app review
Posts

  • World Lens Language Translator App For Android Review

    The app replaces the text with the translation right on your device's screen.

    The Translation App For Travel Junkies

    Adventure and travelling are any travel junky’s passion and life. Remote exotic locations and no understanding of the local language can not keep a travel junky away from the adventure of a lifetime.
    Technology has become part of life and one depends on it to accomplish daily tasks. To make life easier for a travel junky a company has developed a translation app which uses the principles of computer vision and image processing to translate text which is brought into the camera view of the device.
    World Lens Language Translator translates the words and replaces the translated words and places them right on the screen. This is quite interesting as the user just has to select the language and hold up the phone towards the target text which he wants to translate.

    Built-in Language Translations Supported

    Following language translations are supported:

    • English to Spanish
    • Spanish to English
    • English to French
    • French to English
    • English to Italian
    • Italian to English
    • English to German
    • German to English
    • English to Portuguese
    • Portuguese to English
    • English to Russian
    • Russian to English

     

    World Lens provides a selection of built in language translations which you can use.

    World Lens provides a selection of built in language translations which you can use.

    There are two other features which i feel are bells and whistles and do not provide any useful use to the user.

    • Reverse the words
    • Erase the words
    The reverse the words feature displays the target text it in a reverse order.
    World Lens also provides a reverse words feature where you can reverse the words of the text.

    World Lens also provides a reverse words feature where you can reverse the words of the text.

    The erase the words feature erases the text by displaying the color of the background on the screen where the text was originally.
    World Lens also can remove text from the screen.

    World Lens also can remove text from the screen.

    UX, Design, and Ease of Use

    World Lens is quite easy to use. Select the language to translate from the menu at the top of the screen and all you have to do is to point the camera towards the text to the text that you want to translate.

    As mentioned earlier the translated text is displayed over the text and shown on the screen of the device.

    I really like this as i do not need to change screens to get the translation. Due to this the app becomes really easy to use, however you do have to keep the camera still or the translation won’t work properly.

    Usefulness

    The app is really useful as it translates in real time. Suppose you are travelling and find a road side board in the local language (the app must support the language) and you hold up the device to the road side board you will be able to see what the board says.

    You can also translate text by typing in the word by pressing the book button at the bottom of the screen and typing in the word manually. A list of translations will be shown as a result.

    You can also type in the text which you want translated.

    You can also type in the text which you want translated.

    You can also freeze the frame by pressing the pause button at the bottom of the screen. When the translation has been done you can translate that text to another language using the language settings.

    Furthermore the translation is all offline, which means you do not need an internet connection to translate. This feature makes the app quite useful as this app will most probably be used in locations where there will be little or no internet connection.

     

    World Lens allows you to freeze the frame for easier reading.

    World Lens allows you to freeze the frame for easier reading.

    Problems That I Found

    The quality of the app is quite good, but it does have some problems.

    Firstly, the number of languages supported is quite low. It would have been better if more languages would have been supported.

    Secondly, you have to keep the phone still while translating the text which can get a bit difficult, but you can use the freeze frame feature as explained above.

    Conclusion

    World Lens offers a limited selection of languages to choose from, but if the travel junky is travelling to a country whose language is supported then this app can be quite useful, but for other countries it won’t be of much use.

    • World Lens provides a selection of built in language translations which you can use.
      World Lens provides a selection of built in language translations which you can use.

    December 28, 2014 • Android, Utility Apps • Views: 5781

    Read More

  • Reep.io P2P File Sharing Service

    Reep.io Peer to Peer File Transfer Web App

    There are many file sharing services available for one to use such as the all famous yousendit.com (now hightail.com) or the infamous megaupload.com. These services allowed the user to upload their files on to the service’s server so that the uploader can share the file with who ever they want.berryjam.ru

    If you just want to transfer your file and not store on some server there are other niche services such as the peer to peer (p2p) file sharing services. Reep.io is one such app which Connects the two parties via a p2p connection.
    A p2p file sharing connection does not require an intermediary server to transfer the data. It is only needed for service discovery. After that the two parties communicate directly with each other. The two parties are both the client and server.

