Connect with us

Android

Top 5 must have Android apps for 2015

blank

Published

on

top-5-must-have-android-apps-recommendations-busy-phone

When you own a smartphone, especially on the first few days, you tend to fill it up with all kinds of apps which you think you’ll start using every day. Even though many of us think that there are hundreds of must have Android apps out there, we can slim that list down to about 5 essential applications that one might use on a daily basis. Naturally, must have apps depend on your use of the phone, our line of work and ultimately, on the capacity of our phone.

For instance, I would love to have half of the Play Store on my phone, but sadly, I don’t have room for all of them. For purposes of saving space as well as keeping performance to the highest, I decided to keep my must have apps to a minimum, and I suggest those of you with limited internal memory do the same. Try to choose which apps you actually need and which you use the most. If you want old apps on your phone that you were once fascinated with but haven’t used for a month now, let them go. They won’t mind that much. If you can move them to your SD card storage, you should do that, too. But if not, it’s better to keep your phone speedy rather than fill it up with things you don’t need.

Consequently, I’ve compiled a list of 5 must have Android apps that encompass basic needs a smartphone user would have. These apps proved to be very useful to me and I find myself using them each day. The occasional game also finds its way to my phone, but I tend to only keep them until I get tired of playing and I found that to be a good strategy for saving space on a limited smartphone. Let the rambling stop and feel free to browse my list of top 5 must have Android apps.

Google Drive Android

5. Google Drive

Like it or not, cloud storage is an essential service, especially for those of us who don’t have a lot of internal memory on our phones and don’t have the privilege of a microSD card slot. There are quite a few cloud storage service apps out there, including OneDrive and DropBox. I found that the best out of all is Google Drive, because it offers great integration and syncing services as well as access to office editing tools. Even though Google Drive wasn’t the first app I installed on Android 4.4 KitKat, it quickly became one on my must have Android apps. It’s lightweight, easy to use and makes uploading documents and pictures a fast and easy affair.

Inbox by Gmail Android

4. Inbox by Gmail

Email is the current communication tool all over the world and the easiest way to send and receive information fast. If you can secure yourself an invite to the new app from Google called Inbox, you will be delighted with the functions of it. If you’re familiar with news aggregators, then you might understand the principle behind Inbox easily. The idea is that you can have all of your emails in one place, no matter what client you are using. Gmail has decent syncing capabilities, but you do get mixed up between accounts easily and the syncing process doesn’t always update in a timely manner. Inbox might just be your best bet if you’ve got more email addresses that you need to check on a daily basis. The app should become available for everyone soon enough, and by then, it will surely become one of the must have apps of anyone who abuses email.

Pocket Android

3. Pocket

This nifty app is perfect for those who stumble upon stories and articles on the web but don’t have the time to read time on the spot. Bookmarking is a good solution for that problem, but Pocket offers a better alternative for when you don’t have an internet connection on hand or have gone over your data plan. You can save stuff from the web into Pocket and get to reading it (or watching it) later offline. After a few weeks of use, I found Pocket to be one of the must have Android apps that I couldn’t do without.

Feedly Android

2. Feedly

If you are a news fanatic, news aggregators are your best bet. You could always use RSS feeds to keep in touch with daily news, but it’s time consuming and to be fair, a bit outdated. Feedly is my go-to aggregator because it has a decent selection of websites and blogs I’m interested in and offers up quite a few personalization options so that I can make my feed my own. It’s among must have Android apps because it’s lightweight and easy to use, although the number of websites it reads has decreased in the past month. Hopefully, more websites will be added so that we can enjoy all our news in one place.

WhatsApp Android

1. WhatsApp (or any kind of messaging app)

I use WhatsApp because it’s just the basics and offers up a simple interface that you can easily navigate. It syncs all your contacts easily and offers status messages which you can use. While I’m not a fan of status messages or PMs showing up as read or seen, I do enjoy the encryption Whatsapp has to offer. As long as you have internet, private messaging apps are among your top 5 must have apps, or at least that’s the way most people want it to be. With these apps, you don’t have to pay extra to send messages and communicate with others. The only drawback is that unless you have Wi-Fi or a cellular connection, Whatsapp is of no use to you.

As part of the editorial team here at Geekreply, John spends a lot of his time making sure each article is up to snuff. That said, he also occasionally pens articles on the latest in Geek culture. From Gaming to Science, expect the latest news fast from John and team.

Android

Pixel 8 Pro runs Google’s generative AI models

blank

Published

on

blank

Rick Osterloh, Google’s SVP of devices and services, says the Pixel 8 Pro will be the first hardware to run Google’s generative AI models.

