YotaPhone : Dual Screen Android

Yotaphone

On the left, a regular Android 4.1 display. On the right, a power-saving e-ink screen. (Credit: James Martin/CNET)

To borrow from a popular meme, the Russians are doing it right as far as the YotaPhone is concerned. It’s a dual-display smartphone with a very interesting twist. Sporting a 4.3 inch 720p LCD display on one side of its face, the YotaPhone has an e-ink display of the same dimension on its backside. The idea is to read on the e-ink display and watch videos and movies on the crisper LCD screen. Why? It’s all about battery savings. E-ink conserves more resources than color HD displays, so if you’re just reading a long article or a book, use the low-power e-ink side. Innards are pretty sweet as well with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 chip , 2GB of RAM, NFC, 4G LTE connectivity, a 12-megapixel camera, and it’ll come with either 32GB or 64GB storage space with Android Jelly Bean support.

There are two ways to get content onto the back display. The first is to simply mirror what’s on the screen by swiping down with a two-fingered gesture. That will give you a static image of a map, for instance, or a shopping list.

The second way to program YotaPhone’s e-ink display is to use apps built for that specific purpose. Yota starts out with a few, like an RSS reader, an alarm clock, and Twitter, but plans to open up the SDK so developers can create their own compatible software. Transferring data with these apps was seamless over a strong Wi-Fi connection, just by tapping an onscreen control.

A series of specially made apps enable you to put your own messages on the screen, or it can show your Twitter feed, news or at its most helpful – SMS messages, missed calls, the weather, time and location data. E Ink screens are more commonly found on e-readers like the Kindle, and as you’d expect, e-books can be read on the YotaPhone’s second screen. Because it’s E Ink, the YotaPhone’s rear screen can be read in direct sunlight, making it easier to see important information quickly.

Yota has been working on the technology in partnership with E Ink for two years and is just now producing its first “working” prototypes.  The phone is pretty large; it’s almost exactly the same width and thickness as Nokia’s chunky Lumia 820, but doesn’t hide its heft as well. It’s also pretty tall, thanks largely to a gesture area beneath both of its displays. It’s at this point that things get a little tricky, because the rear screen isn’t entirely touch sensitive. Only the bottom part of the rear panel is capacitive, and currently not all apps will respond to gestures in that area. That means you wouldn’t currently be able to flip the page in a Kindle book, for example, or a click on a tune in a Spotify playlist. But the Yota guys say they’ve had a lot of feedback on this and other points and are already working on solutions — and we’re totally ready to believe them.

I’m also still a little dubious about the convenience of flipping the phone over at intervals to use first one side and then another — even though one use case is to use the e-ink side when you’re on the phone’s final battery legs. For me, at least, chargers are nearby, I become loathe to switch up what I’m doing, and I can’t see myself wanting to leave the comforts of a rich, colorful screen to gaze upon an image that reminds me of an old, faded newspaper.

yotaphone_camera

So where does Yota go from here? The company says it’s in talks with carriers worldwide, but wouldn’t reveal any specifics. It’s aiming to release the phone in June / July this year in its native Russia, but an international launch isn’t likely until Q4. Start saving as this phone/reader’s retail availability will begin in a couple of months.

Android: Easiest way to type in Hindi with Google

Google-hindi-input-title

Have you ever wanted to send a text message to someone in Hindi but was unable because your cell phone didn’t comes with a Hindi layout keyboard, and suppose even if it comes with it then it will surely consume a lot of time and effort to write a single paragraph.

Google recently introduced his new app Google Hindi Input which let users to type in Hinglish(Hindi in English alphabets) and it will convert it to Hindi for you. If you have an Android smartphone or tablet, Google Hindi Input is the quickest and easiest way to compose emails, send messages and post on social networks using Devanagari script. There are alternatives also available on Google Play enabling typing in Hindi and other Indian Languages : PaniniKeypad and Lipikaar are two such apps. But we will focus on Google Hindi Input first.

