Saturday, July 30, 2011

Best Android Camera App - With Advanced Effects, Histogram, Timer, Burst, Panorama, Shutter and More

Camera Advance Lite App : If you are looking for a better camera app than the one you have on your Android phone then this is the one for you. This app is one of the best camera apps for Android. It has most of the features you would look for in any Android camera app. Interesting features of this app are picture effects, live histogram, timer, burst photo capturing, panorama mode, silent shutter and much more. All the photo effects are displayed at real time unlike other camera apps where picture is processed to apply the effects after photo is taken. With this camera app you can see the outcome of selected color effect at real time within camera view finder and you can know how photo would look like if taken.

Camera View Finder : When you start Camera Advance app then you would see the view finder of this app with various camera controls around it as shown in screenshot below.

Android Camera App - View Finder
Android Camera App - View Finder
At right hand top corner of the screen is number in green color, it indicates count of photos taken so far. Just left to number count is image which indicate that photos are being saved at SD Card. The camera icon at right hand and vertically center location is for taking the snaps. Tap this camera icon to take the photo. The toolbar at the left of the screen provides various features available with this camera. Let's see those one by one.

Shooting Modes : First icon from top in the toolbar is for selecting shooting modes. Tapping this icon would display available shooting modes as shown in screenshot below.

Android Camera App - Shooting Modes
Android Camera App - Shooting Modes
By tapping appropriate icon, you can choose from Timer, Burst, Reduced Noise and Panorama. Selecting Timer mode will delay the shutter time by specified seconds. Burst shooting mode allows you to take multiple photos in single tap. Panorama allows you to take wider photos than those fit in your camera view.

Scene Modes : Second icon from top in the toolbar is for selecting scene modes. Tapping this icon shows scene modes to select from, as given in screenshot below.

Android Camera App - Scene Modes
Android Camera App - Scene Modes
Tap the scene mode you want from Auto, Beach, Candlelight, Fireworks, Landscape, Night, Party, Portrait, Snow, Sports and Sunset. You should choose the appropriate scene mode to match the kind of snap you are taking. You can swipe the tool bars vertically with finger to scroll and see more available options.

Color Effects : Third icon from top in the toolbar is for selecting color effect. Tapping this icon would display color effect choices as shown in screenshot below.

Android Camera App - Color Effects
Android Camera App - Color Effects
When you select one of the color effects by tapping related icon then view finder image immediately start displaying the photo preview with selected color effect. You can choose from No Effect, Aqua, Mono, Negative, Sepia and Whiteboard. The last option, whiteboard gives the photo with line drawing or pencil drawing effect.

Focus Modes : Fourth icon from top in the toolbar is for selecting focus mode. Tapping this icon shows two focus modes to choose from, as given in screenshot below.

Android Camera App - Focus Modes
Android Camera App - Focus Modes
There are only two focus modes to select from, Auto and Macro. Choose Auto mode when you are taking snap of the targets which are away from you. For taking snap of small things from very close distance choose Macro mode. Macro mode switches camera to a special close focus mode which could be closer than 10 cm

To understand the difference between Auto and Macro mode, perform this exercise. Select Auto mode and focus on object from very close distance. Notice the sharpness of picture. Do the same with Macro mode selected. This would help you understand how Macro mode gives you sharper snaps from very close distance.

White Balance Modes : Fifth icon from top in the toolbar is for selecting white balance mode. Tapping this icon shows various white balance options to apply.

Android Camera App - White Balance Modes
Android Camera App - White Balance Modes
Tap the relevant icon to select the white balance mode from Auto, Cloudy Daylight, Daylight, Fluorescent and Incandescent. You should choose the appropriate white balance mode depending on your environment lighting condition and the way you want your photo.

OSD : Sixth icon from top in the toolbar is for selecting various "On Screen Display" (OSD) features. Tapping this icon would display available OSD features as shown in screenshot below.

