Use a Cartoon Photo editor app to become your favorite animated character without possessing mad drawing skills.

Some people outgrow cartoons, while some live cartoons. Thanks to tech and smartphones, various apps allow us to create cartoon versions of ourselves, sometimes just for fun, and sometimes for more significant implications — looking for a fun avatar to show your characteristics? Well, with these free cartoon yourself app, turn your photo to cartoon and share everywhere.

How to make an animated version of yourself using your phone?

The use of AR (Augmented Reality) in various new apps has enabled us to quickly transfer our picture into cartoon or animated characters by just taking a snap with the camera app. Making a cartooned version of ourselves no longer requires crazy drawing or digital skills. You don’t need to hire an artist, illustrator, or designer to modify a digital version of yourself.

How to make cartoon characters on Android?

There are plenty of apps that can help you make an accurate cartoon version of yourself. Most of these apps allow creating a cartoon version of yourself by picking a photo from the gallery. However, with the new AR tech, some app even works in real-time while taking a new photo. Your realistic picture will then turn into a sharp pixelated version of yourself.

How to make a cartoon character from a photo?

The conversion process looks straightforward. You snap a photo or pick a good-looking image from the gallery, and in a matter of seconds, the cartoon editor app will turn it into an avatar. Now, to get to the technical bits of the process, the apps are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) which access the coordinates of your face, the warmth of your colors and different physical properties, comparing them to the digital bits of the human face. After that, the app piece a new picture together, which is either a cartoon version or an animated character to use as an avatar.

The ability to customize your character looks extremely exciting. Some Emoji/ Animoji apps like Bitmoji has a lot of options that allow you to make your character as comparable as possible; it’s hard to be objective enough and create a 100%-accurate version of yourself.

What app turns pictures into cartoons?

Cartoon Yourself

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Cartoon Yourself allows you to convert your selfies into drawings in a matter of seconds. You can choose the app to draw your cartoon sketch, drawing, or even a black and white cartoon. The user-interface is simple to use and incredibly sleek. It is also intuitive in steps you need to take. There’s a large “Add a Photo” button, which you can choose to select your photos in jpg, png, or gif format.

You apply the effect of your choice and wait for the app to do the job. There is also a possibility to add stickers and decorate your animated characters. The app comes with various relatable stickers you can use in any occasion. The app also enables sharing to different social media, so you can save yourself the uploading and just share the photo.

Download Cartoon Yourself

Cartoon Sketch Effects

Price: Free with ads

Cartoon Sketch Effects works similarly to the aforementioned Android app, although it provides more creative, sophisticated, and elegant sketches made of your selfies. There are no multiple functionalities in this app, but that just makes it even easier to use. Snap a beautiful selfie or pick an image from the gallery, pick sketching effect you want to use, and then save the photo to your SD card or internal storage.

Finally, you can share photos online, to Facebook, Twitter, Drive, or others. The best thing about this app is its intuitive UI, and so that the entire process is done fast, with only one tap of a button.

Download Cartoon Sketch Images

Pictures Cartoon Drawing

Price: Free with ads

Cartoon Photo Editor is an easy-to-use app that helps users generate a piece of art cartooned versions of themselves using their photo gallery or camera. Users can pick a photo from the gallery or take a photo directly with the camera. There are different effects and filters like cartoon photo filter effects, modern art filters, art effects, and more.

There is an additional set of stickers you can use to decorate your photo and finally download the result to your phone or share it on different social media, although this requires to be in the online mode of the app.

Download Pictures Cartoon Drawing

Cartoon, Pencil Sketch Art Effect Photo

Price: Free

Art Camera is an excellent resource for creating vibrant and vivid cartoons from your UHD or Full HD camera. You can generate over 100 filters to decorate your photos and create a perfect version of your animated self. The photo editor that comes equipped with the app also allows you to change some effects and filters, as well as add stickers to compel to your photos. You can either take a picture in real-time or choose the right photo from your gallery. Finally, you can download or share your pictures on social media.

Download Art Camera

Cartoon Photo Editor

Price: Free with ads

Cartoon Photo Editor has extremely intuitive UI and simple commands for using cameras and image galleries to create modern and creative animations from them. You can choose dozens of different editing tools like sketches, cartoons, comics, oil paintings, pencil drawings, and much more. There are also real-time effects and support for both your selfie and rear camera. You can easily download the photo and share it with friends through different social media.

Download Cartoon Photo Editor

Cartoon Photo Editor

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Cartoon Pictures is a cartoon photo editor that looks into your pictures, whether taken from camera or chosen from the image gallery, and transforms them into a digital version of yourself. You can choose from different sketch styles, effects, filters hand more. It has an intuitive UI and vibrant view that makes its use much easier than in other apps.

Take a selfie or drag image gallery and then choose different cartoon filters to match your style and preference. There are also various sketching options like smooth, soft, and hard pencils, as well as a cartoon photo editor with funny stickers to add to your photos.

Download Cartoon Pictures

Free Photo Art Effects Editor

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

PicsKit is a great app if you’re looking for additional features and not just a photo-to-cartoon conversion. When you upload a photo, hundreds of different effects, and filters, cartoon effects will appear to choose. You can modify yourself using professional brushers, cutouts, erasers, blending modes, and other filters that are in your service.

Mix and combine filters to create unique filters and customize them to your liking. The app also allows to build a sticker gallery and add them to the images. After the process is complete, you can easily download the result or share it via social media.

Download PicsKit

Cartoon Photo Editor Effect

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

Have you ever seen those beautiful and mesmerizing artworks from DeviantArt and other creative repositories and just wished you were just as talented. This app allows to customize a photo and adjust it to an accurate animated character to your liking.

With the use of a built-in camera, gallery, great variety of brushes, effects, and filters, adjust the best cartoon version of yourself. Finally, use traditional filtering settings such as brightness, saturation, contrast, as well as photo-editing techniques like cropping and alignment. The app also features add text to picture option, customize size and fonts for a comic-style cartoon.

Download Cartoon Photo Editor Effect

Cartoon Maker

Price: Free with ads

Cartoon Maker is one of the easiest cartoon photo editors and will especially flatter to users who are into comics and want to design one with themselves as the main character. Simply import a photo, choose among over 30 different filters for cartoon montage, and wait for the app to do the magic. Afterward, you can share the photo on various social media.

Download Cartoon Maker

Pencil Sketch Art

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

The last from our list is Pencil Sketch Art, which intuitively uses your selfie and converts it into a sketched piece of art. You can also snap your selfie without worrying about importing from the gallery. The app focuses on pencil art, although it works great with a plethora of other filters such as oiled paintings, comic-style art, and more.

Filters and stickers will also add up to the photo’s detail and vibrancy. After you finish editing, you can download the photo or share it through different social media.

Download Pencil Sketch Art

Conclusion

Our compelling list concludes here. Whether you’re looking for a simple photo editor or a genuinely portable studio, the apps we listed can offer it all and much more. These apps sport a lot of filters and photo-effects to make the drawing version of your photo as realistic and detailed. Which of the cartoon-me apps do you use? Let us know in the comments!

Gauging speed is easy with the use of a GPS speedometer app on your smartphone.

Can I use my smartphone as a speedometer?

It’s possible to do virtually anything these days with the use of apps on your smartphone, even as a speedometer. There’s no need for a traditional speedometer when you can have one at your fingertips, using the built-in GPS technology of your device.

Speedometers are useful for gauging speed in vehicles (especially if someone else is driving or your speedo is broken!). Still, sports enthusiasts such as cyclists and runners can also make good use of them, especially when the portability of a smartphone makes a speedometer app even more convenient. While there are numerous options available, the quality of them varies wildly. Therefore, you might want to check out our picks of the best speedometer apps for Android.

Are GPS speed apps accurate?

GPS or Global Positioning System is a network of satellites orbiting the Earth. The system continuously broadcast radio signals that can be received by your smartphone’s built-in GPS chip. With a clear view of the sky, at least four GPS satellites are ‘visible’ at any time wherever you are. The signals from each of them contain information about their position in real-time. By intercepting these signals speedometer apps can accurately pin-point the position of your device. Calculating position by the time GPS app shows how fast you are moving.

Of course, accuracy is extremely important, so that’s one of the main factors we’ve taken into account, and these apps also include an assortment of useful and handy features to make use of. Remember, you’ll need to enable GPS navigation on your device for the use of these apps. The apps below are all free to download, and some of them also come as a paid pro version, either to remove ads or add further features.

1. ULYSSE SPEEDOMETER

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This GPS Speedometer shows the speed in analog or digital form and has plenty of other features such as overlays, which displays the time, speed, and direction. You can set up a variety of profiles for different circumstances such as in the car, on a bike, walking, skiing, hang-gliding, or even on a camel, and there’s a trip computer so you can keep track of your journeys over the day, week, or month.

Acceleration times can be measured as 0-100 km/h, 0-60 mph, and 1/4 mile with maximum speeds of 1900 km/h, 1160 mph, and 1000 knots. Settings can cope with km/h, mph, meters/feet, kilometers, and nautical miles. The app really is packed with features and functions. The Pro version has additional features such as latitude/longitude and a music controller.

