Month: May 2012

Whenever I consider buying a new phone, one of the last features I look at is the camera. I think of myself as a casual photographer, and that’s only when using a friend’s DSLR. On my phone, I rarely post pictures in their original form, relying on apps to tweak and edit images to make them look more “creative.”

It’s still a big selling point for companies to announce the megapixel size on their devices. When you consider how small the lenses are though, the larger numbers don’t even matter. Granted, we shouldn’t have a VGA front facing camera anymore, but all the talk of a 40+ megapixel camera on a phone is simply misdirection.

Most people rely on photo-editing apps to customize their images to make them more creative.  This makes the power of the camera less important than the power of the app.  As long as the image is clear and in focus, apps can take care of the rest.

Since a lot of people use camera apps with built-in editing, here are some of the best.

Continue reading “5 Creative photo apps for mobile”

The Android OS offers a great user experience. Its operating system allows a lot of customization and an “open-door” approach to its usability. Not considering the divide between fans of Android and iOS, I think the problem with Android is not the core OS, but the fragmented user interface (UI) overlays that phone manufacturers place on top of Android’s own OS.

Even though there are multiple versions of the Android operating system available for the wide variety of devices that run it, the majority of them have some manufacturer-developed skin over the Android OS. That addition can do two things: add a layer of unnecessary functionality and complicate simple features.

Continue reading “Android: Interface Confusion”

Since seeing Heroes & Generals at GDC 2012 and playing a bit of the alpha, I’m quickly becoming more interested in the game. Without considering its free-to-play aspect, the gameplay is great. Most of my in-game experience is as a soldier, and there are a lot of details even in the early build.

The monetization of the game hasn’t really been really explained in depth, though it does appear that players will at least purchase weapons to use in the game.  When I was playing the alpha, there were noticeable issues with lag and physics, but those problems didn’t degrade the gameplay.  And since Reto-Moto, that company responsible for creating Heroes & Generals, is always working with the community on bugs and issues, it wasn’t unusual to see updates stream through the browser add-on.

Reto-Moto have announced that Heroes & Generals is now officially in closed beta.

Continue reading “Heroes & Generals enters Closed Beta”

Managing battery life on an Android device can be frustrating. Many applications run in the background and system processes suck a lot of power, even when the phone is idling. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich did a lot to improve the transparency of what apps are affecting performance and battery life, but there are still a few tricks to squeeze out a few more hours of battery life out of your Android phone.

Enter JuiceDefender.

This battery management application claims to save hours on your battery, but how exactly does it work? Does it actually work? Continue reading “Extend Android battery life with JuiceDefender”