Google Hindi Input has two methods for writing Hindi text. In transliteration mode, you simply type a Hindi word in English (like namaste), and the app will automatically convert the word to Devanagari script (नमस्ते). And you can get suggested words in Hindi language when you type some letters only. This will save your time and no need to type full Hindi words. Switching between English to Translator to Full Devnagari Keyboard is super smooth and just a button away.

device-2013-04-22-103148 device-2013-04-22-103632device-2013-04-22-103824

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hitting the globe button switches to a full Devanagari script keyboard, with Hindi consonants ordered alphabetically on two pages. In this mode, you can long press at any time to select various forms of a consonant.

How to enable keyboard Input method?

Open Settings -> Language & Input, under “KEYBOARD & INPUT METHODS” section, check Google Hindi Input, then click Default and select “Hindi transliteration/Google Hindi Input” in the “Choose input method” dialog.

Don’t forget that it will not going to support if your android device does not have Hindi fonts installed. If so then you have to install it first but most of the Indian manufactured devices are pre-installed with it.

Bad Sides:

  • No voice or handwriting input: The keyboard gives no option to help the user input text using voice or handwriting.
  • No Gesture Support: There are plenty of android keyboards now who have started gestures a major thing to emphasize on and let user feel comfortable but Google Hindi input still needs to work on it.

 

Real time prediction while typing with devnagiri keyboard

Real time prediction while typing with devanagiri keyboard

Over all, Google Hindi Input offers an excellent option to those who would wish to use Hindi text while communicating through their Android devices. It’s simple and intuitive and makes typing in Hindi very easy.

Play Store Link : Google Hindi Input

Android : The best music player out there

This music player unlocks a whole new world for mobile audiophiles, including a 10 band equalizer, greatly expanded file support, and a somewhat customizable interface. Ever since Gingerbread days till now, Poweramp continues to be the most powerful music player for Android and has a huge fan following.

What works well on Poweramp

The interface is somewhat similar to the stock music app, but it unlocks several new features for advanced playback that should meet just about any need you might have on your phone or tablet. For example, instead of just using a long, nested set of commands, you can give quick commands like swiping to navigate playlists quickly.

Title Screen

Oh how wonderful the file support is. While listening to FLAC files on your mobile device is a little silly when you think about it (as most phones don’t have a good digital to analog converter chip), being able to equalize your music while listening on the go is fantastic if your music tastes vary. If you have great headphones to match, this is a fantastic way to bring out the best in your music when you’re on the go. As another plus, this app doesn’t seem to chew through as much battery as other music players do.

lockscreen

Lock Screen

Interface and Features

Once installed, you’re presented with a clean and easy to use interface. The UI is extremely novice-friendly giving you oversized media . Your music can be sorted according to the usual artist, album categories or you can choose folder view, which shows you all your music the way you have copied it on your phone. Tapping on this takes you to the playlist from where you can switch folders. The album art area also houses the shuffle and repeat toggle buttons along with a five star rating system.

Library

What makes Poweramp one of the most sought after music player is the long list of audio formats supported. The list includes mp3, mp4/m4a (including alac), ogg, wma, flac, wav, ape, wv, tta, mpc, aiff, which covers pretty much every format you can find audio in these days. The ability to customise the sound is also very extensive. We start off with a 10-band graphic equaliser that can be used to fine tune your music depending on what genre of songs you listen to the most. There are plenty of presets as well and you can also use the sound enhancements (like Dolby or HTC FX) that come with some phones in Poweramp. Besides that, you also have the option to adjust the bass and treble separately along with a volume limiter. You can also add extra effects like Stereo eXpansion, mono mixing and adjust the balance. Every change you make is noticeable provided you have a good pair of headphones. Other features include support for crossfading, gapless playback, queuing system, ability to update missing album art and even download lyrics of the song through the musiXmatch plugin.

