In the latest Android beta update for WhatsApp, video calling is now an option. Simply press the phone icon and you get a pop up to choose either audio or video call.
2015 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
Madison Square Garden can seat 20,000 people for a concert. This blog was viewed about 67,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Madison Square Garden, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Shifting from Windows Phone to Android
If you are a Windows Phone user and are planning on shifting to an android phone soon, we have some advice for you. Having been a windows mobile and windows phone user for around 6 years, shifting to android was a big leap.
The first problem was the hassle of adding accounts. Setting up a windows phone is way easier than android. Checking emails is easier on windows phone as the interface is minimalist, however in a few days you will get used to checking your email on android.
The second problem is the keyboard. The keyboard isn’t really the best and while you can add third party ones, we advise against it as they can collect whatever sensitive information you type.
The third issue is battery life. Unlike Windows Phone, here the system hogs the battery.
Now here is some good news. Yes, we know most people hunt for android apps on windows phone, well, we are doing the reverse.
- The full Microsoft office suite is available for free
2) Instagram is there but we preferred 6tag(This app is one of the greatest on WP)
3) You have various painting apps, but once again, fantasia painter on WP is tough to replace.
4) Surprisingly IE was more comfortable to use than chrome is but its not a deal breaker.
Over all, we managed to find substitute apps. One immediately realizes that windows phone is simply under rated. The ease of use, the clean interface, the hassle free email and office. In short for a business user or for productivity Windows Phone is the one to go for. For gaming, lots of social networking, customization etc an android phone is recommended. So unless you really are either bored of WP and want to try something new or have such a need, stick to WP.
Monetary Management Showdown
It’s been a while..
We are back with a competitive showdown between two expenses and money management apps for Windows Phone or should I say Windows Mobile 😀
Monetal vs. Wallet Watch
Both apps I must admit, are unique in their own regard. What one lacks, the other compensates for that. Rather than listing down features of each app, I would list the pros and cons of each to give you’ll a heading regarding which one to finally download.
Both apps, are by far the best Money Managers on the Store and it is clearly indicated in their reviews and ratings too.
Wallet Watch
Pros:
- Free (No paid version)
- Lots of Categories of Expenses
- Multiple live tiles available for individual functionalities.
- Bill split calculator
- Simple and efficient main screen layout improving the overall usage experience
Cons:
- To many transitions sometimes for a simple task
- No option for multiple accounts like (Salary, Savings etc..)
(Scroll down further for Monetal)
Monetal
Pros:
- Supports multiple accounts
- The main screen directly displays and increment and decrement alongside the balance, which makes it easier and quicker to add data
- Graphical analysis is good to look at 😛
Cons:
- Premium version available, which adds functionalities for live tiles, more categories for types of transaction.
- Feels glitch-y to use sometimes.
- Comparatively less customization in layout than Wallet Watch.
- Advertisements (‘Nuff Said)
Download Links below!
MAKE YOUR CHOICE AND DOWNLOAD THEM NOW!!
Monetal: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/monetal/9wzdncrcv7k3
Wallet Watch: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/wallet-watch/9nblggh07vwh
Readit for Windows Phone(Reddit)
Readit is an alternative app for Reddit. You can add multiple accounts, save posts, add friends, send direct messages, post pictures, URLs, text and subscribe to threads.
The app supports notifications for direct messages. The app has a clean interface which is clutter free, making it easy to use. We’ve been using this app for over 2 months with no issues. Anyone who likes Reddit, or wants to read interesting new, learn new things(They have a thread for nearly everything, probably that’s why it is called the “Front Page of The Internet”.
We recommend this app as a must have for people who enjoy reading/learning or need something to pass time while bored or travelling.
Did we mention that its free?
Proxy Phone Number
UPDATE(3 OCT 2015)
The mentioned 2 apps may generate numbers which are not recognized by whatsapp. We tried TextNow. This worked and allowed us to register on whatsapp. TextNow has calling features on Windows Phone too.
Check app availability for your device at https://www.textnow.com/downloads
Original article: https://appcyla.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/proxy-mobile-number-which-also-works-on-whatsapp/
Stagefright Bug
The Android Stagefright bug is not squashed. Although Google released patches for Hangouts and messenger, there are many ways a malicious mp4 file can open on your device. Zimperium has released the source code of the bug, which allows a person to generate a malicious mp4 file and use the exploit.
WE ADVICE USERS TO AVOID OPENING MP4 FILES FROM UNKNOWN SOURCES.