Android Camera App - OSD - Histogram
Android Camera App - OSD - Histogram
There are three OSD options to choose from, Histogram, Grid and Fibonacci Spiral. Unlike other camera settings you can select more than one OSD at a time. Tapping it first time will display it and tapping the same icon again would hide it. So you can display all three OSDs at same time if required. Above screenshot shows one of the OSDs selected, that is Histogram. Histogram tells you if photo your are looking in view finder is properly exposed to light or not. It gives an idea if you are capturing the details in shadows and highlight areas of the photo. If peak of the histogram is at center and graph is decreasing equally to both sides then it is just perfect exposure to snap the picture. Left edge of the histogram indicate shadow area and right edge indicates  highlight area.

Picture Sizes : Seventh icon from top in the toolbar is for selecting picture size. Tapping this icon would display available picture size that you want to select for taking photos.

Android Camera App - Picture Sizes
Android Camera App - Picture Sizes
You can select the picture sizes from 1.3, 2.0 and 3.2 mega pixels (MP). Higher the value you select larger the picture size you get and more details in picture.

Picture Quality : Eight icon from top in the toolbar is for selecting picture quality. You can see the various picture quality options available for selection by tapping this icon.

Android Camera App - Picture Quality
Android Camera App - Picture Quality
As shown in above screenshot there are three picture qualities to choose from, Normal, Fine and Superfine. Finer the quality you select, better the picture quality. For memorable pictures you should select Superfine quality.

Camera Settings or Preferences : The last icon in toolbar launches preferences screen which allows you to fine tune the behaviors of this Android camera app.

Android Camera App - Settings
Android Camera App - Settings
Using preferences screen you change the settings for Burst, Panorama, Timer, Save Location, Date Format, Geotag, Picture Review, Shutter Sound and Zoom control by volume button.

The quality of the photographs taken using this camera app is really good. Color effects are amazing. The amount of control and features are excellent considering this app is absolutely free. You can download this app from Android market or app store of your choice.

If you liked this app then you may would like to check out few more Android apps from popular section at right. Keep coming back for more coolest and best apps for Android.

Camera Advance Lite
Camera Advance Lite at Amazon


Saturday, July 23, 2011

Best Android Movie App - With Player, Trailers, Showtimes, Tickets, Synopsis and News

There are very few Android Movie apps in Android market which list and play good quality videos of movies. There are plenty of apps which are just redirecting to web sites. Finding a good Android movie app is really a challenge and this is one of the best which is found after trying many available apps. It comes with many features like Synopsis, Showtimes, Tickets, News, Trailers and more.

Moviefone : This is one of the best movie app you can find in Android market. Some people call it Android film app. Using this App you can see the list of old and upcoming movies, search for a specific movie you are looking for, can read the synopsis of the story, can find the cinema halls around you to buy the tickets, can play the good quality movie trailers with it's Android movie player, can read news about movies and much more. This one app has many features which you may be looking for in good Android movie app. When you start this app you see the list of movies (films) which are available.

Android Movies - List of Movies
Android Movies - List of Movies
As you can see in screenshot above, Cars 2, Gone with the wind, Zookeeper, Mr Popper's Penguins and Buck,  movies are listed. You swipe the list vertically to scroll the list and see more available movies to watch. When you tap the movie name it takes you to the synopsis screen.

Android Movies - Synopsis of Story
Android Movies - Synopsis of Story
The above screenshot is showing the Synopsis screen with information of "Kung Fu Panda 2". You can read the brief story of the movie on this page. You can use the Facebook and Share buttons on this screen to tell about this movie to your social network. Tapping the "Showtimes & Tickets" button would take you to the screen where you can find nearby cinema halls where you can book the tickets to watch this movie. You can tap "Play Trailer" button to start playing trailer of this movie with it's Android movie player.

Android Movies - Bad Teacher Trailer
Android Movies - Bad Teacher Trailer
In screenshot above, you can see that quality of the video is very good with this app. This is medium video quality and still the sharpness of picture is too good. You can change the quality using player's user controls. Tap the screen any time to see the user controls of this Android movie player.

