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Friday 22 May 2015

An Innovative Audio Player for Music Lovers

My today’s post is written exclusively for those of you who still follow the old practice of storing songs locally on their devices rather than listening to online music streaming. The app in focus today is Marvis Music Player. Its interface has been beautified by transparency and blurring effects in the background with album art. However, it is quite cluttered which could be a turn off for some of you. Music is stacked in various categories such as playlists, artists, songs, albums and genres. The user can switch between different views of music either by tapping on the category tabs of simply by swiping horizontally.

Once a song is played, a small music player is triggered which contains music controllers. If one taps on this player, full playback screen can be accessed. However, even the smaller music player displays basic information such as the name of the song being played and full album information. The app can be synced with a third party lyrics app as well since it fetches its lyrics data from that app. A built-in lyrics trove would have been a splendid addition in the app.

While listening to music on Marvis Music Player, long-pressing a song displays a pop up with detailed information of the song and the user can also select when to play it, up next or at the end of the queue. The app also provides search functionality which can accessed by tapping on the magnifying glass in the upper right corner. The app also allows the users to customize its certain features such as display of songs in varying number of rows, search filters and other such options.

All in all the app is a pretty cool one if you are into listening to stored music in your iPhone. I’ve been using the app for listening to music while using the best weather app for iPhone and been enjoying my travels. You should give it a try too!

Monday 18 May 2015

Horizon 3: Your Weather Based Event Scheduler

Time flies, they say and as I have sat down on my study table for my new blog post, I feel as if it’s been decades since our last contact. So, let’s just not waste too much time in the salutations and stuff and better get down to the business. Today, I’ll be introducing you guys to this new weather based event scheduler called Horizon 3 that packs your schedule and weather forecast into one single app. To start off with the app review, let’s discuss its design and interface. The app has a minimalistic design with decent colorful backgrounds.


The app, on being launched, has your schedules stacked in front of you in the shape of agenda lists with the start and end timings of a single event towards its left while the temperature and weather condition expected during that timeline presented towards right. The most immediate event is highlighted in the header bar while new events can be added using the “+” button in the bottom right of the screen. The app derives its data from the iOS’s inherent calendar app which can be accessed from the cog button in the bottom left corner. The user can also get access to the month’s view via the Month button stationed near the cog button.

The app has a built in smart search functionality with natural language input. In order to add a new event, tap on the “+” button and type in the relevant details using natural language input into the popped up menu. The app fetches the associated weather forecasts in addition to providing an option which makes the app inform the user about any change in the forecasted weather. All in all, it’s a pretty decent app which is able to achieve its targets. However, with regard to the accuracy of weather forecasts and travel planner feature, Horizon 3 is not able to dethrone weather app which is best for iPhone and iPad from my preferences. If you want to learn more about this multipurpose weather app, just go through my previous post on the blog.

Tuesday 12 May 2015

A Multi-Purpose Weather App

Dealing with the unpredictability in the weather conditions is not an easy task by any stretch of imagination. With all the hype around the buzzword “Global Warming”, there has been a lot of hue and cry about the adverse repercussions of the greenhouse gas emissions on climate in different regions of the world. The situation seems to be getting out of hands with every passing day as the weather conditions continue to become more and more unpredictable. One wishes to get hands on a source which provides access to reliable information about the changing weather.

As you know, I’m always on the lookout for innovations in the world of computing. Weather apps in the recent times have flattered to deceive with promises of delivering highly accurate weather forecasts. My disappointment in such apps continues to grow and grow. But there’s one free weather app for iPhone and iPad which is the best. It is called WeatherMate which has proved to be my trustworthy mate for quite some time. Never has its predictions and updates gone wrong. The weather data it presents is highly localized and reliable.

What renders its weather forecasts accurate is the Weather Stations feature in the app. You can get access to the weather observations generated in your neighborhood by virtue of this feature. In addition to presenting localized weather conditions, WeatherMate interprets and displays them using extremely simple and user-friendly mechanisms to portray the information required by the end-user. Simplicity of the app is one  of the greatest attributes that makes it a tremendous utility for even the most novice of users in addition to the advanced ones. So, whether you are a meteorologist, a scientist, an environmentalist or just a common-place rookie weather watcher, precise, consistent and accurate weather data is now at your disposal!

Thursday 7 May 2015

Enhance Your Calendar Experience with Streamline

After being away for almost a week, I’m back. I was just not feeling well and in fact spent almost my whole last week lying in my cosy bed due to the severe throat infection I had caught. But thankfully I’m up and running and hale and hearty. Hey tell you something, you guys must be wondering if I’ve brought a new app for your Apple gadgets. HELL YEAH!!! Streamline is a new app that promises to give a new shape and outlook to your schedules and is quite successful in what it promises. So, let’s just get on with it and not waste any more time. Because TIME IS PRECIOUS! You know :)
 
As the name would suggest, the app places the schedules in a timeline view which can be seen in terms of hours, days and weeks. This allows to have a look at more information at a single glimpse. The app does not provide much leeway in the realms of customization and sports a simple interface without involving a lot of complexities. On being launched for the first time, the app requires permission to access the iOS’s inherent calendar app to retrieve data. By tapping on to the button in the top left of the screen, the user can select the calendar to be displayed.

The timeline view breaks the hours, days and weeks down in varying intervals interspersed with schedules. Events can be added via the “New Event” button and the user can enter the credentials of the event in the respective fields. The app, however, lacks reminders for events and other such things. Overall, it is just a calendar which provides a different perspective to your schedules. I’ve been impressed by its minimalistic design and simplicity. If you want a lot more customization options, then Streamline is not for you. However, for those who want a simple calendar app to avoid the monotony of the inherent iOS calendar app, then it is the way to go!