Here is what they said:
During the months of June and July, Joshua J. Drake developed a working exploit to prove the Stagefright vulnerability can allow Remote Code Execution (RCE) without user interaction. We are pleased to finally make this code available to the general public so that security teams, administrators, and penetration testers alike may test whether or not systems remain vulnerable.
What follows is a python script that generates an MP4 exploiting the ‘stsc’ vulnerability otherwise known as CVE-2015-1538 (#1). This is one of the most critical vulnerabilities we reported in the Stagefright library. The expected result of the exploit is a reverse shell as the media user. As detailed in Joshua Drake’s Black Hat and DEFCON presentations, this user has access to quite a few groups such as inet, audio, camera, and mediadrm. These groups allow an attacker to take pictures or listen to the microphone remotely without exploiting additional vulnerabilities.
This exploit has several caveats. First, it is not a generic exploit. We only tested it to work on a single device model. We tested this exploit on a Nexus running Android 4.0.4. Also, due to variances in heap layout, this is not a 100% reliable exploit by itself. We were able achieve 100% reliability when delivered through an attack vector that allowed multiple attempts. Finally, this vulnerability was one of several that was neutered by GCC 5.0’s ‘new[]’ integer overflow mitigation present on Android 5.0 and later.
This means that the code is only tested for Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, and users on Android 5.1 Lollipop or higher are not vulnerable to the released code for now.
While we do have the code for testing purposes, we do not intend on sharing it as Zimperium has already done so.
“Exploits don’t hack people, people hack people,” Drake, Zimperium.
Android 6.0 is Marshmallow!!
Google has unveiled the name of its next version of Android as Marshmallow.
Whats new? well, while its now in the final developer preview stage, here are some of the features:
Google Photos:Google Photos provides unlimited free storage for up to 16 MP photos and 1080p video
Adoptable Storage Devices: formats external storage like internal storage. App and personal data can be moved between the devices internal storage and its “adopted” storage source.
Android M RAM manager: Google has introduced a new RAM manager
New app drawer
Auto Backup and Restore for Apps
Power and Charging: a new function known as Doze to improve device standby time. Android M also supports USB Type-C which provides faster charging and lets you charge other devices using this device(while this is great, most often our phones don not have enough charge to survive the day themselves, so this feature is useless unless we get more efficient devices and better batteries.)
Fingerprint support: Unlock phones and to make purchases in real-life or within Play Store apps.
Mobile Payment: NFC tap to pay.
App Permissions: Users can now choose to accept or deny individual permissions(Windows 10 mobile already has this feature)
Our Conclusion: While this version seems to have simplified the ease of use, we noticed that a lot of the features overlap with Windows 10 mobile and iPhone. However we can draw a proper conclusion only once the consumer update is pushed to device. Till then enjoy this video:
“The Android Marshmallow
Sculpture + Android’s Tasty
Naming Tradition”
courtesy:Nat and Lo
Windows 10 for PC finally!!!!
The wait is over! We can finally upgrade to Windows 10. Those of you who do not want to wait for the update to be pushed to them, there’s a quicker solution.
Head over to Windows 10 official tool and download the media creation tool. We advise you to download either the iso or create a bootable usb. This way you can upgrade multiple PCs without multiple downloads.
note:Please check if your current version is upgradable and if your hardware is supported.
Cortana (for Android)
Microsoft’s to penetrate Android-verse is working phenomenally! After having released the Office apps that are an example of productivity at it’s best, we now have some to battle Google Now. I have placed my bets on Microsoft for this one! (Again)
Cortana, is Microsoft’s personal assistant (F.Y.I Google Now is not a personal assistant, though it performs similar functions. But no!). Cortana came only on Windows Phone till date. We had heard rumors of it’s arrival on Android and iOS a few months ago. Today an internal beta of the app was leaked over the internet.
Having tested the app, it feels like it’s ready for release but it is still in beta stage! It works seamlessly. You can add your reminders, it tailors the news experience based upon your interests. Many of you will definitely wonder that Google now does similar stuff, but on Windows Phone is completely different.
It lets you manage and search files on your cloud storage. It can predict the results of sports matches to a great accuracy.
We would let you explore it yourself. For starters, once you set up Cortana ask her the following questions
- “Do an impersonation”
- “Surprise me”
- “Sing a song”
- “Who are you”
- “Who created you”
These are just some of the examples, you can search for more Cortana commands. You’ll enjoy the whole experience as it makes your life easy and manageable.
Currently the app is made for phones but it works one tablets too, just the layout needs to be widened. Share your experience with Cortana in the comments section!
