Tuesday, February 5, 2013

AndroidGuys

AndroidGuys


Stitcher Radio gets total overhaul in 3.0 release

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 03:59 PM PST

Stitcher Radio, one of our favorite apps of all time, just got even better today with a new 3.0 interface. Essentially recreated from the bottom up, the app looks stunning and very modern and makes for an excellent streaming audio option. We didn’t exactly hate the last version but boy do we love this new design.

It is easier than ever to discover new content, browse the stuff you already subscribe to, and navigate the app. Those of you running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or later will surely enjoy the new, rich notification system.

Android front_page Android browse Android mystations Android player

  • Complete Interaction and Visual Redesign – Based on intensive user research, the latest version of Stitcher is more intuitive than ever and expresses the visual design set forth by Google's design guidelines. The app's core navigation methods now use Android's Action Bar, dropping the learning curve for Android users in handling the app.
  • Improved Content Discovery – This update adds a standalone Smart Station, which serves dynamic recommendations based on individual listening activity.
  • Better Browsing – Listeners can thumb through an infinite list of recommendations without
  • interrupting their current listening, for an uninterrupted browsing experience
  • Upgraded Performance and Stability – Stitcher for Android is reengineered using the latest
  • media APIs to best deliver a smooth listening experience, rebuilding the audio player from scratch.
  • Rich Notifications – Exclusive to Jelly Bean users, listeners can control playback, pausing andtracking without unlocking their phones.

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10 marvelous photo apps for Android

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 03:09 PM PST

Looking for new and fun ways to take photos of your friends, family, or food? Perhaps you’d like a little something different for sharing. It’s all good because Android has a number of really great photo applications that can be used to add effects or filters to your images. What’s more, many of them can be paired with other apps to create simply stunning photography.

We’ve gathered up some of our all-time favorites and created the follow, “10 marvelous photo apps for Android”. We know there are tons of other titles out there and that we’re going to skip over some your faves. Not to worry, however, we’ll be glad to come back with another collection down the road, based on feedback from the readers and followers. And just for the sake of having fun, we’ll start by leaving Instagram of our list. The list at a glance

  1. After Focus
  2. Camera Zoom FX
  3. fotodanz
  4. Pic Collage
  5. PicSay Pro
  6. Photo Editor by Aviary
  7. Pixlr Express
  8. Photoshop Touch
  9. Photo Grid
  10. Snapseed

after_focus

After Focus

One of the easiest ways to create a more realistic and professional image, After Focus lets users manually add blurred backgrounds. Draw what you want to be in focus, what should be mid-range, and what needs to be in the background and watch it work. If you can trace your subject or outline a person then you can create an almost DSLR-like effect.  Once you’re done, save your photos or share them across social networks or pass it through another Android app. FREE Go Pro for $1.99 and work with photos us to 2048 pixels, add more filters, and smoother depth transitions with edge-feathering. camera_zoom_fx

Camera Zoom FX

It is incredible how many effects, filters, and features this app has for less than three dollars. You can use this app before taking photos or for editing after the fact. If you’re a fan of vignettes, color effects, or post-processing then you’ll love this one.  Recommended for users with older or slower cameras as the app can greatly improve performance with iso settings, focus, shutter speeds, and more.  Once you have the app installed, head to Google Play and grab all of the free add-on packs that just only extend the fun. $2.99

wind

fotodanz

Why bother taking a simple snapshot when you can create a dancing image? No, not a full video, but a short (3-5 second) looping photo. Simply take a picture and and circle the part of photo that you would like to see moving.  The magic happens when taking the snapshot as a few moments of video get recorded in the background. Preview, edit, and then save those animations across social networking, email, and more! Perfect for beaches (waves), parks (kites), and other touching moments. FREE

pic_collage

Pic Collage

A very simple way to create collages of your photos, this app offers fun filters, borders, stickers and other goodies. Why bother sharing one photo of the night at the fair when you can create an entire collage with numerous images? Very easy to use, allows for rotation, resizing, text with a variety of colors and fonts, and more. Share to Facebook or other social networks and let everyone know how awesome that trip to the ocean really was! FREE picsaypro

PicSay Pro

This one has been a favorite of ours for a long time, having been one of the first photo apps we ever fell in love with. Details include the ability to sharpen, touch up red eye, change colors, and general editing. Where things get fun are the word balloons and stickers that simply lay atop your photos. Let everyone know what was (or definitely wasn’t) on the mind of your subject. Of course, you can also do the effects that come with other apps, such as Vignette, faux HDR, sketching, and more. $2.99 pixlr_express

Pixlr Express

Here’s another one of those apps that provide a ton of features for no cost whatsoever. Want to fix photos with red-eye removal, cropping, resize, or basic stuff? Covered. Kick things up a notch with overlays and lighting effects then put a great-looking border around the whole thing. After that, send it off to your friends and contacts or social networking apps. Don’t worry about getting overwhelmed with the more than 600+ options; choose favorites and find them again and again. FREE aviary

