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Monday, 7 April 2014

The best racing games for Android

Android racing games are among the most popular in all of Android. So popular, in fact, that they have their own genre section in the Google Play Store. That means there are a metric ton of racing games. Some of them are pretty good and others are not all that great. So which ones are the best? Keep reading to find out!

Asphalt 8: Airborne

[Price: Free]
First up is the venerable Asphalt series. Currently the latest release is Asphalt 8: Airborne which is a Freemium title. When most people think of a benchmark for how good a racing game should be, many think of the Asphalt series. It�s competitive in nearly all categories, including game play, graphics, and multiplayer support. The game itself is pretty fun
with a lot of cars to unlock, lots of tracks to race on, and plenty of in-game stuff like ramps and drifting to keep you having fun. It�s a must have for racing fans.





Beach Buggy Blitz

[Price: Free]
Beach Buggy Blitz is a great option for people who may want something a little less serious in the racing genre. With its colorful, cartoony graphics and Mario Kart feel, it�s a great option for people who just want a racing game to goof around with. It�s developed by Vector Unit, the same people who did Riptide GP2 (which is also on this list), so you know already that the game is well done. It�s free to play and also utilizes Google Play Games services for cloud-saving, achievements, and leaderboards.



CSR Racing

[Price: Free]
CSR Racing was one of my first video-app reviews and it remains a favorite to this day. The reason is because it�s a legitimately fun and well done game. It�s undergone some changes since our initial review, such as the addition of Facebook-based online multiplayer and the addition of new cars. This game is is a drag racing style game so there are no tracks to get through. Each race takes anywhere from 8 to 45 seconds depending on your car and the length of the race. That makes this a great title for people who only pick up games occasionally and don�t play for very long. It�s free so if you�re in the mood for a good drag racing game, this is a great option.



Death Rally FREE

[Price: Free]
Death Rally can be summarized in three glorious words my friends: racing, weapons, and explosions. That�s essentially what you get from Death Rally. It�s a top-down style racing game where you race through levels, shoot your opponents until they explode, and grind it out until you win the race. With a penchant for violence that you won�t see in many of these other titles, it�s the perfect game for people who enjoy both explosions and the competitive spirit of racing. If Michael Bay played racing games, we imagine he�d play this one.Get it on Google Play



Drag Racing

[Price: Free]
Drag Racing is not altogether different from CSR Racing. It�s a drag racing style game where proper shifting and attention to things like RPMs matter. The graphics aren�t as good as CSR, Asphalt, and others on the list, but what it lacks in graphical content it makes up for in car tuning. Not only can you unlock a variety of cars and purchase upgrades for them, but you can also tune your car to your specific taste. Things like gear changing, torque, and others help you build the car that acts how you want it to act. If that sounds like something you enjoy, the download button is right there.
Get it on Google Play



Fast & Furious 6: The Game

[Price: Free]
It�s a well known fact that video games based on movies usually aren�t very good, although that trend has been changing in recent years. Fast & Furious 6: The Game does a little bit to help change that stereotype. It�s not the best game on this list, but it is a really decent racing game with a lot of features that are genuinely enjoyable. It features a couple of game modes, including Heist Mode which lets you commit crimes for money. It also features a number of expected features like unlockable cars, customization options, and cameos from the crew in the movie. Again, it�s not the best on this list, but it�s still good enough to be here and it�s free to boot!Get it on Google Play




GT Racing 2: The Real Car Exp

[Price: Free]
GT Racing 2 comes out of the venerable Gameloft library which are the same folks who do the Asphalt series. However, instead of focusing on breakneck speed, GT Racing 2 focused more on authenticity. There are a variety of tracks that have a variety of weather conditions, a physics engine that mimics real-life driving, and even comes with multiplayer mode. It�s one of the few games on this list that offers a first-person view from inside the car. It�s free to play so there�s no harm in trying it out and while the game itself is a little old, it�s one of the most popular on the list. It�s definitely worth a moment of your time.Get it on Google Play



Motocross Meltdown

[Price: Free]
If Motocross Meltdown taught us anything, it�s that not all the best Android racing games contain cars. In this game, you race bikes. Along with a decent motocross experience, you can also create your own rider, customize your bike, and play in a number of fun levels that allow you to jump, race, and even do tricks. It features pretty decent graphics as well. It�s garnered over a million downloads so far, has a fairly decent rating in the Google Play Store, and it�s done by the popular Glu Mobile. If you�re into motocross, this is about as good as it gets on Android.
Get it on Google Play

