5.5

Review: SeattleClouds helps you create and manage apps

In recent years, an entire new category of media has become not just important, but central to the marketing efforts of many businesses. App development is big business, but with a high cost of entry and low quality alternatives making it hard for a small business to enter the market, it has been a mixed bag. SeattleClouds offers a monthly templated service to create, upload, and manage your apps on the App Store, Google Play Store, and Amazon App Store, and the SeattleClouds app allows you to preview your app as you work on it.

While not a consumer app … Read more

JetPhoto Studio for Mac 5.5 Review

When returning from vacation, users often have large numbers of unorganized photos. JetPhoto Studio for Mac helps those users classify digital photos for display. The program works well but lacks more advanced functions.

Available as a basic, non-commercial, free version, JetPhoto Studio for Mac only requires a payment of $25 for professional and commercial users. Installation took place without any problems and finished quickly. Despite the lack of user instructions, the program's interface was easy to use, especially for those who have worked with other photo managers. When creating new album directories, the program prompts users to drag photos … Read more

Track your walks with Map My Walk, an easy-to-use GPS-enabled app

There is no better way to encourage healthy living than to turn it into a competition. Keep track of your activity, share it with friends, and provide a real-time look at your GPS position as you walk around town and it becomes not only easier, but also more compelling to get out and walk. Map My Walk is a fantastic example of how to encourage healthy habits with an intuitive design and function-loaded app that manages not to get in its own way.

After installation, you'll need to register, either through Facebook or the app itself. It's not … Read more

Make a free call using your iPhone and the Facebook app

Facebook recently updated the iOS app to version 5.5, which included the same free calling feature its Messenger app has had for a while now. As with the Messenger version, you're able to place or receive a call over both a Wi-Fi or 3G/LTE connection from your iPhone.

The option to place or receive a call is available only on the iPhone, not on the iPad or Web site.

As you can see in the video above, placing a call is simple:

Launch the Facebook app and view your Messenger contact list. Open a conversation with a … Read more

Print files from your Android device with Cloud Print app

Printing a file from your device used to be quite cumbersome, but with this app those days are over. Cloud Print allows you to simply and effectively print any file from your Android-powered phone or tablet on virtually any printer.

Downloading and setting up Cloud Print is very easy. However, there is some setup required on the printer side using your PC and Google's Chrome browser. We found this setup fairly straightforward, and the tutorial was very helpful. Once the app is set up properly, it works great. The clean white layout is friendly to your eyes and exhibits … Read more

Crave Ep. 104: Bluetooth toilet humor

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On this week's show, we check out Tailly, a wearable robotic tail that wags when you get excited. If that gets you wagging, then you'll definitely want to have a look at the Satis Bluetooth toilet that can flush with your smartphone. And in honor of winter, we look at how a snowflake is born. It's the last show of 2012, and we bid you farewell until the new year. The show returns on January 18. … Read more

See the light with Motorola's Droidlight LED Flashlight app for Android

People have been using their cell phones as impromptu flashlights for years, but anything cell phones do, smartphones can do better, and there's no better example than flashlight apps that replace the dim glowing screen of an active cell phone by boosting the output of your smartphone's ultrabright LEDs to create an actual functioning flashlight. And there's no better example of this ultra-simple, ultra-useful app than Motorola's Droidlight LED Flashlight. It's widely compatible with previous versions of Android. We installed it on a smartphone running the latest Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Droidlight installed so … Read more

Free your creativity

While MS Paint was part of Windows, Apple somehow missed the opportunity to target casual doodlers with a well-designed native app. This is where Autodesk Sketchbook Express, a free application, comes into the picture. It will likely become a favorite of casual artists for creating quick sketches and drawings.

Sketchbook Express feels like a native Apple app in that it's simple and easy to use. Its well-conceived interface will pleasantly surprise you at first launch, giving you the feeling of a sketchbook. The toolbar is simple and powerful above the fresh, white canvas, and a variety of pens, pencils, … Read more

iPhone 5: 15 most-wanted features

Editors' note: This post was originally published June 9, 2010, and has been updated frequently. The most recent update takes into account the new features in iOS 6.

First, an apology to those who've read this article before in its various iterations, you probably have a bad case of deja vu.

Truth be told, I originally published this column shortly after the iPhone 4 came out back in June 2010, which is why you see a lot of dated comments -- but they are fun to read.

Hopefully, this will be the last update, but you never know, considering how long this whole waiting-for-iPhone-5 saga has gone on. … Read more