Android Movies - Player Controls
Android Movies - Player Controls
You can tap play / pause button to stop playing / resuming the movie video at any point of time. At right hand side of the user control bar the button with word "Medium" is displaying the current video quality selected. You can tap this button to choose the video quality from "Low', "Medium" and "High". Choose the appropriate video quality to suit your network speed.

Android Movies - List of Trailers
Android Movies - List of Trailers
You can tap the "Trailers" tab as shown in screenshot above when you want to just see the list of trailers available to view.

Android Movies - News
Android Movies - News
Similarly you can tap the "News" tab as shown in screenshot above and can see the list of latest news related to movies. Tap the news which you want to read in detail and to check out related pictures and videos.

Android Movies - Settings
Android Movies - Settings
When you press the menu button on your Android phone then you can see the settings menus of this app. You can tap "Sort Movie" menu to sort the movie list "By Release Date", "By MPAA Ratings" or "Alphabetically". Tapping the "Search" menu provides a search box where you can type the words to search a movies quickly. Edit location menu allows you to select your location either by typing postal code or using GPS. This location is used to show the list of movies and theaters near by. Settings menu allows you to setup your facebook login credentials.

You can download this best Android film app from Android market of your choice and start enjoying great movies from today. If you like this app then you may would like to check few more wonderful apps from popular sections at the right. Subscribe to RSS feed and keep coming back for more best apps for Android.

You may would like to check few more movies or films apps for Android from Amazon which are listed below : Free Movie Rentals , Movies You Demand and Fandango Movies - Times & Tickets .

Free Movie RentalsMovies You DemandFandango Movies - Times & Tickets

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Android Call Recorder and Blocker - With Caller Announce, Auto Answer, Handsfree, Volume and Proximity Controls

There are many Android call recorder apps, call blocker apps, SMS blocker apps and call management apps in Android market. But there are few which has all this functionality combined in a single app. This is one of the great Android call manager with all features from different Android apps into one app. It has call recording, call blocking, caller announcement, auto call answer, auto handsfree, auto volume control, and   proximity control.

Sanity Android Call Recorder and Blocker app
Sanity : This is one of the Android call managers with lots of features packed in one single Android app.  With this Android call recorder app, you can record your calls - incoming as well as outgoing, with just tap of a button. You can block unwanted calls or keep your phone silent on unwanted call with this Android call blocker app. You can set it to auto answer incoming calls when you are driving. You can make it switch to handsfree automatically when phone is away from your ear. Isn't those nice features? That is not all, there are more wonderful features which you would love to have. It is truly your personal assistant during phone calls. Best part is, it is free and free version comes with all features it has.

When you launch this Android call manager first time then you would see couple of message screens and once you address that then you would come to a home screen with long list of choices.

Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Home
Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Home
There are so many features in this Android call block app and I am covering here only important few. General menu in screenshot above allows you to switch ON / OFF sanity. What it is means is, it will start monitoring the things which it promises and would behave as per other settings. If it is set to OFF then it would not monitor anything at all. So first thing to use this app is, go to General Screen and set check box "Enable Sanity" ON. Some other useful features at General screen are SMS alert, Silent mode Timeout and Airplane mode Timeout. Making SMS alert option ON means it would display each incoming SMS so that you can reply to it immediately. Regarding options "Silent mode Timeout" and "Airplane mode Timeout", when set ON, it will ask you for how much duration to stay in silent / airport mode.

From home screen you have a separate screens for Recorder, Call blocker, Announce Caller, Urgent Calls and Auto Answer settings. When you scroll down then you will see more features on home screen.

Android Call Recorder & Blocker - More Home
Android Call Recorder & Blocker - More Home
As you can see, each option on home screen takes to separate screen for settings of Anonymous calls, Handsfree, Devices, Proximity, Volume, Vibration and Notifications. You can find last one when you scroll down further. Anonymous calls settings allows you to make anonymous outgoing calls where you can hide your caller ID and make private calls.

