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SickSky – A Minimalist Launcher For Android

SickSky Launcher aims to reduce your Android home screen to its core by eliminating all clutter. Usually, the home screen is filled with dozens of icons for each app you have installed unless you’ve manually organized all of them. If you want a clean home screen but still keep quick access to all of your apps, SickSky is a great choice.

SickSky Launcher is divided into three separate panels arranged in a column. The top panel is for displaying basic data like temperature, date and time. The middle panel is used as the main display and shows more detailed weather and calendar information or shows all available apps on the device. The bottom panel is for quickly accessing the calendar or your apps, with a calendar button on the bottom left and the app button on the bottom right. Tapping the calendar button brings up a quick view of your calendar app while tapping the apps button shows the apps which would otherwise populate your home screen. SickSky shows 16 apps at a time and you can swipe left or right to view the rest and tap to launch. You can also view more detailed weather data – including a 5-day forecast – by tapping the temperature area on the top left.

There are some very basic options to change units (for the weather section) or time format but besides that, customization is kept to a bare minimum. There is no support for widgets or app folders but that is part of the app’s philosophy of clean minimalism. The interface is fairly attractive and modern looking and the numbers are bright and easy to read. There is an interesting design choice with the time display and the hours are larger and brighter than the minutes which emphasizes the particular hour.

SickSky Launcher is available now on Google Play for free but note that it is still currently in beta. If you’d like to try a less cluttered home screen or basic launcher, give it a try.

The 5 Best Lock Screen Apps On Android

Your phone’s lock screen might seem like a boring piece of real estate that’s usually dismissed with a quick tap or swipe. Then again, it’s one of the things you’ll see most often, so why not personalize it or make it as useful as possible? These five free lock screen replacements for Android do just that. Some try to emulate the look and feel of other popular mobile platforms while others add new features on top.

Sparky Lock Screen Lite

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This is a collection of unique lock screen themes with a huge variety in layout but not much in terms of functionality. You’ll get your basic unlock, access to core phone features like camera or texts, and date and time displays but nothing beyond that. It also does not support security unlock features like PIN or gesture based unlocks. What it does do well is provide a wide range of very different themes to choose from so you can find one that suits you perfectly.

Go Locker

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One of the most popular lock screen apps, GO Locker has a huge number of themes to choose from and customize as well as support for secure unlock and quick access to frequently used phone functions. You can use the included themes to make your phone look almost identical to an iPhone, Windows Phone, or any flavor of Android. It even has a feature that closely mimics Windows live tiles for a constantly updating lock screen. With the sheer number of themes available, you’re sure to find one you’ll like.

iOS 7 Lockscreen Parallax HD

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If the name doesn’t give it away, this app emulates the popular iOS 7 parallax effect on your Android phone. The lockscreen can be customized with any wallpaper that will then respond to phone movement with a slick 3D effect. It also includes iOS 7 style icons for accessing phone functions.

Active Lockscreen

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Active Lockscreen focuses more on the productivity side of the lockscreen. You can still choose from many themes and customize their appearance of course. What’s notable is the inclusion of features that make it easier to jump right into calls, apps, photos, or social media updates. Other apps give you basic access to these areas but Active Lockscreen goes the extra step to get you one layer deeper. Instead of just jumping to the device camera or messaging, you can go right to Instagram or Skype directly from the lock screen. You can even set it to stream current updates from your social media accounts or your favorite news sources.

Holo Locker

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Holo Locker is the Jelly Bean lock screen for all non-Jelly Bean Android devices. If you’re envious of the latest look and want it on your older Android device, this is a great way to get it. It’s a very good copy of the most current lock screen though it does have some differences and doesn’t have any lock sounds. You can also set your own custom wallpaper if you’d like.

1 Second Everyday For iOS And Android

The idea behind 1 Second Everyday is simple but potentially profound. You select a single second – and no more – to record from each day and then stitch the sum together into a life review. Over time, you’ll build a minutes and later hours long video review of your entire life. The act of choosing which moment to preserve and watching the video grow can be a powerful way to meditate on life. Now with a dedicated app for both iOS and Android, you can experience it for yourself.

1 Second Everyday automatically sorts all videos on your device by time, so you can even go back and select a clip from previously recorded videos to fill in any gaps. You can also choose to record the video directly from the device. Once you start amassing a collection of clips, they’re displayed on a calendar of thumbnail images and you can tap each one to review it. You can create multiple timelines as well for different users, events, or almost anything that would make an interesting compilation. The scale of the compilation can be adjusted to any length, so you can make one for a single month, year, or pick a start and end date. Once you’ve created a new compilation, you can save it on the device or share it directly on popular social networks like YouTube and Facebook.

The app also has a useful reminder feature to make sure you don’t miss a day. You can set it to remind you to record or select a second for the day at a certain time or times, including morning, midday, evening, night, and late. Cloud saves using Google Drive for the Android version and iCloud for the iOS version ensure that you never lose your seconds. If you choose to record video directly from the device, you can save space by selecting the second from the video and then deleting the original video while the app keeps your second.