    The p2p file sharing technique has been made popular by torrent software and Skype which was originally a peer to peer service before it got acquired by Microsoft.

    Reep.io connects the sender and the receiver are connected with each other directly. One thing which really attracts me to such projects is that Reep.io is an open source project and you can download the source code from github. I myself am a developer, and i have an interest to see how different software work.

    The user experience is very simple and minimal. The user can either select files by dragging them onto the website’s page, or press the “Add or drop files” button and open a file browser.

    If the user decides to upload more files then they will all be shown on the same screen ordered vertically. Do note that it is key that the browser(or tab) is not closed if the file upload is in progress, else the file transfer will fail.

    The website is easy to use, and the process of uploading the file is the same as it has been so there is nothing new here. The user knows exactly what to do. The instructions are given clearly in the page of the website.

    The theme itself is dark and red which gives of a professional feel.

    When the user uploads a file, a link is generated by the service which identifies the connection. The link is given to the other user and he loads it up on his browser. Then two browsers connect with each other and the file transfer begins.

    Both the sender and the receiver are shown both the speed of transfer and how much the file to be transferred is left. This is a good addition and a requirement in such type of apps.

    Another thing that i notice is that if both the sender and the receiver are on the same WiFi network, then the data is transferred over the local network, and not over the Internet. Such a scenario took place with me, and the transfer speed that i got was just above 1MB/second.

    This fact was further reassured when my Internet connection got disconnected but the file transfer continued as it was.

    The file transfer did not work for me on Mozilla Firefox, but it worked on Google Chrome. The developer will have to make this app cross platform, or it will not be of much use to the users.Watch movie online The Transporter Refueled (2015)

    Reep io is session based, so once the session is disconnected the transaction is lost and the file transfer will have to be done from scratch. This is a pain if you are uploading a large file. Just today while testing service I asked my friend to send me a large file which uploaded till 45 percent but then the connection disconnected and all of the progress was lost.

    Other file transfer techniques such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol), HTTP file upload, Skype file upload are all session based, but if the developer finds a way to cache the data downloaded and keeps a track of what part of the data has been uploaded and what is remaining, i am pretty sure that this will surely make the app more appealing and more useful for the users. I think the developer should do what torrent software or download managers do.

    I also noticed that if i upload a video file, the file type(in the name) is not changed back to the original type. Maybe this was an edge case, but the developer should look into this.

    The idea of the app is quite good, but not novel. There are many peer to peer file transfer websites available out there, and this feature is already integrated in other software such as Skype.

    I recommend that if the development team work on the problems given above, they can rise above the competition and have a hit on their hands. Just because the file transfer is peer to peer it does not mean that caching of the file can not be done. This is one feature which i really want. I do not want to start the file transfer all over again if my session has been disconnected. I have had this problem with many file transfer services. I would like this particular problem to be solved as soon as possible. I believe this is one reason why torrents and file download managers are so popular that they cache the data, and continue the download from the place where they were interrupted.

    Update: 6:49 am 6th December 2014. I made some spelling corrections.

    Update 3:35 am 9th December 2014: I have updated the link of the article and the content to improve SEO.

    December 5, 2014 • Utility Apps, Web Apps • Views: 8435

    Read More

  • Piano Tiles Game

    Piano Tiles Game Review

    I was searching the Google Play Store for a good game to play in the puzzle genre, since you know puzzle games are my all new favorite genre. A few days ago i reviewed the game Two Dots, one of the best puzzle games that i have played, and now i review a game, of which i am not really sure what to call it since on my launcher screen the name is Piano Tiles, while on the Google Play Store page the game is called Don’t Tap the White Tile and has been developed by Hu Wen Zeng. For making things easy let us call this game Piano Tiles Game.

    This gem of a game is seriously addictive and now i am actually in competition with one of my best friends and development partner in my company,  to who can hit the most tiles in the least amount of time. So far i am loosing, but i will never give up!!!! Your going down pal!!!!

