Local Files Not Syncing on Spotify iOS App? Here’s How to Fix

There’s this recurring issue of Spotify that we’re all too familiar with: local files stored from our computer suddenly don’t sync over to Spotify’s iPhone app. A quick Google search reveals it’s an issue affecting thousands of users. And sure it’s straight out annoying, considering that you lose access to tens or hundreds of local tracks coming from sources outside of Spotify.

Spotify, despite being the streaming behemoth that she is, is still marred with performance and playback issues that are too random that sometimes you get a random fix. This Spotify syncing issue usually happens immediately after a major update on its iOS app. Spotify could be introducing new features or purging locally stored data, causing synced local files to get wiped out.

Why Local Files Are Not Syncing on Spotify

There are a few reasons why local files fail to sync. First, you might have unknowingly deleted or moved the local files on your laptop. This action of course confuses the Spotify app on your desktop so it can no longer locate the local files. Second, for local syncing to work, in your Spotify desktop app, you’ll have to “Download” those tracks as well.

How To Fix Spotify Local Files Not Syncing

If you’re sure your local files are untouched and you encounter this Spotify synchronization issue. Follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have the latest copy of Spotify installed both on your iOS and desktop app, and ensure you’re connected to the same network
2. Restart both apps on your iPhone and desktop
3. On your desktop, ensure you “Download“ the entire playlist where your local tracks are stored
4. Go back to your Spotify iOS app. Go to Settings > Local Files and ensure Local audio files is toggled.
5. Navigate to that same playlist and click the green "Download" icon.

You’re done. For best results, also ensure your iPhone is not on “Low Power Mode”. Low Power Mode limits background activity such as downloads & syncs.

Anyone Can Remotely Crash Your iPhone thru SMS with this iOS Text Bug

There’s another iOS text bug making the rounds of the internet today that renders anyone’s iPhone useless. And Apple is currently rolling out a patch to fix this so be sure to update your iOS immediately to iOS 13.4.5 beta.

So, the offending text is a combination of an Italian flag emoji and Sindhi character. As soon as it arrives on your inbox as a text message or through your WhatsApp or Messenger, your iPhone will become unresponsive, forcing it to restart your iPhone.

Apparently iOS has an issue dealing with that offending text as soon as it arrives in your notification tray, causing it to exhaust all its internal resources and eventually crashing your device. This is similar to the 2017 iOS text bug that crashes your iPhone as soon as you get a message containing a specific Telugu characters.

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Apple is said to be seeding out an update to fix this Italian emoji and Sindhi bug. So be sure you’re getting the most recent update from Apple. Alternately, you can temporarily disable notifications from your iMessage, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

Spotify iOS App Gets Native Sleep Timer Support

Music streaming giant Spotify silently rolls out an update to its iOS app which finally brings a sleep timer support for its app. No need to separately launch the iPhone’s Clock app.

Setting up a sleep timer on Spotify

To set up a sleep timer on Spotify, be sure you’re getting the latest update of the app. While your Spotify songs are playing, launch the Now Playing screen, tap the tiny three dots that sits in the upper right of your screen, and then scroll down a bit until you see the “Sleep timer” option. From there you can set a timer from 5 mins to 1 hour.

To turn off sleep timer on Spotify, just redo the above steps and in “Stop audio in“ screen, just tap ”Turn off timer“.

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As a music app, a sleep timer is a hotly-requested feature of Spotify which lets you doze to your favorite songs without draining your iPhone’s battery. It’s a feature first introduced to the Android version last year. iOS users, on the other hand, resort to the iPhone’s Clock app to stop audio playback on Spotify at a predefined time.

Enable Front & Back Simultaneous Video Recording on iOS 13 with this App

Apart from the updated keyboard, new editable emojis, system-wide dark mode, and other tiny yet much-needed bells and whistles, iOS 13 also brings a plethora of enhancements under the hood.

One of them is the introduction of a new API that lets you use both front and back camera of your iPhone to simultaneously record all the action in front and back all at the same time.

We saw it from a demo at Apple’s event last week, which showed an iPhone 11 Pro with Filmic Pro installed that delightfully activates and captures both front and ultra-wide back camera.

Newer versions of iPhones will certainly get this multi-cam sessions support. At the recent WWDC event last week, Apple also confirmed that the same multi-cam recording functionality will also be supported on iPhone XS and XR. That’s pretty much good news.

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Filmic Pro, being one of the biggest names to incorporate this feature on its app, is said to be releasing an update to its app later this year.

However, if you want to try it yourself right now without spending a penny and see how this front and back simultaneous recording works, then, you’ve got to check out Dualgram.

