Author: Clinton

Yelp has updated their Android phone app this weekend with several improvements that will make your restaurant, bar and coffee shop searching a bit easier. The latest update is version 7.8.1 for those keeping score at home and with it brings a much improved photo sharing ability with other apps you have installed on your phone.

For those who may not be familiar with Yelp, it is an app and service that allows you to find local businesses and see how other users of Yelp have rated them. It’s a great way to find a new place to eat or for that perfect cup of coffee but it isn’t limited to just foodie centric. You can also find local pharmacies, shopping locations and fuel stations all within Yelp.

Yelp for Android Phone – Free – Download Now

While there are plenty of note taking and task management applications available today, one of the best and leading applications is Evernote.  It’s multi-platform agnostic and you can get to your notes and to-do’s offline as well as online no matter what device you happen to be using.  This now includes your Android Wear device.  Evernote for Android Wear is an extension of your Evernote app on your Android phone and allows you to quickly and easily create notes and to-do’s, and find notes be it your most recent or notes that you have created near the location you happen to be in at the time.  It is also fully integrated with Google Now so you use voice commands to create notes and reminders while on-the-go.  If you are an Evernote user (I have been since 2011) and want to be able to get to notes quickly from your Android Wear device without touching your phone, this is the app for you.

Evernote for Android Wear – Free – Download Now

Google has issued a minor update to their SMS app, Google Messenger.  The update, version 1.4.048 (2144942-38) for those keeping score at home and who love version number Bingo, is available now in the Google Play Store.  If you have not checked out Google Messenger, it is a solid SMS/MMS app that allows you to share things like stickers, your location and of course pictures.  I posted a review back in May of Google Messenger and it has been my main SMS/MMS app on my BLU VIVO IV and OnePlus One almost since the beginning.  It’s a solid app that’s feature rich for a SMS client.

Google Messenger for Android – Free – Download Now

Microsoft’s continued mobile app development on iOS and Android continues seemingly non-stop and today’s release of Microsoft Translator shows they are both serious about it and really good at it.  Microsoft Translator allows you via typing or speaking, translate between 50 different languages and it comes with out-of-the-box support for Android Wear, something that is not supported in Google Translate.  It also has far smoother audio playing of the translated text than Google Translate, sounding far less “robotic” than Google’s offering.  If you are looking for a translation app, this is one to seriously consider.  It’s free and in my testing of it today has performed flawlessly.

Microsoft Translator for Android – Free – Download Now

Angry Birds 2 by all accounts has been a success for developer Rovio Entertainment and today on their blog they have confirmed it.  In the first week since its launch, the sequel game to the original Angry Birds has seen 20 million downloads.  In that time it has also become the number one download in the for iOS while on both iOS and Android the game has been the most downloaded game on both platforms.

As the number one iPhone or iPad download in more than 100 countries – and the most downloaded game on both iOS and Android platforms virtually worldwide – in its first week Angry Birds 2’s fans have raised their slingshots more than 1.4 billion times, blasting their way through more than 300 million eye-popping levels and gloriously maxing out the Destruct-O-Meter more than 350 million times over.

If you haven’t been keeping up, Angry Birds 2 is the sequel to the enormously popular Angry Birds and it a far different game than the original.  Yes you are still slinging birds to pop pigs but the game play and puzzles of each level are vastly different and certainly a worthy challenge.  Angry Birds 2 requires not only the strategy of popping the pigs but you also have to determine which bird to use to be the most effective.  As a fan of the game series, I’m addicted.  I’m up to level 70. 🙂

Angry Birds 2 – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

Last week Samsung announced during their earnings call that they would be dropping the price on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge to more accurately reflect the market and prop up sliding sales.  It seems that those prices may be coming to market already.  T-Mobile has updated their site to reflect a $100 drop in price on Galaxy S6 and Galaxy 6 Edge 32GB and 64GB models while the 128GB models have dropped a full $200.  These are for non-contract full purchase of the phones and if you do the math, the higher memory devices are a really good deal right now.