Need for Speed Most Wanted

[Price: $4.99]
Need for Speed Most Wanted is one of those games that had the potential to be the best ever on Android. It has fun game play, great graphics, and it�s a favorite among our readership. It�s also the most expensive at $4.99 and, unfortunately, does contain some issues depending on what device you have. Nevertheless, it�s a great game that helped push the genre forward in a big way and if it works well on your device, it�s well worth the price tag. Just make sure you read through some of the comments to make sure your device is one of the ones that doesn�t have any problems.
Get it on Google Play

Raging Thunder 2

[Price: Free]
Raging Thunder 2 is another oldie but goody. It has pretty decent graphics, although it isn�t as good as you�d see in Real Racing 3, NFS: Most Wanted, or Asphalt 8. Despite that, there are some pretty good features that make this worth picking up. It has cross platform multiplayer so there is that. The game play is also fast paced and fun. It�s been around for a while and has garnered over ten million downloads to date which is really very impressive. If you haven�t yet, it�s worth checking out.Get it on Google Play



Real Racing 3

[Price: Free]
The last time we did a list like this, we didn�t include Real Racing 3 but this time around, we feel it belongs on the list. It�s developed by well-known game studio EA and features really good graphics and fun, realistic game play. It features multiplayer mode, real cars, and real tracks and all of them look really good. It�s also another one of the precious few on this list that allows for first-person, in-car views while driving. It even boasts more than 1000 events and it all comes at the low, low price of free. If you�re a racing enthusiast, do yourself a favor and at least check this one out to see if you like it.Get it on Google Play



Riptide GP2

[Price: $2.99]
Riptide GP2 is a long time favorite here at Android Authority. We�vereviewed it and it�s made practically every general best game list that we�ve ever done. In Riptide GP2, you race jet skis in a variety of game types and there are even trick competitions. The graphics are great, the game is fun, and it even includes Google Play Services like cloud saves, real-time multiplayer, and achievements. It�s pretty much everything one could ask for in a racing game and until Riptide GP3 comes out, it�ll remain our favorite racing game that takes place on the water.Get it on Google Play



Smash Cops Heat

[Price: Free]
Smash Cops Heat is a different kind of racing game. Instead of racing a clock or opponents around a circuit, you instead race to take away the freedom of bad guys. In this game, you�re in the driver seat of a police car as you chase down and capture bad guys who are on the run. It�s not a racing game on the face of it, but it involves high speeds, fast cars, and pretty much all of the other elements you�d find in a racing game. What makes this game worth trying are the small things. It has a HUD that is similar to the breaking news screen you see when a high speed chase is happening on TV and the game plays out like a news story, which was actually pretty unique. It can�t hurt to check it out as it is free.Get it on Google Play




Microsoft Office Mobile [Free]

Microsoft Office



[Price: Free]

Even though Microsoft Office was officially released late last summer, they made the huge decision in March to make the app free to use for Android users. This means no more Office 365 subscription and you can just open it and use it. It does require a Microsoft account and that automatically signs you up for a OneDrive account. That said, it is compatible with the desktop version of Microsoft Office and it does have a fairly good design. With the 7GB of free cloud storage from OneDrive, it means Microsoft has a Google Drive competitor for real now. Google Drive is still better, but keep an eye out on Microsoft Office because it�s starting to be a really good option.

Description

Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for your Android phone. You can access, view and edit your Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you make quick edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and content remain intact.*

KEY FEATURES:


Access documents from virtually anywhere:
� Cloud � With your phone, you can access Office documents that are stored on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint.
� Recent Documents � Office Mobile is cloud-connected. The documents you�ve recently viewed on your computer are readily available on your phone in the recent documents panel.
� Email Attachments � You can view and edit Office documents attached to email messages.*
Office documents look stunning:
� Great-Looking Documents - Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents look great on your phone, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt Graphics, and shapes.
� Optimized for phone - Word, Excel and PowerPoint have been optimized for the small screen of your phone.
� Resume Reading - When opening a Word document from OneDrive or OneDrive for Business on your phone, it automatically resumes at the place where you left off reading, even if you last viewed the document on your PC or tablet.
� Presentation Views - The Slide Navigator view in PowerPoint lets you browse slides faster, while speaker notes help you practice your presentation.
Make quick edits and share*:
� Documents Remain Intact - Formatting and content remain intact when you edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents on your phone.
� Create � You can create new Word and Excel documents on your phone.