Download : Cortana![Screenshot_2015-07-18-20-24-06[1]](https://appcyla.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/screenshot_2015-07-18-20-24-061.png)
Ping
A very Interesting app is coming up! A kind of gift for the droids from windows phone users!
This notification is simple to notify you come back after after 2 hours to download and enjoy that app!
Listen to YouTube videos audio on Windows Phone!!!
We all were waiting for the day when we could stream the audio of YouTube videos without having the video open on our phones.
Well, that day has come. In Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 Mobile preview build 10149 Microsoft Edge( the default browser now is provided). While the browser does have bugs like shutting down or URL not getting typed, it does have some great features.
It seems as though if you don’t open a tab and type a URL, the page wont load. That does get irritating.
The good news is that the browser is really amazing. It is almost the same as a PC browser.
On opening a video on YouTube, we just minimized the app and the music was still playing. Even on switching tabs and locking the phone it worked.
Hence we appeal to Microsoft. Don’t spoil this. Please. We want this feature. If it was a bug please make it a stable feature and don’t squash it.
Whatsapp for windows phone updated
Windows Phone owners can rejoice. Whatsapp finally launched an update to fill the gap between the windows phone and iOs/android version.
Users can now use whatsapp calling and even hide the blue ticks(finally!!).
They’ve also changed the UI a bit. Now on your chats page, on top there is a small icon showing total number of unread messages. This is useful as, if we get bombarded with messages from many people, older unread ones we forget to check.
The biggest drawback is that the new call button is where the emoji button was. So expect to end up calling people by mistake a lot( you can then send them 🙈).
This does get irritating at some point.
There is no way to make calls WiFi only like the option we get for media download.
Also if your phone is locked, don’t expect it to ring. Most likely you’ll get a message saying missed call.
Still, we suggest you get the update as it is stable and fills the gap.
Archiver
Archiver is not a new app on the windows phone store. It goes quite neglected as many people do not realize its value. Many times we need to send a bunch of files to someone either via Bluetooth, email or some other means from out phones. Attaching each file individually or sending each separately is a headache. This app allows you to create an archive of whichever files you want, whether stored in your one drive account or on your phone/ SD card. Simply choose whether you want to open an archive or create an archive.
It supports the following formats:
.zip
.tar
.rar
.gz
.7z
.bz2
and creating archives of type:
.zip
.tar
whats more is you can even choose the speed of compression.
This is one app whose features should have been baked into the file app by Microsoft, but since it isn’t, we recommend you download this handy app.
Windows Phone Store: Archiver
Flyne
Material design has taken over now. Some of us (including us) are paranoid about having as many apps as possible with Material Design and replace old KitKat apps.
As we continue to bring you apps that you may not come across at other sources, we are here with a news reading app. There are always alternatives to the ones already existing ones.
Flyne
Flyne is very simple and intuitive app. The app is simple to use, you need to add all your possible soruces of news by searching them.
As you add them to your collection the feeds start to appear. The distinctive part of this app is the material design UI. It is really attractive and keeps you hooked onto the app, as apart to the Google Newfsfeed app that is bit laggy on low end devices.
Download : Flyne
Windows 10 updated news
Microsoft has announced that windows 10 will be released for PC and tablets on July 29 with the mobile version following later in the year.
Xiaomi and Microsoft have tied up and a Windows 10 ROM for the Mi4 has been released. The tool to install the ROM will be made available to only a select set of users for now as it is still in the beta stage.
Could this be the game changing moment for Microsoft. The much dreamed of Windows Mobile and Android combination? Only time will tell and as far as we’re concerned, we love the idea.
Advice to our readers: Please refrain from installing Windows 10 mobile preview on your device unless it is your secondary device. On the Lumia 630 dual sim it was buggy and also during the install, the phone was bricked and needed to be recovered using the Nokia retail tool and other steps which took a full day. If this has happened to you, please contact us and we’ll help you.
Flud – Torrent Downloader
We sure have a ton of torrent downloading clients on the Play Store. Considering the fact that the official apps of µtorrent and Bitorrent are available people don’t tend to rely more on other apps.
However both of the official apps are lack flavor in terms of the user interface and design. That’s where this app strikes the exact cord! Flud is a fully functional torrent downloading client that has a Material Design UI. Trust me when I say you wouldn’t like using other apps after using this app! It’s not just about the user experience in terms of design and layout but also about the few extra features this app provides.
