AAQR: AudioManager (free, paid)

Audio Manager has a simple job: gives you full control of your various volume settings in your Android devices.

Did you know your Android devices has no less than SEVEN different volume settings?

• Alarm
• Media
• Voice call
• Alert
• Ringer
• System
• Navigation

Yet there is no one single place to adjust them! Until now... with AudioManager. Just open the app and adjust the sliders to your liking!

You can even define "presets" (or profiles) for certain situations, like meeting, normal, driving, and so on.

There are two sizes of widgets you can use as well, and the Pro version allows Widget skins and shortcuts to presets.

Definitely give the free version a try. I am using it now.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/audiomanager/com.smartandroidapps.audiowidget

AAQR: Advanced Task Killer

Advanced Task Killer, i.e. ATK, is a very popular app, but widely misunderstood. Basically it allows users to kill running apps and background services. Whether this actually do anything is subject to debate. I have my own view on this and it's explained somewhere else. [ see link here ]

It works, though I only use it manually.

It is free, and there's a $4.99 donate version (ads-free). You should have it loaded, but do not use auto-kill.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/advanced-task-killer-froyo/com.rechild.advancedtaskkillerfroyo

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AAQR: AdFree (root required)

Image via CrunchBaseAdFree is an app that uses the built-in IPTable in Android OS to filter out ads, by basically bypassing "known" ad servers (route them to nowhere). Similar apps on the PC would be Adblock on various browsers.

AdFree works quite well, but it requires root access, as you can't get to HOSTS/IPtable otherwise. It will block most banner ads inside apps, unless the banners are provided by sources not known to the list.

It is free, and it will periodically check for updates to update the list.

Keep in mind though, that a lot of free apps rely on the ad revenue to keep them free. So this is a morally conflicting problem. Still, it is your device.

And yes, I do use this app.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/adfree-android/com.bigtincan.android.adfree

Spookley the Square Pumpkin (audio-visual eBook)

Spookley the Square Pumpkin (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)Spookley the Square Pumpkin is an illustrated children's book with audio narrations (complete with rhymes) that tells the story of this cute square pumpkin. Illustration are nicely done, and narration is good. It should keep your very young quite engaged... but it really needs to be played on a tablet. It's quite readable on a phone, but do you really want your kid to squint at a tiny screen?

http://www.appbrain.com/app/spookley-the-square-pumpkin/com.oceanhouse_media.bookspookley_app

Android Keyboard Review Updated, now 44 keyboards reviewed

<` href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/google" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">Image via CrunchBaseLatest to the review: MaxiKeys... a revolutionary new concept in onscreen keyboard... tilt scrolling!

Also, updated the links for Better Keyboard to Amazon, due to BetterAndroid's problem with Google.

You can find the updated review at

http://kschang.hubpages.com/hub/Android-Softkeyboard-Shootout-which-input-method-should-you-use

AAQR: SPC Music Scratchpad (media)

This was an Amazon AppStore Giveaway

SPC Music Scratchpad is a rhythm generator where you activate various high-quality repeating sounds to get a good background rhythem for whatever music you want to play. It reminds me a lot of those little music toys. There's like a dozen effects and it combines to hundreds of combinations. Worth checking out just for your kids, or even as some background sound for your band act. :D

http://www.appbrain.com/app/spc-music-sketchpad/com.mikrosonic.SPC

Samsung Pure Breeze Launcher (free, $1.99)

I can't get this launcher to run on my OG Droid. The previous version 1.00.37 worked, but the latest 1.00.40 did not. It just crashes.

Here's a review from Gizmodo, and they seem to like the idea, even though it's a bit unusual.

http://gizmodo.com/5837042/samsungs-pure-breeze-launcher-for-android-is-really-weird?tag=androidapps

Download it from Appbrain:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/pure-breeze-launcher-lite/com.samsung.smcl.spblauncherlite

AAQR: Are you Left-Brained or Right-Brained (free)

"Brain" is a little test where it asks you questions and see which hand do you prefer such tasks, as well as how you think about certain situations, to see which half of your brain dominates.

It's just a short quiz, nothing more. It is rather cute though.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/are-you-left-brained-or-right/com.movisol.hemisferios

AAQR: Camera Fun Pro (paid)

Camera Fun Pro was given away on Amazon App Market the other day.

