The game is developed by Jam City and Portkey Games, and the upcoming release lets players experience the life of a Hogwarts student by creating their own character. This will include attending classes, learning spells, and interacting with fellow magical-students.

The game takes place years before Harry, Hermoine and Ron attend Hogwarts, the game will have an impressive voice cast featuring Harry Potter actors reprising their roles, they are:

Michael Gambon (Professor Dumbledore)
Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick)
Sally Mortemore (Madam Irma Pince)
Gemma Jones (Madam Pomfrey)
Zoe Wanamaker (Madam Hooch)

Their participation should help players have a better immersion in the game as "students" of Hogwarts. “By including these iconic and incredibly talented actors in the game, we come one step closer to truly giving fans their own Hogwarts experience,” Jam City Co-Founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe said in a press release.

You can see some of the mobile-game-footage in the video below.

Tinder is currently testing the possibility of a two-second looping video feature to add to peoples profiles similar to Boomerang. It would be Tinder's first video-based feature allowing users to upload videos and trim the video within the app. The aim is to allow users to show a different side to themselves that pictures may not convey, prompting them to get creative and show off the fun side of their personality (if they have one).

Tests are currently being carried out in Sweden and Canada for iOS devices. Tinder has explained to users how they will be able to upload their videos saying: "click the “add media” button on your profile. Once you select your video, drag the time strip to select your desired Loop. Preview your Loop before you add it to your profile."

Tinder also said they're "testing the ability to add nine photos or Loops in your profile instead of six." This means that people's profiles will be able to be more diverse which is a major improvement seeing that Tinder literally relies on peoples profile photos alone.

Tinder has finally caught up with the video train! What do you think about it?

Grindr claimed that user's HIV data, which included their HIV status and last tested date was shared with Apptimize for the sole purpose of standard rollout procedure for new features on the app. The data was shared with Localytics to input into a software program that they used to analyze their own behaviour. Case said that he will not admit fault as the data was shared for purely internal use and was not leaked for external use. Grindr responded to these concerns via blog post saying that privacy policy on it's site clearly stated that user's HIV status (if the user chose to include the information on their profile) could become public.

The company issued a statement saying: "The inclusion of HIV status information within our platform is always regarded carefully with our users’ privacy in mind, but like any other mobile app company, we too must operate with industry standard practices to help make sure Grindr continues to improve for our community. We assure everyone that we are always examining our processes around privacy, security and data sharing with third parties, and always looking for additional measures that go above and beyond industry best practices to help maintain our users’ right to privacy."

The dating app is facing a data privacy complaint in Europe, with the Norwegian Consumer Council saying that Grindr has not abided by European and Norwegian data privacy laws. Finn Myrstad, director of digital services in the Norwegian Consumer Council said that "Information about sexual orientation and health status is regarded as sensitive personal data according to European law, and has to be treated with great care. In our opinion, Grindr fails to do so."

Grindr has assured users that they will no longer be sharing this data reduce any concerns they may be having about the privacy of their information.

Everybody loves a good photo app, but there are so many in the App Store that it's hard to know where to begin. If you are looking for a photo- and video-editing app that does things a little bit different than the standard Instagram-like filters, a glitch-inducing app called Hyperspektiv might be the best place to start.

Hyperspektiv has been around for a few years, but it recently gained attraction after being featured in the App Store. The app adds random distortion effects, such as colourful glitches and floaty mirroring to a kaleidoscope twist. There are plenty of options to experiment with in Hyperspektiv which makes it worth its $1 asking price.

The app is pretty easy to use, you just load it and swipe through to choose the filter you want. The filters are applied in real time, and you can watch what you are capturing and adjust accordingly. The nifty part about the app is you can customise how the filters are applied by dragging your fingers up or down and side to side. The movements allow you to control how strongly the filters are applied, the way they move, and to change the hues.

The app is used best with videos, as the motion is what really makes the visuals pop, though it still works with photos. The app shoots HD 720p video and you can apply the filters to videos you have already taken, but you cannot edit existing photos (which is disappointing). The developers say photo editing will come in the next version "very soon".

Hyperspektiv is only available on iOS at the moment. If you are keen to try it out! In the meantime, have a look at the app in action in the video below.

Most people opted for the mobile version as the trend seems to be going that way for everything, while the desktop version limited users on how much they could post, see and engage with. Recently, the team at The Verge decided to do a comparison, after the desktop version evolved, in order to assess which version was superior – many points were discovered.

On desktop, the images displayed on your feed are bigger, giving people a clearer view but it also means users can scroll through the feed very quickly. This could be good because it gives users time to really look at the pictures and like pages but, at the same time, users may find it too slow. It may also take away the point of being able to quickly and effortlessly scroll through hundreds of photos. For those who use Instagram to do a bit of creeping, the desktop version also makes it a lot harder to accidentally like someone's post from two years ago.

Instagram was made for mobile to enable users to like and consume content at home, on the subway, or on the go. It's impossible to do this with the desktop version, which also doesn't allow users to post photo's, making it a more passive experience.

Post notifications are also less instantaneous on desktop as users only receive notifications when they log into their account as opposed to constantly receiving a notification with each like or comment. This could provide those with a sense of peace as their phone won't be constantly vibrating and they won't feel obligated to be online constantly. Other users may not prefer this as they like to stay connected. After taking a poll, 58% of users preferred the mobile version and 42% the desktop version.

Overall, there wasn't a huge defining discrepancy between the two, it mainly depends on the preferences of the user.

If you want to check it out for yourself, the video below shows a step-by-step guide for Windows and Macbook users.

These emoji's will include people with walking sticks, canes, wheelchairs, guide dogs and even prosthetic limbs. The Unicode Technical Committee meeting will take place next month in which emojis will be discussed and added to the shortlist for approval as an option for Emoji 12.0 for 2019. Although this is not an exhaustive list of all the disabilities, it serves as a starting point for further developments. Apple said that it worked with the American Council of the Blind, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation and the National Association of the Deaf to develop the 13 proposed additions to create a more inclusive user experience.

157 new emojis have been included for 2018 that include female superheroes, diverse skin tones and red-haired people, which will be released in August.

What emoji would you like to see added? Let us know below.

Step 1: Make sure you are using the latest version of WhatsApp on your smartphone. Android users can download the updated version of WhatsApp from the Play Store. iPhone users, on the other hand, will be able to download the latest update to WhatsApp by visiting the App Store.

Step 2: Open WhatsApp on your smartphone

Step 3: Tap on the group name you would like to add a description

Step 4: Go to the “Group Info” section of the group on the right-hand corner

Step 5: Tap on the “Description” section right below the name of the group

Step 6: Add or change the group’s description. The group description is visible to all members of the group and people invited to the group. The description can be as long as 512 characters. WhatsApp for Android also allows users to search for a participant from the group info window.

The second feature allows users to switch between video and voice call features during a call. While the user is in a call, a button for the video call option will show on the screen meaning that the user won't have to end the call in order to switch to a video call. When the user wants to switch from a voice to a video call, it will send a video request to the person on the other end of the call to accept. If the other user accepts, the call will switch to video and if the user declines, the call continues as normal.

These new features are available on the latest Whatsapp versions for iPhone and Android.

If you have been hankering to revisit your 90's youth days by killing a Tamagotchi pet (or you know, dozens) but just cannot bring yourself to carry around that clunky iconic keychain, you now have another option.

You can head over to the App Store and you will find BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe's latest release, My Tamagotchi Forever. Just like the original version, the gameplay involves tending to your pet's every need, including ridding its floor of numerous curly turds, but that is where the similarities end.

As you will see in the trailer below, My Tamagotchi Forever is a far cry from the 8-bit version you might be familiar with. Instead of barely distinguishable blobs wandering on your screen, you will be met with a creature much closer to what you would expect for 2018. Whether this was a good idea or not, it remains to be seen, considering it might make the whole pooping/death thing a bit more... realistic.

The difference in pet appearance is not the only change, responsibilities are a bit more involved and you can venture out of the house into a little Tamatown for mini-games and even AR.

You can have a look at the trailer below of My Tamagotchi Forever, and go and download it for yourself, if you want. (The 8-bit Tamagotchi still remains our favourite).

This drawing app is definitely not going to win any awards in the paint app category, you only have one colour and one line width (for now). So it is basically the digital equivalent of a white chalk you can draw with on almost anything. Although, this one is a little better because it does not leave a mess and even lets you draw in mid-air.

The concept behind Just a Line is simple, you simply draw with your finger. The magic happens when you move your phone away. The marks made will stay as if magically suspended in the air. And they stay that way no matter which way you move.

No one will be able to see your magical creations except through your phone and only as long as you're running the app. The app does allow you to record a short video clip demonstrating your mad AR art skills.

The partnership makes sense in that Modiface has already worked with L'Oreal multiple time, including the launch of its Style My Hair mobile app, which lets users try on different hairstyles. For that app, Modiface manually annotated 22,000 facial images to create the experience for the user.

Augmented Reality has become an important part of the beauty industry. Meitu, a China-based company with an AR makeup app, is worth billions of dollars. Multiple brands have launched AR-tools, and it is easy to imagine the apps coming in handy when smart mirrors eventually become a thing.

L'Oreal has launched multiple gadgets, like UV nail sensor at CES this year. Given that many of these makeup companies have relied on its competitors who will now have to find another company that's thinking about AR beauty.

You can have a look at the video below, done by The Verge

The apps' creator, Whitney Wolfe Herd, said that the aim of this was to create a space where women can feel more comfortable connecting with people and to make people kinder and more accountable. She released a statement saying: “We just want to create a community where people feel at ease, where they do not feel threatened, and we just don’t see guns fitting into that equation.” “This is not a politically driven decision, nor a decision driven by hatred of people’s personal beliefs or choices,” she said. “Not everyone’s going to love us for it, but it’s the right thing to do.” However, she has seen the other side of the story, admitting that users may own guns for a hobby or competitive sport and don't endorse violence and those people may be able to appeal to have their photos visible.

When the investigation involving Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland shooter, his Bumble and Instagram accounts were a central focus of the investigation because they included many photos focused on guns, knives and other violent content.

Although Bumble will aim to streamline the process as much as possible, they won't be able to censor photo's that appear from Instagram through their integration. Whitney aims to eventually ban any content on guns and any mention of guns whatsoever. While many users have praised bumble for their bold move including the Parkland students, others have criticised them for it, labelling it as discrimination.

What do you think of this ban? Let us know in the comments below.

The mobile game lets the player control simulated people in different environments, creating their own personalities, relationships, hobbies, and careers as well as interacting with other Sims. Sims can move around the neighbourhood to parties and around town, using stickers to communicate with other Sims. Risky communication and actions can earn the player more points and rewards. Sims are able to pursue a career, make friends, throw parties and start a family.

The creative director for the game, Brandon Gill, said: “In The Sims Mobile, we’ve dramatically increased the fidelity and quality of Sims and the various environments they play in. Creating unique, completely customised Sims, building a dream home, and exploring exciting careers have always been tent poles of The Sims franchise. With The Sims Mobile, we’re able to bring players those time-loved features with new, highly detailed customisation options in Create-A-Sim and Build Mode. Players will find that new guided narratives and immersive social features give The Sims Mobile a unique blend of delightful gameplay experiences and social platform-inspired connections.”

Although the actions available in the game are more limited than the PC version, the game still captures the original feel of the game.

The description on the Airbnb website states that: “Every Airbnb Plus home is one-of-a-kind, thoughtfully designed, and equipped with a standard set of amenities – whether you’re in a private room or have the entire place to yourself. All Airbnb Plus homes are visited in person to ensure comfort, consistency, and design. They are checked for 100-plus things that guests told us they love, from must-have amenities to the art on the walls.” Hosts are required to have a rating of 4.8 out of 5 or higher and the service was launched on the 22nd of February.

The app has 2000 listings so far in 13 cities including Austin, Barcelona, Cape Town, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Melbourne, Milan, Rome, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney, and Toronto. The average cost of the luxury accommodation will be double that of the regular listings and will display a Plus badge next to the listing. The hosts of the accommodation must join the program and pay a $149 application fee and an Airbnb photographer and an inspector will come to the house to assess whether it meets the standards. The standards include a clean refrigerator, full cooking equipment, and stocked toiletries, among many other small and subtle details.

The new feature aims to attract more guests and provide premium customer support to get hosts to be more involved in the service and will receive a higher search rating in the app. Hotels will also be listed on the app, working with hotels instead of viewing them as the rival. Users will be able to find these hotel listings on travel sites like Expedia. Airbnb aims to benefit from this by listing hotels at a cheaper price than what is listed on standard travelling sites with categories: vacation homes and B&Bs and join the existing shared room, private room, and full house categories. Airbnb is also preparing to launch a "unique" category for unusual homes like treehouses and castles.

With big changes coming to Airbnb, they are hoping that the upgrade will provide a customised, luxury feel for accommodation listings.

Available: iPhone and Android
Our rating: 4/5

The average Instagram user will have 2-3 different apps that they will use to edit one single photo. So Instasize saw an opportunity and decided to create an all in one, editing powerhouse, for editing on the go.

But, Dr Sunny Sihra from London, UK has launched an app that may reduce the number of visits you pay the dentist.

Dentii is bringing technical and design innovation to the $37 billion global oral care market with its sleek black electronic toothbrush that maps the geometry of the person's mouth, plus the pressure and brushing path, which then connects to an app. The person is able to connect the app to their dentist, sending them the information to analyse, and inform their patients of possible areas of their mouth they may be missing and how to improve their dental health.

It also promotes an early detection of problems to prevent any serious procedures or complications. Dr Sihra has plans to advance the technology to the point of being able to detect oral cancer in its first stages.

The startup raised its £40 000 target within just five days. The electric toothbrushes are available in Anodised Aluminium, Silver, Gold or Rose Gold versions. The bases are designed from wood finishes, making the brush stand out and look elegant. There is a smaller, travel-sized version for those who have been bitten by the travel bug.

With vast growing vortex of social media and the fact that smartphones do not make it any easier for our generation to not get addicted, we all have that uncontrollable urge. We have an urge to use technological devices such as computers, gaming systems and smartphones (obviously!).

Technology addiction appears to be more prevalent among the teenagers of today but is found among the broad population as well. According to the International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine, as many as one in eight Americans suffers from some type of technology addiction.

Social media platforms are not making it any easier for the addicted generation to realise they might fall into the category that picks up their smartphone 150 times a day. Dr Alter writes about technology addiction, suggesting that 40 percent of people have some kind of internet-based addiction, be that social media, pornography or e-mail (which the average worker checks 36 times an hour).

To keep users hooked, many smartphones and apps take a page from machine gambling. By using bright, warm and bold colours, especially with the colour red, which attracts a user's eye faster on a screen. Another form to keep users looking at their phone is via push notifications.

The use of push notifications started back in the day when BlackBerry was cool and BBM was still a thing, yet BlackBerry designed the push notifications to allow users to have less screen time. Today, these push notifications control the way we look at our smartphones. It ensures you retain users and keep them connected, it encourages engagement, triggers recognition and enhances participation.

Have a look at the video below by VOX, that shows you how your smartphone and social media are to blame for your addiction.

Reality Decks is an all-new Oculus Rift application that was programmed and designed from the ground up for virtual reality DJing. From a personalised avatar to elements that a DJ just is not capable of achieving in the real world, Reality Decks open up an entirely new world for virtual reality and music.

In this unprecedented application, you will be able to DJ mix, and record on virtual vinyl turntables, omitting the need for physical hardware to spin tunes. The Reality Deck application uses an exclusive turntable called the RDT-100.

"The RDT-100 accurately models the feel of a direct drive turntable and slipmat but also features unique control mechanisms that make precision mixing possible in VR," states the press release.

Alongside the exclusive RDT-100 turntable, "10 tracks from up-and-coming featured artists, five practice tracks, and 25 vocal hooks for scratching come packaged within the application."

If you are not a DJ, fear not, the Reality Decks application is also for one that is looking to get into the art of DJing without having to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on hardware and software. To get you started, the application comes programmed with six tutorials that will guide you through the fundamentals of what it means to become a DJ. It will teach you how to operate the controls, slip-cueing and beat matching.

The application was built in London by Philip Mackenzie, a developer, producer, and DJ. He produces and DJs under the name Phil Mac.

The Reality Decks application will be available on the Oculus Store on February 22, 2018, for a price of $19.99 (£14.99). If you download it within the first week, you'll receive a discount of 15-percent.

In the meantime have a look at the video below to see what the Reality Decks look like.

Photomath claims to solve all of your maths problems (literally and figuratively) and it's being dubbed a “smart camera calculator”.

It's as simple as pointing your camera at a math problem and the app will produce the answer as well as a step-by-step guide on how to solve the problem. While the app can literally do kids’ homework for them, it can also give them an understanding of the logic behind the answer in a few steps.

The app was created by a company called MicroBlink, which uses text recognition technology that interprets the math problem once it has been scanned – providing instant feedback. Photomath supports basic arithmetics, fractions, decimal numbers, linear equations and several functions like logarithms. The app doesn't recognise handwritten text, for now, meaning that users can only scan textbook equations by placing the equation within the red frame.

There are a few kinks that need to be worked out along the way, aside from only recognising printed text, such as the text recognition technology mistaking an "X" variable for a multiplication symbol, and the red frame limiting the length of the equation that can be scanned.

However, maths equations are just the beginning for MicroBlink as they plan to make advances in using the technology to revolutionise online banking.

Photomath is available on iOS and Android operating systems at no cost!

No, really, you have to either be earning over $200 000 or be invited based on your looks alone, which are voted on by other users. If the candidate hasn't received more than 50% approval rate within 24 hours, they will be rejected. The affluent flaunt their riches to attract partners, paying a monthly premium for upgraded features that lets them be part of the exclusivity of the selective dating world.

Luxy claims 3 million users in comparison to Tinder's 50 million, while 41% of their subscribers have verified that they earn more than $1 million per year.

Luxy recently announced that it would now allow users to pay their premiums using cryptocurrency. Luxy claims they aim to align their app to suit the lifestyle of the affluent community that makes up the Luxy app, now offering their members the option of paying in either traditional currency or Bitcoin. This means that if the user chooses to disclose their net worth on the app, users will be able to view it in cryptocurrency.

We suppose it's just another way to filter out the riff-raff then!

Introducing Montecrypto: The Bitcoin Enigma, a new puzzle game from developers, Gem Rose Collective, launching on Steam on February 20. It's a series of puzzles set in a maze that players explore in first person perspective. The lucky person that solves all 24 puzzles first, gets a real life Bitcoin, says the developers. After that... GAME OVER!

The game costs $1.99 and a single Bitcoin is currently worth a little over $10,970.78, so it’s possible that one lucky user stands to be that much richer.

There is an interesting clue available, before Montecrypto is even released, and can be found on its FAQ page, which links to the GitHub page for btcrecover, "an open source Bitcoin wallet password and seed recovery tool."

The GitHub page explains that brcrecover is designed for cases when users know most of their passwords, but need assistance in trying different possible combinations.

“We are trying to keep our identities secret for now,” Gem Rose Accent wrote in a press release. The developers have said they’ll reveal their identity once a winner claims the Bitcoin. “But, we can say, we are a group of game developers and that we had a crazy idea for a game. As huge fans of treasure hunts we took inspiration from riddles like la chouette d'Or (the golden owl), a statue of the owl was buried in 1993 at the same time a series of clues were published, and still nobody has solved the clues to find the owl and claim the 15kg (33lb) statue made of gold and silver.”

Keep an eye out on our page, we will keep you updated on who won, who the developers are and why they chose to be anonymous.

NBC has embraced the future of an app-controlled society and has invested $500 million in Snapchat to showcase behind the scenes content involving athletes and the audience to broadcast more exclusive content than that found on Twitter and TV. Every day of the Games, Snapchat has been broadcasting two "Our Stories", in which the Snapchat team compiles snaps from important athletes and public figures as well as other highlights of the day. The Stories look at snippets during the Games and behind-the-scenes at Olympics Village, interacting with the athletes.

The Snapchat Discover feature has also allowed users to engage with pre-game content as well as producing two mini series specifically for Snapchat such as one titled Pipe Dreams which is on three Olympic snowboarders. The other titled Chasing Gold gives an exclusive view on Team USA athletes, including Lindsey Vonn, Chloe Kim, Gus Kenworth, and Nathan Chen. Possibly the biggest attraction has been the featured segments of the competition called "live player" which allows TV networks to stream live broadcasts through the app. Subscribing to these live broadcasts will notify the user when a live update is being streamed.

Although it only broadcasts a few minutes, it helps keep people relatively up to date throughout the day.

The paranormal series is famous for its mystery murder element with just enough horror to make you a bit jumpy. Between children with superpowers and extraterrestrial beings, people around the world have become hooked.

The opening scene of the game begins in 2010, before the restoration of the series last year, and the game isn't based on a continuous story but contains separate, independent episodes in which the user has to solve crimes. The creators of the game have announced that new cases will be released every month and will focus on stories of alien invasion and government conspiracy theories. It is said to follow the structure of the series, using actual news headlines to incorporate into the plot.

The game is multi-layered and requires a bit of digging to solve the mystery, relying on dialogue choices and sweeping crime scenes. In order to progress through the levels, users have to complete mini puzzles or games like identifying patterns and replay these games to increase your star stash.

The game is free to download but does require a few in-game purchases and is available on iOS and Android.

This is a thoughtful collaboration by Airbnb and an opportunity to meet scientists, researchers and filmmakers. You will enter the deep rover, or perhaps the TRITON 3300/3 – seasoned submarines that have seen countless shipwreck renaissance missions and successful undersea videography voyages. These machines are built for true adventures. You will be safe and immune to hundreds of pounds of pressure, but feel a vulnerability that only a 360-degree view of near-uncharted territory can give.

You and the submarine pilot will be busy exploring the Cape Eleuthera, "one of the most biologically diverse areas of the Atlantic ocean,’ according to BBC worldwide’s Airbnb listing.

Be sure to have a look at the competition and why not enter? who knows, you might end up being the lucky winner

Up until the latest update, the ARKit has been focused on offering horizontal plane detection, allowing developers to know where the 'floor' is that it can then use to orient or place objects in 3D space. It left the picture short of allowing for full 3D spatial recognition of a given field, as that horizontal plane would essentially go on forever, ignoring walls or other vertical surfaces.

With this update, ARKit can now recognise vertical surfaces and place objects on those surfaces as well. Imagine a game that allows you to throw darts at a wall, with the target mounted to an actual wall, rather than floating in space.

Google's ARCore has supported some wall detection previously, and Apple's version of wall detection will detect planes that are vertical or just off vertical but not heavily angled initially. In addition, ARKit gets an update to horizontal plotting to allow for better recognition of irregularly shaped objects like circular tables or chairs, and line detection. The overall speed of the app has been improved in speed and accuracy as well.

ARKit will now also display the 'real world' at a full 1080p, an upgrade over previous versions which shipped the video components out to users at 720p, making the "real" parts of the scene look worse than the "fake" parts. With AR, we are going to see many different 'experiences'. There will be enabling apps or tools, but the experience themselves will be universal. But for now, we have to wait for the nice iteration on the initial release of ARKit.

Creator, Dries Deporter, built the app to help people "do something positive with low battery". It was supposed to be used as a dating site, pushing people to meet in person due to the lack of time they have to chat.

Although the features and functionality is limited so that the app doesn't drain your battery faster, it simply asks for your number and a nickname to allow you to access the messaging service. The app doesn't give the user any option to send photos or videos and no one has a profile picture, so users are only known by their nicknames. The app preys on peoples feelings, on fleeting moments in life, and hopefully make a couple of new friends along the way.

It seems like a pretty strange concept to think about, but Deporter explained how he conceptualised the app: “I have to travel a lot to speak about my work at all sort of conferences, I was in a city that I didn’t know on my way back to the hotel, and my phone battery was low. I was really stressed about this as it was already turning to night. At that moment, I had the idea for an app that you can only use when you have low battery. But I didn’t know how it would work until we came up with the idea of making it a public chatroom.”

Although the creators had trouble getting it onto the iOS store, once it was released, it took 15th place in the store's entertainment category. Die With Me has recorded over half a million messages in conversations so far and an average of 8 people in the chatroom at one time.

The app is currently available on the iOS and Android store for $0.99.

If you feel like having a cultured day but don't feel like leaving the comfort of your house, the app allows you to explore famous galleries using "street view". The app even delves into fashion, displaying the world's fashion trends during World War 2. The app gives users easy access to cultural wonders ranging from castles and famous ruins to tours of natural history museums. The user can immerse themselves in a cultural wonderland using virtual reality. Google Arts and Culture suggests museums and art galleries near you based on your location and uses an "art recogniser" to give you more information about a painting by simply pointing your camera at it.

All of these features make it a pretty valuable and educational app, but the app has recently exploded with stars like Kate Hudson and Kristen Bell mentioning it on their social media pages. There are very few times that celebrities promote apps on such a large scale but who could blame them with the new selfie-matching feature. It uses facial recognition technology to match the person's features to a famous art piece in the database. The aim of this new feature was to make art more interactive and give people an easier way to interact with cultural artefacts.

Although theselfie feature is not the available worldwide just yet, theapp itself is free and available on Android and Apple. Theselfie feature is still in an experimental phase and is therefore only available in certain parts of the US. Many people have expressed interest in the feature but there has also been an outcry on the limited matches available for people of colour. They found that their features were either distorted or that there was little variety of art pieces featuring people of colour. The app clearly displays art's historical biases depicting people of colour in stereotypical art pieces as slaves. When Google Art Project first launched in 2011, it had only partnered with 17 museums, most of which were located in Western Europe and Washington D.C., New York – leading to accusations of Eurocentrism.

Shortly after these accusations emerged, they broadened the art spectrum to museums and galleries in over 70 countries but it is still obvious that European and American culture dominates, showing the necessity of cultural diversity. Unfortunately, Google Arts and Culture aimed to become more diverse but with such little diversity in museums themselves, the algorithm used to match selfies simply perpetuates this. As the app is still in its experimental phase, Google is taking the opportunity to adjust the algorithm to challenge racism and Eurocentric culture.

