Get out your iPads, iPod Touches, or iPhones and get ready to meet your new best friend…

Named, Simply, “Meditation”

Meditation is an app that can be found in the iTune’s App Marketplace. It only costs $.99, and frankly I think the company behind it is doing themselves a major disservice by not charging more. However, the benefits are all ours, so I can’t feel too bad for them.

The main function of this stellar app (which has an average rating of 4 out of five stars) is to provide users with a collection of pre-recorded audio tracks that are conducive to the act of meditation. Such tracks include:

• Thunderstorm: Meditate to the faint sound of thunder in the distance.
• Piano: A soft, somber, relaxing tune that plays flawlessly on a loop.
• Morning: Enjoy meditating to the sound of birds singing amidst a light breeze.
• Rain: Relax to the hypnotic sound of a gentle rain storm, perfect for meditation.
• Om Chant: The most common chant in meditation recorded and looped so you can concentrate solely on clearing your mind.
• Several more, with a track for every person’s tastes.

Each track includes the ability to set a Meditation Timer, which is useful for taking your mind off of counting the minutes of each session and allowing you to clear your thoughts and relax. Even better, the timers fade in and fade out to ensure that you are not prematurely pulled from your place of deep thought and comfort.

If you have a better time meditating to your own choice of music, have no worries. Meditation allows you to play your favorite songs from your iTunes library, as well as place a fading meditation timer to them.

Users also have the option of mixing their own ambient tracks by using any of the 84 sounds that come pre-loaded onto the app, each with its own volume control for making the perfect meditation music for your needs. And, on top of that, users even have access to seven unique Binaural Beats, resonating frequencies that are renowned for their ability to aid the brain in clearing its activity and lulling it to relaxation. These beats have been tuned for:

• Meditating
• Relaxing
• Sleeping
• Waking up

With the help of Binaural Beats users can allow themselves to be subconsciously guided through their sleep cycles, and to wake up feeling refreshed and recharged morning after morning.

If you practice meditation frequently, you have zero reason to pass on this app. For the price and the amount of value it gets you, you’re not likely to find a better app for the art of Zen.



About the Author:Jordan Siron is a freelance writer living in Florida, and a regular practitioner of meditation. He plans to use Online Printing to make his own Meditation Journal, and encourages others to do the same.

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There will always be men for whom Valentine’s Day means forgetting. There will always be women sighing and shaking their heads. There will always be sweaty palms, boxes of hastily procured chocolates and petrol station bouquets. Fear not, however – Apple have got you covered.

Whether you’re looking for something functional or just something that’s fun, Apple’s Appstore has an app for it. Never again will you have to let your partner down by forgetting Valentine’s Day!

iWrite Love Poems

Maybe flowers aren’t your thing, though. Perhaps you’d prefer to give your partner something more personal, and more traditional. What about a beautiful poem?

Not everyone can be William Shakespeare, sadly. That’s why Joel Epstein has created the iWrite: Love Poems app. Now you too can express heartfelt emotion to your beloved – even if you’re more Bo Peep than Baudelaire. There’s even an iWrite: Erotic Poems app available on Apple’s App Store – just something to think about, if poetry turns out to be your thing!

Tiffany & Co. Engagement Ring Finder

Perhaps you’re looking to take things to the next level this Valentine’s Day. This one’s not for the faint of heart, and it needs some careful consideration before you take the plunge and try out the app – but Tiffany & Co. have created the Engagement Ring Finder app. If you decide to pop the question this Valentine’s Day, then this funky little app can help you to pick out the perfect engagement ring for your partner. It lets you compare different styles, save your favourites and even view the rings on your partner’s finger. Use it wisely, though…

Valentine Camera+

Not everyone’s looking to get married this Valentine’s Day, of course, and so there are also a whole pile of apps out there simply designed to help couples have fun on this special day. The Valentine Camera+ software will integrate with your iOS device’s camera, allowing you to edit your pictures using one of four romantic frames and overlays. The app also lets you upload your edited pictures to Facebook and Twitter, so you can show the whole world how in love you are.

