Make use of your old Android phone

Got a new phone of Christmas? Great! Now, rather then throwing your old phone away, why not put it to use.. There’s a nifty tutorial over at Coolsmartphone written by Leigh Geary, Running a website from your phone 

The tutorial explains how to configure your Android device to act as a web server, and even goes on to show you how to install WordPress on it! 

I think this would be best left to those with fibre connections, but worth doing if you need to serve a something simple or have patience if running from DSL. 

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Cortana coming to iOS

Move over Siri, competition is on its way…. Apple fan boys the world over scoff at the Cortana commercials, standing by their trust Siri personal assistant… Perhaps not for much longer?

Roumer has it Cortana is making its way to iOS and Android devices! Albeit in somewhat a restricted incarnation.. For obvious reasons, the hands free “Hey Cortana” activation will not work on iOS devices. Also launching applications on either Android or iOS via voice commands will not be supported!

However, Cortana on all OS’s will use and in fact sync Cortana’s notebook. Meaning all your Cortana interactions should be seamless regardless of OS.

Cortana should have hit the respective app stores by the end of June this year.

It would be interesting to see what the take up is like on both OS’s – or, if the owners decide to stay true to the grandfather of assistance.

You can read more about this over at Microsoft’s Blog

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KineMaster: Edit and share video straight from your Android device

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KineMaster is the flagship video editing and sharing application from the boffins over at NexStreaming, who are primarily known for their NexPlayer and NexSound products.

In the Google play store KineMaster gets a well-rounded rating of 4.3 stars, below is my hands on review of the app. The review is based on video editing on my Google Nexus 7 which, although sports a small form factor – working with KineMaster is painless.

Hands On

KineMaster contains just about everything you could ever need for video editing. The app uses clever design, and simple drag and drop functionality to provide powerful video editing tools to both new android user and power user.

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Run Android Apps on OS X

BlueStacks

BlueStacksIn todays device rich world, many of us get frustrated being locked into using one device for a particular application, and although emulators have been on the market for sometime now, few are as powerful as BlueStacks.

BlueStacks AppPlayer is an Android application emulator which allows Android apps to be used on OS X and Windows machines. The supported catalogue is far too large to list, but it would seem if you can name it BlueStacks supports it.

The AppPlayer works by connecting to your GooglePlay store account, once connected there’s a small application to install on your Android device to enable 1-click app syncing then your done.

The application features a PlayStore search engine which returns results from the PlayStore and enables you to run applications as if you was using an Android device.

As with all emulators (and more importantly Android apps) some applications work better then others. In fact, some applications don’t work at all.. However, if you are looking to connect to the Whatsapp network using the BlueStacks app, this seems to work pretty well.

So if you are looking to run Android Apps on OS X you can download BlueStacks by clicking this direct link

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Google Nexus 7 Review

Google Nexus 7

Google Nexus 7

Those of who you know me, or are regular readers of my blog will know that I have been a devout Apple fan for many years. The premium price point has never put me off, as I’ve experienced the build quality first hand. So when I had the opportunity to review the Nexus 7, I was immediately sceptical of the build and the OS.

I know the OS war of Android vs. iOS will rage on for an eternity – and will essential split the crowds.. However, I am not about to start OS bashing in this post. I will be open and honest, my initial thoughts about the OS have actually been nulled….. That’s right.. I am actually seeing the benefits behind the open OS!

Now down to the business of the Google Nexus 7..

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