’ve reviewed, but the X7 isn’t far behind.

However, the X7 is “reference” sounding to my ears. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it depends what you like. To me, the sound could be livelier, particularly on the low-end. The bass detail is great, but I could use more oomph. I wish that FiiO had included an analog bass boost like many audio manufacturers do on their units.

I must mention that at times I hear some static noise when streaming music. I checked with FiiO and turns out that the X7 can transmits some interference while listening on WiFi. In this case, it happens when the tracks buffer (for a few seconds). You can check out their response on Head-Fi.org, but in short, that’s just how it is on the X7. Adding interference resistance could compromise audio quality, and FiiO does not want to risk that.

That’s understandable, and you could download offline content from streaming services, which would bypass the interference. I just can’t help feel like device isn’t finished until this issue is addressed. The X7 is marketed as an online-capable player; it should be able to do that efficiently.

Final Thoughts

The FiiO X7 is a great device overall. Is it perfect? No. There are a few standout things that need work. It’s too thick, the Android version is old, and there’s some interference noise when streaming. But I figure that these concerns would be minor to most audio lovers who pick this up. We can’t forget that the X7 is a dedicated audio player above all.

But then I look at the steep retail price tag – $700. My feeling is that a device like the X7 should be perfect at that price-point, and have more audio features (like a bass boost or balanced output out of the box). The amp module concept does add some uniqueness and versatility, so props to FiiO for that. There also aren’t many Android HiFi players out there, and the X7 is a real fine one out of the bunch.

FiiO X7 product page

Bouncing Journey: the little ball that could [Review]

Summary –

Bouncing Journey is the story of a blue ball (apparently his name is Zhee) that is intent on rescuing the princess ball who was captured by the evil squares. On this journey, you will help Zhee collect stars, defeat squares, and make is way through the maze-like levels to rescue his fair maiden.

Developer: Lohf-Zigomard Productions

Highlights

• Free to download (supported by ads between levels)
• Exceptional physics engine
• Vibrant colors

Setup –

Setup is fairly straight forward. Download the application from Google Play and launch (no Google Play Games integration). The download is pretty large for not requiring wifi (184MB) but depending on your data plan it may not be a big deal.

Impression –

Have you ever wanted to turn into a ball and travel through the world rolling on trampolines that randomly toss you into the air? If you have, Bouncing Journey is for you; if not, then you can enjoy being the god that tosses the ball (Zhee) in whatever direction you please.

The gameplay experience is wonderful. The controls are responsive and the physics are great. Things fall as you expect and bounce, or not, appropriately on surfaces. The first level quickly tells the story of the princess getting kidnapped and Zhee being dropped into a dungeon from which he must escape to rescue her.

Five worlds to play through

There are two objectives to each level; collecting all of the stars and finding the finish line. The stars (like many other games) are a rating of how well you complete each level. The stars become increasingly difficult to get to get as the levels progress. Unfortunately, there is no advantage to collecting all the stars; I would love to see something added here to make it worth my while to collect them.

Getting to the finish line is the main goal of each level. When you reach the end of the level the square that holds the princess is there to taunt you and continues his escape with the princess (he is a cheater – he can fly).

Falling from the sky

Unfortunately, the graphics are the major letdown. While they have included bright, vibrant colors the graphic style used here is sub-par. If these were tuned up and refined this could make this game a must play.

Likes:

• Bright colors
• Great physics

Dislikes:

• Graphics could use refinement
• Limited depth
• Stars are not beneficial

Conclusion –

Bouncing Journey is an entertaining game with complexity, dungeons, and great physics. Improving the graphics and adding some reward for collecting stars would move this game to another level. If you feel like helping Zhee rescue his princess please download and give Bouncing Journey a shot.

Your smartphone is really dirty. Start controlling the grime and bacteria with an all in one tool (Hans Swipe)

I was watching Jimmy Kimmel the other night and he reminded me of an old article I read from Time Magazine about the dirtiness of our hands and smartphones.

