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"Smartphone Tech and Apps"
News is important to feed our curiosity about the world we live in. This particular episode focuses on news app that may include technology news. Technology news apps will be covered later. Let’s begin.
CNN Newsreader:
7APPLABS has another CNN app that you can pay for but for a start, you can try the free one. This app has a simple design without pictures and once you click on a headline, it opens up CNN page inside the app. In short it is a little dull but you can still get your news.
BBC News Mobile:
This app by Lawrence Gripper has undergone some design changes in version 2.4. It looks slicker and cleaner with a background logo that blends in. Pages open in the app which includes an excerpt page and a full story page. I recommend this app for anybody looking for a free BBC News mobile app.
The Guardian:
The guardian is developed by 7APPLABS which actually has a better interface and design than the free CNN app. flip from left to right and you can see the categories that you can choose from. Every headline opens inside the app with pictures aligned to the left of the article.
The Huffington Post:
Huffington post is a good app but is buggy. The most obvious bug is when clicking on a headline and watching as the sentences or paragraphs repeated again. The best way to clear this bug is to double tap on the screen which will zoom in and double tap on the screen to zoom out which makes the repeating paragraph bug disappear. Overall this is a good app for your news.
Other news apps include: MSNBC, NY Times, etc. Both these apps are developed by 7APPLABS. There are other newsreader apps available in the marketplace. These apps mentioned above are my favourite. Enjoy
Update 7.0.7392.0
Evernote for Android
If you like keeping records of everything on notepad or sticky notes or you need to write down things for shopping at the grocery store, Evernote is the best application to assist you with this task. Evernote is available for iPhone, android devices, windows mobile, and blackberry and PCs and MACs unfortunately not in Windows Phone 7 marketplace at the moment. Type up what you want to do in Africa and access your list in Tokyo when connected to a network with data access. Save pictures, files, add tags, etc. The new widgets have gotten a visual make-over for easy access to everything. You can also add location to notes if you want to. Sharing to Facebook and other apps like Gmail or twitter. Evernote is probably the best cloud app that allows you to remember everything.
Fable coin golf on Windows Phone 7 is fun table game that involves you getting rid of evil in the land and conquering each area by getting your hero puck into the pillar of light in as few shots as possible for better scores.
Gameplay Map
The main weapon here is your trusty puck that has 2 firing modes which can be set in the options menu. When it is set to off, you can pull the puck by releasing the arrow. The farther you pull the puck, the farther it will go while the second mode involves you tapping the fire button to shoot the puck. There is a reason why you shoot the puck which clears a lot of dangers in the way and enables you collect lots of coins.
There is evil in the land to smite, shrubs to clear, water to scale across. This is where power-ups come into play. There are 3 power ups: Green Power up (Axe) enables you to be able to cut down trees along your path to enable you reach your goal in as few shots as possible while earning lots of coins. The soldier sword or red power up enables you cut down enemies in your path to victory. The Blue Power up (Carpenter’s Hammer) enables the player build bridges to avoid your puck falling into the water. It all sounds easy enough.
Hell No!!! Level design requires that you put your thinking cap on. Shooting the puck straight ahead into the pillar of light will be too easy but you have to manoeuvre it through various elements in the game like enemies, water, ice, explosive barrels, balloons and rubber bands, teleporting gates called Cullis gates, etc. These elements certainly make the game very lively and can be replayed for a higher score.
In order to progress to the next level, you have to earn at least a bronze in a previous level. Each shot taken deducts -100 points and you need to keep up with the level progression requirements. Also make sure that you hit something except enemies. The maps are varied and tactical and the graphics are beautiful for a mobile game with good enough humour plus a solid audio to boot.
Fable coin golf is a solid package that should not be missed if you own a windows phone 7 smartphone.
Enter Your Pin
Do you feel like checking your bank account and tired of using internet explorer to login and check your transactions every single time?
Mobank for Windows Phone 7 is easy to setup which involves you registering your online banking account details the first time and easy to see all your bank transactions once all your details are validated. During the setup you choose random four pin numbers which will allow you to securely access your account details. This is a quick, secure and easy way to see your transactions or mini statements while on the move. Download it now using windows phone 7 marketplace. There are over 15 banks that support mobank. Enjoy
Plug your windows Phone 7 to your PC and update using Zune software
Windows Phone 7 update 7.0.7390.0
SugarSync Logo
SugarSync online backup is the best backup, file syncing and sharing solution anyone can have around the home or business. I have tried several backups but SugarSync is the best all-around because of the following reasons:
- Free 5 GB storage
- You get a 30 day trial to use sugarsync on 3 computers for 30 GB or more.
- The best syncing between different platforms which can sync data and photos from and to your mobile phones no matter where you are on the planet as long as you have an internet connection. Open a file anywhere in the world and edit it then see your files sync to every platform
SugarSync for Android
- You can sync 3 computers or devices together and also offline syncing
- Backup is done automatically every time you change files or edit a document. It is so good that even when a document is part downloaded, it is backing up.
- Remote access to your files from any browser on personal sugarsync website and also share them
There are other features that sugarsync provides that can be covered by just writing but rather experiencing it for yourself.
Your data is important and backing it up is crucial so you don’t lose those birthday pictures or your final thesis or financial excel files. You can download sugarsync app on various marketplaces on your mobile phone and for PC and Macs on their website. I could not find sugarsync for Windows Phone 7 marketplace but it will be coming soon I hope.
SugarSync folder for PC
The 3 things you need to do is:
- Download PC Remote from www.PCRemoteServer.com install on your PC. It will automatically recognise your computer name and IP address which might look like this: 192.168.0.
- Download PC remote from Windows Phone 7 marketplace. Open marketplace on your phone, click the search button and type in “PC Remote”. The application looks like this
. This is a free app - Get a router that will automatically give IP addresses to both your windows phone and PC. Most people might already have one and in this case, you are golden.
 PC Remote Server on your PC |
 Windows Media Center control for PC Remote Windows Phone 7 |
Once you start the program on windows phone 7, it will ask you to input computer name and IP Address which you can find by opening the same program installed on your computer. You get keyboard controls, mouse controls, lots of Windows media Center controls, windows media player and a shut down button. There are some microseconds of delay while interacting with the interface but it is OK. This is a great app and highly recommended if you use your PC a lot while sitting down and you do not want to buy a remote and bluetooth for your PC.
Orange UK has released an Over The Air (OTA) 2.1 update 1 build number 3.35.61.3 from 3.35.61.2 to android phones. One noticeable thing I have seen is smoother operation of the User Interface which was lagging before this update. Check it out when you can.
