UberSocial

     Advertised as the most popular full-featured Twitter app in the world, UberSocial is quite a well designed app. UberSocial has nearly all the features the official Twitter app does, and then more. Without wasting much time, let's jump right into it.

The Good:

Timeline image preview

Let's start off with the good features of this app. UberSocial looks like any other smartphone Twitter app. The UberSocial timeline has many nice features, however. Tweets in which you are mentioned in are highlighted in a light green color, while your tweets are highlighted a light blue. A convenient feature is that images are displayed right in the timeline, allowing the user to get a preview before opening the full thing. Those who wish to customize their UberSocial experience are in luck. The app comes with 14 different themes, which change the header bar and several other font colors. If you are like me, however, this isn't an important feature, but nice to have nonetheless. UberSocial also comes with several handy user features. The ability to mute users could come in handy. Reply to All for tweets with multiple users tagged and Retweet with Comment are also nice features that add to the experience. An interesting concept in UberSocial is the Inner Circle. This feature allows the user to add other uses to a list, creating a timeline of just the added users tweets. Very useful for keeping up with close friends.

The Bad:

Ads

     Immediately when the app is opened, I am drawn to the ad at the bottom of the screen. Yes, it can be closed, but it comes back. The ad is roughly the size of a tweet on the timeline, taking up valuable Tweet space. UberSocial gets points off for the interface as well. It's Holo-esque. It looks like Holo, but isn't actually Holo and doesn't quite feel like Holo. Sure it uses some Holo icons and columns, but it's not the real deal. The interface doesn't feel smooth at times. Pulling down to refresh isn't smooth and switching between columns sometimes isn't smooth. This was tested on my Nexus 4, which should be able to handle this. It's nice having my Mentions next to my Timeline, but where are my Retweets? Several columns away, at the other end of the app. Those should be closer to each other. And what if I want to see who has favorited my tweets? Nowhere to be found. The official Twitter app did it right, with the Interactions tab.

The Bottom Line:
All in all, UberSocial is a nice app. It has some nice luxury user features when compared to the official Twitter app, however it is also lacking in some aspects. Could use some work on the user interface. I think for now I'll stick with the real Twitter app.

GoSMS Pro

     Let me just start off this review by saying I hate this app. That being said, let me justify my opinion.

     A little background first. Like many messaging apps for Android, GoSMS Pro tries to emulate features of the iPhone. Group messaging, emoji support, etc. These aren't necessarily bad things, in fact I do not think they are bad at all. Now that Android 4.2 has support for both of these things in the native messaging app, I have no use for GoSMS Pro. I like to think of it as a necessary evil. Before 4.2, I used this app solely because of the emoji and group messaging. I absolutely despised the app otherwise.

     The app has all sorts of useless, bloatware functions that I cannot imagine any person in their right state of mind using. However, the app does have several different running modes which disable certain features (simply the inclusion of different running modes speaks loads about the program and the useless features included). The Application Center is a prime example of useless bloat. Many of these icons link to Play Store applications, the rest of them bring up poorly translated, useless features of the GoSMS Pro app, that aren't even available in the free version of the app. Why is this present in an SMS messaging application?

     Another negative point - English. The menus in GoSMS Pro are often confusing and difficult to follow.  The translations are poor, the English is broken. After a while it may be apparent what each setting does, however it definitely takes some getting used to.

     If the above points didn't make you despise this app as I do, this last one certainly will.
First off, take notice of the broken English. If I am interpreting this correctly, the Go Dev Team is charging me $4.99 for 180 days access of the premium features. So this means I would have to pay $10 a year for even more useless features? Who in their right mind would do this? And what exactly are these so-called "premium" features? One could actually be useful, the added iOS 6 emojis; however many competing apps offer this without the hefty price tag. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume most of the rest of the "premium" features are useless...

        It wouldn't be a fair review if I did not at least take a look at at least some of the premium features. Here is the first one, a privacy box. $10 a year to essentially offer the same protection my Android lockscreen does? No thanks. The iOS 6 emoji support would be nice, however not $10 a year nice when competitors do it for free (see Chomp SMS). Local Backup? Once again, not wanted for $10 a year. I doubt the Find Phone feature works at all.

     I guess this app does actually send and receive messages, so it has at least that going for it.


The Bottom Line:
 I do not recommend using this app at all, unless you absolutely cannot live without emoji and group messaging.

Battery Indicator

     Perhaps one of the most inconvenient features of Android is that there is no way to show battery as a percentage in the notification bar. Sure it can been seen in the Battery section of the Settings app, however this is an inconvenience to those wanting to know quickly. Fortunately for us Android users, a plethora of apps exist that can show battery percentage in the menu bar. Unfortunately for some, however, a large amount of these app are needlessly complex, have intrusive ads, lack necessary features, or are just downright ugly.

     The app I will be reviewing is called Battery Indicator. It is free in the Play Store. A Pro version exists for $1.99, but the free version does everything a battery app should do. First off, let me just state one of the main reasons I use this app is because of its simplicity. The app has different ways to display the battery percentage, and the one I use is just the number. No tacky battery icons, flashy colors, or anything else that would taint my stock Android 4.2 experience. The icon displays a small thunderbolt under the number when the phone is charging.

Battery Indicator in the notification menu

     The notification menu item keeps it simple. The charge amount and how long the phone has been charging/discharging are the main details here. I personally like to know how long my phone has been charging or discharging, so that feature is a major plus for this app. Also displayed is battery health, battery temperature and battery voltage. I have no use for these, but because they do not stand out or take up much space, I have no problem with this. Like I said before, one of the main reasons I use this app is because it is simple. No tacky icons or unnecessary information in the menu bar either.

Battery Indicator settings

     The settings for the app are straightforward too. Although the is some text at the bottom convincing the user to purchase the Pro version, this does not interfere with the usability of the app. No third party ads, also. It may seem as thought there is not much to be customized here, but nothing needs to be customized. If you want an app that displays just the percentage and looks great, this is the app for you.

    Overall, I would highly recommend this app if you are looking for a simple way to display battery percentage. If you want a clean, simple interface that still displays vital information, this is the app for you.

Play Store link

First Post! I will use this blog to review Android apps. I will try to review at least one a day!