Yes, Sweatcoin pays its users cryptocurrency depending on how far you have walked, and it is taking over the market like wildfire and has already beaten WhatsApp as the most popular app on the App Store. It must be noted that the app pays in its own cryptocurrency – Sweatcoin – which can be used in more than 300 stores including Boohoo, Hellofresh and Graze.

The app was launched in 2016 in London, and Sweatcoin recently gained popularity thanks to the sudden surge in Bitcoin prices, and raised $5.7 million in fundings from different investors. The app is currently only available in Ireland, United Kingdom and the United States while its developers are planning to make it available for Asian and European users soon.

The app works in such a way that its 'Walk&Earn' function tracks a user's movement and then rewards them with 0.95 Sweatcoins for every 1,000 steps. Therefore – not only is it a case of the more you walk the more you burn calories – but also the more you walk or run, the more you earn Sweatcoins.

“We track & verify your outdoor steps using your phone’s accelerometers and GPS location. Those steps get converted into our currency – Sweatcoins,” explains the firm.

The free version of the app allows users to earn 5 Sweatcoins per day up to 5,000 steps, while upgrading it allows users to earn more Sweatcoins on daily bases. The app also offers Amazon and PayPal gift cards, lets users donate to charities, send it to other users and even shop with Sweatcoins.

While the basic idea of the app is to bring people out from their houses and develop a healthy environment worldwide; for those concerned about their privacy it might not be a good idea since the app tracks user’s precise location through their device GPS. However, if you have no problem with that then you are good to go.

Learn more about the Sweatcoin app by watching the fully detailed video below:

Snap Chief Executive, Evan Spiegel, said that the redesign was a response to many complaints over the years that the app was difficult to understand and use. Although Snapchat is popular amongst social media fans due to messages and photos which disappear within seconds, it also faces a lot of opposing competition from Facebook and Instagram. Having such big competitors means that the app has to constantly keep up with the dynamic changes Facebook and Instagram make to keep themselves relevant.

The new feature allows users to swipe right to see chats, stories and posts from their friends, and swipe left to see posts from publishers and content creators. Snapchat also plans to launch more features that allow users to share their posts and stories to a more public domain further than their friends and immediate social circle. It will allow users to publicly broadcast their stories and snaps similarly to Instagram and Twitter. Snapchat will also personalise the individuals feed based on the content that the user regularly watches.

The increase in the personalisation of the app could mean that users would be exposed to more ads as it is now easier to target specific target groups. Group chats now have their own specific group story that all members are able to contribute to. If you follow another user on Snapchat but they don't follow you back, their feed will be under the discover tab but if they follow your profile back, they will appear under your friends list. Your "best friend's" stories on Snapchat will appear first and the rest of your social circle's posts thereafter.

Users will still be able to click and hold on a content creator to subscribe which influences the algorithm but it also gives you an option, "See less", that hides the account's posts. Snapchat is using an editorial and moderation team to filter out any fake news and make sure that the content that users are viewing is of a higher quality. If a user has enough followers after the content has been approved by the moderation team, it can be placed as a "popular story" regardless of whether the user follows them or not.

Snap is also facing troubles with Wall Street investors who have been selling their shares due to the slowing user growth rate. Snapchat is hoping that the new features will draw new users to the app.

Smart Reply is already available in certain Google apps, like Inbox, Gmail and Allo. Now, some online sources detail that the inclusion of this feature is going to be implemented in an upcoming version of Gboard for Android, which leads us to believe that, based on the contents of your screen, it will suggest contextually relevant phrases that you can use to reply with, just by tapping once instead of having to type.

Since it is still in the works, we can't say yet what the feature will look like in the Gboard, but for reference, here is how Smart Reply will look like in Gmail:

Even though the emphasis is on growing relationships, ghosting is still a common problem. Ghosting is a sudden exit of a relationship or abrupt end in communication without any warning. However, the Hinge team conducted some research which showed that a lot of ghosters simply forget to reply or simply get distracted or busy, which seems pretty harmless. Hinge has now released a new feature to cater to these innocent ghosters to remind them that they haven't replied to an ongoing conversation, it's called "Your Turn". The new feature attempts to remove the awkwardness of the situation and helps users to decipher between ghosters who simply forgot or those who just aren't interested.

The feature also allows users to clean up their inbox to hide a match that didn't work out in order to keep the interested matches or potential relationships at the top of the user's inbox list. Although there is no way to eliminate ghosting altogether, it reduces the chance of a forgetful match from forgetting to respond.

People love easy-to-use products, and it is never too late to get involved in cryptocurrency too. Here is a free app to get you started on the steps to becoming a Bitcoin trader. With Luno, your money is safe and secure.

Available: iPhone, Android or over your web browser

Bitcoin is currently one of the most popular cryptocurrencies out there and, if you still do not know what it is all about, well, where have you been?

Bitcoin is a digital currency, but unlike money, it is not owned or operated by a bank or government. Everyone who uses Bitcoin is part owner and operator of the Bitcoin bank. You can anonymously buy anything from drugs on the dark web to pints of beer at a high-tech bar. Right now, one Bitcoin is worth roughly $10,400, so even a night of heavy drinking would only cost you around 0.0008 Bitcoins.

Why would Trump's radical opinion and outrageous statements benefit anyone? Well, Twitter stated that: “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.” Although Trump was not specified in the carefully crafted response, its pretty obvious seeing that most of his tweets stir up a flurry of debate and mostly panic.

Trumps most recent golden tweet involved inadvertently threatening North Korea stating that his nuclear button was bigger that Kim Jong Un's. This is only one of many thinly veiled nuclear war threats (enough to get anyone else banned) however, Twitter deems his tweets are newsworthy, giving him more freedom than other Twitter users.

Twitter, having defended themselves against this problem before, claimed that they even have a system in place to judge these borderline tweets. The system is described by employees: "We review Tweets by leaders within the political context that defines them, and enforce our rules accordingly. No one person’s account drives Twitter's growth or influences these decisions. We work hard to remain unbiased with the public interest in mind.”

As Twitter states, if Trump didn't have Twitter to poke threats at Kim Jong Un, he would find another way to do so. Either way, the result would end up the same and this way its easier for the media to track.

The IAm Neil Patrick Harris app pulls all of his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts and integrates them all into a single app. Since Harris has jumped on board, over 250 celebrities have followed and created profiles such as James Corden and Bob Saget. The app also allows celebs to interact with their clients more easily through the Live Streaming and Chat Room functions.

The IAm app also allows celebrities to have more freedom in managing their social profile, will even take impromptu live videos specifically for the app, and can select individual fans to chat with during the live stream. Harris describes it as a "one-stop shop" for the ultimate fans who get notified as soon as the celeb posts anything on social media. It does require the users to actively turn on the notifications for the celebrities posts which will pop up as the celebrities face.

Being an avid user, Harris says that another advantage is that due to the specificity, there are far fewer trolls out to spread negativity. Since the network is more secure and supportive, celebs feel more comfortable to post more often about their personal lives. The app is currently available on iOS and Android at no cost but the platform is already making moves to expand the app into a TV channel. The platform will literally give fans a whole TV channel on one celebrity feat smart TVs, set-top boxes and car infotainment systems.

Long-term plans involve the platform evolving to the point of gaining license rights to the celebrities TV shows, in this case How I Met Your Mother and show the episodes on the TV shows. They are currently entering into a partnership with Samba TV, which is a content recommendation engine to collaborate and grow the app to full-on TV channels. It would also include videos or shows based on the celebs interest such as magic and art.

The whole platform aims for specificity and mega fans that respond to and engage with such specific content. Eventually, IAm will turn into thousands of celebrity specific apps and channels that captures their specific fan base.

The app requires personal information such as name, email, a profile picture and your phone number to be able to add your friends to your profile. Users are required to click the waving hand on a contact's profile photo in order to start a video chat and the screen is split between yourself and the people you are chatting with. The screen can be split into 8 with everyone being able to see each other and chat at the same time. If the chat is private, users are able to lock the chat so that no other users are able to join.

The app is available on Google Play and the Apple Store at no cost but the app runs on wifi and data but, if the connection is unstable, the app will cut off the video stream and revert to an audio conversation. If you feel you need to video chat NOW and just waving doesn't convey your urgency, you are able to buzz them which will send a vibration notification to their phone. If you don’t want your friend to be notified that you are in the house whenever you open the app you can ghost them by disabling this feature.

All videos and messages will be public but clicking on a person's profile and "pass note" allows the users to send private messages to each other. Unlike Whatsapp which notifies all your contacts when you are online, Houseparty gives users the option of "sneaking into the house" which allows you to use the app without letting your friend know that they are online.

It seems the app has attempted to one-up Skype, making it a more group-centered chat atmosphere.

The app is aimed at using the sensors in the phone like its camera, microphones, gyroscopes and accelerometers to alert the user if there is a disturbance near the phone. Ideally, the app would be installed on a burner phone which uses an Android 4.1 or higher operating system which will send a text to your cellphone if it detects a disturbance. Haven even allows users to set up the phone's camera to record videos.

The app relies on the user inputting their number into the app or using another messaging app called Signal which is more secure. Once the app is set up, the user points the camera towards an area they would like to secure such as a door and sets up a timer before they leave to begin surveillance. If an unusual amount of movement or sound is detected, the app will send a message to the user's cellphone and begin recording using the camera of the burn phone.

Essentially, the burner phone will witness anything that happens in the room and allows the user to keep a record of it. Sending videos and recordings of your home may seem counter intuitive to the whole privacy notion but every piece of audio or video clip is end–to–end encrypted using the messaging app, Signal. It ensures that the surveillance information cannot be used against its owner. The app also works in conjunction with an app called Orbot that can use your phone as a server on the dark net meaning that the event log can be accessed from a device with an untraceable connection

It is currently available on Android at no cost.

Worry no more because you do not have to go toSephora or to your dermatologist to find out that Johnson & Johnson-ownedNeutrogena has unveiled its skin scanner, the Neutrogena skin360, complete with artificial intelligence at CES 2018.
The Neutrogena skin360 is comprised of a power duo: the skin scanner tool simply plugs into your smartphone and the app does the rest.

Together, it works to give you information on your skin regarding the moisture level, pores and lines. The device that attaches to your smartphone features 12 high-powered LED lights, a 30x magnification lens and highly accurate sensors – the scanner can see above and below the skin's surface. After the analysis, the app will give you feedback on which Neutrogena products you can use to help your skin.

"Shopping for skincare products can be an overwhelming and confusing experience for our consumer because she is uncertain about what her skin really needs," said Sebastien Guillon, global president of beauty at Johnson & Johnson Consumer. "Smart and connected technology helps us provide our consumer with personalised analyses and information she needs in real time so she can make decisions that will help her achieve her best skin ever."

Johnson & Johnson collaborated with FitSkin to develop the tool and mobile app. The Neutrogena skin360 app and SkinScanner tool will be available for purchase later this year for $49.99 on the company's website.

1. Minecraft – Although Minecraft has created a name for itself outside of the social media world, the team have used YouTube to keep the game relevant and continually increase it's following. YouTube provides a great way for an app to interact with its users and make players aware of live events. Minecraft has created it's own YouTube channel called Mojang that even allows players to ask questions and get behind the scenes information on new updates and events.
   
   
2. Lumosity – The Lumosity team has taken a different path and taken over the Google+ scene and since there aren't many users who actually populate the site, it seems they have taken over. They use the opportunity to post information about the app itself, pictures and fact which tend to get a lot of attention.
   
   
3. Fitbit – Despite the arguments surrounding the best fitness brand, Fitbit has broken through the competitive boundary and has made a name for itself amongst Garmin and Polar. Among a growing fitness fan base, it is not an easy feat to get media attention, however, the easiest way to get the fit community to take a second look at your product is by creating a blog. Fitbit has included a mixture of exercise tips, food recipes, supplement tips and success stories. Their blog manages to get the target audience encapsulated and hots the nail on the head.
   
   
4. Clash of Clans – All those annoying game requests you receive from your Facebook friends can be blamed on Clash of Clans who have made themselves famous due to their Facebook presence. Their page even makes space for fan art which encourages an interactive platform for users.
   
   
5. Runtastic – Runtastic has taken advantage of those Pintrest fiends who love to DIY anything they can get their hands on. From recipes, to exercise, their boards cover it all. Of course, it is all aimed at women due to the lack of men that populate Pintrest.

These marketing strategies are so good that you don't even realise that the app is marketing itself and it just catches the attention of the reader enough to click on the link or read that article.

Subtlety is an art!

A fake iOS version was released with real screenshots of the game and listed StudioMDHR as the developer. However, the give away was that queries were sent to studiomdhrgames.com instead of the legitimate site, studiomdhr.com. The game also uses an incorrect name "StudioMDHR Entertainment Inc." and is registered to Walter Gregor who isn't even an employee at StudioMDHR.

As the real game has not been released on iOS as of yet, the company were shocked when they heard of this release which was suspicious as they would not have done the iOS release on the down low as they publicise themselves and their products on social media.
StudioMDHR director of experience Ryan Moldenhauer confirmed that they are working on having the app removed. The fake game still allows the user to play it using touch controls but the low-resolution background and slow response time makes it more difficult.

Although duplicating Cuphead is not difficult, it should not be able to slip through the gap of Apple's submission process. Apple has removed the app thus far but has not commented on whether those who had downloaded the game will be refunded.

The app is perfect for people who are repelled by the idea of working out with a group of sweaty people in a tiny room but still want to get fit. The trainer tells you when to increase speed or intensity, and sessions last anywhere from 10 to 90 minutes. The app provides a range of different trainers, shown by their individual profile pictures, who all have their own style so that the user can find whichever style suits them best. Once you have been through a workout and intend to repeat it at a later stage, the Aaptiv allows you to add it to your favorite list.

For those who are planning to take part in a running race, the app includes a 5km and a 10km training program. Although it is significantly cheaper than paying for a personal trainer, it still requires the user to pay a subscription fee of $9.99 per month or $106 per year.

The app does claim to allow a one month free trial but requires you to select a payment plan and insert your details before you have access to the free trial.
It seems to be a worthwhile app whether you are a fitness freak or a couch potato who wants to get fit.

The search queries inside the website have increased dramatically and, as people search for certain people's profiles, it stores the data of your search history so that you are able to immediately click on the name next time you want to look at that profile again.

However, if you prefer to keep your search endeavors to yourself, there is a way to delete your search history on the Facebook site as well as the app.

1. Once you have logged into your profile on the Facebook website, you need to go to your profile page and search for the "Activity Log" on your cover photo.
   
   
2. You are then able to see all of the posts you have liked, reacted to, shared and commented on with a "More" option on the left.
   
   
3. Under the "More" tab, it will provide a long list of filters where you can see the search tab.
   
   
4. Once clicking on the search tab, a list of the pages and profiles that you have searched for will show up based on a timeline.
   
   
5. Once you have clicked on the search tab, clicking "Clear Searches" will delete all results.

The Facebook app works a bit differently in that you don't actually have to even go to your profile.

1. Once you are in the Facebook app clicking on the search button will drop down the recent searches.
   
   
2. An "Edit" option should be available in the top righthand corner. Once you click on "Edit" an activity log page should open revealing all of your recent searches to date.
   
   
3. The top of the page will have a "Clear Searches" option at the top followed by clicking "Confirm" and your search history should be clean.

See, easy! But don't let this little piece of advice turn you into some creepy stalker, that's not cool.

Whether bringing a favourite story to life or making the festive season a little more manageable, users will be able to enjoy Star Wars and Netflix marketing in a whole new way. You will be able to watch Stranger Things' Eleven chew on some waffles; surround yourself with AR balloons and champagne; evaluate Porg and its relevance in the Star Wars universe. These stickers have the potential to become another intrusive form of marketing but, at the moment they appear harmless, optional, and even hilarious at times. They make funky sounds, jump around, attempt to communicate with the user. One might actually take a step back and wonder, are you sucking the character into your life story, or are the characters bringing you into theirs?

Airbnb announced early December that it is in the beginning stages of adding VR and AR to its services, predicting their own use of 360º photos and 3D scan to let tenants explore homes and cities before they arrive. The augmented reality will assist travellers by throwing up contextual information such as 'directions to the coffee mugs' or 'instant translations on how to work that German thermostat'.

It is also hoped that the augmented reality might breathe life into the space for the tenant, allowing them to get to know the city they are staying in. The announcement for the updated feature to the Airbnb app came after they conducted a similar experience in a collaboration with Muller van Severen during the Design Miami 2017 event. The Belgian design duo offered an intimate exploration of their shared home by duplicating it in Miami and hosting precise replicas of treasured objects accompanied by recorded scenes sharing their deeper meanings.

Airbnb has not announced exactly when these new features will be released and stress that any new functionality added to the app will require "experimentation, iteration, and technological evolution," and most importantly, time.

In the meantime, you can have a look at the Airbnb concept idea in the video below.

Once the app is downloaded, it asks you to scan the floor using your camera. Once the scan is complete, the app allows you to choose from several different resizable objects that you are able to place in any location that you point your camera and it allows you to adjust the angle and size of the object. If you want to get rid of the furniture you have placed, you can click on the delete option or use the extra fun "natural disaster" option that will sweep away your virtual furniture via tornado. But if you choose to keep the layout that you designed, the app can save it to your phone and allows you to adjust it later if needs be.

It allows you to walk into a furniture shop without any deliberation and know that you need a 2 by 2 metre coffee table with the absolute confidence that it will fit in your living room.
It is currently available on the Apple store at no charge and is not yet available on ios

Augmented reality and smartphones have given users the chance to virtually materialize bimmers in their garage, living room and on top of their cat. Millions of Apple users can do the same with the BMW i visualiser app. BMW is one of the first car brands to take advantage of Apple's ARKit, but do not go opening the app store just yet...

Instead of satisfyingly clicking on the solid-blue 'GET', some iOS folks may not be able to download the app. The app is only available for download on iPhone 6s/6s plus and newer, as well as the 2017 iPad and iPad pro. The app, unfortunately, "requires specific features not available on this device." but that is to be expected.
Overall the app is a good experiment in the early days of augmented reality and, for now, the BMW i visualiser is inching ahead of the smartphone marketing curve. In the past, car junkies would scatter posters across their walls, but now they can project an actual car virtually anywhere. These shaky projections viewed in tiny screens do not quite replace a classic photo of a sexy car mounted on the wall of a man-cave, but they might be close.

Several automakers are seeing a potential for augmented reality to complement their retail experience with the ability to see a vehicle virtually anywhere and explore it in detail while being able to change its configuration at the touch of a screen.
You can look at the video below to see how the BMW i3s electric car looks like on the Apple ARKit.

This time, we decided to go to the completely useless side of things, kicking it off with Faceapp. While it doesn't have any significant features that would make you rush to download it, the fact that you can take a photo of yourself and change your gender does give you about a week of laughs while testing it on your friends and family before you delete it. Ever seen one of those videos with the annoying screaming rubber chickens? There's an app for that. It was probably created for the sole purpose of annoying people. iNude is an app that blurs out certain parts of a photo using skin colored pixels. That's literally all it does...

You know those people who always brag about the amount of money they have in their account? There is an app for that too! you can create a fake bank account with fake amounts of money to trick people into thinking you are rich. Emojis have become their own language and there are even emojis that use facial recognition to map your expressions to be emulated on the app. So there is some pretty advanced emoji technology out there – and then you get Horsemoji. Its pretty self-explanatory and even comes with a horse drinking tea! Some apps were even so useless that the creators didn't bother to spell check, making it look like a 7 year old wrote it!

Most of them were so useless yet even had the cheek to charge people money to download them! It should be considered a crime for stealing people time and money but it makes for a hilarious app review!

Vincent Vievers began chatting with friends at a braai in Durban, South Africa, about the struggle of running out of alcohol yet not being able to drive to get more due to being over the limit. Wishing that they were able to order more drinks through an app and have it delivered with a simple click of a button, Vievers and his partners, Enrico Ferigolli and Martina Mondelli, got to work. With the partners having 10 years of marketing and business management experience combined, they began to create an app that delivers alcohol on demand.

They sought after investors who would be willing to put money into their company after a successful four month trial which started in Durban and has now stretched as far as Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. They aren't worried about other competing apps, however, they are worried about the competition regarding the old way of doing business – in other words, people driving to the shops to buy booze.

They are less concerned about South Africans moving away from the disruptive movement of using technology to order drinks conveniently to be delivered. International competition comes from the US from apps such as Drizly and Saucey – which use a similar business model to deliver alcohol.

After downloading the app, it will ask you to confirm that you are 18 or older then it will request that you turn on your location settings. The app uses your location to find the closest bottle store near you. Alternatively, it does allow you to type in the address you would like your order to be delivered. The app will then bring up a list of alcohol you are able to order in categories such as wine, beer, mixers, spirits and rum. Then you are able to choose your desired brand, adding it to your cart then allowing you to check out, making a cashless payment off your debit or credit card for your order to be delivered within an hour. The price of your order is dependant on the prices of the alcohol stores near your location that have partnered with Bottles and an added delivery fee of R50.

So, this app is great for adults who want to share a bottle of wine, but it also makes it easier for underage children to get hold of alcohol. Vievers said that they have dealt with this issue by asking customers for a valid ID or drivers license before handing over their order. The app has also had issues with regards to a lack of specificity in location when delivering, which can make it difficult to deliver the order within an estate or complex. They are looking to add a feature that allows users to add a delivery note that specifies the exact address. Although the app does have a feature that allows users to track the exact progress on their order

Vievers claims that many breweries and wine farms have contacted the company with regards to a possible partnership with their product.

The app is available at no cost for download on the Apple and Android store.

Our Rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS and Android

Huggle is a British app that shuns appearance-matching and connects its users based on mutual interest and the places they have in common. The founders of Huggle, Stina Sanders and Valerie Stark, met after Valerie moved to London from Moscow and found Stina through Instagram.

Although the app is intended to be used to meet friends and people with mutual interest, it can also be used for dating, but it is not geared towards that audience like other online dating apps or services.

When downloading the app from the app store, and once installed, Huggle lets users connect through their Facebook profile, which makes it much easier to verify the new user. Once you are done connecting your Facebook page, the user needs to follow some on-screen instructions. It sets up your profile for you – cause finding friends (or even a date) is so much better with photos.

The Huggle app has a photo verification feature which verifies profiles by asking users to take a number of selfies which are then approved by the moderators. Your profile includes your name, age, work, education, a short bio, and one photo as well as the check-ins you have in common.

The friendship app uses your location, but make sure you choose the option "use location only when using the app". Huggle picks the user's favourite places they would like to hang out – which you can skip – and you can even search for your favourite cocktail lounge (it even had my ultimate favourite place.) 

Huggle lets the user choose what they are looking for: a date or to find a friend. The app works by letting the user edit their search preferences under settings. You can select your ideal age range and choose how many places you need to have in common with the person in order for the other user to be able to contact you.

It may seem like the latest breaking of the barrier in letting unwanted admirers track you down, but there are safety features on the app that make sure that the full list of your frequented locations is never shared with other Huggle users.

A user cannot check-in to places that they don’t actually go to, a user has to actually visit the place to check in there as Huggle uses GPS to check you into the places you go. When someone else is checked into the same place as you, you can see their profile, so why not say hi!

In a way, Huggle takes the hassle out of trying to cultivate friendships on Instagram. As for the interface design of the app, it is simple and a really cool design, when you start swiping across a diverse set of humans – female and male – you can swipe right for like and left for not your type.

Huggle is definitely something to check out, especially if you are new to an unknown city. There are high hopes for the app's future – and no doubt the more people who use Huggle the better it will become. So, if you're new to the city or are just sick of your old friends, we recommend trying it out—and if you see someone you find interesting, do say hello!

Check out the demo video of Huggle below!

The app uses artificial intelligence to gather information from satellite images such as the health of the crops over time, detecting water leaks and creating moisture maps of certain areas, plus locating exact areas where there may be a problem in orchards.

The main aim of the app is to allow farmers to effectively manage their time and resources regularly to produce more and waste less water, as well as pest management. The app updates farmers with 10m resolution satellite data and farmers can even use drones fitted with multispectral cameras to create a 3D map of an area.

Farming apps aim to optimise farming and allow farmers to mitigate the risks of pests or unhealthy crops at an affordable price.

Check out the demonstration video below.

Most users have to budget their data and rely on Wi–Fi most of the time. Datally shows which apps are running in the background, allows you stop those apps and has a system that relies on your location setting which notifies the user of nearby hotspots that they would be able to use to connect to the internet without using their data. Other users are also able to rate the Wi–Fi network. The app tracks your data usage apps in real–time and blocks the app's data usage as well as tracking your data usage trends over time. In certain countries, users are able to SMS a certain number that will report back on your data balance and give you personalized tips to reduce your data usage.

The app was launched as a test in the Philippines where it got half a million downloads. It works on Android smartphones with Lollipop 5.0 or with more recent versions of the Google–based mobile operating system.

Being data–smart could really save you some big bucks!

Surely, all of us have used some sort of app to navigate around an unknown neighbourhood, and yet somehow you end up going in the wrong direction. And before you realize you are going the wrong way your GPS will jump in and tell you to make a U-turn in the next few meters.

The problem is that GPS signals do not work so well in built-up cities, bouncing off the walls of tall buildings and can get a bit lost.
Now, imagine there was no need for GPS but, instead, arrows could be overlaid on a smartphone camera's field of vision that could show you which way to go.

The Blippar's AR City app is an example of such an idea. It is one of many applications of mixed or augmented reality and computer vision working together.
Computer vision is a branch of artificial intelligence that involves teaching computers how to recognise and discern between objects in the real world.

The guys at Blippar have developed "urban visual positioning" that it claims has double the accuracy of GPS. This computer vision feature, incorporated in its new app recognises exactly where users are and overlays directional information on the phone's screen.

So users will be able to see which direction they should drive or walk. This level of detail is currently only available in Central London in the UK and San Francisco and Mountain View in California, US, explains Danny Lopez, Blippar's chief operating officer.

