Jotterpad- Writing Has Never Been Easier!

I am trying out a new layout for my reviews so tell me what you guys think!

Introduction

When it came to writing longer pieces of works on my phone, I found there were very few places I could turn to. There were mock Microsoft Word applications and a bunch of ‘writer’ apps that I felt fell short for what I needed. The apps were too clunky, too laggy, and not efficient. Not to mention, half of them lacked a proper way to link to synchronize to cloud storage. When I saw Jotterpad by 2 App Studio, it immediately caught my eye due to its simplicity and file architecture. It looked really clean and efficient. There were tons of features under the hood, but the exoskeleton had enough information for me to like it.

The Interface

Once I started using the app, I began to really like the interface. I love using night mode and was glad that they had one to begin with since a lot of apps lack it. The contrast between black and white was great and it looks very material. The FAB icon creates a new document and swiping from the left to the right lets me seamlessly switch from my local files to my Dropbox files, and it also lets me edit my typography. The folder architecture interface that Jotterpad offers really drew me to the app as well. What’s the point in having a great app if you can barely navigate it at all? It appears to be very clean and it is very fast to use. Navigating my 20+ Dropbox Folders and then navigating to my files is extremely simple. The app overall is smooth and has a layout that is completely uncluttered.

Real easy to use layout

Features

I mentioned Night Mode, but that is not the only cool and useful feature that they have. 2 App Studio have also implemented research, grammar and spell check. I seldom use these features due to the type of writing that I do in the app, which is never school or research based, but it is nice to know that they are available to me. The typography layouts are something that I really like since I tend to write lyrics and poems as well as reviews for products in this app. Typography layouts have arbitrary font settings, but the app lets you increase and decrease the font size.  

The best part of this application for me though is that they have Dropbox integration. I love using Dropbox and the fact that I can write on my phone and then it will be backed to my Dropbox reassures me that I am in good hands. In addition to the Dropbox feature, I recently synchronized a Bluetooth keyboard to my phone to do some note taking for class and was happily greet with the fact that Jotterpad has integrated keyboard shortcuts as well. Everyone’s favorite CTRL + C and CTRL + V are useable and effective in this app. CTRL + S also works which is great for quick saving while I write my reviews.

Jotterpad also implemented a small edit bar that is presented as an overlay for the users. This bar effectively adds some quick edit items for the user such as an asterisk or ellipses. For those quick edits, it has left and right arrows that move the cursor one letter in either direction.

Premium Features

Now, I am not a big fan of the pay gate that some developers put in front of you in order to unlock necessary features for a wonderful experience. Thankfully, Jotterpad is not like that, and their app is very useable without the premium features. I was surprised to see that their premium features cost so much in total (I believe $5.00 or something in that price range) and I was a little skeptical to buy it because I didn’t think I would need the extra features. The main two that stuck out to me during my decision making was that I could export my writings in a docx format into my Dropbox, meaning that I could literally copy and paste my contents into my blog for quick posting. This was a big deal to me, and made me ultimately buy the app, but the other feature that made go buy premium was that I was able to customize the typographies to get a one of a kind layout. I really enjoyed this and felt that although it was an aesthetic feature, it really made the app feel personal to me and it makes me want to use it more. Lastly, the app saves "Snapshots" of your writings which are basically various save states of the piece. This way, if you liked the way something was written before, you can go back to that version. I have never needed this feature before, so I can't say for certain that if you loaded up an older save state, that you would lose every other save state from that one to the present, but it is still a pleasant feature to have

The ability to export into DOCX is a blessing

Overall

The app is great. If this article did not explain that concept well enough, than please go check the application out for yourself. It is not meant to be a Google Docs replacement in my opinion, just like it isn’t a Notes or Evernote replacement. It meant for substantial writing. That is not to say that it cannot be used for making a grocery list, or taking notes in class, but I find that there are other apps that could be much more efficient in their usage.

Check out Jotterpad here 

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Sleepbot- Tracking Your Sleep Should Be Easy

Sleeping has been something that we have always craved as people. Applications can now track how well a person sleeps. Utilizing your smart phone, you can now not only track how much sleep you get, but your motion can be tracked as well which dictates your REM cycle. Even the sounds you make can be tracked.