Download Ulysse Speedometer

2. GPS SPEEDOMETER & ODOMETER

Price: Free with ads

This app has a high user rating of 4.8/5 stars on the Google Play Store, and it’s full of detail that some other apps lack. It claims to be 98% accurate and can be used in offline mode too, so you don’t have to worry if you have a dodgy Internet connection. It has a quick connection to GPS, and the information shown includes your current speed, maximum speed, average speed, trip time, and distance.

you can also set the desired maximum speed, and there’s a choice of red light, siren, or long vibration to let you know if you go over. It’s easy to change the units while you’re on the go, and it has a nice clean interface.

Download GPS Speedometer and Odometer

3. SPEEDVIEW: GPS SPEEDOMETER

Price: Free with ads

SpeedView claims to be even more accurate than your car speedometer, and while we can’t verify that, it’s a mighty claim! The HUD (head-up display) mode enables you to see the speed reflected in the front glass when you position your phone on the dashboard of your car, and further features include speed warnings for up to three types of roads, a speed graph, GPX track export with saving to an SD card, background mode, and more.

Download SpeedView

4. DIGIHUD SPEEDOMETER

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Unlike most speedometer apps, the free version has no bothersome ads at all, which is a real bonus! It can be used as a floating window over your other apps and has many of the usual features and a battery level indicator, satellite lock status icon, speed warnings, and customizable display colors. The full DigiHUD Pro version offers a whole lot more, including multiple speed alerts, the ability to create different profiles, day/night mode, speed offset, and Google Map view, to name just a few.

Download DigiHUD Speedometer

5. GPS SPEEDOMETER – VOICE NAVIGATION – MAPS – DIRECTIONS

Price: Free with ads

We thought it was worth adding this recent speedometer app as it has plenty of potentials. It uses Google Maps and a choice of normal viewing display or HUD mode and also features voice navigation for ease of use. Speeds can be displayed in km/h or mph, and the app can be used without an Internet connection. It will be interesting to see how this app develops, as our first impressions were good.

Download Voice navigation-Maps-Directions

6. SPEEDOMETER GPS

Price: Free with ads

As you would expect, many of these apps share some of the same features, and Speedometer GPS is no exception. Speeds are displayed as km/h, mph, or knots, and you can track your speed, location, and distance as well as factors such as time elapsed, maximum speed, altitude, and more.

Further additions are map integration, floating speed over Map apps, satellite status display, speed graph, and more.

Download Speedometer GPS

7. DIGITAL GPS SPEEDOMETER OFFLINE TRIP METER HUD

Price: Free with ads

Whether you’re driving, cycling, flying, or sailing, this GPS Speedometer app will accurately show your speed, current, average, or maximum speed. It’s really easy to switch between units of measurements, and the GPS navigation will show your position on a map in Standard, Hybrid, or Satellite view in real-time.

The app works in portrait or landscape mode, and there’s live tracking for your journeys as well as HUD view, especially useful after the sun goes down. Digital GPS Speedometer has a lot of appeals, is easy to use, and has a very attractive display.

Download Offline-Odometer HUD view

8. ACCURATE SPEEDOMETER – DIGITAL GPS SPEED METER

Price: Free with ads

The Accurate Speedometer app measures speed over five scales, mph, mps, km/h, knots, and ft/s. Whether you’re in a truck, running, skiing down a mountain, or even in a chair lift, this one will suit your needs. You can receive notification alarms for your set speed limits and see a digital or simple speed view. The app doesn’t require an Internet connection, works smoothly, and doesn’t consume too much battery.

Download Accurate Speedometer

9. HUD SPEEDOMETER DIGITAL: GPS, SPEED LIMIT WIDGET

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This app is a useful tool and provides a very nice smart speedometer widget that can easily be positioned anywhere you choose on your screen. The speed limit feature (audible or through the HUD visually) will help you to keep out of trouble when you’re driving, as is the case with many of these other apps. The HUD screen has a customization menu with simple settings, and overall the app has a user-friendly interface that makes it a pleasure to use.

Download GPS, Speed Limit Widget

10. SPEEDOMETER – GPS (CAR/BIKE/AIRPLANE & MORE)

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This Spring Applications app has many of the usual features, and what makes it stand out is the appealing simple and contemporary design that’s easy on the eye. It displays latitude (DMS), longitude (DMS), and altitude (meters and feet), as well as current speed, max speed, distance covered, and more. This app is a little heavy on the ads, but if you can stand that, it’s certainly worth checking out.

Download GPS (Car/Bike/Airplane)

Wrapping Up

If you’ve ever wondered how fast you’re moving, these apps provide a way of giving you that information. In our look at the best speedometer apps for Android, we’ve discovered various features and functions that are extremely useful. However, it’s worth pointing out that the pinpoint accuracy of speeds and trip distances may depend on the hardware of your device. At the same time, GPS can be impacted by factors such as satellite visibility and atmospheric conditions. That said, they’re on the whole pretty accurate and could help you to avoid a ticket.

These apps can be used in so many situations to measure your speed, whether using a Segway, on a motorbike, in a helicopter, or even in a rickshaw! If you come across another speedometer apps that you think is worth a mention, let us know with a comment. Alternatively, which of the above apps have you found is best for your needs?

Podcast apps offer a great way of listening to your favorite content at any time of day, wherever you choose!

Listening to the radio has always been a hugely popular activity, but it’s fair to say that listening in the traditional way is on the wane. This is mostly to do with the growing use of podcasts that make it easy and convenient to listen to exactly what you like, exactly when you want it, rather than having to tune in at a particular time. There are all sorts of podcasts providing a wide variety of content, and you can listen to virtually any topic on-demand from the thousands of podcasts available.

There are a variety of ways to access podcasts, but listening on a smartphone is one of the most popular. Therefore, if you have an Android device, you might want to take advantage of one or more of the many podcast apps on the Google Play Store. The wide choice makes it hard to know where to start, so we’ve done the legwork (or ear-work!) and tested numerous podcast apps to compile our list of the best podcast apps.

Our top picks offer different content, features, and playback controls, with options to listen to both online and offline, so you could soon be listening to content either live or on-demand. Most of our best podcast apps are free, although some have in-app purchases (IAPs) for additional features or services. It’s up to you to decide which might be the best for you depending on your requirements, so delve in, sit back, and get ready to use those ears!

What are the Best apps to listen Podcast free?

CASTBOX: FREE PODCAST PLAYER, RADIO & AUDIO BOOKS

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

These podcast apps are in no particular order, but we have to say that Castbox is one of our favorites. It has a very high user rating of 4.7/5 stars on the Play Store, and the extremely user-friendly interface makes it a pleasure to use. Over 50 million episodes of podcasts, audiobooks, and radio channels are on offer for free, and podcasts can be streamed or downloaded for offline listening.

You can also opt to subscribe to more than 1 million podcast channels from the likes of HowStuffWorks, NPR, the BBC, CBC, and many more. It’s easy to search for the content that you like, and if you’re finding it hard to think of something, why not check out the 16 categories of new or trending podcasts.

Features include ChromeCast support, cloud syncing, and Amazon Echo support, all great for general users. On the other side of the coin, Castbox is good for podcasters who can upload audios via desktop or mobile devices with no hosting fees and no restrictions on audio uploading. There are in-app purchases, but there’s plenty to use that’s free. In our time with this app, it worked excellently, and we can’t recommend it highly enough.

Download Castbox

PODCAST APP & PODCAST PLAYER – PODBEAN

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This Podbean app came highly recommended to us, and it didn’t take long to see why. It has many of the inclusions of other podcast apps and some great features such as customizable playlists, an intelligent speed that removes unnecessary silences, and a volume boost to enhance your listening experience.

You can benefit from instant streaming or download to listen to podcasts offline, and further features include a mini-podcast player widget, integration with Amazon’s Alexa, and Chromecast support. The app also offers notifications for new episodes from the podcasts you follow, while audio recording functions include user-friendly audio recording, the ability to mix voice and background music, and auto-posting to Twitter and Facebook.

Download Podbean

PODCAST ADDICT

Price: Free with ads

Podcast Addict is entirely free without any in-app purchases. The app works well as a central hub to manage content that includes podcasts, radio, YouTube, SoundCloud, Twitch, audiobooks, and more, with millions of podcasts and episodes available to browse. Searching is available with keywords or podcast name, and you can receive recommendations according to your subscriptions.

Various playback and audio effects are also available, and there’s support for multiple playlists as well as advanced features such as loop mode, shuffle mode, and sleep timer. As we mentioned from the off, everything with Podcast Addict is free. However, there are ads, but if they annoy you, there’s a paid option of the app with no ads for £2.99.

Download Podcast Addict

POCKET CASTS

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

Unlike most of the other apps on our list, Pocket Casts is not free to download. However, there are no other in-app purchases or ads, and it’s packed with features and controls that make it another excellent option. Smart tools include secure cloud storage for your subscriptions, filters, and playback, automatic checks for new episodes, auto-downloading for offline listening, and custom filters, and we particularly liked the choice of the dark-of-light themes for the display.

