The Best Live Wallpaper App for Mac

When it comes to that screen that pops up when your computer goes idle there isn’t much to it. It’s inevitable and that scrolling marquee from the 90s hasn’t changed much to the now slideshow of pictures. Mac has created something that is somewhat innovative and allows you to fully make the most of this simple screen. It no longer has to just be sitting there, useless and uninspired. Live wallpaper for Mac is something that now contributes to your life in a way no other screensaver or lock screen has before.

Live Wallpaper is the number one top paid app in 43 countries and in the top two in almost 100 countries. Obviously quantity doesn’t prove quality, but if that many people are willing to spend money on it, there’s a good bet there’s something to it. The app is simple. All it entails is a vivd, bright, beautiful image, a weather widget and a time widget. This tells you basically everything you would check on a smart phone after unlocking it in a single screen.

The app itself comes with 24 official themes and an infinite amount of community created and submitted entries. All of the themes are free to access once you have the app, and at only 99 cents, you can easily make it worth your while.

Customization is key in this app as well. With the ability to rearrange the time and weather widgets and resize them wherever you’d like and however you’d like on the screen, you can make it look however you’d like. You can also enter text to appear on the wallpaper as well. A bright message or inspiring note can be seen anytime the Live Wallpaper shows up.

If you have multiple monitors you can set a different Live Wallpaper to each screen as well. Although this app is almost as simple as you can get you still get the same guaranteed Apple app store quality, and an endless supply of user created themes to keep you busy and entertained. It’s well worth the entry price of just under a dollar.

Source: Live Wallpaper App for Mac

[Image Credit: Apple Mac Store]

Yandex.Store Great Alternative App Store To Google Play & Amazon App Store

So is it that you are looking for more than what Google Play Store can deliver, and you find the Amazon App Store leaving you in the cold? Check out Yandex, a Russian competitor to Google is here to rescue.

Yandex, the Russian search giant is now taking on Google by releasing an alternate Android App Store. The Yandex App Store, launched lately at the Mobile World Congress, comprises of more than 50,000 apps when it was launched, including some of the popular ones like Cut the Rope, Foursquare and Skype. The sum is a far cry  from Google’s approximately three quarters of a million. Considerably the Yandex App Store has been made available in several languages like Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Italian, German, French, Spanish, English and various other language support coming soon. Manufacturers and carriers can deploy and license the Yandex.Store for free, with the vendor only profiting via a cut of app sales.

Users can easily access the store for any of their Android devices, and after having a standardized account set up, they can have access to an incredible selection of mainstream applications. Several renowned titles such as Opera Mobile, Twitter, SoundHound, ES File Explorer, and Angry Birds are all there. The store had 50,000 + apps at the time of release and the number is still growing.

There are a large number of applications that are on display and free too, there are paid ones as well, with support for varied payment options such as credit card, and other options from countries around the globe including the US. The Store’s app itself is no stoop, either : It is more of an interesting mix of what is available on Google play Store and also some from the Amazon’s App Store. The Yandex.Store has collaborated with Opera to offer the backend support and several other existing apps. In general, there could be a lot worse, particularly, if you are using hardware that does not offer access to the official Google Apps. Russian users are most likely well aware with a Yandex’s suite of Android services and apps, including shopping, weather, navigation, maps, email and a lot more.

There has been an important revision been made to the Yandex’s Android Home-screen replacement, the Yandex.Shell, which has been made accessible on the Google’s Play Store. This version offers users with 3D animation, and various other useful features such as hiding unwanted apps, resizing he homescreen grid. It is free to access, but presently available in Russia. The customizable launcher is focused on smaller Smartphone manufacturers along with regional carriers.

Source: Yandex.Store

Adobe PhotoShop Touch: Just Released for Android and iPhone

The amazing Photoshop program that has become synonymous with photo editing is finally available on your Android or iPhone. This means all of those editing tools and Photoshop features can finally be integrated with images you have, or have taken on your mobile device. At last, all of the amazing things Photoshop can do can be accomplished in the palm of your hand at the touch of a screen.

Photoshop is a program that has been evolving and growing with the digital world for years. The way that it has become the go to photo or image editing software for professionals and amateurs alike has made it gain more fame and features than any one person could ever fully put to use. The fact that it is now available for use in such a well slimmed down and fully functional interface on a mobile device is amazing.

For Android users, some of the screens on these devices allow a huge amount of touch space to edit images, and even for iPhone users the screen is big enough to zoom in and out and get exactly what you want done. The fact that the entire program is touch means that the precision is all in your hands and the editing is done in a way that you want it done.