Basic navigation, using AR overlaid onto Apple Maps, will make is easy to navigate through 300 cities and make use of existing GPS technology added Lopez. Street names and information about points of interest will also be overlaid onto the maps.
This beta version of the AR City app is only available for Apple iPhone 6s and above.

However, Blippar initially specialised in applying AR to marketing – making products come to life when you point your smartphone at them.
But since then it has refocused its attention on "indexing and cataloguing the physical world", says Lopez.

But getting machines to understand the world visually is no mean feat.
"Historically, computers have understood and organised text data," says Ian Hogg, principal analyst at research firm IHS Markit.

"But in recent years we've seen computers organise photos based on understanding the composition – whether they are mostly beaches, forests, people and so on. Now they're moving into real-time analysis – such as the Microsoft Translate app recognising a sign and translating it instantaneously," adds Hogg.

Computers do not see digital images, they see and read in numbers, so they have to be trained to interpret those patterns.

"This involves breaking down thousands and thousands of images into pixels then using algorithms to teach the machine the difference between a human, a house or a car," says Lopez.

It took the company three months to train its system to recognize every make and model of car in the US with an accuracy of 97.5%, he says.
This could not have been achieved without the rise of cloud computing power. Ben Silbermann, the co-founder and chief executive of Pinterest, said the "visual discovery tool" that has 200 million users globally, and his company is "at the leading edge of computer vision".

The tool could be used by professionals to help protect sensitive data or help boost the privacy of any smartphone user, especially those using their device in a crowded place.
The system works using the front camera to detect if a second pair of eyes are looking at the screen, it then sends an alert to the user if it detects the presence of someone else.

Check out the demo video below.

The most attractive feature of this app is that the user is able to remain 100% anonymous to everyone. Users have to be 17 or older and they are not able to follow other users nor does the app allow people to make a personal profile. The only information a user is able to add to the post is the name of a school or group but the app doesn't require any access to your social media profiles or email address.

There is no search function in which users would be able to search for another anonymous user but it does allow users to search for a post by category, location, editor's picks or the latest posts. Users are able to respond to whispers by sending your own Whisper, liking it or using the private messaging feature. Many Whispers have appeared on social media because they are hilarious (without revealing the person's identity of course) but it also allows users to air any frustrations and built up emotions without the fear of being discovered or judged.

The app was released in 2012 but only began becoming popular at the end of 2013 and reported 2.5 billion page views per day. The users are mainly teenagers and young university students and is a similar digital version of the "Post Secret Project" in which people would mail their secrets written on the back of postcards. The app was created with the intention of allowing people to vent their deepest secrets, which are moderated, and those who post particularly concerning content are offered professional help.

There are, as always, reasons to be cautious of apps like these. While the app is anonymous, it is not void of the risk of being hacked and having usernames and phone numbers leaked – which is a disaster that could ruin many users' reputation depending on what they post. The secrets you post on Whisper don't necessarily disappear after a certain amount of time and can be used on other sites like Buzzfeeds or even posted on Facebook by other users. If the amount of Whisper users in your area is very limited, it could also be easy to put the pieces together and figure out who posted the Whisper.

As if Tinder and other dating apps aren't bad enough, trying to pick someone up or get a date off of an app that prides itself on anonymity, would be even more dangerous. Just think about meeting someone without knowing what they look like, their name or any other information about them. The person is also able to use personal secrets posted on Whisper to manipulate the user if their heart so desired.

Whisper has good intentions and can be useful to vent what you aren't able to tell others, but it doesn't come without dangers, it's perhaps not as "anonymous" as you think!

The Developers at Microsoft plan on using the AI-powered chatbot technology to assist in teaching more than just Chinese, for instance, it can be used to reverse the roles and learn English. Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to learn and is made even more difficult by the myraid variation and nuances. Like any language, learning syntax and grammar isn't enough, verbal practice is so important in portraying a word's meaning with different tones, and thankfully the chatbot uses Microsoft speech recognition technologies with machine-learning models built by native speakers, allowing users to speak out their dialect in Chinese.

Yan Xia, who is a senior development lead at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing explains "You think you know Chinese, but if you meet a Chinese person and you want to speak Chinese, there is no way you can do it if you have not practiced", Which is 100% true with almost everything we do in life and that's why this application addresses this issue by leveraging our speech with natural language processing technology.

If you aren't sure of your progress you need not worry as the app comes with an advanced grading system that provides instant feedback. It provides scores on your progress and highlights words that need improvement. Whether you are a beginner or intermediate with learning the Chinese language this app links to sample audio to hear the proper pronunciation to assist you in learning the correct way to have a conversation in Chinese.

Our rating: 4/5
Available on: Android and iOS

Hey! Vina has a similar setup to Tinder which makes it simple to use. Users are able to specify whether they are male or female, which will then connect them to users of the same gender. The user is then asked to specify their age, the general area that they live in and a short bio. After this setup, the user is asked a couple questions such as your work–life balance, whether you would rather drink tea or coffee and whether you are an introvert, extrovert or ambivert. Users are also able to join a series of communities if they choose, based on their interests such as runners, dog parents, entrepreneurs, sing ladies and yogis.

This will then bring up other users for you to swipe with similar interests.

Users are able to swipe left to reject the other users' profiles, and right to accept. If the other user decides to swipe right to you as well, called a "ditto", it automatically connects you via the messaging system and introduces you to the other user.

The intention of the app is to provide an easier way to make friends, which can sometimes be difficult nowdays days. It definitely puts the power of being social into the user's hands and allows them to take control of their social lives in a way that may be more comfortable.

In theory, it is a fantastic idea and all users are aware of the intention to make friends, however, it could easily turn sour and be used by men to lure women, which is not a problem specific to this app. The app would just make it easier because women generally feel more comfortable opening up to another woman. There are also a few problems with using the app itself when the user chooses communities and rejects another user, the rejected profile still shows up on other communities. The app also only allows you to connect through facebook so, if a user doesn't want to connect their Facebook profile with the app, they are unable to create an account.

Hey! Vina requires constant checking because the app doesn't notify you when you have matched with another user, putting you at risk for losing out on a chance to connect.

The quizzes and questions about your personality and personal preferences really help to get some basic understanding of the person from a very limited profile. It also allows the users to introduce themselves and break the ice easily as you are able to talk about your common interests. The messaging feature is effective and the more women that join the app, the easier it is to make connections.

Personally, I enjoyed using the app. I found it easy to use, fun and exciting and I think all women could benefit from the app in making connections with other women.

Check out the video below for more!

She started her first company called "Kollecto", which recommends personalized art to people at an affordable price. But, the amazing part of this is that she built this app – and the business – without knowing anything about writing code.

Since the launch of her company, many people were interested as to how she was able to build the app without knowing code – hence her second business, "Apps Without Code". This start–up school was first opened a year ago and accepted 13% of those who applied, offering group classes, individual lessons and online tutorials. Tara Reed even hosts classes herself and helps people turn ideas into fully functioning businesses without needing to hire a developer.

Tara believes in learning through mistakes and experiences and not knowing how to do something has never stopped her from doing something she is passionate about.

Her business now consists of eight employees who work in different parts of the USA, working remotely, and although she doesn't hire developers, she always makes sure to hire a lawyer to handle the fine print of any contract or investment to make sure that she doesn't sign over any control of her start–up school.

She raised venture capital investments for her first company but wanted to control the growth of the school, starting with 5 students and building up to 58. She predicts that the school will produce $1 million in revenue.

Tara says that few apps are successful enough to allow entrepreneurs to quit their day job and that building the app is only part of the process. She focuses on teaching a holistic view and creating a successful business model including pricing and marketing. The biggest emphasis is placed on creating a sustainable and profitable business.

It just goes to show that if you just app–ly yourself, you can do anything.

Mellow is the first sous–vide machine that is designed to make a busy lifestyle healthier and easier. It involves a very quick set–up process, an app to control the process and built–in refrigeration features.

The food is cooked in HDPE bags filled with ingrediences and spices, submerged in water that varies in temperature which circulates to cook the food. It is also able to refrigerate your food so that it doesn't spoil before the timer goes off for it to cook. As long as you are connected to Wi–Fi you are good to go and can cook the food from anywhere.

The app will also allow you to give feedback on how you liked the food cooked and the app can suggest changes to suit your preferred taste. The startup company that founded the Mellow sous de vide machine is being sold for $600 for those who have pre-ordered it as it is not available in retail stores yet.

This machine transforms the meaning of food preparation!

Our rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS and Android

Released on iOS and Android in June 2014, the game made $1.6million in the first five days and by the end of its first quarter it had 22.8 million players, making $43.4 million. The aim of the game is to increase your fame and reputation, starting as an E-list Star/Starlet and working your way up to an A-lister by creating your own aspiring celebrity. Its a game that has a sort of guilty pleasure addiction to it, what parents need to know is that it takes a light albeit revealing look at the rise from an everyday person to A-List celebrity. It heavily focuses on what you wear and what level celebrity you are. If you aren’t famous enough, no one will speak to you or if you aren’t dressed properly your date will tell you in not-so-kind words. There is plenty of partying, a lot of alcohol, some cleavage and the opportunity to pose in the nude.

Although the game is free to play, additional in-game currency can be purchased with real money. You can disable your in-app purchases in the device settings however you can't progress to A-list without spending any money. The currency in this game is cash and stars. Cash is the standard currency that you earn throughout the entire game by completing various tasks, and Stars are the ‘hard’ currency that is earned slower than cash and has more incentive of being bought with real money. Cash is used to buy clothing, travel, houses or even gamble, while stars are used to purchase special outfits, energy, cash or to please other characters in the game 

You can also add In Real Life (IRL) friends to share gifts with, co-star on projects, acquire relationships, or even date throughout the game's storyline – which is narrated by Kim – with characters that are randomly generated according to each individual game.

The game’s storylines revolve around ’goals’ that are given by characters in the game, such as creating a fragrance, meeting certain people or attending certain events – check your goals if you are unsure of what to do next in the game.

Depending on what level you are on, you can travel to different places all over the world by unlocking locations. When you are looking for locations, an information block will inform you about the location, such as what level you have to be on to go there, plane fare, transport fare, how many buildings you can visit to complete your goals and how many ‘tappables’ available. Tappable’s are objects you can tap on to gain bonus cash, XP points (needed for your star or starlet to level up) and energy. Tip: Tapping cash and XP before it vanishes reduces the waiting time for energy to regenerate by a few seconds.

Of course you also have a wardrobe where you can purchase tops, dresses, pants, skirts, shoes, hairstyles, facial features, nail colors as well as fashion accessories like bags, jewelry, and tattoos. However, you have to be on top of current fashion to maximise fans. You can purchase multiple homes (but cannot resell them), cars and pets in multiple countries and cities. Unfortunately, you cannot transfer or travel with your pets and can only get curtain homes and cars once depending on whether your XP status goes up and on what level you are on. You can get practically any animal ranging from a lion to a chameleon for each home, so your choices are varied. 

You can date anyone on your contacts list. You must meet people first to get them to your contacts. If you meet them and you flirt with them, you get a small boost in your relationship meter with them. You may date either gender. If you neglect your date for some time, however, they will break up with you. Note that you will always have the option to break up with them anytime you choose by calling them on a date and then selecting 'break up'.

While dates can be expensive, it is fairly rewarding to date for fans and XP. If you leave your partner alone for too long, he/she will call to break up. A choice is given to either breakup or to charm the person. Charming them (to continue your relationship) costs K-Stars and the more serious the relationship, the more K-Stars it costs to charm the person. If you break up there and then, a broken heart will appear by their name in your contacts list. You can also get married and have babies with the latest version of the app, however, if you want babies you have to reach 12000 relationship points with your significant other.

If you are into having a “second life” this is probably the game for you, its addictive and you can virtually live the life of luxury. Dress for success and live to impress. 

 

Watch the video below to see the gameplay in action!

Wait, it gets better – a Harry Potter version of Pokemon Go called Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The augmented reality app will be released in 2018 and is co–developed by Warner Bros. Interactive and Portkey Games. If we are being honest with ourselves, the Harry Potter world has captured both adults and kids' imaginations, and the app is expected to make waves among the Potter fan community. 

The game will allow the user to learn spells, fight beasts and team up with other players to fight against enemies. It is based on an existing game called Ingress where players capture portals and create "control fields" over certain areas. 

The creators aim to bring the franchise to life and to promote gaming in a social way that encourages exercise and exploration. Not a bad idea at all!

Apps like Boomerang use a short video and isolate a portion of that video to create the image whereas Plotagraph does the opposite in that it take a still picture and creates movement. 

Plotagraph offers the best of traditional, easy–to–use editing tools as well as advanced editing software that allow the user to determine the speed and direction of the movement in the photo. Once the photo is edited, the user has the option of sharing it on social media.

Christopher stated that the reason behind the app was to bring value back to photography in a time where video is taking over. It hopes to bring out a platform to allow artists to sell their work directly to customers through the site. The company has veered away from traditional advertising and rather uses social media platforms and using social media celebrities to promote the app.

Celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal and Alicia Keys are going mad over this app. Would you try it out?

Facebook is now actually asking their users to send in nude photos of themselves if they are worried that a specific photo will be posted on social media. They allow the user to fill out a form and then send the message to themselves via the Facebook Messenger app with which Facebook will use an artificial intelligence tool to match the image with a unique digital fingerprint that alerts and flags the specific picture before it is shared. 

The technology first came out in 2009 with the aim of protecting children from child abuse and exploitation. The technology has been improved since 2009 as people found a way to adjust the files to bypass the system.

This is just one example that shows that Facebook is promoting the safety of its users. The first attempt at this programme is taking place in Australia where Facebook has teamed up with Julia Inman Grant who is an e-safety commissioner of a government agency. 

In case you're worried that Facebook has now stored your nude photo, you can breathe a sigh of relief as they are storing the link to the photo that gets matched using the digital fingerprint. However, there is still the risk that hackers could gain access to the system to obtain the images.

Would you take the chance and send your pictures in?

Vine was not actually meant to be a stand-alone app. It was created as a pitch to Twitter with the aim of allowing people to publically share a small snap of their life, and the short time limit used to challenge creativity. 

The initial boom didn't last as Vine had a very small team that struggled to grow and maintain its user base as other competitive apps were adding better features. It provided little strategic benefit to Twitter and was unable to run without funding from Twitter so, without the necessary cash and dying popularity, Twitter decided to shut down the app. The actual website and existing vines still remain but the app itself has been removed.

Ian Padgham was responsible for the launch of Vine and was the first to upload videos using Vine. He starting getting noticed by other companies who were asking him to make Vines for them. The rising popularity led him to start creating Vines as a full–time job.

Once Instagram launched its 15-second video feature, users flocked back to Instagram, leaving Vine to crash.

Vine was unable to make itself unique as other apps were evolving and Twitter did not act on any plans to use Vine within their app.

While Vine has been shut down, its creators have not and they have now brought out a new trivia game show app called HQ.

Check out the tribute to legendary Vines below.

The facial detection technology focuses on your facial expression, (tracking over 50 facial muscles at once) and voice, blocking out background details or specific details about your face, such as puffiness. It allows people to send a less personal 10-second version of a video while keeping the fun and expressiveness that a video conveys. 

Somehow, saying something to your friend using a monkey or a chicken is just so much better!

Google is currently working to develop an app that will alert you when the number is a suspected robocaller or a spam call which will light up your phone with a red banner. This will then give you the option to block the number if you choose to.

Google is currently trying to bring back caller id into the smartphone world by automatically googling a number and identifying it. While exceptionally useful, this app is not as widely available as everyone would like because it is only available Nexus, Android One or Play Edition devices. Similar third-party apps have been created to identify spam calls, however, IOS tends to have a limiting nature tends to put boundaries around the functionality of the phone's systems. Slowly these boundaries seem to be broken allowing more advanced apps such as call screeners to function on IOS. 

However, we remain ever hopeful that the innovation will spread, ending spam calling once and for all. 

This wonderful new app called Trip allows people to post pictures and stories about their trips and then share them publicly to all users. Members are able to search for certain destinations and results are posted in a similar manner to that of Instagram, allowing anyone to like your photos, share and comment.

Trips also allows people to post advice about a certain destination, provide city guides and maps. The discover button allows the user to search for destinations under categories like "Adventure" or "Wildlife and nature".

This app is an updated and improved version of Lonely Planet's Guides which only gives advice and maps to its users. Trips allows the best of Guides and sharing content available in one app. It is available for free on iOS and will be available on Android soon.

One step better would allow us to travel anywhere via virtual reality – none of the cost, all of the experience!

The security feature lets you disable Touch ID so that only the user will be able to unlock the phone. The only alternative to this brings you to an SOS function by pressing the home button 5 times which will notify your emergency contacts of your location. Once the alert has been sent, only the owner of the phone can access the phone with their password and fingerprint. 

The feature prevents someone (the police) from forcing you to open your phone. It also automatically contacts 911 in a case in which you are forced to open your phone or even just discretely dial 911 without being noticed. You are able to disable the automatic 911 call in the settings but it is definitely a great security feature in an unexpected event.

This is just the precursor for the introduction of facial recognition to unlock your phone. Phones will become more secure than ever.

The video below shows the battery improvements were actually included in iOS 11.1 beta 4 which was released late last week. YouTube channel iDeviceHelp ran battery life comparison tests between iOS 11.1 beta 4 and iOS 11.0.3 using the same three devices: iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus. 

On iOS 11.0.3, all iPhone models died after less than five hours of continuous screen usage, with the iPhone 6 Plus actually offering better battery life. Once iOS 11.1 beta 4 was installed, each phone lasted at least two hours longer, with the iPhone 8 Plus the big winner here, getting some four hours of extra screen life. 

Check out the video to see the full tests, complete with explanations. 

The app is designed to work on a flat surface, like a bar top, that will be augmented into a Patrón Hacienda. A charming, miniature bartender will guide you through the tastings with notes of various kinds of tequila. 

For the time being the Patrón Experience is only available for iOS, and no Android version is available, and while the AR tequila won't give you a hangover, it might give you a craving for more tequila.

Have a look at the Patrón Experience video below, and prepair to make a trip to the liquor store shortly after!

HG's iOS app is simple to download and once you get started and play along with the presenter, Scott Rogowsky asks around a dozen multiple choice questions. Guess the right answer within 10 seconds and you on to the next question – after Rogowsky finishes joking about the answers. Guess wrong, you are out, but you can still comment and watch to see which players nail them all and split prize money they cash out on PayPal. 

By watching the video below via TechCrunch, you can't help but get excited. By combining the interactivity of a game show, the allure of live video and the production that might remind you of Hollywood standard, HQ feels more alive than most anything on your phone or TV nowadays. 

HQ has been slowly combining the trivia app charts since late August when it launched. It had about 3,300 concurrent players competing for a $150 jackpot, which is a thrill to watch and probably play (we still need to find out for ourselves). 

There is a smooth difficulty curve from easy questions like “What could you buy on Amazon.com when it first launched? Cars, plants, or books?” at the start of the game to tougher ones like “Which of these foods is NOT made from corn? Polenta, Grits, or Gruel?” at the end makes you sure you’ll do better if you play more. 

Hopefully HQ will spice things up with images, audio and other media-based questions, celebrity guests, in-chat badges for past winners or special lightning rounds. There’s plenty of inspiration on which to draw, from the old school black-and-white TV trivia shows to edgier computer games like “You Don’t Know Jack.” and HQ could also use an Android app, as it is currently only available on iOS. 

Have a look at the video and if you are on iPhone, head over to the download button, who knows, you might hit the jackpot – if you are clever enough! 

Viewers will be able to follow different characters' points of view through an iOS app; called Mosiac, the six-part TV series will air in January 2018. Viewers can download the app from November that will enable them to choose a character to follow and see their specific experiences. 

The different choices you can make in the app will build on one another, which can sometimes produce different outcomes. Soderbergh says the show was produced with the app in mind, so it will play a core part in the show's storytelling, rather than being just another afterthought. The YouTube video promoting the app shows various character profiles, newspaper clipping and voice memos as part of the interactives used in the story. 

The show will feature star Sharon Stone, Garrett Hedlund, Frederick Weller, Beau Bridges, and Paul Reubens. The app has been three years in the making, and those who use the app will be able to compare the story they "built" with the linear one airing in January.

Soderbergh said in a statement that "While branching narratives have been around forever, technology now allows, I hope, for a more elegant, intuitive form of engagement than used to be possible,".

Have a look at the promotional video below, it looks like one hell of a good show: 

WIthin 24 hours of Tez being launched, Google saw nearly 1.8 crores gross mechanised volume (GMV) done with over four lakh active users. 

Built on the Indian government developed Unified Payment Interface (UPI) Tez allows users – free of charge – to make small or bog payments straight from their bank accounts. According to the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), the number of transactions on UPI has crossed three crores in September. 

The number of transactions on UPI platform increased to 3.07 crores in September as against 1.66 crores in August which is an increase of 85.32%. Of the 3.07 crores transactions, BHIM's share was 76.03 lakh - a market share of nearly 24.7 percent.

The Tez app works in partnership with four Banks - Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India - to facilitate the processing of payments across over 50 UPI-enabled banks. The app was built for India, working on the vast majority of the country's smartphones and is available in English and seven Indian languages - Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. 

You can learn more about Google's Tez app by watching the video below: 

Taylor Swift has another surprise for her fans with a soon-to-be-unveiled app! In her newly released video on her YouTube page, the star introduced "The Swift Life" – an upcoming app from the House of Swift designed to be a "creative, inclusive and community-driven place for users to better connect with each other... and Taylor," – according to the video's description.

We don't know yet whether or not Taylor herself will pop up on the app to drop a line, but it certainly wouldn't be a surprise if she did, considering that she's known to not-so-subtly comment on her fans' Instagram posts.

The app promises exclusive Swift content – including "Taymojies" – as well as the opportunity to listen to her new music, chat with other fans and view pictures and videos of the star.

"I think you guys are really going to like this," Swift said to the camera. "I mean – I hope. It would be preferable if you did."

For those excited Swift fans – don't you worry. The preview promises that the app will be available at the end of this year! 

In addition, with less than a month until the release of her sixth studio album, there will be plenty of content for the app to showcase!

Security researcher Will Strafach discovered this feature which has apparently existed on apps of jailbroken devices without permission from Apple. 

However, what makes this case unique is that Uber is the only third-party app to be given private access to the feature by Apple. This was a conclusion made by Mr Strafach after indexing the binaries of thousands of apps.

Luca Todesco, Apple expert and jailbreak author, said apps can generally only write to the iPhone's framebuffer – a part of the phone's memory that contains pixel and display data. However, this permission means that Uber was given the ability to read or write. 

"Writing is always possible from an app using normal rendering services, which draw to framebuffer on your behalf," he said to ZDNet t. "Reading allows you to look at the device's screen."

According to Mr Todesco, this is the same as giving Uber the ability of keylogging – the use of a computer program to record every keystroke made by a user, especially in order to gain fraudulent access to passwords and other private information. 

"I find this very frightening and dangerous," he said. 

The feature also "paints a pretty big target on top of the app" for hackers looking to exploit the permission, the Apple expert added.

According to an Uber spokesman, the code had been implemented to improve rendering on its Apple Watch app. 

"it's not connected to anything else in our current codebase and the diff [sic] to remove it is already being pushed into production," said the spokesman. 

"This API would allow maps to render on your phone in the background and then be sent to your Apple Watch."

Uber explained that subsequent updates to the Apple Watch and its own app had improved rendering, so the company would be completely removing the function. 

This isn't the first time Uber has been exposed for privacy issues. The New York Times reported that the company had violated Apple's rules after it was revealed that it had been tracking iPhones after the app was deleted. 

Mr Strafach explained that he was shocked to see that even after Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, threatened to kick Uber out of the App Store, the company somehow managed to convince Apple to "let them have exclusive access to this privileged entitlement."

"It seems they got special treatment and do not want to directly admit it," he added.

Apple has yet to comment. 

As of today, you can download the new and improved app in the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store. And if you already have the older version, all you need to do is update!

The new TechCrunch app provides a modernized interface that is quick and fun to interact with. It also has conveniences like offline sync and personalized push notifications baked-in, front and centre. 

But the biggest change you'll notice is that you can now customize your experience by selecting the topics that interest you the most. After picking your topics, you will not only get a personalized section of news within the app, but you'll also be able to get push notifications for breaking news related to your chosen topics.

This means you'll be the first to know about big stories that matter to you – saving you a bunch of browsing time as well!

There is also a new feature addition called "save for later" – because not everyone has the time to read news as soon as it breaks! This feature allows you to access articles even when you're offline, so you can catch up with the latest on the plane, train or anywhere you are when you have the time!

In addition, Crunchbase data profiles have been included in the new version of the app in order to add additional context to the stories you read. The data profiles are visible at the bottom of each article and can be expanded to read more about the company included in the article!

Get the latest version on iOS and Android today!

But, Vuforia's new Chalk app gives you the ability to be there in voice and video, and adds the ability to make augmented reality "chalk marks" – like arrows or circles on the remote – over the other person's view of the world through their tablet or smartphone camera!

Chalk supports Apple's ARKit to bring the experience to iDevices running on iOS 11 – an Android version may come later.

What makes the Chalk app quite unique is that most consumer AR thus far has been about gaming and other forms of entertainment. But Chalk might actually be a part of a new wave of purely practical AR apps that fix real problems.

"Vuforia Chalk represents one of the most practical uses of AR technology to date," said Vuforia president Jay Wright in a statement. "It has the potential to improve our personal and professional lives – initially by helping each other."

Another aspect that makes Chalk interesting is that it involves the user creating and placing digital content in real time, rather than just looking at objects that were prebaked by the developers.

Watch the video to find out more about the app and how to use it!

Snapchat will automatically recognize when the photo contains a sky and include sky filter options inside the filter carousel. No sky in the photo means no filters to sift through. The filter options rotate daily, but Snapchat says the option to add in a starry night, stormy clouds, sunset, rainbow, and more are part of the new feature.