There are also plenty of playback features, including skip playback, Android Auto, and Android Wear control, and the app benefits from a very appealing interface that makes it a pleasure to use.

Download Pocket Casts

SPOTIFY MUSIC

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Spotify is a name that most people heard of, although it might not be one of the first that springs to mind regarding podcasts. However, the popular streaming music app has included a podcast library for the last couple of years. While there may not be as many podcasts here, it’s worth saying that Spotify does offer some that are not available elsewhere.

It’s a free app, but you can opt to upgrade to Spotify Premium if you want to skip the ads and benefit from additional features such as offline listening. It’s safe to say that the numbers of podcasts on the platform are bound to increase to include less mainstream ones steadily, so if you’re an existing Spotify user, you may soon need to look no further.

Download Spotify podcasts

DOGGCATCHER PODCAST PLAYER

Price: $2.99

DoggCatcher’s strengths lie in the easy management of podcasts and news feeds, the active community forums, and regular updates. It’s highly configurable with an array of features, including a home screen widget, offline podcast listening, podcast categorization, support for Android Auto and ChromeCast, and variable speed playback.

Additionally, you can receive personalized recommendations or browse DoggCatcher’s top 100 podcasts for suggestions (we found some excellent offerings this way).

Download DoggCatcher

ANCHOR – MAKE YOUR OWN PODCAST

Price: Free

Anchor has a different leaning than most of our best podcast apps for Android as it focuses on making podcasts. Even if you have no experience and the most basic equipment (the built-in mic of your device or a plugged-in external microphone), this app makes it easy to create podcasts and even distribute them through the likes of Apple and Google Podcasts.

You can make solo podcasts or collaborate with others, embed episodes on your website, take voice messages from those who listen in, import audio from other apps to use in your podcasts and add songs from Spotify. Moreover, there is an assortment of editing tools to use. It’s also satisfying to be able to see the numbers of people who are listening to your episodes and which parts are the most popular, and more analytics are available on the desktop version of Anchor.

Download Anchor

RADIOPUBLIC: FREE PODCAST APP FOR ANDROID

Price: Free with ads

RadioPublic is a Public Benefit Corporation that benefits both listeners and podcasters and is committed to providing a platform to share public media and open access to information. If you want to listen to podcasts, the app makes it easy to find the content you’re looking for, while podcast creators benefit from the ethos of fair valuation for their work.

There’s a wide variety of content, with over 300,000 podcasts (15 million episodes) from small independent podcasters through to major networks, and users can import and export shows via OPML import. We like the emphasis of promoting lesser-known podcasts, with the podcasters being paid according to listeners and retaining rights to their work.

Download RadioPublic

PODCAST REPUBLIC – PODCASTS, RADIOS & RSS FEEDS

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

A highlight with the Podcast Republic podcatcher is the high levels of customization on offer. Whether you want podcasts, music streaming, audiobooks, or public radio, you can find it here, with easy management of SoundCloud channels, YouTube channels, podcast subscriptions, and RSS feeds, all from one place.

The app offers an equalizer and built-in audio effects, customizable episode filters, multiple playlists support, and powerful download management. Additional features include a Car mode so you can control playback with gesture controls, customizable shaking options, so you don’t even have to open your device to control playback. The apps also come with live radio streaming support, SD card support, 16 color themes, and a whole lot more.

Download Podcast Republic

PODCAST GO

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Podcast Go has gathered an exceptionally high user rating of 4.7/5 stars on the Google Play Store. It’s a good podcast player that enables you to listen to podcasts offline whenever you choose. Over 300,000 shows are up for grabs across genres, including music, news, business, health, games, science and medicine, technology, comedy, and more.

The app also makes it easy to find new content and subscribe to podcasts. Although it doesn’t have the cleanest interface, there’s enough here to warrant its inclusion in our top picks.

Download Podcast Go

Whether you want to listen to music on your commute, tune in to news updates while on the move, or chill with some comedy in your free time, podcasts offer an enjoyable way to do this. All of these good podcast apps for Android worked smoothly in our time spent using them, and needless to say, we will now be using many of these regularly. Do send us a comment to tell us which of these is your favorite podcast app and why.

Ask anything to your own virtual assistant app!

JARVIS is a very familiar personal assistant developed by Tony Stark on Iron Man movies to manage almost everything in Tony’s life. In real life, you can also have your virtual assistant in the form of a mobile app.

Personal Assistant Apps can answer your queries, easily organize your calls, events, and schedule your meetings. They’re around for a long time, with Apple’s Siri being the first one to become available on the consumer market. Now, we have a plethora of reliable and consistent assistant apps like Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon Alexa, and more. Nearly all Android devices come with Google Assistant. But the following Jarvis apps would provide different features and more personalized experience.

Why are personal assistant apps so popular nowadays?

Personal assistant apps have existed for a while, but it was Marvel’s Ironman first to spark their popularity with its personalized AI assistant called Jarvis. Jarvis assisted Tony Stark during his ventures and also provided valuable data on his insights.

What is a personal assistant app?

It’s an app with a built-in artificial intelligence assistant which helps you get through your daily tasks much easier than you’d do without it.

How does a personal assistant app work?

As mentioned above, these apps use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to learn from your experience and curate it in a way to be of more assistance to yourself. While AI of general purpose is impossible to make, today’s assistants help provide help and organization to users, gathered up in one place.

Benefits of using personal assistant apps

Nowadays, everyone lives at a fast pace, and personal assistant is a perfect way to help us not lose ourselves, our plans, deadlines, and calendars at that pace. With the development of AI and machine learning, as well as better resources, personal assistants are guaranteed to become more interactive with users. Here are some benefits.

• Day-to-day management – Personal assistants are perfect in helping you achieve tasks you normally can’t achieve on your own. You can use them to manipulate maps and nearby surroundings like restaurants, cafes, petrol stations and more.
• More knowledge: – Assistants are becoming smarter. With the development of augmented reality, you can even snap the picture, and your assistant will find its source, give you more information about a certain object or more. They give more insight into things you’re interested in.
• They keep you updated about your peers – Many personal assistant apps learn from your interactions with contacts and help you arrange new meetings and events.
• They make sure you keep up with your hobbies – Your favorite band published a new song? Did you miss running today? Your personal assistant app will make sure you’re up-to-date with all your hobbies and much more.
• Google has gone so far with personal assistants, that it enhanced Google Assistant’s algorithm to improve Facial Unlock, and use Soli Radar for Motion-powered sense to unlock and manipulate settings on its new Google Pixel 4 smartphones.

Now that we’ve seen all the benefits of using Personal Assistant apps, here are the best Jarvis apps for Android that will be your companion as Jarvis does for iron men.

1. Microsoft Cortana – Digital assistant

Price: Free

Cortana is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant, and it delivers a great variety of features that will help you keep up with your surroundings. Because it’s integrated with Windows 10, it allows seamless cross-platform experience, meaning you can combine your Android device with your Windows-powered computer.

Cortana will entertain you with her jokes, take notes, and make to-do lists with you, fill events into your calendar and even send SMS and email. Although there’s still some space for improvement, Cortana should meet all of your requirements.

Download Microsoft Cortana

2. Lyra Virtual Assistant

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Picking Lyra means opting for your new AI-powered best friend. Lyra’s algorithm is pretty laid-back so that you can expect personal and reliable conversation. In the era where personal assistants are prevailing, Lyra stands out with her original jokes and translation properties. If your hands are busy, Lyra will entertain you by playing YouTube videos, give you directions on Google Maps while you drive, and set alarms in case you forgot.

Additional features include taking notes, making reminders, checking the weather forecast, and searching the web. Even though its name may not be known as of other assistants, Lyra is still more reliable than the most.

Download Lyra Virtual Assistant

3. Virtual Assistant DataBot: Artificial Intelligence

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

DataBot is an enhanced virtual assistant that can access your phone and help you get through the day using voice, text, and images. It will help you work and study while surfing the internet with ease, and accessing sites like Wikipedia, RSS feed, and other web material. You can use it to set alarms, set notes, fill in the calendar, create a to-do list, and even for entertainment.

Aside from playing YouTube videos and music, DataBot will quickly tell you jokes, challenge you, riddle you, and provide memorable quotes to get past the day. It will even check the horoscope for you.

Download DataBot

4. HOUND Voice Search & Personal Assistant

Price: Free

Hound has already been available for a couple of years and has helped many people by setting reminders, taking notes, doing calculations over a calculator, and integrated with other apps on the phone. It has been enhanced over the years and allowed users to make appointments at the dentist or hairdresser, book a room in a hotel, interacted with owners through YouTube videos, and more.

While there is still room for improvement, Hound can provide sufficient service for older and weaker phones, as it doesn’t consume too much space.

Download Hound

5. Robin – AI Voice Assistant

Price: Free

Robin is one of the best personal assistant apps in the Android market. There are a plethora of options it can do like take notes, check the traffic, book and make arrangements, play your favorite music and YouTube videos, suggest you interesting news from sports, politics, tech, and more. The company behind it is constantly improving Robin to provide more personalized and less buggy experience.