Dualgram: Use Your iPhone’s Multiple Cameras To Record Back & Front All At The Same Time

Dualgram was a brainchild of Junda Ong, who says there are so many occasions where he wished he could capture all the actions on both sides of the phone. And he’s not alone. Imagine you’re in your vacation abroad and wants to update your family back home and so you excitedly update them with your pictures and videos. Isn’t it cool to show all the sights in front of you while at the same time showing all the fun right behind you?

A multiple camera recording isn’t new. In fact, it’s been around for years on select Android devices — and it proved to be fun and more personalized.

With the latest iOS 13 and Dualgram, finally you can try it on your iPhone.

How To Turn Off Geotagging on iOS to Permanently Remove Locations from Photos on iPhone

iPhone and iPad camera has this built-in geotagging feature that automatically attaches your current location (aka EXIF metadata) every time you snap a photo. This geotagging support enables iOS to organize your photos by location, making it easy for you to browse through your past photos including personal travel photos and selfies.

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Most iPhone and iPad have iOS camera geotagging enabled by default. You can tell if photo geotagging is enabled when you go to iOS Photos > Albums, there’s a Places folder where all your photos are displayed on a map.

A lot of people may find it cool that their iPhone detects their location and attach it on their selfies. What these people don’t realize is that they’re exposing their exact location coordinates which could turn them into easy prey from people with malicious attentions.

So, if you’re uncomfortable about unintentionally sharing your location data and want things a little bit private, it’s highly recommended to permanently disable geotagging on iPhone before finally sharing them online.

Here’s how to turn off geotagging on iPhone 6, 7, 8, XR, iPhone Max Pro & iPhone 11

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services

2. Tap Camera and set Allow Location Access to Never.

   

Preventing iOS from geotagging your photos should be that easy. Once done, it should remove geotag from photos on the iPhone moving forward.

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Please note that past photos with existing geotag won’t be removed. You’ll have to use EXIF remover such as Metadata Remover EXIF GPS TIFF or EXIR Purge to strip off sensitive metadata from iOS photos.

Finally, An AI-Powered App That Transforms Sketches Into Interactive Digital Prototypes in Realtime

The latest advancement of AI continues to offer us a whole new way to experience our digital lives. We’ve seen how Google predicts traffic delays & bus crowdedness, well, thanks to AI. We’ve also seen how YouTube enables you to virtually try on makeup and help you with your purchases decisions, thanks to its immersive AR Beauty Try-On.

With millions of power users’ growing appetite for anything automated, it’s not difficult to imagine a future where mundane, routinary tasks are being kept to a minimum. And fact is : it has already begun.

One of the coolest finds we’ve come across is Artyline, a free iOS & time-saver app that converts hand-drawn sketches into digital equivalent in realtime. All you have to do is to give a good scan on your sketches and you’re done.

Not everyone will appreciate this app, but such an app comes in handy if you’re an app developer or designer who wants to skip NinjaMock or any online mockup tools to quickly visualize your ideas.

Why Artyline is such a great app

The trouble with hand-drawn sketches is that it can potentially be misunderstood by most clients who normally aren’t adept in UX design elements. So whether it’s a simple app or not, the best way to present your idea and get their approval is to give prototypes as realistic as possible.

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With Artyline, generating prototypes is as simple as scanning your sketches and you immediately get an interactive version of our mockup. Think of it as an additional team member in your UX / design department where design sketches drawn from whiteboard or paper are quickly converted to digital formats. So you’d come well-prepared when meeting your client to discuss the next big app.

Artyline limitations

Because Artyline is powered by AI, it has a limited set of training to recognize basic shapes and transform them into design elements. Good thing is Artyline has this easy-to-follow guideline to make your sketches more recognizable by their AI.

Pro Tip: Use markers instead of writing pens. Don’t use pencils as they’re too illegible to recognize by Artyline scanner.

Artyline is still in its infancy and got tons of areas to improve especially in the execution side. However, I can’t easily denigrate an app idea this good just because of those hiccups. So, we are still impressed.

Give your app designs workflows an upgrade. Get this iOS app while it’s free. Thank me later!

Download: Artyline [Apple App Store]

How To: Block Ads on iOS, Including Facebook Ads and Youtube Video Ads (iPhone & iPad)

The release of Content Blocking Extensions on Safari back in iOS 9 days was met with excitement among iOS users, who've seen the barrage of ads assaulting their iPhone screens from time to time.

With Content Blocking Extensions finally supported on Safari, iOS users now have complete control over the level of privacy-invading adverts and trackers they are willing to tolerate.