Pros & Cons:

Pros

  • One of the best fully featured Android music players
  • Features equalizer for custom or premade presets
  • Super slick user interface with themes

Cons

  • Cannot play Podcasts

Performance

With the right pair of headphones, the audio quality is really good and beats any other player in the market. The equaliser and or audio effects make a huge impact on the audio quality and you can actually make out the difference between mp3 and flac files. One neat feature is the ability to parse .cue and m3u files. If you download radio shows, especially trance music, you’ll often come across one single file that’s an hour long. Cue and m3u files help breakdown this singular file into individual tracks so you can skip to the one you want without having to split the track physically. Gapless playback support is also present for albums that feature it.

EqualizerYou also get plenty of widgets for your homescreen to choose from, including a very nice lockscreen widget. You can customise the amount of information to be displayed on the lockscreen widget too, from album art to equaliser controls. Poweramp also gives you the option to change the theme. You get a bunch of them by default and you can even install third party themes from the Play Store. One feature that we feel should be added is a social component. Apps like MixZing allow you to play your music from your library as well as search for trending tracks around the globe. You can even see what your friends are listening to at the moment and rate songs so your friends can find them.

 

Verdict : Worth the download?

If you want to milk a better audio experience out of your mobile device and don’t want to carry around all sorts of unnecessary clutter like external amps in your pocket, this app is a good way to start consolidating your devices into one unit. Poweramp is available for as little as Rs129 for the full version, which makes it extremely good value. The app is compatible with Android v2.1 and upwards and is constantly being updated with bug fixes and support for the latest version of Android. If you have an Android phone and want to experiment with its audio, Poweramp is the most popular audio app in the Play Store for a reason and we strongly suggest you ditch the stock player for Poweramp.

Get it on Play Store

7 Apps that every traveler should have

Here are some apps to get you started and on  the way to getting extra value for the money you spend on your upcoming trips, and also in a way unlocking your smartphone’s hidden potential.

Ask A Nomad

ask-a-nomad

For any new place you visit, inevitably there are bound to be a lot of questions – mostly regarding which place to visit. Quite simply, Ask A Nomad lets you ask a question, and get answers from other users who may have some idea about that subject. This is a lot more interactive than just searching for information on the web. Alternatively, you can also answer questions about places you’ve been to. The app divides the world very neatly into continents, countries and then cities. This makes asking a new question, reading other discussions and replying to a query simpler. Better way of getting all the information you need about a place, from people who have probably already been there.

Price: Free

Platform: iOS devices

Agoda.com

Agoda

This is an app you should definitely refer to, because it will surely have information  on the hotel that you plan on staying in. Considering over 1,50,000 hotels worldwide are a part of this database, users can search for hotels based on pricing and type, and even get special deals. This service also lets you book using credit card, along with special offers and deals from time to time.

We believe that even though you may find it a little risky to book from here, it is useful app to check out and compare hotels.

Price: Free

Platform: iOS devices

Foursquare

foursquare

This app isn’t very new, but it is a must have on every smart mobile device and most people have used it. But if you have a number of contacts who are explorers in their own right, this may just be the app for you.

Utilise the knowledge base of your friends to get information about a place you’re going to visit, or have already checked in to. Also get recommendations from other users who have visited the place and written reviews about it.

Price: Free

Platform: Android, Blackberry, iOS, Symbian  and Windows Phone

Expensify

expensify

Use Expensify on your Android™ device to log expenses, capture receipt images and manage reports on the go! Even better, SmartScan will read your receipt images, fill out the expense details, and create a new expense (or attach to an automatically imported bank/card transaction).

An essential app for business travelers, Expensify allows users to scan or log their receipts to be compiled into expense reports.

Price: Free

Platform: Android, iOS

Google Translate & Goggles

google-goggles

Google Translate helps you make sense of 63 different languages. You can even speak text to be translated into the local language.

Search by taking a picture: point your mobile phone camera at a painting, a famous landmark, a bar code or QR code, a product, a storefront, or a popular image. If Goggles finds it in its database, it will provide you with useful information. Goggles can read text in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish, and translate it into other languages.

Price: Free

Platform: iOS, Android

WeatherBug

weatherbugIf you are sensitive to weather changes or do not like snowfall or rainfall, you would obviously be interested to find out about the weather in the places where you are going to be during your trip. WeatherBug gives accurate and reliable weather information, letting you know beforehand the kind of weather you can expect during your stay in a foreign city.