    How Do You Play Piano Tiles?

    Piano Tiles Game is not exactly a puzzle game, but you can say it kind of falls into it, but not so much. In this game you have tiles of two colors, black and white, hence the name Piano Tiles.

    There are a number of modes in this game, ranging from trying to beat your lowest time, to amassing the most piano tiles. The player must also have really good hand/finger eye coordination as you have to tap the black tile and not hit the white tile at an cost or the game will be over.

    There have been times when i am going so fast, that i feel that my hand is moving on its own following the black tiles and tapping them out of existence. The first time this happened it was quite freaky, and i was like WOAH!!! , what did just happen here. Maybe it has something to do the brain controlling the hand movements, this is what i have come up with but i am not a medical student so i may be totally wrong here.

    As you tap the piano tiles you collect them and then when the game is over you can continue to play the game if you have enough piano tiles from where you left of.

    This continue feature is useful when you are playing the mode in which you collect the tiles and are not trying to beat the lowest time, as then the time just ads up because the time is not rest to zero when you continue.

    In the Arcade mode the screen also scrolls so the user has to keep up with the movement or the player will loose if a black tile is missed. In this mode there are different speeds at which you can play the game, and there is also a reverse mode where the screen is moved from top to bottom, which is a bit disorienting as we are more used to bottom to top games rather than top to bottom.

    My Recommendations

    The graphical art is pretty simple and two tone black and white color, but this game does not require high-fi art because the game play and style of the game are what makes the game really interesting, addictive and fun. Any more art will surely add hindrance to the player.

    I highly recommend this game, and this is one game you surely want to have with you to pass your time, and believe me that you will not even know where your time went.

    Update 4:03 am 9th December 2014: I have updated the link of the article and the content to improve SEO.

    • Piano Tiles Game Review
      Piano Tiles Game Review

    December 3, 2014 • Games • Views: 7052

    Read More

  • Kia Scene Hai Event Finder Website

    Kia Scene Hai Events Happening Website

    Introduction

    This particular review is for our Pakistani readers. There must have been times, when you ask your friend “kia scene hai“, which translates to “what is the plan”, when you are lazing around nothing to do. This particular service tells you of happening in your city. At moment the website is offering its services for Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad.

    UX, Design and Ease of Use

    The design of the website is simple, with filters at the top in the body, then featured events are right below them, and then further more filters are given where the user can filter the events by what is happening today, tomorrow, this week, and this month.

    Then below that are the categories along with the number of events being held in that category. Further more the best events in your selected city are also shown. The design does its job to get your attention and inform you of the events that are happening in your city.

    The user experience is a bit too overwhelming for the first time user as every thing is shown right there on the home page. It does take a while to take into the experience. Once the user gets over this then the site is pretty self explanatory and easy to use. The learning curve is quite shallow.

    Usefulness

    I for one like to attend meetups and events related to entrepreneurship and business where i can meet fellow entrepreneurs in my city. I was surprised to find that the website did have events which catered to my needs. Kia Scene Hai consists of a large number of event types from which you can choose from.

    The categories are as follows:

    • Art/Literature
    • Conference
    • Festivals
    • Music/Concert
    • Meetup/Talk
    • Exhibition/Launch
    • Sports
    • Theater/Film
    • Trips
    • Competition
    • Workshops

    The website also offers weekly updates via email and SMS keeping you updated what is happening in your city.

    The usefulness of the website is quite obvious as it does its jobs quite well.

    If you are organizing your event you can even sell your tickets through the website and also conduct promotion for your event through the website.

    I am also happy that the events that are in the system are quite new and interesting and not outdated or expired. This shows that the team at Kia Scene Hai is hard at work in maintaining the system and adding more events as they come.

    The website also offers an Android app which you can download from the Google Play Store.

    You can also find reviews of restaurants in your city and also search for restaurants based on the type of food they sell.

