EDITOR’S PICKS: 11 apps we think you should try right now

One of our favorite things to do here at AndroidGuys is to help Android users get the most from their devices. Whether in the form of app reviews, news and rumors, or something else, we aim to please.

Our Editor’s Picks column is designed to help existing Android owners discover apps and games. What you’ll find below are some of the apps that we at AndroidGuys enjoy using ourselves. Some of what follows are new titles while a few are classics we can’t let go of. Whatever the case we’re certain you will find something fun to play with this weekend. Let’s get to it!

GMD Auto Hide Soft Keys ★ root

GMD Auto Hide Soft Keys is an app that hides your on-screen navigation buttons so that you can utilize your entire screen for content and no black bar on the bottom taking up your screen real estate. This is of course for phones that don’t use capacitive buttons. It does require root, because it tricks the system to acting like you have a Galaxy device, which uses capacitive buttons. There is a non-root version, but I have found that it doesn’t work as well (buggy and keyboard sometimes fails to pop up).

There are various customization options you have in the app, such as changing the size and button spacing of the navigation bar when you bring it back up, adding more buttons (and with functions when you hold them), choosing the behavior of the navigation bar (whether you want it to hide automatically or at your trigger), and ability to use legacy Android button themes (if you don’t want the Lollipop buttons).

Unclouded

With all sorts of different cloud services that are used frequently including Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive, keeping track of everything in the cloud tends to get annoying. Unclouded fixes that issue, and allows us to access all of your cloud files, from those services, within one beautiful application.

SuperBeam

Are you having problems with sending large files to another phone? We present to you SuperBeam. It is a great app for sharing media files. All you need is Wi-Fi or data connection and you are good to go. The app detects your Wi-Fi connection and sends a QR code or a pin to the user you want to share your files with. It is the one of the best apps that uses Wi-Fi direct.

Haystack TV

Haystack TV presents you with trending news videos in a news channel personalized for you. Watch it on your phone, tablet, Chromecast or Android TV. Haystack TV allows you to cast to your TV News, Trailers and more, including the latest tech news, like new gadget announcements. You can even create favorites by simply typing in a subject and then Haystack categorizes it either by business sports entertainment movie trailers etc.

Haystack TV allows users to break away from the normal network and cable news stations and their many commercials – cable cutters will love the opportunity to watch news, but news that they are interested in viewing.  Working much like Flipboard and other customizable news services – you pick the topics that peak your interest and it will find and present them to you whenever you open up Haystack TV’s app.  The more you use it the more it ‘learns’ about your tastes as you pick and choose certain stories to read – the selections continue to get ‘smarter,’ and you will always have something new to watch.

RunPee

“Because movie theaters don’t have pause buttons”. This app has a team that watches a movie in theaters, and then provides you with the best opportunity to go “run pee” when the action/development is slow. It then provides a summary of what was missed while you were in the bathroom. It also has a plethora of other features, from buying tickets, to giving you a flashlight (for when you drop your keys under the seat) to ratings and even a timer to let you know when the next pee break is. It even will tell you if there is anything extra during or after the credits, which is very handy. All-in-all, a super useful app.

HBO GO

HBO GO is the streaming service from HBO that lets you enjoy your favorite HBO shows, movies, comedy specials, sports, documentaries – plus behind-the-scenes extras and more. “Game of Thrones”  is an incredible show, and with HBO GO every episode is available for replay. It is the only show that gets better when you watch it a second time, and possibly even a third time. But that is not the only show available, all TV series created by HBO are available – John Adams, Band of Brothers, The Wire, The Sopranos, Veep, Entourage just to name a few. There are also quite a few gems in the documentaries section and tons of hit movies in the movie section.

Nautilus Wallpapers

With more than 200 cloud-based wallpapers to choose from there’s a little something for everyone. Broken up into 16 categories, the images are high resolution and look fantastic on any size screen. Because the images are not stored on your device you have access to a huge, growing library that does not eat up your storage.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley is an original and unique 3D puzzle game that uses architecture (monuments). You walk about optical illusions (like Penrose stairs) to determine how you get to the end of each stage. It is pretty addicting right off the bat. And it’s not boringly repetitive. The creator put a lot of thought into creating different situations and challenges at each level. The attention to detail in level layout is also astounding. The graphics have this refinement and smoothness to them that just get immersed in.

