2.2

Enjoy more of your music with Media Player for Android

Though the default media player in Android gets better with every update, it's still not great. You want something more customizable that offers more format support, and, of course, a useful home screen widget wouldn't hurt, either. Media Player for Android is missing all of those features.

Media Player for Android can barely even load without crashing. When it is working, it doesn't give you nearly the amount of file support that it promises. Though Media Player for Android advertises MP4 and M4V file support, it fails to play these files consistently. These days, even the default … Read more

Park a giant tour bus in Bus Parking 3D

Though it sounds a little mundane, this app provides hours of challenging fun. Bus Parking 3D offers a ridiculously large number of levels and options, but starts off a little too difficult. It will also send plenty of spammy ads to your phone both in and outside of the app.

The game's simple menu will take you right to the action, and there are more than 60 levels to unlock. The steering, pedals, and gear shift are placed right on the screen, so it might be a little cluttered for people with smaller phones. Though there are five different … Read more

Create your screenplay with Trelby

Anyone who's ever tried screenwriting knows that there's a specific format that must be followed, and anyone who's ever attempted this task in a typical word processing program knows that this format can be a real pain in the butt. Trelby is an easy-to-use screenwriting program that does the formatting for you and includes several other helpful tools that let you focus on telling your story instead of fiddling with margins.

Trelby's interface isn't stunningly beautiful, but it's easy to navigate, with a few menus across the top and a toolbar down the left … Read more

Enable swipe-to-delete in Gmail 4.2 on Android

One feature Android users have been asking for in the Gmail app has been the ability to swipe and delete or archive a message. With the release of Gmail 4.2, that's now possible.

By default, the swipe gesture is set to archive or delete a message, depending on whether the message has already been archived. Should you want to change it to always delete (or disable the feature altogether), you'll need to dive into the settings.

To enable swipe-to-delete, make sure you have the latest version of Gmail running on your Android device. After you've updated, … Read more

New Firefox opens up to older phones

Firefox for Android (download) has seen a lot of changes this year that have looked to the future, but today's release makes the browser compatible with a selection of older Android phones.

Released a day ahead of schedule because the features were ready, explained a Mozilla representative in an e-mail to CNET, Firefox 17 for Android supports an expansive list of ARM v6 hardware. This means that older but popular phones like the Samsung Galaxy Pro GT-B7510, HTC Status, Motorola XT531, and Motorola Fire XT can now run the alternative browser.

The hardware restrictions are fairly minimal, and appear … Read more

Canon 5D Mark III update to unlock high-end HDMI video

Canon plans to release a notable firmware update to its high-end EOS 5D Mark III in April that will let videographers use the SLR to record uncompressed HDMI video.

As the successor to the 5D Mark II that jump-started the video SLR revolution four years ago, the 22-megapixel 5D3 has big shoes to fill. The new update surely will help professionals who need better quality, even if ordinary folks need not care much. Here's what Canon had to say about the news:

When shooting video, HDMI Output makes possible the recording of high-definition uncompressed video data (YCbCr 4:2:… Read more

Mask your Web activities with VPN Express

From the name, you might think VPN Express is another VPN connectivity client. But you'd be wrong. VPN Express is a VPN, but only between your iOS device and the VPN Express servers. Through that server, your location and identity can be masked. Think of it as a proxy server for your iDevice. Installation is quick and the free app includes 300MB of traffic (one shot only) after which you pay for data transfers either in GB or in days used.

VPN Express can be used to hide your online identity and also to access sites that might be … Read more

Touch type training with Typist

Learning to type fast and accurately is something many users want to do, but few actually do! Apps like Typist can help. Designed to help Mac users learn to touch type by practicing keystrokes, all without looking at the keyboard, takes a bit of time but is made easier by this app. Typist installs quickly and easily.

The Typist interface is a window with a number of exercises listed. Complete them in order, practicing as you go, and before too long you stop the two-finger hunt-and-peck approach and use all your fingers, while avoiding looking at the keys directly. The … Read more

Cut and edit your videos with Xilisoft's Video Cutter 2

Xilisoft's Video Cutter 2 is an easy-to-use shareware video-editing tool. It's designed to make quick work of cutting and saving excerpts from videos. You simply drag arrows to set the beginning and end points of the clips you want to extract, and Video Cutter does the rest. Video Cutter works with most video file types, including Flash video, so you won't need to convert your clips to post them on sites like YouTube. But Video Cutter can also convert your files on output, if you tell it to. Video Cutter is free to try, but the trial … Read more