The prominent features include:
- Ability to view the peer IP addresses and the trackers
- Material Design UI
- The material design themes supports both light as well as dark modes
- Individually select which files to download
- Encryption support, IP filtering support. Proxy Support for trackers and peers
- Notification for Download Complete.
- The persistent app notification shows the current upload and download speeds
In case you want to shutdown the app for some reason, you can do it directly from the notification rather than opening the app first and then doing it. Not something really great, but comes handy at times! 😛
This is what separates it from the other apps.
Download Link : Flud
Contacts + message backup for Windows Phone
Last week, Microsoft released the “contacts+message backup” app. This app is useful for those of us who either keep changing phones, losing them, or in our case having to hard reset them after playing around. Most of us store our contacts online on our Gmail or Outlook accounts, but may want a copy of all our sent messages(SMS,MMS) and contacts as a precaution or other reasons on our micro sd cards.
The interface is just like most of the settings options and is more of an add on to the settings.
On installing the app, it does not show up in the list of apps, instead it shows up in settings.
Contacts + Message Backup app is a Settings app that enables you to make backup of all your contacts (in VCF format) and messages (SMS & MMS including attachments) to SD card (in XML format) for later restore to same or another Windows Phone. Backup is stored in 'backup+restore' folder on the SD card.
We think this app makes an important addition as it saves what is most essential to a mobile phone…. Its contact list.
Download link: contacts+message backup
Save the Internet
To all the readers who enjoy reading our blog, kindly go to the link below and click on ‘Share your response’ and send the email if you
don’t want to end up paying for just reading the blog!!
Maestro (Email Client)
Everyone’s waiting for the new revamped Outlook app that is supposed to be released with the WIndows 10 for phones. I would not say it has exactly copied the upcoming features; but yes to an extent Maestro does implement some of the features of the ‘Revamped Outlook’ app as shown in the preview screenshots.
In spite of that, it does a fantastic job at managing my mail. First and foremost the obvious features:
- Multiple accounts support for Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo
- Accent color navigational bar
- Large navigational icons making it simple to navigate
- Swipe to archive/delete (features shown in the Outlook preview for W10 for Phones)
What we miss in this app is the ability to swipe across tabs/menus which otherwise you have to tap and do. Navigation across the tabs above isn’t and swift as it is in the other Windows Phone apps like People, but it is smooth and productive
In all the app is elegant and efficient and we hope to see support for more email clients and custom domains.
Download : Maestro
Swipe to Swear
Get it at
Enable Whatsapp Calling
Step-1: Install the WhatsApp apk from their site
Step-2: Navigate to data/data/com.whatsapp/shred_prefs/com.whatsapp_preferences.xml
Note: Root files access needed to be enabled.
Step-3: Add the following within the < map > < / map >and save:
Step-4: Go to Settings/Apps/Whatsapp and force stop it
Step-5: Start WhatsApp again
Note: WhatsApp call servers are down, so while you get the feature you need to wait for them to be up to actually use it
Clear Focus
Try and focus on the circle above for at least 2 minutes!
You probably can’t as you are constantly distracted by the alerts constantly popping on top of your screen..
Smartphones have become an indispensable resource of our everyday life (unfortunately!). People have become so addicted to their smartphones that any moment they find, they have nothing to do they just check their smartphones. In spite of not receiving any alert or notification tone.
This becomes troublesome at work when we are distracted by the constant buzzing of our phones et al that causes us to lose focus from our primary task.. We may not realize this but overall it hampers our level of concentration and effectiveness. To deal with this new level of Smartphone Insanity this post is to your rescue.
Clear Focus, much as the name suggests helps you FOCUS 😀
Yes that’s exactly what this app does. It disables all notifications and all modes of disturbances for a preselected time as per your convenience. You can select what to disable, i.e. 1) Internet Connection and/or 2) Sounds & VIbrations. For example you can define for how long you don’t want to be disturbed, say for 45 mins! The app automatically starts a timer that persistently stays in the notification bar (also editable). You can also select the break span after the selected 45 minutes, i.e. you can selected 10 mins as a break time during which the device will enable wifi and sync your notifications. You can either continue to work after 45 mins of Clear Focus or take a break. The app pops up a notification to confirm a break!
What we love about the app is it’s material design logo, the overall aesthetics and simplicity of use and user interface. The app also offers comprehensive statistics of 1)Completed Work Sessions 2) Total Working time for the day, week and month.
