Assorted collection of top utility / productivity apps for Android

With this post I am starting a series, in which I will be listing some of the well-known utility / productivity apps for both smartphone and tablet which I have personally used and realized its value.

Evernote

Evernote is essentially a note keeping app. It is simply the best app for this purpose and does its work brilliantly. Using this app one can take text notes, record voice memo or take pictures which can then be stored as a note. To better organize and categorize the notes it provides option to create multiple notebooks.

Showing notes from notebook

Evernote menu

The saved notes get synced to all the devices you use, so no need to worry about backing up and restoring or losing the notes if you change the device.

How much it costs you: Not a single penny.

Google Keep

Starting from Android 4.0.3, Google has a new note keeping app named as 'Google Keep'. Google Keep is quite similar to Evernote, though currently it is not as mature and feature rich product as the latter. Google keep essentially allows you to create text notes, voice memos or snap a picture. There is a cool option to create notes in different colors.

Multicolored notes view

Individual note

While using Google Keep I found that it is quite a light weight app and it does not take much time to understand its settings and options. The saved notes get synced to all of your connected devices through the Google account.

Google Keep settings

How much it costs you: Not a single penny.

For HTC Desire S

Profile Scheduler

I used to face this issue with my phone as, usually when I am in office I keep my phone on silent mode (ringer off, vibe on) and then forget to switch it back to normal again. It results in me missing many phone calls and frustration to the caller. Profile Scheduler comes handy in such situations.

As the name suggests this little but useful app schedules your phone’s profiles based on the time. For example, if you are usually in office between Monday and Friday at 9AM to 6PM you can instruct this app to schedule the silent mode profile and anytime other than that schedule the normal profile. 

To facilitate this, Profile Scheduler allows configuring ‘Rules’. In the rule definition you can add the conditions as at what time to activate which profile etc. This is just not limited to the ringer volume setting but you can basically add conditions for many more functionality as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen timeout etc.

Available profiles

Scheduler rules list

Rule creation screen

Editing profile settings

If needed, you can anytime override the active rule just by selecting any desired profile. This will deactivate the rule until you again select the rule to activate it back. Profile scheduler app also provides two widgets to show quick information about the active profile.

How much it costs you: Not a single penny.

For Nexus 7

Camera Starter

By now, I guess we all know that Nexus 7 has just the 1.2 MP front-facing camera for video conferencing and strangely there is no built-in app comes with Android to activate this camera for clicking self-portraits. But no need to worry, there are camera apps available on Play Store for activating the Nexus 7 front camera, and ‘Camera Starter’ is one of the best app. 

Onscreen options for Camera

Showing various camera modes 

Not a full-fledged camera app with extensive options, the interface of Camera Starter is very simple and intuitive. As you launch the app, the camera gets activated and there are options visible on screen to select the various camera modes. There are few more options as; you can set the exposure, light, location, picture size settings for still and video camera.

Exposure setting

More options

How much it costs you: Not a single penny.

If you are aware of and using apps which are similar to or better than the apps I mentioned here, please make use of the comments section and spread the word :).

See also:

Other useful utility app:

1. 3G Watchdog: Great app to keep track of your 3G or WiFi data usage

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Major Mayhem: running action game, great action, unlimited fun

Let me start by telling you that Major Mayhem is a bit old game, I installed it some time back on my HTC Desire S. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game completely, but as I was not completely done with it so, I decided to install it on my at that time new and shining Nexus 7 (well it is still shining :)). I must tell you it is even more fun to play this game on Nexus 7 as it is easier to target on the enemies and then because of Nexus 7’s big and gorgeous screen (1280 * 800 resolution) the scenes shown in this game look more interesting and beautiful.

The main screen

Developed by Rocket jump games, it’s a running and shooting game, you play this game as a major who is on a 'one man army' mission to save his kidnapped girlfriend. The game starts with the president briefing major about his mission. There are three main tracks which are called worlds in the game as: Tropics, Metropolis and Desert, each world have 15 levels. As you play the levels and move forward, you start collecting coins by killing enemies. There are around 150 objectives and each has some reward (in terms of coins) associated with it, you achieve the objective you get the reward.

