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Temple Run 2 makes it way for Android

Just last week, Temple Run 2 – sequel of one of the most popular mobile games ever has released for iPhone. Today, it has been released for Android.

So what does Temple Run 2 bring to the table? Well, quite a lot. They’ve revamped the game scenery which looks much more organic now and it constantly keeps changing. You don’t just run, instead you’ll be swinging on ropes, riding mine carts and lot more.

And of course, you’ll be chased by a monstrous monkey.

There are new obstacles, power ups and characters (the default is still Guy Dangerous).

The game went pretty smoothly on my phone, just like the original Temple Run.

While Apps releasing for iPhone first and then getting ported to Android isn’t something new, it’s good that Imangi Studios got the game to ‘droid in a week.

The worst situation is of Windows Phone users, who don’t have a chance to play even the original Temple Run.

It’s now available on the Play store for free. Just use the link below, as it isn’t yet available through search. Try it out and tell us what you think about it.

Link: Temple Run 2

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AirDroid 2 Beta APK available for users to try

AirDroid is one of those apps which show the real power of Android app ecosystem. This is unlike iOS and WP, where apps are sandboxed and have access to limited system resources.

For beginners, AirDroid lets you control your Android phone via your desktop. You can send/recieve SMS, access files (download/upload them), install apps, manage contacts, listen to music and lot more – all from the comfort of your desktop via a web browser. The only requirement is that both your phone and desktop should be on same Wi-Fi network.

Now if you’re a regular user of this app, here’s the news – A beta version of AirDroid 2 is now available as an APK, free to try for everyone. It’ll be released in the Play Store later.

What’s new in AirDroid 2?

Firstly, one of the biggest limitations of AirDroid is removed in the 2.0 version i.e. your phone and desktop don’t need to be on same Wi-Fi connection. In fact, your phone can be on mobile data (2G/3G) and AirDroid will work fine.

AirDroid’s Android app doesn’t even need to be open on your mobile to connect it to desktop, you can just go to v2.airdroid.com, sign in with your AirDroid account (which you can create for free) and your devices are connected.

You can now even take photos remotely and have them saved to your desktop directly. I tried the feature and it turned out to be like this. 😀 (it doesn’t use the native camera app, that’s why the blurred photo)

This is what you call as AirDroidception.

There’s also a ‘Find phone’ feature which locates your phone and shows it on Google Maps (it kind of mimics Apple’s ‘Find my iPhone’).

The web app’s UI is slightly revamped and looks better now.

So, that wraps it. If you haven’t started using AirDroid, you should. If you already use it, then you’ll love this update. Hit the link below to grab the APK, or just wait for it to hit Play Store.

Link: AirDroid 2

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TrackThisForMe lets you keep an eye on your daily activities

How cool would it be to keep track of all your daily routine activities like how many kilometres you jog, or time spent talking on mobile or weight gained/lost? TrackThisForMe tries to do exactly this.

It’s essentially an Android or web app which churns out interesting statistics based on input of your routine activities.

To get started, create a new category with a name and units for it – for example, time spent on watching TV, with hours as units.

Next, you can add elements to it everyday, reading which, the app will generate a graph. Along with graphs, it will also show the minimum, maximum, etc. stats of the category. You can also set goals and see if you’re reaching them.

There is a neat feature called Smart categories which gives statistics/graphs without asking any input from you. This includes SMS received/sent, Total calls in minutes etc. stuff.

The Android app is well designed with Holo written all over it and good usage of Roboto typeface.

While the app is not available for mobile platforms other than Android, there’s a mobile site which works pretty well.

Link: TrackThisForMe

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Playboard: A better way to find good Android apps

None of the top Mobile OSes have good app stores. If you’re an iOS user, you’re stuck with iTunes, one of the most bloated software ever (even on a Mac). Also, the recent card-like layout in App Store which shows only one app at a time can be really irritating.

Android is no exception for this problem. There is a need for better way to find apps – that’s exactly what Playboard wants to solve.

The main difference between Playboard and Google Play is that, the latter ranks apps based on algorithm which is the automated way, that’s why you see a lot of spam apps getting into apps charts.

Playboard on the other hand, depends on its community. If you want to contribute to its database, you can register for it and start making ‘boards’ which contain apps of a specific type. Kind of like Pinterest boards.