Whether you’re creating art or images from scratch, or editing already taken images for clarity, fun, or work, Adobe Photoshop Touch is an amazing program that will allow anyone to get exactly what they want in an image creation or editing app. This has already been available on some other Android devices such as tablets for a few months and has had rave reviews. Now that it has breached that world to the handheld smartphone market the use and development of the app will probably only continue to increase.

All that matters is that it is here now and it’s here to stay. Don’t wait to get this app. Photoshop is a name that means quality and none of it was compromised to make this app available on smart phones.

Google Play:  Adobe Photoshop Touch for Android

Apple iTunes: Adobe Photoshop Touch for iphone

[Image Credit: Google Play Store & Adobe System]

Swapps! The Application Switcher We’ve Been Waiting For

The Android interface is incredible, fast and continuously improving based heavily on the contribution of apps. One feature that a few Android devices have tinkered with, but have not fully mastered or become mainstream is the use of an in app option to switch to other apps. Swapps! Has accomplished this in a way that makes navigating through apps and going from app to app the most seamless transition possible.

There’s not a whole lot to say about this app other than every Android device would be better off with it installed. Depending on the device you have switching from one app to the other either requires a back button press, a home button press, or a combination of that and then navigating through a list of apps to find the one you now want. With Swapps!, now you can go from being in one app to being in another without ever exiting out. This saves large amounts of time since Swapps! Is also synced with your activity and saves your previously opened apps and most frequently opened apps. Going from the weather check to Facebook can be as simple as a few taps of the screen and no load time in between when using Swapps!

A simple swipe of the corner of the screen will activate the Swapps menu and allow you to view and choose the next app you want to use. This swipe area can also be customized to be changed width wise, side or height. This means it can be exactly the size you want it to be without being intrusive or annoying on whatever size or model of phone you’re using. Check out Swapps today for a great way to make the easiest movement between apps on Android.

Google Play: Swapps All Apps Everywhere for Android

[Image Credit: Google Play Store]

PlayTo Beta Released for Windows Phone 8

It should be mentioned first and foremost that this is the Beta release of the PlayTo app, and in the app itself it says that it is not product quality. This means that it is still under development and the programming is still in process. That being said the PlayTo app has been a staple with DLNA capable devices ever since it was first introduced by Nokia. Lately there has been a pretty large upswing in the app development and app release world for Windows 8 phones. This might be a trend showing the advancement of these devices in the smart phones market, but only time will tell.

The PlayTo app works as a link to your device’s media. Once the app is installed, in this instance on your Windows Phone 8, then the app can access all of your media, pictures, videos, music etc. Once it has access to these they can be transferred wireless to any other DLNA capable device such as a tv, computer, gaming system or other media player. This wireless link is amazing to have since in this day and age anything wireless has made anything with wires obsolete.

One of the main limitations of this beta version is that it cannot be connected to a PS3 just yet. This lack of use as a digital media server is not the only fault either. There is also only local music streaming capability thus far which means you can only play music to other devices from what is physically stored on your phone, not streaming. That being said the PlayTo app still works great for what it does and like I mentioned earlier, is still in development and will surely have these issues resolved and much more added before the official market version is released. The main news is that PlayTo has finally been integrated to Windows Phone 8 and that just shows Nokia’s engagement to the OS.

Windows Phone Store: Play to App

[Image Credit: Windows Store]

Ginger: Grammar and Spelling Fixing Keyboard for Android

We all have a keyboard on our phones these days. Sometimes the tiny little mashed together letters lead us to overlook punctuation or spelling that otherwise we should fix. Sometimes this isn’t important, if texting your friend or personal acquaintance, but if you use your phone to write important notes, text or email important people, or just don’t want to look like an uneducated slob to certain people then Ginger is the app for you.

Phone keyboards always come with that auto-correct spelling function, but grammar has always been overlooked. The days of using phones for simple texting is over. These days phones are more and more becoming actual portable computers and the content we write on them is less restricted to one letter abbreviations to words and more suited for writing full text articles and emails when on the go. When that is the desired use grammar is now just as important as spelling. Ginger is the first keyboard app to be able to see and recognize the grammatical errors in a string of text and offer replacements with a simple touch.

Ginger is a very intelligent app. Since it is a keyboard the content that you write in any place whether a text, social media, email, or word processor can be looked over by Ginger. No more spotty, unprofessional looking email typos with Ginger on your side. You can now take full advantage of typing or creating content on the go and not worry about frivolous typos and grammatical errors popping up. We all know how hard it can be to push exactly the spot we need to in a text to edit a letter or put in a comma. There’s no more messing around with that kind of time wasting activity with Ginger, the grammar and spelling fixing keyboard installed on your device.

Google Play: Grammar and Spelling Fixing Keyboard for Android

[Image Credit: Google Play Store]