How it works?

SteamZoo mainly works by first organizing your videos and photos using various hashtags like #beach, #nature etc. You start by creating an account in order to get your username and password. This allows for users to follow various streams as well as specific people like your Facebook friends or a specific topic being discussed on Twitter. On the homescreen all the content which you follow is automatically compiled and arranged chronologically. When you add new photos you’ll see a number of various notifications that appear.

One of the best things about StreamZoo is that the pictures in the feed appear in their max sizes which makes browsing through these photos enjoyable. This is unlike similar apps that display grainy thumbnails which you have to tap over in order to view a larger version. In addition you can also view the tags as well as ‘Like’ the photos or even comment directly on to them from this Feed.

Now, one of the unique things about StreamZoo is that every time you receive a comment or a like on the photos and videos you share you end up earning points. These points are what add a competitive and positive aspect to the app. People that earns points are listed on the leaderboard with obviously the highest point leaders on the top. The leaderboard is categorized by month, week and day. This also serves as a wonderful way to find active users, and the most popular photos.

Adding content

Adding content of your own is pretty straight forward, just tap the camera icon located on the screen and select the video/photo you want to add from the gallery or by using real time capture. You are then presented with a list of options that allows you to set borders, add filters, as well as used advanced tools all of which helps you create a masterpiece destined to pull in tons of points. This screen is followed by a screen where you add a description of the hashtags, as well as geotag the content prior to sharing it on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook prior to uploading.

Conclusion

The SteamZoo app is one of the easiest Andriod photo and video sharing apps available. If you like to view and share photos then this app is a no-brainer.

Screen Filter as the name of the widget itself suggests is a special widget that reduces the brightness of your android device, something which was previously only possible if you dove deep into your device’s options. What Screen Filter essentially does is to save you the trouble of diving into sub menus and then figuring out how bright you want your screen to be. You can adjust the brightness of your screen with a single tap so that it adapts to night time viewing, battery saving or eBook reading or you can program it to automatically adjust.

How it works?

In order to create a new Screen Filter Widget you just need to ‘long press’ your device’s home screen. You are then prompted with a customization popup, from where you use the slider to adjust your device’s brightness. The widget sets the default at 48.6% which offers a good compromise between visibility and functionality. The sample text displayed by the Widget is what will help you determine the right brightness.

Screen Filter also has an option that allows users to toggle their backlighting using the soft keys on their phone. However, according to the developer this feature does not work on every Android device out there and one of those being the Samsung Galaxy S and probably even the SII. There is also a plug-in that comes with this widget that allows for people adjust the brightness of their screens automatically based on their time, and their location so for instance you can set the phone to 30% brightness when its 2.pm in the afternoon and then set it to 50% brightness at 9pm at night.

Drawbacks of the Screen Filter widget

One of the biggest drawbacks of the widget is that it is not 100% compatible with all Android devices out there. What’s more even the developers do not have an exact list of which cell phones and tablet devices the widget has problems with. The widget could also have been made more dynamic by allowing for people to make adjustments directly via their home screen.

Conclusions

While there are a few drawbacks to the Screen Filter widget it is still a useful app to have around. Since many people often find themselves figuring out how to adjust their screen’s brightness depending on what they want to do this widget certainly makes life easier. What’s more this is a free tool which means that you can download and use it for free so if you do not like what you see you can simply uninstall it. However, most people will eventually stick with using the app since it saves them time each time they want to adjust their screen’s brightness.

How it works?

When you first tap on SanDisk Memory Zone Widget it will index all the main sources and accounts that you are using, complete with limits and current usage. Users can then tap on a memory source in order to view a further break down of exactly what has been stored on the device i.e. the number of videos, photos, music, apps and documents. By just swiping down or up you can also switch swiftly between a number of memory sources so finding what you are looking for is much faster.

The widget also sorts and lists all the files which you can view and then sorts them by size and name using the category’s tab above. This allows for people to quickly go to the file which sorted for instance from A-Z. Long pressing the file will then bring up the options menu from where you can chose to move the file over to your memory card or you can upload it to a storage device online, make it private or delete it. When you make your file private it will lock the file with your password but will not take it away from the list view where the file is displayed. If you want to manage multiple files at the same time, that too is supported just as long as you turn on the multi-select option, you can then set one password for all the files you’ve selected.

Pros of the SanDisk Memory Zone include:

• Manage cloud memory and local devices
• Very quickly transfer as well as backup files between various storage services
• Efficient and elegant graphical interface
• Secure important files with a single password

Drawbacks:

• Some files may not always be visible
• At times the widget does slow down especially when listing many files from numerous sources

Conclusion

The Sandisk Memory Zone is probably one of the best and most useful apps for managing and integrating various storage devices. If you are one of those people who has files on multiple storage sources then this is the right widget for you. And because it is free people should give this a shot since if anything it can make juggling multiple storage devices much easier.