The application I would like to bring to your attention today is Sleep Bot. I initially started using this application a year ago during my sophomore year of college. I wanted to make sure I was getting good sleep and I wanted to improve my sleeping habits so I downloaded this app. Since then, it has gone through quite a few changes, and I feel that I now have enough experience to discuss it

The application in itself is quite simple. You open the app to see the amount of hours you got in sleep last night through swiping through the screens, you can see the charts they offer you. I prefer the swiping to access these things as opposed to a clutter of menus that some other apps offer because I find that for this type of application, I don't need a lot.

On the first screen you can see the three functions that are available to you. The first being Smart Alarm. Smart alarm sets an alarm based on when you go to bed and how many hours of sleep you want. Based on those facts alone, it will create an alarm to slowly wake you up and ease you into the day. Personally, no alarm is going to 'ease' me into the day so I generally stay away from that feature. The second feature is the track motion feature and it is the one I use the most. I leave my phone plugged into the charger at bedtime and then leave it in my mattress. It detects when I move and graphs the entire thing. I find it useful to see if I ever reached my REM cycle. The final feature is the record sound function. Since I don't talk in my sleep, and nothing great really goes on around me, I don't record my sleep. I've had roommates before and no one has come to me confessing I snore like an elephant, so until then, I will shy away from that feature as well.

The screen to the right of it displays your sleep and how much you got everyday. The date start time, end time, sleep earned, and how much in sleep debt you're in are all displayed. Now, sleep debt is not as scary as it sounds. You set how many hours of sleep you want every night. It defaults to eight, but I lowered mine to seven. After you get sleep, it shows sleep debt, which is the hours you wanted subtracted by the hours you actually got. If the number is negative, it means you got more sleep then you intended.

The settings are pretty straightforward. It is worth noting that you do have the option to backup and restore your information. This makes it less stressful to deal with crashes and accidental wiping of the memory. Some other unique settings are the bedtime reminder, which is self explanatory, and the punch offset. Punch offset let's use select a predetermined measurement of time, say ten minutes, and use that as the offset. Now, if you click the button to start monitoring your sleep, it will not start until ten minutes later. This compensates for how long it will take you to get to sleep. I see mine to 10 minutes and have encountered no issues with it.

This application fit all of my needs to a 't'. I wanted an app that wasn't cluttered. Don't get me wrong, I love my features in apps, and I love having a lot of them, but with a sleeping app, I find I don't need much. This app was easy enough to understand and use within five minutes and after that, I was set. I recommend this app for anyone who wants a straightforward app that has good features, but isn’t overly complicated to use. 

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Fleksy Keyboard Has Gone Free! But What's Fleksy?

In the past couple days, the popular keyboard app Fleksy has decided to go free in order to increase their userbase. It's my personal keyboard of choice, and I have been using it without complaint for the past six months, but what actually is Fleksy?

One of the greatest things about the Android OS as a whole is that you have options. The user is not tethered to the same calendar, photos, camera, or even Twitter app anymore. You have the option to switch at any time. Keyboards are no different. Now I started with the stock keyboard on my Samsung Galaxy S III and then went on to the stock keyboard Cyanogenmod offered in their CM 10 and CM 11 versions of the ROM. After that I switched to Swype, Google Keyboard and eventually Fleksy. I've tested SwiftKey, Minuum, and touch pal. Nothing comes close to the usability I get with the Fleksy keyboard.

I initially selected Fleksy because it was the only keyboard to let me have my enter button back on the bottom right as opposed to the silly emoji icon that I never use. As I user it more, I found that Fleksy offers what other keyboard don't offer and that's gesture typing. The term gesture typing in this case is not to be confused with Swype where the user drags their finger from letter to letter to create words. In this case, it is swiping to the left to delete, and swiping up and down to go through the autocorrect options. Although it takes a little getting used to, you will find that your words per minute, WPM, will greatly improve.

