1.1.0

Review: Jelly Bean Launcher updates your home screen, at least visually

Jelly Bean Launcher makes your home screen look and feel like you have Android 4.1 instead of an older version. There are a few weird issues with the execution, but Jelly Bean Launcher is a nice compromise if you don't want to root.

You can make this launcher your full-time home screen by making it the default app. The launcher grabs a few widgets from your current app's menu to paste on your home screen. It doesn't check your current home screen layout, though, so you'll be stuck rearranging things to make them match. Since … Read more

Review: Create beats with Ultimate Beat Maker [Dubstep] HD1

The drum pad and beat maker app craze continues with the release of Ultimate Beat Maker [Dubstep] for the iPad. The app, designed with nearly 50 different Dubstep and electronic music beats, allows you to set and combine any of those 48 beats with the tap of a button. While lacking in a number of features that would make this a must-own app, it is still very fun to use.

This is a very basic app, basically providing a map onscreen of 48 Dubstep beats that you can choose from. Tap any of the multicolored blocks and a beat will … Read more

Review: Edit and enhance your photos as you take them with Fotor Photo Effect Studio for Android

The ability to take endless snapshots tends to leave the average smartphone user with two things: 1) a lot of unedited snapshots; and 2) a lot of good intentions about transferring those photos to your PC, editing them, and posting them online--someday. Someday can be the next time you turn your Android gizmo's camera on, if you have Everimaging's Fotor Photo Effect Studio. This free app lets you edit, modify, frame, and share your snapshots almost as quickly as you can take them, and right from the comfort of your Android smartphone or tablet. It's also one … Read more

Pocket Blackjack 1.1.0 Review

Immensely popular and addictive, card games offer exciting gameplay as well as a strategy element; it's no wonder that card games were some of the first games to hit the mobile market. If you enjoy playing blackjack, then you'll definitely appreciate the Pocket Blackjack game for Android. It is a fantastic game that employs a casino feel to the classic game of twenty-one.

At over nine megabytes, Pocket Blackjack seems quite heavy on the memory usage compared to other card games. It also may take a while to download, depending on your network connection. However, its large size … Read more

Magic Piano Ringtones 1.1.0 Review

Even though your smartphone can turn just about any song into a ringtone, downloadable ringtones aren't going away. This batch, collectively called The Magic Piano, is a group of piano-based ringtones you'll probably enjoy. The ringtones are all of decent quality, but the add-ons that come with the package ruin the appeal.

The app forces you to accept its terms and conditions before you can use any of the ringtones. This includes throwing ads at your phone and changing your default browser's settings to support more ads. If you accept those, the app's browsing menu proves … Read more

Hack and slash to save your love from...whatever those things are in Third Blade

Taking its cue from those arcade video games from the '80s and '90s, Third Blade modernizes the approach for the App Store audience to great effect. Built on classic mechanics and featuring plenty of weapon upgrades, enemy stomping and combos, Third Blade is both intrinsically pleasing as far as game design goes and slightly frustrating due to its still-not-updated graphics, suspect Free/Paid model and garbled story.

The game is simple enough. Cut scenes feature animated characters decked out in weaponry traversing the world, fighting off worm-like creatures. The game itself is a classic side-scrolling beat-em up. You tap the … Read more

Play your favorite card game with DH Texas Poker

You can't always get your buddies around the table to play cards. In that case, drop this app on your smartphone for a full Texas Hold 'Em experience. DH Texas Poker lets you challenge your friends, the computer, or people from all over the world to a game. It moves a little more slowly than some other Poker apps, but the competition can be fierce.

The game lets you play as a guest, but you have to register to unlock the best experience. You can sign up with the developer to track your performance across all of its games, … Read more

Edit audio files with Macsome Audio Editor for Mac

Native music players for Mac don't allow users to edit their audio files, which may be necessary for a number of things, including making ringtones. Macsome Audio Editor, while functional, proved difficult to use.

Macsome Audio Editor was quick to install and open. It offers upgrades at no cost, indicating technical support is available. The program lacked instructions, which would have been welcome in light of the confusing interface. The controls to load individual songs were intuitive and allowed selections by file directory. Unfortunately, the actual audio-editing process proved frustrating. After the selected song loads, the user must choose … Read more

Capture your screen with ScreenSnag

Although screen captures are something that Windows is capable of doing on its own, third-party screen capture utilities offer a lot more in the way of features. We've tried many of these utilities and have been quite impressed with some of their offerings. ScreenSnag is one of the less intuitive options that we've tried, but it does offer some useful features that make it worth the time it takes to learn.

ScreenSnag's interface is unlike anything we've seen before, and not necessarily in a good way. Its options are all contained within a series of gray … Read more

WatApp suffers from bad design

WatApp, at least according to the publisher, provides your work and travel itinerary at your fingertips on your phone. We don't speak Bulgarian, the language featured with this app, but bad design is bad design, and we don't think you need an interpreter to recognize it. And WatApp is a victim of bad design and overall bad performance.

The main screen of WatApp contains three large icons: News, WAT about, and My Profile. We tapped the News icon once, twice, three times and nothing happened. A fourth time introduced a news page that was all in Bulgarian, and … Read more