After taking a photo while in Snapchat’s camera mode, just swipe to the right to bring up the different filter options. If the program determines that there’s a sky in the image, sky filters will come up under options, allowing users to swipe to choose which option to apply to the image. The filters also have the added benefit of being yet another way to spice up otherwise boring photos with cool effects. The update comes on the heels of Snapchat's new 3D Bitmoji lenses, which put users' animated Bitmojis front and centre in the app.

You can see the Snapchat sky filter in action in the video below!

But if you're more into challenging your brain – this is the perfect app for you. The Magic Sudoku app solves Sudoku problems when you're stuck. It's a bit of a cheat but sometimes frustration gets the better of you and you need answers!

Using Apple's ARKit, this app figures out how to answer the puzzle. All you have to do is point your iPhone camera at a printed Sudoku grid, and the phone will automatically fill in the blanks!

Magic Sudoku takes advantage of the iOS 11's capabilities to help people stumped by a particularly difficult puzzle! For now, the app solves the whole puzzle, but there are more features to come! There might be a hint option that solves a portion chosen by the user so that the whole isn't spoiled! This is a more interactive way to reveal the answers without ruining the point of the game!

The developer behind the app says the current version is mostly a tech demo that shows the app's potential. "The next version will bring a lot more features to people who play paper Sodukos," said developer Brad Dwyer in a Tweet.

According to Dwyer, the app uses several neural networks, including one that he trained to find and read puzzles, but actually solving each problem involves a recursive algorithm. 

Some users have come across some issues when pointing the device at a puzzle opened on a computer, but Dwyer says he's working on a workaround as ARKit only detects horizontal orientation.

The app has also had some trouble recognizing fonts that Dwyer didn't test with or train – but this will be fixed in a version 1.1 update, according to a tweet by the developer. 

Magic Soduko is available now at $0.99!

Watch the video to see Magic Sudoku is action! 

But when you find yourself in a foreign place, finding a good restaurant can be a bit confusing. Now, Airbnb has created a solution for that problem. 

Yesterday, Airbnb announced that it will now help book reservations at restaurants during their travels, allowing them to live like the locals do. This new feature is another one of the company's expansions from a home-rental service to a full-service agency – especially after launching its Trips initiative last year.

This new feature marks Airbnb's first off-platform partnership with Resy, which Airbnb invested $13million in January this year. Airbnb began testing restaurant recommendations as part of Trips, and the idea grew from there.

In the Airbnb app, you can now click on a new tab for Restaurants and search for businesses in 16 US states – New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Charleston, Austin, Seattle and New Orleans – allowing you to book a table without needing to leave the app. 

In addition, customers can add reservation requests for special events like anniversary celebrations or birthdays. They can also notify the restaurant if they are running a bit late all from within the Airbnb app or website.

Another part of this new feature means that if the restaurant offers a pre-fixed menu, users can pay for their meal ahead of time – including tax and tip. 

For the moment, Resy only workings with restaurants in the US, so it might only be useful for users travelling domestically or users travelling to the US internationally. Some countries don't have a restaurant reservation culture, which is also probably why the launch will mostly focus on the US for now.

"International is certainly the next frontier for us," Resy CEO Ben Leventhal said at a press event in NYC. "You'll see us operating alongside Airbnb in Q4."

We can't wait to see how this new feature works and if it reaches more countries around the world!

Watch the video to find out more about this new Airbnb feature. 

The only thing limiting you right now is not knowing which ARKit apps are out there right now, so you can dive in and see which apps are your new favourite. Searching Apple's massive App Store can take a long time, so we've compiled a big friendly list for you to pick out the real winners!

Free Apps and Games

These apps are either fun new apps that are played entirely in AR or existing popular games that offer new AR features or special levels built for AR:

• ARuler
• My Country 
• Overstock.com 
• PLNAR 
• dinosAR 
• Houzz 
• Night Sky 
• Edmunds 
• Quartz 
• Magicplan 
• Thomas & Friends Minis 
• Flat Pack 
• Kings of Pool 
• Stack AR
• Egg, Inc. 
• Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade
• Standland
• Stik AR 
• Money X2 
• Bemo
• 3DTD: Chicka Invasion 
• Marbles AR 
• AR Drone Commander
• BrixAR
• BigBallAR
• Measurekit 

In the video below you get to see how ARKit works, so get downloading NOW!

Tez uses a technology called audio QR, and this lets users transfer money using sounds to pair two devices. Named the "cash mode option", phones negotiate using audio to identify to payer and payee. 

The sounds must be inaudible to human ears because they're sent using ultrasonic frequencies, according to the Financial Times. Therefore, the feature is similar to cash transactions that don't require personal details like bank account details or phone numbers. 

Cash Mode works with any phone that has a mic and a speaker, as well as the Tez app installed, and doesn't require an NFC chip. 

This Audio QR technology is similar to Chirp, which also sends data encoded in ultrasonic sound.

India has 300 million smartphone users, and phones with NFC are still pretty rare and expensive, with many users still favouring entry-level and mid-tier devices. 

Tez is a step above Android Play as it allows users to link payment apps from Indian banks. It works with all of the country's 55 banks on India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI). UPI is a system that allows numerous bank accounts to be linked into one mobile app and enables secure peer-to-peer payment.

According to Bloomberg, digital transactions have surged after the Indian Government banned high-value cash note last year.

In addition, Tez facilitates bank-to-bank payments and is protected by Tez Shield – a data security platform from Google that detects fraud and protects user identity. In this way, Tez behaves like a chat app, using your contact list as a way to keep your transaction history organized. People or businesses you have sent or received money from are grouped together "like a conversation", Google explains.

The company says that small businesses can also use the app to accept payments into their bank accounts, and also accepts payments from mobile sites with "just a few taps."

Tez is available on both Android and iOS, and Google plans to release the app in other emerging countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand!

It basically means that once in a while you might see an ad in your Stories feed that uses the same camera filters and tags that you use. There will still be a sponsored tag at the top left, but since the ad looks like any other Story, you will probably be less likely to tap past it. 

Instagram's Stories has been a huge success for the photo-sharing site this past year, and it has over 250 million daily users, and more than 50 percent of businesses have created an ad story in the past 30 days.  Overall it is great idea if these company's are selling cool products, but otherwise, people will start to realise and might end up skipping through the content. 

If you do not know what Instagram Stories are, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? (the video below explains it.) 

Let us know what you think about the Instagram Stories update in the comment section below...

The BlueBorne attack can also work on other Bluetooth devices, including computers and IoT gadgets. The BlueBorne attack was discovered by a security company, Armis, and the BlueBorne threat is a collection of eight exploits that can be used immediately against no less than 5.3 billion devices. 

The hacker can connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth without the user knowing. Considering that many users leave Bluetooth turned on by default, it’s probably easy to find a target.

But once the hackers get into a device and start controlling the screen and apps it’ll be obvious to anyone looking at the phone that something has gone terribly wrong.You can have a look at the video below to understand exactly how BlueBorne attacks your Android device's data! 

Be safe out there, everyone!

The whole process can be seen in the video below and it is pretty simple. When a song is playing, simply press and hold your screen when the Snapchat camera is open. You will get a pop-up screen that will give you the song's name and the artist. It also gives you an option to send the information to a fellow friend or to Dismiss, if you just wanted to know the details.

If you want to keep the information for yourself, simply hit Song Info; this will once again display the song title and artist but more option will be available as you scroll down. You will be able to listen to the song on Spotify or Apple Music, you can even scroll down to view all the lyrics within the app.

To send the song to your friends, hit the Send button. Select which friends or groups you want to share with and proceed just like any other snap you'd send. The whole process is super simple and quick, so don't worry about it being too much of a hassle.

Now start Shazam-ing right inside your Snapchat app and spread the musical love. 

It’s set during the Renaissance period, just after the disappearance of Leonardo Da Vinci. You playing as one of his most promising students, and it’s up to you to tackle a series of riddles and mysteries to figure out what exactly has happened to your master.

As you figure out the puzzles, you play the first person and you've got to manipulate a bunch of different objects, pulling levers and pushing buttons, in order to discover the secrets that have been left behind. The controls are simple, and anyone who’s used a touchscreen smartphone before is going to feel right at home with them.

The story itself is full of twists and turns. It drives the action onwards, pushing you to figure out the next problem in order to get a little closer to figuring out where the missing Leonardo Da Vinci has ended up.

You’ve even got a special gauntlet that lets you mess around with time. This will give you brief snippets of the story, but you’re also going to need to use it to solve some of the puzzles that the game drops in front of you. See what happened before, then try and replicate it to get to the solution. (at least you get to experience some sort of 'time-travelling.')

The game looks absolutely stunning, it’s full of breath-taking moments that you’re not going to believe are happening on your Android device. 

If that sounds like the sort of game that you’d like on your phone or tablet, well, we’re in complete agreement with you. The House of Da Vinci is a premium app, and you can grab it from the Google Play Store right this second.

With PlantSnap, all you have to do is take a photo of the plant and, within seconds, it'll identify and tell you exactly what it is you're looking at. After that, you can click on the images for information including scientific classifications and the plant's growing area. 

The same applies in reverse. If you're looking for a plant, but you aren't sure what it looks like, you can search it in the app and PlantSnap will give you all the pictures and information you need. In addition, the app will then save your searches and catalogue the plants you have found to suggest other plants in your area.

So if you're a lover of nature walking through a garden or a forest, use the PlantSnap app to enhance the experience.

The PlantSnap is available on both iOS and Android devices!

Instagram Stories is an expansion of a platform already focused on visual communication, and one that is continually growing in popularity. Instagram Stories has already introduced much of the same functionality as Snapchat; users can morph their face using an augmented reality filter, as well as stickers, face filters, and of course, ephemeral messaging — key to the success of Snapchat.

Although it is better to watch Instagram Stories on your mobile app, watching it on the web will be a little different. Instead of swiping and tapping between bubbles to see what your friends are doing, arrows will be in place for navigation. To access Stories, head to the Instagram site and login to your account. Remember, the service might not have reached your account yet — you’ll have to be patient and keep an eye out for the update to come!

In the meantime, watch this video below by BreakTheInternet as to why Instagram Stories are better than Snapchat (sorry Snap)

Do you prefer Instagram Stories to Snapchat? What are the major differences between the two? Why choose one over the other? Let us know your choices below!

According to rankings posted online by market data firm App Annie on Friday, Tinder now wears the crown as the top money-making app on the Apple App Store! Tinder made its debut 5 years ago and allows people to swipe left or right on profiles to indicate those they see as potential date partners.

Tinder's rise to the top came quickly after announcing the worldwide roll-out of a new 'Gold' service this week, which includes features including the ability of subscribers to see who out there has 'liked' them. Tinder Gold has been described as a 'members-only service, offering our most exclusive features: Passport, Rewind, Unlimited Likes, five Super Likes per day' and more!

"Think of it as your personal Swipe Right concierge – available 24/7 – bringing all of your pending matches to you," said Tinder. "Now you can sit back, enjoy a fine cocktail and browse through profiles at your leisure."

Tinder Gold was said to be available to Android-powered smartphones in a month or so and made its debut at $4.99 a month.

The Tinder 'Plus' subscription service was introduced in 2015, and freed users of a daily cap on the number of 'swipes' they have to pursue ad revenue. 

Owned by a Match Group subsidiary of IAC/InterActiveCorp, Tinder boasts about 50 million users and is reported to be valued at several billion dollars!

Watch the video to find out more about Tinder Gold, and how it pushed the dating app to the top of the charts!

That's why a lot of people make use of sports wearables. But even then, you're often bombarded with numbers, statistics and progress reports that are pretty overwhelming and hard to understand. It can be difficult to wrap your head around those numbers and see if you're actually making progress.

Now, TomTom, a fitness tracker app, will be updating its apps and devices with a new awesome feature that makes it easier to understand your progress – your fitness age. The update to TomTom Sport app will come in September this year and will track your exercise with "fitness points" and provide you with your "fitness age".

As the name of the feature suggests, your Fitness Age will tell you how fit you are compared to others your age with an easily understandable number. This feature is supposed to be a more simple way of helping the more casual athlete or people just looking to get healthier and fitter. We can leave the complicated numbers and measurements to the more serious fitness experts!

The system used in the feature is relatively simple – you do some exercise, the TomTom watch reads your heart rate over time to get a sense of your overall fitness, and then the app tells you how you're doing compared to other people your age. 

If you're a person who's in good shape, your Fitness Age might be younger than your actual age. However, if you aren't in great shape, your Fitness Age will probably be older than your real age.

The good news is that if you are unfit, it's easier to improve your fitness faster than someone who is already fit and only has to make small gains. That's where the second update feature comes in: the app will also quantify your exercise in terms of Fitness Points to make sure you're not only working harder but also working smarter.

Fitness Points are there to help you understand the most effective use of your time. The Fitness Points take into account exercise intensity as well as the raw number of steps, distance or time. For example, an intense 10-minute workout or run can have more impact than a 20-minute walk and will earn you more Fitness Points.

This simplifies the measures of your activity and fitness and shows it in a way that is fun and easy to understand.

The app shows your exercise in coloured bubbles. This makes it easy to see what you've done and how you can go the extra mile. At the same time, the app is smart enough to tell you to have a rest day after you've pushed yourself to the max! It also shows you what you need to do on any given day to hit your target – like another cardio exercise or a quick walk. 

This cool app links to your workouts through your TomTom device (like the Spark or Adventurer sports watches). In the app, you can manually set up a workout session – adding different activities to warm up, high intensity and rest periods – or your watch can pick a workout goal for you and then pick a time and it'll suggest a running or cycling session.

The watch coaches you through your workout as it monitors the perfect heart rate thresholds to get results, alerting you if your pulse goes too low or too high.

It is important to note that TomTom isn't designed as a long-term training programme. Instead, it is aimed at spicing up your next workout, show your progress and your targets in easily understandable ways.

The new update will come during September to the last two generations of TomTom watches (the Runner 2 and 3, and the Spark and Adventurer). People with older devices can still calculate their Fitness Age and Fitness Points through the app.

The rest is up to you! 

Watch the video to find out more!

As of right now, this functionality is not something users can readily access, but it is on the way. A new string found within the Android Developers website code listed as startVoiceActivity describes the capability for an interaction to be started by voice so long as the application supports Android 8.0 Oreo. Not only will users need to be on a device running on Oreo, but the app itself will also have to support Oreo for developers to make use of the function, which means depending on when Google rolls this out and makes it possible for developers to start adding this integration, the list of supported apps might be small. (for now at least) 

The fact that Google seems to be opening this new activity up to other digital assistants might also suggest that Google really wants developers to make use of the functionality, though it will surely also bolster Google Assistant too. Those who use Google Assistant on a daily basis may want to keep an eye out for new integration from their favourite apps, as the functionality may show up sooner rather than later.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst prognoses – a five-year survival rate of 9%. A part of this is as a result of no obvious symptoms or non-invasive screening tools to catch a tumour before it spreads.

However, researchers at the University of Washington have now developed an app that can allow people to easily screen for pancreatic cancer and other diseases simply by taking a selfie.

This app, BiliScreen, uses a smartphone camera, computer algorithms and machine learning tools that will detect increased bilirubin levels in a person's sclera (the white part of the eye).

One of the earliest symptoms of pancreatic cancer, along with other illnesses, is jaundice – a yellow discolouration of the skin and eyes that is caused by a buildup of bilirubin in a person's blood.

The ability to detect signs of jaundice when bilirubin levels are elevated (before they are visible to the naked eye) could allow for a completely new screening program for people at risk.

In an initial clinical study of 70 people, the Biliscreen app (along with a 3-D printed box that controls the eye's exposure to light) correctly identified cases of concern 89.7% of the time compared to the blood test currently used.

"The problem with pancreatic cancer is that by the time you're symptomatic, it's frequently too late," said the lead author Alex Mariakakis, a doctoral student at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.

"The hope is that if people can do this simple test once a month – in the privacy of their own homes – some might catch the disease early enough to undergo treatment that could save their lives."

This app was built on earlier work from the University of Washington's Ubiquitous Computing Lab, which had previously developed BiliCam – a smartphone app that screens for newborn jaundice by taking a picture of a baby's skin. This is because a recent study in the Pediatrics journal showed BiliCal provided accurate estimated of bilirubin levels in 530 infants.

In collaboration with University of Washington doctors, the UbiComp lab specializes in using cameras, microphones and other common consumer devices to screen for diseases.

The blood test that is currently used to measure bilirubin levels is usually not administered to adults unless there is an obvious reason for concern and requires access to a health care professional which is inconvenient for frequent screening.

That is why BiliScreen is designed to be easy to use and non-invasive. This could help someone determine whether someone ought to consult a doctor for further testing.

In addition to the diagnosis, BiliScreen could also ease the burden on patients with pancreatic cancer who require frequent bilirubin monitoring.

The whites of the eyes in adults are more sensitive than skin changes in bilirubin levels, which can be an early sign of pancreatic cancer, hepatitis or Gilbert's syndrome.

Unlike skin colour, changes in the sclera are more consistent across all races and ethnicities.

However, once people notice the yellowish discolouration with the naked eye, bilirubin levels are already well past cause for concern.

As a result, The University of Washington team wondered if computer vision and machine learning tools would detect these colour changes in the eye before humans can see them.

"The eyes are a really interesting gateway into the body – tears can tell you how much glucose you have, sclera can tell you how much bilirubin is in your blood," said senior author Shwetak Patel (the Washington Research Foundation Entrepreneurship Endowed Professor in Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

"Our question was: could we capture some of these changes that might lead to earlier detection with a selfie?"

BiliScreen uses a smartphone built-in camera and flash to collect pictures of an individual's eye as they take a selfie. The team had developed a computer vision system that automatically and effectively isolates the white parts of the eye – a valuable tool for medical diagnostics.

The app then calculates the colour information from the white part of the eye (based on wavelengths of light that are being reflected and absorbed) and correlates this with bilirubin levels using machine learning algorithms.

The team tested two different accessories to account for different lighting conditions: paper glasses printed with coloured squares to help calibrate colour, and a 3D printed box that blocks out ambient and natural lighting. The box accessory led to better results.

So, what comes next? Well, the research team will include testing the app on a wider range of at-risk people when it comes to jaundice and underlying conditions, as well as continuing to make usability improvements. This includes removing the need to the above-mentioned accessories.

"This relatively small initial study shows the technology has promise," says a professor at the University of Washington Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Dr Jim Taylor, whose father died of pancreatic cancer at 70-years-old.

"Pancreatic cancer is a terrible disease with no effective screening right now," he said. "Our goal is to have more people who are unfortunate enough to get pancreatic cancer to be fortunate enough to catch it in time to have surgery that gives them a better chance of survival."

Watch the video to find out more about BiliScreen, the study and the results!

Now, Medium is planning a new feature that will pay writers based on how many "claps" they get! To determine how much the writers get paid, the blogging platform will introduce a relatively unusual method: claps – Medium's equivalent to a Like. 

Medium replaces their "recommend" feature (a little heart button at the end of each article) with a "clap" button that a reader can click as many times as they like. The app wants people to send authors these claps to show how much they enjoy reading each article.

Those claps are actually going to mean something! Medium pays authors by dividing up every individual subscriber's fee between the different articles they have read that month. But now, this will change.

Medium will now weight payments toward whichever articles a subscriber gives the most claps to. 

It is not quite clear exactly how much each clap tips the scale, but there is no doubt that writers will be asking readers to click that clap button for them.

This is, admittedly, a rather odd way to implement payments, since it relies on a really arbitrary metric that individual subscribers might use in different and inconsistent ways. The time spent on a page and whether someone shared an article probably would have been a more useful metric to tell how much a reader enjoyed a piece. But maybe that makes too much sense for a startup in the middle of its second business model pivot.

On the positive side, claps can help Medium surface content that people are enjoying and get in front of more readers. 

A representative of the company said that Medium is "planning to ramp up quickly" the number of eligible authors for its site. 

In addition, Medium will be changing its logo from the green "M" to the wordmark shown in the pictures.

Just in case you don't know a lot about the Medium site, watch the video below to see an outstanding review!

Kids these days are consumed by their phones – yet they're often difficult when it comes to responding to their parents' messages. It doesn't help that children of this generation know quite a bit more about technology than their parents do. This helps them to ignore mom and dad – allowing them to do what they want.

Nick Herbert, found this habit a little bit annoying. 

As a result, Herbert conceived ReplyASAP – an app that forces your child to address your texts How? By annoying the hell out them...

"I wanted to be able to set an alarm on his phone – that was the gem of the idea. Alarms sound even on silent," Herbert told CBS. 

But then the idea developed into a greater idea – completely take over the child's screen until they respond. The teen is offered only two choices: to snooze for three minutes or cancel – and the parents get a notification about which choice they made. Teens can't do anything on their phone until they address the message.

Herbert has insisted that the app should only be used in emergency situations. Even though it may be tempting, the app shouldn't be used just to annoy your kids. In fact, he said it's not necessarily about forcing your kids to reply. Instead, "it is simply a means of getting an important message to the child, even when they have their phone on silent, and for the parent to know they have seen it," says Herbert.

In the same way, the app can also be used by kids who need to reach their parents urgently. Herbert says that the app is simply a way of ensuring that an urgent message will be seen by children.

However, the app is currently only available on Android, and it costs $1.27 to have just one person connected, more if you want to add extra people. 

Some have complained that the app is bypassed too easily. One complaint by Shaun Soong, for example, pointed out that phone users can simply switch off text messaging on their devices, and said: "Not a worthy app. My gal simply cancelled the SMS and continued to play games. Useless." Herbert responded to the complaint, saying "this app requires the consent of both parties, deliberately so. It is not a punishment and the parent and child should be discussing why it's there."

It's also important to note that this app doesn't have to be used only between a parent and child – it can be used between friends, partners or other family members too. Once you've agreed – there's no switching it off. 

Watch the video to learn more about the app!

With the app, users can input their distressing thoughts and use a tool to convey the intensity of the feeling they are experiencing. 

The app has been called "the first of its kind", and encourages the user to slow down by asking a series of questions. 

Now, the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust will trial the app on patients of paranoia in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. 

The app is said to be "reassuring."

Research has shown that fast-thinking habits contribute to paranoia – which is one of the most common severe mental health problems. 

The trial study will involve 360 people. Some will be given the app, while others will have their usual care – and the approaches will be compared using the results. The app comes from three decades of research by the University of Oxford and Kings College London.

Dr Mar Rus-Calafell from Oxford's department of psychiatry said: "It encourages people to come up with their own reassuring alternatives and keeps record of what has been helpful in times of stress."

He adds that "so far the feedback has been very positive, people say having something they can use wherever they are is really what they need."

The trial is being funded by the Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network.

Paranoia Personality Disorder affects many people in the world in a negative way. An app that can help with any suffering could be a huge milestone in medical technology through a mobile app.

If you aren't sure exactly what Paranoia involves, watch the video to see what it is in 4 minutes!

As we all know, Google's mobile operating system Android has always been named after a dessert and in alphabetical order – and this is not the first time Google has borrowed the name from a brand – KitKat was even involved in an earlier version.

Now, Android's new version Android 8.0 is named after the famous cookie brand Oreo! After over a year of development and months of testing with developers and early adopters, Android 8.0 goes live.

The new mobile OS version will bring lots of new features – including picture-in-picture, autofill, integrated Instant Apps, Google Play Protect, a faster boot up and more.

Google has already begun to push out the source codes to AOSP so everyone (developers) can use and create their own third-party ROMS, and manufacturers can use them for upgrading their handsets accordingly.

Google has confirmed that they have been working closely with smartphone manufacturers Essential, Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp and Sony – who are scheduled to launch and upgrade new devices to Android Oreo.

Google took a great opportunity and revealed Oreo during the rare Solar Eclipse this year, so what does Oreo bring to the table? 

Well, Android 8.0 Oreo is focusing on creating fluid experiences that will make Android even more powerful and easy to use. Here are some of the main new features that Android 8.0 Oreo brings:

Picture-in-picture: This allows users to manage more than one task at the same time on any size screen, and it is easy for apps to support it.

Notification dots: this extends the reach of notifications and offers a new and interesting way to surface activity on your apps. These dots work with zero effort for most apps, and even extracts the colour of the dot from an icon! This one has been available on Samsung and LG smartphones for quite a while actually...

Autofill framework: this simplifies how users set up a new device and sync their passwords. Apps that use form data can now optimize their apps for Autofill, and password manager apps can use the new APIs to make their services available to users in their favourite apps! Autofill will come to us fully in the next few weeks as part of an update to Google Play Services.

In addition, Android O is intensely optimized for battery life optimisation – apart from startup time, graphics rendering and stability.

System optimisations: Google has worked the system to make sure apps run faster and smoother. For example, in the runtime, a new concurrent compacting garbage collection, code locality and more have been added. 

Background limits: New limits have been added on background location and Wi-Fi scans and change the way apps run in the background. These limits prevent unintentional overuse of battery life and memory and apply to all apps.

Complimentary Android Vitals dashboards and IDE profiles: In the Play Console, you can now see aggregate data about your apps to help you pinpoint common issues such as excessive reach rates, ANR rates, frozen frames, slow rendering, excessive wakeups and more. In addition, you'll find new performance profilers in Android Studio 3.0, and new instrumentation in the platform.

Google has made building apps better and more efficient for developers!

Autosuzing TextView: Developers can now use auto-sizing TextView to automatically fill a TextView with text – regardless of the amount. So, developers can create a variety of preset text sizes, or set minimum and maximum sizes with a step granularity and the text will increase or decrease in size to fill the available TextView space.

Fonts in XML: Now, fonts are a fully supported resource type! Developers may use fonts in XML layouts and define font families in XML.

Downloadable fonts and emojis: with downloadable fonts, developers can now load fonts from a shared provider instead of including them in your APK. The provider and support library manage the download of the fonts and shares them across apps. The same also supports downloadable emojis, so you can get updates emojis without being limited to the emojis built into your device.

Adaptive Icons: developers can now create adaptive icons that the system will display in different shapes, based on a mask chosen by a device manufacturer. This also animates interactions with the icons and uses them in the launcher, shortcuts, settings, sharing dialogues, and in the overview screen.

