Most carriers don't just offer one cellphone package; you usually get a wide variety of options – how many text messages per month, how much data traffic, how many minutes, etc. Up until today, I would usually lean towards the "unlimited" options, just because it made me feel safer. After all, nobody likes to find out at the end of the month that they were charged extra for going over the limit. And even if your provider sends you a "usage warning" SMS before you go over the limit, that's no fun. Stats is a free, comprehensive Android app that seeks to help out with exactly this situation. This little gem quietly collects all of the stats concerning your phone usage: data in and out over 3G and over Wi-Fi (separately), SMSes sent and received, minutes called and received – everything. You can also set up limits, and the app notifies you when you hit that limit. It's very useful for benchmarking, too. For example, if you're curious to know how much data one minute of Skype consumes, just check Stats first, make a call, and then check Stats again. Stats is completely free, and it has no in-program banners or other nags. I highly recommend it. Read More
Dropbox has received a lot of attention recently, mostly thanks to the rampant 'OMG 250MB referral!!' scheme that they've been successfully leveraging over the last couple of months. The thing is, just like Apple, Dropbox might be receiving the most press, but that doesn't mean it's than the competition -- and there's a of competition! Enter SugarSync, a Dropbox competitor with a lot of tricks up its sleeve. If you take a quick look at the comparison chart, you'll quickly see that SugarSync easily outstrips Dropbox in terms of functionality. In fact, SugarSync does so much that today I'm only going to discuss the Android app -- if I were to wade into the Web-based and desktop-based side of the service, we'd be here all afternoon. First of all, the Android app is free (search for 'SugarSync' on the Market) -- as is the 2GB 'Free' SugarSync package. Unfortunately, though, the free version has almost no features. That's the defining difference between Dropbox and Sugarsync: if you don't want to pay for the service, use Dropbox. If you're happy to pay a few dollars a month, go with SugarSync -- it does so much more than Dropbox, and it's cheaper! Once you've logged in, SugarSync for Android actually has zero configurable options. What you see is what you get -- but that's OK, because it's a very feature-heavy app indeed. From the home page you have access to everything currently stored on your account, and any files and folders that friends have shared with you. If anything, you have access to too much -- I quickly lost track of where my files were, and the differences between my Web Archive and Magic Briefcase. You can also quickly examine the contents of both your phone and your sync folders at home via Read More
by Sebastian Anthony on August 25, 2010 at 08:30 AM FILED UNDER: android, When Adobe released an updated Photoshop app for iOS devices, I was more than a little green with envy. I own an Android phone, y'see -- and I wanted in on the action! I needn't have worried though, because as of today, Adobe has released an updated and shiny Photoshop Express for Android app. I'll review it later today. Also released on Photoshop.com today are the redesigned Express Editor, Organizer and Uploader. As you can see from the screenshot above, the Editor is both beautiful and full of functionality. The Organizer is very neat, allowing you to sort all of your uploaded photos into albums -- plus you can also connect it to Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket and Picasa! The Uploader is a desktop AIR app that basically replicates the Organizer's uploading capabilities, but it lets you drag-and-drop images into its window. Apparently it also lets you upload PSD files, though I haven't tried that yet. I've only touched on the features provided by these new tools, and obviously I need to investigate further. If you have a go with them, report your findings in the comments! Read More
If you don't have Dropbox yet, where have you been? We've raved about this awesome cloud-based storage service before, and now Dropbox's mobile offerings are expanding in a big way. The Dropbox Mobile API was just released, along with apps for Android and iPad. This new push is called Dropbox Anywhere, and it's great news for users. With the new mobile API, developers will be able to write apps that access your Dropbox files, meaning you won't have to keep the files stored on your mobile device. Sure, you can complain that Dropbox doesn't have apps for enough devices yet, or that there's no automatic syncing for the Android app, but what Dropbox has built so far is a pretty big deal, and it's still a work in progress. Blackberry users, take note: a Dropbox app is coming to your device soon (probably this summer!). Read More