Three worlds for different experiences

Plenty of objectives and rewards

The best thing about Major Mayhem is this game can be played completely till its end without spending any real money. All additional items in this game can be unlocked using the coins you earn while playing the levels.

It starts with the tropics world, where you ‘the player’ are dropped from a helicopter. You pass through huts, rivers, jungle etc. where ninjas are hiding and throwing weapons at you. Beware of the red ones, if you get hit by red ones thrice you die and that end the mission. To open fire at the enemies you just need to touch them.

The action begins in the tropics

Be alert, enemies are everywhere

As you complete the tropics world, you move to the Metropolis, where the enemies are sophisticated and are in suitsJ. You pass through building, swimming pools, and offices which have enemies everywhere, firing at you. The plan is to keep moving and completing the levels.

Shooting in the building

Done with Metropolis, welcome to the Desert, the last but the most difficult world.

Here you will face the usual enemies along with some deadly mummies. It takes lot many rounds of fire to eliminate a mummy. You will also face the mighty tanks and jets and it could be challenging to bring them down. If you have a better gun (my personal favourite is the minigun) it should be less difficult. Once you are at the last level you will face the main villain and it’s quite a surprise to see who it is. Let me know about it in the comments section once you reach thereJ.

Well, it's possible to bring down the jet

Once you have accumulated enough coins, you can visit the armory section where you can buy powerful guns, and then there are power-ups to choose and also a clothing section to dress up the major.

Major knows some cool tricks

Waiting for the right time to attack

The dangerous mummies 

How much it costs you: Not a single penny.

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3G Watchdog: Great app to keep track of your 3G or WiFi data usage

A smartphone is a powerful medium to gain knowledge by allowing users to access informative websites, to pass time by allowing to download games, apps, movies, songs etc., but at the same time it is a great tool to incur heavy data usage (internet) charges if user is not carefully paying attention to it. I know you keenly follow my blog and download the apps and games I have written about on my blog posts :), but at the same time you are consuming your quota of your internet plan (3G, Wi-FI etc.). No need to worry, there are apps and tools available on Google Play store to monitor and control the data usage.

3G Watchdog is one of best utility app for tracking your data usage. Well, it may not appeal to the smartphone users who are on an unlimited data plan as probably they do not need to care about the usage, but for mere mortals like me, it is important to track the data usage. Important because, everything which is related to money is important, you see :).

Before going into details of 3G watchdog app, let me tell you that starting from Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Google introduced a feature to help user to track and see the internet data usage. This option can be accessed by choosing ‘Usage’ from ‘Settings’ menu. It shows a nice graphical representation of data usage and below that one can find apps-wise breakup of it. User can select time window to see the data usage for both 3G (Cellular) and Wi-Fi. All this is good, but it is still a bit cumbersome to use, as it does not provide any widget to quickly check the current data usage stats if you are not much interested in seeing whole lot of details. 3G Watchdog comes handy in such situation, and can be used just for that.

Data Usage graphical representation

App-wise breakup of data usage

3G Watchdog is a simple looking yet a useful and well-built app. The basic purpose of this app is to track your Internet data usage be it 3G or Wi-Fi; and it does that just perfectly.  

To use this app, first you need to provide few details about your data plan from app's settings menu, where it allows you to:

1. set your download quota as per your data plan and the unit of cycle like per month
2. instruct 3G Watchdog as to when it should start warning you once you have consumed a specific % of your quota
3. set the refresh frequency for notification and widget (more in the later part of the post)
4. specify when it should show the notification icon in the notification bar

Specifying the update frequency

Specifying the data plan details

That's it, 3G Watchdog is ready to monitor your data usage. You will see a notification icon in the notification bar as well as a permanent item in notification area. Selecting the notification will launch the app and present you the summary stats of your 3G data usage and below that, details of it in a table format. Where columns represents 'Received', 'Sent' and 'Total' data, and row represents the monitoring period like 'Today', 'Week', 'Month' etc.

Showing your 3G data usage 

To see the Wi-Fi usage select the respective tab located just above the table.