According to London scientists, 1 in 6 phones has fecal matter on it. In another word, there is a high chance your smartphone has poop on it. The study reasoned that people do not wash their hands after using the restroom, and transfer the fecal matter onto their phones. The vast majority of us do not know what others do in the restroom, but many people are seen going into stalls with smartphones in hand. That contributes to the nastiness too.

E.Coli is commonly found in human fecal matter and can make you very sick if ingested. E. Coli was behind the massive food poisonings earlier this year from Chipotle, and I am not linking smartphones to that incident, but am simply stating what E.Coli can do to you.

Smartphones are a somewhat new phenomena, only gaining massive acceptance over the last 10 years, so we haven’t had a lot of time to dissect their overall impacts on our daily lives. We have learned over the past few hundred years how good hygiene, like cleaning teeth, pasteurizing milk, washing hands, and bathing can all lead to longer lives. Yet for many of us, we NEVER clean our smartphones with anything more than the back of our t-shirts or sweaters.

Our phones go practically everywhere with us: the bathroom, changing diapers, in the kitchen for recipes, the gym, at the dinner table, in the office and car. They’re with us more than any other device and they are dragging the germs they have accumulated along with them. Logic would tell us we need to start cleaning our smartphones a little better than what we have been doing.

I use a multitude of device cleaners when I am home, but the one I have in the office and in my car is the HÄNS Swipe all in one cleaning kit.

Description

HÄNS is a dual-sided, all-in-one device cleaner for complete and convenient on-the-go use. It’s very simple to use and you can control the cleanliness of your smartphone or tablet in less than one minute.

First, Swipe with the Cleaning Side to apply HÄNS Cleaning Solution and begin actively cleaning and cutting through and lifting grease, grime, dirt, and oils.

Then flip and Swipe to Polish; removing any remaining residue.

HÄNS works that easily and that well. Clean your smartphones, tablets, touchscreens, car touchscreens, plus cases and covers and more. ” Germs can live up to a week in the grease, grime and oil that builds up when not properly cleaned, making your device’s surface a germ breeding ground!”

Even if you don’t care about germs, you should be at a minimum using some sort of cleaner to give you the best pictures possible.

Fully cleaned.

Grease build up on the camera lens can completely ruin a picture and trying to wipe off grease with cotton isn’t going to work.

I highly recommend the Hans Swipe all in one cleaning tool for everyone who owns a smartphone or tablet. Don’t bring the gym bacteria to the dinner table with your smartphone. Wash your smartphone like you wash your hands.

I also use a variety of other cleaners when I am at home. I listed them below and they are great for cleaning larger devices like televisions. Consider picking one up for yourself and loved ones too.

HÄNS Swipe : Clean 1:1 Bundle – $22.95 Amazon

• HÄNS – A Dual-Sided Clean like never before
• First apply HÄNS Cleaning Solution to actively clean. Second, use the Polishing Side to remove any remaining residue
• Refill for 1000’s of more cleans – Creating Zero Waste
• Helps control the spread of germs
• 1:1 Bundle contains 1 HÄNS Swipe – Clean and 1 Refill bottle of HÄNS Cleaning Solution

HÄNS Swipe – $14.95 Amazon

• Easy to use – Swipe On, Swipe Off for an On-Demand Clean
• Antimicrobial – Clean without the use of harsh chemicals
• Pre-Loaded with HÄNS Cleaning Solution to last hundreds of Cleans, Refillable for 1,000’s more
• Helps control the spread of germs
• All-In-One, On-The-Go Design – Clean Anywhere, Anytime

Screen Cleaner ROGGE DUO-Clean – $14.95 Amazon

• Streak-Free, Antibacterial, Antistatic, Allergy-Free, Alcohol-Free, Ammonia-Free Screen Cleaner.
• Removes grease, dust, oils, fingerprints, smears and other dirts safely and efficiently.
• Authorized and recommended by leading computer and TV screen manufacturers.
• Perfect for all LED, LCD, OLED, Ultra HD, Curved, Plasma, Flat TV, Computer, Phone, Tablet, Touch Screens and other sensitive surfaces.
• Screen cleaning kit includes: 8.4 FLOZ (250ml) Cleaning Spray & Extra Large Microfiber Cloth.

