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In Memory of Lightbox Photos: The Best Free Photo App for Android

As a key part of smartphone experience, the stock camera and gallery app combo on Android is quite nice, but it’s not perfect. For example, you cannot retouch photos on the device. Also, sharing options may be a tad limited. Lightbox Photos (Download) aims to solve both of these shortcomings, and add a bit of flair to the process. It could be said that this Android app is aiming to replace your regular camera functionality and it has a very good chance of doing that as well as giving the little, green robot something to crow about when iPhone owners talk about Instagram.

With Lightbox, the idea is not only to take photos and share them, but also to use the photos from your friends and news sites as a social discovery service.This app uses Android-specific user interfaces, like tabs at the top and option menus. These are things Android users know well and expect to see, but leave some iPhone fans cold. So let’s just say this: for Android, this is a very attractive app. The built-in camera function lets you snap a pic, optionally apply colorful filters through a scrollable interface above the photo and then tap “OK” to save the photo. On the next screen, you can add a brief description of the photo, set its privacy options and share it to your social networks.

Similar to Color that was released not to long ago, LightBox for Android pulls in photos from all your social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare and synchronizes them with your device. It also allows you to share any images you have taken to those same social networks. In addition to the synchronization options built-in, you also get a photo editor which allows you to select from different photo filters and adjust your images before sharing.

The neat thing about the Lightbox Android app is that you create one account and you’ll be able to view all of these pictures on any of your devices. That means you’ll be able to take photos on the go with your phone and then apply some filters to it much like you can withInstagram. You can also then share those photos on Facebook and Twitter for the world to see.

Taking photos with Lightbox is similar to any other photo app that you’ve used, though it operates more smoothly than most — likely a testament to the team’s dedication specifically to Android. Once you take a photo, you’re taken to a screen that will allow you to add a caption, your location (pulled from the Foursquare database) and share the photo to your social networks of choice. Of course, You can just choose to upload your photo to your Lightbox page, which then gives you a slick, minimal interface where others can view your shots. Your photos can also be viewed within the app, as can popular public photos others are sharing. The nice thing here is that the photos are continually synced with LightBox servers, so they load quickly in full resolution, even when being pulled down from the Web for display.

It’s not uncommon for photo apps to have sharing features and some of them (namely PicPlz) have a lot of them available to you. Lightbox is following the same method by providing sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare for now, with plans to move into other services via API according to demand.

The best part about Lightbox is that it syncs itself automagically over the cloud. It’s like what Apple is trying to do with iCloud – pictures you take on your smartphone pop up on your Honeycomb tablet and their web interface immediately. And probably most importantly, as internet-tied Lightbox is, it doesn’t require an internet connection to use, it’ll sync up everything you did once you grab onto a connection.

Posted 23 April 2013 † Windy § iPhone § Pics § Software ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Best Top Trend Free Live Wallpaper Apps for Android

The best thing for Android is, you can do whatever you can to decorate your system, from the lock screen widget to the theme, and the most exciting part is, there is something that you can get only here on Android, and will be never available on iOS, which is, our fantastic beautiful Live Wallpaper!

Spring Zen Free
From the creators of the wildly successful Celtic Garden, bring your phone to life with this serene 3D Spring wallpaper. Enjoy Spring in a peaceful Sakura park surrounded by the blossoming of new life.

Sunlight filters through swaying trees in a peaceful park, as cherry blossoms float past. A birds nest perched in a branch overlooks a park bench, gently flowing brook, and blooming flowers. If you prefer an Autumn, Fall, or enchanted Maple forest theme instead, the full version allows you to change the theme – it’s like getting three wallpapers for the price of one.

Pros: The app works great with phones, tablets, Tegra HD devices, or any device that supports live wallpapers.
Tips: In the full version, you can also customize nearly every part of the scene, including the bench, flowers, eggs, stream, and more – thousands of possible combinations.

Koi Free Live Wallpaper
Koi Live Wallpaper: Colorful fish and interactive water. Watch Koi happily explore their pond. Colorful fish and beautiful backgrounds make Koi Live Wallpaper better than the real thing. Everything is 3D rendered in OpenGL 2.0, with fully interactive water that supports multitouch. Both tablets and phones are fully supported in both portrait and landscape modes. Double tap to feed the fish.

Pro: It’s amazing to watch those vivid fishes swimming through your screen.
Tips: Don’t forget to feed them.

Backgrounds
The cool wallpaper on the phone you see every time brings peace to your heart. The beautiful beaches of the Maldives, Nepal Himalayas as well as Paris, London and Africa and cute characters, paintings… Try to share couple wallpapers with your lover to make your love stronger. You can share wallpapers with friends through Twitter, Facebook, Kakaotalk.

