wpTorrent Brings Torrent Downloads To Windows Phone 8

The wide world of torrenting is now open with wpTorrent on Windows Phone 8. A simple but effective app, wpTorrent sports a bare bones interface and gets the job done. As with any torrent client, you first find and select a torrent and hope that there are enough fellow torrent seeders to complete your download. Unfortunately, you cannot load torrents directly from a web search and have to manually add search engines or lists in order to find the torrent you want.

wpTorrent offers many options including the ability to only download via WiFi, limit upload and download speeds, control priorities for each download, and a basic file manager with http server to share files. There are also several power saving features that allow you to tweak the download speed relative to the battery level or change which wireless network you use to download. You can even choose to only download when the app is running, exit on completion, or download while the screen in locked. The variety of power saver options is very good and a thoughtful addition on the developer’s part.

The file manager needs quite a lot of work and there are some users who report being unable to access or delete files that have been downloaded. It is also not very easy to move downloaded items from the phone to a PC. The app has a basic media player that can stream media as it is being downloaded. It’s a nice way to preview the video or music you’re downloading or to start it right away if you’re impatient.

The free version of wpTorrent has ads and caps the download speed at 200KB per second. For $3.99, you get the pro version without speed limits or ads. If you have a Windows 8 smartphone and are a frequent torrent user, this is definitely an app you’ll want to add to your collection.

Source: wpTorrent for Windows Phone

360 Mobile Security – Antivirus For iOS And Android

As tablets and smartphones continue to grow in popularity, so too does the number of threats from unscrupulous individuals. While antivirus for traditional desktop computers is a well established class of software, the number of serious antivirus offerings for mobile devices is notably lacking. Because mobile devices are so popular, they clearly present an attractive target for hackers to steal data or cause general problems on your device.

360 Mobile Security – Antivirus is a new lightweight and robust antivirus suite available now on both iOS and Android. The iOS version appears to lack several major features of the Android version and is more of a ‘security advisor’ and photo vault with few actual antivirus abilities. It can scan for threats but is unable to remove them and does not offer real time protection. It does have a process manager and the vault feature lets you store data in a password protected area that is invisible to other users.

The Android version is a proper antivirus app and is able to scan and remove viruses and other threats. As with many antivirus programs, you can select Quick or Full scan. It does a good job of keeping you informed as to what the scan has detected and what the app can potentially do to remove the threat. Once a scan is complete, you have control over whether fixes are applied or not. 360 Mobile Security has real time antivirus protection so it continuously tries to detect malicious activity on the device and also updates through the cloud frequently. The Privacy Advisor acts as a task manager and shows what data each app has access to. You can force stop, clear cache, and delete specific apps from the advisor and it’s a useful way of seeing if a process is misbehaving.

The app also offers hotfixes for your specific device that automatically patch known vulnerabilities. You can free up system resources or clear your usage history with a few taps for general maintenance. There is a floating window feature as well which lets you quickly apply actions from any app or anywhere on the device without opening 360 Mobile Security. You tap the floating window icon and a wheel appears which lets you quickly toggle system settings or start a scan.

360 Mobile Security – Antivirus is available free on Google Play and the App Store.  Check it out if you’ve been considering a mobile antivirus app.

Fresh Paint Arrives On Windows Phone 8

The popular art app Fresh Paint for Windows 8 has now arrived for Windows Phone 8 users, so you can have the same experience on your phone. The team behind Fresh Paint has painstakingly recreated the complex physics of oil painting to give the most realistic result possible. Besides creating original artwork, you can edit photos on the device with a variety of effects or paint over them to add some life to the original or make a ‘painting’ version of them.

The app itself is simple and straightforward and mimics actual oil painting. You’re given a few brushes, pencils and pens, an eraser, a blender tool, and a canvas with many colors that can be mixed in endless combinations. As with an actual canvas, you can brush a bit of one color in the palette mixing area, and then select a second color to blend with it to produce a new one. You can also select from a bunch of preset colors or use a color wheel for a little more fine control. The rest is completely up to your imagination and best of all, there’s no messy paint to clean up.

The photo editing feature is a definite crowd-pleaser, with some quick artistic lens effects to turn photos into paintings. Of course you can also use the photo as the basis for an original painting. You can share your work with others by e-mail, text, and SkyDrive as well. SkyDrive also allows you to synch different versions of Fresh Paint, so you could begin something on a Windows 8 tablet or desktop and then continue it on Windows Phone 8 or vice versa.