There are a lot of boards to follow, from well-designed apps to paid games gone free.

If you’re a blogger, you can even embed boards as widgets in your site. That can be useful especially if you maintain an Android dedicated site.

I find the overall experience to be better than AppBrain and other Google Play alternatives. You can access it either via the Android app or through web app.

Link: Playboard

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Send & receive SMS from your PC: MobiTexter

An Android App which enables you to send, receive and view text messages on your Android device from your desktop browser. That is exactly what MobiTexter app is all about. The App basically synchronizes the Contacts and SMS to your existing Gmail account and give you complete control from your PC.

MobiTexter is completely free (even without ads)and the message gets delivered instantly so you do not have to worry about any delivery reports.

How it works:

  • Download and Install MobiTexter from the Google Play Store on your device.
  • Launch MobiTexter on your device and register your Gmail account.
  • Once registered login to mobitexter.net to send receive or view your text messages

The App is very simple to use and install. The web interface on the desktop can be further improved though. For example if you delete a message from your desktop, it does not get deleted on your Android phone.

If you find MobiTexter useful, then you might also like MightyText, an Android app with also supports desktop notifications when SMS is received.

Link: MobiTexter

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Google Releases Standalone Calendar App for Android

Google has made its official Calendar app available for all Android users. The App itself was only available for Google’s Nexus phone and Nexus 7 tablet users. Today, it has been made available for all devices using Android 4.0.3 onwards.

I decided to try out the Calendar app on my HTC phone running Android 4.0.3. I was not particularly happy with the Calendar widgets and apps that came with my phone.

Google’s Standalone Calendar App Features

  • The calendar app allows users to edit and create events. Users can also respond to invitations sent to your via Google Calendars.
  • If you have multiple calendars that you are subscribed to, you can choose the calendar and the events that need to be displayed.
  • The app allows users to set a home time zone. This will be helpful for frequent travellers who hop from one time zone to another.
  • Users can snooze events from the Android notifications directly (my personal favourite).

The app, as I mentioned was available only on Nexus phones and tablets before today. It seems with this, Google is trying to give Android users more access to stock Android apps. Maybe more such announcements will come through on 29th October when Google planned a Android event.

If you are using an Android phone with ICS, try the Calendar app and drop in your views and opinions.

Link: Google Calendar for Android

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Use Gmail’s Canned Response Feature on Your Android Phone

If you are using Gmail for managing your work like I do, then you might have heard about Gmail’s canned response feature. It is a feature which allows users to send a pre-defined reply to similar emails.

For example, if someone asks for my contact details via email, I usually reply with a canned message. It saves me time and does not require me to type the same email over and over again.

Unfortunately, canned response feature is not available on my Android phone’s Gmail app.

Thankfully now there is an Android App which allows users to copy to clipboard the canned message and paste it in while replying on the Gmail app.

How Gmail Canned Reponses works!

  • Download Gmail Canned Responses on your Android phone from this link.
  • The app will prompt you to use OAuth authentication to get connected with your Gmail account, where you have stored your Canned responses.
  • Now a list of your canned responses will show up on the app. Select one from the list and the message is copied to the clipboard of your phone.
  • Now go back to using your Gmail App and while replying, and paste the canned response.

Unfortunately, canned response is still a feature in Labs section of Gmail preferences. This means it is still a beta product and that explains why it has not been yet included in the official Android app for Gmail.

Try out Canned Responses and drop in your comments.

Link: Canned Gmail Responses (Android)

Related: Check out 10 Gmail Tips 

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Send and Receive SMS from Your Phone Number on Browser

I blog using a laptop in my home. That means I often move from one room to another with my laptop. Unfortunately in such cases, I always forget to carry my phone with me. It gets a little bothersome when I get an SMS and I have to move back to where I left my phone to check who sent me a message.

Mighty Text is a service which allows users to use their own phone number, to send and receive SMS messages from your Chrome browser. Users can also call from their browsers.

MightyText Features

  • MightyText works only for phones running on Android. Download the Mighty Text App from Google Play.
  • Now check out the extension or add-on for your browser. I really liked the fact that it supports Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 9 and Safari.
  • Now the phones numbers needs to be synced to the browser and we are set.
  • Whenever a SMS is sent to you number, you will receive a notification on your desktop.