ShopKick is a special and often valuable Android app which offers location based rewards and deals from nearly a few hundred popular retailers in America. The way Shopkick works is to allow users to earn reward points or kicks as they are called, these points can then be used to get free gift cards for various products. In addition to rewards the app also provides new details in real time from the largest retailers near you. For instance if you were located in New York, you would see walk in kicks and numerous deals for over 24 stores such as Best Buy, Old Navy, Barnes & Noble and Macy’s. You’ll be able to see a list of stores by tapping on the ‘Nearby” tab.

How to earn kicks?

There are a number of ways for people to earn ‘kicks’ which includes simply just visiting a store, scanning a few featured products or they can even purchase specific items. Right next to every store and within the green bubbles on your screen you’ll find kicks which you can earn there. If you are using the walk-in feature it will require that you have the widget open and ready when you walk inside the store. For people who run into trouble which is rare the widget makers recommend that you stand a few minutes near the entrance, in order to check your reception or even restarting the app / your phone if it stops responding.

In order to earn kicks by purchasing items you’ll have to link your credit card over to Visa’s website through the menu settings. The app also gives you the chance to save a deal for later by adding it to the ‘fave’ menu located in the top right corner of the app. You can also mark stores as your favorites if you want to easily access the deals later. ‘

By tapping on the “Rewards” tab you will presented with a number of offers which you can redeem using your collection of “kicks”. These rewards are mostly for retailers who are partnering with the makers of the widget but these rewards are surprisingly useful. For instance think about the fact that 400 kicks will entitle you a $25 gift certificate for Restaurant.com and 1250 kicks gets you a $25 gift card which can be used at Macy’s

Issues found

The app will not always work, during our tests there were times when our phone actually froze. But that was rare and only happened when we wanted to use the in store feature.

Conclusion

The ShopKick widget despite its somewhat buggy nature at times is useful. It’s a big money saver for people who want to shop at either a new location or get the best possible discounts.

Beautiful Widgets is for anyone who wants to populate their Android mobile or tablet with a bunch of beautiful yet useful widgets. The set of widgets contain a weather widget which incorporates a nice forecast option, weather animation such as for storm or rain etc, and two skinned clocks. Beautiful widgets also sports a number of layouts and over 140 skins which means there is something for everyone.

Feature

While the main selling point of Beautiful Widgets is the fact that they are beautiful there are quite a few features built into this widget. However, one of the things you’ll notice first is the fact that the rather impressive looking UI actually looks quite similar to HTC Sense’s UI which is available on the HTC Hero model. The Widgets include a larger clock measuring around 4×2 and a smaller clock measuring 4×1. The weather widget here comes with the option to set your current location. All you’ve got to do is to tap directly on the weather icon which opens a rather cool looking tray animation of all present and predicted weather conditions. The weather display will give you a four day forecast, the lows and highs of the day in addition to the temperature. You get to chose between the 12 hour and the 24 hour time format and also set the temperature scale as Fahrenheit or Celsius. There are also other quick settings which you can toggle in between for Silent mode, GPS, Bluetooth, Airplane modes, Brightness and Vibrate.

The designers of the widget wanted to make sure that you were never bored with your Android device’s UI so they added hundreds of weather skins which can be downloaded directly and used. You can also chose from hundreds skins for the overall look of Beautiful Widgets which quickly and easily changes the look of your UI. You can choose from styles such as grunge, clean, Éclair etc.

The latest update to Beautiful Widgets also now supports live weather wallpapers. The wallpaper by default resembles the Grass live type wallpaper with its wavy animation of grass, with additional animation for cloudy, rainy, and sunny etc. This helps gauge what the weather will be like at a glance.

Conclusion

If you’re bored with your Android phone and are looking for something fresh then the Beautiful Widgets widget is a great choice. Costing just €1.49, this will really make your phone or hand held device stand out. This is also just a onetime cost so most people will find this pretty handy, plus given the fact that you get off to a great start with tons of customizable styles, colors and options you will not need to pay for any downloadable content any time soon making it a worthwhile investment.

To someone who first hears about AirDroid the concept of connecting and controlling their android device via a web browser can sound rather crazy. However, the fact is that this is a hugely popular widget for all Android devices since it helps you manage everything from your email to your SMS via a computer’s web browser. Most of all the widget is 100% free!

AirDroid is a very easy to use tool for any Android device. The whole setting up process is also easy and quick:

Step no. 1: You start with opening up AirDroid, it will prompt you with a password and IP address.

Step no. 2: You then visit the IP address from your computer’s web browser.

Step no. 3: Enter the password… and you’re in!

Once you have entered into the widget you get lots of control over your phone. You have 10 icons to begin with for Music, Ringtones, Messages, Market, Clipboard, Photos, Contacts, apps, Market and Files. Every one of these icons can be clicked on and will help you search for even edit your files via a small window containing a number of editing tools. On the right side you should find a tab which contains various information such as the file types, storage etc.

For instance the contacts icon when clicked on will open up a list of contacts and give you the ability to edit them from your computer. If you click on the ringtones icon you’ll be presented with a list of ringtones and you can select the ones you want. The music tab helps you browse through your phone’s music library, and even use the built in music player to check out your sound files.