Shortcut Pinning: App shortcuts and home screen widgets on your device are useful for engaging users. Now, developers can let users add and pin shortcuts and widgets to the launcher from within your app. In addition, there is a new option to add a specialised activity to help users create shortcuts. 

Wide-gamut colour for apps: Imaging apps can now take full advantage of new devices that have a wide-gamut colour capable display. To display wide gamut images, apps will enable a flag in their manifest files (per activity) and load bitmaps with an embedded wide colour profile (AdobeRGB, Pro Photo RGB, DCI-P3, etc.).

WebView Enhancements: The new Android Oreo now enables WebView multi-process mode by default and adds an APU to allow apps to handle errors and crashes. In addition, developers can now opt-in app's WebView objects to verify URLs through Google Safe Browsing.

Java 8 Language APIs and Runtime Optimisations: Now, Android supports a variety of new Java Language PISs – including the new java.time API. The Android Runtime is also faster than ever before, with improvements of up to 2x on some application benchmarks. 

Android 8.0 is the first release of the Oreo series, and we can expect even more improvements in the Oreo's life cycle in later versions. The latest release is the first public showing of Oreo with the possibility of some unknown bugs, If you have Google Pixel or Nexus, then you have a taste of the new cookie in town immediately! 

Phones with custom Android versions will only receive the update depending on how fast their manufacturers oblige with the implementation.

Go Android Oreo – we have a lot to look forward to!

Most people will try following millions of random users in the hopes that they will follow back without question. However, often, you end up with a profile that says you follow just about everyone and are followed by pretty much no one. 

After that attempt, people hear about different apps or sites that will give them millions of followers FOR FREE! Heads up: these are ALL scams! Even if you aren't the one being scammed, whatever you are using might even make you the scammer! 

However, in this video, we are shown how to get more Instagram followers ORGANICALLY – no spam and no scams. 

Sure, it's not as easy as downloading an app – but it helps you get more followers in a simple way while you remain in control of your account!

In the video, Zak Longo gives tips and advice about how to get more followers organically. 

Here's a taste of his advice: 

1. The "Explore" page on Instagram is the fastest way to grow. On this page, you have three sections: stories, videos and photos. If you hit all three of these sections, your chances of getting on the "Explore" page increase! And getting on this page means that people will discover you – and follow you! 
2. You should ALWAYS be posting "Stories" on your Instagram account. I know a lot of people don't LOVE this feature because they think it's a copy cat of Snapchat... But fuck it – you'll grab a lot of attention doing it!
3. The same applies to going live on Instagram – fuck Facebook – people will always be checking what you're up to! 
4. This is an important one: one of the fastest ways to grow on Instagram is to get shout-outs from bigger, more popular Instagram accounts. You may feel a bit shy, but don't be! Message them, email them and be as persistent as it takes. You WILL get more followers. In order to do this, you'll definitely need to have some relevant content to those pages!
5. Keep your bio simple and clean, and make sure your content is high quality. Think of your account as a magazine, you wouldn't half-ass it there, would you? 
6. Make sure you also post videos – our generation LOVES videos! 
7. Something pretty interesting: try stick to a colour scheme for your account! This keeps your page looking organized and associates certain colours to your content. 
8. Most importantly – MAKE QUALITY CONTENT. If you want more followers, you can't post just any low-quality crap. It needs to be professional and you need to put in an effort!

This video shows personal experience and how these methods will guarantee you more followers. So if you're fame-hungry for your Instagram account – this is the video for you!

Back in 2016, it was one of the hottest apps to take on the Play Store and Apple Store, and now...well not so much. It still means that the app is still around – for those who would want to check it out – and the company is shifting its focus just on its in-house apps to market numerous computer vision tools that are based on its AI technology. 

In theory, you'd see Prisma's clever processing find its way into your next phone or a favourite social photography app. The app has 5 million to 10 million monthly user, co-founder Alexey Moiseenkov visited Facebook in 2016, and the other founder Aram Airapetyan said it "doesn't matter" who Prisma works with, so long as it can pursue its technology dream. Don't be surprised if its technology is interesting enough that a larger company eventually decides that it eventually needs to snap up all of Prisma, rather than paying for a toolkit. 

In the video below you can see how the Prisma App works!

The key highlight of Sarahah is that it doesn't reveal the identity of the sender of the message at any given cost. Sarahah has become popular in absolutely no time. It was rolled out as an app on June 13, and in just a matter of two months, the application gained wide success with over 10 million downloads. 

How does the Sarahah app work? 

It is very simple to use, all you need to do is sign up for it and then share your ID with friends, or foes for that matter. After that, you will start getting messages, which come up in a simple and easy-to-read chat bubble. Posting messages are simple, but the big reason why the Sarahah app is popular is that it panders to the narcissist within us.

By giving the sender an option to anonymously send a message, Sarahah allows a user to get direct feedback from the world around them. 

The creators described the app by saying: Sarahah helps people self-develop by receiving constructive anonymous feedback. While some of the users are thrilled to receive all those messages of praise or admiration, some users are not really happy after receiving hate messages.

The question that should be raised is whether this Sarahah app is being used for honesty or cyber bullying? If the app is not used diligently it has the potential to be very risky. Reports already claim that a few people used to unfairly target others.

Though some users are taking this as a game and fooling around with friends, there are a few evils eyes who are targeting the Sarahah app as a cyber bullying platform. In some cases, users send threatening messages to people. To some users, this is one fun application where you get to see what others think of you but caution is given to the faint hearted to not try the app.

Whether Sarahah will remain a hit or fade away in a few weeks is anybody's guess, but for now Sarahah is something difficult to avoid seeing on your Facebook news feed. So test your limits and try it out. You can see in the video below how the Sarahah app works. 

That's the slogan for the Surkus app created by Stephen George. When you see all the cool kids standing outside that new restaurant – it's because they're being PAID to be there. 

This emerging app allows restaurants to manufacture the ideal crowd for an event and pay the people to stand in place like extras in a movie – making the venue look popular, attractive and target the right crowd. 

These people have been handpicked by a kind of casting agent algorithm that categorizes people according to age, location, style and Facebook interests. 

The excitement that these "props" are showing at the event could also be part of the production. No one is forcing the participants to stay, but if they do leave, they won't get paid – and their movements are tracked with geolocation. 

In addition to this, if the participants act bored and idly stand by in the line, their "reputation score" could be ruined – and this is an identifier that decides whether they will be "cast" again. 

This is what we call "crowd-casting". 

Now, the Surkus app raises new questions about future advertising and promotion. While social media is usually the tool used to attract individuals to an event, businesses may be able to do the same just by renting beautiful people for the night to blend into the crowd.

Have marketers found a new tool that offers them an incredibly efficient way to link brands with potential customers, allowing individuals to turn themselves into living extensions of the sharing economy using structured, manually beneficial transaction? It depends on who you ask...

Surkus's 30-year-old chief executive, Stephen George, considers his app to be an online matchmaker that pairs companies with people who actually want to hear from them. If the app is successful, it could stop the expensive role that promoters and public relations firms have originally played in advertising and brand building.

"So many companies know their core demographic, but they don't know how to get a hold of those people," said George. 

"They hire promoters and marketers and PR agencies to connect, but it's a one-sided interaction that involves blasting out a message to get people engaged, but they don't necessarily know if that message is being received."

However, not everyone is convinced that the Surkus app will improve that reception...

"I understand the need for quick results and attendance and that sometimes brands need people lined up at their door, said Kerry O'Grady, a professor at NYU's School of Professional Studies who teaches a public relations course.

"Okay, you have a bunch of pretty faces at a party, but what does that do?" she continued. "It's not going to do anything if they just want to get paid to party and have no attachment to the brand itself."

According to the CEO, the company has amassed 150,000 members in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami and San Fransisco. The app is available to anyone because members of all ages and backgrounds are drawn by the chance to be social and get paid – according to George. 

The app launched quietly in 2015 and, since then, members have attended 4,200 events for 750 clients, including big-name brands, hospitality groups, live-ticketed shows, movie castings and everyday people who want to throw a party. 

Users can be paid as little as $5 and as much as $100 – though the average for most events is $25-$40. Profile users can earn as much as $4,000 a year – and Surkus takes a portion of the client's budget for each event. Surkus is supposed to help with these transactions.

This is how it works: once an event has been scheduled, Surkus's algorithm sorts through users using the clients' desired search criteria. For example, a gaming company throwing a launch party might want the app to find men and women aged 18-32 who like comic books, day parties, dance music and the company's product. All of this information is found on the users' profiles. 

Once potential participants are identified, they are sent "availability requests" for the event. Within 24 hours after the event, participants are paid via PayPal. Of course, participants are asked to remain discreet about the request and the reason they are at the event. 

Often, women are paid considerably more than men.

Caroline Thompson, a user of the app, attended an event at a Chicago club and noted that "it was a little weird that probably 80 percent of the women at the club were there because of the app." She was paid $40 to attend the event. 

O'Grady called the Surkus system "scary", saying that it raised ethical questions for companies that use the app to get crowds.

"Good PR is all about transparency," she said. "But in this case, you're telling people to be discreet, but you're also telling us the events are organic and that people want to be there, and that's not okay."

George rejected the accusation that Surkus allows brands to create fake events that manipulate consumers, and said, "we want to know as much as possible about you, so we can make sure we're on target with your interests and what you love to do, so that you just can't say no to an invitation."

Surkus isn't only being used to attract people to parties, it is even being used to fill movie theatres in LA and New York – according to a research company involved. 

The app is a tool that is helpful for performers that are desperate – instead of helplessly handing out fliers to their events, they turn to Surkus. 

As a result, Facebook has created some new filters (similar to Snapchat) in an attempt to encourage users to make use of the Stories feature. These filters are augmented reality filters, which allows users to interact and have some fun with them. 

It does seem to be working a bit – especially with the new ability to create GIFs.

So, now, if you swipe over to the camera part of Facebook's main app, you have the ability to record two-second GIFs and post them to the News Feed – as your story or as a message to a friend.

It's a nice addition to Facebook, especially considering that Facebook resisted GIFs for the longest period of time before finally adding a way to embed them in 2015. 

In addition the GIF feature, Facebook now lets you live stream straight from the camera screen. It is also bringing colourful text posts to the camera (which don't actually involve photos or videos at all?). 

All this is an attempt by Facebook to encourage you to use the new features. But people are still begging you not to – no one is really using the filter, and they don't want you to be the one to start!

Watch the video below to find out why and how Facebook added these new augmented reality  (AR) filters like Snapchat. 

Opera Max has been delisted from the Google Play Store, and won’t be getting any new updates. Existing users can carry on using Opera Max, but only for “a period of time”.

Mobile data plans can be expensive, and you don’t get much for your money. This leaves most of us acutely aware of how much data we use when not on Wi-Fi. Opera Max offered a reprieve from the constant monitoring, compressing your mobile data, but now Opera Max is toasted.

Opera Max was launched in 2014 and has undergone some serious changes in the past years. While Opera did good by adding a privacy mode, it also started displaying ads in the application and nagged users to open the app in order to show them the aforementioned ads.

Aloe App breaks self-care down into three parts: physical, mental and emotional health with an easy-to-use three screen interface. The app gives users the chance to set up reminders, check-ins and even daily motivations to keep you going and keep up your well-being. With the Aloe app, users are prompt to answer some questions like "Who is one person who makes you happy?" and "What is one thing you’ll do for yourself tomorrow?"

The video shows you how the interface works and the app also allows users to send virtual flowers to one another, as well as tend to one another's garden and foster a great sense of positivity, encouragement and connection with others who are committed to better themselves. 

Most of the Google Pixel's photographic powers come from its software; which is particularly good at high dynamic range photos thanks to its HDR+ mode, which fills in the details, while reducing the blur you sometimes see in HDR photos. Thanks to Google you do not need to buy a Pixel phone to see some of these benefits. Developer B-S-G has modified the Google Camera app to enable HDR+ on an Android phone that is compatible with Snapdragon 820, 821 or 835 processor. Your Samsung Galaxy S8 or OnePlus 3 won't perfectly mirror the Pixel's photo quality, but this could lead to improvements when taking photos in situations with bright highlights or dark shadows, especially if your phone's default image processing is mediocre.

The software is still in a rough state, so you might not want to install it right away and it would come as no surprised if the mod is relatively short-lived given that it's not exactly Google-approved. Still, this along with previous mods (such as a high-speed shutter mod for Nexus phones) shows that the Pixel's camera tricks could theoretically help any Android phone, not just those with a "G" on the back. Have a look at the video below to see a hands-on review of what the Google Pixel camera can do. 

Disney and three software companies – Upsight, Unity and Kochava – have been targeted by the lawsuit alleging that the companies have created mobile apps aimed at children that contain embedded software to track, collect, and export their personal information along with information about their online behaviour.

A San Fransisco woman, the plaintiff, Amanda Rushing says she was unaware that information about her child was collected while playing Disney Princess Palace Pets, and that data was then sold to third parties for ad targeting.

The class action suit claims that this violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which was enacted by Congress in 1999. The act was designed to protect the privacy of children online. 

COPPA requires that companies who design apps for children under 13 years of age obtain consent from parents or guardians before collecting personal information. In 2013, the FTC revised COPPA, expanding what counts as personal information to include geolocation markers and IP address, among other things. In addition, the update requires third-party advertisers to comply with the rules.

In total, the lawsuit names 42 Disney apps that have run afoul of COPPA. These Include:

• AvengersNet
• Beauty and The Beast
• Perfect Match
• Cars Lightning League
• Club Penguin Island
• Color by Disney
• Disney Color and Play
• Disney Crossy Road
• Disney Dream Treats
• Disney Emoji Blitz
• Disney Gif
• Disney Jigsaw Puzzle
• Disney LOL
• Disney Princess: Story Theater
• Disney Store Become
• Disney Story Central
• Disney Magic Timer
• Disney Princess: Charmed Adventures
• Dodo Pop
• Disney Build It Frozen
• DuckTales: Remastered
• Frozen Free Fall
• Frozen Free Fall: Icy Shot
• Good Dinosaur Storybook Deluxe
• Inside Out Thought Bubbles
• Maleficent Free Fall
• Miles From Tomorrowland: Missions
• Moana Island Life
• Olaf's Adventures
• Palace Pets in Whisker Haven
• Sofia The First Color and Play
• Sofia The First Secret Library
• Star Wars: Puzzle DroidsTM
• Star WarsTM: Commander
• Temple Run: Oz
• Temple Run: Brave
• The Lion Guard
• Toy Story: Story Theater
• Where's My Mickey?
• Where's My Water? (paid, lite and free)
• Where's My Water? 2
• Zootopia Crime Files: Hidden Object

The plaintiff is seeking an injunction barring the defendants from tracking and sharing data collected without parental consent, as well as "appropriate relief, including actual and statutory damages and punitive damages," – plus all costs related to prosecuting the action.

Disney has responded to the lawsuit, saying: "Disney has a robust COPPA compliance program, and we maintain strict data collection and use policies for Disney apps created for children and families. The complaint is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of COPPA principles, and we look forward to defending this action in court."

This is not the first time Disney has faced COPPA violations – in 2011, the FTC levied a $3 million civil penalty against subsidiary Playdom after it allegedly collected and disclosed personal information from "hundreds of thousands of children under age 13 without their parents' prior consent."

Hopefully, the lawsuit ensures that the privacy and protection of children using Disney apps are secured.

Connecting with other working professionals can be a very difficult journey. Especially if you will never make contact with them again. As a result, LinkedIn's product team has released a Tinder-Inspired feature!

Previously, LinkedIn used a Facebook-style news feed implementation so that complete strangers could connect on a professional level, allowing them to inflate networking skills. But LinkedIn has actually become a social network that people outside of corporate recruiters feel compelled to use as sparingly as possible.

This is what makes their latest Tinder-inspired feature so fun – social features that millennials love, making a networking site a little more puzzling. 

The company announced last week that it will be introducing what TechCrunch describes as a "Tinder-style" feature for pairing mentors with those looking for professional advice. LinkedIn reportedly launched the feature originally in beta last month, and it has since brought the full version of the feature to its main service.

As with Tinder, you can now specify that certain requirements must be met before you are paired with a potential mentor or mentee – including where a person lands in your network and other factors to narrow down the list to a potential list of suitable lifehack-loving thinkfluencers!

From there, you are able to pair up and start chatting. You don't appear to have to swipe on people's faces, although that's because a swipe mechanic would probably run the risk of making the new feature look more like a dating app than a networking one! 

However, you do cycle through a list of algorithmically generated faces and profiles designed to meet your specific needs and diminish the human spirit.

It does sound a bit like a toothless attempt at winning over younger users with a design method borrowed from the Tinder dating app – pretty accurate actually. Most mentorships in life arise from natural occurrences with bosses or colleagues or people who, over time, organically take on the role of someone looking after your career because they believe in you. 

LinkedIn, another "coaching" service trying to commodify good advice, wants you to skip right to the awkward moment when you and someone else must own up to the transactional nature of your relationship. 

What better way to do so than by initially judging them at a glance based only on what your brain can glean from 10 seconds of looking at their face and credentials?

There may be a lot of possible problems with this new feature. But hey, you never know, it could be the next big thing connecting people to LinkedIn and to each other!

Kik Messenger is a free instant messaging service from Kik Interactive – one very popular with children and teenagers. The app comes from a Canadian tech firm founded in 2009. Since then, it has gained 300 million users reaches 40 percent of teenagers in the United states. And now, it has become "the defacto app for grooming children online" due to its ease of access to minors.

The report in this investigation is a collaboration between British investigative media company Point and Forbes, which found that predators instantly contact and groom underage users on the service, aided by third-party apps that help share profiles.

The media companies found that Kik is frequently cited by law enforcement as a tool used by child predators, claiming that the app is popular because "it is free, simple to set up, easily accessible, potentially anonymous and allows users to share digital data privately."

This is not the first time that the Kik app has been linked to crimes against children. In 2016, The New York Times reported that the app was becoming a concern for law enforcement officials, with a number of times a predator has used the app to exchange child pornography, to send explicit messages or arrange meetings with minors. 

In that time, Kik was apparently working on taking steps to "assist preventing child exploitation," – including posting a law enforcement guide and sponsoring an annual conference on crimes against children.

However, despite these efforts, Point and Forbes found that there is still ongoing abuse on the app, and that there has been "evidence of a vast number of child exploitation cases involving the use of Kik," and that predators are continuing to use the app to target children and teenagers. 

Reporters from the two publications posed as 13 and 14-year-old girls on the app and, within an hour of joining several public groups, the two profiles received numerous private messages from male users, including some with explicit language and images. 

The reporters then used a third-party app called KFF Username Finder For Kik, which helps boost one's Kik profile. Within minutes of advertising their profiles on the app, the profiles received hundreds of messages from other users. "Not only were many in aggressive in tone, they also contained images of male genitalia."

The report also points out that Kik Interactive has made substantial efforts to mitigate abuse on the app, and that predators are increasingly using a wide range of social media apps to target children. Kik has started utilizing a tool called PhotoDNA that identifies reported images and videos of child abuse and provides law enforcement to help with investigations. 

Unfortunately, problems still remain. Point and Forbes spoke with advocacy groups, which indicated that Kik could be doing more combat abuse, such as adding more privacy controls and being more responsive to user complaints. They, worryingly, have not removed profiles of users who have been charged and convicted of child abuse.

A Kik spokesperson told Point and Forbes that safety is a priority for the company and that Kik is continuing to invest in this area. However, they have admitted that it can do a better job about proactively removing profiles that belong to users who have been convicted of crimes related to child abuse. 

Kik is hardly the only app linked to abuse on a social platform. Prominent social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have also been criticized for not doing enough to stop child abuse, harassment and extremism on their platforms. 

Both parents and their children need to be aware of this problem on Kik and watch out for any unusual activity on the app. 

Google confirmed, at the I/O event that the next update for Android –Android O– will be officially out this fall, which is normally around the month of September. The Nokia 8 will probably be the first phone by HMD Global to get Android O software onboard. Earlier, HMD Global confirmed the new software will also land to other Nokia smartphones like the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3. This means that all the smartphones by Nokia will be eventually upgraded to Android O aka Android 8.0 software system. 

That being said, Nokia 8, the company's high-end phone will come with Carl Zeiss lens. This is what some reports hinted. On the other hand, some lately leaked live images of the phone in Copper gold colour shows no Zeiss lens onboard. So, the chances are sort of dicey if the Nokia 8 will come with the Carl Zeiss lens or not. The phone is further said to come with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, 5.7-inch 2K display and on the camera front, the smartphone is expected to feature a dual camera set, where each sensor may be of 13-megapixel.

The camera is further said to come paired with dual LED flash also. As for the pricing of the Nokia 8, the smartphone is expected to be priced at $549 or $599, which should roughly come between Rs 35,218 and Rs 38,377. 

Have a look at the video to see the concept design of the Nokia 8. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Uber managers in Singapore bought more than 1,000 Honda Vezel SUVs and rented them to drivers even though they knew the model had been recalled in April 2016.

The recall of the Vezel was as a result of concerns about an electrical part that could overheat and catch on fire, according to the paper citing internal Uber documents and interviews with people familiar with Uber's operations.

In January, a fire broke out in one of the rented out Vezels after an Uber driver dropped a passenger off. The interior was melted, leaving a hole in the windscreen, according to the Journal. Luckily, the driver was not harmed.

In a statement, Uber said that "as soon as we learned of a Honda Vezel from the Lion City Rental fleet catching fire, we took swift action to fix the problem, in close coordination with Singapore's Land Transport Authority as well as technical experts."

"But we acknowledge that we could have done more – and we have done so."

Lion City Rentals is affiliated to Uber, and rents out vehicles for Uber drivers in Singapore, where the cost of owning a car is among the highest in the world. 

Uber said it had hired three experts at the company to ensure they are responsive to safety recalls.

It is the latest problem for Uber, which has been affected by reports of harassment and discrimination.

Travis Kalanick, the chief executive, resigned in June, yielding to pressure from investors looking to clean up an alleged toxic corporate culture. 

And if you think this is a headache, check out the video below to see what happens in South Africa when Uber drivers have a run in with metered taxis!

But, even though Instagram is one of the only Facebook-owned services that hasn't reached one billion active users, people are apparently spending more time on Instagram than ever – nearly half an hour.

This statement was released on the feature's one year anniversary. The reason for this increase in activity? The Snapchat-inspired stories feature. More than 250 million people on Instagram use Instagram Stories every day according to the company.

This story feature allows people to share remarkable moments from their day with pictures or videos that disappear on their own in 24 hours.

According to Instagram, Stories is attracting businesses as well. Over 50 percent of business on Instagram produced an Instagram story last month, says the company. One of five such stories from businesses elicited a direct message from customers.

Since launching the Instagram Stories feature a year ago, the Facebook-owned app has also added a range of business-focused features to make stories more interactive. Play with time, for example, lets business run time-sensitive alerts.

It has been noted that between May 2016 and May 2017, Instagram has installed about 34 million times across App Store and Google Play – a figure which amounts to about 8.4 percent of its worldwide downloads.

Check out the video below to see how Instagram Stories works, if you already don't know!

VSCO is limiting the video editing tool to its VSCO X members, who must pay a $19.99 annual subscription fee to get access to premium features. According to VSCO, a VSCO X membership includes new exclusive tools that are introduced each month, along with more than 100 VSCO presets and advanced controls.

If you need some tutorials on how to use the VSCO app in general head over to the tutorial video, and down below you can see what VSCO cam is all about (if you have never heard of it before, VSCO cam is the best photo editing app you can come across).

This feature will also make it possible to transfer footage from a GoPro Hero 5 camera to your phone without touching ANY buttons. Kick back, relax, and let your app do all the work for you!

QuikStories is simply an improvement to the Quik app – a mobile editor that can automatically assemble an edit to the beat of a song from one or multiple video clips and photos. 

The difference now is that GoPro is removing all the initial steps that stood in the way of getting to those algorithmically compiled edits. GoPro Hero 5 cameras can now AUTOMATICALLY send footage to a user's phone, and Quick will start editing together without the user even needing to touch the app.

After the app has done its magic, the user can still go back and make tweaks to their liking.

There is, however, one slight issue. GoPro warns users that they should ensure their camera has more than 20 percent battery left before starting the process. If not, the camera could die in the middle of the transfer process. In addition, while Quik is able to identify what the best footage is based on a combination of computer vision and sensor data from the camera, users will probably still have to be a bit well-informed and careful with their shooting if the camera is sending everything to their phone. 

However, the users can also turn this auto transfer off and start transferring and editing later manually. This might be what saves them.

GoPro has been improving its software (specifically in video editing) for quite some time now. For example, there was previously no way to create complex edits quickly like these before GoPro bought and rebranded the Quik app in 2016. 

In addition, when the Hero 5 cameras were released, they introduced a way to automatically back up footage to the cloud that users could then access on mobile devices.

These were both massive changes to the GoPro ecosystem. But Nick Woodman, GoPro CEO, thinks Quikstories can be an even bigger shift in how the company's cameras are used as a result of all the steps the new features eradicates. 

Before Quikstories, a GoPro user would have to shoot footage open the main GoPro app, select and transfer specific files to their mobile device, open the Quick app, and select those files again to get the automatic video editing started. That is quite a mission.

"While we had all of the tools, previously, for our customers to get to an edit and realize the value of owning a GoPro, were pretty candid that that was a very complicated solution for somebody to figure it out," Woodman said in a statement to The Verge.

By automatically combining footage and photos, companies like GoPro hope to encourage users to share more of their own content – exciting them and others to create and share more in the long term.

Although there are other companies working on ways to do this, they still had the problem of users having to make a conscious decision to seek the edits out. That was before Quikstories, where that happens almost completely in the background.

"When you're reviewing the footage [with QuikStories], it's as though you captured it with the phone itself, "Woodman says. "That's a much more compelling solution and experience than what GoPro was before QuikStories, and so we think it can weave GoPro into people's more casual use in a way that GoPro wasn't really relevant before because of the amount of work it took to get to the edit, to get to the story."