After all, assistants learn from feedback from their users, and Robin has been around for enough time to provide the best performance for all Android users. One of the best features of Robin is its hands-free capability, meaning you can communicate with it even when you shower or drive.

Download Robin

6. 24me: To-Do, Task List & Notes

Price: Free

This assistant is all about its users and making sure they catch up with all of their tasks. The 24Me will set your reminders, schedule your calendar, organize your daily tasks, help you with fitness, and improve your overall productivity. It can even forward your tasks and to-do list to someone else so that you can share a dentist appointment or a grocery store list with your friends or family.

It will even help you work, study or progress in a project. It has a straightforward UI, and everything is just a few buttons away.

Download 24me

7. Extreme Go- Personal Voice Assistant

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

If you’re looking for a robust and fast-performing personal voice assistant, Extreme Go is one of the best assistants available on the Play Store. It recognizes your voice as a command and will easily do from most basic to the most advanced tasks. You can use it to play music or YouTube videos, forward SMS and emails, check the weather, make appointments and respond to events, as well as interact with other apps. All it needs is a voice command, and it’ll perform all tasks in no time.

Download Extreme Go

8. Vani – Your Personal Voice Assistant Call Answer

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

People who are often on the go can benefit the most from using Vani because it allows seamless hands-free experience only by using a microphone. Simple voice commands like “Hello” and “No” can help you answer or decline calls. You can send auto-reply messages, customize the words you want to use, and much more.

The best part of Vani is that you can use it while in shower, car, or the middle of some tasking job like cooking. The drawback is that it’s not as advanced as Lyra and is more focused on making calls or messages.

Download Vani

9. Friday: Smart Personal Assistant

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Although Jarvis himself is gone for good, Tony Stark still used Friday, and it’s a new and improved personal assistant app. Using its AI algorithms, Friday allows you to communicate with friends, schedule plans, take notes, set reminders, alarm, and much more. Additionally, Friday will replace the regular day-to-day activity like checking news and even posting to social media. This is a perfect voice assistant for Marvel lovers and all other geeks. You can even use it to take selfies!

Download Friday

10. gigaaa – AI Personal Assistant

Price: Free

Gigaaa will tell you jokes while helping you get through the most stressful of days. There are special interactions like “I’m bored” or “Cheer me up” in which Gigaaa will attempt to cheer you up by sharing news, jokes, and YouTube videos. It can change your settings, type your messages and emails, read the news, read the weather forecast, check to-do lists, get recipes, and much more.

Its robust and responsive UI is the best part of the app, so it’s incredibly intuitive to use. The app is still new, but it promises new features like hotel booking, food delivery, parking service, and more.

Download Gigaaa

Conclusion

Personal voice assistants from the list should provide you with everything that will make your day-to-day interactions easier and more fun. Personal voice assistants are here to speed up doing from simplest to the most complex tasks, so starting from making lists, reminders, and calendar schedules, they can also take selfies, book a hotel room, or appoint a doctor. While artificial intelligence is yet to progress and become more general-purposed, there’s no doubt that personal assistants will be a thing of the future.

Best Business Card Scanner Apps for speedy and convenient contact saving

Anyone working in the business sector spends way too much time searching for business cards that have been handed over at meetings, networking events, and conferences. After all, who has time to empty pockets, wallets, and purses and then neatly pile and sort through the cards, file them, or type in every detail? Not me, that’s for sure! And don’t tell me you’ve never tossed away a card because you can’t foresee that you’ll ever need that connection, only to find a few short weeks later that it would have been useful after all.

If you easily become swamped with business cards, the best answer is to digitize them, and mobile apps provide a handy way of doing this. Business card scanner apps offer a quick and convenient way to store the contact that you might need to search for at a later time. You can save the details of every contact you make by using the camera of your Android device to scan and digitize the cards so that all of that information is readily to hand. As well as being a much more convenient way of accessing your contacts, you’ll also save a lot of room in your desk and drawers.

The Google Play Store is awash with apps to convert Android into a digital cardholder but knowing which ones are worth looking at is hard without a lot of work. That’s where we come in as we’ve compiled our choices of the best business card scanner apps for Android. We’ve tested out many of these apps in a pursuit to narrow down the ones that have top features and functionality. Some app saves the info to the contacts or to the database of the app, while some also store an image of the card itself. Most of the following apps are free, although many include in-app purchases (IAPs) while some also have paid options.

1. SCANBIZCARDS

Price: Free/ Offers IAP, $1.99

ScanBizCards allows you to either submit cards for manual transcription or scan the cards on your phone. Like most of these apps, it employs OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to get the job done. The free Lite version comes with some limitations, including limited exports to CRM platforms such as Salesforce or SugarCRM, or you can choose to upgrade to the paid premium version.

The app recognizes 22 languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, and Turkish. You can scan double-sided cards, create notes for individual cards, make use of the easy search facility, and use custom folders. There’s also a 3D gallery view mode. A Quick Intro feature allows sending an email with your contact details and a picture to others.

Download ScanBizCards Lite – Scan Card

2. CAMCARD – BUSINESS CARD READER

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP, $0.99

CamCard is one of the very best business card scanner apps with over 100 million users, a testament to its effectiveness. The process is speedy, with cards saved to the phonebook of your device, and which syncs across your other devices. The app is also useful for sending your electronic e-card or notifications to your contacts when you update your profile.

CamCard currently recognizes 17 languages and is free to download. The free version of the app allows you to scan up to 200 cards or you can upgrade to the paid version of the app for more.

Download CamCard Free

3. BIZCONNECT – BUSINESS CARD READER

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

All of your business cards will be available at your fingertips using BizConnect. The app allows you to batch scan up to 10 cards at once, easily manage and search your contacts and features exporting to Excel. Other features include a schedule for entering events and appointments, and you can make the most of your business connections for networking by linking your social media profile. It’s an efficient and easy-to-use app offering accurate card transcription and one-tap communication with your contacts.

Download Business Card Reader

4. CARDHQ – BUSINESS CARD READER

Price: Free

This doesn’t quite have all of the bells and whistles of some other business card scanner app, for instance, it can’t scan both sides of a card. But, the fact that it’s completely free to use without any in-app purchases makes it an appealing choice. Not only that but there are no-ads, and the developers state that the app will always remain free. You can scan an unlimited amount of cards and scan multiple cards simultaneously.

The app also benefits from auto sending an introduction email for each card scanned, auto backup, and the ability to bookmark your favorite cards. It’s quick and simple to use and certainly worth checking out.

Download CardHQ

5. WORLDCARD MOBILE

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Millions of users avail themselves of WorldCard Mobile for scanning business cards to save themselves having to input contact information manually. The interface supports the following languages, English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, and the app recognizes 25 languages in total. You can sort the details by name, phone number, fax number, address, company, position, and more, and the cardholder function makes it easy to view and manage contacts.

The free version has a lot to offer, but for further features, you might want the paid version instead. Overall, WorldCard Mobile would be a good option for those who often do worldwide business and would benefit from having international language support.

Download WorldCard HD

6. ABBYY BUSINESS CARD READER

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

The free app offers a trial version only for up to 10 business cards but for an unlimited amount of cards you’ll need the paid Pro version. However, it’s easy to transfer card data with ABBYY instantly, and at least you can try it out before deciding whether to spend the money on upgrading to the full version. Contacts saved in the CardHolder storage of the app, which also supports syncing across other smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

Usefully, this app also saves the original image of the cards and highlights the uncertain characters to manually correct or confirm the output.

Download Business Card Reader Free

7. WOCKITO BUSINESS CARD SCANNER & BUSINESS NETWORK

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Although this is a free app, you’ll only be able to digitize your first 10 cards for free. After you’re satisfied that it’s worth paying for you can use in-app purchases for the advantages of the Wockito Plus/Premium package. Features include access to your business cards from a Desktop Panel, syncing cards with your Phonebook, exporting cards to Excel, and Cloud backup of both digitized business cards and the original business card images. You can also benefit from Smart Search using keywords, add notes and reminders to cards, and share an unlimited amount of them.

Download Wockito App

8. HAYSTACK DIGITAL BUSINESS CARD

Price: Free

A big bonus with this app is that it’s free to use and offers unlimited scans. It also has no annoying ads! The digital business cards you create are sharable via text, email, NFC, VCF, vCard, and social media. The app receives contacts update automatically when other users change their details via the same app, and also change your contact details on other’s devices if you update your information. Haystack does a good job and is a nice user-friendly app.

Download Haystack App

9. SANSAN – BUSINESS CARD MANAGEMENT

Price: Free

Sansan works well for corporations that want to build a complete multi-platform, cloud-based contact database. Cards can be easily scanned into the company database (up to 4 at a time) and organized with meeting reports, notes, and tags so that all staff can access them at all times. With the most recent update, Sansan added the ability to display the information from registered business cards when receiving a call.

The app makes the whole process seamless as you can also check out your colleagues’ contacts and follow developments, for example, if somebody changes their position.