While we do believe ads are necessary nuisance to skip paywalls and keep everything free online, some web pages are just plain annoying, deliberately degrading user experience by bombarding us with ads and popups.

If you're just as fed up as me and want to block ads on iPhone including those pesky Facebook ads and YouTube ads that's cluttering your iPhone screen, then, read on!

Meet Wipr: the Best and Last Ad Blocker You Need for iOS — Blocks Facebook and YouTube Ads Too

Forget about Adamant, Purify, or Crystal. Those popular content blockers on iOS just don't make the cut. I had an unpleasant experience with those apps that I decided to completely remove them for good. And not too long ago, some of those well-advertised apps even caught receiving $$$ from big-time advetizers in exchange of whitelisting their ads.

Wipr is heaps better than them. It works just as promised without compromising your iOS browsing speed. And it's regularly-updated list of trackers ensures all ads, trackers, cryptocurrency miners, EU cookie and GDPR notices are all blocked.

One thing I appreciate about Wipr is this bold promise of transparency:

"No one can pay to unblock ads. There are no acceptable ads. Wipr only answers to you."

Which means, no single advert gets whitelisted.

Wipr works in Safari (for now)

You can best appreciate Wipr if you regularly use Safari on your iPhone. It's tough on ads and gives you speedier browsing experience. One reason why a website takes ages to load is because of multiple trackers and adverts competing a slice of attention from you as user.

With Wipr, not only can you save precious data but websites now load significantly faster.

Block ads on Facebook and YouTube

Wipr also blocks Facebook and YouTube ads on iPhone's Safari. If you primarily use Safari to access web pages like Facebook and YouTube, Wipr is a must. I've long uninstalled YouTube and Facebook apps in an attempt to limit the amount of time I spend on these apps. But if I needed to quickly see Facebook updates or binge watch on YouTube, I just turn to Safari.

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Wipr sets you back around $1.99, but it's worth your money considering that you can now permanently block ads on iOS, including that on Facebook and YouTube ads. (Download Wipr)

Vont: Canva for Video Alternative that Lets You Easily Add Custom Text to Videos (iOS)

Not everyone has the time and skill to generate a simple 2-3 minutes social video for Facebook or Instagram. Stitching your video clips and adding music can be all easy to achieve on iOS, but adding styled, custom text? It can be bloody difficult feat especially for a non-techie person who easily gets intimidated by video editing apps.

iOS' built-in video editing app iMovie doesn't make the cut either. Their “Add Text” overlay functionality is just plain boring, unusable. iMovie is decent enough in combining your clips with nice transitions and custom audio background but not in adding custom styled text.

The hunt for Canva for video

I had this interesting challenge last week where I needed to add a few texts to my travel videos. And me being a non-multimedia person, I'd rather do it straight on my iPhone and totally skip the headache of editing them with Adobe Premier or Quik, which for me are all complicated to use.

With that said, I had to check out and try nearly almost all video editing apps on iOS that allow me to add a text overlay for my videos. Some are very promising but one app that really stood out: Vont.

What is Vont?

Vont, currently available on iOS, lets you add highly customizable text overlays to videos. You have the flexibility to choose your own font or use Vont's font collections, change font sizes and colors. And the best part? It lets you insert multiple text overlays to any given video timeframe.

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And the fun doesn't stop there. Vont also lets you add transitions to each text overlay, giving you full control how you want your text enters the viewport.

Here's Vont in action:

It's easy to imagine Vont as Canva for videos. First off, Vont interface is so neat and it's a delight to use, almost similar to Canva.

For the uninitiated, Canva is a must-have app that lets you create professional-looking photos and banners for all your social media needs. Its suite of pre-made layouts makes it easy to create graphics, cards, flyers, invitations, and posters straight from your iPhone or iPad.

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The true strength of Canva lies in its ability to let anyone — with or without design experience — generate professional-looking visuals for their marketing needs.

Now, if you're looking for Canva for video alternative offering the same editing experience, then, you've got to check out Vont.

This Augmented Reality App Lets You Create Your Own Portal, Teleport to New Places (iOS)

Since the release of Apple's ARKit back in 2017, we've seen how it stirred the pot of curiosity among app developers wanting to deliver a whole new level of user experience.

Online retailers like Lacoste for instance now employs AR app to let customers virtually try on shoes. IKEA also has an AR app where customers can visualize how a piece of furniture fits and looks in their homes.

Augmented Reality isn't only disrupting retails. Right now, we're also seeing cool AR apps that virtually take you to other places around the world.