Screen Mom Screen Cleaner Kit – $15.95 Amazon

• Incredible Value – Costs less than 1 penny per spray; Clean your TV or laptop 100 times for less than $1
• Safe and Natural – Plant based product with no odor, alcohol, ammonia, or harmful phosphates; safe to use around family and pets
• Streak Free – ScreenMom gives your screen a like new appearance again that you will love
• Gently Cleans – HD TVs, PC monitors, Kindle Fire, Tablet, Laptops, Smartphone display, Apple Mac Products, iPhone, and cell phones displays
• Product Tested – on all major brands

iCloth Touchscreen Cleaning Wipes – $24.99 Amazon

• Designed to clean all tech device displays and touchscreen surfaces. Fast and effective. No drips, no streaks, no film. Suitable for daily use.
• Achieve maximum optical clarity by easily removing residue, smears, dirt, fingerprint grease, sweat, makeup, everyday grime and gunk. Smooths surface for optimal Stylus response. Equally good for eyewear.
• Proudly made in America. Our NO-RISK GUARANTEE: If your iCloth experience is not 100% positive we will make it right or refund your money.
• Preserve good resale value: our aerospace-grade soft fabric wipes are premoistened with our purified water-based formula – contains isopropyl alcohol (not harmful ethyl alcohol) and proprietary ingredients that are safe on all sensitive optics and specialty coatings.

AppLock+: Your phone’s security is at risk without it [Review]

AppLock+ offers a unique spin on mobile device security. Instead of being relegated to a one time pin unlock to access your device, AppLock+ offers you the ability lock and require a pin code for any and every app on your device.

Developer: AVIRA

Cost: Free (further features unlockable via in-app purchase)

Highlights

• Beautiful, simple, and effective user interface
• Affordable
• Unique take on mobile security

Review

At this point in time, most of us are pretty used to the standard unlock features for our mobile devices; we either swipe to unlock, hold to unlock, or, for extra security, we enter a pin number. There’s nothing wrong with this setup in and of itself, but some people just need a little more security for their devices. Enter AppLock+.

AppLock+ is unlike any security application I’ve ever seen. What makes it unique is that it offers you the ability to lock down individual apps and features on you device with and require a pin number to access them. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You can further customize these locks by scheduling a specific app, or group of apps, to lock and unlock on specific days and times of the week, and you can even configure apps to lock based upon your geographic location.

This also brings me to the next feature I really like about AppLock+: grouping. Some of us have tons and tons of apps on our phones and the idea of going through each of them individually and configuring a lock for them can seem daunting and troublesome. AppLock+ has you covered by offering app grouping. You can lock down apps in groups based on their function. For example, your social media apps will be grouped together under AppLock’s Group tab, and you can configure lock options for all of them in bulk versus configuring locks for each of them individually. If you decide that you want specific lock configurations for any of these apps, however, you still have the ability to configure them individually.

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Group locking in AppLock+ is not perfect. The default groups AppLock creates for you are pretty effective. You can also create and customize your own groups, but the default ones AppLock creates will suffice for most users. Unfortunately, you really start running into problems when you want to configure lock settings for an individual app that happens to be nested in a group.

Using social media apps as an example once again: if I want to configure a lock for, say, Google + by itself, I have to go into the Groups tab, select ‘Social media apps’ and then swipe the Google + entry to the left to delete it from the group. I then have to go back to the Apps tab and find Google +, select it, and then I can configure the lock options for it individually. This does not take that much time to do in the scheme of things, but it’s inconvenient and I would love to be able to just go to the Apps tab and configure the apps individually without having to mess with the app’s group if it happens to be in one.