This app allows you access to the most reliable weather stations across North America to find out the exact weather conditions at thousands of locations around the world. You can thus avoid places where weather is not to your liking if you have this app installed.

Price: Free

Platform: iOS, Android

Google Maps

Whether you need directions to your destination, the closest good place for a bite to eat, or just a sense of where you are, Google Maps for Android can help.

Immediately after Apple Maps landed, customers and critics complained loudly (and rightly) of inaccurate location search and a lack of map data over points of interest. Fortunately, Google does search better than most everyone, and Google Maps for iOS is no exception. You also can search for addresses like you would expect, but also landmarks, local restaurants, businesses, and common search terms like “pizza.” Google database is more extensive and generally much more accurate than Apple’s offering.

Price: Free

Platform: iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Symbian

 

Control your pointer with WiFi Mouse App

No need to use your old tech mouse in this era where Android/iOS is making its mark of gadgets. Transform your phone/tablet into a wireless mouse, keyboard and trackpad using WiFi Mouse. WiFi Mouse supports speech-to-text as well as multi-finger trackpad gestures. WiFi Mouse enables you to control your PC, MAC or HTPC effortlessly through a local network connection.

XDA Senior Member Williams Joe offers up computer control app. In the above video XDA Developer TV Producer TK reviews Wi-Fi Mouse. TK shows off the application and gives us his thoughts, so check out this app review.

Features:
* Mouse curser movement
* left and right click support
* Middle mouse button scroll
* Remote keyboard input
* PC/Mac hot keys and combination key
* Speech-to-text input for all languages
* Mouse & keyboard full screen
* Auto-connect on application startup
* Compatible with XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8/Mac OSX.

Gestures:
* Tap-to-click
* Two finger tap for right click
* Two finger scroll
* Pinch to zoom
* Three finger drag & drop or highlight
* Four finger swipe down to show desktop
* Four finger swipe up to maximise current window
* Four finger swipe sideways to change current window focus
* Left handed mouse support (swap left and right mouse click)

How It Works

For an app this advanced it’s fairly easy to set up, all you’ve got to do is install the app from the Play Store and then install the Server software. I can’t speak for Mac Users but the installation on Windows was pain-free and more importantly – safe and unobtrusive.

After that all you have to do is open up the app on your phone and then either click auto-connect and wait for the magic to happen. I manually entered the IP address because I really don’t trust Windows and networking but in testing both worked fine.

Conclusion

To control a PC off in the distance or just use touch for a change through your smartphone is brilliant. Its execution is good as well, a solid application that serves it’s purpose almost flawlessly. These apps were all the rage some years ago and whilst you could say this app is trying to revive a trend I’d disagree because the app changes the rules and gives you an experience that touchpad manufacturers have struggled to deliver in laptops for years – through your smartphone.

Get the app from Play Store.

Evernote

Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders–and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go.

Why Use Evernote?
Without the Evernote app, I’d be a lot less productive while I’m away from my desk, when the only device I typically carry is an iPhone 5. This free, straightforward note-making and –syncing app outrivals most competing apps thanks to its strong search capabilities, effortless tagging features, and  simple organization. But the real key to its success and popularity is that Evernote synchronizes all your files by saving them to a cloud service, meaning anything you create or alter from your iPhone will be there waiting for you when you log into any other version of Evernote, such as Evernote for iPad,Evernote Web app, Evernote for Windows, and every other platform where it’s supported.

Evernote excels when it comes to searching your notes. Evernote can find typed text, as well as text that shows up in images, including handwriting. Let’s say you’re walking or driving by a new shop, and you want to jot down its name, address, and phone number. You can pop open Evernote and simply take a photo of the store’s window or awning where that information is likely to appear. Later, just search for anything you can remember about the business, either the first few digits of the phone number or the name of the business, and Evernote will find the photo. Although I’ve been able to stump Evernote’s OCR, it’s reliable on the whole.