One of those apps that caught our attention is Portal: Learning with AR. It's a fun app best played with kids that let you explore the world at your fingertips.

Currently available in iOS, Portal: Learning with AR lets you create portals where you can walk right in and experience a different world (virtually of course). The portal is quite immersive; you can interact and walk around.

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Portal: Learning with AR is one basic Augmented Reality app that proved fun and useful. You can let your kids or students visit ancient medieval Rome or a green energy field.

LINK: Portal: Learning with AR

Easiest Way To Play YouTube in the Background on iPhone, iPad + Auto Play While Keeping Other Apps Opened

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to play that awesome YouTube channels containing your favorite music covers straight from your iPhone or iPad? Well, probably, not once.

While consuming those eargasmic treats and performances from your favorite artists is a straight-out simple to do on YouTube's official iOS app, you'll be forced to keep the YouTube app opened or else video playback will stop as soon as you exit or open another app.

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YouTube makes money through ads. So it just makes sense for them to disallow video playback in the background on iPhone or Android to maintain the ad impression count. In the current YouTube iOS app, there's no background playback support and it's always impossible to continuously enjoy YouTube videos while you're busy browsing Safari or chatting a friend on Messenger.

However, if you really need to play YouTube in the background on your iPhone or iPad while giving you the freedom to open other apps, here's a simple trick.

How to add background playback support to YouTube on iPhone, iPad

The quickest way to continuously play YouTube in the background on iOS is to play it in Opera Mini.

Once you have Opera Mini installed, just launch that browser and go to youtube.com and search for your video or you can simply paste the video URL in the address bar.

As soon as your YouTube video begins to play, click the iPhone's home button to exit the app, which normally pauses the media playback. Next, bring in iOS' Control Center and hit on the Play button to continue YouTube's media playback.

You should be able to continue to audio-stream that YouTube video, as seen below:

This trick works well even if your lock screen is active or you open other apps. And the best part? It can auto-play succeeding videos as long as you enabled auto-play in the video player and iPhone's Background Refresh is turned on.

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YouTube, being the second largest search engine in the world, hosts a staggering 5+ billion of videos as of 2018, ranging from user-generated tutorials, guides, music videos, movie trailers and more. With that figure, it's easy to see why the video platform snags a whooping 500+ millions of views daily on smartphones alone.

Finally, Netflix Gets Offline Playback Support for iOS iPhone, iPad and Android

Call it an early Holiday treat!

After years of waiting, Netflix has finally heeded everyone's call and just rolled out an update on their iOS and Android apps which now lets you download Netflix movies and shows offline so you can watch them on your iPhone, iPad or Android even without an internet connection.

Netflix first broke the news on Twitter which must be making everyone excited, YES, me included!

Airplane mode. Road trip mode. Stuck-in-the-subway-for-20-minutes mode. Your favorite stories are now available for download any time. pic.twitter.com/g7QZA3TyE8

— Netflix US (@netflix) November 30, 2016

Netflix Now Lets You Download Movies, TV Shows To Watch Offline On iPhone, iPad, Android

So, starting today, you'll now be able to download select Netflix movies and TV shows so you can watch them on the go without mobile data. Of course, you need to update your app first to enjoy this Netflix offline playback support.

One big caveat though is that only select movies and TV shows are available for offline view, and it can vary region-to-region. But they do plan to expand their catalog as soon as the required licensing arrangements are made with its content partners.

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While not all Netflix contents are available for download offline, it is still a welcome addition considering the pricey mobile data rate which could inflate your bill.

How To: Remotely Control Apple Music on Computer, Mac Using iPhone, iPad

Since its debut, Apple Music has seriously got some mixed reviews both from critics and fans alike. Some discontented Apple fans called it “a nightmare” while others lauded it as a refreshing and a nearly perfect music app.

And if you are one of those Apple fanboys who are convinced that Apple Music is the best music app in the planet, then, you don't want to miss out this one cool interoperability feature of iOS and OSX: wirelessly control, play Apple Music on your PC/Mac using your iPhone or iPad as a remote.

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Spotify Connect is one sought-after, premium-only feature of Spotify that lets you control the music from any phone or tablet using the Spotify app. And if you're looking for Spotify Connect alternative for Apple Music, then, good news is you too can have the same wireless convenience at no cost!

Play Apple Music Through Your Speakers, Mac or Apple TV Using iPhone, iPad as Remote

Follow this step-by-step guide on how to remotely control music playback active on your PC, Mac using your iPhone or iPad as a wireless remote.