As for the name, Woodman is aware that the word "stories" has become a pretty significant word in the app world. But ultimately, Woodman says the name felt accurate, and the company also didn't see associations with features like Instagram Stories as a bad thing. With video, he says, "we're just seeing people become more and more creative, more and more expressive, and we think we can be right at the heart of that."

QuikStories is available both on iOS and Android.

Watch the video to see how this easy transfer happens automatically on your device!

The update framework uses Bluetooth and WiFi to find nearby devices, connect them and perform tasks without requiring an internet connection. The toolkit supports both mesh networks, where devices form an independent network on the spot as well as a centralized connection where one device rules the roost.

It'll take a while for the new Nearby Connections to wind its way into the apps you use, but there are already companies who've had a head start. The Weather Channel is installing mesh networks in areas with poor internet access to help send weather warnings, Hotstar is offering offline media sharing and GameInsight will help you find and play people offline. And of course, Google has its own; an upcoming Android TV remote app will use Nearby Connections to get you started and turn on second-screen experiences while you're watching shows.

Carrot Weather recently got a brand-new version 4.0 and takes less advantage of Carrot as a friendly antagonist; since there is less direct interaction when it comes to checking the weather, but it is still the most fun weather app out there. 

Users can directly interact with Carrot by swiping down on the screen. The AI’s personality feels like a combination of sci-fi’s best murderous robots — think somewhere been 2001: A Space Odessey’s HAL, Portal’s GLaDOS, and Knight’s of the Old Republic’s HK-47 — and the mocking comments about the weather I’m suffering was legitimately entertaining to read.

The latest version features an easy to use interface and allows users to tweak the friendliness of Carrot; ranging from fully professional, which turns Carrot off completely to leave you with a nicely designed weather app, to mildly snarky. The Carrot app costs $3.99 and is worth the combination of a great feature, slick design and the bonus entertainment. 

The Carrot Weather app is available on the Apple Store. 

Unlike Android Pay and Apple Pay which makes use of NFC technology, Samsung Pay uses MST or magnetic secure transmissions, that emits a magnetic signal that mimics the strip of traditional payment cards. What this means is that Samsung Pay has a bigger potential to reach greater global reach and "is more secure" than NFC-based services. It is also said that Samsung is considering an accessory that users can stick on their smartphone to enable support for the payments service. This accessory could be similar to LoopPay Cards, a battery-powered plastic puck. 

Samsung is reportedly hoping that this payment service will be available on more devices by mid-2018. In April Samsung Pay claimed that they have 34 million active users in 2017, while Apple Pay almost doubles its users from 45 million in 2016 to 86 million this year. Have a look at the video to see how Samsung Pay works. 

Well, here's the bonus: it's actually quite simple, despite our fears about it being impossible for ordinary people like you and me.

This video will give you the tips, tricks and tools that you need to make your own app and to be successful with your downloads and subscribers!

The man narrating this video and giving all the information on how to make an app has made over 20 apps and has succeeded in getting over one million downloads – so I think we can trust his methods. 

The video includes everything: pre-production, production and post-production of the app. This means the planning, the creating, as well as the methods you'll need to use in order to get your app out-there and well-known.

So if you want to enter into our digital centred world with something to add – watch the video.. you never know what will come from it!

Luckily, we have found 3 awesome apps for iPhones that can deliver free music – legit ones this time.

The first is Audiomack. Audiomack is a great app for sharing and discovering music for all fans. It is quick, simple and the selection is huge! Not only can Audiomack provide you with popular music, aspiring artists can also upload their own music for people to discover!

The second app recommended in this video is Pocket Tube. Pocket Tube is a YouTube player that organises music to fit your taste! The app automatically organises YouTube music videos by artist and albums. It also supports background play, continuous play and shuffle! Simply add a song to your playlist by pressing on that song for a few seconds.

Last but not least, the video recommends Document 6. Document 6 provides many functions that include a central hub for all files – documents, pdfs, images, videos and music! It allows you to sync your music with your phone for your own enjoyment!

Audiomack, Pocket Tube and Document 6 are all available on your Apple App Store for you to download. 

Watch the video to have a glimpse into using the apps and enjoy your favourite tunes for free!

Available on: iOS

Our Rating: 4 stars

The free music downloader app makes it easier to search and save these desired tracks. So how does the app work exactly? Tubidy music download is basically tied up with some of the biggest music and video platforms - YouTube and Soundcloud in this case. 

Users can find everything out of this enormous music database, you can also load videos and mp3s directly to your phone. 

Tubidy's search engine is very easy to use after you open the app, you can type in a desired video or song name of the artist and press the search icon to find your results. 

You will have the whole list of matching results in a few seconds. After choosing one, you can click on it, and here it is, the list of options available to download: mp3, mp4, mp4 audio, by parts, etc.

When you open the Tubidy music download app you will also see a list of the most popular music videos, genre options to choose from – depending on your mood – and Apple's iTunes top 100 list. 

In order to download something from Tubidy, you don’t have to sign in. But if you would like to create your own music-video library in there then you had to create your account by signing up. The signing up process takes only a few minutes as there are not that many forms to fill in.

The only thing that Tubidy is not great at is the quality of the sound, but this may vary from track-to-track. The Tubidy music download app is also not available on Android platforms. There are some other things that can be improved for the user like an option to remove the ads because each page has over 3 adverts.

All and all, not every app out there is the best, but Tubidy will definitely make it easier to find free music with an easy way to search and a huge variety of songs, so get downloading now!

Available on: iOS, Windows, PC, Android
Our rating: 4 stars

Nowadays, we are all about digital media. Songs, pictures and videos consume our daily lives – and it's in all available right in your hand. Most of the time, these treasures are available almost everywhere – it's easy to get and keep forever.

However, finding and keeping the media that you want in the giant web can take time, effort and a whole lot of data. That means tedious hours of downloads at a cost.

With SHAREit, that problem is solved! SHAREit allows you to share files with fellow SHAREit app users in just a few seconds (literally) without using any data whatsoever! 

SHAREit allows you to connect with multiple users and collaborate with incredible and exciting content quickly and efficiently. Remember, sharing is caring!

So here's how to get started on the amazing SHAREit experience.

Go to your app store and find SHAREit with a blue icon. While you download and install, browse through more information (telling you exactly what SHAREit offers) and look at other user reviews.

Once SHAREit is installed, it's time to get started! Create a username and pick out an adorable avatar icon from their selection and you're in. On the home page, you will see two buttons – "Send" and "Receive" which you will use when sharing files with other SHAREit users. You can also scroll down for more recommendations, tips and more!

So here's how you send:

Click "Send", select one or more files (these can be document files, music, pictures, videos, and even apps!) and then click "next". Your device will then scan for a SHAREit user on "receive" mode (Note: the receiver must have selected "Receive" in order to pop up on your radar). Soon your receiver's avatar icon will appear. Click on their icon, it will connect to the user, and within seconds the file is sent. Boom!

When sending on SHAREit, there is a bar showing progress with file size and time. You'll notice that the time is usually around 3 seconds! Very impressive. 

However, where SHAREit loses one star, is when sharing between Android and iPhone. We experienced some difficulty receiving from an iOS on an Android phone – and were unable to receive the file. 

There are steps to take to fix this – but in our case, these did not work.

Other than that, SHAREit is incredible and highly recommended by AppNations!

Watch the video below to see a brief explanation of what SHAREit delivers.

You can send your location to your contact pro-actively as well in case of emergency situations. Google has updated the ANdroid app to version 1.5 to bring all the latest features like to ability to control how quickly your location is shared. The updated Trusted Contacts app also allows you to add a trusted contact with a phone number or by their email address and with this update it also brings nine new languages for a total of 25 worldwide. The languages include Amharic (Ethiopia), Greek (Greece), Persian (Iran), Bahasa (Indonesia), Macedonian (Macedonia), Burmese (Myanmar), Nepali (Nepal), Serbian (Serbia), and Urdu (Pakistan).

The update also brings better integration with Google Maps with permanent sharing of location so that the user can see where you are directly within Maps for better discovery. The app can be downloaded for free from the App Store or from Google Play. 

Check out the video below to see how easy it is to use!

The apps in this video are the best, new apps (from mid-July 2017) for both iPhone and Android smartphones:

- Seeing AI
- Sticky AI
- LiquidSky
- Super Shortcut

Watch the video and be amazed - get these apps now!

Now, Nintendo has finally launched its a long-criticized voice app – and the reaction has been more disastrous than we initially anticipated! 

Nintendo users of this app have had a lot to say, and this video digs through the comments – an endless amount of dissatisfaction.

This is mainly because people feel that the Nintendo Switch Voice app is unnecessary and overcomplicated!

Watch the video to see why!

Google Play Protect is a new security system that will automatically scan your Android device to identify and flag malicious apps. The app is integrated into Google Play and gets a dedicated page where you can learn more about it, see what apps have been scanned at the time of the last scan. To access Google Play Protect, go to Google Play app > Security > Verify apps.

Scanning your device for threats and sending unknown apps to Google for better detection is optional. Google analyses privacy and security signals for every app on the Play Store. This will help Google to identify harmless looking apps in which malicious code is introduced through updates at a later stage. 

As much as Google is trying to protect everyone, it's up to you as a user to be vigilant regarding what you download, especially if it's from a third party website for example.

Check out the video below for more info, and be safe, it's a crazy world out there!

Whether you're a beginner or an advanced user of Google Assistant, watch this video for some insane tips, tricks and commands you can use with this incredible Google feature! 

Towards the end of the video, listen out for a bunch of additional commands you can use to really utilise Googe Assistant to the max!

Our rating: 4/5
Available on: Android and iOS

Here's how to get started with DTSV Now.

Step 1
Go to your app store and find "DSTV Now" – scroll through more information and user reviews while you wait for your new app to download.

Step 2
Once you've installed the app, your phone will create a shortcut for DSTV Now on your phone screen, open it up to register and get started. The process is quick and easy.

Step 3
Once you open the app, it will ask you to either log in or register. Click on "register" if you're new to the app. In order to register, you will need to enter your passport or ID number (remember guys, you have to be registered for DSTV for the app to work!). The app will then send a one-time-pin to your email address or cellphone number to verify the account and make sure it's you.

Step 4
After you've been verified, fill in a few more details such as your name, email and a password for your account.

CONGRATS – YOU'VE JUST OPENED A WORLD ON ENTERTAINMENT!

Watch the video to see this step-by-step process when getting started.

In this video, we look at the following modifications you can use with your Android:

- Unseen
- Rocker Locker
- Volume Notification
- Amp Me
- Dumpster
- Pixel Drawer
- Energy Bar
- IFTTT
- Muviz
- Launchify

Watch the video to find out more about these mods and try them out!

In this video, we try to end that battle with a scrutinising and specific review of both smartphones and systems. 

The video reviews the following:

- Interface
- Notification Center
- Functionality
- Apps
- Performance (phone performance and battery)
- Updates
- Jailbreak vs rooting 

And more!

For this review, the demonstration is done using the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, Google Pixel, LG Nexus 5X, Galaxy S8, Mi Mix, and Moto G4 Plus.

Be ready - maybe this can end the confusion and the fight!

With our smartphones being a likely replacement for our cameras - you need to make sure you're taking the best pics you can take!

This video shows you just how to do that with the stock camera app!

These are some of the most useless, strange and just fucking crazy apps available on both Android and iOS.

You will honestly just be left confused. And you'll probably want to reevaluate your life if you actually enjoy any of these apps!

Watch the video and be shocked guys.

The new features of iOS Beta are incredible - better multitasking, drag and drop, a files app and so much more!

This video has the top 25 best new features - but almost all of the features could be included with enough space!

Watch the video to see iOS Beta's top 25 best new features!

Google's Travel Guide or Google Trips is a free app, which is available on Android and iOS, will organise your plane tickets and hotel reservations, offer editorial guides to more than 200 cities, and make personalised recommendations based on your Google history. Best of all, it works offline: you can download everything to your phone before you leave, including maps and walking directions — sparing you from having to use an expensive international data plan.

It will also give you an additional brief summary of your destination, watch the video to see how Google - will yet again - make your life better!!

Our rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS and Android 

Musical.ly is an app for creating and sharing short videos. Musical.ly has become popular with the tween and teen set in their never-ending pursuit of popularity and fame, social likes and validation. 

Usually, these are lip-synced videos with popular songs in the background. Some of the videos also feature short musical performances, singing, comedy or dancing. There are 14 pre-set filters and other video effects that allow you to adjust the speed or reverse the motion of recording, additionally Musical.ly also has a feature to create shorter videos, named "live moments" which are essentially GIFs with music. 

Musical.ly is very much a social app, with the ability to like, follow and comment on each other’s video creations which are called “musicals”.  There are challenges and contents, where a given song or theme is introduced and you make a video that relates to it – then tag it with a hashtag for all to see.

You can add you location but we at AppNations.com would recommend turning off location as the app doesn’t require that to be on to use the majority of features on musical.ly. We’d also recommend not listing your location anywhere within your profile. (just for your own safety) Musical.ly is rated +12 in the Apple store and "Teen" in Google Play for Android; due to the fact that if you are going to look for explicit content, such as swearing, you will definitely find it in the form of a video. 

 

Check out the video to see what Musical.ly is all about!

Our Rating: 4/5

Available on: Android and iOS

Even though Super Mario Run makes you give up some direct control of Nintendo's mascot, it gives you a stylish, addictive platformer you can play with one hand... FINALLY!

In the new smartphone version of Super Mario, there are slick new moves and highly replayable stages that make Mario's smartphone debut feel like a parkour collect-a-thon loaded up with that good old Nintendo charm.

Admittedly, the games do look better on Nintendo's own platforms – but the elegant mechanics and great level designs make it worth it.

Perhaps the most exciting part of Super Mario's smartphone debut is that old feeling... a nostalgic blast from the past with a game we all adored! Of course, there are some new features, but nothing beats that familiar feeling when playing Super Mario Run.

Perhaps the only disappointing part of this app is that it is still pretty 2 dimensional – compared to other vibrant mobile runners, it can be a bit disappointing. 

Nevertheless, Mario has never moved with more energy or grave in a 2D Mario game!

 

Watch this video to see how Super Mario Run would be in REAL LIFE!

Our rating: 4/5

Available on: Android 

Racing is amongst one of the trendiest online games that are available on the Google Play Store for enthusiasts. Moto Rider is a racing game that gives you the option to choose from many different bikes, so you can drive the bike that you really love to drive. You will get passed by the moving and invariable obstacles that will try to stop you from progressing to the nex levels in the game. This buzzing racing game will give you limitless fun and excitement, Moto Rider is designed with stunningly beautiful 3D graphics and the game's feature is designed with simple navigation; so, everyone will absolutely have the grandest time playing this game!

This fast paced motor racing game will put your heart into an endless throbbing like you are driving on an exact motorcycle so make sure that you are able to control your bike with the incredible high-speed in the fast and the furious traffic rush time. Moto Rider will make you feel the thrill of genuine racing action in ultra-motor racing.

You can purchase your favourite bike and, you must be able to choose the best bike to be able to beat others players in the racing game. By using the coins, that you earn throughout the game you can upgrade your rider. Though it will take you a lot of time to earn the coins you must be able to beat out all the hurdles and progress in the game to get those coins.

The Moto Rider app is probably one of the coolest heart-throbbing online motor racing game. Go get into the rush and avoid cars and trucks while you speed up to the limit. You can race in two different modes. You can rush through day or night, check out the video to see more!

Available on: Android and iOS
Our rating: 2/5

Although the world's biggest action hero has starred in the Mobile Strike advertisement TV commercials, making it widely known and encouraging action game lovers to try it out, it hasn't received great feedback from players. 

Although the game is supposed to use a strategy formula (and yes, kids do have to strategize a bit) the app has been called "less a game than a repetitive round of 'tap and wait'". 

The problem is, the game has no narrative or explanation of the setting – and so the word "game" applies very loosely here. All the players actually do is tap buttons, wait for timers to count down, and stare at static map icons.

It does offer some degree of planning by making your success depend on how efficiently you collect and use resources. But the visual effect payoff is pretty small. Your only reward post-battle is a results screen that dryly reports the resources you've gained or the troops you have lost. 

Players say that truth be told, the only interesting and entertaining aspect of the game is monitoring the player chat – a silly stream of chats that mostly don't have anything to do with playing the game.

Another review has said, "the game has a strategy alright – a strategy for separating gamers from their money".

So, when all is said and done, it turns out that the most entertaining and exciting part of Mobile Strike is its TV commercials!

 

Watch the video to see the exciting commercial that set the bar a bit too high...

Our rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS, Android and Windows

The player has to find the person given to them in their mission and ventilate their head. No cheesy objective arrows here, just good old spotting! Completing missions earns the player coins which are used to upgrade guns and even buy new ones, extra cash is given for headshots. You aim the rifle by tilting the device and it makes it look and feel real life. There is a shoot and reload button and reloading take about four seconds at the outset, so players can't afford to miss. 

Gameplay is mission-based and will take you to various areas of the city to seek out your revenge. Graphics are nicely drawn up, you have the choice between dynamic and touch controls and gameplay will test your patience and touch at making your shots ring true.

Just a quick note with respect to the blood setting is that if you choose to turn on this feature, Sniper 3D can be a rather graphic video game. If you are playing this game around small kids or at the supper table, you may want to disable this feature.

Your gaming menu will also have the option to access the game's package menu, as well as access to your weapons upgrades, arsenal and missions. Sniper 3D does start game play out with a series of tutorial missions. You are given a top of the line rifle to use and, during the first few missions, you will learn your way around the game screen.

Sniper 3D Assassin has some annoying and easily fixed issues, however. The worst one is the way that the reload button is right next to the bullets that are tapped to fire. This means that often the player will reload by accident, running missions and making misses very costly indeed. This could have been easily prevented by moving the button elsewhere.

Sniper 3D Assassin looks excellent. It feels very realistic as you scope down from a nearby roof and search for your target among the other passersby below. The blood and gunshot effects are super and the sound works well too, from the crack of your rifle to the hubbub of the city around you.

Sniper 3D Assassin: Shoot to Kill may not appeal to everyone, but if you are in search of a challenging action/adventure game for your smartphone, it is worth trying.

 

Check out the video for more!

Our rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS, Android 

The FNB app is user-friendly, relatively simple and boasts good functionality. The look and feel are clean and logical and you can do most things, from buying Lotto tickets, transferring money between your personal accounts or paying a beneficiary on the go. You can buy data or airtime and view your balances and transaction history. Useful features include the ability to draw cash without a card and buy pre-paid electricity. 

To access mobile banking you have to be a subscriber to the online banking service of First National Bank. 

Additional functionality provided by the app includes VOIP calling (via FNB Connect), locating an ATM (using your GPS location), live Forex rates and a few others.

The functionality provided covers 90% of the use case. AppNations.com would, however, prefer to be able to add new beneficiaries from our phone and access some of the other services (such as prepaid purchases) via the app. Investment accounts also need a bit of work. But in general, the app provides a rich feature set and is excellent to use!

The interface is easy to use and understand, the app makes banking a breeze, so be sure to connect with the mobile platform for faster banking on the go!

Our rating: 3/5

Available on: Android and iOS

The Clash of Clans app doesn't make any major changes to the strategy formula of the game, but it definitely does just enough to recapture the genre's addictive elements.

Players are familiar with the foundation of the game – building a base and attacking others – but the new introduction of the multiplayer element and the ability to see exactly how your defences were overcome (battles happen independently of the gameplay you see) let you learn from your mistakes.

Also, for players who don't want to take part in player vs player combat, there's a strong solo campaign.

The game app gives players the essentials to start but, to really go far in the game, in-app purchases are pretty much required (unless you're REALLY lucky in battles!). 

The app is, in general, a fine choice for strategy game fans. However, the time it takes for buildings and upgrades is frustrating.

Perhaps the biggest problem associated with the game is that parents worry about their children playing it. Technically, the app requires players to be at least 13, and teens between the ages of 13 and 17 are supposed to have a guardian to agree to the terms – but the rules aren't always followed. 

Parents are concerned about the frequent battles with explosions and the cries of defeated soldiers, although the app claims there is no graphic violence. In addition, parents worry about their children communicating directly with unknown other players.

Nevertheless, if you're into games that require mental strategy and multiplayer combat – this one is for you.

 

Watch the video below to see an exciting new upgrade in the game – Builders Hall 6 is here!

Our rating: 3/5

Available on: iOS, Android and Windows 

The BBC App is modern and attractive, it uses white space and large images that make the app feel less cluttered and easy to use. 

All articles and news stories are tagged and users have the ability to personalise the interface based on broad categories like ‘Football’ or very specific current topics. At first glance this seems like a great addition, however, there are hundreds of very specific topics to choose from and some of the more obscure topics have very few recent articles. For example, a topic such as “Gaming” has only a couple of recent articles and is mostly filled with outdated content making the personalisation feel ill thought through. 

From a UX angle, there are a couple of niggles that are frustrating. For a start, the navigation is a bit fiddly; topics are placed as tabs at the top of the page. If you have lots of topics, navigating through the endless list isn’t easy. They have attempted to solve this by replicating the topics using a more traditional hamburger which provides a list of all your topics but having two ways to navigate to the same content feels a bit odd and almost like it has been added as an after-thought.

The BBC News app can suggest topics based on stories you've recently viewed and what's in the news now and you can quickly find topics that interest you using the Search available in the side menu and Add Topics screen. The app offers stories and video, breaking news alerts including support for smart watches and access to the BBC News Channel in the UK and live World Service radio internationally.

If you are a News fanatic and like to know what is going on worldwide, BBC News is just the app for you. 

 

Check out the video for more!

Available on: Android and iOS
Our rating: 4/5

Here's how to get started with this app.

Step 1:

Go to your app store, and type in Lomotif – find the light blue app and scroll through the page for more information while you download.

Step 2: 

During the sign-up process, you can choose whether to go through email or connect with your Facebook account. Bonus: whichever you choose, you are not obligated or tricked into paying for any features.

Step 3:

Once you're taken to the home page, Lomotif will ask you for access to your media (in order to use for creating your video masterpieces!) as well as your contacts (if you'd like to invite or follow friends from your contacts). On the home page, you can also scroll through the "Features" or "Following" videos already uploaded to the app from other users.

The social aspect of this app allows you to invite friends, follow other users (the coolest ones are recommended for you) and receive notifications whenever someone interacts with your video.

Step 4:

Now it's time to start making your video. On the pink Lomotif opening page, click the + (Start Now) icon to begin. You will then be taken to your gallery to pick the media content (both video and photo) you'd like to use for the visual aspect of your video. You can choose from your own gallery, OR you can choose from the "Motifs" section – allowing you to use other content to edit. 

Go through the videos and select the one you'd like to edit, and now it's time to pick a song to accompany your video.

You may pick from your own playlist of music on your device, or you can choose suggested songs given to you – don't worry, no elevator music. The songs provided are popular hits!

Step 5:

Once you've finished selecting all your media, the items will process and then you are directed to the "Create" page where your video (and/or picture slideshow) is about to be transformed. Once on this page, the app will give you some editing tips to help you get started.

Step 6:

Let's have a look at the editing features and options that are provided for you. These include:

-Filters
-Stickers
-Titles
-Sound adjustments to your chosen music

Step 7:

Once you're happy with your creation, it's time to save and add to your profile. When you save your video, you can add a caption, save to your own gallery and also choose who is allowed to see the video. You can also share your video on several social media platforms for others to see.

The video is then added to your profile. You will notice the two sections – "In Progress" and "Lomotifs". The "Lomotifs" section is for your completed works, and the "In Progress" section is for the videos you have started that you'd like to spend more time on later.

Just a reminder that you can use both videos and photos for your video.

On your profile, click on the settings icon if you'd like to make any changes to your profile, account, followers and link your account to other social media platforms.

This app is such a fun and creative way for people to create their own short films or light slideshows in their hands!

Recommended by AppNations :) 

 

Watch the video below for a tutorial on how it works!

Then welcome to heaven! Featuring the top 10 offline games of 2017 for both android and iOS devices!

from features, sharing, posting, tagging, live feeds, events and so much more...It seems to be a bottomless digital hat of all sorts of wonders. So a few tips & tricks to help you better understand how much power you actually have!

Our rating: 4 Stars
Available on: Via web-based interface, mobile apps, Android, iOS

Save all of the interesting articles, videos, cooking recipes, song lyrics, or whatever else you come across while browsing. With one click, Instapaper lets you save, read, and manage the things you find on the Internet.

Our rating: 4/5

Available on: Web browser, iOS, Android and Microsoft Store (Windows phones)

Our rating: 5/5

Available on: Android and iOS

Our Rating: 4/5 

Available on: Android and iOS

"Connecting citizens to safety"

This incredible app uses your location and notifies the nearest police if you are in an emergency situation. It also helps you protect others with its #MakeSaSafe function where you can report incidents to warn others.

Although the app is only functioning in Gauteng, South Africa, they are working to expand the app throughout South Africa – this is perhaps the one flaw in the app currently, but, with so much potential it should roll out to other cities soon.

Stay connected to safety with this app, here's how:

Go to your app store and type in Namola (it should come up first – it's a trending app right now), and while you're waiting for the download, scroll through the page to find out more information on how the app will help you stay safe and protected at all times.

When you open the app, it will give you four swipe screens giving you a few facts about the app. It will also allow you to create your account – so get started.

The sign-up process will require your email address, cell phone number, password and an optional photo upload (this is to make it easier for the police to recognise you in a situation where you need their help!) – quick and easy.

Just read and agree to the terms and conditions in your sign-up process and your account will be created.

Now you're in. You will see a map and, at the bottom of your screen, it will say "determining location". You will, of course, need to enable the location setting on your device in order for the authorities to be able to find you in an emergency situation. Once you enable your location setting, your location is determined in seconds. It will then give you the "Request Assistance" button. When in an emergency situation, you hold down this button and the nearest authorities to your location will be immediately dispatched to your situation.

Also, guys, don't do prank calls here, let's keep people safe and not mess around!

When you open the side tab on your screen, you will see multiple options and settings. One of the most incredible and special features on this app will show there – #MakeSaSafe and Report Corruption.