In a nutshell, Evernote lets you create all kinds of electronic files—text files, images and photos, audio or voice memos, and videos—and gives you access to them through a variety of interface Log into any of these access points with your Evernote account, and you’ll be able to read, write, search, and otherwise utilize all your files.

 

 

With the new interface, you now have easy ways to view your information no matter how you have it organized. Whether you rely on using notebooks, places, or tags to find your notes, you switch to a view tailored to your preference that shows you a handy list of each. This is a much better experience than the older versions of the app provided, putting all the ways to browse Evernote only a couple of taps away.

My only beef with this app is that the premium version offers all the important tools you need, but costs more than most people will want to pay. With Premium, you get PIN access to keep your professional documents safe; you can use and edit documents offline when there’s no connection; you can view past versions of your notes with note history; and much more. I understand that a company needs to make money and Evernote is a great service, but I think $5 per month puts it out of reach of many users (like students who could really take advantage of the app), and after only a few months your investment in the service will be more than it’s worth.

The good: Evernote gives you access to your notes, images, and voice recordings on all your devices. A premium subscription includes PIN access, among other features.

The bad: Evernote Premium offers the ideal setup with PIN access, document history, offline notebooks, and priority support, but a $5 monthly subscription is simply too steep.

The bottom line: If you’re looking for a note-taking app that syncs across all platforms — or just an easy way to keep track of your digital odds and ends — Evernote is a worthwhile download.

Android 4.2: A new flavor of Jelly Bean

The latest version of Google’s mobile OS makes a number of evolutionary improvements to its already impressive repertoire — including a new quick settings menu that can be accessed from the notification pull down and support for multiple user profiles. The multiple user support is especially handy for tablets like the new Nexus 10, which are much more likely to be shared, and now offer quick and easy user switching right from the lock screen. If you don’t want to share your tablet, just what’s on it, the new support for Miracast makes will allow you to wirelessly beam movies, games or anything else to a compatible display. The 10-inch tablet UI has also received a slight tweak, moving closer to the design for phones and the Nexus 7, with centered navigation buttons and the notification area up top. It might seem strange for users used to the Honeycomb-style tablet layout, but the new design is much simpler and provides a consistent experience across devices.

Google has also overhauled the photo experience and added Photo Sphere — a 360-degree panoramic shooting mode that captures everything around you. Obviously, you’ll be able to post those shots to Google+, but you’ll also be able to add them to Google Maps, basically creating your own personal Street View. Interestingly, Google has also taken a page from Swype’s playbook, adding “Gesture Typing” to its keyboard. There’s also a new screensaver called Daydream that offers up news, photos and other content when a device is docked or idle.

Perhaps the biggest, and creepiest improvements are to Google Now, which can monitor your Gmail for relevant content such as flight numbers. Hotel and restaurant reservations are now presented as cards, as are packages enroute to your humble abode. The service will even remind you of events you’ve purchased tickets for, essentially making Calendar redundant for a lot of your personal life. For more info check out the source links.

Fast and smooth

We put Android under a microscope, making everything feel fast, fluid, and smooth. With buttery graphics and silky transitions, moving between home screens and switching between apps is effortless, like turning pages in a book.

More reactive and uniform touch responses mean you can almost feel the pixels beneath as your finger moves across the screen. Jelly Bean makes your Android device even more responsive by boosting your device’s CPU instantly when you touch the screen, and turns it down when you don’t need it to improve battery life.

Beam photos and videos

With Android Beam on Jelly Bean you can now easily share your photos and videos with just a simple tap, in addition to sharing contacts, web pages, YouTube videos, directions, and apps. Just touch two NFC-enabled Android devices back-to-back, then tap to beam whatever’s on the screen to your friend.

jelly-bean

A smarter keyboard, now with Gesture Typing

Writing messages on the go is easier than ever with Gesture Typing – just glide your finger over the letters you want to type, and lift after each word. You don’t have to worry about spaces because they’re added automatically for you.

The keyboard can anticipate and predict the next word, so you can finish entire sentences just by selecting suggested words. Power through your messages like never before.