What I liked about Fleksy the most from the get go was that the letters were large. I know there are some users that want their keyboards to take up as little space as possible, but I like the larger keys because it helps reduce error for me. Error is then terrified even further with the fantastic autocorrect that Fleksy offers. I have not the slightest clue how it is nearly as accurate as it is, definitely has something to do with intense algorithims, but I enjoy it thoroughly. I find that although I miss swyping, I type faster with Fleksy. The gestures are intuitive and easy to pick up. If you swipe up on a word, you can automatically add it to the dictionary.

Fleksy offers themes for the user, but I was never really into it so never delved into it besides picking the black keyboard theme. It may be a tad gimmicky, but Fleksy also has badges. They are simply for aesthetic purposes to show progress in areas such as auto correct, typing with the invisible keyboard and so on. Nothing that really breaks ground, but a nice touch

.

My favorite feature of Fleksy is definitely the extensions. These extensions add extra, free features to Fleksy. Again, most of these are gimmicks, but they do prove to be useful. For example, the one extension I have on let's me swipe on my keyboard to add a number row. This makes my life easier when typing in numbers because now I don't have to click an extra button to get to the numbers. Another extension lets me add certain apps as hot keys so that I an quickly jump to them. I have my email, texting, app store, and writing app all hot keyed so that I can quickly get to them when needed.

Fleksy is simple at its heart. There are no external ads that plague the app and it is quite easy to use. It is definitely different with its gesture typing, but once you get used to it, your overall speed in typing goes up dramatically.

Here is a gif of me typing on the keyboard and using some of the functions that I described above. I do not know why the keyboard looks skewed. The accurate depiction of the keyboard is in the screenshot above. As you can see the gestures take a little getting used to, but it becomes second nature after you use it. Here is a link to the Google Play Store for Fleksy. 

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iOS 7 is on Android!

iOS 7 is without a doubt one of the biggest things to happen to Apple this year alongside the release of their iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S. The new OS touts various new features as well as a new  refreshing look with bright icons and live wallpapers. But it isn't just for iOS devices anymore.

Some of you may have read my article a while back about the Android launcher Espier Launcher, an app that made your Android device look like it was running iOS 6. It would also operate like iOS 6 with the jiggle on the icons, iPhone search page on the left and the similar folder layouts, as well as modified icons to replicate iOS6. The same company has come back with an iOS 7 version of their launcher. Now this launcher has been around since iOS 7 was released in its beta stages back in July, but I decided against posting it since we didn't know much about iOS 7 and I didn't want to misinform you lovely readers. With a couple of weeks since iOS 7's release, I figured now would be a good time to talk about Espier Launcher's latest attempts in imitating one of the most popular OS's on the mobile market for the time being 

For those of you using Espier Launcher (the iOS 6 version), you can download a theme that will simply convert your current theme into iOS 7 without having to reconfigure anything. I initially did this in order to see what iOS 7 would look like on my phone.The background changed to the stock background of iOS 7, but it didn't move like the iOS 7. No matter, there are live wallpapers for it all over on the market so I wasn't terribly worried about that. Plus, I prefer the wallapaper to be static since it takes up less RAM and makes my phone run faster. The icons for the most part changed to their iOS 7 counterparts, but nothing else really changed. This theme is good for those who just want the physical look of iOS 7 without sacrificing the functions and features of iOS 6. 

If you want the functions and features of iOS 7, I recommend you try out the iOS 7 Espier Launcher. IF you do chose to use this launcher., you will have to reorganize everything as if you just got the launcher for the first time. I personally say it is worth the sacrifice. Once you utilize the launcher, you will see all the icons change to their iOS 7 counterpart as well as the theme changes. This is where all the comparisons changed to the theme version of it. If you swipe up you see the same task bar from iOS 6, but if you swipe down, you can find the search bar in its new position. I personally like it better in its new position. When you group applications together, you can see the new folder layout. The animations are almost perfect imitations of iOS 7.  Just like the iOS 6 version of the Espier launcher, you are able to edit and change the icons which was always a nice feature. You can import icons just like always from your external storage device and this is just a supplemental thing that adds to the feel of iOS 7.