1. Download and install Remote on your iPhone or iPad

2. Once installed, enable Home Sharing on your iPhone. You'll be asked to login using your iCloud account. You should see something like this:

   

3. Turn on Home Sharing in iTunes on your computer or Mac. Go to File > Home Sharing > Turn On Home Sharing. Once enabled, your Remote app on your iPhone should automatically retrieve all your music collection and display them on your iDevice.

   

   Use IFTTT As A Spy App: Secretly Copy, Collect iOS Photos on iPhone, iPad (No Jailbreak)

4. Let's test it. Browse through your iTunes library on your Mac and play whatever playlist/albums you've got. As soon as you hit the play button, your iPhone should automatically pick the track actively playing your Mac, as seen on the video below:

You're done! You can keep the music flowing on your Mac from anywhere in your house using your iPhone or iPad as remote.

Works flawless on my iPhone 5 (iOS8.4) and Mac (Yosemite).

Caveats

Apple's official Remote app for iOS only allows you to choose music you've added on your library. The app can't let you search for new songs in the cloud just like what you normally do on Spotify Connect.

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Use IFTTT As A Spy App: Secretly Copy, Collect iOS Photos on iPhone, iPad (No Jailbreak)

Learn how you can use IFTTT as an iOS photo spy software to secretly copy every single picture taken on your spouse or kid's iPhone, iPad. Automatically get a backup of every iOS photo including selfies, n*des and other inappropriate snaps.

WARNING: The author shall not be held responsible or liable for any misuse of the app detailed on this post. The method outlined below can get you in serious trouble. Do it at your own risk.

Been fiddling around with IFTTT few days ago and I accidentally discovered that you can actually use IFTTT iOS app as a FREE spy app to secretly collect, monitor every single iOS photo being taken on your spouse or daughter's iPhonE, iPad. Good news is: the process is no rocket science and you don't have to spend a penny nor you need to jailbreak your iOS device to accomplish this.

For the uninitiated, IFTTT (If This, Then That) is a massively popular web automation service that allows you to automatically perform certain actions based on your conditions (or triggers). IFTTT termed them as recipes, and there are plenty of recipes flooded out there that should help you save time by automating certain asks. One good example is you can get SMS alerts from specific email addresses, or you can let your device to automatically send screenshots to your email.

Remotely Get a Copy of Every Single iOS Photo Taken on iPhone Without Getting Caught

Step 1 Compel your target to install IFTTT. Sure it won't be a problem as IFTTT has hundreds of awesome recipes up its sleeve. If you know your partner's iTunes account, then, that's a bonus as you can install the IFTTT straight away.

Step 2 Once you've successfully installed IFTTT, best to burry it in the Utilities folder or anywhere that's least accessed.

Step 3 Enable Background App Refresh for IFTTT. This ensures that all new photos are uploaded to IFTTT server when online. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh

Step 4 Disable IFTTT's iOS Notification to ensure your target won't get notified every time the recipe runs. Go to Settings > Notifications, select IF and turn off Allow Notifications slider.

Step 5 Create a new recipe with the following trigger and action:

TRIGGER: Any new photo (under iOS Photos channel)
ACTION: Send an email (under Gmail channel)

See video walkthrough below.

Be sure to save your new recipe and you're good to go!

Now, every time a new photo is added on your target's phone, you will automatically get notified via email including the link of the newly added photo, as seen below:

Caveats

a) The target's iPhone or iPad should be connected to the internet for this remote photo spying method to work. Not necessarily connected all the time but should be connected once in a while so IFTTT can push new photos to their server.

b) Data delivery is a bit delayed.

I don't want this recipe to be called as an exploit but rather a heaven-sent functionality you can use to spy on anyone's iPhone and be in the know what your daughter, girlfriend or wife is up to.

Use iOS Clock Timer App As Music Sleep Timer for Spotify, Apple Music, etc

It appears that the clock timer app in the latest version of iOS is finally working. So if you're wondering how you can add that sleep timer functionality on your Spotify or Apple Music on your iPhone or iPad, then, watch the video below and see how it's done:



This trick also works on other music player or podcast apps like Pandora, Rdio, etc. It basically kills whatever media playback active on your iPhone or iPad once the timer's up.

Must-Have: PushBullet Makes Your iOS, Android and Computer "Work" Together

Remember the Software Data Cable for Android I mentioned before? That was really a clever tiny piece of  app that every Android user should install. Why? Well, you better see my previous post about it here: How To: Transfer Files From PC To Android Phone Via Wi-Fi (And Vice Versa).

If you ever wished you could do almost the same thing on your iPhone or iPad and make your life a LOT easier, well, then, you've got to check out PushBullet.