How to install Adobe Flash Player on Android

As you know, Adobe Flash Player was ditched in favor of HTML5 on Android. While that�s certainly not a bad thing, there�s still some faithful Adobe Flash Player users. So we�re going to show you how to manually install Adobe Flash Player on your Android device. It�s a fairly easy process.



Installing

As I mentioned, installing Adobe Flash Player is very easy. First, head into your Android device�s Settings > Security and make sure to check the Unknown Sources box. This will allow us to install the Adobe Flash Player app from a source other than the Play Store.
Next, open up Google on your Android device and search for �Adobe Flash Player archives� (or just hit this link from your smartphone). After that, hit the first link on the page. Once the page is loaded, you�re going to want to scroll down until you see the Android 4.0 archives. When you find it, you�re going to want to tap the first version you see to begin the download, which is the version that Adobe still updates regularly.
After the download is finished, simply tap the notification and you can begin installing the app. Keep in mind that you can�t use the stock browser or Google Chrome with Adobe Flash Player, as they don�t support it. You�re going to need to use something like the Boat browser or Firefox.

Dolphin Browser

Dolphin for Android makes mobile browsing easy, surfing the web with a personalized home screen, voice and gesture control.
Dolphin Browser also supports flash no need to install flash.It is preinstalled with it.
Dolphin is very advanced browser
Dolphin is my browser. 
Features: 
? Gesture - Access the web by creating a personal Gesture (symbol) to you use the most.
? Sonar � Dolphin for Android listens and lets you use your voice to search, share on your favorite social networks, bookmark favorite website and navigate.
? One-tap Share - Tweet, Post to Facebook, grab any content and share them, or save it directly to Evernote or Box.
? Tabbed browsing - No need to toggle between screens, tabbed browsing lets you browse as if you are on desktop.
? Add-on � Beef up your mobile Internet browser experience by installing the Add-ons for the tasks you need at your fingertips. With more than 60 and counting, Dolphin Add-ons enables any action to be done right within the mobile browser. You can check out the Add-on features with 3 preloaded on your right Sidebar.
? Dolphin Connect - Sync history, bookmarks, passwords and open tabs easily across Android, iPhone, iPad and desktop browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
? Home Screen � Add most visited websites as speed dials to your home screen. And organized them easily with one touch access.
? Theme � Customize theme colors, wallpapers and skins to make Dolphin your own
? Web App Store - The all-new Dolphin web app store offers access to the most popular web sites so you never have to leave the browser. Choose from over 200 web apps, including Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Amazon and more.
? Send to device: Send links, maps, phone numbers, & more from your desktop to your phone and vice versa with Dolphin for Android�s Chrome, Firefox and Safari extensions.**
? WiFi Broadcast - Share links with friends nearby on your wifi network.








Setting up Flash

If you have Boat browser installed, inside the browser head into Settings > Page Content settings, and make sure the flash plugins are enabled. After that, you can head on over to YouTube to make sure it works. Just make you�re using the desktop site and not the mobile page.

Saturday, 5 April 2014

How to Block a Phone Number From Calling Your Android Phone

Whether you are sick of cold calls from telemarketers, or you have an ex you never want to hear from again: fear not, there are ways to block those unwanted calls on Android. First of all we�ll take a look at how to do it without an app, and then we�ll suggest a couple of call blocking Android apps that are worth considering.
Screening your calls can free from you from spammers forever so it�s well worth setting something up.

Block Calls on Your Android Smartphone

If you have specific numbers that you want to be blocked each time they call, then there�s a good chance you�ve turned to apps that automate this process. There is one problems with that, though:

Using Android apps to block calls

If none of the other options suits you or you just want a more user friendly way of blocking calls on your Android smartphone then a dedicated app might be your best bet. Here are three solid options.

Mr. Number Text, Call & Block (Free)









This app bills itself as a free alternative text and calling app, with free messaging between members and real-time updates on when your messages have been read. It also happens to be a powerful call and text blocking app for Android. You can block specific numbers or you can block area codes. Thanks to user submitted info on telemarketers and other spam you can create a block list that will protect you from cold calls.