In addition to all of these features, there are other applications that can help bring iOS to your Android phone, and they are all by Espier. The Espier Lock Screen is the iOS 7 variation of the stock lock screen. This version just provides the simply slide function as the only iOS 7 function. There is a paid version of this application by Espier Studio that provides a little bit more in terms of imitating the latest iOS. It provides the a better lock screen with the same num pad as iOS 7. It also has other handy features like switching to your camera without having to unlock your phone as well changing the text for "Slide to unlock", and the operator name. It also lets the notifications appear on the lock screen, a signature Apple trademark. The applications itself is very fluid and it works very well with the iOS 7 launcher.

Espier also have their own version of the Control Center as well as their own version of the notification center. The Control Center is much more fluid than I originally expected. I have had some experience with some other control centers and they were always very buggy. The swipe up feature was always super sensitive and would pop up on the screen when I would be using my keyboard. The Espier version works much more fluidly and therefore is much more usable and practical. The Airplane Mode, Wifi, Bluetooth, Data and Screen Rotation lock are on the top half of the screen, whereas the Flashlight, Clock, Calculator, and Camera icons are on the bottom. There is a very nice 4 x 1, 5 x 1 spot in the middle for a widget of your choice. They recommend using the Espier Music Controller there to make it really feel like iOS 7, but I personally don't like their controller so I just put a battery widget there by Du Saver Battery.

In addition to the Lock Screen and the Control Center, Espier also offers their own Notification Center. I personally think that this application needs a lot of improvement in the user interface. The screen seems to lag a lot it doesn't always change screen when they are swiped. The notification center is creative in the sense that you can select which apps appear in the center and which don't. You can also choose to just select the notification aspect of the application, the notification bar on the top of your screen, or both. I think that if Espier chooses to fix the little things about this application, it'd be fantastic and fluid. It has a tad bit of latency, but I'm sure Espier will fix it in future updates.

Espier has a lot to offer to the Android market. They are perfect for people like me who like the flexibility and uniqueness of Android, with the simplicity of an iPhone. Although some of their applications need improvements, the overall presentation of the application is fantastic. I would recommend Espier's apps to anyone that wants a simple to use launcher or plugins to make their Android phone into an iPhone replica with legitimate interactive icons and features.

Edit: Here are the links for the various applications I was mentioning throughout the article

Espier iOS 7 THEME (This is if you are using the old launcher and just want a quick upgrade) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.espier.launcher.theme.ios7

Espier iOS 7 LAUNCHER (Full makeover and features) - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.espier.launcher7

Espier iOS NOTIFICATIONS- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.espier.launcher.plugin.notifications7

Espier CONTROL CENTER= https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.espier.launcher.plugin.controller7

Espier SCREEN LOCKER- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.espier.launcher.plugin.screenlocker7

P.S. There are also "Full Paid Versions" for the screen locker, Control Center, Notifications, and the Launcher. They have the word "Pro" after their title on the Google Play Store. These Applications offer more features for the user and can make the experience more enjoyable. I only have the pro version for the Screen Locker and find that there is a slight amount of lag when it comes to unlocking the screen once you press the lock button on your phone. Using the normal screen locker I find no latency at all. It could just be my phone, but I thought I'd point it out for the sake of pointing it out. 

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Espier Launcher

*I used a Samsung Galaxy S3 for this review*

One of the nicest things about iOS for most people is its UI. It is very clean and easy to navigate. Everything has a spot and a child could navigate it due to its simplicity. Upon coming to the Android OS(Ice Cream Sandwich or whatever version you use) I found myself missing the familiar iOS look. Although the Android OS is unique in its own way, I felt slightly more comfortable with iOS. I searched around on the Google Plat store because I was sure I was not the only one who felt the same say. Sure enough an hour later, I found Espier Launcher. After installing it, I never looked back. Plus, you don't need to have a rooted or modded phone for this application to run!