I can also reply to the text messages from my browser. Not just that, I can also call a number from the browser window itself but to speak with the person, one has to get up and reach the phone. 🙂

The service at the moment is only available on Android. Try out MightyText if you have a Android phone and do drop in your comments.

Link: MightyText | Mighty Text on Google Play

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Flipkart’s MP3 Store Flyte is Availabe on Android

It looks like the Indian music fans are in for some exciting times. Most people who listened to MP3 music, downloaded pirated versions. The reason behind this was there were hardly any DRM free MP3 music being sold legally. In the world where people literally have a thousand songs on their mobile phones, India badly needs more online music stores.

Flipkart introduced Flyte, a service which sells DRM free MP3 files. It is priced reasonably and users can download music files and pay for it online. Now Flipkart’s Flyte has been made available on Google Play for all Android phones.

Flipkart’s Flyte App for Android

  • The app itself is free but to buy songs you will need a Flipkart account and balance on Flipkart Wallet.
  • The app downloads the music on your phone and is made available offline. The service also gives you access to the online library where all the songs you have bought are saved.
  • You can also choose between the bitrate for a particular song before downloading it.

Flipkart Flyte could be the next big thing

It is easy to wonder why people would pay for something they get free but caller tunes is a huge business in India and people actually pay to have the latest songs as caller tunes on their mobile phones. So mobile users are not exactly unknown to the concept of paying for music and this is could really help the Flyte take off.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: Flipkart Flyte on Google Play

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5 Android Apps Which I Love On My Samsung Galaxy S2

You might have heard that Samsung has surpassed the sale records of other competitor mobile phone companies’; they even left Apple behind in number of smartphone sales. The two devices which contributed in Samsung’s record breaking sales are “Samsung Galaxy S II” & “Samsung Galaxy Note”.

I purchased Galaxy S II few months back and love Android OS because of its flexible nature and high level of customization capability. I had tried 100s of Apps and about 20 custom ROMs on my Galaxy S II.

I thought I will share with your app that I most love using on my Galaxy S II.

#1. Wi-Fi Keyboard

Wi-Fi Keyboard is an amazing and useful app for those who text a lot. It is tough to write a long email/text on a virtual keyboard. With this app, you can use your laptop/PC’s keyboard for typing text on phone.

What you need to do is, install the app and connect you phone and laptop with the same Wi-Fi access point. Now you can access the Wi-Fi keyboard and type on PC and see it typed on phone’s type box. 🙂

The only disadvantage which I feel in this app is this app hides the phone’s keyboard when you are using the Wi-Fi keyboard.

Link: Wi-Fi Keyboard

#2. Seesmic

Another amazing app, if you are addicted to Twitter or Facebook. Seemsic will provide you with an amazing interface for tweeting and Facebooking.

I love this app more than the original Twitter and Facebook App because of its simplicity and fully interactive interface and red theme.

Link: Seesmic

#3. Remote Gallery 3D

As the name explains itself, this app is a Wi-Fi based app. It shows your phone’s gallery contents on the PC web-browser with a beautiful 3D interface. You can view the gallery images in your phone on PC without copying/transferring them to PC. The app which I am using is the lite version with limited features.

With the Paid/Pro version of this app you can watch videos stored in your phone on PC over Wi-Fi connectivity. I am sure you will love the interface of this app.

Link: Remote Gallery 3D

#4. Free SMS India

If you are in India, you might be using online free messaging sites like 160by2, way2sms etc. I preferably use way2sms but what is dislike is that they do not have a great mobile version of their site. They do not have a official Android app either.

But while searching for their official app, I came across “Free SMS India” app. This app is just unbelievably amazing, it allows you send free messages using various SMS gateways like 160by2, way2sms and few others. I must say, “Give it a try!”

Link: Free SMS India

#5. MP3 Ringtone Maker

Everyone loves a good caller ring. For making a ringtone from full track one would need a mp3 cutter and a PC.

MP3 Ringtone maker will allow you to make ringtones instantly from your phone. Just you need to select the starting time and ending time and you will get your best quality ringtone and set it as your caller tune.

Link: MP3 Ringtone Maker

So which Android app is your personal favorite? Do drop in your comments.