Download: Clear Focus
Picturesque
Microsoft is back with a bang!! From free Office viewer for iOS and Android to Word/Excel/PowerPoint Preview for Android Tablets, it is all over other OSes With its aim to Microsoft”IFY” android tablets comes another android App!! Picturesque It is a Lockscreen replacement for the native Android lockscreen. It is built with it’s roots entrenched in Microsoft The app offers 4 windows which you can easily and seamlessly slide through on your lockscreen, each window has its own purpose! The main screen is a simple slide up screen to unlock your device, but it also displays the current time and the battery status which comes handy.
The next screen to the right side news feed from Bing juxtaposed with Bing search and of course Microsoft App recommendations There is another screen to the left of the main lockscreen that allows you to change your lockscreen background just by swiping to the right and you can set any background fixed for a day after which it automatically changes to the new one or you can allow it to change at fixed interval of time!
It does much more than serve as a simple lockscreen replacement!! So head down to the play store and download it
Link : Picturesque
More details are available on the play store. 🙂
Material Design Wallpapers
It’s been time since Android L is here. The Material Design, featured in Android L has limited number wallpapers
However, there is no reason you should confine yourself to those limited wallpapers. Here are about 140+ material design/ Nexus 6 wallpapers, designed by a Google+ user.
Link: Material Wallpapers
Here is are two sample from the designs
Windows 10 phone
While we all were waiting for windows 10 to come, Microsoft had released phone insider. An app meant to give windows 10 on those phones who registered to preview it. However Microsoft today updated the app to windows insider. The login problems have gone and I now shows built not available. It also has a link to view phone requirements, but the page doesn’t exist….yet. This is all in preparation for its preview launch next month. We hope you are as excited as we are!!!!
PhotoScrambler
PhotoScrambler:
PhotoScrambler lets you protect your photos from unwanted usage and distribution.
Protect your photos with personal secret code, so that only you and trusted people you give the code to, can see them. Everyone else who doesn’t know your secret code will see just random scrambled images.
With PhotoScrambler you can:
• Encode/decode JPEG and PNG photos
• Take encoded photos with built-in camera
• Share encoded photos with your friends
• Add custom photo-scrambling codes, colors and descriptions
• Choose photo size after processing *
• Define application password
* limited in FREE version of the applicationSecured photos will still be saved as photos, so you can store them in your phone’s Pictures libraries, upload them on cloud servers, such as Dropbox, OneDrive or iCloud or similar. They will remain perfectly safe even if the cloud service is hacked!
Photos protected with PhotoScrambler will stay safe even if a curious friend borrows your phone, or if someone steals your phone. Not even a malicious repair person will be able to decode your photos without the code.
Users can scramble and unscramble photos directly from phone’s gallery, by selecting photos and choosing PhotoScrambler from “Share with” application list.
Most of us have used picture locker on windows phone which involves you importing pictures into the app and storing them there. PhotoScrambler is something which is more innovative. On initializing the app, you need to set a password to open the app. Once opened, you choose a photo you’d like to scramble/unscramble, use you camera to click or even share securely. Pictures are scrambled using a code which you decide. You can use this code as a template in the future or use a different one everytime. The photo can be overwritten or a new photo can be maintained which is scrambled. In the gallery you can’t view this picture as its scrambled. You need to unscramble it using the application by entering the code. Even if some one accidently gets these files, its useless as they can’t crack it( not yet at least) as you choose the code to use to scramble it. Only a brute force attack on a supercomputer may be able to crack it!!!
Get it at http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=8dc237b6-8dab-42c5-b54e-b76e90279305
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 50,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 19 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Snapchat Accounts Blocked on Windows Phone
Windows Phone store has deleted all third party Snapchat clients on the Store.
This come on orders of Snapchat, which had faced a massive database leak by hackers a month ago via a third party service. The hackers were able to steal quite a large amount of private photos of the users!! This prompted Snapchat to up it’s security measures that involved this as the first and major step.
All the users having made accounts with third party services on Windows Phone, their accounts have been locked!
WhatsApp temporarily down, causing issues on windows phone on installing.
Emily (WhatsApp Support)
Dec 18 15:23
Hi,
Thanks for your message.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
We were experiencing a temporary outage. Our service is now restored.Thank you for your patience.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. We would be happy to help!
Emilia
WhatsApp Support Team
Interested in translating for us? Please visit our website: http://translate.whatsapp.com
Take a look at our FAQ: http://www.whatsapp.com/faq
Age of Empires:Castle Siege
Age of Empires:Castle Siege has made its way to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices.
Take on the world and earn crowns for attacking other players kingdoms and defending your own.
Train troops, invent war machines, upgrade your defenses,attack and your keep to progress.