The app features Update new wallpapers everyday; Provide images faster than any other background apps; You can crop an image you want; Provide high quality images optimized android phone and tablet; You can search wallpapers by category, popular, favorite features; You can search wallpapers by category, popular, favorite features;  High usability using cache system.

Pros: It supports all 24 categories, and is going to continue to be added.
Tips: Choose the right size for your phone.

True Blood Live Wallpaper
This app is the official live wallpaper for HBO’s hottest vampire-themed TV drama True Blood. Satisfy your thirst for True Blood season 4 with the official Live Wallpaper! It’s very easy to operate just by putting True Blood on your home screen. Touch the surface or shake your phone to create ripples, with the free official live wallpaper. Share it with your friends, and get ready for an all new season of True Blood.

Pros: It’s custom made for all True Blood fans, and the blood just looks so real.
Tips: Visit your home screen, long-tap, and select ‘wallpapers’ from the popup.

Posted 23 April 2013 † Windy § iPhone § Pics § Software ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Mystery of the Crystal Portal for Android Tops Free Puzzle Games

Casual game fan just got lucky again, another casual installment, the legendary puzzle-adventure from Windows platform has arrived Android. Mystery of the Crystal Portal from Artogon Games (Download) is the latest casual title to bend the genre mold and create a hidden object/adventure hybrid. This one succeeds where many other efforts fail, however, by ramping up the level of intrigue and by building relationships between items you find and objects on the screen.

Embark on a brain-bending adventure that’s full of unique hidden object fun. Journalist Nicole Rankwist has always been close to her archaeologist father. So when her father goes missing, Nicole knows she has to find him. After all, he had apparently just made a discovery that could “change the course of humanity”. Join Nicole as she searches the globe on an eye-popping quest to find her father and discover the truth behind the Crystal Portal. Featuring innovative hidden object gameplay, an intriguing storyline, stunning full-screen graphics, and more, The Mystery of the Crystal Portal is a thrilling escape for the whole family.

The game features 7 picturesque settings, 22 levels and Mini-Games, unique hidden object gameplay, original storyline, stunning Scenes to Search and loads of brain-bending fun.

In the game play, at the bottom of each screen are a number of slots initially occupied by question marks. Each of these represents a “container item”, an object somewhere on the screen that needs to be activated. Clicking on these container items brings up a menu similar to the action menus in old-school adventure games. By finding items shown on these menus and dropping them onto the container you open new spaces on the screen, activate parts of the scenery, or cause some other minor change. To complete each scene, simply find all of the container items and their associated “minor” items.

Sometimes you will have to fill a certain container item to reveal an item needed for another container, so solving puzzles is rarely straightforward. Most objects are fairly easy to find and aren’t hidden in strange areas or color-masked to blend in with the background. This creates a much more intuitive experience and makes the game feel more like an adventure than a seek and find title. The container items that represent Mystery of the Crystal Portal’s major gameplay twist. Once you find and click on one of these special items, it will open up to reveal a second set of items that you need to find, click on and drag into the container in order to complete it. Certain containers, when completed, will move or disintegrate to reveal additional objects underneath. Some objects have to be found and used in other scenes, such as finding a can of gasoline to power a generator to light up a darkened cave for you to explore.

The containers are a neat idea, except that you have no idea what the containers look like beforehand because, unlike most hidden object games, you aren’t shown a silhouette or picture of what you’re looking for – it’s only after you’ve found and clicked on the container that little images appear of the objects you’re supposed to find and put inside. In other words, finding each container involves clicking around randomly until your mouse cursor changes shape to indicate that the object can be clicked on – and then you know that you’ve found a container. Strangely, a little icon of the container shows up only after you’ve found it, and not before.

Visually, Mystery of the Crystal Portal is quite impressive, featuring seven unique locations (each with several scenes) rendered in gorgeous detail, complete with animated areas, moving pieces of scenery, and crisp sound effects to boot. One drawback to The Mystery of the Crystal Portal is the simple ability to, well, cheat. Most hidden object games penalize you for clicking where there are no items to find. The Mystery of the Crystal Portal does not, opening up the path of randomly clicking all across the screen in order to find items. The use of container objects cuts down on the usefulness of this “cheating”, and you have unlimited use of the hint feature if you’re willing to wait for it to refill, so it’s not as big of a temptation (or spoiler) as you might think.

With the variety of puzzles, interesting minigames, and strangely compelling container item system, Mystery of the Crystal Portal is a surprisingly robust hidden object/adventure experience that should not be missed.

Posted 22 April 2013 † Windy § Games § iPhone § Software ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , ,