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.

Google Play Newsstand 3.3 - app

Google Play Newsstand is a magazine reader for Android.

You purchase apps through Google Play and they are stored in Google Play Newsstand. It's a simple app to use, but the main limitation is the amount of magazines available.

Google Play Newsstand is optimized for smartphones and tablets so it is not difficult to read pages. The text is easily readable, and maneuvering in each magazine is simple. You can purchase back issues, along with subscriptions to ensure you have the latest issue of your favorite magazine.

Since Google Play Newsstand is connected to your Google account, you can access your magazines from multiple devices.

Google Play Newsstand is a good app only restricted by the number of titles available.

Download Google Play Newsstand 3.3

OruxMaps 6.0.1 - app

OruxMaps has been tested by Softonic, but it still doesn't have a review in English.

Download OruxMaps 6.0.1

eBay 2.8.0.57 - app

eBay is an online auction and shopping app that helps users bid, buy, or sell items, which brings the best of its popular website to its mobile app.

Shop til you drop

If you're an avid eBay user, this is a must have app. You can access all of your eBay information including watch lists, purchase history, sales pages, and can manage your eBay or just browse and buy items from the site.

eBay provides real time counters so you can place your bid right at the end of an auction. If you've bid on an item or have an item in your watch list that is about to expire, you will get push notifications warning you that the auction is about to end. This is extremely handy for those who can't access a computer to place a bid.

Other useful features that are displayed prominently on the home screen include My Feed, which allows you to discover new items based on categories you've expressed an interest in. There is also a section for deals, a seasonal shop (Christmas, for example) and the ability to follow searches and sellers. This all gives eBay a very social feel to it.

The most important information at your fingertips

eBay has a slick, clean and very visual user interface, which makes browsing for items super quick and easy.The graphics are crisp and clear, which allows you to easily see what you are bidding for. Selling is also really simple. You can either pick categories and enter details or scan a bar code.

When you open an item to bid on it, the listing page looks very attractive and colorful, and it really makes the most of the images. In addition, the price and shipping details are displayed in a large font right underneath with big blue buttons that allow you to watch or buy the item. As you scroll down the page, all the necessary information has been broken down into digestible categories meaning you can easily read it.

The way the menus are organized means any information you need is at your fingertips. Displaying 'My eBay', 'Categories' and 'Sell an Item' in big blocks at the top with pictures of your most recently viewed items underneath helps you quickly access the most important options.

eBay's Android user experience is on par with the web, possibly even better due to how it breaks down the information and the way the buttons are displayed to allow you to always be no more than one click away from what you want to do.

Built with users in mind

This app makes it extremely easy to browse and manage your eBay activity. It has an attractive and intuitive layout, is very easy to use while being a highly-visual app. Overall, eBay offers a great mobile experience, whether you are buying, selling or merely browsing.

Bible 5.3 - app

Flexible, easy to use, and completely portable, Bible is an excellent way to access the Holy Bible from your Android phone.

Search by chapter and verse

Bible is really easy to read. Access the Bible icon from the homescreen and tap the top bar to browse by book, chapter, or version. Choose a verse, touch and hold to select, and then you’ll be able to hit the little arrow in the bottom right to bookmark, share, or copy. You’ll also be able to search for specific references.

Easy access to the Bible

What makes Bible a little bit special is the other features available on the app. Apart from it being really easy to browse your bookmarks, there’s also a Reading Plan feature to help you get a more profound understanding of the Holy Book. Bible also lets you search for Bible Study groups by name or postcode, but this only seems to be available in the US.

Even better, you’ll be able to share Bible passages directly on Facebook or Twitter, or, if you’re offline, read the Bibles you've downloaded to the app. Bible doesn't have that many configuration options, but as long as the basics cover your needs, it’s a great app.

Streamlined study

Bible the best option around for Bible study on the go.

Download Bible 5.3

My Wallets 3.1 - app

If you want to control your expenses and income, and always know how much was spent and received in the past day, week, month or year, this program will be a good helper to you. You can find out how much you spend money every day. You can create a variety of wallets and cards to control the balance of cash, balance on credit card in a safe or in the bank. You can create groups and sub-groups that can help you find out which area is the largest nursing or parish funds. Also, you can view a variety of graphic statements of your savings.

- Keeping purses adding icons. - Managing groups, sub-groups, etc. With the addition of icons. - Keeping parishes and loss bound to wallets and groups. - Conducting money transfers between wallets. - View the report daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. - View the schedule of change of day, week, month and year. - View the report on expenses and incomes with a grouping for a selected period. - View the report on expenses and incomes with a partition on the wallets for the selected period. - View a pie chart of expenses and incomes with grouping for a selected period. - View the total expenses of the parish and loss for the chosen period. - Import and export database to a file. - Set a password for entry the program. - And etc...

Real user comments: - More simple and easy application. - Nice apps. Easy to use - Great app. Handy tool thanks - Very good. I like it - Good so far. I think it's a very good app. Very easy to use and get to know. No complaints so far. - Very easy. Really easy to use. There aren't any complications to get crazy about on this app. - Very good I have been searching for simple app to track my expenses. I found this app it's really simple but works fine. And etc...

This application will be an assistant for all users. Just as most suitable for people who do not know what happens to their money savings.

Download My Wallets 3.1

Microsoft Excel for Android tablets - app

With Microsoft's push to prioritize cross-platform services as well as be a mobile-first company, it's become very important to provide programs on iOS and Android, instead of trying to convince users to adopt software on Windows and Windows Phone.

As part of this strategy the company has delivered Office apps (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) for iOS and an Office Mobile suite for Android phones. Now the company has released a touch-optimized beta version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android tablets.

Late to the party

Given that Google's office suite has been out for some time, Microsoft is lagging behind in the touch-optimized productivity suite market, but it the company is hoping to find success from the many people who have already bought into its ecosystem.

Currently Excel for Android tablets (along with Word and PowerPoint) is only available for ARM-based Android tablets with a 7" to 10.1" screen, 1GB RAM and running KitKat (4.4.x). But Microsoft is working on expanding it further, specifically to Intel-powered tablets, as well as those with different screen sizes and running Android Lollipop 5.0, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system.

In the beta version, there is no need to have an Office 365 account to download these apps; a Microsoft email address is enough to sign up to this 'Freemium' version.

Lacking in features

Unsurprisingly, Excel for Android tablets is not as fully featured as its desktop sister version. In fact, it feels like a very cut-down version, with only the most basic features included. So what can you do? You can format text, insert tables, pictures, charts and comments; and change the way you view the spreadsheet. While the most commonly used formulas have been included, there are a few features that make using Excel easier that haven't been included. This includes the ability to search for a certain type of formula and to create a formula from a certain selection, such as the top row or left column.

There are also no page layout features, image editing options, and you can't import data from other sources or perform any automatic conditional formatting.

Excel for Android tablets also falls down on its collaboration functionality.You can email a sheet as an attachment but not enable a document to be edited by multiple users at the same time.

But, on a positive note, you can sync your OneDrive and Dropbox accounts, allowing you to open documents from and save them to the cloud (as well as your device, if you prefer). Support of other cloud services would be useful.

Familiar ribbon interface

If you're already familiar with Excel (Office 2007 and onwards) then the ribbon interface will be very recognizable and you'll be able to easily flick between menus in the slick interface without problems. The sometimes overwhelming features and menus have been condensed with only the most important ones included, which makes it a lot more simple and straightforward to use. And also a lot quicker to find what you want. For example, I often struggle to remember where freeze panes is in the desktop version but it's very obvious in the Android tablet version.

If you're a power user and you want to create complex formulas quickly then Excel for Android tablets is not the ideal way to do it; desktop is still king in that respect.

Navigation horizontally and vertically is very smooth. But one major problem is that the keyboard takes up most of the screen when entering data, making it very difficult to see all the information in the spreadsheet. That makes Excel for Android tablets much better suited to bigger screens, or portrait view if entering data. The touch control isn't precise, which makes adding and editing formulas tricky.

The jury is out

Because Excel is used for such as wide range of functions and users (from the most basic to very advanced calculations), it was always going to be more difficult to get a touch-optimized version right. Excel for Android tablets is likely to be hugely frustrating to power users because there are some common features missing. For casual users, the design of the menus means that features are so much easier to find than in the desktop version and you aren't overwhelmed by the mountain of complex options that you never use.

It's important to note that this is only a beta version and Microsoft will likely have improved usability and added options by the time of general release. But whether this is enough to poach users from Google Sheets and convince its desktop Office users remains to be seen.

Download Microsoft Excel for Android tablets

Microsoft Word for Android tablets - app

With Microsoft's push to prioritize cross-platform services as well as be a mobile-first company, it's become very important to provide programs on iOS and Android, instead of trying to convince users to adopt software on Windows and Windows Phone.

As part of this strategy the company has delivered Office apps (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) for iOS and an Office Mobile suite for Android phones. Now the company has released a touch-optimized beta version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android tablets.

Late to the party

Given that Google's office suite has been out for some time, Microsoft is lagging behind in the touch-optimized productivity suite market, but it the company is hoping to find success from the many people who have already bought into its ecosystem.

Currently Word for Android tablets (along with Excel and PowerPoint) is only available for ARM-based Android tablets with a 7" to 10.1" screen, 1GB RAM and running KitKat (4.4.x). But Microsoft is working on expanding it further, specifically to Intel-powered tablets, as well as those with different screen sizes and running Android Lollipop 5.0, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system.

In the beta version, there is no need to have an Office 365 account to download these apps; a Microsoft email address is enough to sign up to this 'Freemium' version.

Key desktop features included

Unsurprisingly, Word for Android tablets is not as fully featured as its desktop sister version. But Microsoft has brought the most commonly-used features in the desktop version of the program over to the Android tablet touch-optimized offering.

You can format your text, insert objects (such as pictures, text boxes and links), change the layout, track changes and alter viewing options. With the last option, the ability to switch between read and edit view is a highlight, as Word is not just about creating and editing documents, but also about consuming them. The read option borrows from the Kindle by allowing you to change the background of your documents from the traditional white to sepia or black (for night view).

If you have the OneDrive app on your tablet it automatically syncs the data (you can add both personal and business accounts). You can also add Dropbox or your SharePoint site, as well as opening documents stored locally on your device. Documents can then also be saved in the cloud again in any of these locations.

One really important feature that is missing at the moment is the ability to collaborate with others on the same document - something that is included in Google Docs. This is the biggest omission in this beta version, but there is also no option to export as PDF, no find and replace feature, and spell check wasn't supported on my device (Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0).

The familiar ribbon interface remains

If you're already familiar with Word (Office 2007 and onwards) then the ribbon interface will be very recognizable and you'll be able to easily flick between menus in the slick interface without problems. The fact that there aren't as many options and menus will please many users who struggle to find the feature they want in the increasingly feature-heavy desktop version and prefer to stay with the drop-down menus in pre-Office 2007 versions.

However, it's not all smooth sailing. Manipulating images is a clunky process. Firstly, not all pictures can be uploaded. The reason for this is not apparent, although it seemed to be linked to the device location I tried to upload them from. Then there are no image editing options - all you can do is move the image and resize it.

When you have more than one document open, it doesn't seem to be possible to move between one and the other, meaning you can only work on one Word file at a time.

Word-processing dominance beckons

Considering that Word for Android tablets is only a beta version it has a large amount of features (already more than Google Docs) and is pretty bug-free. Although there is much work still to be done to configure it for different sized tablets running on Intel with different versions of the Android operating systems.

Given that it sports a familiar look and feel to the desktop version but with alterations to suit a touch screen, Microsoft has a good chance of getting a foothold in the market in a similar way to its dominance in the desktop word processing market.

Site Journal 1.18 - app

The Site Journal for Android is intended to help site-supervising architects, engineers, and construction companies document site inspections. All important data, events and associated site photos are conveniently processed and managed with this slim and fast program. This program enables site-supervising architects, engineers, owners, and building contractors to record their site inspections in a simple and easily readable manner. In addition to multiple input modes, it stands out because of the following features: fast and convenient navigation between the individual daily reports. Input of the persons and companies involved in the construction project and access to this data within the program structure. Photos showing the per

Fast and convenient navigation between the individual daily reports. Input of the persons and companies involved in the construction project and access to this data within the program structure. Photos showing the performance level and defects can be included in the daily reports. Functionality: Quick recording of: Weather, temperature and humidity. Attendees and site staffing. Performance level, deficiencies, delays, hindrances, and acceptance. Instructions and additional works given. Execution of important building operations, tests and measurements. Statements on materials, deliveries, storage, test specimen, and drawing deliveries.

In addition to multiple input modes, it stands out because of the following features: fast and convenient navigation between the individual daily reports. Input of the persons and companies involved in the construction project and access to this data within the program structure. Photos showing the performance level and defects can be included in the daily reports.

Microsoft Office Mobile 15.0.3515.2000 - app

Office Mobile for Office 365 allows you to open, view and edit Microsoft Office documents on your phone.

What can you do with Office Mobile for Android?

Microsoft Office Mobile is designed to let you access your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents on the go, using your Android phone. Unlike the Windows Phone version of Microsoft Office, the Android app doesn't support OneNote documents (for this, download the Microsoft OneNote Mobile app).

Office Mobile lets you access all of your Office documents that are stored in the Cloud and any changes you make will be saved and synchronized. Office Mobile supports sharing via OneDrive and SharePoint.

Open and view Office documents on your phone

Opening and viewing your documents in Office Mobile is a real delight. The Open tab neatly lists all your various storage spaces with Microsoft (OneDrive or SharePoint) and you can add individual folders to this menu to give you quick access to your frequently-used content. The Recent tab offers a handy way to load up documents you've just been working on, and these are neatly organized by date.

Viewing documents in Office Mobile is surprisingly clear and easy. Documents are optimized for small screen viewing and resize accordingly. Of course, reading Office docs, particularly Excel sheets, isn't great on a small screen (and there’s no support for tablets at the moment), but Office Mobile for Office 365 makes it as comfortable as possible. The pinch to zoom is smooth and effective for getting closer into big documents.

Once inside a Word document, you are assisted by the Outline view option, where you can quickly skip to a particular bullet point, chapter, or part of a document by scrolling through a list of markers. There's also a search option for if you quickly want to pinpoint a particular word or phrase.

Viewing options in Excel include the Outline view and Find, but are extended to include the ability to sort or filter data. The PowerPoint viewer doesn't include text search or filtering, but you can open a thumbnail panel where you can see a small preview of each slide and jump to the one you want.

Create and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint files

While viewing and reading documents is a breeze with Office Mobile, when it comes to making edits to your documents, the application falls short.

The app allows you to create and make edits to Word, Excel and Powerpoint docs and the formatting will be kept intact. There are safeguards built into the app that ensure you can't make changes to a document if it's already open in Office 365 on the web or the desktop, locking it for editing on one platform.

The scope of the editing you can do with Office Mobile is very limited. In the case of Word documents, there are only very basic formatting options. You can apply bold, italic, underline and strikethrough text, choose from just three text colors, applying highlights, and change the text size. In the case of changing size, there are only plus and minus buttons for changing, and you can't see the point size.

Other than these basic formatting options, there's very little you can change in a Word document using Office Mobile. There are no page layout options to speak of, and neither can you insert items into your documents. However, it is possible to add annotations to your document, which is good for collaboration.

In terms of Excel, again you have some basic formatting options, plus Undo/Redo functions, AutoSum and the ability to create basic charts from your data sheets.

To assist document creation, there are some Word and Excel templates included in Office Mobile, though again these are basic and limited to just three templates for each program.

A reduced user experience

The limitations of editing documents on a small screen device are obvious and perhaps Microsoft wasn't keen to pump Office Mobile full of editing features because it knows that most people won't be using their Android device as their main Office tool for creating and editing documents.

Editing documents in Office Mobile for Office 365 on an Android device is more of a smooth experience than it is on the iOS version of the app, where copy and paste can be fiddly and the contextual menus have a tendency to have a mind of their own. The user interface of the Android app feels more polished and intuitive.

The verdict

As a document viewer, Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers works very well and rivals Google Drive in this respect. However, the formatting and editing experience needs to be worked on in order to improve the usefulness of the app.

Opera Mobile Classic 12.1.8 - app

Opera Mobile Classic provides a reliable, feature-filled alternative to the built-in Android web browser.

Opera options

Essentially, Opera Mobile Classic looks and feels like Opera Mini for Android, retaining the same user interface and offering all the great features of that program. The app has been superseded by the more recent Opera Browser for Android, which features a fresher user interface which may appeal to certain people.

The main difference between the two browsers is the way web pages are rendered by the software. Opera Mini serves compressed versions of pages from the Opera servers in order to speed up loading times. Opera Mobile Classic on the other hand, renders the full HTML of the page, making it slower to load pages, but significantly improving the quality of images and other multimedia elements on the page. The Turbo option within Opera Mobile Classic lets you switch to the compressed page mode if you want to speed things up.

Packed with features

Features of Opera Mobile Classic include bookmarks, download manager, mobile or desktop views, and a Google search bar (unfortunately you can't change this to another search engine, though). The Opera Link feature in Opera Mobile Classic allows you to sync your bookmarks, start page, history, etc. with your desktop version of Opera.

The latest version of Opera Mobile Classic for Android now supports Flash content, as well as HTML 5 audio and video, making it great for enjoying interactive rich web content.
It would be neat if, like Firefox, Opera Mobile Classic included support for add-ons. The ability for third party developers to extend the functionalities of the app would be a very welcome one.

Touch that dial

You get a very comfortable user interface, with a Speed Dial feature, whereby you can set one-click shortcuts for up to nine of your favorite sites. Support for tabs means you can have several pages running and once, flicking between them using an elegant thumbnail preview bar.

Viewing and moving around pages with Opera Mobile Classic is a delight. You can pinch to zoom into an area of the page, then instantly snap back to full screen view with the touch of a button.

Unfortunately, I did experience several crashes testing the latest version of Opera Mobile Classic (12.1). Let's hope that these get ironed out in the next update to the app.

Worth a try

Opera Mobile Classic isn't the quickest of Android web browsers, but its slick interface design and useful features make it well worth a try.

yooSEND 1.0.2 - app

What’s new in yooSEND:

• Fast and Safe Transfer for photos, videos, mp3 music and documents between Android & iPhone & iPad by WiFi, LTE, 3G, 4G etc.

• Easy Browsing and File Management (rename, cut/paste, delete, sort files, video&music player)

• Dropbox integration (now you can send files to anyone, directly from Dropbox, without having to share them a link)

• Attach devices: Be the first person in the world that has all the devices in a single app. Add personal iOS, Android, tablet, smartphone devices (PCs and Mac soon)

• Pending mode: NOW you can accept files any time you want (at home, office, or when you have a better Internet connection)

• Push Notification

• Fast download & upload speed

• Music playback

• Video playback

• Documents viewer

Why users love yooSEND:

• Easy Browsing and File Management

• One of the most important features of yooSEND is that you cand send or receive files without having them stored somewhere

• You can send files to multiple contacts

• Badge number when selecting files and contacts

• Sorting and searching by file name, date or sender

• No file compression

• Allows "open in..." other apps

What’s best in yooSEND:

It is the first app in the World that allows you to:

- attach all yours devices to yooSEND app (iOS, Android ,tablets, smartphones, PCs and Mac soon)

- send files to anyone in the contacts list, directly from Dropbox, without having to share them a link

- have "Pending mode": accept/reject files any time you want

- download and upload files at the same time

- plus many other advantages

Yahoo! 4.2.5 - app

Yahoo! for Android is a news browser app that provides news and connects to the larger Yahoo! network. This release on Android coincides with an updated version on iPhone, both of which use Summly technology. The main feature of Yahoo! for Android is short news summaries.