PushBullet is your Swiss Army Knife for anything wireless

As a long-time Android user who just switched to iOS, I hate it when moving files & information from my computer to iPhone is such a difficult feat. The same frustration you get when you copy contents from your iPhone to your Mac or Windows PC. And that's the problem that PushBullet is trying to solve.

What is PushBullet

In a nutshell, PushBullet makes it really easy to send files, ebooks, links, and virtually any  media files from one device to another. Whether you're pushing files from your Windows computer to your iPhone, iPad or Android, the process is absolutely painless. All you have to do is to right-click the file or link and select the destination device and voila, you can instantly go right to that file/link by tapping on the notification you get on your Android or iDevice. And no, you don't have to be in the same wireless network to make PushBullet works.

Browse, Access Your Photos From Your iPhone, iPad To Your Computer Over Wi-Fi

And if you have an Android device, you can even automatically “push” all your calls and SMS alerts to your computer so you  won't miss important calls and text messages even if your phone is on silent mode or in another room. Unfortunately for iOS, PushBullet doesn't have this feature yet. But given the more open iOS8.0+ architecture, I believe this feature is currently in the works (check out the paid app Notifyr for iOS, it works almost the same).

Why is it useful?

PushBullet's homepage already has a detailed information on how it works and how it becomes so handy, but allow me to point it out here.

With PushBullet, you can easily:

• Send files from your mobile device to your computer with one click (or the other way around)
• Receive calls, SMS and other phone notifications straight on your computer

And if you're on Android, there are whole lot more you can do with PushBullet like being able to reply text messages straight from your computer.

Final Verdict:

PushBullet is a simple yet powerful push notification service designed to make all your internet-connected devices “work” together. It's a godsend  web service that you will surely appreciate especially if you're dealing with multiple devices. PushBullet is currently available for iOS, Android and as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Opera. There's also an unofficial paid app PushPal for Mac users.

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LINK: PushBullet

Bubbli Is A Jaw-Dropping App That Lets You Create Streetview-Like, Responsive Spherical Images (iOS)

Drop Photosynth,  AutoStitch Panorama, Cycloramic, or whatever panorama-making apps you used to worship and obsessed with.

Here comes another revolutionary app that will change the way you document, snap your precious travels or events in your life. Think this is another boring Instagram or panorama-shooting apps? That's a big NO.

Bubbli is the next big thing -- here's why (link)

Meet Bubble, a brand new app (currently available for iPhone & iPad) that allows you to create a beautifully stitched, dynamic spherical photo. What I mean with dynamic spherical photo is that the resulting photo is complete with encompassing sides, top, and bottom of the entire scene around you - including sound. Bubbli termed this technology as bubbles.

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Adding to that 3D multimedia feel is the Gyroscope-guided image navigation, where you can virtually span around the image by changing your device's position and orientation. The result? Not just an ordinary 360-degree shot or the streetview-like images of Google Maps; it's a visually stunning, immersive three-dimensional experience straight from your iPhone/iPad.

Demo Bubbles

Let these featured bubbles do the talk (best viewed on your sensor-enabled iPhone/iPad):







Still not impressed? I don't think so. The first time I used the app it got me thinking Bubbli is the next billion-dollar app Facebook or Google will soon snatch. It has all the potential to become the next Instagram or Snapchat and even beyond that.

Using Bubbli

As with any advance photo-snapping apps, there's a bit of trickery you need to acquaint at first. Right after you launch the app, you'll be greeted with a welcome screen with an intro video, detailing what Bubbli is all about and why it's different from standard Panorama.

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The app then serves you a sample bubble, demonstrating you how to get started. Here, you can tap "next" to proceed with registration, which is required so you can store your Bubbles online. I advise you to go download the app and browse through the manuals/demos built into the app. It got a decent collection of video demos on how to capture a perfect spherical photos.

Bubbli Features

Notable goodness of Bubbli includes: the ability to share your bubbles on social media sites. It also got "Featured" section, displaying a grid of public bubbles published by Bubbli users. You may tap on any of them to explore.

The Bad

My only problem with Bubbli is that it consumes quite a lot of resources (at least in my case). Maybe app like this is naturally a resource-hogger? But thinking of how game-changing & revolutionary the idea & the execution of this brilliant idea, I think this is forgivable.



DOWNLOAD: Bubbli

5 Essential Non-Jailbreak iPhone Apps That Apple Should Allow In App Store

App makers outside Apple know best what needs to be developed and what's not. Users'thirst of really useful, great apps are not left in the wild unnoticed. In fact, it motivates and drives competition among developers who create a great selection of apps for us to enjoy.