Devices settings allows you to automatically turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, GPS and mobile data (2G/3G) when you speak over a phone. This reduces electromagnetic waves when you are holding phone close to your ear.

Volume settings allows you to set different volume levels for call, handsfree, wired headsets and bluetooth headsets.

When you tap Recorder menu item from home screen then it launch recorder settings screen with various settings to choose from.

Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Recorder Settings
Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Recorder Settings
The first setting on this screen "Enable recorder" if set ON, it would display the notification during phone call and you can tap that notification to start the recording of that call. "Browse recorded files" menu displays the previously recorded phone calls and allows you to play or manage those recorded calls. "Audio format" option allows you to choose from MPEG4, 3GPP and AMR format in which recorded calls are saved. On this settings screen you can also set auto recording start and stop rules so that recording can be started automatically when call starts and stops automatically when call ends.

Now let's see settings available for call block. You can launch call blocker screen by tapping "Call blocker" from home screen.

Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Call Blocker Settings
Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Call Blocker Settings
Checking "Enable call blocker" check box to ON, sets this feature in action. Using "Call filter" settings you can decide which calls should be blocked and when. You can choose to block unknown, anonymous, contacts, groups or favorite numbers. You can choose to include or exclude given phone number from call block.  Using "Block method", you can choose from various blocking methods like Hang up, Interrupt the signal, Silent answer and Silent ringtone. When you scroll down this settings screen then you would find similar settings to block the SMS messages.

Using this Android call manager you can decide which calls are very urgent for you and you can decide to take those even then phone is silent. You can do required settings for this by tapping "Urgent calls" menu from home screen of this Android call blocker app.

Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Urgent Call Settings
Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Urgent Call Settings
Checking ON the "Enable urgent calls" check box sets this function in action. Using "Urgent mode" menu, you can choose from "Ringtone only", "Vibrate only" and "Ringtone and vibrate" options. Using "Call filter" menu, you can decide which are your urgent calls for which this action should be applied.

Now let's see auto answer settings. You can tap the "Auto answer" menu from home screen of this app to launch the settings screen where you can decide various auto answer options.

Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Auto Answer Settings
Android Call Recorder & Blocker - Auto Answer Settings
Checking "Enable auto answer" check box, activates this functionality. Here you can decide when you want to auto answer the incoming calls. You can decide not to auto answer when phone is in silent mode. Using "Call filter" you can choose to auto answer only specific incoming calls.

You can use Auto Answer and Handsfree features in combination to take the calls while driving. This way calls can be auto answered and speaker phone will be automatically switched on for incoming call. This is  one of the handy features.

Advanced Caller Control (paid)
Advertisement - Advanced Caller Control App

You can download this wonderful Android app from market of your choice and start managing your calls and SMS better. If you like this app then you may would like to check few more interesting and cool Android apps from popular sections at the right. Do check back again for more exciting and best apps for Android.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Android SMS App - With SMS Backup, Search, Quick Text, Widget, Scheduler and Batch Operations

This is one of the best and free Android-SMS app in market which has many wonderful features to serve your each need. You name it and most probably you would find that feature in this app. With this Android SMS app, you can send exciting SMS with smileys, pictures, quick texts, videos and much more. It allows you to quickly take the SMS backup on your SD card and you can restore the backup when required. You can schedule when to send SMS. You can search SMS with specific text. Best part is, it comes with nice widget.

A fastest SMS app - Pansi SMS : As the name suggest, it is really one of the fastest Android SMS app I have seen. There are many useful features in this Android SMS manager which we are going to explore soon. One of the interesting and useful features of this Android app is SMS popup. With this app installed on your Android phone, receiving and sending SMS would be fun. When you launch this app first time, it guides you with very simple and easy to use setup wizard.

Android-SMS - Setup Wizard
Android-SMS - Setup Wizard
There are four steps in this setup wizard and it is very easy to follow. But I want to mention here one important point from fourth step, notification settings. Here you can disable other message notifications in message bar. This will ensure that you do not see multiple notifications in message bar for received SMS. After completing the setup wizard you would see the SMS conversations list.