    Conclusion

    I highly recommend Kia Scene Hai if you like going out and having fun. I will surely be using this service to find near by events so that i can have a great time.

    Update 4:29 am 9th December 2014: I have updated the link of the article and the content to improve SEO.

     

    • Kia Scene Hai Events Happening Website
      Kia Scene Hai Events Happening Website

    December 1, 2014 • Utility Apps, Web Apps • Views: 5800

    Read More

  • Shadow Fight 2 Fighting Game

    As far as fighting games go, nothing can beat the all ruling Tekken, but there is one game, which is just as good as Tekken was in its hay day. The game that i will be writing about is called Shadow Fight 2.

    What Is The Story Of The Character in Shadow Fight 2?

    In Shadow Fight 2 the character was once an invincible warrior, travelling the land searching for a worthy warrior. On his travels he finds a portal which he opens and releases demons out into the world. In the process the character is stripped of his human body and is left with a shadow of a body, hence the name Shadow Fight. The character now has to fight the demons that he has freed.

    What Are The Features Of The Game?

    The player has to build up his character and make him strong and worthy enough to fight against the demons and their cronies. The player can also purchase better clothing, equipment, spells (magic), head gear, learn new moves, and much much more.

    Furthermore, the player can earn money by either taking part in tournaments which pay more, but the opponents are stronger and more well trained, while the other way is to fight for survival where the player fights one round after the other against different opponents until he dies.

    The audio quality of the game is superb, with correctly timed sound effects and the music with Chinese and Japanese origins.

    The graphics have been well made and are in 2D as the game is essentially a 2D game.

    The game play is quite good, though on some Android smart phones/tables you may have to set the settings of the graphics level to low or the game will be slow to respond. I had to do this, and then the game played smoothly, while a friend of mine plays with high settings and he does not face any sluggish performance.

    Shadow Fight 2 employs the time out mechanism where after a number of fights you have to wait for your energy to regenerate. You can skip this by paying gems.

    The store in the game depends on what level you are and as you progress in the game are new items made available for purchase.

    My Recomendations

    Like all things this game can too be improved. On the game play side this game has everything down to an art form, and i find it to be perfect. The development team can add more to the story, maybe add some cut scenes which tell about the history of the user. To me if i am playing a game i want a good story line, or i will get bored. If a game does not have a strong story line then the game play has to be exceptionally well in order to keep the player keep playing.

    Even though there is a story line, but it is not visited as much as it should be. Like said earlier maybe the characters history and past can be told other than the cut scene shown in the opening of the game. I for one would like to see the character develop emotionally as well, even though all that is left of him is his shadow, but then as the shadow is learning to get stronger, we should be able to relate with him as well. Why is the shadow even trying to fight against the demons. Why does he not just leave them be? Does the shadow think that he will get back his human body once he defeats the demons? We can only find these out by playing the game which i highly recommend.

    Update 4:35 am 9th December 2014: I have updated the link of the article and the content to improve SEO.

     

    • Shadow Fight 2 Android Game Review
      Shadow Fight 2 Android Game Review

    November 29, 2014 • Games • Views: 8041

    Read More

  • Bird Ninja – Jungle Fever Flying Bird Game

    Bird Ninja for Android Game Review

    I like playing games and when i find an interesting game i tend to spend some time playing it. Usually in a game i look for a good story if it has one, good game play and there must be that x factor which makes me come back to the game again and again.

    We all heard of the famous game Flappy Bird flying bird game which earned the developer of the game a lot of hate by the players because the game was really difficult, but it really did well as well as i believe that game hit a personal chord of the players that how dare the game not let them win. This ego damaging aspect is quite interesting to see in games. I had that game installed on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but unfortunately the phone died on me and also the developer pulled the game off Google Play Store. I went looking for a game similar to Flappy Bird and found a game by the name of Bird Ninja -Jungle Fever  flying bird game.

    The game play is not as difficult as Flappy Bird, but it still demands the player’s full concentration as you have to take split second decisions to prevent the bird from crashing into oncoming objects such as planes, and other birds.