Unfortunately, great apps don't easily make its way to Apple's AppStore. Not because they're too buggy or useless but because of Apple's restrictive policy, preventing developers to accomplish something great.

5 Essential Android Apps That We Wish Existed On The iPhone

In this post, we're going to explore some of the great, useful apps that exist in other mobile operating system but not in non-jailbroken iOS. These are apps that are sure a big hit and will make your iPhone a little less dumb once made available in iTunes.

Smart app protector to password-protect individual iOS apps without Jailbreak

I have a non-jailbroken iPhone 5 and just like you, I've been looking for iOS apps similar to Android's AppLock so I can restrict access to some of my personal & finance apps by protecting them with a password. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to have a way out except for iAppLock, a jailbreak app that can password-protect apps in iOS devices.

The reason why Apple can't approve such apps is that it is a violation of terms for an application to make a system-wide change and make a password for individual app. Applications have to one-by-one add password locks if they want to. Yeah, I know. It sucks!

More in this category:

How To: Remotely Lock, Password-Protect Your Lost/Forgotten Phone Thru SMS
How To: Password Protect, Lock Google Chrome Browser
How To: Lock, Protect Certain Programs Installed On Your Computer

An offline answering machine for iOS

Offline Answering Machine for iOS is undoubtedly one awesome app! This is a kind of software that automatically answers phone calls with your pre-recorded greeting and records/saves the voice message straight to your iPhone, bypassing telco's voice mailbox service. Not only can you cut your phone bills but sure you can avoid unanswered phone calls from important people.

Back in Symbian days, Voice Inbox is one of my must-have apps that does just that. If you still have s60v3 phones, you should go and get this app. Things you can do with it: replay voice messages anytime without calling an operator, see the name of the caller (not just a number), call back in a click.

As yet, neither Android nor iOS has an app for that.

A call-recording software for iPhone

Being able to record phone calls (and even Skype calls) is sometimes necessary, most especially if someone is giving you important directions over the phone. If you're confused or unsure what your mom or boss has said, you can turn to the recorded phone call and listen it once again.

Both Android and Symbian have decent working apps for that. For iOS, I can't still find any.

Tasker-like automation app for iPhone

If you've been on Android in the past, you should have already heard about Tasker. Tasker is an award-winning app that brings complete automation to your Android device.

There are plenty of automation options you can exploit with Tasker; it can automatically send SMS to your parents when you're leaving the house, it can automatically switch your phone to “Silent” mode when you're in office, among others.

Automate Your Phone: Let Your Phone Perform Certain Actions Based On Your Location

While there's IFTTT for iPhone you can explore, Tasker is far more advanced and feature-rich as compared to IFTTT.

AdBlocker for iPhone to block pesky ads popping on your favorite game/app.

There's no need for me to enumerate the pros of having an ad-blocking software installed on your iOS device. Unfortunately, ad-blocking software are too controversial that they don't even make their way to Play Store or AppStore. Unless you do the risky business of jail-breaking or “rooting”, you can block ads on your Android or iPhone.

Have something to add on this list? Buzz off in the comments below. :)

Hand Gesture Recognition App CamMe Revolutionizes The Way You Snap Selfies (iOS)

Taking a decent photo of yourself aka “selfie” is no easy feat, more so if your face is naturally not good at it. :p

Kidding aside, here's something you might want to try out that should take your selfie-snapping to the next level.

CamMe is a just another free 'selfie' app available in the wild but with a twist: it exploits the motion-sensing capability of your iPhone/iPad so you can snap better 'selfies' hands-free. And yeah, it really works well.

Turn Your Phone's Screen On/Off By Simply Waving Your Hand In The Air

Hand Gesture Camera App CamMe Lets You Take Selfies Hands-Free (link)

Why Should I Care?

A mobile app that leverages the power of hand gesture recognition technology is always something of an achievement. And CamMe absolutely deserves that mention -- for taking the extra mile making the impossible possible in the field of mobile computing.

Whom Is It For?

If you find joy in taking selfies a lot, then, CamMe is a must-have. It makes your selfie-snapping less awkward & a lot comfortable by giving your hands the control to snap selfies. Put simply, you can take great selfies without actually touching your device.

How It Works?

You just open the CamMe app, prop your iPhone up and stand back at distance of two to 16 feet. Then raise your hand until the app recognizes your hand and close it into a fist. Your fist should activate CamMe's 3-second timer, and it captures a self portrait.

CamMe is also proved useful in taking a group picture when no one is around to take it.

