Author: Clinton

While every Android phone will come with a SMS app, there are plenty of alternative apps available in the Google Play Store.  One of those is from Google themselves, the Google Messenger app.  It is a solid alternative to native text apps, giving you both SMS and MMS capability in a clean, simple UI that is quite colorful at the same time.  I’ve been using the app for a couple of weeks now on my BLU VIVO IV phone and after trying several others, it has become my default texting app.  Here are my thoughts and review of the app which is free in the store.

Google Messenger for Android – Free – Download Now

Yahoo has released a big update to the Flickr app for Android that brings a host of new features including the ability to auto upload your photos to the cloud service.  The update version will vary per device but on my BLU VIVO IV running KitKat 4.4, it is version 4.0.1 for those keeping score at home.  There are a lot of other changes in this update and if you are a Flickr user you need to get it.  Along with the auto uploading feature there are UI improvements and photo editing capabilities built into it.

Flickr for Android – Free – Download Now

Earlier this week I posted that Nexus 9 owners were teased with an update to Lollipop 5.0.2 and how it was a bit silly that other Nexus devices were seeing the 5.1.1 update like the older Nexus 7.  Well it seems that Google has been on the ball behind the scenes – or has been shamed at least – getting the 5.1 update ready.  It is dropping today and you should see the update on your device via an over-the-air update.

The Starbucks for Android app has been updated today, bringing substantially improved eGift redemption within the app.  The update, version 3.1.1 for those keeping score at home, promises “seamless” eGfit redemption for users.  This will be a welcome change to many as the previous builds of the app struggled to get the eGift applied properly to accounts.  That, hopefully, is a thing of the past with this update.

Starbucks for Android – Free – Download Now

The RSS reader/curation app Feedly for Android has been updated today, bringing several new features to the app.  The latest update, version 27.0.4 for those keeping score at home, has several new features including integration to Google Now if you are using the Google Now Launcher or have a Google device.  If you are not familiar with Feedly, it is a service that allows you to curate all of your RSS feeds into one place for easy reading.  For Windows Phone, the best Feedly reader is NextGen Reader while the Feedly for Android app serves that platform very well.

Feedly for Android – Free – Download Now

Any smartphone you buy today be it Android, iOS or Windows Phone, will come with a camera app for the built-in camera of the device.  Some of these are appallingly bad while others are fantastic.  Fortunately, regardless of the platform you chose, you have a lot of camera apps available in respective app stores to help fit your needs a bit better.  In the case of Android, one of the simplest yet easiest to use camera apps is Google Camera.  Yes it is made by Google and it is a robust camera app alternative.  It doesn’t have the huge number of filters or other special tricks but it does do one thing really, really well:  Take photos.  With its simple user experience and focus on the taking of the photo itself, Google Camera gives you all you need to take a great picture with your Android phone, leaving it to other apps for post processing.  Personally, I’m good with this approach and having used this app for a week or so now, I’m pretty pleased with it.  I think you would be too.

Google Camera for Android – Free – Download Now