Upon install, it converts your phone into an iOS replica. The icons look the same and feel the same as well. You can set this as your default launcher so that your phone will always look like the iPhone. The launcher tries to stay true to iOS in certain respects, while in others it shows that it can be flexible. For one, you will see that all of your apps that you have downloaded are displayed. They are listed in ABC order and reach across numerous screens (I had eight screens of apps.) For those of you that don't want all of your applications on display, Espier launcher lets you 'hide' the application by long pressing the item and then clicking on, it which brings up a very helpful list of options. Minus hiding the application, you are also given to the ability to rename the application and change the icon of the application itself. This is great for renaming and changing applications to get the 'iPhone' look. The lock option is somewhat useful for those private applications you use, but I use it for my messaging when I'm with friends in case anyone is nosy.  I didn't expect so many options within the launcher for changing the design of the application icon, so I was pleasantly surprised to see I could change icons, hide them, rename them, and even import icons from my SD card for those icons that aren't provided in the theme.

If you swipe to the right of your home screen, you are provided with a new screen that lets you search your phone! Sound familiar? Yes, it is exactly like the iPhone's feature. If you swipe up, you are shown the task menu that is similar to the iPhone's when you long press the home button. I believe this part is purely for show because I've tested it and the applications do not really close. The folders look exactly like the iPhone's and act the same way as well. After holding 16 applications, you are provided with the scroll option for the next screen. Upon clicking the menu button on my phone, I am provided with a few options such as Themes, Wallpapers, Settings, and Preferences. The most intriguing of the four is preferences. This is the only screen that resembles the iPhone's setting's menu in terms of the UI, but it offers options like selecting how many rows and columns of apps you want as well as changing the font and other little things

Espier also offers other apps such as iPhone Notifications and Reminders. I believe I use their iPhone Notification system and I like it very much. It is reminiscent of the older OS notification layout I believe, (I'm not familiar with iOS and their corresponding numbers like 6.1.1 or 5.4.3). I overall like the launcher and what it does, but it is very sluggish at times. I'm pretty patient so I'm not terribly frustrated with it, but there is good one to five second delay at times, but I guess that's expected with a launcher when it wasn't ingrained in the original OS. 

Espier also has a naggy AppHub feature that can't be hidden, so I just isolate it in a corner. It's a silly add on, practically spamware, that alerts you with random application updates for games you have every downloaded. To remove it, you have to pay money or get coins or something along those baffling lines. I never bothered to do that because I don't want to spend money on something so silly, but some people do. It didn't break the deal for me, but I wouldn't mind removing it. All in all, despite it's shortcomings at some points, Espier Launcher is a pretty cool application, one that I recommend if you want the iPhone layout for your smartphone.

Here it is in the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.espier.launcher

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Mighty Text SMS

Around mid April this year I became frustrated with my Samsung Galaxy S III. I had a Samsung Reality, a simple slide phone with an external keyboard, prior to my smartphone. I was used to a physical keyboard and although I am typing part of this post with my Galaxy, I still missed typing on a physical keyboard. My friend also has an iPhone and told me about an app he found that lets him send texts through his laptop. I found the idea insanely cool so I tried to find an Android equivalent for my phone. This application was the result of that search and I couldn't be more pleased.

Upon downloading the application you are prompted to sync your phone number and email to the account. After that you are given a website link to go to for your desktop or laptop. Once there you are given a barcode that can be scanned by your smartphone and then viola, your phone is synced to the application. The application can be opened on your desktop computer or laptop via a Google Chrome Extension or a Firefox extension. The extension essentially redirects you to your personalized Mighty Text website, and its is chock full of great features. The classic view is similar to Facebook's message layout where you have each contacts name in the order you messaged them. When you click on a contact's name, you are shown the conversation and a chat box that also allows emoticons and MMS. Under classic view is power view, and this blew me away at first. It shows the six most recent conversations and it gives you the ability to message any of them within this view. This is super useful for mass texting and keeping with various conversations without having to alternate between contacts. 

Photos/Videos is a mildly recent feature that was introduced to Mighty Text and it syncs the 20 or 30 most recent videos and pictures you have taken via your smartphone. They load up and they give you the option to delete them, save them to your laptop, or share them on social networking websites. This is insanely useful to me since I seldom plug in my phone to my laptop unless I need to add APK files to it. Mighty Text also syncs up all of your Contact into it's custom URL and you can view the phone numbers and emails attached to that contact. This actually saved me once when Gmail didn't sync my contacts to my email and Mighty Text had my contacts since I usually have to click "re sync" for the contacts to disappear. The settings menu gives a few options for the user such as whether they want their photos and video to sync or if they want popup notifications when they receive a message. I leave both of those settings on because I usually keep my phone on vibrate so I don't necessarily hear the text tone all the time. 