Android’s dictionaries are now more accurate and relevant. With improved speech-to-text capabilities, voice typing on Android is even better. It works even when you don’t have a data connection, so you can type with your voice everywhere you go.

Bottom Line

Would you buy a new phone just because of Jelly Bean 4.2 ? – No.

Are their any cool updates ? – Yes

 

MX Player

One of the great things about Android, is that it has a flexibility – especially with regard to the file system – that you don’t get on iOS. It is, for example, perfectly possible to drag and drop video and music files over USB on to the SD card or internal storage of your phone. The problem comes when playing those files back. For music, the Android player is fine; for video you might want something more.

The video player that comes built in with your Google Android device is pretty limited to say the least. If you want to get the most out of your Android device then we strongly recommend downloading a new video player. With the MX Video Player you can unlock a whole host of new codecs/video files for your Android and it won’t cost you a penny.

Before we get any further, you should know that nothing in life is truly free and, alas, the MX Video Player is no different, it comes with banner adverts. They won’t interfere with your video playback, but whenever you’re lining up a video or fiddling with the volume or zoom, then you will see the little banner ads. But it’s a ‘free’ and much better video player at the end of the day, so it’s a pretty fair compromise.

Possibly the best thing about the MX Video Player is that if app doesn’t recognise the the codec of the video you are trying to play, it will give you a link directly to where you can download the correct codec. For there it’s a painfully simple two clicks and MX Video Player has downloaded and saved a new codec for you Android device. Whenever we flummoxed it with a codec that wasn’t installed, we were able to download and instal the new codecs via the app in roughly 30-seconds. A very impressive feature!

Bottom Line

It seems the whole idea behind the MX Video Player is that it puts you in control. Presets become a thing of the past, and if you ask me, that’s a good thing. That you could throw almost any video file at it without having to bother with codecs and trans-coding on the PC, is the clincher.

Nexus 4

The new smartphone from Google

With your favorite Google Apps, an amazing Photo Sphere camera, cutting edge hardware, and access to your favorite entertainment on Google Play – Nexus 4 puts the best of Google in the palm of your hand.

nexus4

Google’s Nexus (ten points to anyone who can tell us if Nexi is the correct plural) smartphones have always set the standard when it comes to a pure Google experience.

The first Nexus One was a true geek device. Sold only through Google directly (apart from a brief flirtation with Vodafone), it never achieved massive sales. But it gave the world the true raw power of Android without the bloatware of other variants. As of January 2010, the ball was well and truly rolling.

We’ve had several now – and everyone, it seems, had a go: HTC, Samsung, Asus and LG – though strangely, not Motorola, which is now part of Google itself.

The design of the LG-made Nexus 4 is very much an iteration of the Galaxy Nexus. That is, you kind of can’t tell the two apart if they’re sitting next to one another on a table. It’s when you get closer that you begin to notice the differences — and there are many significant differences.

For starters, the device is made mostly from glass. Gorilla Glass. The screen is coated smoothly from edge to edge, and it almost feels like the glass is melted over the sides. Google’s head of user experience Matias Duarte claimed that the curved sides helped swiping left or right on the phone, and much to my surprise, it did seem to make things easier to shuffle around near the edges of the screen. The back is flat glass with a holographic stipple pattern which you can’t always see, but looks playfully futuristic in the right light. The two glass surfaces are joined by a soft touch band which wraps around the entire device, giving it a solid, weighty feel in your hand.

Performance and Battery Life

Google says the Nexus 4 is the fastest phone around right now. Whether that’s true or not, I can say that performance and responsiveness on the device is second to none. It’s a very speedy phone that barely ever hesitated or failed to respond to my touches or commands. In particular, multitasking between a number of applications was no issue for the phone, buoyed up — I presume — by that generous 2GB of RAM.