The game has a campaign in which you play historic battles and multiplayer in which you play against others.
This game provides sheer entertainment(may cause addiction to it) and is exclusive to windows devices.
This game requires a good internet connection to play. If internet drops during a siege, you will forfeit that battle and lose crowns.
WP8.1 download: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/age-of-empires-castle-siege/179cc09c-7d37-4281-b85e-602187b7d032
Windows8.1 download: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/535ec024-ff5c-488e-83a6-67c787ea25e8
50000 Viewers!!!!
On the occasion of reaching 50,000+ viewers we’ve started a YouTube Channel..
Kindly subscribe to our YouTube channel as we’re coming up with a very interesting video series soon.
Here is our first video Fun with Cortana
Watch it. Share it.
Downloads Page updated
LG G3 wallpapers have been added to the downloads page along with the previous wallpapers
Direct Download for LG G3 wallpapers
Updated Downloads Page
Nexus 6 and Moto G stock wallpapers
We’ve added Android (5.0) Lollipop a.k.a. Nexus 6 and Moto G stock wallpapers.
Make sure you download them and try them out! 🙂
Keepsafe History
On receiving many request via email regarding the older Keepsafe app versions, here is a list of older Keepsafe apk files with their download links:
Keepsafe 5.0.1 (Least probable)
**Make sure you keep your current Keepsafe folder backed up somewhere before installing these apk**
TVshow Plus
An application we all have been waiting for.. TVshow Plus isn’t a an application keep you in sync with your TVShow timings!
In fact it simply let’s you watch them and even download them.
Available as a paid application but YOU CAN TRY IT before buying it!
The User interface is fairly simple.
Once you open the app you are given a choice of three website which offer the services! Select one if them then search for your TV show and you’ll be provided with the list of servers that may have the days in them!
**Before clicking on a server tap CHECK on the bottom to see if the servers still have the file on them * *
In that case select anyone of them and start enjoying your TVShow.
You can download them too..
As shown in the screenshots below the app allows you to download subtitles as and create a Watch Later list in case you’re too busy 😛
But you’ll be harangued by ads in the trial version.. So our advice BUY IT because it’s worth it 🙂
Download here : http://goo.gl/OKSFUY
Disable WhatsApp blueticks on Android
The latest WhatsApp android beta update lets you now disable the annoying blue ticks and enjoy some privacy again.
Download the apk from here Official Whatsapp apk and install the app by allowing installation from unknown sources. Go to privacy settings and disable blue ticks. Please note that the apk is official and will download from whatsapps site and is not hosted by us or anyone else.
If you like this post and want more..please like our new facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/appcylaofficial and follow us on twitter @appcyla
Windows 10 for all!!
Lumia officially acknowledged that all windows phone 8 devices will be getting bumped up to windows 10 once released. Stay tuned for more.
Also we’d like to inform our readers that you can now have us on your facebook feed..simply like our new page http://www.facebook.com/appcylaofficial to get started!!
Ps.. We also got our phones updated with a new dev preview with better battery saver features and live tile for it. Now battery usage can be viewed as on a timescale with a proper usage scale.
A New Device in the Armory (Android to WP)
We recently added a new device to our Collection. A Nokia Microsoft Lumia.
We must say its worth every penny. Then came the part of porting from Android to Windows (Don’t worry we still own Nexus devices.. :P)
Porting isn’t much of a pain provided your previous device was as organised. Now why would you port to WP and what changes we liked?!
If you’re too bored with android and with the constant lag on your device or the dull display then windows is a perfect choice.
The best part of WP is that it supports manually moving/installing by default apps to SD Card. The Storage Sense and Data Sense features allow you to track your memory use and data use to the bit.
Second powerful feature of WP Block or Select which apps should run in the background. In Android we have what we call as Task Killers, they do free up RAM but only temporarily before the apps restart themselves. Luckily WP allows you to check which apps actually run in background and disable them.
Trust me the Metro UI looks very cool and alive!! The battery life is phenomenal.. With disabling apps in background the overall battery life drastically improves leaving you with battery that’ll last up to 24 hours. Next up Cortana. Man, I love her!! 😛
That assistant is smart, beautiful and witty!! Taking care of your reminders, notes, music and everything!!!!
The most important Lumia devices provide awesome features at affordable prices with guaranteed updates in future. One thing that we noticed that most new Lumia devices may have just 512 Mb of RAM but all Quad-Core leaving you with an amazing game playing experience even on devices as cheap as the 520. (by games we imply ASPHALT 8: AIRBORNE).