On the settings front, AppLock+ is pretty simple. The Settings menu consists of six items:

• Enabled
• Change Pin
• Change Recovery Password
• Device Administrator – AppLock+ needs this permission to allow you to lock down individual apps
• Unlock Duration
• Lock apps when screen is off

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My favorite setting in AppLock is the ability to set an unlock duration. I had mine set at five minutes. Essentially what this feature does, is it will not require you to enter your pin code for a recently used app, after closing it, for a designated amount of time; in my case, five minutes. This can be quite convenient and help eliminate potential frustration by having to enter your pin every time you re-open an app that you were using just recently. This is great for multi-tasking on your device.

User Interface

AppLock+ is beautiful. I bragged about it’s UI to a fellow AndroidGuy’s writer not long after installing it on my phone. I like that there’s not a lot of menus and sub menus to navigate. The white color scheme works really well. It almost has sort of a futuristic lab feel. In my opinion, AppLock+ defines what I would call minimalistic effectiveness, in that it offers a very basic and simple UI that still captures the power and features you would find in a complex and convoluted UI. I applaud AVIRA for accomplishing this.

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Apps tab

Groups tab

In-app Purchases

As much as I dislike in-app purchases, AppLock+ is very reasonable about them. The app will be effective and adequate for most users without requiring them to spend a dime. You can, however, unlock the geo-lock and schedule lock features individually, or as a bundle. The bundle unlock was $2.21 at the time of this review.

Conclusion

I am very impressed with AppLock+. It’s a great solution if you’re looking for a little extra security for you device. AVIRA definitely needs to make the above suggested changes to the app’s grouping feature, and I would also like to see them make the numbers on the pin screen bigger and with more space in between them. I found myself mistyping my pin if I was entering it very quickly. Despite these issues, AppLock+ is a great app and is definitely worthy of your consideration.

AppLock+ – Google Play Store

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FiiO X7 Android-powered digital audio player review

The growing desire for higher audio quality means that Android is showing more presence in the digital audio player (DAP) world. Folks may see it silly to carry around an additional device when our smartphones can play audio, but unfortunately, the quality isn’t great on phones yet. LG has recently shown an effort to remedy this with it’s B&O HiFi module for the LG G5.

Therefore, things are getting interesting in the portable audio market, as manufacturers try for the first time to power their devices with Android. A promising attempt that we’re reviewing today is the FiiO X7. FiiO is a Chinese manufacturer that has made a boom with audio lovers by producing great bang for the buck devices.

However, the X7 isn’t such device. It’s new territory for FiiO – a premium flagship (with a premium price). And Android is along for the ride. Let’s check out if that was a good move.

Design

FiiO takes the typical “premium” approach to design with the X7 by building it from a block of metal. That’s no understatement. It’s thick, as if FiiO doesn’t care whatsoever about device thinness like the rest of the industry does.

I’m personally not one to care for the thin fetish that surrounds mobile devices, but the X7 does manage find my limit. It shows through a pocket and is heavy (220 grams). It’s not a huge deal, but I wish that FiiO would have recognized the considerable girth and worked it down.

The X7 is 16.6mm thick

If we look at the profile, you’ll see that part of thickness is attributed to a hump on the back and an elevated display. It would have been nice if the front and back were flush with the body, and the protruding display is a bit worrisome. That makes the glass more vulnerable to life’s perils.

FiiO put in some nice looking design cues in the metal to up the aesthetics. The edges on both front and back have a shiny chamfer, the finish on the metal is super smooth, and the physical buttons have a flashy circular texture.

The panel under the display has a sweet brushed-metal look. Something you won’t notice until you turn the X7 on is that there’s a blue light embedded between the glass and metal. There’s no real purpose for it that I can tell, I think it’s just merely to look cool.