This news feed can be personalized further by toggling on and off related topics found at the end of articles. There is also plenty of social integration such as importing your Facebook likes into favored news topics or sharing stories using Gmail. Both of these do require signing in to a Yahoo! ID, though. Lastly, you can use the app to search the web or browse for videos from YouTube and other sites.

What it does

The main feature of the mobile app is the Yahoo! News feed. The feed can include stories from sources such as Reuters, Access Hollywood, ABC, Healthy Living, and more. Each story includes the title, source, a link to read more, and a drop down menu to dislike or share (via Gmail, Facebook, or Bluetooth services). The dislike option will allow you dislike topics or remove stories from your feed. Many stories also include a summary provided by Yahoo! and a related image from the article. In some cases a stock image is provided, which can be confusing when it has nothing to do with the headline.

Tapping on the "Read more" option will take you to the full article. This often includes an image or video at the top, the news source, and when the story was posted. In the upper right-hand corner is a button to quickly share stories. By default Facebook and Gmail are options, but the app will search for other installed apps such as Google Drive or Google+. Related topics show up at the bottom of the article. If you’re using a Yahoo ID, you can either add topics as favorites or remove them from your feed.

A slight annoyance is that if you scroll too far down, you will be taken to the next related story without a way to quickly return to the previous story. Thankfully the page will snap slowly during this, allowing you to easily cancel the motion.

Customize your experience

The mobile Yahoo! app has many great options for customization. You can disable the visual story feed if you become tired of it. This will cause stories to appear in a simple list with just the headline, source, and possibly an icon sized image. If you don’t want to see every story you can select a specific section of articles ranging from business, politics, technology, and many others. The most impressive feature is personalizing your news feed. In the topics preferences menu you can change which topics you’ve already picked as “My topics” or add them to “Removed topics”.Lastly, you can sync your Facebook likes and interests which imports them into your topic lists. This feature is very convenient and will allow faster customization than having to choose individual topics.

Search and apps

Being a Yahoo! product, there is an option to search the web, naturally. You can browse websites, images, or videos from sites such as YouTube or Mevio. These searches open each page inside the Yahoo! app instead of transferring to another browser or app. Quality and load times of sites are generally fast, though it depends on your connection.

It would actually be convenient if the Yahoo! app detected other apps installed during your search and prompted switching to them. However, there is an extensive apps menu which lets you download Yahoo! related apps, such as Flickr or Yahoo! Messenger, from the Play Store and open them once installed.

Conclusion

The Yahoo! for Android app has a great set of customizable features. If you’re displeased with the visual summaries you can quickly turn them off while still retaining core information. If you really don’t care for the featured news stories, the ability to easily import Facebook likes and interests will make a truly personal news feed. Better yet, your favorite stories can easily be shared across social networks or other apps.

Despite some minor interface issues, the app offers an excellent way to check the latest news.

Download Yahoo! 4.2.5

Twitter 5.36.0 - app

Twitter, the official Android app for the service, has moved into version 3, presenting some pretty major interface changes.

Probably the biggest change to Twitter for Android is the appearance. It's really grown up, losing the multi-access homepage and launching instead straight into your timeline. It looks more sophisticated too, with a streamlined user interface while still using the recognizable blue header and black and white layout.

As far as Twitter for Android goes in terms of features, it parallels the online site, but sticks to the basics. The standard areas exist like the main timeline, @mentions, and your profile, but Twitter added a hashtag "#Discover" feature allowing you to browse what is trending. Tapping on a tweet now shows the @reply, retweet, favorite, or share options and lists who has performed any of the options.

Among Twitter’s nicer features is a cool tool to search your telephone contacts for Twitter users, and varied suggested users for you to add. You can also modify your profile pretty well from the app, while Twitter for Android also lets you create as many public and private lists as you want.

Twitter for Android supports multiple accounts, easily switchable from the taskbar. The configuration settings are still limited, especially in comparison to apps like Plume and Tweetcaster. Even so, if you’re a low-spec Twitter user who likes to keep things simple, the official Twitter app for Android might be right up your street.

Twitter for Android does its job very well, focusing on working like the online site.

Download Twitter 5.36.0