Battery life was also top notch. I’m used to getting just about a day of use on my Galaxy Nexus (that’s taking it off of the charger around 8AM or 9AM, and putting it back on around 2AM). Some days it doesn’t quite make it that long, depending on my workload. The Nexus 4 fared much better. At the time of this writing, I’ve had it off of its charger for 10 hours and 30 minutes and it’s still got 45 percent battery life. Yesterday before I plugged it in, I’d had it off the charger for 16 hours, with 18 percent of its juice left. To say it’s holding up for full work days would be an understatement; even with heavy use, this battery more than pulls its weight.

 Specifications and Display

Inside, the Nexus 4 shines with an impressive set of specs. The phone’s beating heart is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro clocked to 1.5GHz, which Google says makes this the fastest phone on the planet. I’m not sure that’s an empirical fact, but the device was extremely snappy. It also houses a healthy 2GB of RAM, and is available in an 8GB or or 16GB version (I tested the 16GB version). There’s no SD slot here, so you’re stuck with a relatively small amount of onboard storage, especially on the cheapest version. There’s also a non-removable 2100 mAh battery inside.

You’ll find the typical compliment of Wi-Fi radios here (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and interestingly, built-in support for Google’s newest accessory, a wireless charging dock that looks a lot like the Palm Touchstone. One thing you won’t find, however, is LTE. The device comes equipped with HSPA+ radios, which will work just fine on T-Mobile or AT&T here in the States, and on the majority of carriers in Europe and the rest of the world. There are no plans at the moment for any other variations of the phone that I know of.

GOOD STUFF

  • Improved build quality
  • Android 4.2 is fantastic
  • Excellent price for a device of this caliber

BAD STUFF

  • Lacks LTE
  • Screen a bit washed out
  • Glass backing breaks easily
  • No expandable memory
  • Camera could be better

SwiftKey 3 Keyboard

If you’re not familiar with SwiftKey, it’s a Google Play Editors’ Choice app, and it won the coveted Most Innovative App award at the 2011 Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain. What sets it apart from other keyboard replacement apps is its capability to understand not just patterns in your typing, but also how words work together. This makes it scary good at predicting not only the next letter you need to type, but also the next word, sometimes even before you begin typing it. What’s more, Swiftkey can continue to learn from your e-mail, SMS, and even social media accounts (if enabled), so it gets noticeably better at making predictions as you use it.

More than just a new set of keys, though, SwiftKey offers a full set of tools to improve the efficiency of your typing. Under the settings menu, you’ll find a list of quick tips and typing statistics where you can see how many keystrokes SwiftKey has saved you, how many typos it’s corrected, and more. Plus, there’s a nifty “heatmap” that shows how accurately you type and on which keys you tend to make mistakes. You can even share these statistics via Android’s share menu, if you like, though this feature is probably more useful to SwiftKey’s marketing team than it is to you. Lastly, you can customize the keyboard for your typing style, change the color scheme, and even adjust key height to suit your tapping needs.

The newest version of SwiftKey comes with an improved UI, a larger spacebar (thank goodness) and a smart punctuation function that rolls out punctuation choices when you hold down the period key. These tweaks, while they may seem minor, help significantly to reduce errors and speed up your typing. There are also two new themes — “Cobalt” and “Holo” — so you can customize the look of the keyboard to your liking.

Also, SwiftKey now offers Smart Space, an almost magical technology that understands when you accidentally omit or otherwise screw up spaces in your typing. With Smart Space, you can actually tap out an entire sentence without spaces, and have the Smart Space technology correct you as you go.

Between the phone and tablet versions of SwiftKey, most of the features are the same. Both support dozens of languages and offer the same customization options. The tablet version, though, does let you switch between a normal keyboard and a split keyboard when in landscape mode. This split keyboard pushes the letters close to the edges of your tablet (by putting the number pad in the middle of the screen), which lets you more easily type out words with only your thumbs.

Overall, I can’t recommend SwiftKey highly enough. With all its customization options and its scary-smart technology, it can help improve your typing accuracy considerably, which is worth the premium price. Plus, its predictions will certainly help with your speed. If you’re still not convinced, you can, of course, try the free version (phone | tablet) for up to one month, before making your decision.

Get Swiftkey Keyboard here