Not to forget the Lumia Camera having tools that’ll capture memories rather than just photos. The Windows Phone gives a clean UI with from the basic system font to the live tiles and it easily integrates with all your social networks allowing you to push updates without having to open the apps!
To conclude with Windows Phone gave a personal touch to a mobile phone. #LumiaLove
PORTING TO WINDOWS PHONE FROM ANDROID
1. Contacts
If you backed up/synced your contacts with Google you can just go to Gmail and download the CSV Contact file. This file can be uploaded to the People’s tab in Outlook, or you could add your Google account to your Windows phone which will sync your contacts.
2. Photos
Photos can be either uploaded to Onedrive or manually transffered from your Android device to you memory card which can be inserted into your Windows Phone. That’s one part of Windows Phone devices that we liked, that almost all of them have a SD Card slot
3. Apps & Mail
You may not find all the apps that your Android hosted.. WP store does have all the essential applications that we use everyday and games too.You can either add your Gmail account to your WP or just import all mail to Outlook and add forwarding address from gmail to outlook.
In any case should you run into any problems be sure to shoot us an email at appcyla@gmail.com
Pastebin Manager
Pastebin has recently been in the limelight with the snappening hacker putting his apology up there. Also the dropbox hack in which passwords and usernames were posted. Putting these incidents aside, Pastebin is a great web based utility to share snippets with either selective people or worldwide. Ever needed to send multiple people some really long text but find emailing say 100 people cumbersome. Simple paste the text and maybe keep it unlisted or private or even public with an expiry. The pastebin manager app for Windows Phone 8 is great. You can download pastes,view your paste status like hits, link details etc. You can also view the latest pastes on the site. A handy tool to have if you’re a student or even a professional.
Windows Phone Marketplace: Pastebin Manager
A Small Breakthrough
We were able to open the keepsafe app without a password just by modifying the manifest.json file!! It remains open for a few seconds and also shows the folders in it with pictures before it closes..
Yet to figure out the final solution..
Keep yourself up to date with the posts that come up in the next week!
Till then.. Enjoy the weekend!! 😀
URL SHORTNER WP
URL SHORTNER
Today we bring you a minimalist windows phone application with a significant functionality s opposed to the previous android post 😛
As the title suggests thus app allows you to shorten long URLs!! This application supports only ‘bit.ly’ shortened URLs. It also provides you with the option to expand ‘bit.ly’ shortened URLs.
That’s pretty much everything you should know about the app
Store Uniform Resource Locator: URL Shortner
Snaptastic for Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7 users can rejoice. Developers still haven’t forgotten you. If some of you recall, we had earlier posted a review for a client for snapchat which was pulled down from the store so you needed an interop unlocked phone to install the XAP.
Now even users with non interop unlocked phones can snap away.
Snaptastic is great. It lets you view your score, best friends, your friends scores and best friends, their snap stories. You can even upload images from camera or gallery. The text font on image can be changed and you can draw on the images. We found it to be a great app which gets the job done. Not as robust as 6snap which Windows Phone 8 users have, but nevertheless a great app.
Start snapping away now!!
Store: Snaptastic
Run Android Apps on Google Chrome
We recently came across this article.. It allows you to run almost any android app in google chrome browser!! Must read for Android enthusiasts http://goo.gl/kfQrnr
Climatology
You may have made a guess for what the app would be about!! To an extent you’ll be correct..
It isn’t a typical weather/climate app that gives you the daily forecast and maybe that’s why we loved it!
This application gives you the overall climatic over a particular region. The information includes the following four options:
-Expected daily high temperature
-Expected days of rain
-Expected % of clear sky
-Expected % of humidity (added recently.. not shown in the screenshots below)
There’s only one screen on the app. No menu’s or settings, nothing!!
The top bar shows the latitude and the longitude of the location pointed by the crosshair
The world map is displayed on the upper half of the window and you can point the crosshair on the map to a particular location and get the climate details of that region. You can select any one of the four options stated above by tapping on their icons
Select any one of them and the map will show the variation in the climatic conditions over the world along with the level of intensity of that attribute on a bar!!
Play Store: Climatology
Cortana updated
The new Cortana update is great.
With new songs added for her/him to sing and impersonations now show a minimalistic icon too.
Try saying “Sing” or “Do an impersonation”
We love cortana and the updates seem to be making her better!!!!
Download music from YouTube for Windows Phone
Downloading music from certain sites pose security threats along with legal issues. But what do you do when you want that new song?