Power View. The bottom left has the battery and shows how much power your phone has left. 

Mighty Text SMS overall is a great app and I love using it. It has made my life a thousand times easier and it lets me respond to my friends and family faster than ever. It is a super convenient application and I would recommend it to anyone. 

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GO SMS Pro

*I am using a Samsung Galaxy S III for this application review*

I downloaded this application months ago and I finally feel comfortable enough to write a review for this app since I am well acquainted with it. This app's main purpose is to replace the stock SMS app that Android offers you. I will admit that after a while, the stock application got really stale and tiring. I felt like I needed more and that I should be given more features than just messaging. This app goes above and beyond in that respect and it simply amazes me.

I'll start with the physical interface. The primary screen looks exactly like the stock Android Messaging application. They moved the attachment button to the bottom left as opposed to keeping it with the phone button on the top right and obviously changed the colors to make it more enticing for the user. The colors also help differentiate who sent what message since the stock application kind of blended it all together, using only a thin grey line as a divider. Otherwise, the main user interface is practically identical to the stock. What sets this application apart from the stock texting application is the features. 

When you swipe to the right, you are shown the what this app can really do. With this app, you can send scheduled text messages. You select the person or persons you will text along with the date and time the text should be sent as well as the content of the message. You are also given a notification when the text was sent, which I find useful since I tend to forget about scheduled messages at times. Another stellar feature is the ability to backup text messages. This is really useful if you’re switching phones, or want to delete the current messages, but still have a copy of them for whatever reason. They are backed up to the SD card within your phone and can be restored upon reinstallation of the application. You can also create a schedule for the backups, so you won’t have worry about important text messages or MMS’s not being up to date. SMS Blocker is another invaluable feature, giving you the power to block those pesky spam messages and old contacts you simply do not want to talk to. At the very top of the menu is the Theme button. This offers you, the important user, the option to change the physical display of the UI. Since I prefer the layout of an iPhone, with the freedom of a Android, I have the iPhone theme set up for my messages. The GO SMS community also offers Windows Phone styled messages as well as custom themes and colors.

GO SMS Pro also has chat heads and pop-ups, similar to Facebook Messanger and the iPhone lock screen respectively. The chat heads simply pop up in the top right hand corner of your screen with a little number that represents the messages sent by them. It’s useful if you like chat heads and prefer quick accessibility to texting them. I don’t find myself using it as much since I don’t really like the look of the chat heads themselves, but it can come in handy.

Swiping to the left brings up the contact list in a neat and clean manner. When you click on someone’s name, you bring up the chat conversation for them. It’s a clean design and very intuitive. I use it on occasion when I cannot remember someone’s number or if I don’t remember the name they have in my phone. Pressing the menu button brings up the third and final panel of settings. Some of the settings overlap such as Auto Reply and Theme, but there are other settings as well, some that are quite handy. The Search function is exactly what it sounds like, a searching tool. It lets you search by contact name or content. Typing in keywords for content brings up any text message that you has what you searched for. The screenshot function helps screenshot text message strings. It works by shaking the phone, but it seems a bit buggy. I lifted up my phone and that counted as a shake It could get quite annoying after a while, but you wouldn’t leave the setting on for that long. Once the photo is taken, it lets you use a white brush to white out any text you don’t want visible. This is a fantastic idea and works great! Then you are given the option to save the image or share on what I assume would be social networking websites. I would delve into the option that says settings, but I’d be here for hours. Essentially, you can change the font size, color, and style of practically anything in the app from time stamps to the contact’s name.

GO SMS Pro is a fantastic texting application alternative and I love using it. I have been using it for about four months now and enjoy using it everyday. They give me so much freedom in how I want everything to look, and they wrap everything up in a nice clean format. There is no hassle, hours will not be spent trying to find the settings menu (I hope!) and the features the application offers go above and beyond any of my initial expectations. I am thoroughly pleased with the application and recommend it to anyone.

