APPS OF THE MONTH
ANDROID
TOP TIP
Enhancing
browsing experience
PopBoardz
PopBoardz, which bills itself as an alternative to PowerPoint, quite niftily enables you to stick a myriad of content,
including text notes, PDFs, websites,
images and video, on one screen. Thus
it handily presents an idea or concept
with numerous supporting examples.
Each board can support up to 16 tiles,
each of which is editable, able to sport
its own logo and background, and can
be rearranged as desired. It’s Free.
If you struggle to read text whilst browsing websites on your
smartphone or tablet, you can set the text size larger by accessing the
browser’s ‘Settings’ and then selecting ‘Accessibility’. Next, users simply
needs to set the ‘Text scaling’ percentage higher to see bigger fonts
whilst surfing the web.
Twisty Launcher
Spyglass
This rather sophisticated augmented reality navigation and compass app
is one of the more feature rich we have found our way to. It offers a gyrocompass, which can access your device’s camera and
offer up directional information as an overlay, along with
one’s current GPS coordinates in both geodesic and grid
formats. Also on offers is a speedometer,
altimeter, coordinate converter, sextant and
inclinometer. The app further allows you to
save and share your position and waypoints,
very useful for when you take a wrong turn
in the bowels of Sandton City while your
significant other is shopping. R40.
The Guardian
of Imagination
If you’re looking for
something a little bit
enchanting, somewhat
whimsical and overall,
brilliantly produced, take a look at this app. The family friendly Guardian of
Imagination is an interactive story with morals, which has you opening boxes to unlock captured dreams. Doing so not only reveals minigames and
keys to the next box, it also enables you to bring colour back to the game’s
world. Captivating and free with optional in-app purchases.
What with privacy becoming an increasingly rare, and dare we say precious
commodity nowadays, here is another way to protect a little bit more of yours,
at least when it comes to your web browsing habits on your iOS device. If you
happen to use Safari, you can enable a Privacy Browsing feature, by going
to Settings, and under Safari, sliding Private Browsing to on. Then, you can
lend your device to your friend or family member for a short time with a little
more piece of mind.
October 2013 | TechSmart
APPLE
TOP TIP
Gesture-based controls are quickly making their way
onto flagship smartphones such as Motorola’s Moto
X. The Twisty Launcher application allows you to
bring this type of functionality to your device as well
by performing hand gestures to launch your favourite
app. You can hold your smartphone upright with
the display facing you and flick your wrist left twice
to launch the camera for instance. Users get one
gesture for free and can buy two more for around
R10 a pop.
Avast! Mobile Backup
Avast! might be best known
for their antivirus software, but
it also offers a backup application that takes the hassle out of keeping your
important data saved to the cloud, ready to be
restored when you purchase a new device. This
free Avast! Mobile Backup app saves a user’s contacts, SMS log, call log, and photos
for free, but if you upgrade to the premium version (costs R20 per month or R150 per
year), you can also keep your music, videos, and apps backed up.
Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded
Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded is an updated version of the classic 1987
adventure game. This enhanced version of the game boasts high-res
graphics, a more modern touch-based user interface,
the expected bucket loads of risqué humor, and fully
voiced characters. Players fill the shoes of lovable loser Larry Laffer, a 40-year-old virgin in pursuit of... uhm,
human connection. We recommend connecting