I have previously reviewed the free version, and the full version has 29 different filters. Basically, it gives you live preview of the effects on the camera picture.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work on my OG Droid with CM7.1RC1. Preview works fine. I took a picture, then the app crashed (while writing the picture).

I tried the "low-resolution" mode, did not help.

And it's NOT my MicroSD card. I have a 16 GB Class 10 card I bought from NewEgg (and I still have the original class 2 somewhere)

Your experience may vary.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/camera-fun-pro/com.spiceloop.camerafun

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AAQR: Safari Sunset Free Live Wallpaper

Safari Sunset (Free) looks pretty for a "safari" sunset scene. However, it takes 8 MB of download to do it, and it asks you to allow it receive SMS?!?!?! permissions... and 12 MB of RAM.

Not sure if that is worth it.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/safari-sunset-free/com.holly.safarisunsetsfree

AAQR: Underwater Ripples (Live Wallpaper) free

Another OwnSkin creation, this LWP makes no sense at all. You appear to be underwater, then you see all these "ripples" randomly appear. How can you have "ripples" underwater?

Somewhat amusing for a little while.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/underwater-ripples/com.oslwp.Underwater

AAQR: Google Android Flag 3D Live Wallpaper (free)

Andy the Android flying a "Google Flag" which is "waving" in the "wind" in 3D.

Animation is pretty well done, but it's taking up 13 MB in memory, AND it lags my phone.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/google-android-flag-in-3d/com.oslwp.GoogleAndroidflag

AAQR: Beauty Camera (camera / retouch) free

Beauty Camera is supposed to let you "touch up" a photo, adjust tone / brightness and stuff.

Unfortunately it doesn't work on my OG Droid. It won't load the pix, index the pix on the camera, or even load a pix from Gallery, much less take a camera pix directly. Either it just crash and restarts, or it just crashes, period. Even a recent update didn't help.

YMMV.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/beauty-camera/com.northpark.beautycamera

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• AAQR: HDR Camera (androidappquickreview.blogspot.com)

AAQR: Trip Journal (GPS app)

Does not work. Don't even see the main menu.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/trip-journal/com.iqapps.mobile.tripjournalfull

AAQR: Star Chart ($3.23)

Image via WikipediaSorta like Google Sky Map but with a lot more visual flair, Star Chart lets you explore the constellations in the sky and find out details about them.

In AR (augmented reality) mode, just start the app, then point the device up at the sky and look for matching things. It will highlight the constellations (complete with illustration and lines), as well as any significant astronomical objects such as galaxies, planets, and nearby stars. Pan the phone and let it act as a virtual portal. You can even engaged the red-tinted "night mode" to preserve your night vision.

In normal mode, just swipe / drag the view to desired spot. You can choose to hide or show lines, illustrations, and such.

Good app if you are an amateur star watcher, or have interest in the field. Good companion to a decent telescope. My only complaint? Size. Just over 2 MB download expanded to over 14MB app (according to Titanium Backup). Still, it's nice.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/star-chart/com.escapistgames.starchart

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AAQR: Jamie's 20 Minute Meals ($8.11)

NOTE: This app was given away free for one day on Amazon Appstore

Jame's 20 Minute Meals is a series of lessons on cooking basics from Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef, that also teaches cooking basics and prep basics. It has video, pictures, and descriptions, as well as recipes that scales from 2 to 4 people, and even creates a shopping list for you. It is a well polished app, though the price seems to be a bit high.

App itself is almost 3MB. When you run it, it needs to download ANOTHER 80MB worth of data (photos and such), and even then, the videos are pulled / streamed separately.

The photos are nicely done, as are the instructions, which seem to be out of the cookbook. Videos are nicely done as well, clear instructions. Should produce some decent results.

I just don't know about having a phone or tablet in the kitchen with all that oil and smoke and all that. :D

http://www.appbrain.com/app/jamies-20-minute-meals/com.zolmo.twentymm

AAQR: Nemus Launcher (home launcher)

Nemus Launcher, from the folks who brought you the VERY eye-candy-ish Regina 3D launcher, is sort of the opposite of Regina. It's light weight (just over 1 MB), yet quite nicely featured. However, its various limitations makes this a very niche choice.

Nemus Launcher gave a very good impression: it feels quite snappy with very smooth scrolling. It has a good looking "dock", which can be configured by simple drag and drop. Just drop an icon onto the dock and voila, that's it. The icons are also full sized, not shrunken version like in other launchers.

