In this AppDate edition, SEAN BACHER highlights the Official Rugby 2015 app, loveLife mobile site, Boomerang Pet Photo Booth, Leawo iOS Data Recovery, Elmedia Player media player for Mac OS X, Revamped Opera Mini for Android, infltr camera filter app and Pac-Man 256.
Official Rugby 2015 app
All rugby fanatics need to do to get started with this this app is select the team they are supporting. The app will then automatically organise content according to that team, displaying fixtures, scores, news and analysis. Reminders can be set for upcoming games that that team is playing and if you are in the area, tickets can be booked. The app also offers the opportunity to live-stream commentary from games as and when they are broadcast, and it lets users test their rugby knowledge through the trivia section.
Platform: Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS 10 and above and Windows Phone 8.
Stockists: Visit the store linked to your device.
Expect to pay: A free download.
loveLife mobile site
The recently launched loveLife mobi site, iloveLife.mobi, is aimed at South Africans aged from 15 to 24 in urban and rural areas. The concept is to reward them for making healthy choices and therefore encourage responsible behaviour as adolescents. By registering, participants can partake in educational quizzes, complete self-assessments, check into clinics or sporting events and be rewarded through points and prizes. A USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) service has been enabled for youth living in rural areas without access to smartphones. They simply key in *120*2121# and the service provides instant access to all the content on the mobi site.
Platform: Any cellphone with compatible browser.
Stockists: Visit iloveLife.mobi or SMS*120*2121# to access the site.
Expect to pay: A free service.
Boomerang Pet Photo Booth
Boomerang Pet Photo Booth is a content creation app that allows users to upload images of their household pet, which they can then edit and manipulate with visual content from Boomerang. Options include the ability to place a Scooby Doo collar on their pet dog or even give their rabbit a Bugs Bunny signature toothy smile. Various props and stickers are available. The app then allows for images to be uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter – not recommended though, as there are enough weird-looking animals plaguing social networks as it is.
Platform: Android and iOS
Stockists: Visit the store linked to your device.
Expect to pay: A free download.
Leawo iOS Data Recovery
Leawo iOS Data Recovery helps Apple users recover deleted data even without an iTunes device backup. The dedicated iOS data recovery utility can recover multiple deleted data files by scanning the device’s memory. When using this utility, users can recover six data types, including Contacts, Messages (MMS/SMS/iMessages), Call History, Calendars, Reminders and Notes. When the app is run in normal mode, data can be extracted from an iTunes backup, where files can be pinpointed and exported to a computer for restoration.
Platform: All new and older Apple devices are supported. A PC or Apple Mac is also needed for restoration.
Expect to pay: R840
Stockists: http://www.leawo.org
Elmedia Player media player for Mac OS X
Elmedia Player media player for Mac OS X supports a wide range of video formats and even some that are hardly used anymore. Installation is as easy as dragging the downloaded app into the Apps folder. The free version of the player only allows users to watch downloaded videos, but the Pro version offers the ability to watch and download online videos from YouTube and similar video streaming sites. Pro users can also take screen shots of their videos.
Platform: Mac OS X and above.
Expect to pay: Free but with limited functionality. The Pro version costs R245.
Stockists: www.mac.eltima.com
Revamped Opera Mini for Android
The latest version of Opera Mini for Android allows users to switch between two compression modes: high and extreme. The high compression mode compresses web pages without affecting the page display, making it great for surfing the web on 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi networks. When in extreme mode, web pages are compressed at a much higher rate, giving users a high-speed Internet experience, but displaying content at a lower resolution.
Platform: Android
Expect to pay: A free download.
Stockists: Visit the Google Play Store.
infltr camera filter app
infltr is a camera filter app that lets users add any one of five million pre-set filters to their images before they take a picture. Filters are changed by the user in real-time by searching through the various categories until a suitable one is found. Once applied, tweaks can be made to the filter before the photo is taken.
Platform: iOS with Android version coming out soon.
Expect to pay: A free download.
Stockists: Visit the Apple App store.
Pac-Man 256
To celebrate Pac-Man’s recent 35th anniversary, Pac-Man 256 has been announced for tablets and smartphones. Much like the original, players need to navigate Pac-Man through various mazes while avoiding ghosts and collecting fruits and chomping away at Pac-Dots. In addition to the standard Power-Pellets that let Pac-Man eat ghosts, power-ups like stealth mode, tornados and laser beams can be collected.
Platform: iOS and Android.
Expect to pay: A free download.
Stockists: Visit the Apple App Store, Amazon Store or Google Play Store for free.
* Sean Bacher is editor of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @SeanBacher