Boom Beach

Boom Beach is similar to Clash of Clans where you build up a home base, research technology, collect resources, and go out to hunt down enemy bases. Enemy bases consist of computer generated bases as well as real human enemies across the world. Every enemy base is different and requires a different attack strategy.

If you want a more social experience, you can join a Task Force of up to 50 members where you take on common missions as a team. The better your Task Force performs, the better the rewards. As with most free games, there are in-app purchases but this is one game where in-app purchases are not needed to compete with the best in the game. Supercell struck gold once again with Boom Beach.

Heroes Charge

Heroes Charge is an ultimate battle strategy game. I know what you are thinking. Another clash of clans type game. Well, no it isn’t! This game takes you on an adventurous journey with some mystical characters, termed as Heroes. Working in team of 5, you can fight monsters, dragons and other mystical characters each with their own special abilities. More Heroes can be collected and/or bought with in-game currency. The developer always keeps the excitement high by pushing out new heroes every month as well. Heroes Charge also supports multiplayer and you can join or form your own ‘Guild’ to add to the fun.

Modern Combat 5

Modern Combat 5 is Gameloft’s popular first person shooter game. Modern Combat 5 has amazing graphics, an exciting storyline, and online multiplayer mode. Each iteration of the series has been the best shooter action game available in regards to graphics, and Modern Combat 5 is no exception. The graphics are outstanding, and the game play is even better. The improved multiplayer and enjoyable single campaign mode still makes it one of the finest first person shooter games to play on a smaller screen.

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Blu’s Vivo Air is available for just $150 on Amazon for a limited time

Blu has been in the smartphone market for while now and made name for itself in budget-oriented category with unlocked smartphones like the Dash 5.0 which sells on Amazon.com for $99.

The US based company launched the Vivo Air back at CES 2015 in January, 2015. Initially available for $199 at Amazon, the smartphone can now be grabbed for just $150 on sale. The smartphone is one of the thinnest phones available on the market measured at just 5.1 mm thickness.

The Vivo Air boasts decent specs for its price point. The smartphone has a 4.8-inch 720p display, and is powered by Mediatek’s 1.7 GHz octa-core processor along with Mali-450 GPU as the graphics engine. For RAM and storage, the Vivo Air has 1GB of RAM and 16GB of total on-board storage which should be more than enough for basic tasks. In the optics department, the phone has an 8.0 megapixel rear facing camera and a 5.0 megapixel front facing camera for selfie lovers. The whole package is powered by 2100 mAh Li-ion battery and should be sufficient for day’s use.  The specs are nothing to write home about, but in summation the phone should suffice for activities like browsing the internet, taking pictures, and making calls and texts.  But don’t expect the Vivo Air to run graphics heavy games like Modern Combat 5 with ease.

At this price point, this is a steal and I recommend that you consider the Vivo Air if you are looking for an affordable and unlocked smartphone. Keep in mind that this deal is only available for today and if you have made your mind to buy the smartphone click on the source link down below.

The unlocked phones from Blu only work on carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, and will not work on CDMA networks like those from Verizon and Sprint.

Buy the Vivo Air here at Amazon.com

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Google offers to help select your next Android phone

With so many Android devices available in the market, some may have hard time figuring out what is the best smartphone to suit their individual needs.  Sure millions of people love the ever famous and spectacular Samsung Galaxy S6, but that phone may not suit your needs as well as the HTC One M9 if you’re into music because of the M9’s incredible Boom Sound speakers.  Or maybe you want to have a functional and business-savvy phone like the Note 4 but all of your Android friends are telling you to stay stock with the Nexus 6.  Information is the key to making educated decisions and Google is here to help you make a decision that you’re most likely going to live with for the next two years.

The tech giant has just launched a new tool which you can use at their website. It asks you a few questions about how you use your current device and then it makes suggestions based on those answers.

The process is straightforward. You are presented with total 12 categories from taking photos to web browsing.  The more categories you fill out questions for, the more specific the recommendations will be for your needs.

Overall, the tool is pretty neat and simple- all you have to do is just click on few options. The entire process takes less than 2 minutes.  Check it out at the source link below.