Love-Hunt

For couples wishing to while away a few hours out and about together, there’s the Love-Hunt scavenger hunt app. Love-Hunt lets users create their very own location-based scavenger hunt, so you can lead your lover around the city, from romantic message to romantic message that you left there earlier in the day. Why not end the trail at their favorite restaurant, and treat them to a romantic meal?

Do something special together this Valentine’s Day. Write her a love poem, take him on a scavenger hunt! And if the time seems right – maybe it’s time to pop that question!



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Networking
Hashable Mobile – With everything else going digital, why shouldn’t business cards? Hashable has developed a neat app that basically allows you to track everyone you meet. If you can gather an email address or Twitter handle, the app will do the rest. It logs the individual down, along with the place that you met them. It allows you to make contact notes, set reminders to follow up, and track phone calls and meetings. Everything can sync back to your calendar and/or email to help keep you organized. Hashable Mobile is free and available for iPhone and Android.

Presentations
Soonr – Soonr brings file collaboration to your mobile device. Not only can you create and edit PowerPoint presentations, but Soonr allows you to access and share over 40 different types of files, from spreadsheets to mp3’s. Because Soonr operates in the cloud, any changes made from your mobile device are automatically saved and synced back to your desktop. Another cool feature is the SMS notification. Whenever a file is updated or edited, anyone who has access to that file will receive a text. This way, you always know what is going on with your files, even if you are thousands of miles from the office. Soonr is $9.95/user/month and is available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Android tablets.

Travel
FlightTrack Pro – One of the biggest pain points in a traveling profession is, you guessed it, traveling! FlightTrack Pro was developed by Mobiata to ease some of that pain. This is probably one of my favorite apps. It allows you to sync your travel itinerary, and then sends you push notifications about any changes with itinerary – delayed flights, change of gates, etc. It also has a really neat map feature that allows you to track your flight on a visually stunning graphic map. FlightTrack Pro is $9.99 on the App Store and is available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

CRM
Sugar Mobile – Sugar is already a leader in the CRM arena, and now they have extended their capabilities to mobile devices so that you can access client-critical information from anywhere. You can run reports, set up meetings, manage cases and contact information all from your mobile device. And with their latest update to the app, the user interface has become even more intuitive and simple. The coolest new addition to the app is the Twitter Connector. This feature essentially allows you to manage your Twitter account and Twitter streams without having to leave the app. Price is free and it’s available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

These are just a sampling of the apps. For more information on each one and to see more choices for each category, check out the original article here: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/crm/apps-for-the-mobile-sales-force-1072811/.



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Dragon Go

This free program, which is from voice-recognition company Nuance, is available for phones running on Google’s Android operating system. Though it will not talk back to users like Siri, it is very accurate at understanding users’ commands. It instinctively knows which websites to search for certain information, and it works quickly. Unfortunately, it is not able to dial phone numbers or send texts at this time.

Vlingo

This free app is one of the most popular voice-recognition personal assistants. It is the original program of its type for the Android operating system, and users love its features and accuracy. Vlingo can search the web, send texts, get directions and much more just by telling it what you want. Moreover, additional capabilities will likely get added as developers continue to work with the app and its features.

Speaktoit Assistant

This virtual assistant app is also free from the Android Market. Though the app is still in the beta stages, it offers amazing functionality and versatility. It responds to your commands via voice or typing, plus it is compatible with voices from iSpeech. Additionally, you can change the look of the Speaktoit Assistant at any time.

Voice Action Plus

This app is not free like the others already mentioned, but it is a great value at $2.99. It works with all versions of Android and it is designed to work with all features of Android-powered phones. You can ask it to perform functions of the phone, or you can ask it for answers to questions or factual data. If you are looking for the closest thing to Siri for your Android phone, Voice Action Plus might be your best option.