These two features are what helps users keep each other safe to prevent them having to call for emergency assistance. #MakeSASafe gives you reports of current situations near you that may be dangerous. Report Corruption allows you to report any incident, add a photo if you like so that other users can be warned and stay away from that area. If you're the one in danger, hold down the "Request Assistance" button until you see it loading red, and get help right away!

AppNations gives this app 4 stars - it is incredibly efficient, and such an important initiative in South Africa. One more star will be given as soon as they branch out beyond Gauteng – which will hopefully be soon.

Stay safe with this app and feel protected at all times!

Watch the video to see more information!

Check out the video for more!

Available on: Android, iOS and Chrome ( a browser extension that links with your smartphone) 

Have you ever wondered what happens to the 1's and 0's you are sending into the digital realm? when you're typing text messages on your phone or your web browser? 

Well, there is an app that will protect the data you share with your friends online, introducing Signal. Signal is an encrypted communication app; it is the most secure messaging app you can get for your phone. It is just like WhatsApp, iMessage or Facebook Messenger, but it gears more towards privacy and security rather than cute emoji stickers. Signal includes all the basic messaging tools you're going to need, including reading receipts, emoji support, group chats, as well as voice and video calls.

Just like WhatsApp, Signal uses your mobile number to identify you to your contacts, so there are no usernames or pins to worry about, it is simple and easy to install as well. Simply download the app, type in your number and an activation code will be sent straight to your phone, type it in and start using the app.

In order to use Signal, or call over the application, the person you are trying to contact should also have the app installed. 

Click the messaging icon (with the pencil). From here, you can message your contacts who have installed the app. Click on someone who you want to talk to. That’s it — just type in the message and send. From inside the conversation, you can also click the phone icon in the top right corner to start an encrypted call.

A really cool feature that Signal has is "disappearing messages"; which ensures that messages will be removed from your device and the device it was sent to, to enable this feature, open the message screen of the person you want to talk to, tap their username then tap the slider next to "disappearing messages".

You can send media files by clicking the attachment (paperclip) icon at the bottom of a conversation. This is very important: you can send GIFs here!! (I mean who does not love a good old GIF)

The app is still fairly new and not a lot of people use it but ultimately, encrypted apps like Signal remain one of the most robust ways to protect your private communications

Check out the video for more!

Our rating: 5/5

Available on: Android and iOS

Here's how you do it. Go to your app store and search "Snapseed", and find the icon with a green leaf on a white block - that's the one! Although it should be at the top already. While you're waiting to install, scroll through the app page for more information and user reviews.

Now that it's installed you can open the app, there is no login or sign up necessary – this app is for everyone. The app will ask permission to access your media files so that they can access the pictures you would like to edit – allow that, and you're in.

Before uploading a photo, you can look at "Insights" at the bottom of the screen, where some features of the app are displayed and explained. This is an accurate depiction of the gorgeous features you are about to access.

As the app says, "Tap anywhere" to pick a photo to edit. Once you tap on the screen, you will be taken to your photos (wherever they may be) to select the photograph you'd like to transform. Once you've selected your photo, scroll down to see the abundance of tools you can use in the editing process. Tools such as crop, colour, rotate, etc. Then a list of amazing filters. And then there is even a few "Face" tools - specifically chosen modifiers for facial features.

Now it's time to play around, explore and see what you're dealing with. Feel free to browse all the filters – you can just click the "x" button if you decide not to use it. Try out all of the different looks on your photos, and apply filter upon filter if you'd like. The filters are categorised into themes such as Grunge, Vintage, Black and White, etc. Inside those themes are multiple filters to choose from.

Have some fun and play around until you're happy with your final product!

During the editing process, you can choose to redo, undo, view edits and more if you'd like to make some process changes. Once you are done, you can share or save the photo on multiple platforms to show off your skills.

This editing app is such a fun and great quality photography and editing tool. The final product always looks incredible and you go from being an amateur photographer to a visual artist.

Highly recommended!

Watch the video to see how the app works!

Our Rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Windows 10

Your mission is to join Mr Toffee and Tiffi on an exciting journey through the world of candy and swipe the same candies next to each other, but you have a predefined number of moves for each level you play and you have to score as many points as possible. As you crush candies, fresh random candies drop from the top of the screen to fill the gap. 

Candy Crush is hailed as the sweetest game and it changes things up with each level, by requiring you to score a certain number of point in so many moves as possible, or adding "liquorice" that can only be removed by candy crushing. As the levels change, it gets surprisingly difficult to pass some of these levels. The music can be rather annoying, but it also makes you happy, especially when you pass a level.

You are given a number of lives, and if you fail a level you lose a life if you lose all your lives you have to wait for the clock of doom to pass its set time before you can try again. It is normally somewhere between 5-20 minutes. 

There are some levels where you get chocolate blocks that take over your whole screen, you have to think carefully about each move and, if your candy doesn't crush any chocolate blocks, they start to "re-grow", eventually taking over your screen. Facebook interaction can also be enabled to compete with friends, although in general terms we aren't keen on any game that encourages you to spam your social-networking contacts. 

It is a fun game to check out and to play if you are waiting around for someone or something and do not feel like refreshing your social apps every 5 minutes. 

Check out the video below!

Our Rating: 3/5

Available on: iOS and Android 

With the iScanner app, you can scan any books, papers, documents, notes, whiteboards or anything that you want on your smartphone. The app has two versions, free and paid (Pro version), of course, the free app has limited features. The iScanner app features automatic edge and perspective detection, advanced image processing, multi-page scanning, file manager where you can create your own folder name to keep track of your diverse set of documents you might have to scan. 

You can also share documents straight from the app, and share and upload to your cloud service; such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote etc. 

You take snapshots with your smartphone's camera, then on the next window, the picture will crop with auto edge detection, after which you can then set the colour, brightness and saturation on the document. The final scanned document can then be exported into pdf through email service or Cloud services. You can also directly print, but for that, you will need the Pro version. With the free version you can only email to yourself or someone else, and the only thing that is irritating with the free version is that it asks you - with every click - if you want to upgrade to the Pro Version which is $4.99 on the Apple App Store. 

Our rating: 5/5

Available on: Android

There are many phone tracker apps out there but we at Mobapp feel this one stands out for its unique simplicity, easy-to-use and helpful functions and features. It's also free and doesn't trick you into paying for anything later (as many apps do!).

Here's how to get started:

Go to your Google Play Store and type in "Find My Device". A dark green icon (looking similar to a speech bubble with a device inside) will appear - click on that one! While you're waiting for the app to install, there is an abundance of information on the app page that explains to you the exact features that Find My Device provides you, as well as other user reviews. 

Now the app is installed, and it's ready to get started. No need to sign up for the app because you can simply sign in with your Google/Gmail account, therefore the sign-in process is quick and easy. Once you've signed in, the app will ask permission to access your device's location. Of course, this is necessary in order for the app to find your phone.

You will then be on the app, and you will see that a map appears with multiple features you can use to find your phone – even if your location is off. However, your location setting will need to be on in the case that you lose your phone and are trying to track it.

Ever lost your phone in the couch, and spent half the morning searching for it in your apartment? Well, luckily, this app has a "Play Sound" feature. This means it will play your ringtone (without you having to call) so you can locate your device nearby. 

You can also 'Lock Phone". This allows you to secure your device remotely and help someone get in touch if they find your phone.

When you enable your location setting on your device, you will notice that the app refreshes the map, and will tell you exactly where your phone is – in this case, it will say "in your hand"! You can then also click on the icon on the top right hand of the screen to see more options.

If you click on the "Help" option, this is the ultimate how-to when using this device in a lost/stolen device situation. Make sure to give this a read so you can be prepared.

This Help feature is incredibly helpful and explains the steps to take in the app in a way that you WILL understand.

AppNations gives this app 5 stars for its simplicity, excellent how-to function and creative safety features to make sure you can always find your Android phone, tablet or even smart watch.

Highly recommended!

Our rating: 5/5

Available on: Windows Mobile, Android, Java ME, IOS, Symbian, Blackberry.

Downloading Opera Mini is very quick and simple, and makes the speedy experience even better.

Here’s how: Simply type in “Opera Mini” onto your device's app store and the app will show up at the top of your list. While waiting for the app to install on your device, you can scroll through the page to see Opera Mini features and user reviews of the app. Once downloaded and installed, Opera Mini will immediately create a shortcut icon on your device’s screen.

Once you’ve downloaded the app, it’s ready for you to have a look. When you click on the app shortcut, the Opera Mini icon will appear as loading as it opens. You will then be given options of languages that you would like to type and read in. Click “CONTINUE” and you’re there. The site will already give you suggestions, recommended sites and sites for you – along with the search tab. Here are some of the best Opera Mini tips and tricks to make sure you use the browser at its best:

1. Block ads to reduce data usage

Opera Mini is one of the few web browsers that come with a built-in ad blocker. Blocking ads make sense as ads consume too much bandwidth and also may drag down the performance of your device. To block ads on your phone, simply launch Opera Mini head over to Menu > Data Saving, from here scroll down to toggle labelled Block Ads.

2. Download large files only with Wi-Fi

As you know, data services are more expensive than Wi-Fi services, and if you want to pay less, you better use Wi-Fi to download large files. You can set Opera Mini to do it for you automatically, Go to Menu > Settings > Tap on Downloads > Choose always ask or wait for Wi-Fi.

3. Switch to single column mode

Browsing through websites that are not optimized for phones with small screens can get difficult and annoying. Luckily Opera Mini has a solution, it might not work properly on some websites but it will solve your problem with some other websites: Go to Menu > Settings > Page Layout > Enable Single Column view.

4. Reduce image quality to save even more data

One of the greatest data consumers are images and the higher quality it is, the more it consumes data. If you want to reduce the quality to save data, follow these steps: Go to Menu > Choose Data Saving > Tap on Images.

5. Turn off Facebook notifications

This might be the most annoying feature on Opera Mini, once you have logged-in on Facebook using the browser, Opera Mini sends you notifications from Facebook. To turn off the notifications go to Menu > Settings and tap on Facebook Notifications > Un-check the first checkbox to toggle the notifications off.

The use of the app is similar to other internet browsers, with only one difference – it is WAY faster. Simply type in the website or topic you would like to browse, and the app will take you there. This app is incredibly useful for people on-the-go, it's quick, simple, stable and, happily, data-saving too!

Check out the video for more.

Our rating: 5/5

Available on: Android and IOS

To get the app, go to your app store and search for Vimeo – it'll be the first to come up. After finding it, feel free to scroll the page for more information about the app. Once it has installed, open the app and you will be blasted away by the montage of Vimeo clips that appear behind the sign-up options. Once you can pull your eyes away, choose how you'd like to sign up – Name, email, password - and you're in!

A great thing about Vimeo is that it wants to personalise your feed for you so that you can view exactly what sparks your interest and passion. After signing up, it will ask you to pick your favourite categories, which helps them suggest creators and channels for you to follow. Look around to find categories that you like (travel, documentary, tech tutorials, and more) and your feed will be the perfect fit for you.

You'll then reach your Feed and see how it has been populated for you. Scroll down to see creators, their videos and their ideas, then head to your profile where you can add a picture, location and bio. This is the place where you can upload your own materials, and join the creators.

There are more features that are useful to ultimately meet your needs on Vimeo. These include the Explore feature, where you can discover more channels and videos Vimeo thinks you might like, your Library (where you save offline videos, save videos you would like to watch later, etc), the "search" feature, and your notifications. You will receive notifications when people follow you and when people interact with any videos you upload. 

Speaking of which, Vimeo makes uploading your own video quick and easy. Simply go to the last icon on the right, the Upload Video page, and allow Vimeo to access your files so you can upload your media. Once that's done, simply scroll through the videos on your device and pick one you want to share. Let it load, and it's on your profile.

Once your video is on your profile, adapt the video settings to present your artwork the way you want – make your title and description, and choose who will be able to view the video publicly.

AppNations gives the Vimeo app 5 stars – it is such an incredible home for inspiration, creativity and community sharing. Viewers: get the opportunity to watch beautiful art on your device, Creators: strut your stuff and share your talent!

Highly recommended!

Watch the video to find out more!

Check out the video below for more!

Our Rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS and Android

It is easy to use and offers high-quality results. The camera includes advanced manual controls and the photo editor has a wide selection of elegant film-like filters and essential adjustment tools. 

The studio part of the app is where you will find any of the photo's you have taken with the VSCO camera or imported into the app for editing. The app does take a little getting used to, in part because it does so many things and the interface is mostly made of the sort of wordless iconographs. 

The VSCO app comes with a basic set of free filters, but you can also buy presets on the VSCO store that is a collection of filters for editing. 

You can share photos on the VSCO Grid, which is a platform that allows you to showcase your best shots as well as discover some new talent and photography. You will need to register with VSCO in order to do so, go to the main menu of the app then tap sign in and follow the onscreen instructions.   

Without a doubt, VSCO is one of the best photo editing apps, if you find yourself limited by the native camera app, use VSCO to take control of your creative shooting options. 

Our rating: 5/5

Available on: Android and IOS

To get the app, go to your app store and type "Big Oven" and you should see it there. While downloading, scroll through other user reviews and more info.

Once the app is installed on your smartphone, you will need to either sign in (if you already have an account) or sign up with an email account. Make your own username, insert your address and password.

The first page (one of many) on the feature is the "Get Ideas" page. This is where you can scroll through recipes and find something for dinner. On the recipes, you will see a heart icon (add to your favourites), a share icon (share the recipe with others) and the Try icon (which will save the recipes for you to try later). 

Now it's time to see what else Big Oven has to offer. After the "Get Ideas" page with recipes, you can also see "Your Recipes" (these have your favourites, the recipes you saved to try and also allows you to add your own recipe to the app for others to see). Next is the "Activity" page, where you can view your profile and see if anyone has followed you to see your recipes. Then there is the "Grocery List" that you can make on the app to take to the shops, and the "Meal Planner" page which allows you to (you guessed it) plan your meals.

You can adapt the app to whatever suits you by clicking on the options and settings – and this is how you can find out more about the app as well.

This app gets a 5-star rating from us at AppNations - and we're sure you'll definitely be using it in the kitchen tonight! 

Watch the video to see more!

Available on: Android and IOS
Our rating: 5/5

Watch trailers, get showtimes near you, buy tickets, read critics and user reviews. In addition, you can explore popular movies and TV shows, entertainment news, and the latest rewards and events. This app allows you to personalise IMDb by letting you track what you want to watch on your Watchlist, and rate movies and TV shows you've seen. 

The app is available on both Android and IOS. Go to your app store and search IMDb – it should be at the top of the list. Quickly download and install and feel free to scroll through user reviews and further information.

When you open the app, it will give you options of how to sign in/sign up – Facebook, Google, Amazon, IMDb (the website version details) or creating your own account. Once you've entered your details, IMDb will send you an email in order to verify your account and complete the registration process. Just click on the link in your email, prove to the site that you're not a robot, and you're registered. Once your registration is complete and you open the app, you will notice that the app asks permission to access your location. This was confusing at first. However, we noticed that this function exists to suit the app to your needs – the cinema feature applies to cinemas near you, and local content (relevant to you) will appear as well as global content. So don't worry, you can let them in!

Now you're on the app and there is an abundance of information and content on there. A general feed is displayed on the home page. However, if you'd like to narrow down what you're looking for, simply swipe to the right and the other pages will show you more specific content. These pages include Movies, TV, Celeb, Awards & Events.

As you continue to use the app, you will be adapting your profile account to suit your individual interests. This is done by customising your "Watchlist" and giving you extensive information, times, and reviews of the cinemas near you. As you use the app more and more, it will become more personalised to you.

If you want a very refined search there is, of course, a search option. This means you can find whatever you'd like and, in addition, you can be a contributor to the app. If you'd like, you can also rate and review movies and other entertainment content for others to see.

IMDb is an incredible way to find out more about your favourite entertainment content.

Looking at a movie title and not sure what to think? IMDb it. 

Watch the video to see more!

Our Rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phones and BlackBerry 10

TrueCaller has turned out to be the best call identification service you can ever get. The real power lies in its database, a database of several billion numbers identified and rated according to what they are; which focuses on country-specific spam-callers.

TrueCaller alerts you when you receive a call, and will completely enable you to evade spam calls, it is the most powerful spam buster in town, and it is available or free. It can block unwanted calls, preventing you from being disturbed with unnecessary calls, TrueCaller is quite efficient in identifying and matching names and numbers. TrueCaller requires Internet connectivity to run – WiFi or Mobile Data. 

The interface is quite simple and intuitive, and when you install the app, it goes through a registration process requesting you to either log in with your Google account, Facebook or Microsoft account. 

You will no longer see things like 'Anonymous' or 'Private Number' on incoming calls. The biggest downside of the app and the service is the question of privacy, security, and intrusion. Right from the start, especially when you learn how TrueCaller works and when you go through the installation process, there is something intimidating and freaky about it.

If privacy is not a big issue for you and you don't mind your links going public, you will enjoy the call blocking and effective name-number matching the app offers. 

TrueCaller is one of those apps that you need on your phone, just remember when you update your software on your iPhone to go to your TrueCaller setting on your phone and re-activate it, to stop the spammers from wasting your time. 

Available on: Android and IOS
Our rating: 5/5

If you're a fan of astrology, the zodiacs, star signs and fate - this is the app for you!

Go on to your app store, type in Daily Horoscope 2017, and it should be the first to appear. This is because the app has been rated the #1 horoscope app on both Android and IOS.

Something great about this app is that, while you're downloading, there is an abundance of information you can scroll through to see what the horoscope app contains. Take a scroll through the page and take a closer look at what you're downloading.

When you open the app, icons displaying the different zodiac star signs will appear. If you're not sure which sign you are, just click on "What's my sign?" and find out. When you click on your star sign, your horoscope will appear. And here's a bonus – you can look at yesterday, today and tomorrow's horoscope. Something extra cool is that you can share your horoscope to social media platforms or to certain people – either letting them see yours, or letting them see theirs.

But your daily zodiac horoscope isn't the only thing that the app offers. Scrolling to the left and the right, you'll notice other features to see too. These include:

– Yearly Zodiac Horoscope
– Yearly Chinese Horoscope
– Druid Horoscope
– Zodiac Characteristics
– Zodiac Compatibility (check to see if you and your crush are compatible according to the stars!)

You can also find these options on the sidebar, along with other functions that the app provides. For example, the app lets you set a horoscope reminder, that way you'll remember to check your horoscope on an important day and on time.

On top of all these options is the Settings tab which allows you to make many changes to the app until it suits you just right – even the colours and display themes.

AppNations gives this app 5 stars and highly recommends it to those of us with our eyes glued to the stars. Go grab this app – it's fate!

Watch the video to find out more about horoscopes and astrology!

Our Rating: 5/5

Available on: Across all platforms 

Our rating: 3 stars

Available on: Android

The app, however, also contains quite a few extra features that make your sound mix easier to use in various ways. 

There's no denying that the information regarding the app is a bit sneaky - there are some factors of the app that aren't explicitly mentioned or explained, which is why there are only 3 stars.  This will be explained later.

The A Soft Murmur app is available only on Android, so go to your Play Store, type it in and have a look. While downloading, feel free to scroll through more information about the app and the features it has - read carefully!

Once you've installed the app, open it up and you will see a big "Play" button with various animated icons below suggesting rain, the wind, etc. Play around with the sounds bit, and press the "Stop" button to pause the sound. If you scroll down a bit more, you will see "Unlock Six More Relaxing Sounds" (that's the catch, the app info doesn't fully explain that in order to have all of the sounds it provides, you'll need to pay). Have a look at what you can unlock if you're willing to pay - white noise, fire, etc. 

Once you have chosen and modified the sounds to create your own mix, you have a few features and options to utilise. For example, if you click on the clock icon in the top right-hand corner, it will give you options on how the sound mix will be played - without pauses, with delays and more. The next icon is the "Meandering" option. This will let your sound mix go up and down in volume levels in order to create the perfect ebb and flow sound. You can then click on the Next icon, which will give you options of more features you can make use of.

These features include using "greedy audio" (this means that your sound mix will continue to play while you use other apps on your phone) and you can enable or disable this feature. The app also allows you to save your sound mix, so that you can create more for different situations and save them in your slot list as well – this gives you more options when you're in need of relaxation. Something very cool about this app is that you can share your sound mixes to others on social media platforms.

Our problem with this app, however, is that it's a bit sneaky and vague in its information. Why would you pay to get more than half of the sounds you were promised if you can get them (and much more) for free somewhere else, like YouTube?

However, we at AppNations do believe that the core purpose and intention of this app is a great one – and has the potential to become great. 

In today's stressful and busy environment, we need all the help we can get to relax and fall asleep soundly. And this is a great start!

Watch the video to learn about Soft Murmer's website!

Star rating: 5/5
Available on: Android and iOS

The navigation is relatively the same, but Waze's additional features definitely put it above the rest. These features include:

- Traffic reports
- Police reports
- Accident reports
- Scheduled rides

And so much more! The app is so easy to get, so easy to use and acts as a lifesaver when you're heading on the road. 

Go to your app store and type in "Waze" to get this new amazing app. Once installed, open it up and let it get ready to completely change your driving experience. 

Then it's time to get started. Simply read and accept the terms and conditions and you're set.

First, the app will ask permission to access your location - this is pretty much a no-brainer, they need your location services to get you around with the correct reports and navigation. Then, once you have allowed the app to access your location, a map will appear showing where you currently are, so you can get started. It also shows you the amount of Waze users (or "Wazers") nearby, and the number of reports that Wazers have sent through that affect your nearby surroundings. 

Unique to Waze, you also have your own Waze profile. You can decide to put a name and picture or remain "invisible" to other Wazers. This profile feature allows you to plug in your specifics and make travelling with Waze easy - Waze just wants to get to know you.

Another unique feature is to add friends (other Wazers you may know) and to join teams. When you add friends, you will be able to see their ETA when you are travelling to the same place. Basically, this feature allows you to keep an eye on your friends and make sure they leave and arrive safely.

Another unusual feature - you can pick a mood! Just like making a status on any other social media platform, Waze allows you to tell the app how you are feeling. The mood options are super fun, including ninja, sunflower, cat and other fun emoticons!

Another way that Waze makes travelling easier is the ability to set your home and work address on the app. That way, instead of typing your addresses in, you can say to your app "take me home" and the directions will be there. Yup - voice control is here too!

In an additional attempt to get to know you and your travelling routes a bit better, Waze allows you to add your favourite locations and stores. That way, it can always have a look out at these locations so you can be prepared for your journey there.

Another great feature is allowing Wazers to plan ahead. Have you ever wanted to know how long it will take you to drive to a certain place at a specific time... only later? You can do that here. You can allow your Waze to sync with your phone calendar and even Facebook events, as well as allowing you to plan a ride separately.

This next feature is an interesting, fun accessory to the app: Scoreboards, ranks and Waze Levels. You can move up your ranking and add to your scoreboard by simply using the app. For example, drive using Waze 3 days in one week and it will unlock new features on the app. The same applies for "Waze Levels". When you first join, you are a Waze Newbie or a Baby Wazer. However, the more and more you use the app, the higher your ranks get. This is such a fun feature and makes using the app exciting!

The app allows you to view a lot of options in your settings, which will allow you to change or modify any features on your app or account details. It even allows you to change the display and sound.

One of the greatest features on Waze is, as previously mentioned, its report system. You can read other reports (or they will be automatically provided to you), but you can also help a lot of Wazers out by making your own reports: traffic, police, hazards, accidents and more!

As far as the navigation goes, the app is so much more simple and accurate than any other GPS system most people have used. 

The speedometer, we find, is one of the most special features of this app. Not only does it show you how fast you're going at all times, it detects when your car is moving and disables texting - preventing people from texting and driving, and making the road safer for everyone.

AppNations 100% recommends this navigation app - it has everything you already need, and SO MUCH MORE that you want!

5-star rating for Waze!

Watch the video to find out more!

Our Rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS, Android and Web browser

Facebook has found its way into almost every phone, but to be honest the app isn't all that great. The iPhone app has had bugs that cause it to drain the battery in the background, and at least twice a week there is an update and it could be using up to 20% of your battery on Android.

The Facebook app can do just about anything you want to. It lets you see what your friends are up to, share updates, photos, and videos, get notified when friends like and comment on your posts, interact with live videos and play games, it also lets you allow access for Siri to help get things going on the app.
Here are some powerful tips and tricks you may not know about. It is time to start using Facebook as a pro:

1.See something interesting in your News Feeds, but do not have time to look at it straight away? Why not save it for later?
You can bookmark links, videos, photos, places and more from the "Saved" pages on your Facebook profile. The page is included in the "More" tab in the Facebook mobile app. It is perfect for saving your favourite page's articles.

2. Turn off auto-playing videos in your News Feed.
If you want to save data, or simply do not want Facebook to automatically play videos in your News Feed, make sure to turn the setting off.
Under the "More" tab in the Facebook mobile app, select "Videos and Photos." You can choose to auto-play videos over cellular and Wi-Fi connections, just Wi-Fi, or never.

3. Know the distinction between "friend" and "follower" on Facebook.
There are two ways you can connect with someone on Facebook: by becoming friends with them and by following them. Being friends simply mean you and the other person have approved the friendship and likely know each other, by following an account means that the person hasn't added you back as a friend.
When someone follows you, they'll only see what you post when you share it as "public". You can turn off the ability for people to follow your account at any time from the "Follower" section of your account settings.

4. Adjust the number of notifications you get.
Thank goodness Facebook allow you to customize exactly what kind of notifications you get, all the way down to updates for an event you have clicked "attended".
It gets even better than this: Notifications you want can be customized on the desktop and your phone separately. Go to the "Notifications" section of your account settings on the desktop and tweak away...

5. You can apply a filter to a photo on the Facebook mobile app before sharing it.
While uploading images on Facebook's iPhone app, swipe on the photo to apply some built-in Instagram-like filter. You can also add text and stickers over a photo, similar to the way that Snapchat works.