Source

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Customizing Android: 6 ways to maximize battery life

Have you ever run into problems getting your Android device to just last throughout the day? I run into these frustration daily because my smartphone is my access to work, whether it be for answering emails, replying to texts, jotting down notes, and etc. Since these are elements pertinent to my job, I can’t have my smartphone dying around mid-day. And a lot of you might be able to resonate with that.

The problem isn’t that we use our smartphones so much, though. It’s that we’re sporting the latest and greatest that not only have similar specs to our laptops, but also have the gorgeous and behemoth 5.5-inch display. That’s a lot of power and pixels to push, and thus, takes a big toll on battery life. Fortunately, there are ways to maximize the life we get out of our smartphones, whether they be mid-range or high-end devices.

Power Saving Mode

Many smartphones these days, such as the Galaxy S6 and One M9, have built-in power saving modes. Samsung calls it Ultra Power Saving mode while HTC’s is Extreme Power Saving mode. Turn them on, take advantage of these options.

Depending on how much you use your device after turning this feature on, you could easily save up to 3hrs in battery life. Again, that figure depends on how much you continue to use your device.

Quick Settings

Your quick settings is another thing to keep an eye on. If you have all of these extra settings checked on — Bluetooth, Download Booster, NFC, Smart Stay, and more — they will chew through battery life. And the funny thing is, most of these features won’t be used on a daily basis except for the people that are using NFC in places where mobile payments are commonly available. Some of these features that you can have turned on don’t always work properly, either.

Even if you do actively use these features, they can always be turned back on. So, while you’re doing simple things like email and text, you can save juice by turning those features off, even for a short time.

Network Connectivity

The connection to a 4G LTE network hurts battery life significantly. Locating the network and sending/receiving information takes a decent amount of power. If the signal is low, then your device has to work even harder. Today, there are WiFi networks available at almost every corner. Choosing a WiFi network over a 4G LTE network alone has immediate benefits.

To take things a bit further, turn off mobile data while connected to a WiFi network. Turn off mobile data when not connected to a WiFi network and you will notice that your battery life is leaps and bounds better than before. You may be left with only the calling and text, though.

Inactive Apps

Applications that we minimize and don’t touch for the rest of the day are another, major opposition to achieving maximum battery life. When you press the home button to get out of an app, you haven’t closed it, you’ve minimized it. It’s still running in the background, using battery life for things like network connectivity, syncing, and other tasks.

While a single application might not affect your overall battery life, it adds up when you have multiple applications doing this. To make sure an app is closed, just go into Recent Apps (the button to the right of your home button, in most cases) and make sure to clear all of the non-essential apps out of there.

Once Android M starts appearing on smartphones and tablets, you won’t have to worry about this much, as there are new features built into the system — Doze and App Standby — that will handle things like this automatically.

Display

The display is easily the biggest champion in eating up battery life. When you’re sporting a gorgeous 1080p 5.5-inch display and have your brightness turned all the way up, the smartphone will easily consume 60 to 70% of your battery. Even if you spend your day in direct sunlight, it’s best to go into your display settings, turn off automatic brightness, and leave it at 20 to 30% through the day.

I’m saying this from experience–it’ll conserve more battery life than you could ever imagine. 2K resolutions are becoming popular among smartphones, and 4K is on its way to become just as common. These resolutions do even more damage to the length of your battery, further requiring people to have that extra on hand.

Push notifications

We live in a world where we love to be constantly connected, mainly through avenues like Facebook, Twitter, and in some cases, Google+. Turn the push notifications off on these social networking services, and when you feel the need to check one of them, retrieve them manually. If you’re struggling to get through the day with your current settings, there’s no need to have these services constantly refreshing and searching for new notifications.

Wrap Up

For some people, these options to improve battery life will help extend the amount you get out your smartphone. Power users might still have to carry around an extra battery to make it through the day. Unfortunately, some people don’t have the option of swapping out batteries. They’re pretty much stuck with taking advantage of optimizing software features in order to have a long lasting charge.

What advice do you have to save battery life for those that don’t have the option of swapping out a dead battery for a fully charged solution? Be sure to let us know in the comments.