Download Sansan App

10. BUSINESS CARD SCANNER – BUSINESS CARD ORGANIZER

Price: Free/ Offers IAP, $9.99

REDMONK Technologies offers business card scanning through human transcription, or you can opt to use OCR scanning instead. The app features secure cloud storage while additional features include contact sharing, data exporting, and contact integration, You’ll get a trial amount of scans and then you’ll need to buy card credits through in-app purchases for more. Alternatively, further features are available by upgrading to the highly-rated Pro paid version of the app. For instance, the Pro version features Salesforce & MS Office 365 direct syncing plus further benefits.

Download Business Card Scanner

Conclusion

This selection of best business card scanner apps for Android provides plenty of options for digitizing your contacts so that you can easily stay in touch. If you’re a business developer, salesperson, marketing expert, entrepreneur, or indeed anyone else who amasses business cards, you’ll soon find that scanning your cards makes a whole lot of sense.

Having the relevant information immediately at hand will enhance your networking and help you to improve your business relationships. These apps offer a variety of different features that will make your working life a whole lot easier, so do take a look and let us know which is your preferred business card scanner app.

Want to mirror or cast content from your mobile device to a larger screen? It’s easy with the following apps!

One of the joys of owning an Android device is being able to cast content from one device to another. This is especially useful if you want to view content from a smartphone or tablet on a bigger screen (usually a TV) via Miracast technology or Chromecast, for example. There are many apps available for on-demand video or movie streaming such as Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, and Hulu, to name just a few. Unfortunately, there are apps that don’t support casting, in which case screen mirroring is a further option.

Screen mirroring can be especially useful for activities such as displaying photos, videos, or other local content from your device to a larger screen. However, one drawback of screen mirroring rather than casting is that the entire screen of your mobile device is shown on the larger screen. Another snag is that you cant multitask, whereas with casting you can still use your mobile for other purposes. Moreover, screen mirroring is quite battery-intensive.

There’s a place for both screen-mirroring and casting though whatever demands your situation. We’ve rounded up 10 best screencast and screen mirroring apps to save you having to rummage through the Google Play Store. These are in no particular order, as preference will vary according to your requirements and the devices you own. Before we kick off we want to stress that these types of app come to the Google Play Store with alarming regularity and can very quickly disappear again. However, these are the best we came across at the time of our testing.

1. ALLCONNECT – PLAY & STREAM

Price: Free with ads

AllConnect is a popular easy-to-use app for streaming to a wide range of devices such as Chromecast, Smart TVs, Roku, Xbox, and others. You can stream movies, photos, music, and more, with multiple streaming support that allows you to stream different content to more than one device simultaneously.

There’s also support for casting YouTube videos (although not YouTube Live), as well as streaming from multiple sources such as the cloud, media servers, and online websites. As well as this, the app features advanced playback functions, but it should be noted that it doesn’t support screen mirroring.

Download AllConnect – Play & Stream

2. CAST TO TV – CHROMECAST, ROKU, CAST VIDEOS TO TV

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

You can cast local content from your device or online videos with Cast to TV. It supports various devices, including Chromecast, Smart TVs, Amazon Fire Stick, Roku, and more. The app has user-friendly controls, auto search (for available devices), play queue, and it can identify files on your device as well as an SD card. The most recent update added support for Apple TV, performance improvements, and features such as history and bookmarks.

Download Cast to TV App

3. GOOGLE HOME

Price: Free

This might not have seemed an obvious choice at first as this proprietary app can be used to manage Google Home devices such as lights and thermostats. However, it can also be used to control Chromecast and supports mirroring from your mobile device to a TV if you need it (requires Chromecast).

It’s an intuitive app, and if you have compatible lights, it can even be set up to dim the lights as you start viewing a movie. Please note that available features vary by region.

Download Google Home

4. ALLCAST (FREE OR £3.00)

Price: Free with ads/ $3.99

The free version of AllCast from ClockworkMod only allows you 5 minutes of viewing for videos and pictures. But, at least it allows you to try it out before you decide if the price worth it. Download the free version first and then if you like it, upgrade to the paid AllCast Premium version for the license key. This removes video length limitations as well as ads. The app supports casting to Chromecast, Apple TV, Xbox consoles (360 and One), FireTV, Smart TVs, WDTV, and more.

Download AllCast

5. SAMSUNG SMART VIEW

Price: Free

This app is specifically for sharing content from a mobile device to a Samsung Smart TV and The Frame TV. It can be used for movies, music, and games content, or browsing apps while benefiting from a touch experience to a larger screen. It uses a nicely designed interface and is compatible with many Samsung SmartTV models from 2011 and later (list on app description). Do note that some features vary according to the region and the Samsung release schedule.

Download Samsung Smart View

6. TEAMVIEWER FOR REMOTE CONTROL

Price: Free

The TeamViewer app is a little different to those we’ve mentioned so far. It focuses on the ability to securely remotely control other devices, including PCs (Windows, Linux, Mac OS). For example, you can access and control your work computer from home with your smartphone. Screen sharing in this instance is useful for spontaneous support, and diagnostic purposes, and further features include file transfers (both ways), Contacts management, and real-time sound and HD video transmission. This free version is for individuals, but for commercial use, there are various paid options.

DownloadTeamViewer App

7. LOCALCAST FOR CHROMECAST

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Cast your videos, photos, and music from your mobile device, DLNA devices, Dropbox, Google Drive, PC and others to not just Chromecast but also SmartTVs, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku, Nexus Player, and more. Chromecast supports zoom, rotate, and pan features, as well as subtitles, and there’s also beta support for wireless headphones although this might be patchy at present.

In-app purchases can be used to remove ads and unlock Pro features, including video previews from the “Now Playing” screen, and search.

Download LocalCast App

8. LIVESCREEN – SCREEN MIRROR

Price: Free with ads

This app may not be as popular as others, but it worked well in our testing, although we note some commenters mentioned glitches. If you want to get rid of the ads, use an in-app purchase to upgrade to the Pro version, but we’ll point out that presently the app doesn’t support audio transmission. LiveScreen enables sharing over WiFi with remote browser access, including Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari.

The app is useful for displaying the screen of your mobile device when giving a presentation. Alternatively, you can use the built-in web browser of your SmartTV to show your photos to family and friends on a larger screen.

Download LiveScreen – Screen Sharing

9. SCREEN STREAM MIRRORING

Price: Free with ads/ $5.99

More than 10 million downloads suggest this should be a very decent app. After trying it out, we can’t argue with that. Share the contents of your Android device screen (as well as audio) to Smart TVs, Chromecast, DLNA devices, or other compatible devices, from sources such as YouTube, Facebook, and more. The free version has time limits but does at least enable you to check it out. Then you can decide whether to purchase the Pro version to remove limitations.

Download Screen Stream Mirroring Free

10. TUBIO – CAST WEB VIDEOS TO TV, CHROMECAST, AIRPLAY

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Supported players for this app include certain Smart TVs, Apple TV, Xbox consoles, Chromecast, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV, among others. Simply find the online video or audio that you want to share, and you can share it with a simple tap, as well as locally stored photos and videos.

The app features play, pause, stop, and seek features, while the volume can be adjusted using your mobile device hardware buttons. In-app purchases can be used for the Premium version of Tubio to remove ads, get unlimited customer support, and additional HD playback.

Download Tubio App

Final Word

All of our best screen mirroring apps and screencasting apps are free to download. Some of these apps offer a paid version for enhanced features. Do note that it may be a case of testing out several of these apps before you find the one that best suits you, as some work better with some devices than others. Also, be aware that the quality of your Wi-Fi network can affect streaming performance.

Why not send us a comment to let us know which of these apps you favor. On the other hand, you might want to recommend a screen mirroring or casting app that you use that we did not include in our pick. In which case, tell us why it’s your preferred app of this kind.

Protect your smartphone investment with an anti-theft app that will help you to locate or retrieve it if stolen or lost.

There are some fantastic high-end Android smartphones available now with superior specs and features, but of course, this all adds to the price of the device. Buying a new smartphone can, therefore, be extremely costly now. So, it’s always worth helping to protect your investment from saving you the unnecessary expense, whether you simply misplace your handset or unfortunately have it stolen.

The majority of us now rely on our smartphones a lot because of the amount of personal and important information stored on it or the services we use. Even if you have your private data backed up somewhere else, the thought of your phone is out there in somebody else’s hands could be unnerving, especially considering the amount of identity theft that now goes on. Therefore, using an Android anti-theft app that will be able to help you locate or retrieve your smartphone is a real advantage. Some apps will also enable you to remotely control your smartphone, very useful if it gets into the wrong hands.

Of course, such security apps cannot always guarantee that you’ll be able to get your phone back, but they can give you the best chance of doing so. For optimum results, make sure, the location feature of your phone is turned on. Although the accuracy of tracking can sometimes vary, it’s better to have it than not.

There are masses of anti-theft apps available on the Google Play Store, and it can be challenging to know which to choose. In this respect, we’ve done the hard work for you to produce our list of some of the best anti-theft apps for Android devices. Some are also compatible with Android Wear smartwatches. While all are free to download, some require the use of in-app purchases or upgrades to obtain the full features.