Facebook also recently launched their 'Snapchat like' strategy and has seemingly had great success in replicating this strategy of camera-first sharing. The company says 150 million people use Instagram Stories daily, which is about the size of Snapchat’s total user base. With Facebook claiming more than a billion users, Facebook Stories has the potential to expand the reach of the temporary stories concept.

If you do not have the Facebook app, Facebook's fairly full-featured mobile site is also available. It can be launched in one tap, just like the app, by simply adding it to your bookmarks on your Internet like Safari or Google Chrome if you use Android. The only problem here is you will not be able to see your fellow friend's stories, but if you do have the Messenger App you will still be able to see the Snapchat like stories and see what your friends are up to.

Shazam takes that song you just fell in love with and brings it to you - easy.

Our rating: 5/5

Available on: Android and IOS

Our rating: 4/5
Available on: Android and iOS

Some mistake Tumblr for being just like Instagram and, although there are similarities, those people are wrong! It's actually your own personal blog!

Perhaps one of Tumblr's best qualities is that it is so easy to use, the app does it all for you.

Once you've downloaded the app, it's easy to set up, and immediately lets you tap on topics that you are interested in such as art, travel, sports, photography, etc. The app does this so that it can get to know you and your interests better and recommend the best blogs for you.

After selecting your interests, you're already there. You can immediately start scrolling through posts that Tumblr has selected just for you. 

There are also other ways of finding the blogs and posts that you think you'll like. When clicking the "Search" option, the app will show you recommended blogs, trending blogs and will allow you to refine your interests for them to assist you with.

All the while, when you're starting to explore the app, Tumblr provides you with pop-up tips about blogging, following, posting, liking posts, reblogging and more. These are incredibly helpful and will allow you to easily navigate the app.

Now it's time to set up your blog's profile. Have fun picking out your header photo, icon picture, title, and description. In addition, you can pick out the colour accent and background for your blog for everyone to see.

Now it's time to get blogging! When you're ready for a post, click on the blue pencil icon at the bottom right of the screen and a selection of post options will come up for you to pick. Image, video, link, gif, text, quote, audio - your choice.

Once you've decided, Tumblr makes it very simple to write or post anything you choose, and you can funk it up in any way you like. For example, if you decide you want to post a photo onto your blog, simply select the photo. But then you can modify your picture with a number of editing tools and make it your own plus you can add a caption if you'd like, too.

You will notice when you're on your profile, that your account name appears at the top left-hand corner with an arrow next to it. This is one of the greatest features Tumblr has - you can make multiple accounts and share as many different blogs as you please. Simply click on the arrow, select "Add new account", and follow the same steps as with your previous profile.

This app is such fun to play around with, and also to get insight into the fields of topics you are interested in - silly or serious.

You can also connect with other Tumblr users by getting notifications when someone follows your post and receiving messages from other users.

Lastly, if there are any changes you need to make, click on the cog icon for "Settings" and Tumblr will guide you through the rest.

This app is a fun, creative outlet for those who want to share their art and thoughts - AppNations recommends it for people out there with something to say.

Watch the video to find out how to use Rainbow Light on Tumblr!

Our Rating: 4/5 

Available on: across all platforms

If you do not know how to use Gmail, here are some of our favourite tricks:

Send and Archive in one step:

This trick will save you a lot of time. Simply click the gear icon and choose Settings from the drop-down menu. Find the Send and Archive section and check the box beside Show "Send & Archive" button in reply. This will add a new button when you are replying to an email. When you click it, it will allow you to send your response and automatically archive the email, thus removing it from your inbox. 

It is really helpful for those who receive endless amounts of email and it also keeps your inbox free of unnecessary clutter. 

Enable and Disable Tabs:

Gmail has three tabs - Primary, Social and Promotion - which organises your emails for you automatically. But you can customise these tabs. If you are interested in doing so, click the gear icon n the upper-right corner and choose Configure inbox. This will allow you to add new tabs such as Updates and Forums, or it will allow you to remove tabs you do not wish to appear in your inbox. 

There is more with the Compact Setting: 

When you click the gear icon, one of the first things you will see is the drop-down menu with an option to switch between Cosy, Comfortable, and Compact viewing models. With the Comfortable option, it allows you to see more of the email information on each line at a single glance. 

Take Back an Unfortunate email:

When you send an email in Gmail, you will notice a yellow box that says the email was sent. If you do happen to catch it fast enough, you can actually cancel an email while it is in the process of being sent. If the email is sent, the yellow box turns into Undo Send wich allows you to correct your mistakes with a couple of clicks. 

Use Smart Reply to Save time on a response:

If you have the mobile version of Gmail, there is currently a feature called Smart Reply. It uses Google's AI tech to automatically create a few quick responses that you can immediately send. These options range from a basic "thank you!" or to more complex questions based on the email, you are responding to. 

Save Space with Drive:

If you are sending a large document via an email, or you prefers not to mess around with attachments, you can simply use Google Drive. Every compose window comes equipped with a Drive Icon, which allows you to quickly access or attach files from your Drive within your browser. 

Use Canned Responses to save even more time:

Gmail Labs are experimental extensions that you can enable for free. Canned Responses has been on the block for years, so you can feel confident recommending it to other Gmail users.   It helps you to create email templates that you can immediately copy into an email and tweak as needed it. Head over to your gear icon, choose Settings and click Labs, one of the labs should say Canned Response.

Find the best option for your life, and you can transform your Gmail experience into something twice as useful!!

Our rating: 5/5
Available on: Android and iOS.

The app is just as quick, easy and useful as Uber, except that you get a bite to eat at the end.

After a quick and free download of the app on any app store, the process becomes quite simple...

Step 1: When you open the app, you will need to register your profile (if you have Uber, you can use the same details and your information will be automatically copied) and plug in your location address. This address can be changed, and other addresses can be added as well. Side note: it is useful to enable your location setting on your phone when using this app, but it can function without it).

After sorting out your address, you can start looking at restaurants that use UberEats. You can choose how you would like to sort the restaurants, and even search for a specific restaurant, meal, or type of food.

Step 2: Now it's time to browse the registered restaurants. The app will divide restaurants into categories such as "Popular Near You", "Under 30 Minutes", etc. Otherwise, you can continue to scroll for a view of all the restaurants. After you have used the app a few times, it will even give you a "Your Go-Tos" section by detecting which restaurants are common in your orders. 

Step 3: Once you've chosen a restaurant, Click on it and you will be able to view the full menu. Click on a meal if you want to find out more about it and, if you like what you see, select the required meal options and click "Add to Cart". 

Step 4: After picking a meal, you can go back and continue browsing while your meal is saved to your cart. Look around for drinks, other meals and deserts, and repeat the previous process to add it to your cart. Once you have finished with your order, click "Check Out" and it will take you to your full order and address for you to confirm.

Step 5: Once you have placed your order, it will take you to another page with a map indicating your location and the restaurant's location. First, you will wait for the restaurant to accept your order and will be notified when they have and start preparing your food. All of this is shown with a progress bar so you can track the order.

Step 6: After your meal has been prepared, the app will tell you that the courier is on the way. When this happens, you will be able to see the car/bike moving towards your location (just like Uber). You will also be able to see the driver's information and be able to contact him if there is any problem. The app will notify you again when your food is about to arrive.

Note: If at any point during the order you need any assistance, just click "Help" and a list of problem options will appear. In some cases, you will be invited to Uber Chat Live to sort out your problem - which is very quick and helpful. 

Next time you order, you can go to your history/upcoming orders to find that one meal you liked last time so you can order it again.

There are additional settings you can view on the app in "Settings".

Once you've received your food, its time to eat. Don't forget to rate your food and your delivery at the end for feedback!

This food delivery app is incredible, easy and fast. Well recommended!

Watch the video to see more!

Our Rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS, Android and Web

Tinder is a dating app which is essentially a 'hot or not' game. By swiping right and left to either accept or dismiss suggested profiles based on your preferences. You then get to choose who you want to chat with of those you've accepted and, if you hit it off on a good note, eventually get to meet them in the flesh.

Tinder has changed the mobile dating game with its simplicity and has generated over 9 million matches since its launch. Regardless of why it receives so much publicity, the casual hookup app remains popular and relevant with a massive 25 million users and over 1 million paid up subscribers for Tinder Plus. 

To register on Tinder is quite easy as you only require a Facebook account. To signup, you have to authorise your Facebook account and accept the terms and conditions including to allow the app to use your location. Tinder will pull your name, age, and profile picture. A few simple taps are all that's required to you create your profile and you are ready to start swiping. 

The interface is real easy to understand, you also have the option to connect your Instagram account and display your feed on your Tinder profile. You get to Super Like and Tinder Boost to increase your chance of matching with the other fellow Tinder users.When you essentially get a match you can start a conversation with the person and see where it leads. 

Tinder uses your location, and in your settings, you can set a limit to a number of people you can find in the area around you. You can also rearrange your pictures to make your favourite picture your profile pic to get more likes. 

Tinder is an easy way to meet new people online and is free to download. Just be safe out there and enjoy swiping till you find the right match!

Available on: Android and iOS
Our rating: 4/5

This mobile karaoke app is incredible - not only for fun karaoke but for singers looking to find their voice. Sing! lets you pick from a selection of songs, record them, modify your recording and share with others. Other Sing! users can follow you, and even invite you to sing a virtual duet with them regardless of where they are on the globe. There is also a video option to record your song so you can share on social media platforms!

Here's how to join the fun:

Step 1: Download the app. Go to your app store and type in "Smule Sing", and you will see the purple, blue and pink icon with a microphone pop up! Select the app, scroll through user reviews and more information if you wish, and then click install. Sing! will then be downloaded and installed onto your device.

Step 2: Open the app. On the opening page, you are given different options of how to sign up – through Facebook, using your email account or your phone number – choose your pick, and get started! Fill in your username and password, choose your profile photo and you're in. Sing! will ask you to pick up to four genres of music that you like to sing to make their suggestions more accurate. Then, in order to unlock the long selection of songs that Sing! has to offer, you'll need to record your first solo, so go ahead, pick your song!

Step 3: Recording the unlock solo. First, the app will recommend that you use headphones for your recording. This provides better music quality and gets rid of the noises around you, then it's time to record. Your instrumental song will begin, lyrics on the screen, and you start singing – just like normal karaoke! In addition, the note bars will show up at the bottom and glitter as you sing, this will indicate whether or not you are hitting the right notes. 

Step 4: Saving your first unlock solo. Once you have finished your first recording you will be able to listen to a playback. Then you can add effects to the song and even modify your voice if you feel you missed a note or two.

Step 5: You're in! Now you can see all the songs in the Songbook that are available for you to sing. You'll notice that some of the songs are VIP and need to be paid for – well, you pay for quality. But there are still many free songs to sing! You can view your profile and check your notifications to see who has already followed you and if any other users have invited you to sing with them. Go into settings if you'd like to make any changes. 

This app is incredibly fun, uplifting and a great practice platform for singers. Who knows, you could also meet your future singing partner on here!

Watch the video to see Jason Derulo sing with a young fan using this app! Adorable!

Our Rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS5 and later, and OS X Mountain Lion and later. 

Owners of these devices can register one or more email address with Apple and additionally iPhone owners can register their phone numbers with Apple and start using iMessage. 

On iPhone devices, the green-text-bubbles indicate SMS-based communication and on all iOS devices, blue-text-bubbles indicate iMessage communication. The text users sent is aligned on the right and replies from other people on the left. 

With the latest – iOS 10 – the updates are bubble effects; lets you add a custom effect to your text, by making it slam, or send messages that remain hidden with “invisible ink” until the receiver swipes them open. Among all the features the screen effects will transmit a message with balloons, confetti, lasers or fireworks that will appear on the other iPhone user’s screen once they open the text. 

iMessage also allows Digital Touch which is the ability to send hand-draw sketches, kisses or even a sensor-read heartbeat. The latest update also features emoji predictive; emojis shows up for words, as you type so you do not need to search for the right emoji – automatically replacing text with emoji. It is full on emojification!!!

You can send iMessages over Wi-Fi or cellular data to anyone and everyone using an iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod touch or Apple Watch. You can also send standard carrier SMS/MMS text and picture to anyone on any smartphone. In iMessage, you can send voice memos, and contact cards, create a group to send messages to two or more people, where you can share favourite memories, soundbites and location.

iMessage is quick to send GIFs, draw over your photos, and combine iMessage with Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, to send texts and even have incoming texts read to you, all with the power of your voice. 

All these features in iMessage turn it into a platform that can compete with the likes of Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and WhatsApp. The more users take advantage of these hidden tricks, the more iMessage will become, and continue, to evolve. iMessage is among the most frequently used iOS apps, ad with all these features it is now a lot more fun to use it.

Our rating: 4/5

Available on: all smartphones Android, iPhone, Windows and even your desktop

With a beautifully designed interface, Zomato is an easy-to-use, social restaurant finder that lets you explore all the dining options in your city. Most of the young generation is using Zomato to make decisions when trying out new restaurants. 

You can choose between cafes, take-away’s, dining out, drinks and nightlife, desserts and bakes and then there is the Buzz category; that shows the trending places of the week, newly opened, romantic, kickass burgers and even hidden gems in your city. 

You get to browse through the menus, pictures of the restaurant and read reviews from other people’s experience. It will help you decide what is for dinner, lunch or even breakfast. The app even features Google-Maps to guide you to the restaurant and you can call an Uber- driver straight from the app. 

What sets Zomato apart from Google’s review is that they engage more with the user, you get to add your favourite places to a bookmark to browse through later. Zomato allows in-app bookings, search filters to narrow down results and find exactly what you are craving.

Every time you write a review you earn points, eventually Zomato start inviting ‘foodies’ to get a chance to interact with each other and try the expensive food. Zomato sends goodies to their top reviewers and you can get invited to new restaurant openings to try the food and give reviews to the app about your experience!

Once you earn expert batch in any area by writing 10 reviews of restaurants in a particular neighbourhood, people can ask your opinion about the best restaurant that you can give your own opinion on. Zomato gives discounts to their users when you earn Connoisseur batch, and free meals and credits once you become a top reviewer. You can also get a percentage discount on your final bill when you order food through the app. 

You can sort reviews by the foodies you follow or the food blogs to see what they have to say about the place that you consider to go to. The app is also SEO friendly, be it different pages, URL or meta tags, everything is planned, keeping search results in mind. 

You can activate notifications on your Zomato app to know when there is an activity on your reviews, someone follows you and even when your friends join Zomato. Also be sure to activate the weekly newsletter on your portfolio to get the latest trends in your city.

So download Zomato now and consider becoming a food blogger, I know I will. 

Watch the video for more!

Available on: Android, iOS, Windows and Amazon devices!

With a diverse set of language options, Wish is a direct-from-China bargain hunting application that features trending items 50-80% cheaper that what you will pay at the local mall. Wish has hundreds of different vendors and products they have to sell all over the world. 

Wish allows you to personalize your shopping experience and add products to a Wishlist and buy them later or share it to Facebook! The company claims to make shopping fun and enjoyable. Just because their prices are so cheap does not necessarily mean that the quality is good, or how long will you wait to get your product, who knows you might end up with junk.

Wish is easy to use, and signing up to Wish is completely free. First thing first you need to create an account before you can start browsing. Creating an account involves the basics; enter your email address, first name, surname and password. You will only start paying when you decide to buy a product.

On Wish, you browse the homepage which will display the most recent listings, but you can also narrow your search by your choice of category; such as fashion, gadgets, accessory, etc. or by product type; shoes, tops, underwear, and so forth. 

If you do find a product you are interested in, you click on it and a new window will open with a description of the product, pictures and price. You will also be able to view what the shipping charges are, arrival time of the product and previous ratings and reviews and more. From here you can buy the product and pay via your PayPal account or add it to your Wishlist. 

It seems that the app supplies inexpensive electronics and gadgets sourced from overseas. Most of these products are knockoffs of popular products from mainstream suppliers such as Apple Watch, GoPro cameras, speakers and cables. 

Wish acts as a storefront, but does not sell items directly. So if your order was not what you were looking for it might be difficult to get in contact with the original seller. Many customers that have used Wish have complained about how unhappy they were about the products they have ordered. 

Despite all of this, Wish is the number 1 shopping mall in Europe and North America. It has millions of fans who actually buy through the app on a regular basis, and praise the app for selling such cheap products. 

Wish is not a scam, but some of the vendors selling products through Wish could be. 

In the end, only you can decide whether this is the app for you, or rather save up some extra cash and buy your favourite jacket in store rather than online!


Our rating: 4/5

Available on: Android and iOS

What makes Uber unique is the feature that allows you to track the driver's movements while they are on their way – and there is almost always a couple nearby to you. Also, the app is run by a card payment method, which means you never have to worry about having cash on you. Tipping is also unnecessary, because the money from the trip goes directly to the driver, with a percentage going to Uber. 

Uber is definitely an excellent way to travel and is available in many countries around the world. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, here’s how:

Simply go to your App Store/Play Store app, type in “Uber” and the app will appear at the top. After clicking on the icon, you will be able to download, install or update your Uber app. Below, you can scroll through pictures of Uber's features as well as see basic user reviews. 

Congratulations – you’ve downloaded Uber! Easy as that. When you open the app, it will ask you for information such as your name, number, email address and payment details. Once that is sorted, its time to have a look around:

On the top left corner of the screen, you will see 3 horizontal lines for additional tabs. Once you press that, additional settings will appear – your profile, payment, trips, free rides, help, and settings. Feel free to Browse around. As you can see, your name has a star rating next to it. This is because you can rate your Uber drivers, but they can also rate you as passengers!

If you click on the “Your Trips” you will see “past”, “upcoming” and “family”. Being able to view your past rides is very helpful, and is part of what makes Uber so safe. Even once your ride is complete, there will always be a history of your rides containing information and details about the driver – just in case you have anything negative to report. It also means you can keep track of your rides.

Upcoming trips are trips that you have scheduled. Scheduling trips are very helpful if you know that you won't be able to use your phone around the time you need to be fetched. If you schedule your ride, your driver will be at your pick up location at the time you have requested.

Family trips are very useful for those using their app to help their loved ones travel. You can order an Uber for your loved ones, and receive information about when they are picked up and have arrived safely.

When you go to account settings, here is when you can make some changes. Perhaps the most useful here is to “add home” or “add work”. This means that when you are heading home or to work, you don’t need to type the address, as it will automatically be saved. 

A pretty cool feature as well is the ability to get free rides by inviting people to Uber! This feature is on the tab list too. 

Now that we’ve had a look around, it’s time to head to your destination! Here’s how:

If you do not have your location setting turned on on your phone, the app will request both your pick up address and the drop off address. However, if you do have it turned on, it will simply ask “where to?” – having already seen your current location. It will also show the Uber drivers that are nearby so that you can get an idea of how long it will take for an Uber to get to you. 

Once you have entered your drop off request, it will show you how far the closest driver is in minutes. It gives you three options of the kind of Uber you want in the three circles near the bottom of the screen – UberX (standard vehicle), Uber Black (a smarter, more expensive vehicle) and UberVan (for a group larger than 5 people). Once you request your ride, you will need to confirm your pick up address one last time and then your ride should be on the way!

Once you have confirmed the location, you will see the app finding your ride. It will then show you when your Uber is on the way (you can track the driver's location as it drives to you), when they are arriving, and when the trip has begun. 

The app also allows you to contact the driver for any inquiries. Don’t worry, a system is in place so that your mobile number does not show on the driver's phone.

This is all quite important because once your driver has been chosen, you have access to their name, their rating, their vehicle and their number plate. It is important to know these details for safety reasons – to ensure you get in the right car. Once on the trip, you can change the drop off location if needed. 

Lastly, some extra features:

The Uber “Help” system is great. It allows you to get solutions for any problem or confusion, and also allows you to chat live with an Uber manager.

Attached to Uber is UberEats – a food delivery system! Watch out for the UberEats app soon!

Watch the video for 10 facts about Uber below.

Our rating: 5/5

Available on: iOS, Android, Windows 10

Users can apply various filters to their images and add location through geotagging.

Users can also connect their Instagram account with their other social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter.

Go live to connect with your friends and followers right now, when you are done, the live story disappears, almost like Snapchat’s concept. You also get to watch stories and live videos from the people you follow online that features at the top of your top feed. On Instagram you get the Explore Tab which will let you discover stories, photos and videos of people you might like to follow. (suggested by Instagram)

Top 10 features

1 Post more than one photo at once

In February 2017 Instagram introduced the ability to post more than one photo at a time. By posting 10 photos at once to your profile, your followers get to swipe through these images that can be seen on their timeline. The catch is you can only post a single caption for the entire album and the images are shared as squares.

2 Remove photos you’re tagged in

If one of your friends tag you in a photo, it will show up in the photos of you section on your profile page. If you want to remove a tag, you can select Hide from my profile or remove me from photo (which is under the photo options)

3 Send direct messages

At the top-right of your Instagram homepage, there is an icon that looks like a paper plane. Tapping on this icon allows you to send private messages to your Instagram followers.

4 Adding Hashtags to Photos

You can add hashtags (#) to your posts. This will link photos with other content on Instagram featuring the same subject or overall topic. It is a great way to get new followers and share your photos with more people on Instagram. ( If your profile is not a private account.)

5 Start sharing GIFs

GifShare is an application that allows you to share GIFs to your favourite social network. You can now search or upload GIFs from your camera roll to Instagram. Even your very own GIFs; the app accepts GIF, MP4, MOV, MPG and MV4 file formats.

6 Manage multiple accounts

To be limited to a single Instagram account can get frustrating, thank goodness it has changed. You can now link multiple accounts by simply going to your profile settings page and tap the gear icon, select Add account and create a unique username and password. This is especially useful if you are running a business on the sideline.

7 Get notifications when your favourite influencer’s post to Instagram

Don’t let algorithms be the reason you miss out on your favourite influencer’s page, you can choose to get notifications every time the post something new. To turn on this notification, visit their profile and click the three dots in the upright corner and choose Turn on Post Notifications.

8 Create a collection of saved posts

Instagram now allows you to save or bookmark certain posts in collections that you create. Almost like Pinterest’s concept. Start by going to your profile, tap the bookmark icon on the top-right menu above your photos. Select collection tab and create a collection.

9 Insert line breaks into your bio and caption

On your keyboard, you have to press the “123” key in the bottom left-hand of the keyboard, and the “return” key will appear on the bottom right. This will allow you to add break lines if you want to separate your caption and hashtags.

10 Hide ads you do not find relevant

Every company needs to find a way to promote their brand. Luckily you get to remove irrelevant ads that pop-up on your timeline. To hide this feature, tap the three dots to the right of a post labelled “sponsored” and choose “Hide Ad”.

Instagram is one of the most fun and visually appealing social apps around. So why not get started!

Check out the video for more!

Our rating: 4/5

Available on: iOS 6+, Android 5.1+

First things first though. If you don't already have Whatsapp on your phone then follow these simple steps. Open your mobile phones app store, in the search bar type in the word 'Whatsapp', select the green Whatsapp icon and click on download or install.

Once downloaded, the Whatsapp icon will appear on your mobile phones' menu screen. Tap the icon and insert your mobile number in order for Whatsapp to authorise your mobile phone number by sending you an SMS.

After you're authorised, simply open Whatsapp again and chat away! And just to be clear here, Whatsapp is a free download and there are no subscription fees. There are hoaxes doing the rounds claiming that Whatsapp will charge a subscription after the first year, so don't get fooled! The only fee you will pay is to your service provider for your internet usage as Whatsapp uses your data only.

Our review: 5/5

Available on: iOS, Android

Unlike other social media platforms that allow photo sharing, Snapchat is unique in many ways – in particular, you get to choose how long your friends can see your images or videos for.

People use Snapchat to send images to their friends, either directly or to multiple chats. Over the years, Snapchat has grown with incredible new features – making it one of this generation’s favourite social media platforms.

You have the standard photo – you can choose selfie mode or normal mode. To take the picture, you press the round button at the bottom. To take a video, hold the button down. Sounds pretty basic, right?

But there is so much more…

1. Get to know Snapchat With a few easy steps, you can take your simple picture to the next level. By swiping left or right over the picture you can add filters, the time, the speed you’re going or even a personalised message. Even better, look at the top right-hand side of the screen at the tools – add stickers, text, drawing and other photo modifiers! Best of all – choose how long your chats get to see your photo for – you can send a picture and let it disappear in seconds!

2. Add a 'Snapchat filter' to your face All you have to do is make sure the camera is set to selfie mode, press and hold the screen where your face is, and scroll through all the different options. The effect will move as you do, and some will even prompt you to open your mouth, tap the screen, look around, etc. to change the effect even more. If you want to move away from you, and turn the camera over to your friends with the same effect – you can. Just turn the camera back-to-front mode and a similar effect to the filter you have chosen will appear in the background of the scene. Hey, don’t forget your friends! Another awesome feature of these Snapchat interactive filters is that some of them can include your friends.

3. How to add Stories to your Snapchat profile Snapchat was also the first social media platform to add the “Story” feature. This is where you can save multiple snaps for all of your friends to see in a sequence, and it lasts for 24 hours only. To add a snap to your “story”, press the square icon with a ‘+’ on it – and it's done! Not only can you also watch your friends’ stories, you can also get worldwide recommended content in a feature called “Discover” by clicking the dotted sphere in the top right-hand corner. Snapchat is always adding some new extra features, like saving memories, gaining Snapchat trophies and ads for upping your Snapchat game!

4. You can draw with emojis. To get started, tap the pen drawing tool, then the star emoji under the colour bar. Simply choose the emoji you would like to fill the picture with and start drawing away!

5. Share your Snaps with friends There are two different ways you can do this. If you press the blue arrow button in the bottom right corner of the screen, a list of your Snapchat friends will pop up. Just select the people you want to share the photo with, and hit send. Another way is to directly send it to a friend in a private chat. If you swipe right on a specific name on the chat delivery list, a private chat will open – allowing you to send private images and messages. But even then – after you exit the conversation – all of that conversation will have disappeared. If at any point you need to change any settings in your account – no problem. Click on the cog icon and this will pop up. Don’t forget to keep updated with adding friends and who is adding you. Swipe down on the screen for this option.

This app gets a five-star rating from us, get it now!...