Android-SMS - Message Conversations List
Android-SMS - Message Conversations List
You can see the SMS message list given in screenshot above. When you swipe this view horizontally then this view changes to message box view. Swiping message box view horizontally takes you back to message conversation view. When you tap the icon at top right hand corner of this screen then it opens up a search box. You can type the required search text in that box and search for a SMS you are looking for. When you tap the icon at top left corner of the screen then it launches a screen for composing a new SMS.

Android-SMS - Quick Text
Android-SMS - Quick Text
Above screenshot shows the compose new SMS screen. You can tap the icon at top right corner to select the contacts to whom you want to send SMS from your Android phone. When you tap the icon at left of the message box then it shows / hide tab view with various wonderful features shown above. One of the important  features to note here is "Insert quick text". Using this feature you can send predefined SMS messages quickly.

Android-SMS - General Menus
Android-SMS - General Menus
From SMS message list screen, when you press menu button of your Android phone then it displays the General Menus. Using the features available in general menus you can send scheduled SMS. You can quickly see unread, undelivered and draft SMS. You can switch to batch mode to delete multiple SMS quickly. "Message box" menu change the view from list to message box. Tap the "Settings" tab to see other interesting menus.

Android-SMS - Settings Menus
When you tap the "Settings" menu from above shown tab then it launches settings screen with lots of choices to fine tune the behaviors and look & feel of your Android-SMS app. "Notification" menu allows to change settings related to SMS notification. There is one more notification settings screen which you can launch from  advanced settings option. You can change the android sms notification sound using this settings. If you want to download android sms tones then read the post : Three coolest apps to download free Wallpapers for Google Android phone - Zedge Ringtones & Wallpapers.  "Theme" menu allows to change the theme of Android-SMS app. "Quick text" menu helps to manage the quick text that you want to add in your SMS messages quickly. Tap "Tools" tab to see the tools menus as shown in screenshot below.

Android-SMS - Tools Menus
Android-SMS - Tools Menus
Here you can take the SMS backup by tapping "SMS backup and recovery" menu. Android SMS backup feature of this app is one of the fastest. You can use the same menu to restore SMS from previously taken backup.

This app comes with very elegant Android SMS widget which you can put on home screen of your phone. The screenshot of the widget is shown in screenshot below.

Android-SMS - Android SMS Widget
Android-SMS - Android SMS Widget
Tap left most icon on toolbar at the bottom of the widget to start composing new SMS message. Tap left or right arrow icon to see previous or next message. Tap the right most icon to change the settings of this Android SMS widget.

You can download this app from market of your choice and start enjoying it. If you like this post then you may like to check few more posts from popular app sections at the right. Keep coming back for more such free, coolest, exciting and best apps for Android.

A fastest SMS app - Pansi SMS
Download - A fastest SMS app - Pansi SMS


Saturday, July 2, 2011

Best Android Dictionary App - With Thesaurus, Widget, Over 140,000 Words and Works Offline

This is one of the best, fastest, user friendly, free and feature packed Android dictionary. Best part of this Android dictionary is that it works in offline mode when you are not connected to internet. This can save lot of your money when you are roaming internationally. It provides many useful features which make your life easy when it comes to find the word you are looking for.

Best_Apps_For_Android_Dictionary
Advanced English Dictionary & Thesaurus : This nifty English dictionary is one of the fastest I have tried so far. The kind of features you find in this dictionary are all you may be looking for. Because it works when you are offline and not connected to internet, once installed on your Android phone, you will not look for paper-bound oxford english dictionary any more.

Download Android Dictionary Database For Offline Use : When you launch this dictionary then it prompts you to install the database for offline usage. Download takes some time but be patient and allow it to happen. Download functionality is well thought and does not start from scratch if download is paused or dropped for some reason. It resumes from where it was completed before. This makes downloading the database literally painless.

