Scan to Text Free 2.0.3.37 - app

Scan to Text Free is a mobile scanner and optical character recognition (OCR) app that allows you to save scans as PDFs and extract text from images.

From print to digital in seconds

Scan to Text Free is a smart app that allows you to scan pages from books, magazines, and hard copy documents and convert them to PDF or text files on your BlackBerry device. 

After scanning a document with Scan to Text Free using your phone's camera you have the option to save it as a PDF or extract the text from the document. The app supports multiple pages of PDFs, and you can rearrange pages at your leisure.

Extracted text can be edited before you accept it. This text can then be saved, shared, or copied though these functions are not available through the free version, and you'll need to purchase the premium version of Scan to Text to activate it.

Scan to Text Free supports a wide range of different languages for text recognition. The default is set to English but you can download new language packs for free through the app. 

Good reader

The optical character recognition in Scan to Text Free is quite impressive. Roughly 90% of the texts we tested using the app were reproduced perfectly. The application automatically straightens and sharpens up images you've taken, so that even if your photos aren't perfect Scan to Text Free has a good chance of being able to read it. Still, it struggles with glossy print at times, especially when there's a direct light source bouncing off the page.

One of the great things about Scan to Text Free is that it all the text recognition processing is done offline through the app itself rather than via a server. This means it won't use up precious mobile data. Also, captured images aren't stored on your photos folder, so they won't take over your album!

Scan to Text Free is a well designed app that encapsulates the BlackBerry 10 user experience. From capturing and previewing to extracting and saving, the interface walks you through the process in a seamless way. Even if you've never used an OCR app before you'll pick it up in no time.

The verdict

Scan to Text Free is an excellent OCR reader and PDF scanner for BlackBerry. It's not 100% accurate all the time but it does a fine job of text recognition and has some useful features.

Download Scan to Text Free 2.0.3.37

Box 1.2.0.79 - app

Box is one of the best options on the market for storing files and documents online. With its application for BlackBerry 10, you can access your files from anywhere.

Box offers up to 10GB of space in the cloud. You can access your photos, videos, documents, etc.. as well as sharing them with others or automatically saving back ups of all your photos.

If you're looking for a service for storing and accessing your documents remotely, Box is one of the stand-out options.

Download Box 1.2.0.79

Abs Workout 8.3.2 - app

Abs Workout is an Android fitness app that promises to give you the perfect six-pack in just six weeks.

Based on the Aerobic Weider Six program, Abs workout sets six exercises to repeat every day for 42 days. There's a workout guide that takes you through each session, with diagrams of each exercise, a timer, and a text-to-speech female voice to direct you. You can log the history of your workouts in the app.

Abs Workout is a decent tool for toning abs, though the workouts can be pretty punishing.

c•PRO craigslist Client Droid 2.62 - app

c•PRO craigslist Client Droid is the Craigslist client that does it all.

If you like to buy and sell things on Craigslist, it makes sense for you to have an app on your Android phone. As far as these apps go, c•PRO craigslist Client Droid really does seem to have a competitive advantage. Not only does it have the basics - searching for ads and posting - completely covered, it also has a raft of features that make using Craigslist a breeze, especially if you're a frequent or high-volume user.

c•PRO craigslist Client Droid is pretty standard when it comes to listing and posting. You can do all you would expect, like filtering results, marking favorites and sharing posts, but where the app really stands out is in its advanced search functions.

Not only does c•PRO craigslist Client Droid allow you to save search agents (so the app automatically notifies you when it finds a search that matches your specifications even when you're not actually using it), it also allows you to filter results by criteria such as whether or not the listing has photos, and if you want to set a price limit.

Although compared to most websites, c•PRO craigslist Client Droid doesn't offer anything mindblowing, as far as Craigslist apps, the options can be quite limited, making c•PRO craigslist Client Droid pretty impressive. It's also free and, at the very least, not horrifically ugly, so it's definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

c•PRO craigslist Client Droid has some excellent features that make buying and selling on Craigslist a breeze. Check it out!

Google Play Books 3.1.49 - app

Google Play Books is a top-class e-book reader app that combines a slick user interface with tons of useful features that make the reading experience very pleasurable.

Enhanced reading experience

The Google Play Books app is well organized, although it lacks some features of other e-reading apps, such as the ability to sort your books into collections, social connections, and access any magazines you've purchased.

On the side menu, there is a 'Read Now' section, which displays the books you have recently been reading, as well as recommended reads. The 'My Library' section combines separate menus for the books you have purchased, ones you have uploaded (in PDF or EPUB format), any samples you have downloaded to try before you buy, and a menu that displays all of these options. These can be sorted by title, author and recent.