GO SMS Pro: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jb.gosms

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Top 5 Android News Applications

Our world has quickly become a mobile world. Tweets can start a revolution, pictures can be uploaded instantaneously, and news can be broadcasted across the world in minutes. But how does one keep with all of the news that is occurring? In this article, I shall talk about five Android news apps that I use and I will talk about what I like about them, and dislike. (I use Samsung Galaxy S III so I will be using it as my reference.)

1.     Flipboard (Free)

Possibly the most popular of the five, Flipboard takes all of your news topics and puts it into one nice and clean format. You have to make an account with Flipboard, but once made, you can favorite and save stories for later. Like the name suggests, the user is able to "flip" through various topics by swiping their finger up. Once they select a topic, they can swipe through articles within that topic until they find one that they find interesting. The sources that are given for each topic are reputable sources such as ABC News, BBC and CNN for business, and Game Spot, Game Informer, and Polygon for gaming. . In addition, one can click on the topic at the top of the page in order to filter out sources they do not wish to read. The process of doing this is much cleaner and easier in comparison to the other apps in this article. One of the main things I like about Flipboard is the user interface. It is clutter free and there aren't twenty things thrown at you at once. The interface is actually quite simple and clean cut, something I feel other interfaces lack. It could be compared to the Windows 8 OS in terms of the panel system.

Another huge thing that Flipboard has is the ability to integrate you Twitter and Facebook accounts to it, causing them to become a panel of their own. It shows your news feed at a glance, but once you click on the panel, you have the option to post, view pictures and messages (from Facebook) and other features the social networks offer. The issue I find with this is that the application runs slow when utilizing the social network panels. It is very sluggish and not as clean as I would like it to be for the social networks. They only show three posts per 'screen', but to be honest, if a one wanted to view their Facebook feed, they should use Facebook.

I like the overall presentation of the UI and how clean it looks. I do not really use this application much, as you will later read, but I would give it a good 8/10. I dock two points for the social networks because I believe that if a company or business includes a feature into their application, it should work.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flipboard.app&hl=en

2. Google Currents (Free)

The beloved side bark makes navigation
a cinch

When it comes to anything technology related, Google will most likely have an app for it. Google Currents is essentially a virtual magazine, where news topics are listed and provided in a seamless manner. Thanks to the ease of Currents, you can sync your Gmail account to it so that you can save articles for later. What I like about news applications such as Google Currents is the left hand menu bar. These bars make it easy for me personally to navigate the page and select what I want to read. Under each topic are all the sources the user has selected, with the option to customize it as well to remove or add any sources. A cool feature that is just for Google Current so far is the "Breaking News" section for each selected topic. As the name suggests, this source is able to provide most recent articles within a topic. This is useful for the people who just want to read a quick article or two, without a specific source in mind such as Gizmodo or CNN.

The User Interface for Google Currents is one of my favorites out of the five. It is extremely clean and fluid. There is no useless clutter or distractions, just a simple swipe down interface. Placing one's finger on the edge of the screen and then swiping can help switch between publishers, a feature I like since I don't have to repetitively go back to the menu every ten seconds. You can also sync stories to your account for offline reading. This is super useful for a lot of people who go on trains and work where there might not always be a good wifi or data connection. 

I would honestly rate Google Currents a 9.5/10. It is an incredibly fast application that works fluidly and dare I say- perfectly. Currents is so organized that I was able to figure everything about the application within two minutes.

                                                      

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.currents&hl=en

3. Pulse News (Free)

This is the application that I mainly use, but I will openly admit that other apps I have listed are better for their own reasons. The app in context here is Pulse news. I came across Pulse news while looking for a news application that compiled all the news I wanted. It was the first news application I downloaded and I continue to use it solely on the fact that it has desktop integration as well. What I mean by that is I can go on Pulse news on my laptop, sign into my account, and read the articles that I have saved or bookmarked for later. Although it defeats the point of using a phone for news, it is super useful to me, a person who uses their phone about 30% of the time, and laptop 70% of the time. Saving articles is a breeze, and they can be viewed later offline is needed. Like Google Currents, it has the left menu bar, a feature that I am very fond of and like for its organization

Adding content is easy as well. All you have to do is click the customize button, select the web source (Apple, Wall Street Journal, Home and Garden etc.) and then select which category you would like to place it in. Although the process is easy, it is one of my biggest issues with this application. I wish it was similar to Google Currents in which you have a wide variety of sources under the topic, as opposed to being given every possible source and you having to place them in their respectful topic or category. On more than one occasion, I have accidently put a tech source in the politics section and had to go delete it.