Android Dictionary App Word List And Word Meanings : Once database is downloaded and you start using the dictionary, you see the word list screen which is shown below.

Dictionary For Android - Word List
Dictionary For Android - Word List
You can swipe the word list to quickly scroll the words. You can also type the required word in the text box at the top of the screen. This view can be very handy when you just want to browse the dictionary and see which words you are not aware of. If you find any word which you are not aware of then you can tap it to see it's meaning. This would display the screen showing the meaning of that word as shown below.

Dictionary For Android - Word Meaning
Dictionary For Android - Word Meaning
As you see in above screen shot, it shows the various meanings of the given word. It gives the examples which illustrate the usage of the word in sentence. It provides the hypernyms, hyponyms, meronyms, related words and words similar to given word. Hypernym is more generic word. Hyponym is more specific word than a given word. Meronym is a word that names a part of a larger whole. For going back to word list from this screen press back button of your Android phone.

Quick Word Search With Android Dictionary App : As shown in screenshot below, you can quickly search the required word by typing in the text box at top of the word list screen.

Dictionary For Android - Quick Search
Dictionary For Android - Quick Search
It dynamically starts matching words while you are typing. The screenshot above is showing word Android while partially it is typed. When you see the required word in list below then you can tap it to see it's meaning. For example in above screen Android word can be tapped to see definition of Android and you can see the meanings "Humanoid" or "Mechanical man".

Android Dictionary App Menus : Screenshot below is displaying the menu of the Android dictionary. When you are at word list screen then press the menu button of your Android phone to see this menu. If you have not downloaded the database then you would see one extra menu here to initiate the download.

Dictionary For Android - Menu
Dictionary For Android - Menu

History menu allows you to see the word list which you have accessed previously. This can be useful when you want to refer the words which you have accessed previously. You can long press the word in history screen and remove it from history. This way, using history screen, you can create a study list of words to refer  back and memorize.

Settings menu allows you to set the text size to display the words and is very useful feature. You can also clear the cache and history from settings screen.

More dictionaries menu allows you to see and download other useful dictionaries and related apps from market. You can find dictionaries in other languages like German, Czech, Polish, Danish, Greek, Finnish, Croatian, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian and others.

Android Dictionary App Filters : When you tap Filter menu, you see "filter select dialog" as shown in screenshot below.

Dictionary For Android - Select Filter
Dictionary For Android - Select Filter 
You can select from available choices of filter namely Fuzzy, Wild Card, Keyword and Off. Select "Off" when you want to switch back from filter mode to normal word list mode. Lets see how fuzzy filter works. When you select fuzzy from above "filter select dialog" then you would see a word list screen with filter text box.

Dictionary For Android - Fuzzy Filter
Dictionary For Android - Fuzzy Filter
As you can see in above screen shot, when you select fuzzy filter option, you would have fuzzy filter text box at the top of the screen. Type the required word in this text box and go. You can see the list of words shown in above screenshot which are similar to word "love" and which are filtered using fuzzy technique. Tap any of the word if you want to see it's meaning. Remember, for going back to normal word list, go to Filter menu and select "Off".

Android Dictionary Widget : This Android dictionary app comes with very useful, word of the day widget, which you can place on your Android phone's home screen.

Dictionary For Android - Widget
Dictionary For Android - Widget
Above screenshot is showing the word of the day widget placed on home screen of the Android phone. You can tap the refresh button at the bottom of the widget to see the next word. This is very useful widget to improve your vocabulary. Whenever you have some free time you can just keep on tapping refresh button and adding more words to your vocabulary. You can tap this widget to launch the dictionary app with word meaning screen which explained earlier.

Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power
Advertisement - Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power
You can download this Android dictionary app from market of your choice. Once you install this dictionary for android then you would never look for paper-bound dictionary and it will be always in your palm. If you like this app then you may want to check few more wonderful and exciting Android apps from popular section at right. Also keep checking back for more best apps for Android.