You’ll notice a symmetric button layout on both sides. The left side has the power button and volume rocker, and the right side has the play/pause button and back/forward track rocker. Also on the left is support for microSD expansion – always a welcomed feature. You can drop in up to 128GB extra on top of the on-board 32GB.

The bottom of the X7 is pretty simple; there’s the 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB port.

But there’s actually more than meets the eye here. The portion of the X7 below the display is the amp component and is removable via the T5 Torx screws on the sides. FiiO designed the device to be able to accept different amp modules for headphones with higher power requirements.

The unit comes with the lowest power module installed (which works just fine with most headphones), but if you find yourself needing more volume headroom, FiiO produced two higher power tiers that you can purchase. There’s also a module that can do a balanced output.

Lastly, on the top of the X7, you’ll just find a 3.5mm jack for line out or coaxial output.

Performance

Let’s take a look at what’s under the hood.

• Chipset: Rockchip RK3188 SoC (quad-core @ 1.4GHz) and 1GB of RAM
• Display: 3.97″ IPS LCD, 480×800 resolution
• Storage: 32GB internal, with microSD expandability up to 128GB
• Battery: 3,500mAh (non-removable)
• DAC: SABRE ESS ES9018S
• Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz, 802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth 2.4GHz V4.0 + EDR
• Software: Android 4.4.4 (KitKat), customized and FiiO Music app
• Supported audio formats: WAV, FLAC, APE, ALAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, DXD, DSD64/128, and PCM (up to 384kHz/64-bit)

The core specs are yesteryear, but this is a digital audio player first and foremost. FiiO packs the X7 where it counts in that regard – there’s a hefty battery, plenty of storage, and a proven digital-to-analog converter (DAC).

The performance is where you’d expect from a lower spec’d device. It gets the job done, but doesn’t necessarily fly. In my use, there was the occasional hiccup, but navigation has been surprisingly smooth overall.

The same can be said for the display. It functions just fine. The low resolution is a little hard to swallow if you’re a snob like me, but the fact that it’s a small 4″ size helps the ppi a little bit. Viewing angles are decent; the image slightly dims but you can see the content at even the most extreme angle.

The 3,500mAh battery performed well in my experience. I typically stream HiFi music using TIDAL over WiFi and the battery dissipated roughly 10% an hour.

With my on/off usage, I was glad that the X7 minimally sips battery on idle. You can further efficiency by setting the device to turn off after a certain time. And of course, the battery life is a little better on offline mode.

Software

*It’s crucial to update the firmware upon receiving the X7. FiiO has since made important updates, such as sound quality improvements and additional software features. This review uses Firmware v1.8.

I was somewhat surprised to see that the X7 runs a pretty old version of Android – 4.4.4 (KitKat). Any newer Android device should be at least running Lollipop. But it is what it is. The X7 is meant to be a digital audio player with Android capabilities. Let’s go over what that means.

FiiO subtly but heavily customized Android for its own. When you boot up the X7, you’re greeted with a fairly bare-bones, stock interface. You’ll however find significant tweaks here and there. For instance, the top pull-down has a tile layout of different functions, as opposed to notifications.

This isn’t a phone, so notifications aren’t so crucial. Weirdly, sometimes the pull-down does show me notifications. And I, for the life of me, can’t figure out how the system decides to show me either the tiles of functions or notifications. I’d be nice if FiiO incorporates a way to flip between them.

The lock screen always shows the basic playback controls – play/pause and previous or next track. Fortunately, the controls aren’t just tied to FiiO’s own music app, but third-party services as well. That goes for the X7’s physical button controls too. I use TIDAL for my HiFi listening, and had no major problems with integration on the X7. The only bug that I found is when you pause the music for a while, the play button doesn’t reinitiate it. You have to go back into the app and hit play.

You’ll also find that FiiO made some additions to the system settings. Under Sound Settings, you can change the Gain (amplification) between High and Low, or alter the L/R channel balance.