    Each level has a certain objective which the player has to achieve in order to complete the level. In this game it is collecting coins. I have not been able to find any other use case in this game where the coins are being used. I recommend that the developer incorporate a store which allows the player to buy upgrades which gives the bird special powers.

    I also noticed that in this game there is no time out feature where in a game that i regularly play and have also reviewed Two Dots in which you have a maximum of 5 lives and each life takes a set time to regenerate, so if you loose all of your lives then you have to wait for a minimum time as set by the game before you can actually play it.

    Psychology also helps us understand that giving the player breaks actually helps keep the game interesting and brings the player back for more, while games in which the player plays for a long time without any breaks then eventually the player will get burned out and will get bored of the game.

    I also suggest that the developer weave a story into the game, which can further make a game interesting.

    The graphics of the playing level are attractive and look well made. The animation is smooth and i did not find any jerks in animation which spoil the experience. However, the graphics for the menu screen and the pause menu can be further improved as at the moment they look too bland and dead.  Maybe if the developer adds some animation on the menu screen it will look good.

    To conclude, i like the game and would recommend other to play, and this game can definitely get better and more interesting if the developer follows our advice given above.

    Update 2:24 pm 9th December 2014: I have updated the link of the article and the content to improve SEO.

    • Bird Ninja for Android Game Review
      Bird Ninja for Android Game Review

    November 27, 2014 • Games • Views: 5731

    Read More

  • Two Dots Android Puzzle Game

    Two Dots Android Game Review

    Just recently i have regularly started to download new games and play them on my Android Kit Kat Huawei Ascend P7 to pass time, and also to find new apps to review.

    Puzzle games have taken a fancy to me, and i found the game Two Dots by the company Playdots, Inc which made the all famous Dots puzzle game. This game is quite similar to other dots removal game such as Candy Crush, Shape It! where the user has to match patterns which will remove the dots from the grid.

    Two Dots is different in its own way from the above mentioned games. Firstly when the game is first opened, the player is welcomed by soft yet attractive music, and a simple Play button. Upon pressing this button the game map is shown where there are a total of 135 levels where the user has to clear each level.

    Even though there is no story line, but the way the map has been made that the player has to make his way through the world, first going through a cabin, and then into the under water world , and then onto the land, through the yeti, woods, and out and beyond.

    The player has a maximum of five lives and after loosing each life the user can either buy a life by using money or wait out a certain time out. On each level there are certain objectives. I am on level 35 and have to find and kill eight anchors, thirty dots each of purple, blue, red and green.

    Two Dots is so addictive that i cleared 34 levels in two days. There are also Daily Quests which after completing gives the player power ups which he can use in the levels such as coloring all of the dots with the same color or placing bombs, which destroy a certain number of neighboring dots.

    The best thing that i like about this game is that there is no time limit (have not found a time limit yet), and the player has to meet the objectives in a certain number of moves. Now the player has to put on his thinking cap and visualize in advance of what each step will do, something like in chess and chequers. This lack of time limit gives one ample time to think of the moves that he is to make.

    I highly recommend this game to all, though do make sure that you do not spend too much time on it so that your other work starts to be effected.

    • Two Dots Android Game Review
      Two Dots Android Game Review

    November 26, 2014 • Games • Views: 9358

    Read More

  • Sticher Radio for Podcasts Android App

    Sticher Podcast Reader Android App

    This post originally appeared on the blog Mustafa Neguib and has been reprinted here with permission.