Go check out CamMe [iTunes link]

How To: Add or Set Music Sleep Timer To Spotify iOS App (No Jailbreak Requried)

UPDATE: Sleep timer is already a built-in feature of Spotify on iOS. So no need to use the Clock app nor install additional app.

UPDATE: iOS's latest built-in clock timer is now up and working again. So no need for you to go through the entire process detailed below and download another app. Learn how to Use iOS Clock Timer App As Music Sleep Timer for Spotify, Apple Music, etc

World's finest apps do not always come perfect. And that does not exempt Spotify, our personal favorite music streaming app.

Spotify's latest iOS app is still deprived of the most sought-after functionality as a music app: a sleep timer.

You cannot fall off to sleep while Spotify is playing in the background as it will obviously drain your battery. You don't want to get up in the morning with your phone's battery dead, right?

Enable, Make Spotify Web Player Working on iPhone, iPad, Android

In this post, I'm going to show you how you can easily add that Sleep Timer functionality to your Spotify iOS app so you can still sleep to your favorite tracks without leaving your iPhone/iPad's battery dead empty.

Automatically Shutdown Spotify At Predefined Time With Music Sleep Timer (iPhone/iPad)

As I mentioned above, Spotify's iOS client doesn't have a sleep timer functionality bundled to the app as yet. So we'll be taking refuge to another app called Music Sleep Timer to do job.

Download Audio MP3 Directly to iOS Device Without Using iTunes

Music Sleep Timer is just another FREE iOS app designed to kill any media playback active on your iPhone or iPad. It works exactly like the sleep timer on your TV or airconditioner. Just launch Spotify, set the timer and sleep to your favorite tunes.

Music Sleep Timer is not only useful to Spotify. You can also use it to other music apps like Pandora or any podcast or audiobook apps.

How to use:

1. Download and install Music Sleep Timer [iTunes link]
2. Once installed, open Spotify & begin playing.
3. Press the Home button to send the music player into the background.

4. Launch Music Sleep Timer and start timer, as seen below:

   

You're done.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to leave Music Sleep Timer active in the foreground for the sleep timer to work.

While waiting for Spotify to finally bring the most-coveted sleep timer functionality in their next update, you may try Music Sleep Timer to temporarily do just that.

Got a another way to set sleep timer on your Spotify iOS app? Buzz off in the comments below and I will update this entry :)

How To: Enable, Make Spotify Web Player Working on iPhone, iPad, Android

I am one of those unhappy, broke and desperate fellow Asians who cannot fully enjoy Spotify Premium because I am in the other side of the world currently unsupported by Spotify. While Spotify Web Player & Spotify Radio are both accessible on my PC in my country using tools like Hola Unblocker, I can't still get through the day without it on my phone which I spent most of my time every day.

How To: Bypass, Remove Restriction On YouTube - Watch Blocked YouTube Videos Anywhere

To those asking why I can't get Spotify Premium, Spotify refused any payments made on any non-US credit cards & PayPal accounts. There's a way out though: purchase Spotify Premium coupons codes which you can redeem anytime,anywhere on Spotify. But the problem with these coupons is that they are priced as high as 150% to 200% from the original price. An that's a big NO way!

So last few days, I embarked into a mission trying to work out the famous Spotify Web Player on my iPhone as my last resort. And thankfully it was successful though I had to tossed $3.99 just to enable, make Spotify Web Player working on my iPhone.

How To Get Spotify Web Player Working on iPhone, iPad & Android

The method is simple: you have to hunt any decent, working mobile web browsers with great Flash support. For iOS, I highly recommend Photon Flash Player. The iPhone version will set you back $3.99 while the iPad version costs you $5.49. But I guess it's all worth your money as you have to make only one-time purchase for this functional app rather than paying Spotify monthly premium subscription.

THE BONUS:

• All Flash-based streaming sites like Hulu, Netflix & Pandora are supported with Photon (provided that you're in a country supported by these services)
• Flash-based games like that on Facebook are fully working!

How To: Stream, Play MP3 & Video Files Embedded On Non-HTML5 Websites From Your Mobile Browser

I hate telling people the good news without telling people the bad. So here's my problem so far with Photon for iPhone: No background playback support! You have to make your browser opened for continuous audio/video playback. I hope they can work it out soon.

How To: Stream, Play MP3 & Video Files Embedded On Non-HTML5 Websites From Your Mobile Browser

If you're wondering about how to activate and get Spotify Web Player working on your iPhone, iPad or Android device or even Hulu & Netflix, then, that should do the trick!

DOWNLOAD:
Photon Flash Player for iPhone (link)
Photon Flash Player for iPad (link)
Photon Flash Player for Android(link)