Some folks (including myself) found that blue light on the front of the X7 to be annoying in dark environments. Within the Display settings, FiiO considerately added control for its brightness and status when the device charging or playing (the light can be lit, pulsing, or off).

A few more notable, custom features:

• Powertimer setting – Set an idle timer, for X7 to sleep or power off.
• Power-on mode – FiiO has two modes that the X7 can operate, in Android mode or FiiO Music only. The FiiO Music mode only gives you access to the music app. It saves battery if you only plan to use the X7 to listen to stored music.
• USB DAC function – The X7 can be used as an external DAC, if you wish to use another source.

Unfortunately, there is no global EQ setting. The custom FiiO music app keeps its 10-band, customizable equalizer for itself.

Speaking of the FiiO music app, it’s nicely user-friendly. The app scans device’s storage for any music and organizes it in the interface. Navigation is pretty intuitive, except, you may not know what some of the icon buttons mean until you try them.

Tap the Now Playing bar on the bottom to expand it. You then have typical playback controls, a favorites button, and a shortcut to the EQ. The settings cog shows up on the top left corner. There’s not much more that the app’s settings offer than the system’s sound settings, it’s mainly options for the app’s UI.

Sound

*For my testing, I used the X7 with Sennheiser IE 800 and Shure SE846 earphones.

Being that the X7 is FiiO’s top-end audio device, you can probably guess that the sound is killer. Indeed. Let’s go over how it excels and what you should know.

Overall, the sound is clean and concise. This is what a DAC should do – articulate the signal so that you can clearly hear each element of the sound. You won’t find muddied frequencies here.

The treble and the soundstage are two aspects that stood out to me, and made my headphones shine. The X7 gives highs a wonderful presence, where sometimes inferior DACs allow the detail to get lost in the mix. The soundstage is satisfyingly wide. It brings another level to the music and experience.

The mid-range frequencies are right behind. Shure’s headphones are known for prominent mids, and together with the X7, I get full power from my SE846 earphones. Guitar strums feel like they’re right on your ears. I have heard deeper vocal details from the iFi Micro iDSD DAC I’ve reviewed, but the X7 isn’t far behind.

However, the X7 is “reference” sounding to my ears. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it depends what you like. To me, the sound could be livelier, particularly on the low-end. The bass detail is great, but I could use more oomph. I wish that FiiO had included an analog bass boost like many audio manufacturers do on their units.

I must mention that at times I hear some static noise when streaming music. I checked with FiiO and turns out that the X7 can transmits some interference while listening on WiFi. In this case, it happens when the tracks buffer (for a few seconds). You can check out their response on Head-Fi.org, but in short, that’s just how it is on the X7. Adding interference resistance could compromise audio quality, and FiiO does not want to risk that.

That’s understandable, and you could download offline content from streaming services, which would bypass the interference. I just can’t help feel like device isn’t finished until this issue is addressed. The X7 is marketed as an online-capable player; it should be able to do that efficiently.

Final Thoughts

The FiiO X7 is a great device overall. Is it perfect? No. There are a few standout things that need work. It’s too thick, the Android version is old, and there’s some interference noise when streaming. But I figure that these concerns would be minor to most audio lovers who pick this up. We can’t forget that the X7 is a dedicated audio player above all.

But then I look at the steep retail price tag – $700. My feeling is that a device like the X7 should be perfect at that price-point, and have more audio features (like a bass boost or balanced output out of the box). The amp module concept does add some uniqueness and versatility, so props to FiiO for that. There also aren’t many Android HiFi players out there, and the X7 is a real fine one out of the bunch.

FiiO X7 product page

Bouncing Journey: the little ball that could [Review]

Summary –

Bouncing Journey is the story of a blue ball (apparently his name is Zhee) that is intent on rescuing the princess ball who was captured by the evil squares. On this journey, you will help Zhee collect stars, defeat squares, and make is way through the maze-like levels to rescue his fair maiden.

