| My Color Screen's Themer enters closed beta, we go hands on Oct 2nd 2013, 19:18, by Dustin Earley When My Color Screen announced Themer, its new app aimed at taking care of all the heavy lifting when applying in-depth themes to your Android device, it received a lot of attention. If anyone could make customizing your phone better, it would be My Color Screen. Well Themer has finally entered closed beta on Google Play, and we’ve had a chance to play around with to see just how good it is. Before we get into actually using Themer, let’s talk for a very brief second on how it works. Themer essentially operates as a replacement launcher — much like Nova or Apex. Nothing is changed on the default launcher when applying themes. In order to make these crazy themes work, Themer uses a bunch of custom widgets made up of different fonts and pictures, full of different links and buttons. The Themer launcher takes care of all the widgets, icons and wallpapers in a couple seconds from start to finish. You don’t have to do anything. You can export the themes to do some intense tinkering, or you can edit them as they currently sit as your new theme. You can customize a lot from the theme, but it’s really unnecessary. Since this app is already tailor-made for the lazy customizer in all of us, everything is set up to go. Now, on to using Themer to customize your device. I’ll make this painfully simple: Themer is so easy to use, anyone could do it. I could end the hands-on here. All you do is pick a theme from a visual list, apply it, and you’re done. Every theme I tried worked well right from the get-go. In fact, I’d almost recommend not messing around with anything. Things get overly complicated when you start to mess with the custom widgets and the layout. Besides, if you wanted to do all that, you’d just make these themes by yourself, right? As for the rest of the app, there’s not a whole lot to talk about. The settings menu is pretty limited, though is it easy to edit icons from there. You can favorite themes or search for themes. You can mess with folders, the desktop and the dock. But again, all of that’s unnecessary. If you take away one thing from this brief hands-on, make it this: Themer is very easy to use. It works exactly like you think. Apply the theme, and use it. I know I keep repeating myself on this, but it’s all I can think about while using the app. “I can’t believe how easy this is! It really does work.” If you can get in on the beta, I highly recommend it. If you can’t, don’t worry, we’ll let you know when it’s available for everyone. With how well it works, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was sooner than later. Gallery           |  | Samsung isn't the only one boosting benchmark scores Oct 2nd 2013, 18:43, by Dima Aryeh The most recent controversy in the Android world is Samsung’s cheating in benchmarks. This behavior was reported on the Galaxy S4, and reports are now showing that the Note 3 has the exact same behavior. Depending on the model, the device will ramp up CPU and even the GPU to get better scores in benchmarks, just to appear better than the competition. The Snapdragon 800 variant of the Note 3 will ramp the CPU up to 100% load to gain a higher score than it would get if it gradually ramped up the CPU. The Exynos powered model will also boost the GPU frequency (by removing thermal throttling) to get better scores in many benchmarks. These apps are detected by name and the behavior is enabled, but not for all benchmarks. People are raising a stink about Samsung doing all this, but many OEMs actually do this. Samsung is definitely not alone in this behavior; only current Motorola and Nexus devices are immune to it. So if you’re going to raise a stink, do it about everyone! 
As you can see, many devices have some form of benchmark detection and cheating. Whether it be Snapdragon, Exynos or even Intel chips inside, it’s the manufacturer that implements it into software. Simply renaming the benchmark will actually stop it from optimizing, and you’ll see anywhere from a 3% to a 10% drop in performance for many of these devices. Obviously, this is a bit of a dirty practice. Inflating benchmark scores provides unrealistic measurements of devices and breaks proper comparisons. All of these manufacturers should really remove any boosting software implemented in their devices, but we can’t see that happening anytime soon. Hopefully it doesn’t get more complicated, because the harder it is to get around, the more resources the company put into that software. And the less work it put into the actual device. However, as customers, we can really make a difference. Write to these companies and demand that they stop this practice. Write to Google and ask them to add a requirement to their Play services certification. Write to your local government offi….. never mind. Hopefully we can get this practice to end soon enough.  | | Fresh Meat: 10 new Android apps worth checking out Oct 2nd 2013, 17:58, by Steve Raycraft New apps need lovin' too, right? Every day there are thousands of new entries on the Google Play store, but many go unnoticed and never receive the attention they deserve. We’ve shown in the past that this community can discover great apps and launch them to new heights. Our weekly column Fresh Meat highlights new apps with less than 100k installs. Browse our new Android app picks below and let us know which ones you enjoy. Camera Block 
Description: Camera Block • Simple one click blocking / protection of your phone camera. App temporary turn off or register and block all camera resources and disable access to camera to other apps and whole Android system. [sic] Quicken 2014 
Description: Quicken 2014 is the free companion app to Quicken 2014 for Windows desktop software. The Quicken app syncs your Quicken 2014 desktop information to your Android mobile and tablets, so you can make smart decisions about your money no matter where you are. Edge: Quick Actions 
Description: Discover the power of multitasking with Edge quick actions! Access quick settings and toggles and switch between recent apps, all with a single touch. Chronus 
Description: Functionally the same as the Cyanogenmod cLock widget and brought to you by the same developer, this independently released, standalone widget takes back its original name, Chronus, and brings the same elegant look and feel to the broader Android community. AOL: News, Mail & Video 
Description: Browse the latest news stories and top videos along with quick access to your AOL Mail inbox. Stay up-to-date with everything that matters most to you. PaperBoy – Feedly News Reader 
Description: Paperboy is designed keeping one thing in mind – “Make reading enjoyable”. With over 25 million feeds to choose from , you’ll always be able to find what you are looking. It also lets you add your own sources. Mobie 
Description: Mobie is a powerful yet simple application that delivers a new level of self-care and resolves most Android device health and performance problems leading to a better overall user experience. Receipts 
Description: The app Receipts makes it easy for you to organize and store your receipts neatly, and it also helps you keep track of the money you spend. To.Do 
Description: To.Do is the easiest way to keep track of your repetitive daily, weekly, monthly or one-off tasks. Price Reminder 
Description: Price Reminder stores product prices so you can recall prices at a later date. Price Reminder is based on crowdsourcing where prices entered by you are shared with other users and vice versa, so everyone benefits. Price Reminder can also be used as a shopping list.  | |
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