Vokul

Unlike the other apps mentioned here, the Vokul app is designed for Apple’s iOS. It is a great option for users with iPhones released prior to version 4S, and it is able to perform many of the same functions as Siri. Vokul is also compatible with the iPad, and iPod touch. Features include the ability to DJ music, call contacts and create podcasts without the need to press any buttons. Vokul is not free, but it is affordably priced at just $2.99

When Apple released the iPhone 4S, the world fell in love with Siri. Since Siri is only available on the latest iPhone, the world needed to catch up with the innovative technology. It did not take long for some of the best app makers to create the amazing apps mentioned here. While none of them are exactly the same as Siri, they work similarly. Plus, they are all available for free or for affordable prices. Even if you do not have an iPhone, you can remain on the cutting edge of technology with one of these terrific phone apps.



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MyHomework - Chances are your homework assignments are hard to keep track of. With this mobile app that is available for both iPhone and Android, you can easily access and organize all of your homework assignments. This app also sends you due date reminders and allows you to access your account from a regular computer.

Evernote – With this revolutionary mobile app that is available on most platforms, students can upload and store notes, files, photos, voice memos, and more so they can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Evernote also lets you save entire webpages for later use. This is definitely one app that every student can benefit from.

RateMyProfessors – This iPhone app makes it easy for you to research professors prior to signing up for classes. It offers stats and reviews on almost every professor in the country, which allows you to choose the good ones and avoid the bad ones. You can also leave your own reviews for others to read and make a list of your favorite professors with this app.

FlashcardsDeluxe – Could you use some help with studying? This app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch allows you to customize and create decks of mobile flashcards, making it easy to study exactly what you need to, when you need to. You can also search their huge database and use decks that have been created by other students.

QuickCite – The days of traditional bibliography-making are over. With this app that is available on both iPhone and Android platforms, you can easily obtain the citation details of books you have researched. All you have to do is scan the barcode of the book, and you will receive the citation in an email. How simple is that?

Instapaper – With this app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, you can search for and browse web pages and articles when you have an active internet connection and save them for later use. You can then read them whenever you wish, regardless if you are connected to the internet or not. This app has many cool features, including a dictionary and custom fonts.

AlarmClockPro – Sick of waking up to the annoying beep of your alarm clock every morning? Well, with this app for iPhone, those days are over. You can now wake up to the sound of your favorite iTunes playlist playing. This app also has many other features that can make your life easier and more enjoyable, such as a timer and stopwatch.

Dictionary – This app for Android is exactly what it sounds like. It is a mobile version of the popular Dictionary.com, and gives you the ability to look up words and meanings on-the-go. It also has features such as a voice pronunciation tool and voice-to-text search capability.

SpeechTrans – Need some help translating between languages? This mobile app for iPhone and Android can help. It is a speech-to-speech translator, meaning you speak a word and it instantly speaks the same word in another language. This app is great for students who travel abroad and for those in foreign language courses.

GraphingCalculator – With this app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, you have an actual graphing calculator right in front of you. Since it has all the useful features of a graphing calculator, this app saves you from spending a great deal of money on the real thing.

These are some very helpful mobile apps for students. Once you give them a try and see how much easier school can be, you will wonder why you did not do it sooner.



About the Author: This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer.  Karen writes about internet providers for InternetServiceProviders.org.

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The app is easy to install and occupies 4.8Mb of storage for Android phones and 5.6 Mb for iOS devices.  To use the app, a Thumb account is required.  You will have the choice to supply the necessary data (First name, Last name, valid email, password, birth date and gender) or simply use your Facebook account to create one.  Furthermore, the Thumb app requires users to be at least over 13 years old.

The Thumb’s home screen is very straightforward and lets you ask or give your opinion right away. Five easy-to-see icons help users in asking questions, voting, browsing results, viewing their profile, and going back to the homepage.

A very good feature of the app is its being able to let you choose who should see and answer your question.  By default, queries are sent to the public regardless of their gender.  This can be changed to make the app send questions to either Males only or Females only, or if you do not want the public to see your questions, you can limit the app to make queries visible only to people known to you.  This is quite useful for more sensitive and personal inquiries. For this, the app readily lets you add people from your Facebook or Twitter account, your phone’s contact list or from Thumb’s user database.