Showing your Wi-Fi data usage

By long pressing on the 'Today' row you can choose to see the day wise details of the data usage.

Showing day-wise data usage

And finally, it provides two widgets of different sizes showing the Quota usage in actual numbers as well as % wise, and one widget to enable / disable the mobile data network. This enables the user to quickly check the data usage without even launching the app.

Widgets options to choose

How much it costs you: Not a single penny. 

A paid version is also available (3G watchdog Pro) with added features like roaming data usage, usage history with graphs, few more widgets, usage by application etc.

Note: From this post onward I will be using this text size, as I think it looks better. 

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Beach Buggy Blitz : A fantastic racing game which will transport you to a stunning island, that too for free

This is one of the games I am currently playing almost every day. I like racing games as much as the FPS shooting games, but it is a different racing game. While playing Beach Buggy Blitz you will feel like you are roaming on a lonely island with pristine water and beaches. Playing this game simply reminds me of my trip to the Island country of Vanuatu.

Even if you are not interested particularly in racing, the surrounding, visuals and locations shown in this game will definitely amuse you. Enough talking :), let's see what this game is all about.

The opening screen

Created by the company Vector Unit, Beach Buggy Blitz racing game is set on an island. This game is supported on all my devices, but I chose to install it on my Nexus 7. This was done for the obvious reasons as the sheer power of the Nexus 7 hardware and its great display but importantly due to its NVIDIA Tegra processor, as this game has some specials effects exclusively for it.

The home screen

The home screen shows the options to choose cars from the garage, choose the character and modification options and power ups. You can get a 360 degree view of the car as well as the surroundings. Also you can see your high score and the coins you have in your kitty.

Characters options

In this racing game a pumpkin or bunny or skeleton can be your rivals :), and you can also unlock these characters through the coins you earned. Do not underestimate your rivals, they can dash your vehicle or block your way and make sure you do not go ahead of them.

Vehicles options

At start there is only one car available to you and you can unlock the other 6 vehicles using the coins. There are various tuning and modifications options available to beef up your vehicle. Changing the vehicle color and decal is also possible.

Driving the buggy by the beach

The controls are very simple and sensitive, I chose the tilt control and it took some time to get used to it. As the race starts, you will see yourself driving the car on the beach, passing through the palm trees, huts, boats the giant crabs and seagulls on your way. It is best to avoid these obstacles, because hitting them will slowdown your speed. There is a clock ticking at the top left hand of your screen and you must reach to the next checkpoint before it shows 0 to get a new lease of life in the form of few seconds. On the way you also get coins, speed boosters, health shields as bonus.

The race take you through some stunning and beautiful locations like wooden walkway bridges, mysterious caves and let you jump from frightening heights. Have a look at some of the views.

Impressive visuals

Driving in the cave with headlights ON

Recently I explored the snowy mountain

How much it costs you: Not a single penny.

If you like this post or know any other app / game in the same category, let me know via comments.

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How to take a screenshot on: Nexus 7, HTC Desire S

Android supports taking screenshot without the use of any third party app starting from 'Ice Cream Sandwich' (4.0). Still, the combination of buttons for taking screenshots is different for different devices.

Taking the screenshot on Nexus 7

This can be done by pressing the 'Power key' and the 'Volume down key' simultaneously for couple of seconds. I was following the instructions mentioned on Google Nexus 7 help page: https://support.google.com/nexus/7/answer/2811098?hl=en, but as I was releasing the buttons combination immediately, the screenshot was not getting captured. Remember, you need to keep it pressed for couple of seconds until you see a brief animation.

The just taken screenshot can be accessed from the notification bar, or from the photo gallery where it gets stored.

Taking the screenshot on HTC Desire S

This can be done by pressing the 'Power key' first and then immediately the 'Home key'. If the operation is successful you will hear the camera click sound and a message on the screen.

The just taken screenshot can be accessed from the 'Camera shots' album in the photo gallery.

I guess the procedure should be the same for other models of HTC.

I have not looked into the screenshot procedure for Android devices from other manufactures, if anyone of you is aware, appreciate if you can add it in the comments section to help others.