1. CERBERUS ANTI-THEFT

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This is pretty much the doyen of Android anti-theft apps and possibly the most well known of them all. It’s hugely comprehensive and rich in useful features, so perhaps it’s not surprising that it’s only free for a one-week trial. After that, you can use in-app purchases to buy a license for advanced features. It would be difficult to find an anti-theft app for Android with as much to offer as Cerberus. Not only it acts as a phone tracker or helps you to find it, but it will also help you to identify any thief responsible. The app protects your smartphone via three main ways, with automatic alerts, remote control via the Cerberus website, and remote control via SMS from another handset.

The remote control feature is convenient in many ways. It enables you to lock a missing phone with a code, shows a message that then remains on display (and can also be spoken by the device), and sounds an alarm that will still be audible even if the handset was on silent mode. Check out the location history to track the journey to where it is now, wipe both the SD card and internal memory to secure your private information from others.

The app can also record audio, see recent sent and received calls, and gather information about WiFi networks or phone networks that it’s connected to. The remote control functionality also allows seeing who’s got your phone by capturing video and pictures of the person.

Meanwhile, automatic alert actions are available under particular conditions. If the SIM card is swapped out, the phone will send an SMS or email alert. And, in case of incorrect unlock code, the phone will snap an image of the thief and automatically email the picture to you.

Handily, any thief won’t be able to see that you have the Cerberus anti-theft app installed on your device as the app can be hidden from the app drawer. Millions of users can’t all be wrong, so we strongly urge you to check out the Cerberus Anti-Theft app.

Download Cerberus Phone Security

2. PREY ANTI THEFT

Price: Free

This is another top-rated anti-theft app, and it can manage all your devices on a variety of platforms from one Web Panel account. The app offers missing device reports as evidence for the police, including GPS coordinates, pictures of the thief, device and user information, and more. Prevent your phone from getting stolen by adding a control zone on the map, and you will receive an alert if your phone leaves that area.

The app offers almost identical features to the Cerberus app, including a security alarm, lock by remote control, a camouflage mode to keep the app hidden, and security message alert. It is completely free for tracking up to 3 devices. You’ll need to pay a monthly subscription for the premium version for more devices, or additional security features such as the ability to delete data and file retrieval.

Download Find My Phone

3. FIND MY DEVICE

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This is the improved version of Google’s own Android Device Manager app. It will assist you in locating lost Android wearable, smartphone, or tablet. It can play a sound that will alert you of its whereabouts in case you misplaced it nearby. The app also allows securing the device remotely. It may not be as comprehensive as many other anti-theft apps, but it’s pretty reliable, and it is entirely free.

Download Google Find My Device

4. COMODO ANTI THEFT

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Like the previous app, simply download, install, and use it for free. A single web interface allows you to manage multiple devices. Remote protection can send commands to a missing device, show its location on a map, lock it, display a customized on-screen message with your return details, activate an alarm, wipe data, and more.

Communications are SSL-encrypted, and you can monitor the activity of your missing device, and log in with a Guest Mode feature from any other smartphone or tablet.

Download Comodo An

5. ANTI THEFT ALARM

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This MMAppsMobile app is simple but might prevent your phone from mysteriously walking away, as an alarm will be activated if someone tries to disconnect the charger or move the handset. It’s a good option if you are often in a busy public place or work area. One plus point is that the alarm can not be turned off until you deactivate it by tracing an unlock pattern or personal PIN number.

The app is available in several languages, and you can choose a custom alarm or a preset one.

Download Anti Theft Alarm

6. FIND MY PHONE – ANDROID WEAR

Price: Free

As the title suggests, it’s compatible with Android Wear devices. If you’ve misplaced your smartphone, you can use the app on your Android Wear smartwatch to sound an alarm. If you often leave your home without remembering to pick up your phone, this would be a good choice, as your smartwatch will buzz to remind that you haven’t got it.

The is app free to download, but a PRO version is also available with an in-app purchase ($1.99) that offers alarm customizations.

Download Find My Phone (Android Wear)

7. WHERES MY DROID

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

The free version of this app includes phone locating using GPS, passcode protection, Stealth Mode, alarm sound to relocate nearby, and much more. Upgrade to the Pro version for further security features such as remote locking of the lost device, remote wiping of the SD card and your sensitive data, taking images, and activating the app using a landline. There’s also an Elite version that includes passive location updates, location history, call log, geofencing, and more.

Download Wheres My Droid

8. CROOKCATCHER – ANTI THEFT

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This app has a high user rating of 4.5/5 stars on the Google Play Store, and we found the location pinpointing was very accurate. It hasn’t got as many bells and whistles as some of the other apps, but if you want to focus on getting your stolen phone back, it’s a decent option.

CrookCatcher will automatically send an email alert if someone tries to unlock the device with the wrong password. This way, you will know your smartphone has fallen into the wrong hands. The app also takes a picture of whoever is trying to access your device. Then it will send the image to you with the location as well.

Download CrookCatcher – Anti Theft

9. LOCKWATCH – THIEF CATCHER

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

Lockwatch features taking an image of someone using an incorrect passcode on your phone and emailing it to you. The app is small in size, so it would drain the battery as little as possible. It will only run when someone puts an incorrect code.

An in-app purchase of around $5 will get you some extra features such as notification by email for altering the SIM card. The app also sends an email when powered up (handy to catch peekers) with three photos of the culprit rather than one. If you sometimes enter an incorrect passcode yourself, you can avoid being alerted by changing the number of unlocking attempts require for the app to work.

Download Lockwatch – Thief Catcher

10. ANTI-THEFT SECURITY

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

From MOSI Apps, this one is another popular anti-theft app. It can track your stolen phone or stop busybodies interfering with it if you leave it unattended at any time. It offers remote control via SMS as well as automatic alerts. You can remotely lock your phone, make it ring at optimum volume, take a video, show a message, get a report, remotely perform a factory reset if you don’t hold out any hope of getting it back, and tons more.

The app can send GPS location, low battery alert for the device, and an image of the person if the wrong password is used more than once. Please note that some of these features require an in-app purchase.

Download Anti Theft Security & Alarm

Final Word

No app can give you a cast-iron guarantee that your phone will never be stolen. But, it’s worth having at least one of the best anti-theft apps installed, in case the worst happens. This also applies if you all too often mislay your phone around the house, or want to make sure others at home or work don’t use it without your permission.

An anti-theft app will give you some reassurance that you’ve done your best to protect your device and your data. If you already use an anti-theft Android app let us know if it worked for you by sending in a comment. Alternatively, it would be interesting to hear user recommendations for apps that are not among our top choices.

Best android car apps for the great driving experience. Make your road trips safer and more enjoyable

The Android Auto app brings Google’s Android experience to your car. The platform has seen rapid developments since its introduction in 2015. A growing number of automobiles now have built-in Android Auto, but it’s also accessible by pairing your Android smartphone to a compatible display in your car. Alternatively, place the phone in a dock on your dashboard. You can then use certain apps with Android Auto support that can provide the features and utilities of your smartphone to your car with a more driver-friendly UI.

With Android Auto users can quickly answer or make calls, play music, or plot the journey, while still concentrating and paying attention to the road conditions, and surrounding traffic. For example, if you receive a message to your smartphone, the system can read it out loud. You can also use hands-free voice commands. There are still a limited amount of apps compatible with Android Auto, but the big names have already jumped on board. The numbers on the Google Play Store are slowly increasing though, and cover areas such as navigation, music, podcasts, messaging, and more.

We’ve compiled our choice of the 10 best apps that work with Android Auto. These will get you started on your Android Auto infotainment experience and will help make your road trips more pleasurable and less stressful. All of the apps below are free to download though some include in-app purchases (IAPs) or subscriptions for full content. Do note that you’ll need the mobile device that you’re using to be running Android 5.0 or later.

WAZE – GPS, MAPS, TRAFFIC ALERTS & LIVE NAVIGATION

Price: Free with ads *Editor’s Choice*

As we’re talking about Android Auto apps, it’s only right that we should begin with a motoring app. It’s A highly-rated app that has 110 million times downloads. The most recent update bringing changes to the design so you can more easily see an overview for your route on Android Auto. Waze is packed with real-time features offering just about everything for your motoring needs, including crowdsourced information.

The app will help you to avoid traffic and accidents by rerouting you, shows gas stations where you can fill up (with pricing), displays parking locations, and can even help you to avoid getting a ticket with speed trap alerts. Therefore, it can help you to save time on your journeys and will give your estimated time of arrival according to live traffic data. The UI isn’t the best we’ve seen but other than that this is a great choice.

Download Waze – GPS, Maps

AUDIOBOOKS FROM AUDIBLE

Price: Free/ Subscription

Who doesn’t love a good audiobook and this Audible app is an excellent pick for long journeys, especially when you’re all sung out from listening to music. There’s a vast library of books and original series to choose from covering all sorts of genres, and the app makes it easy to listen through your automobile’s speaker system.

You get your first audiobook free with the 30-day free trial, following which you’ll need to become a member. With this, you can build your library and access member-only savings, and now you’ll also get 2 Audible originals per month. Further features include being able to download for offline listening, customization of the playback speed, and timer setting. You do need to sign in with an Amazon account, but this app works well and has a nice user interface.