Practically infinite scroll...
for the win!

Despite all of that, Pulse has other attractive features such as the source layout within a given topic. It shows the source and then has a side scroll display for the articles, as opposed to the larger design of applications such as Flipboard and Currents. You can swipe left and right between articles and you can go very far back in the sources' history, a feature I like. Usually with news applications, an article becomes old news fast and it is a nuisance to find it again. With Pulse, I can just swipe right to find an article from two days ago to show my friend, or to re-read. Pulse also offers the "read on the web' button at the bottom of most of their articles. This allows the reader to go to the website that originally posted the article, within Pulse, in order to get a better view, and to also read the comments. For me, comments are somewhat important because it is interesting to hear what other people have to say on a topic, especially if they have more experience in the field.

Although Pulse News has a few downsides, it is my favorite news application to use for its compactness and little features. Google Currents may have a neater, cleaner presentation of their news articles, but Pulse News has never let me down, and it always keeps me up to date on gaming and tech news. I would give Pulse a 7.5/10, it could get a higher rating it if it was slightly faster, (comparing to Currents, although Pulse probably doesn't have as large of a monetary backing as Currents would), and if it organized itself better in the categorization process.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alphonso.pulse&hl=en

4. NPR News (Free)

NPR's basic UI and top down menu

Probably the most basic out of the five is NPR News. It essentially only has one screen, no excess swiping, no clutter no colorful design or layout, just a list of stories based off the topic selected at the top. A really neat feature this app offers is the ability to search terms. On most news websites, you are able to search for an articles based off of keywords or a given set of time. You may have read an article about Congress that you would like to re read again. This feature within NPR news makes it possible.

Similar to Pulse News, NPR allows the user to load more stories, and thus, going back in time to read past news stories. Due to the lack of major features, NPR doesn't have a lot I can discuss about. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It is very well organized, and the features it does have are very well refined. 

I would give this application a 6.5 out of 10, purely because I feel it has the potential to offer the reader more features. It could offer you to "like" stories so that you can easily find stories you were interested in. They could also offer more topics so that they could get a wider audience. It is a very solid application, but there is room for improvement.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.npr.android.news&hl=en

5. BBC New (Free)

I figured I would wrap up this article by discussing a news application that follows an actual news broadcasting company. This was the first new application I used when I wanted to read the news. I tried using CNN, but I did not like the interface too much. BBC, like NPR news, is as simple as it gets. Like a few other of the new applications that were made by news broadcasting stations such as ABC or CNN, BBC News offers the alert feature which sends you alerts with breaking news. It is useful if you are trying to keep up with a national case or anything that happens around the world such as a tsunami or an earthquake.

BBC New's UI is similar to
Pulse News, but with a twist

The news is divided into categories that can be edited seamlessly through pressing the edit button on the top right corner of the application. The User Interface is similar to Pulse News in the sense that the articles are set in a side-scrolling fashion with little rectangles that are the articles. BBC also has one insanely cool feature that sets them apart from everyone else, you can send an article to them. Yes that is right, you can write your own article and send it to BBC news. Whether they post the article or publicize is up to them, but this is a way for you to interact with a large media corporation such as BBC news. BBC news also provides the user with the feature to select how frequently BBC refreshes its news. I personally have it set to an hour (the lowest denomination of time they allow) so that I can read news offline if needed since the articles are updated.

BBC takes what features they have uses it to their maximum potential, and for that, I would rate BBC a 7/10. The application overall is very clear and concise and even easier to navigate then Google Currents believe it or not.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bbc.mobile.news.ww&hl=en

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