See also:
Other tips:

Nexus 7 not booting up

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Clay Jam: A unique game with lots of clay and fun

Clay Jam has a refreshingly different game play. Though I must admit, it appeals to kids more than the grown ups. It gives a feeling like you are playing with colorful clay all the times.
Everything in this game appears to be made of clay of different colors, be it the background or text or game characters.

The initial screen

The plot of the game is divided into 5 different types of level. 
Each level has a hill which is occupied by a beast and the mission is to defeat the beast with the help of a rolling pebble.

The hill

Each level has some unique quests which should be fulfilled to complete the level. Quest could be like to squash only specific types of creatures in a row or reach to the bottom of hill without hitting anything etc.  

The quest

The game starts with a small pebble rolling on the clay hill. On its way you find some creatures made of clay roaming around, which should be squashed so that the clay gets rolled on the pebble causing it to become bigger in size. The idea is to smash as many creatures to get a bigger clay ball. The player guides the pebble by sliding her finger on it in the direction of the creatures or away from the walls.

The pebble and the creatures

Once the pebble reaches at the bottom of the hill the beast can be seen. At this time the pebble should be rolled as faster as possible so that it hits the beast hard and throw it farther the hill. For best results the pebble should be bigger in size.

The beast

Power packs are available to enables the player to collect more clay easily by converting the pebble bigger in size, or set it on fire etc. 

Power pack in action

Well, you can not just keep on squashing the creatures to collect the clay, there is molten lava coming behind, and if the player do not move the pebble ahead quickly, the lava will swallow the pebble and game will be over.

So go ahead and play with the clay.

The end is approaching

How much it costs you: Not a single penny.

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Frontline Commando: D-Day

D-Day is really nice game from the developer GLU Mobile. They lately started coming up with really good 3rd person shooter 3D games. The graphics quality is top notch and the sound is commendable. Though I must admit, D-Day is not a fully fledged 3rd person shooter game but very close to it.

The plot of the game is set in WW2 at Normandy, voice overs and texts give details about the mission and some interesting facts about WW2.

There are various missions divided into 5 separate tracks. Objective of each mission is simple, player just has to finish the enemies while satisfying the given conditions to achieve the medals. The conditions can be like finishing the mission with 75% of health remaining, playing only with rifles, finish mission within 2 minutes etc.

Though the objective is simple, the game play is not, as the player advances to the later missions, game starts becoming more and more difficult and also interesting at the same time.

There are options to buy powerful ammos, guns, health packs etc. using GLU credits or medals, which can be bought with real money through In-app purchase.

Something to mention about the visuals, it is stunning, very detailed for example: the smoke effect the destruction and the locations. On Nexus 7’s screen it is a joy to play the game. And because of the capable hardware of Nexus 7, no lag / loss of frames to destroy the game experience.

Here are some screen shots of the game.

Game is divided in 5 tracks

Various missions

Objectives for the mission

Anti-aircraft guns bringing down the planes

Eliminate the enemies

Moving to another location

Wounded? no worries help is available :)

How much it costs you: Not a single penny.

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Granny Smith

Granny Smith is a cool game. I downloaded the free version of this game earlier and got addicted to it and decided to buy the full version. Well it is one of the games you will always want to keep in your phone for casual gaming.

As the name of the game suggests it has to do with the granny and the granny smith (green apple). The mission of this game, you as a player plays the role of a granny who is hell bent to save the apples from a thief who is always behind the apples and does not leave any chance of stealing them.

The granny knows some cool tricks and can give a tough completion to thief :). She can jump, glide on the ropes, break walls and glass without getting hurt.

The graphics and visuals are eye catching and it traverses you through the city landscape, zoo, carnival etc. The advanced levels take you to outer space, but the main objective remains the same that is save the apples from the thief.

The music and background theme is very good. The game also has a feature to replay your played levels in old movies style (sepia effect) which adds value to the overall experience.

Here are some screen shots of the game.

The opening screen

The flashback movie

Various game levels

The instructions

The factory level

Outer space level

How much it costs you: 1 US $ (approximately).

See also:
Other games from this developer:

1. Sprinkle

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