A photo can be included for each question. This can be done by selecting one from your phone’s gallery, searching for an image online, or by taking a new one with your phone’s camera.  Categories for the question can also be selected from more than 20 choices.

Voting and sharing your opinion can be a fun experience.  You can tap either the thumbs up or thumbs down icon to indicate a Yes or No response, or the Neutral button if you are undecided or wish to refrain from giving your two cents on a specific issue.  Additionally, a filtering feature is in place to aid you in getting only questions about certain subjects you prefer.  Aside from tapping the icons, you can also input text to further explain the reason for your vote.

The Results screen displays statistics on questions you asked and people you helped with your votes. It shows the percentages of how many have voted positively and negatively on an issue, and how many actual votes have been cast.

To encourage people to give really good opinions, the app lets people give you a “star” rating for good advice you have given.  The more Good Advice Stars you have, the higher your reputation as a Top Advisor for a certain category on Thumb.  Be warned though: being a Top Advisor requires vigilance since Thumb only counts two months worth of stars.  This means that if you want to maintain your reputation as a Top Advisor, you have to make sure that you give good advice that other Thumb users will rate with a star.

Thumb is free and available for download at Apple’s App Store and the Android Market. Visit Thumb’s official website for more information.

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Let us see how to setup the Android development environment:

Install Eclipse: The first thing you need to do is to download and install eclipse. Eclipse is a highly useful text editor which provides a very effective integrated development environment. Eclipse is an open source technology therefore it is available for free. It has been regularly used by many developers and mobile application development companies for coding with C++, Java and PHP languages.

The Google Android SDK: Next, you should download and install the Google Android SDK or the Google Android Software Development Kit. This is a complete kit required for software development and provides all the necessary libraries required for android application development and testing of the apps.

Start Eclipse: Now you are required to start the Eclipse application that you downloaded and installed in the beginning. Locate the file from the location where you installed it and run the program. You are required to create a workspace over Eclipse which can be easily done by just following the graphical instructions over the screen that will guide you automatically.

The Android Eclipse Add-on: Go to the “Help” menu, click over “software updates”. Then click the “Available Software” tab followed by “Add Site” tab. Fill in the Google Android URL (https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ or http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/) and click “ok”. You will be able to see the URL in the list. Now Check the box associated with “Developers Tools” and click on the install button located at the top right corner. The Android Eclipse add-on is now added.

Set the Location of the Android SDK: The Eclipse application needs to know the location of the Android SDK so that it can fetch the required libraries. Follow these steps:  Go to the “Windows” menu, click over the “preferences” and select “Android” on the left side. Just type in the location if you remember it; otherwise, click on Browse and search the directory. Once you have found it, select it and click on “Apply” followed by “ok”.

Start Developing: That’s it. Now you are all set to start developing Android applications. Create a new Android Project and start developing the applications that you want.

However, you can always hire a reputed offshore software development company with proven capabilities in mobile application development and get highly professional applications from them. If you require applications for a commercial or professional purpose then it is recommended that you take the help of an offshore software development company until you gain expertise in mobile application development.



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Quickoffice pro has a neat interface.  Its main screen displays four buttons that allow you to access three different types of Microsoft Office documents:  MS Word, MS Excel and MS Powerpoint.  Aside from these three, the mobile app also lets you view PDF files.  Three additional icons for browsing, searching and uploading files to various cloud services are also provided. Updating the app, contacting technical support and exploring other online resources for the app (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) can be fired up using the provided buttons at the bottom menu.

Tapping on either the Quickword, Quicksheet, or Quickpoint buttons lets users manage their MS Word, MS Excel and MS Powerpoint docs respectively. Trying to create any of these documents will activate a prompt to help the app know what version of the document should be used.  As of the moment, 97-2003, 2007 and 2010 versions of Microsoft Office files are supported.  Also, browsing your SD card or using the Recent Documents shortcuts allows for easy file retrieval. Note that the file manager also lets you view non-Office files as well.

