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The Android Realm App Review Yahoo News Digest
Do you like the idea of curated news but don't want to or don't have time to setup the feeds to do that. Want a digest of morning and evening news delivere automatically to your device. Then Yahoo News Digest is the app for you. After a brief tutorial and no sign-in required, the app will present the latest digest for your locality (currently United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and International).
The menu in the app provides two key settings. The first is the 'More Digests' setting. This allows the user to see when the next default digest will be available along with the ability to open past digests for the week. The second is in the settings area. Here, the user can set which digest locality to load when the app is launched along with toggling the ability to be notified when a new digest is available.
Reading articles is as simple as selecting the article to read. A share button is nicely located at top right of the screen to send via social networks, e-amil, SMS, etc. An interesting feature of the app is that it features an easy to read reference area at the end of the article that can be clicked on to load the source in the user's default browser.
At the end of each digest is a circle of the total number of articles in the digest. Once an article is read, the related article number is filled in to let the user know which article was read along with the total number of articles read in the digest. If the user wants more news, there is a read more news button at the end of the digest to get more articles.
The app does come with a 2x3 widget to easily get articles loaded on the homescreen. It looks very similar to the YouTube widget so it fits in very well as a semi-3D way to see new articles.
The Android Realm Podcast Episode 181 The Card UI
Episode Guide
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The Android Realm Widget Review ABC Widget
Since I've been using A Better Camera for all of my camera needs (except for Lens Blur and Photosphere of course) I found myself wanting an easier access to the different modes the app offers. Luckly, the devloper of the app has provided a solution.
ABC Widget works in conjunction with the 'A Better Camera' app to provide quick links to all of the different functions.
The 4x1 widget provides static links to the single shot, HDR, night, video and panorama camera modes along with the flashlight.
If the user wants a more customizable option, the user can use the 4x2 resizable widget. The first option allows for a choice from three background styles, transparent, dark, or semi-transparent. From there the user can select specific or all camera modes to show up in the widget. Selecting each square brings up available modes along with blank if modes need to be removed. I recommend keeping one spot available for settings in case you want to reorder the widget without having to start all over.
The Android Realm App Review - EverythingMe Launcher
Getting new content without moving away from the stock Android experience has generally been a difficult process. While launchers solve the homescreen solution for organizing apps with apps and widgets helping with content, merging the two is always difficult. EverythingMe solves this by providing the context right from your homescreen.
After installation, a brief walkthrough shows the features it adds to a stock Android launcher experience. The feature brought forward from other launchers is to customize the number of homescreens but here is where this launcher parts ways. The folder system is an enhanced to be more than just groups of apps. Dragging two apps together will create a group of similar apps installed and recommended website and other apps. For example, creating a folder with Pandora and Pocket Casts will add other apps like Google Play Music and Shazaam with links to sites like SoundCloud and Lyrics.com.
On the homescreen itself is a permanent clock widget which links to the clock and switches to recently opened apps and a link to a feature called 'My Day' which provides weather at the right time along with upcoming events and applicable services the user may need throughut the day.
The final feature is the 'Find' search bar which searches the user's device for content and apps along with doing a web search for new content matching the search term. Voice search is included if the user wants prefers that method of searching.
Overall launcher performance is very snappy, even with background folder images changing by content type. The only feature "missing" is the ability to customize the size of the homescreen as by default the homescreen grid is set to 4x3 (or 4x4 without the Find bar). Otherwise, this launcher shows lots of promise in content discovery right on the Android homescreen(s).
(Requires Android 4.0+)