Developer: Lohf-Zigomard Productions

Highlights

• Free to download (supported by ads between levels)
• Exceptional physics engine
• Vibrant colors

Setup –

Setup is fairly straight forward. Download the application from Google Play and launch (no Google Play Games integration). The download is pretty large for not requiring wifi (184MB) but depending on your data plan it may not be a big deal.

Impression –

Have you ever wanted to turn into a ball and travel through the world rolling on trampolines that randomly toss you into the air? If you have, Bouncing Journey is for you; if not, then you can enjoy being the god that tosses the ball (Zhee) in whatever direction you please.

The gameplay experience is wonderful. The controls are responsive and the physics are great. Things fall as you expect and bounce, or not, appropriately on surfaces. The first level quickly tells the story of the princess getting kidnapped and Zhee being dropped into a dungeon from which he must escape to rescue her.

Five worlds to play through

There are two objectives to each level; collecting all of the stars and finding the finish line. The stars (like many other games) are a rating of how well you complete each level. The stars become increasingly difficult to get to get as the levels progress. Unfortunately, there is no advantage to collecting all the stars; I would love to see something added here to make it worth my while to collect them.

Getting to the finish line is the main goal of each level. When you reach the end of the level the square that holds the princess is there to taunt you and continues his escape with the princess (he is a cheater – he can fly).

Falling from the sky

Unfortunately, the graphics are the major letdown. While they have included bright, vibrant colors the graphic style used here is sub-par. If these were tuned up and refined this could make this game a must play.

Likes:

• Bright colors
• Great physics

Dislikes:

• Graphics could use refinement
• Limited depth
• Stars are not beneficial

Conclusion –

Bouncing Journey is an entertaining game with complexity, dungeons, and great physics. Improving the graphics and adding some reward for collecting stars would move this game to another level. If you feel like helping Zhee rescue his princess please download and give Bouncing Journey a shot.

Your smartphone is really dirty. Start controlling the grime and bacteria with an all in one tool (Hans Swipe)

I was watching Jimmy Kimmel the other night and he reminded me of an old article I read from Time Magazine about the dirtiness of our hands and smartphones.

According to London scientists, 1 in 6 phones has fecal matter on it. In another word, there is a high chance your smartphone has poop on it. The study reasoned that people do not wash their hands after using the restroom, and transfer the fecal matter onto their phones. The vast majority of us do not know what others do in the restroom, but many people are seen going into stalls with smartphones in hand. That contributes to the nastiness too.

E.Coli is commonly found in human fecal matter and can make you very sick if ingested. E. Coli was behind the massive food poisonings earlier this year from Chipotle, and I am not linking smartphones to that incident, but am simply stating what E.Coli can do to you.

Smartphones are a somewhat new phenomena, only gaining massive acceptance over the last 10 years, so we haven’t had a lot of time to dissect their overall impacts on our daily lives. We have learned over the past few hundred years how good hygiene, like cleaning teeth, pasteurizing milk, washing hands, and bathing can all lead to longer lives. Yet for many of us, we NEVER clean our smartphones with anything more than the back of our t-shirts or sweaters.

Our phones go practically everywhere with us: the bathroom, changing diapers, in the kitchen for recipes, the gym, at the dinner table, in the office and car. They’re with us more than any other device and they are dragging the germs they have accumulated along with them. Logic would tell us we need to start cleaning our smartphones a little better than what we have been doing.

I use a multitude of device cleaners when I am home, but the one I have in the office and in my car is the HÄNS Swipe all in one cleaning kit.

Description

HÄNS is a dual-sided, all-in-one device cleaner for complete and convenient on-the-go use. It’s very simple to use and you can control the cleanliness of your smartphone or tablet in less than one minute.

First, Swipe with the Cleaning Side to apply HÄNS Cleaning Solution and begin actively cleaning and cutting through and lifting grease, grime, dirt, and oils.