Since this is a mobile app, trying to do what you normally do when using MS Office on the PC or laptop is not as easy.  Formatting text with a MS Word doc, merging/splitting cells with an MS Excel File or adding images in MS Powerpoint can easily be accomplished using the app’s button menus that provide these functionalities.  Because of this, there is a slight learning curve in using the app, but after mastering it, expect to breeze through the file creation/editing process.

A good feature of the app is the ability to retrieve a MS Office doc attachment from an email and being able to modify it and send the changed the copy in your reply.  We tested this using the Gmail app for Android and it worked like a charm.  Docs can also be uploaded to  Dropbox, Box.Net, Google Docs, Evernote, Catch, SugarSync, Huddle, Egnyte, and MobileMe for easy collaboration.

Quickoffice pro still has a lot of room for improvement but with its current features, it surely is a great app to have. It is currently being offered at $14.99 (USD) – a small price to pay for a very useful mobile app.  For more information, visit Quickoffice Pro’s official website.

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The Weather Channel app is a simplified version of The Weather Channel website.  Its clear-cut user interface makes the mobile app easy on the eyes and equally easy to navigate.  The fonts are readable, swiping through different weather location reports is seamless, and maps are rendered quickly and smoothly.

The app allows viewing and monitoring weather in different locations. Simply typing in the City/State or Zip Code in the search bar and the user will be able to get weather reports for that site.  Typing in a general area, say “New York” and you can choose from a list to help you get more accurate forecasts.  On the Weather screen (accessed by tapping on the Weather icon), the temperature, weather, relative humidity, and other data is readily displayed.  If more than one location is being observed, swipe left or right to get the necessary info for the area.  This can be tailored to return results showing the current weather condition or a forecast on an hourly, 36-hour or 10 day basis.

Maps support the addition (or deletion) of points for Cities, Schools, Airports, Parks, etc. Displaying Radar, Clouds or Traffic layers is included along with the ability to switch Map Types from Satellite to Road Map and vice-versa.

Users can receive severe weather report alerts for their chosen locations, watch videos streamed from the Weather Channel website, or upload their own photos about their local weather using the iWitness weather feature (provided they have signed up for an account).

The Weather Channel app is a very good app to have installed on your iPhone, iPad or Android device.  It is uncomplicated, easy to manage and use, has good features and best of all, it is free!  Use it together with the TripAdvisor App and have a smooth business trip or a relaxing vacation. The Weather Channel app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or the Android Market.

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After creating an account with Foursquare, users are prompted to “check-in” to a nearby venue and earn their “badges.”  Badges, more or less, function much like trophies – a way to let other people know what you have accomplished in using the app.  The “Mayorship” designation, on the other hand, is the highest honor or award given to persons who frequent a certain place the most under a certain period (60 days).  The Mayor title, however, is not permanent as other individuals may visit the same venue more than the current Mayor.

Friends can be added via your phone contacts, Facebook and Twitter accounts, or by email invitation. Tapping on the Friends button will then let you view their activity and help keep you informed of where they have been and what they have been doing.

One of the best features of Foursquare is the ability to leave a Tip when you have checked-in at a location.  This lets other people on the social network know the best deals, the problem areas, etc. at that venue.   Users can even take a picture to share and publish on Facebook or Twitter.

Tapping on the Explore button lets people choose from a variety of places to go to. These are categorized under Specials, Food, Coffee, NightLife, Shops, A&E, and Outdoors.  Users will see Foursquare’s recommendations first but can easily switch to what places are Trending.  Changing the distance from your current location is possible; though it defaults to within 1 km,  it can be changed to 1.5, 3, 5 or 10 kms.    To make this easier, a map is also available to help you quickly view what’s nearby and to aid in navigating to the desired site.

So if you want to keep you and your friends updated of the best places to go to, then the Foursquare mobile app will suit you just fine. It is available for free and can be downloaded for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, Palm, and Windows Phone.

(Editor’s note:  You can check-in to places with Foursquare via NFC.  To know more about NFC, read our articles on NFC and NFC Hub)

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