1 Second Everyday is free to try for 30 days and is $0.99 after that.

Source: Apple iTunes Store | Google Play

ActiveNotifications – Faster, More Detailed Lock Screen Notifications

Motorola’s new flagship Moto X phone has Active Display, an enviable feature that shows detailed notifications directly on the phone’s lock screen. As with many new features not yet fully available, an intrepid developer has decided to bring the experience to existing Android devices.

With ActiveNotifications, you can view incoming notifications and take appropriate action right from the lock screen. When you have a missed call or receive a new e-mail or text, the phone lights up to let you know it has received something worth noting. The notification data shows up in the top left corner of the screen and an icon appears, allowing you to decide if you want to respond or not. You can simply swipe to the side to dismiss the notification, or swipe up on the icon to act upon it. If you have a password protected lock screen, you’ll still need to enter it to bypass the lock, so have no fear that the notifications might allow unauthorized access. Not having to fumble through multiple notifications or go to the home screen provides a major boost in convenience and productivity. The app even features thoughtful accidental unlock protection by disabling the screen when the phone is in your pocket or face down.

Unsurprisingly, you’ll need to allow ActiveNotifications access to notifications for it to work. You can also manage which apps ActiveNotifications will work with by going to ‘Manage notification types’ and toggling individual apps. The basic version is free but for $0.99 you get a few premium features including the ability to hide extra notification info, adjust notification brightness, disable notifications at night or at certain times, and auto screen off when a notification is dismissed. If you’re looking for convenience, speed, and a modern minimalist way to handle notifications, ActiveNotifications is well worth checking out. It’s available now on Google Play for all Android devices running 4.1.1 and higher and does not require root access.

Source: ActiveNotifications for Android

The 5 Best Music Players On iOS

The iPhone comes with a very capable music player, so why bother with anything else? Well, these five free apps provide such a rich experience that you might just change your mind about sticking with the stock player.

Planetary

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Planetary is a novel way of exploring your music collection by turning it into a series of planets that you can visit. The planets are individual albums and their moons are the tracks. The visuals are absolutely stunning and the experience of flying through space to explore music is a great idea. Planetary is designed for the iPad and has improved graphics for retina displays.

Scrobbler for iOS

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Scrobbler helps you rediscover your own music collection by forming playlists based on your music and catering to your music tastes. The app can recommend music you might like and features a detailed artist information section. You can also ‘scrobble’ or add tracks automatically to your Last.fm profile.

TuneWiki Lyrics

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This clever app solves the problem of having to search for song lyrics. Scrolling, highlighted lyrics are displayed as the track plays and you can even add custom lyric art for each song. Try it for impromptu karaoke or if you’re a lyrics nut.

Toones Music Player

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The idea here is to control the entire music experience with the simplest possible taps and swipes. Tap once to pause or play, tap and hold for volume and seek, two finger tap to toggle shuffle, three finger tap to share, and swipe left or right to change tracks, that’s all there is to it. It’s a fun way to be rid of the buttons and sliders most players use.

Legato – Share and Discover Music

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Legato wants to make music social, and the main feature is the ability to interact with what your friends are playing. You can view and star tracks on your friends’ playlists and they can do the same to yours. By viewing what your friends are listening to, you can purchase the same music or listen to it if you already own it. Sharing your tastes is easy too and the app can either share instantly or you can choose to share on popular social networks.

Four Windows 8 Bing Apps Now Available On Windows Phone

In October, Microsoft released a series of popular Bing apps for Windows 8. While it has taken quite a while, they’ve been ported to Windows Phone 8 so mobile users may now enjoy them. Each app is free and closely mirrors its Windows 8 version, which is mostly a good thing.

Bing News

Bing News gets its material from a variety of major news outlets which have partnered with Bing to ensure a steady stream of updated content. The app features several personalization features so you can choose what kind of news and which sources you most prefer. Live Tiles can be used to view news updates at a glance or pin specific stories to the Start screen. You can also view news videos from within stories or in a separate video section.

Bing Sports

Bing Sports has the latest information on almost every conceivable sport, league, player, team, etc. on the planet. As with Bing News, you can choose your favorite sport, team, player, etc. to receive tailored updates and a more personal experience. The app features frequently updated scoreboards, results, and news to keep you in the loop.

Bing Weather

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Bing Weather is a great, comprehensive weather app that lets you view either your local weather, or conditions anywhere around the world. Almost every feature is present here, with your choice of maps, historical data, detailed conditions and forecasts for different time scales, and more. You can pin the app for a wonderfully convenient weather update at a glance or even add multiple pins to check up on several locations at once.

Bing Finance

With Bing Finance, you can stay on top of changing market conditions with financial news updates and stock prices. The app also features a currency converter that handles almost all world currencies. The watchlist feature is great for monitoring the performance of several stocks at once, you simply add which stocks you’d like to watch and the list is updated automatically. You can access historical performance, company news, and other stats by tapping the stock. As with Bing News, you can select your most trusted source to provide the majority of your financial news. Not limited to stocks, the app also features data on bonds, currencies, commodities among others.