    Introduction to Podcasting

    Podcasting is where people record their voices and then launch them into the internet hoping for someone to listen, and follow intently.
    Think of podcasting as the audio version of blogging. There are many benefits of being a podcast creator and a podcast listener. One of the biggest benefits that a podcast contains is feelings and emotions which just plain blogs do not contain and can not contain. A podcast is personal to the listener. The listener can load up his podcast and continue to what ever he does while listening to the podcast. I think these benefits have further encouraged people to start to listen to audio books.
    Being a podcast listener, i use an app which i dearly love.  Sticher is a podcast reader of sorts, where you can find a number of different podcasts available ranging from a number of different genres/categories.
    Via Sticher i found my all time favorite podcasts, Entrepreneur on Fire hosted by John Lee Dumas and Security Now by Steve Gibson. There are many other podcasts available as well as mentioned above.
    Following genres are from which the listener can follow:
    • Popular & Trending
    • New & Noteworthy
    • Comedy
    • Business & Industry
    • News & Politics
    • Education
    • Society & Culture
    • Entertainment
    • Games & Hobbies
    • Lifestyle & Health
    • Local
    • Music Commentary
    • Parenting, Kids & Family
    • Science & Medicine
    • Spirituality & Religion
    • Sports
    • Technology
    • International

    UX, Design and Ease of Use

    Sticher has been designed well, but it might be a bit too much for a beginner user of Android devices. The app does need a little bit of exploration to be done in order to find out what the features of the app are.

    Usefulness

    Sticher is essentially an on demand podcast service, where you can download the podcast that you want to when ever you want to. You can also add podcasts to listen later list after which the selected podcast will be downloaded to your device.

    This functionality is quite useful for those listeners who are in a hurry to reach their destination, but want to listen to podcasts on the way. Users can also add stations (a station is the source of podcasts where the podcast author publishes his podcasts) to the read later list, which will download podcasts from those stations as well.

    You can call Sticher is to podcasts as RSS readers are to websites and blogs. Sticher also provides with searching functionality where you can search for your favorite topics, stations, or podcast authors, etc…

    Sticher provides a number of different settings which allows you to personalize your experience. You can even set what to show on the start screen.

    You can also create multiple play lists into which you can add your favorite stations. Maybe you want to create playlist which will just contains technology related stations, while another playlist contains business related stations.

    Conclusion

    I highly recommend Sticher for podcast enthusiasts, as this app truly brings a great collection of stations and podcasts. I surely continue to use it in the future to listen to podcasts.

    • Sticher Podcast Reader Android App
      Sticher Podcast Reader Android App

    November 10, 2014 • Business Apps, Utility Apps • Views: 4889

    Read More

  • Horror Escape Hidden Object Game for Android

    Horror Escape Game Review

    This post originally appeared on the blog Mustafa Neguib and has been reprinted here with permission.

    What Is This Game About?

    I was checking out my friend’s Android smart phone, looking for any good apps or games that he has installed so that i could install on my smart phone.

    I came across this hidden object game by the name of Horror Escape where you have to find objects which have been hidden by an evil scientist. There are many other apps which follow the same style of hiding clues and then the user has to find them, but i found this game intriguing as it has a back story, and the ambiance of the game suites it quite well.

    What Is A Hidden Object Game?

    This type of games are in which you have to give an effort to find objects which are hidden from you. You have to act as if you are a detective and have to find clues in order to find the objects. Usually these games contain objective where on hidden object is usually a clue and is used to solve another clue in the game.

    How Do You Play This Game?

    From what i have found so far, is that there is an evil guy who has locked the character(you) in a building, and he has left clues for you to find in order to escape. When you find one clue it leads to the next clue. I like detective and hidden object games, where i have to solve a case, and i love Sherlock Holmes, one of the best detectives that i have read about (i am reading the stories of Sherlock Holmes at the moment).

    This game is constructed in such a way that there are levels, where each level is a room. There are a total of 15 levels in this game. One requires patience and needs to harness his collective powers of thinking in order to find the clues and eventually escape from the building.

    I myself am at level 6 and i am stuck at it. What i am really impressed is the way the clues are hidden in each level. One has to actually look for them, by pressing on everything hoping that some clue pops up. There is no animation, but the graphics are professional and realistic, which further helps bring the detective in you out to help your character to escape.

    If finding objects hidden from plain sight fancy you, then I highly recommend this game, but this is a good time kill for others as well.

    • Horror Escape Game Review
      Horror Escape Game Review

    November 8, 2014 • Games • Views: 4412

    Read More