The home screen of the widget looks very similar to your regular computer desktop. Right along the left you’ll find options to create a new SMS and create new contacts both of which can be done right from the app with an intuitive and fluid design. The widget will sit on your phone and allow for on the go file management a lot like similar file management widgets allowing you to move, edit, and view.

Overall Usefulness

This is a really useful app because some things are just much easier to do on your computer or laptop than to do on your device’s touch screen, this is especially the case with items relating to file management. For instance inputting a loan of brand new contacts can take a lot of your time not to mention being frustrating since you’ve got to type them out on a small touch screen. Using the app makes things much easier as everything will feel intuitive. The clipboard is another feature not mentioned above which lets you put more stuff on your device’s clipboard by just pasting them. For someone who needs to add a few contacts a week or update his music files every now and then AirDroid is a must have widget.

One of the best features of the HTC Sense is its unquestionably easy to use and helpful custom skins something which you cannot find anywhere else. The stock Android looks nothing like what HTC has done for the sense and so if you have any other Android phone which does not integrate all your messages into one neat and tidy conversation then check out ‘Pure Messenger’

Thanks to Android’s ability to be customized beyond recognition the creative minds behind ‘Pure Messenger’ were able to come up with something which up until today only HTC Sense users could enjoy. However, Pure Messenger does not just take HTC Sense’s concept of messaging and bring it to non HTC Android phones but it has also improved considerably on the core idea of the widget.

Pure Messenger allows users to create a stream of message information collected into one compact package. This widget allows you to view your Facebook, email, Googlemail, Twitter messages and your SMS as one continual flow which saves you from having to open your phone’s own dedicated messaging application for each of the above services. This will save you a lot of time and effort especially if you have a busy social life with tons of friends sending you messages using different mediums.

Pure Messenger also allows you to turn off text chats if you’re not interested in them. In addition you can fiddle around with the widget to customize the way it works. For instance, you can configure it so that it only shows unread messages and you can even chose the max number of messages it can show and how far back it can go into its database.

Pure Messenger also offers a number of different layout options which means that you can have either one message displayed at a time or you can have a list trough which you can tap. If you currently have Launcher Pro as your home screen replacement app you can also add a scrolling widget which makes it easy to check your inbox. However, there are a few bugs associated with the scrolling widget as it can be a bit unpredictable at times, plus it’s very easy to swap home screens by mistake when you just want to move down or up your mail stream.

Another bug we discovered is when you’re trying to read your email i.e. it can take a few seconds for the widget to register, so it may be a good idea to turn off the message notification service built into Android and just use Pure Messenger to compose your reply, if you do not do this you will continue to see the unread mark / symbol.

We also figure that there is room for improvement in terms of speed, this is even if you’re using a broad band Wi-Fi connection since it takes a while to open up. Despite its somewhat cumbersome bugs this widget is a time saver and a must have for the busy social addict.

The first step to using the widget is to configure your quota. You need to set up a weekly, monthly and daily amount depending on your existing data plan. The widget allows you to set up the frequency of the update. The refresh rate of the widget can be set up between 30 seconds to one notification every hour. The developers recommend that you keep the notifications limited to around thirty minutes or more in order to save battery life even though they are certain that the polling does not drain a lot of battery power when set even at its highest polling rate i.e. 30 seconds.

In addition to you can choose if or not the notification icon will appear in your phone’s status bar by selecting from the following options: always visible, visible when 3G is active and never visible. When you click on the Watchdog widget you can see exactly how much of your quota you have used and the total you currently have sent/ received monthly, weekly and daily.

When you tap the Menu option you’ll have the following settings to tap on to select:

• ‘Day traffic History’: this option details your usage limited to the past 31 days recorded.
• Check the counters for today: The traffic usage limited the month is listed here usually limited to 31 days.
• ‘See counters for today’: You can see how much data you have sent and received today.
• Traffic history quota: You can check the sent and received data categorized by date. This can also be exported as an excel compatible CSV file.
• Set up Quota Counters: Here you can manually set up exactly how much data you currently have sent and received
• Setup weekly counters
• Setup monthly counters

If you’re worried about how much data you’re consuming or being hit with an unexpectedly high data usage bill then this Watchdog widget is the thing for you. Being able to actively monitor your usage will also help you steer clear of unwanted data consumption which should help keep your costs within bearable financial range.

You know where the name Halloween actually comes from? It comes from “All Hallows Eve”, which is the Celtish day for their New Years Eve. Their New Year starts at the 1st of November and to celibrate the fact that their harvest was done and they could rest, they celebrated the night before their New Year. Of course one of the things they just harvested was the Pumpkin. So that became a symbol of “Halloween”. Are you going to make your own Jack-o’-lantern this year? Better start searching for that perfect pumpkin already! Happy Halloween!

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While the application is not free, you can download a trial version that can display up to three different profiles before having to spend the money, enough to see if it really works and of course get us the desire to see the profile the girl you like, a fellah in your class , but in all cases we recommend you not take advantage of this to do damage, but simply use it for educational purposes .

Yes, please note that the application to go rooting, you will need an extra application as Z4Root.