Photo Editor by Aviary

What was once merely a plugin for which users could pass images through is now a gorgeous full-featured app. Adjust color balance, sharpen and retouch images, add text and stickers, and apply filters with ease. Free to install, Aviary offers a number of additional effect bundles for roughly one dollar. If you’ve ever spent time with the web-based photo app then you know exactly what you’re getting into – quality stuff. FREE

photoshop_touch

Photoshop Touch

Created for Android tablets, Photoshop Touch is a mobile version of the app you’ve come to love on desktops.  We love the way this one works on 7-inch and 10-inch devices as Scribbling and retouching is very easy.  You don’t need a Galaxy Note 10.1 or stylus to drill down and play with your images, a finger tip is just fine. Connect to Adobe’s Creative Cloud for free and host 2GB of files and then sync across  tablets and desktop, grab files from the cloud, or share with others. $9.99

photogrid

Photo Grid

You know those collage photos on Instagram and social networks that show multiple photos in one? This is one of the best apps around that does exactly that. Simply grab a few photos and then let Photo Grid do its magic, creating a few layouts. Leave it to chance and shake the phone to see what kind of fun collage you get or manually rearrange things to your liking.  Plan on sharing to Instagram? The 1024×1024 layout is perfect for doing just that. FREE

snapseed

SNAPSEED

Transform and touch up your photos with one of the best apps of its kind. Use effects, employ tilt shift, throw on some vintage filters, and all the other stuff you’d expect. We also appreciate being able to do the basic photo stuff such as crop, rotate, color adjust, paste, and more. Perhaps the best feature, users can share their images directly with deep integration of Google+ accounts, something others just don’t have.  Note that it requires Android 4.0 and higher so it’s not available to everyone. FREE


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HTC photography infographic teases something special for 2013

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 02:53 PM PST

HTC today put together an infographic related to camera technology over the past two centuries. A cool little recap of history on its own, it seemingly confirms recently leaked details in that HTC will employ something special in the upcoming M7 smartphone.

Rumors surfacing this week tell us that HTC will use "ultrapixels" for its flagship handset set to be unveiled later this month. Rather than a simple 13.1-megapixel image, the phone is slated to offer three, separate 4.3-megapixel sensors.

HistoryofPhotographyInfoGraphic-730x5045

The last two bits are the most intriguing and seem to match up nicely with the new chatter.

  • Nokia's 41-megapixel camera proves that megapixels are not to be equated with quality
  • HTC is set to deliver something new and special this year.

Sounds like we’ll be learning more on February 19 if you ask us.

 


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ShopSavvy gets update with new user interface

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 09:11 AM PST

shopsavvy_720If you’re a fan of the application ShopSavvy, then head to the Play store and check out the latest update. The new dynamic interface makes it super simple to get the best prices at retailers, and ShopSavvy’s new product screen features the product title and subtitles, and also shows the average star rating, as well as the cheapest price online and in-store. The update includes:

  • Cleaner, easier-to-navigate user interface
  • More product reviews that are conveniently accessible directly from the product screen
  • Higher-resolution product photos to give users a thorough understanding of what they’re considering for purchase
  • Thousands of additional videos to view directly within the product screen
  • 30 percent increase in special deals and offers, a result of ShopSavvy’s partnerships with additional retailers, aggregators and other deal sources such as Fancy, a popular mobile app used to discover, collect and buy from a crowd-curated catalog of goods
  • The ability to identify new products of interest to the user through the “Related Products” functionality
  • Enhanced option for users to flag incorrect or incomplete data and add prices for local stores that aren’t already listed within the app

Be sure to hit the download link below to check it out for yourself.

Download ShopSavvy

Continue reading: ShopSavvy gets update with new user interface


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HTC M7 will employ new ‘Ultrapixels’ sensor, report indicates

Posted: 04 Feb 2013 07:02 AM PST

htc_logo_720

HTC will employ a new camera sensor for the upcoming M7 smartphone, reports Pocketlint. Said to be marketed as “Ultrapixels”, it’s not all that different from what other companies have done with their camera technology. Instead of looking for the 13-megapixel camera sensor, we should expect three separate sensor layers that can be used together for one image

The technique, similar to that used by Sigma in the Foveon X3 sensor, means that three lots of data can represent one final pixel. All that extra data can be intelligently “combined” to generate a crisper, cleaner image and, in the case of the Foveon sensor, better colour accuracy.

HTC has done a great job of integrating better camera experiences in devices over the last few years, as evidenced in some of the myTouch models. We’re curious, however, if HTC might potentially put a little too much focus on the camera aspect of their smartphones for 2013. Remember how awesome the Beats stuff was going to be a few generations back?

HTC has a press event slated for February 19 where it is expected that the M7 will get its formal name and release details.

Pocketlint

[ditty_news_ticker id="51303"]


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