Fresh Paint is a great app for artists and anyone who feels the creative itch and is perfect for kids and grownups alike. Even better, it’s completely free on the Windows Phone Store and is a must have for WP8 users. It requires 1GB of RAM so older devices may not be able to run it.

Source: Fresh Paint Windows Phone

[Image Credit: Windows Phone Store]

layrs Photo Editing For iOS

There are plenty of photo editing apps out there for iOS, but layrs does an amazing job of simplifying the process. With layrs, the idea is mainly to play with the concept of foreground and background by separating elements of the image into layers. You can either set a strong foreground with supporting background, or highlight the background and let the foreground take a back seat. The app sports some proprietary technology to detect individual elements in the photo with incredible accuracy. This makes creating the layers an absolute breeze.

The use layrs, you first need a photo which can be imported from the photo roll or you can snap one from within the app. Next, you choose the foreground by tapping elements in the photo which you want in the foreground layer and the app does the rest. Once that’s done, you can edit the background with a variety of filters, effects, and color adjustments like hue, saturation, brightness, and contrast. The foreground layer has its own set of editing options with a few differences from the background set, though there is some overlap. Layer filters can be applied with a simple tap and the intensity of each can be controlled by swiping up or down. You can produce some truly impressive and bold results by playing with the concept of forcing the contrast between foreground and background.

When your photo is edited and ready for prime time, you can save it to your camera roll or share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, or by e-mail. layrs is available for free on all iOS devices. It’s a great take on simple photo editing and the element detection is fantastic and eliminates one of the most tedious aspects of photo editing.

Source: layrs for iOS

Internet Speed Master For Android Might Boost Your Connection

Internet Speed Master for Android is a small patch that may or may not boost the download and upload speeds on your device. It works by modifying some linux files related to the tcp/ip configuration in a way that has been shown to improve speeds on many devices. The app is quite flexible and you can use it with a non-rooted device though it is intended to be used by rooted devices and is integrated more deeply if you do have root.

On a non-rooted device, the patch is disabled but you are still able to apply some changes by tapping ‘Improve Internet Connection’. This presumably tweaks files that are not protected and so you may see some speed benefit. If you do have root access on your device, you will be asked to allow Superuser access and then can tap ‘Apply Patch’ to fully modify the files and see if it has any effect. There is a very convenient ‘Restore’ button as well which reverses the changes at any time in case the patch actually has an adverse effect on your connection speed.

This patch is very dependent on the make and model of your device as well as your data connection and there is a possibility that it will have no effect or actually slow your connection. You could also see strange things like a boost in download or upload speed along with a drop in the other direction. But, for some users, the patch appears to offer a very strong increase in speed that may well be worth a try. Since you can remove the changes at any time, there isn’t much risk involved.

Internet Speed Master is available on Google Play for free. If you’re not satisfied with your connection speeds, it’s worth a shot to see if it helps at all.

 

VLC 2 for iPhone returns with Multiple Format Support, Video Filters And More

The VLC 2 Player from VideoLAN finally makes a triumphant return to iOS after being removed by Apple in 2011. If you’ve been living under a rock and have never heard of VLC, it’s the go to video player when everything else fails. If you’ve stumbled across some obscure video format or ancient clip stored on your old PC, there is a very good chance that VLC will happily play it. It’s so good in fact, that many people use it as their main video player for all media. One of the best features is its huge array of codecs and support of all video formats so you never have to go hunting for odd plugins to watch something.

VLC for iOS brings the exact same experience to iOS devices. While there are many video players out there that do a great job, few have the stellar reputation of VLC. In the years since the player was pulled from iOS, the VideoLAN team has not been resting on their laurels and have introduced several noteworthy features. There is now support for AirPlay if you’ve got an Apple TV as well as Dropbox support so you can stream via Wi-Fi and a browser to your iOS device running VLC. Another great feature is VLC’s strong support for subtitles in video. It’s a fantastic feature for those who can’t stand to go without subtitles and is always welcome when you need to keep the volume low or just want it as a supplement to the video experience.

As with the desktop version, the interface is very light and utilitarian. You have an editable list of viewable videos, tap to watch, and that’s pretty much it. There is also a menu to help with some basic settings and aid in streaming options for more advanced users. VLC for iOS is available now for free and is a must for anyone who wants one of the strongest video players in their mobile arsenal.

(Download: VLC Player for iPhone and iPad on the App Store)