Download Audible App

SPOTIFY – MUSIC & PODCASTS

Price: Free with ads

If you love music or podcasts while you drive, you’ll love the Spotify music streaming service that’s compatible with Android Auto. You can listen to a mind-boggling array of music across all kinds of categories, and access different artists and albums or opt for your own playlists. There’s plenty for free. But, an upgrade to Spotify Premium ($10 monthly) will allow downloading music to listen to offline, improved sound quality, removal of ads, and more.

Download Spotify: Discover new music, podcasts, and songs

FACEBOOK MESSENGER – TEXT & VIDEO CHAT

Price: Free/ Offers IAP *Editor’s Choice*

Facebook Messenger hardly needs an introduction, but you may not have thought about using it in your car. This all-round messaging app allows you to share calls and video chat, and features group chat, voice messaging, location sharing, and much more. If you’re in your car, you have the option to have incoming messages read out loud, and if you can’t reply because you’re driving, you can set up a pre-typed message that can be sent in response.

Download Messenger – Text and Video Chat for Free

WHATSAPP MESSENGER

Price: Free *Editor’s Choice*

If WhatsApp Messenger is your communication app of choice, it’s good to know that this messaging app also works in conjunction with Android Auto. WhatsApp offers real-time messaging, free calls (via 2G, 3G, 4G, EDGE or Wi-Fi to other WhatsApp users), group chat, offline messages, voice memos, and location sharing. Also handy when you’re driving is the speech-to-text messaging feature.

Download WhatsApp Messenger

GOOGLE MAPS – NAVIGATE & EXPLORE

Price: Free with ads *Editor’s Choice*

If by any chance you haven’t already used Google Maps, this might be the right time to start! It offers real-time GPS navigation and traffic information and covers more than 220 territories and countries. The app also gives you estimated ETAs and automatic rerouting that takes into account road closures and accidents. On top of all that it will show you local restaurants, trending places, and must-try places, as well as Street View, offline maps, and indoor maps.

You can set your destination by tapping the input box or very conveniently use your voice instead. Also, the latest update that arrived this month brought the ability to search for the nearest EV charging stations, a real boon for those users.

Download Maps – Navigate & Explore

MEDIAMONKEY

Price: Free

MediaMonkey is a music and audio app that now has Android Auto support featuring a very nice interface. If you have a large music collection this app is extremely useful and will help you to manage your music, playlists, and videos with navigation by genre, artist, composer, album, and more.

The features of this app are plentiful and comprehensive without in-app purchases. However, they are available for upgrades such as Wi-Fi Sync add-on, advanced Media Management add-on, or the Pro version of Media Monkey for everything.

Download MediaMonkey

ABC NEWS – US & WORLD NEWS

Price: Free with ads

If you consider yourself a newshound and like to keep informed about the latest developments at all times, this app is a good pick. There’s streaming live coverage of breaking news, and lifestyle and entertainment news, finance, travel, investigative stories, technology, and much more. A nice feature is the customized News Box if you’re interested in particular topics such as politics, local news for where you are.

Further features include personalized alerts, and sections for ‘Trending News,’ ‘Top Stories,’ and ‘Daily Rewind,’ and of course, you can listen to the news in Android Auto with ABC News Radio. If you’re a sports fan, you can also customize your settings to give you the latest on your favorite sport such as NHL, NFL, NBA, tennis, or golf.

Download ABC News – US & World News

STITCHER – PODCASTS & RADIO – NEWS, COMEDY, & MORE

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

There’s something about a stretch of the long open road that makes listening to comedy as you drive very appealing. It’s not just comedy though, as Stitcher has more than 150,000 podcasts and radio shows to choose from covering sports, news, and a whole lot more. Just a few of the classic offerings are The Daily, Joe Rogan, and American Life for example, and there’s a back catalog that includes podcasts such as Comedy Bang! Bang! Or WTF with Marc Maron.

The app supports Android Auto, and you can sign in using Facebook, Google, or email. More features include custom podcast playlists, streaming podcasts on demand, and a personalized front page, and you can upgrade to Stitcher Premium for additional content.

Download Stitcher – Podcasts & Radio App

AUTOMATE – CAR DASHBOARD: DRIVING & NAVIGATION

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

AutoMate is a driving companion app that covers several areas? The app offers turn-by-turn navigation directions with voice commands, as well as speed limit alerts, local information, weather updates, and more. Moreover, it’s also a phone and messaging app with a hands-free reply, and can act as a media control, or enable you to view real-time engine data. Premium features such as hands-free gestures, traffic camera alerts, customized wallpapers, and more are available through in-app purchases.

Download AutoMate – Car Dashboard

It’s perhaps no surprise that Google came up with the idea for Android Auto, given the numerous hours that many of us spend driving these days. After all, it’s just another way of pushing the Android experience, and that’s no bad thing. Using Android Auto offers a whole new realm to driving, making it easier to keep your eyes on the road by giving much more convenient access to the road conditions, news, music, or information that you want.

No doubt, over time, there will be further growth incompatible apps for Android Auto, as the platform offers plenty of potentials. In the meantime, we hope our choice of top 10 android auto apps covers something for most needs. Are you already using Android Auto? If so, let us know which apps you find the most useful by sending your comments to us.

Tired of spammy calls & texts? Try These free SMS & Call Blocking App for Android

Receiving calls from an unknown number can really be disturbing. However, there are ways to stop unwanted calls, as well as spammy texts. In this article, we will help you get rid of annoying texts and unexpected calls.

Types of unwanted calls users come across.

Telemarketers and real companies have obtained the list of numbers that they use to sell their products and services.

Robocalls represent automated phone calls where the pre-recorded voice message will play once the other person answers. They also perform some marketing and offer products and services. Often, they also promote political campaigns.

Shady individuals that have somehow obtained your phone number and are trying to use you for some scam. They present themselves as FBI or CIA agents or bank employees warning you about the vulnerability on your bank account or sensitive data.

How to prevent unwanted calls and texts on Android phones?

Eyecon

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Eyecon is one of the best apps to prevent annoying calls, revealing the caller identity, name, and photo of the person trying to induce the call. Furthermore, the app offers you to automatically record the call you receive to make sure no one will take advantage of you.

One of the downsides is that it can only control calls. The app is supported through ads, but offer in-app purchases, or you can watch videos and invite contacts to upgrade the app.

Download Eyecon

Truecaller

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Truecaller offers the comfort of revealing who’s attempting to call you when the unknown number shows up. That way, the owner has an insight into who’s trying to call and recognize whether it’s a telemarketer, robot, or a shady individual.

The app also offers you to record call automatically. It works very smartly, as it can detect shadily or telemarketing SMS and block it automatically if its tone seems “sales-like.”

Download Truecaller: Caller ID, spam blocking & call record

Should I Answer?

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

Like its name suggests, Should I Answer will help you make the right choice by filtering calls and SMS that matter. We’re getting piled up in promoting SMS and calls to the point that our contacts and friends remain left out in the sea of marketing messages.

The app checks the upcoming call’s or SMS’ contents in the consistently-updated database and automatically rejects if it finds a spamming match. The app boasts a sleek user-interface and is easy to use.

Download Should I Answer?

Calls Blacklist – Call Blocker

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Calls Blacklist is also a good app for blocking unwanted calls and SMS. Whether you’re annoyed by telemarketers and robocalls or an anonymous, this app will help you recognize the person on the other half of the line and blacklist them.

It’s a lightweight and easy-to-use app with the built-in messenger that can automatically detect whether some message is safe or irregular.

Download Calls Blacklist – Call Blocker

Hiya

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

Hiya allows users to block and decline unwanted calls and SMS. Once the potential threat is detected, Hya blocks the number, identifies incoming calls and spam messages. Additionally, the app shares an extensive database with millions of phone numbers potentially attributed to spam calls. It comes with additional features like Enhanced Dialer, Caller ID, and automatic security alerts that detect whether an upcoming call is a spam.

Download Hiya – Caller ID & Block

Mr. Number

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

Mr. Number makes dialing numbers and upcoming calls safer. It can easily detect whether some call is spam and block it out as spam, scam, or fraud. It can block calls from an individual, area code, or a country, report spam calls in an extensive database to warn other users, and prevent telemarketers or shady identities from bothering you. It’s free, but you can unlock additional functionalities by subscribing.

Download Mr. Number – Caller ID & Spam Protection

Call Control

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Call Control is a free app that helps you prevent and block bothersome calls and SMSs from shady numbers and people. It prevents telemarketers from obtaining more info about you or waste your precious time. It also has an enhanced Dialer for easier contacting of your peers, as well as a scheduled, Do Not Disturb mode during which no one can disturb you.

Download SMS/Call Blocker. Block Spam Calls!

Blacklist Call

Price: Free with ads

Blacklist Call can easily and intuitively help you block unwanted calls and messages. It works as a telephone firewall app which helps you control who will call you and send SMS messages. You can block spam numbers, as well as identify them. There’s also a feature that allows you to detect which number as spam automatically.