Come comment on this article: Customizing Android: 6 ways to maximize battery life

Experience Firefox OS with this app on your Android device

Android and iOS are the two most popular mobile operating systems in the world today. With Windows Phone, and Blackberry battling to get a firm share of the pie, we cannot ignore the emerging operating systems of the world. Firefox OS is one such mobile operating system that has been making the buzz lately.

Many Android users have been wanting to try out this OS, but it required a Nexus device. The Firefox OS ports have been developed specifically for Nexus devices only up until now. Luckily, Mozilla realized the agony of fellow Android users and have answered to their prayers.

Mozilla developed an experimental launcher app, bg2droid, for Android that will allow you to get a firsthand look at what its Firefox OS feels like. This app is only for ARM devices only, and not Intel x86 based devices. No rooting or flashing required, just a simple app install which weighs in at about 65MB.

bg2droid overlays Firefox OS on your Android and also has its own unique set of apps that you can use. Gallery, Contacts, Music to name a few. It also comes with Marketplace, Mozilla’s native app store for mobile devices.

Apart from inheriting core Firefox OS features like swiping from the edge of the screen to switch apps, the circle home button and a flat UI, the launcher is far from perfect and is unusable as a daily driver. The ‘preview’ takes a bit of time to start up the first time, so you have to be patient for the launcher to load. I tried bg2droid on my Nexus 4, and struggled with it encountering numerous app crashes which is simply unacceptable.

Check out some screenshots below:

Its nice to see Mozilla taking initiative to popularize its OS among Android users. bg2droid is a bit laggy right now but it’s a good way to get a feel for how Firefox OS might ‘look’ on your phone.

To try bg2android Firefox OS preview, click here. Let us know what you think of it in the comments below.

Source

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Verizon Moto E (2nd Gen.) gets Android 5.1

According to a new report, Verizon has started rolling out the Android 5.1 update to Moto E (2nd Gen.) devices. This update will upgrade the software version of the device to 23.11.17.

The Android 5.1 update brings only minor improvements over the Android 5.0.2 update. Most prominently among them are the extended WiFi and Bluetooth notification pull down controls, the added drop down panel to volume settings panel and an increased swipe distance to prevent accidental touches.

Along with these, there is also factory reset security to prevent accidental resets and enhancements in the interruption volume control settings, summing up the changelog for the update.

Launched in February 2015, the unlocked version of the Moto E (2nd Gen.) already received this firmware upgrade last month, but as with all carrier linked smartphones, the updates do tend to delay a bit.

Nevertheless, the update is here now and has started rolling out to all Verizon Moto E (2nd Gen.) devices. Just be patient and stop hitting the ‘check update’ button, as it will take a day or two before you see the update.

Verizon Moto E (2nd Gen.) users, have you received the update yet? Let us know what you find different in this update in the comments below.

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Angry Birds Fight! battles into the Play Store

Mobile game developer Rovio Entertainment Ltd., globally known best for their Angry Birds franchise, has introduced a new game in the Play Store dubbed Angry Birds Fight!

The 11th game in the Angry Birds franchise, Angry Birds Fight! is now available as a free download in the Google Play Store worldwide. This one is a mash-up of RPG and Candy Crush style games. creating a new and unique gameplay style.

Angry Birds Fight! was announced a few months before in April, then launched in May in the Asia-Pacific region, and has already garnered more than 3 million downloads. Starting Thursday, the game will be globally available on Android and iOS.

Angry Birds Fight! is basically a PvP game, beginning with the player’s own fighting bird which is then matched within a grid of birds of other players. To select a match, the game follows a similar approach to Candy Crush Saga, except it’s with birds this time. After a match is chosen, the two birds fight untamed until one of them dies. The winning player is awarded items like, a hat or pencil which can be equipped to boost your bird’s stats.

There are several power-ups also available via the in-game store, tilting to the RPG-style side, letting players level up their birds by equipping various weapons and gears available as separate purchases. Angry Birds Fight! is an unexpected mixture of cuteness meeting the sword (literally!). The game does need some polish, but it can be hellishly addictive once you start playing.

If you like to see birds fight or if you are bored of the sweet delicacies of Candy Crush then this is the game for you! If not, we still recommend you give it a try and make sure to let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!

Source

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