One really useful feature Google has incorporated is text translation, which will help anyone reading a book that isn't in their native language. All you do is highlight the word or sentence and then click on the strange symbol with an A in it then chose your language.

When you are reading a book, you can view the bookmarks in a pop up box, as well as get more information about places (I clicked on Budapest in a book and it brought up a Wikipedia page about the city in Hungry) and definitions of words.

Other features include adding a note to a book, as well as the usual bookmarking tool and text highlight option. You also can easily see an overview of all of your bookmarks and notes in the menu.

Better than reading a regular book (in some ways)

When you click on your book to start reading, you will find a number of really useful features that enhance the reading experience and adds something that you can't find when you read a real book. Firstly, when you tap the center of a book, it zooms out so you can easily flick through pages by using the slider. It's a really speedy way to move through the book.

The Google Play Books shop has been much improved in recent years and, while it can't rival Amazon's Kindle store in terms of deals and special offers, it offers very competitive prices on many books. So it's worth shopping around in the same way you would in any high street store.

The shop is much more visual, attractive and organized than the one incorporated in the Kindle store. It's perfect for mobile browsing. You can also very easily pay with your Google Play details or with PayPal. However, it's not incorporated into the app so you do have to go outside to the books section of the Google Play store to buy anything.

Heading to the top of the charts

With the improvements Google has been making to this e-reading app as well as the related e-book store, Google Play Books has become a force to be reckoned with. If Google added the ability to make purchases within the app, included more deals and special offers on books, and added the ability to organize your books into customized lists or collections then it would be a top choice for reading e-books.

Marvel Comics 3.6.4.36409 - app

The world of Marvel comics is now available at your fingertips thanks to this official Android app.

Get your Spidey senses tingling

First things first, this is an official Marvel Comics app, so you'll definitely only be able to read and buy their comics. But as long as it's Spiderman you like and not Batman, Marvel Comics is a superb reader.

Marvel Comics is free to download, and features some free content, but it's really designed as a portal to buy and download comics. You can't import CBR of image files or scanned comics, and everything has to be downloaded and bought within the app. This means you can't share your comics like you might have when you were a kid, but once you've used it, you might not care.

Who needs paper?

Viewing comics in Marvel Comics is absolutely fantastic. You can browse with a cover flow-style page viewer, then view full screen pages, and pinch and zoom quickly and easily to move around a page.

The really great feature, however, is the animated panel transition. Swipe right to left on a page and it isolates and zooms to the first panel, swiping again slides to the next, or sometimes to another part of the panel when it's particularly big. This is incredibly smooth, user friendly and feels great. It's not unique to Marvel Comics, but that doesn't make it any less cool.

It's easy to sort through your purchases in the Marvel Comics app, allowing you to order them by Series, Purchase Date, and Title.

A must-have for Marvel fans

Some fans will never read a comic digitally, but for those who do, this Marvel Comics app makes the touch screen experience really work well.

VICE.com 1.0.1 - app

VICE.com is home to fascinating, edgy news stories and documentaries that are published in a variety of languages. These stories cover a slew of topics ranging from the Islamic State to niche music scenes in London. The app version of the site provides much of the same content wrapped in a sleek design.

The VICE experience

For those who aren't familiar with VICE, it's a media company that has grown from a website that covered indie music and pop culture to a well-funded empire that publishes a magazine, books, and documentaries. In particular, VICE has gained acclaim for an immersive and subjective style of journalism that they've used to cover serious news topics such as post-Ukrainian life in Crimea and heroin addicts in the Czech Republic.

The VICE.com app pulls all these news stories and presents them in a minimalist, black-and-white design. Stories are presented beautifully with text and photos fitting into the screen, which gives you the feeling that your device has been turned into a proper ereader.

As far as I can tell, there aren't ads in the app (or they weren't noticeable) which makes for an excellent reading experience that isn't common in most advertising-heavy news apps.

VICE.com also has videos within the app. Some are embedded YouTube videos and work as they would on a normal website. Other videos are directly from VICE and play on their no-frills video player.

Easy reading

Browsing through VICE.com is a breeze and provides a similar experience to the mobile web version of the site. The main page is a feed of articles that you can scroll through. In the top left corner of the screen, there's a tab that drops down which has sections such as Fashion, News, and their popular Dos & Don'ts.

You can flip between articles and menus by swiping left and right. The swiping feels intuitive, but there were times when the app recognized my swipes as text selection rather page-flipping. If you're interested in saving the article for later, there's a button on the top right-hand side of the screen. It supports Gmail and Hangouts sharing, but is missing sharing via popular apps such as WhatsApp and Twitter.

Great app for interesting stories

Although VICE.com is missing some helpful features, it's still an excellent app for keeping up on and reading all the great content coming from their site.