Download Blacklistcall – Block numbers

Call Blocker

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

With Call Blocker, you can create a blacklist which contains all the numbers that have disturbed you with spammy SMSs or unwanted calls, whether they are from a marketing company or an individual who wants to disturb you. It’s easy to use and lightweight and can be set to detect unwanted numbers automatically.

Download Call Blocker – Blacklist, SMS Blocker

TelGuarder

Price: Free with ads

TelGuarder protects Android users from unwanted telephone sales, market research, fraud, and robocalls. They can automatically detect spam calls and prevent them, as well as block unwanted calls and spammy SMS.

Additionally, the app is equipped with Artificial Intelligence agent that identifies unwanted calls and checks them in the extensive database. Thanks to the database, the app can compare numbers with other users who were affected by the same numbers.

Download telGuarder – Call Block & Security

Conclusion

How did you protect yourself from unwanted calls and spammy SMS? Did any of these apps work for you? Let us know in the comments.

You deserve the peace of mind on your mobile device. Let one of these completely free apps make sure you get it right.

Let your photos talking! Create empowering and valuable visuals with these Text Overlay Apps

A picture is worth a thousand words. However, a picture with some valuable words over it is likely worth much more. Digital marketers and influencers, know the importance of good visuals and accompanying words. They often use different photo- and text-editing apps to add meaning to their pictures.

Well, who doesn’t do that? At this era of social networking, often we add text on pictures to share them on facebook, twitter or Instagram. Be it a caption, funny comment or a meme, we often add text on pictures. Rather than adding some casual text on a photo we should throw some style, add some effects and apply gorgeous looking fonts. To make it easier right use the apps below to add text on images, so that you can also make your content stand out.

How to add text to a picture

There are a few different ways to add text to photos. Using photo editing software on a computer or an online tool to annotate a picture is very simple. But for most people, the go-to way to capture an image with a smartphone and use a text to photo app to put some beautiful words on it. Since it’s effortless, the user can also save in image from online and import it to the app to quickly convert an image to eye-catching meme for social media sharing.

Canva: Logo, Flyer, Poster maker

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

Canva is one of the most popular photo-editing apps with over 10 million downloads and has a perfect built-in functionality to add text into visuals, especially for creating quote imagery often seen on Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest.

Aside from adding text, Canva is ideal for making posters, flyers, banners, and even logos for your business. If you’re looking for an app which can add more functionality than just text-editing, Canva is the right app for you or your business.

Download Canva: Graphic Design App

Unfold — Create Stories

Price: Free/ Offers IAP

If you want to edit visuals to suit Instagram or Facebook stories, Unfold is a perfect app for you. It’s available for free and offers a plethora of themes you can use to tell stories you’d like to share. It offers different fonts, image frames, colors, and other functionality.

The developers often introduce branded new features like Tommy Hilfiger for a limited time, allowing your visuals to look powerful and sound encouraging. You can save image-by-image while you can also save entire stories that look classy and minimalistic and then upload them to Instagram.

Download Unfold Stories

Phonto – Text on Photos

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

As its name suggests, Phonto allows you to combine beautiful imagery with over 200 built-in fonts that will flatter your design. Additionally, you can download even more fonts to fit the exact style you’re looking for.

The app is extremely intuitive for using and allows different text manipulations to make the photos more appealing. While the app itself is available for free, the app may at times appear over-crowded by ads, so upgrading it for some money will free you from advertisements and enable you to use all of its features.

Download Phonto App

Font Studio – Text on photos & Editor

Price: Free with ads

Font Studio is an easy-to-use Android application which encourages its users to combine great visuals with plenty of different fonts and features to make their photos look more lively, realistic and motivational. With the use of the right font and right effects, users can create high-end, breath-taking designs without being a designer by profession.

The app offers 120 built-in fonts, while also enabling users to add more than one layer to the text, as well as change their size, color, transparency and much more. The only downside of this app is that its free app is packed with way too many ads to handle, so it feels like the developers want to lure you to upgrade to the paid version.

Download Font Studio

PicLab – Photo Editor

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This app will allow you to be innovative and experiment with multiple designs and fonts to create that perfect image for the story or feed. The best part of this app is because it allows users to become playful with the app and try out new styles to make a perfect match. The app offers many different fonts to choose from, this app makes it easy to resize, rotate and color the text in use.

Aside from the fonts, the app offers a lot of artworks to make your photo stand out, and many effects and filters to make it truly stunning. Just like the title above, this app is packed with in-app purchases, although they are not necessary to create powerful visual messages.

Download PicLab

Write words & text art on photo

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

This app has a simple and straight-forward name, but it has a great variety of features which will help you create visuals that convert. The app is available for free and has more than a million installs. Whether you plan to use it for personal or business enjoyment, it’s more than a simple way to create powerful messages on photos.

It offers cool pixel fonts and an intuitive way to add words and captions to pictures. There are over 63 unique fonts and over 60 stickers which can accompany your letters to make them look more stylish. There’s additional functionality, such as color slider which conveniently lets you keep the font color you desire, as well as scale-up and down feature. Also, the rotate option which works on both texts and stickers. The app supports in-app purchases, which can easily rid of annoying ads.

Download Text on pictures

Overlay

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

The overlay is an ideal app for photographers who are looking to add additional value to their mesmerizing photos. Photographs look even more artistic and stylish with the right quote on, and this app allows you to add beautiful typography, layout, and much more. The app connects to the most popular social media networks, which makes sharing even more effortless. Given that the app was installed over 5 million times, it just shows its impeccable quality.

Custom Typography feature allows users to choose among 65+ different fonts to flatter the visuals; you can mix them and choose different colors to match your design. There are many overlays which can be combined with typography to make breath-taking posters. User can easily add quotes, birthday cards, love quotes, keep calm, and other types of famous quotes. Finally, there are many image filters, masks, erasers, and different features to boost up the quality of your design.

Download Overlay

Textgram X – Write on photos

Price: Free with ad

If you’re running an older phone, the good news is that Textgram runs on all lower-end devices and older version of Android. It will also appeal to those who are not as much tech-savvy and need an app which is sufficiently easy to use. All you have to do is take a picture you want to edit and easily insert the text you’d like.

Textgram offers a plethora of backgrounds to decorate your text, as well as stickers and filters that are applicable for different styles of art. The app, just like Canva, offers an automatic aspect ratio which matches different formats of photos like for Instagram, Instagram Story, Facebook Post, Pinterest, and even blogs.

Download Textgram X

However, the app doesn’t offer a great variety of functionality for advanced photo editing compared to other text adding apps. Nevertheless, it’s perfect for entry-level devices, and those not so knowledgeable with editing.

Text on Photos

Price: Free with ads

If you’re a fan of a cute “text-message” style text on photos, this app is absolute love. It will appeal to everyone looking for a professional-quality image procession while maintaining its ease of use. The app is well-known for a vivid and vibrant display of different colors for its letters and stickers.

The app comes with a lot of glue-on fonts which you can use to make your photos more lively. Additionally, it offers more than 5000 beautiful stickers of different sizes which can easily be adjusted accordingly, as well as plenty of picture frames and artworks to help you. Additionally, there is a sufficient photo storage functionality which allows you to safely store photos before sharing them to Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks. The photo storage can also be used to set the photos as your avatar.

Download Text on Photos

Caption It

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Captions add additional value to your photos, and Caption It may be a perfect choice for those who want to make empowering, moving and encouraging captions. You can capture a photo directly in the app, or import them from your gallery. Easily drag the text and position it anyhow you want.

Unfortunately, the functionality of this app falls behind than the above apps. But it’s still an excellent app for those who want to customize their photos, add funny or wise captions and choose different colors and rotation for their texts.

Download Caption It

Over: Edit & Add Text

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Over cost a few bucks, but the price tag worth every penny of it as you will not find these exclusive collections of fonts and text-style on any other app. With its innovative circular navigation and gesture-based composition “over” is easily one of the best user-friendly apps.

On this write on pictures app, simply type your desired text and chose font color then use the navigation wheel to adjust various editing aspects including alignment, opacity, size and kerning. All other basic editing tools, artworks, and effects are also available.

Download Over: Edit & Add Text

Photo Captions – Insta Square

Price: Free with ads/ Offers IAP

Photo Captions Android app makes it’s easy to add a caption to photos. The app automatically adjusts the font size of your caption to best fit on the photos. The app comes with a handful selection of pre-defined quotes, simply chose one of them to apply on your photo. Users can also add their own captions.

Mostly used captions and fonts can be marked as favorites so you can easily find them the next time you work with a new image. Another fun feature called PIP allows inserting a picture in picture.

Download Photo Captions

Conclusion

Canva is undoubtedly the best because it’s multi-functional and is used by the vast majority of online businesses to promote their products and services. However, some may find its complexity a bit over the plate. Other apps in this list offer less functionality but more ease of use and vice versa.

When it comes to choosing the right app for adding text over photos, it just comes down to personal preference and purpose. If you want to make different formats, make sure to use apps with supported aspect ratio. For telling stories with your pictures and content, you can use Unfold. Which app for adding text over photos do you use? Let us know in the comments!