It also let you know the app drawer is getting refreshed with a the spinning circle behind it. The app drawer is also improved: it can be used to manage running apps and a shortcut to "Manage Apps" choice under settings / applications. The app drawer can be shown in two styles, the normal vertical list and the Samsung style horizontal "paged" style.

The "screens" (panels) on the desktop can number from 3 to 9. There's an edit screen that lets you easily adjust the order, add more panels, remove panels, and so on.

Its folder support is impressive... Basically stealing the iOS style folder management. Just drag one shortcut onto another to make a folder. It doesn't have sorting or "starred / favorite" tagging.

However, there's a few problems. First of all, this app is portrait layout ONLY. It will NOT go into landscape mode EVER. It does NOT react to orientation sensor. Second, it is somewhat crash happy, at least on my OG Droid. I've seen it FC numerous times, even as I go into and out of settings. Third, it is virtually undocumented. There is no mention of the app on the NemusTech home page (in fact the whole page is in Korean).

All in all, Nemus Launcher is a smooth launcher that is pretty good if you stay in portrait mode most of the time. It makes folders extremely easy. Indicator on the app drawer to let you know it's refreshing is also very neat. On the other hand, no landscape and occasional FC makes this launcher a bit niche for me.

7 out of 10


http://www.appbrain.com/app/nemus-launcher/com.nemustech.launcher

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• AAQR: ToonyHome (home launcher replacement, free) (androidappquickreview.blogspot.com)
• AAQR: Honeycomb Launcher (androidappquickreview.blogspot.com)
• AAQR: Gravity Home (home launcher / live wallpaper) (androidappquickreview.blogspot.com)
• AAQR: MXHome Launcher (androidappquickreview.blogspot.com)

AAQR: TED Air

Image via CrunchBaseTED Air is one of the many different TED clients for Android. (There's also TED Talks, and TED T). This one seem to be the top of the game, as it supports selectable subtitles, search, and of course, share.

It's not bad, and the interface is pretty polished.

As these features are mostly the same, it's down to personal preference. Try the other two.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/ted-air/com.ogqcorp.tpa

AAQR: QQ Desktop Pro (Home Launcher)

QQ Desktop Pro (actually the app's in Chinese) is a decent if not spectacular launcher. At 1760KB in size, it's not exactly lightweight, but its performance is quite respectable.

BEWARE: The app is in Chinese, so it's not for everybody.

Once nice thing it does is it will look for backup files left by other desktops and import them to restore your desktop layout. I have Launcher Pro installed and it was able to restore my desktop config.

The dock's background can't be changed, but it does have 4 static shortcuts. Just drag and drop another icon to the spot and voila, it's configured.

It comes with a few built-in widgets such as memory / purge widget and a "toggle" widget similar to "Power Control". However, it used a 'blue on white' theme instead. In fact, the entire app uses a white theme.

You can choose different transitions, import config from other launchers, and choose two styles of app drawer (Samsung style, or Windows Phone 7 style) . It also has a few links directly to QQ's download app store, and other things.

Worth trying for sure.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/qq%E6%A1%8C%E9%9D%A2pro/com.tencent.qqlauncher

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• AAQR: MXHome Launcher (androidappquickreview.blogspot.com)
• AAQR: MyHome Launcher Lite (free, home launcher replacement) (androidappquickreview.blogspot.com)
• AAQR: Gravity Home (home launcher / live wallpaper) (androidappquickreview.blogspot.com)

AAQR: Tape-a-Talk (free, $5.70)

Tape-A-Talk is a no-frills but robust audio recorder that will continue to record even if the screen times out, perfect for recording lectures and whatnot. You can choose to share the result with others through various "share" options, but is that really a feature? The interesting part is the ability to record in low fidelity (8-bit vs. 16-bit), low-bitrate (all the way down to 8 Khz and up to 44 Khz), and choose between regular WAV/PCM and compressed 3GP.

The pro version has a few more tricks, like widgets, forward/rewind, edit/trim, and a few others. And it's ad-free.

Personally, free version does everything I need.

Tape-A-talk, free
http://www.appbrain.com/app/tape-a-talk-voice-recorder/name.markus.droesser.tapeatalk

Tape-A-Talk Pro, $5.70
http://www.appbrain.com/app/tape-a-talk-pro-voice-recorder/name.markus.droesser.tapeatalkpro