At an event today, Osterloh said the Pixel 8 Pro’s custom-built Tensor G3 chip, which accelerates AI workloads, can run “distilled” versions of Google’s text- and image-generating models to power image editing and other apps.

Osterloh said, “We’ve worked closely with our research teams across Google to take advantage of their most advanced foundation models and distill them into a version efficient enough to run on our flagship Pixel.”

Google improved Magic Eraser, its photo-editing tool, to remove larger objects and people smudge-free using on-device models. Osterloh claims that this improved Magic Eraser creates new pixels to fill in shot gaps, producing a higher-quality image.

Osterloh says a new on-device model will “intelligently” sharpen and enhance photo details, improving zoom.

On-device processing benefits audio recording. The Pixel 8 Pro’s recording app will soon summarize meeting highlights.

Gboard will use a large language model on the Pixel 8 Pro to power smart replies. Osterloh claims that the upgraded Gboard will provide “higher-quality” reply suggestions and better conversational awareness.

Osterloh said an update in December will add on-device generative AI features except for Magic Eraser, which appears on the Pixel 8 Pro at launch.

Continue Reading

Android

Telegram launches a global self-custodial crypto wallet, excluding the US

blank

Published

on

blank

Telegram, with 800 million monthly users, is launching a self-custodial crypto wallet. The move will solidify its presence in the vibrant crypto community that has grown from its chat platform and may attract more people to crypto.

Telegram and TON Foundation announced TON Space, a self-custodial wallet, on Wednesday at Singapore’s Token2049 crypto conference, which draws over 10,000 attendees.

Telegram has a complicated blockchain relationship. After the SEC sued Telegram over a massive initial coin offering, the chat app abandoned its Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain project in 2020. The Open Network Foundation (TON Foundation), founded by open-source developers and blockchain enthusiasts, supports the development of The Open Network (TON), the blockchain powering a growing number of Telegram applications, including the wallet.

The Open Platform (TOP) and TOP Labs, a venture-building division, created the TON-based wallet.

TON Space will be available to Telegram users worldwide without wallet registration in November. The U.S., which has cracked down on the crypto industry and promoted many crypto apps to geofence users, is currently excluded from the feature.

Continue Reading

Android

Google’s massive antitrust trial begins, with bigger implications

blank

Published

on

blank

The Justice Department’s landmark antitrust case against Google began in court today, setting off a months-long trial that could upend the tech world.

At issue is Google’s search business. The Justice Department claims that Google has violated antitrust laws to maintain its search title, but the company claims that it does so by providing a superior product.

The Justice Department sued Google for civil antitrust in late 2020 after a year-long investigation.

“If the government does not enforce the antitrust laws to enable competition, we will lose the next wave of innovation,” said then-Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen. “If that happens, Americans may never see the ‘next Google.’”

A large coalition of state attorneys general filed their own parallel suit against Google, but Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the states did not meet the bar to go to trial with their search ranking complaints.

The search business case against Google is separate from a federal antitrust lawsuit filed earlier this year. The Justice Department claims Google used “anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means” to neutralize threats to its digital advertising empire in that lawsuit.

Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dintzer set the stakes for the first major tech antitrust trial since Microsoft’s late 1990s reckoning on Tuesday. “This case is about the future of the internet, and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition,” Dintzer said.

Beginning the trial, the government focused on Google’s deals with phone makers, most notably Apple, that give its search product top billing on new devices. Dintzer claimed that Google maintains and grows its search engine dominance by paying $10 billion annually for those arrangements.

“This feedback loop, this wheel, has been turning for more than 12 years,” he said. “And it always benefits Google.”

Google lawyer John Schmidtlein refuted that claim, hinting at the company’s legal defense in the coming weeks.

“Users today have more search options and more ways to access information online than ever before,” Schmidtlein said. Google will argue that it competes with Amazon, Expedia, and DoorDash, as well as Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Google planted the seeds for this defense. According to internal research, Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan said last year that more young people are using TikTok to search for information than Google Search.

In our studies, almost 40% of young people don’t use Google Maps or Search to find lunch, Raghavan said. “They use TikTok or Instagram.”

Google will be decided by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in the coming months. We’re far from that decision, but the company could be fined heavily or ordered to sell parts of its business.

The trial could change Google’s digital empire if the Justice Department wins. Other tech companies that dominated online markets in the last decade are also watching. If the government fails to hold an iconic Silicon Valley giant accountable, big tech will likely continue its aggressive growth trajectory.

If the Justice Department succeeds, the next decade could be different. The industry-wide reckoning could cripple incumbents and allow upstarts to define the next era of the internet, wresting the future from tech titans.

Continue Reading

Trending