Then flip and Swipe to Polish; removing any remaining residue.

HÄNS works that easily and that well. Clean your smartphones, tablets, touchscreens, car touchscreens, plus cases and covers and more. ” Germs can live up to a week in the grease, grime and oil that builds up when not properly cleaned, making your device’s surface a germ breeding ground!”

Even if you don’t care about germs, you should be at a minimum using some sort of cleaner to give you the best pictures possible.

Fully cleaned.

Grease build up on the camera lens can completely ruin a picture and trying to wipe off grease with cotton isn’t going to work.

I highly recommend the Hans Swipe all in one cleaning tool for everyone who owns a smartphone or tablet. Don’t bring the gym bacteria to the dinner table with your smartphone. Wash your smartphone like you wash your hands.

I also use a variety of other cleaners when I am at home. I listed them below and they are great for cleaning larger devices like televisions. Consider picking one up for yourself and loved ones too.

HÄNS Swipe : Clean 1:1 Bundle – $22.95 Amazon

• HÄNS – A Dual-Sided Clean like never before
• First apply HÄNS Cleaning Solution to actively clean. Second, use the Polishing Side to remove any remaining residue
• Refill for 1000’s of more cleans – Creating Zero Waste
• Helps control the spread of germs
• 1:1 Bundle contains 1 HÄNS Swipe – Clean and 1 Refill bottle of HÄNS Cleaning Solution

HÄNS Swipe – $14.95 Amazon

• Easy to use – Swipe On, Swipe Off for an On-Demand Clean
• Antimicrobial – Clean without the use of harsh chemicals
• Pre-Loaded with HÄNS Cleaning Solution to last hundreds of Cleans, Refillable for 1,000’s more
• Helps control the spread of germs
• All-In-One, On-The-Go Design – Clean Anywhere, Anytime

Screen Cleaner ROGGE DUO-Clean – $14.95 Amazon

• Streak-Free, Antibacterial, Antistatic, Allergy-Free, Alcohol-Free, Ammonia-Free Screen Cleaner.
• Removes grease, dust, oils, fingerprints, smears and other dirts safely and efficiently.
• Authorized and recommended by leading computer and TV screen manufacturers.
• Perfect for all LED, LCD, OLED, Ultra HD, Curved, Plasma, Flat TV, Computer, Phone, Tablet, Touch Screens and other sensitive surfaces.
• Screen cleaning kit includes: 8.4 FLOZ (250ml) Cleaning Spray & Extra Large Microfiber Cloth.

Screen Mom Screen Cleaner Kit – $15.95 Amazon

• Incredible Value – Costs less than 1 penny per spray; Clean your TV or laptop 100 times for less than $1
• Safe and Natural – Plant based product with no odor, alcohol, ammonia, or harmful phosphates; safe to use around family and pets
• Streak Free – ScreenMom gives your screen a like new appearance again that you will love
• Gently Cleans – HD TVs, PC monitors, Kindle Fire, Tablet, Laptops, Smartphone display, Apple Mac Products, iPhone, and cell phones displays
• Product Tested – on all major brands

iCloth Touchscreen Cleaning Wipes – $24.99 Amazon

• Designed to clean all tech device displays and touchscreen surfaces. Fast and effective. No drips, no streaks, no film. Suitable for daily use.
• Achieve maximum optical clarity by easily removing residue, smears, dirt, fingerprint grease, sweat, makeup, everyday grime and gunk. Smooths surface for optimal Stylus response. Equally good for eyewear.
• Proudly made in America. Our NO-RISK GUARANTEE: If your iCloth experience is not 100% positive we will make it right or refund your money.
• Preserve good resale value: our aerospace-grade soft fabric wipes are premoistened with our purified water-based formula – contains isopropyl alcohol (not harmful ethyl alcohol) and proprietary ingredients that are safe on all sensitive optics and specialty coatings.