Call Control � Call Blocker (Free)





Here�s another Android call blocker with a big list of user submitted spam numbers that you can automatically block. This one also ties in with the FCC Do Not Call registry. You can decide which calls get blocked and exactly how they are handled with this versatile app. You get a free 14-day trial of the full app and then it reverts to a limited �Lite� version, unless you cough up a few dollars ($8).

Call Blocker NQ-Mobile











A must have on your New Year app list-- Call Blocker, to block unwanted calls and have a Peaceful New Year!
Have you ever wondered how to block those annoyed phone calls, or quickly back up your massive contact lists or just protect your privacy by not letting others see your phone call history or SMS?
Now Call Blocker Can Help!
Call Blocker blocks unwanted calls now and protect your privacy. Now with better developed features, you don�t have to worry about privacy leakage. Protect your private info 24x7.


Other call blocking options

There are a lot of other Android call blocking apps, but make sure to check the reviews carefully and do your homework before you choose. They don�t tend to play nicely together and they can also conflict with anti-virus apps. Speaking of which, if you have avast! Mobile Security already installed there�s a call and SMS filtering option in there for blocking contacts. If there�s a specific call blocking app for Android that you�d like to suggest then please post a comment and tell us about it.

How to download YouTube videos on Android

You must have enjoyed YouTube videos on the official YouTube app on your Android device, but the downside with the app is slow buffering and high data usage. To enjoy your favourite videos, downloading is always the best option.It saves both money and time.
But downloading YouTube videos on Android is a herculean task, as presumed. Hence, we have made an effort to ease out the pressure from your head.
1> You need an app called �TubeMate�. To download TubeMate �.apk� file-Click Here!
2> Save the file on your Android device in any folder.
3> Now click on the .apk file and install TubeMate.(Make sure that �Unknown sources is ticked in the Applications menu in Settings of your phone).
4> Open the TubeMate app and search for the video of your choice.
5> Once you get the video, tap on it and click the �Green down arrow� icon to download the video.
Tube Mate-YouTube downloader
6> A prompt will appear with 2 options, you have to select �Download� (As shown in pic).
TubeMate 2
7> Another screen will pop up asking you to select the resolution of your choice.
8> After selecting the resolution the, download will start and that�s it!
Enjoy YouTube videos on Android with this amazing app, without any stress and hassles!

Friday, 4 April 2014

How hide your Naughty apss on Android

Owning an Android phone means tons and tons of applications! But, in this sea of applications some of them lose their utility, unknowingly increasing the app drawer size of your Android device. Some of those unwanted applications come preloaded on the device and hence cannot be deleted ( until your phone is rooted), while some applications,though unwanted, may be needed by you at some point.
Hence, deletion isn�t always a wise choice. What you can do is hide those unwanted apps and retrieve them whenever the need arises. Simple isn�t it?
Let�s take a look at how to hide those unwanted apps on your Android device:-

1> Hide It Pro-

Hide It pro allows you to hide applications along with pictures, videos, � messages and calls history on your device for no cost!
The application you want to hide is cleverly disguised an �Audio manager� in the app drawer. The audio manager allows you to turn the volume up and down. But, when you long press the audio manager title , the actual Hide It Pro app is launched . Once you hide the app , it also disappears from the recent apps list.
You can even lock the hidden space with pin or password. This app is rated�  4.8/5 on the Google Play Store.

2> GO launcher EX-


Android is all about customization and theme launchers make that possible for the users without much hassle.













GO Launcher EX is popular amongst Android enthusiasts as it provides numerous features to change the look and feel of the Android OS as per the user�s taste and preference. But � most people are ignorant of the fact that there�s an option of hiding apps!
As you can see in the pic above, just open the app drawer and click on the �settings� icon. A list will pop up where you can select the option of �Hide app�. Once you select that, a list of the apps will open up, you just need to check mark the apps you want to hide.
Other launchers like Launcher ProApex launcher etc. also have the feature of hiding apps, built in.

3> LINK2SD-

In case your phone is rooted, Link2SD is a great app that not only transfers your applications from phone to SD card but also gives you the� privilege� to hide unwanted or unused apps.

Once you�ve installed Link2SD on your phone, open it , you�ll get a list of all the applications in your phone. Now tap and hold the app you want to hide. A menu will pop up where you�ll find the option of �freeze�, select that. After you�ve done with the process, you will find �frozen� written beside the app you wanted to hide.