Its simple. You download
Youtube MP3 Music & Video Downloader Free
Using this app you can download songs from YouTube in various qualities(320 kbps,128 kbps,64 kbps). Next go to the download screen and on long pressing the song you downloaded, select the import to library option and then delete this song from download list.
If you open your music library, you will see this song added to your collection.
Its as simple as this!!!!
Marketplace link – Download
NeRdS Up!!
This post is all about a few of the Geeky apps that you will be interested in if you belong to a computer related field!!
The apps are selected as follows :
- Codebox : Closer to machine (Mainly C/Java Algorithms)
- LearnHTML5: Web frontend
- MySQL: Web database backend (Coming up in the next post)
- QPython (Coming up in the next post)
Thus they cover aspect of coding except for the Apps based on scripting languages, which we will be covering in the next post of NeRdS Up.
Codebox:
This app made its mark on the Play Store not only because of its simplistic yet elegant GUI but also because of the topics it covered in the application itself!
The application contains a list of important Data Structures and other Algorithms which will be of great use to Computer Science students.
The algorithms are given in two most popular languages C and Java
The app developers have made a simple slide it menu that comes very handy! The programs can be searched from within the app and can be shared too!
Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codeguys.codebox
Play your favorite Gameboy games on your Windows Phone!
Most of us have played on the famous Nintendo Gameboys. Most of us remember games like Super Mario and Pokemon on the Gameboy. You can now get all nostalgic and relive those moments by playing these games on your Windows Phone.
VDA8 is one such app. It allows you to import ROMs from your Onedrive account or even from your SD card. The interface is clean and easy to use. We enjoyed playing our old games using this app.
As for the question from where to get the ROMs…just search for them online and you’re bound to find them.
Store Link- VBA8
Proxy mobile number which also works on whatsapp!!!
UPDATE(3 OCT 2015)
The above 2 apps may generate numbers which are not recognized by whatsapp. We tried TextNow. This worked and allowed us to register on whatsapp. TextNow has calling features on Windows Phone too.
Check app availability for your device at https://www.textnow.com/downloads
Get a proxy number to use whatsapp on!!!
This along with many other articles on going anonymous and going off the the grid using proxy identities will be explained in the upcoming posts in our new section “Off the Grid”.
Many a times we are asked by apps,signups etc to give a valid mobile number so as to receive the confirmation code(eg snapchat,Gmail etc).
The problem is that we may not want to part with our number or that the service is for only US residents and you need a US number.
There’s a workaround for this.
There are apps like TextMe and also TextPlus which can be used.
All you need to do is download the app, signup and you’ll be assigned a valid US number which is capable of sending and receiving SMSs. The android version also allows one to make calls using free credit that they give. The windows phone version of TextMe has one special feature. As calls are not possible in the windows phone version, it does however have a voicemail facility. We tried to register for a google account using this number and used the call me for verification method. The call didn’t come, however a voice message was left with the code.
These apps are a must have for those not eager to share their phone numbers or those wanting a proxy number. Yes, we even managed to register a whatsapp account on the number.
We’ll teach you how to register whatsapp on this number and how to use a disposable email id to sign up for these apps or rather anything in the coming posts in this new section “Off the Grid”.
TextMe- Windows Phone Android iPhone
textPlus- Windows Phone Android
Proxy mobile number which also works on whatsapp!!!
The above 2 apps may generate numbers which are not recognized by whatsapp. We tried TextNow. This worked and allowed us to register on whatsapp. TextNow has calling features on Windows Phone too.
Check app availability for your device at https://www.textnow.com/downloads
Get a proxy number to use whatsapp on!!!
This along with many other articles on going anonymous and going off the the grid using proxy identities will be explained in the upcoming posts in our new section “Off the Grid”.
Many a times we are asked by apps,signups etc to give a valid mobile number so as to receive the confirmation code(eg snapchat,Gmail etc).
The problem is that we may not want to part with our number or that the service is for only US residents and you need a US number.
There’s a workaround for this.
There are apps like TextMe and also TextPlus which can be used.
View original post 180 more words
Total Commander for Windows Phone
Total Commander is the latest must have app for Windows Phone users. Apart from your standard file browser for files stored in the device memory and on the removable sd card, it is loaded with a lot more features.
You can add an FTP server, your Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, LAN, WebDav. You can also receive files on your device using WiFi. There is also a pack and unpack option for zipped files
Now instead of 8 different apps to perform the above functions, only one is needed. The app is available for free on the store.
Link:Total Commander
AppCyla 