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If the hundreds of photo-filtering apps in the Play Store haven't tickled your fancy, try this one on for size. InstaLomo for Instagram puts an Instagram-esque layout on the popular Lomo app. Sadly, it doesn't even begin to compete with Instagram in terms of performance or social features.

Though this app says it's made for Instagram, it doesn't connect with your Instagram account in any special way. It seems much more like the developers name-dropped Instagram to try to appear in that app's search results. InstaLomo for Instagram can share to Instagram, Facebook, and other … Read more

Owners of Sony's Xperia S tablet will finally get a crack at Android 4.1.1, aka Jelly Bean, early today.

Sony expects to push the update to its production server sometime between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. PT. Xperia S owners will then receive a notice in the bottom right Notification Area alerting them that a system update is available. Users can also follow the steps outlined on Sony's System Update page to manually check for the latest Android flavor.

The update will be available in the U.S, Canada, and Latin America. … Read more

Matching games provide constant action, are easy to play, and tend to be quite addictive. Dragon Gem is no exception. This game has all of these elements as well as the added fun of a dragon theme.

Like most of the games in this genre, Dragon Gem downloads quickly and installs without any advanced settings. The game offers a very intuitive user interface and most users should have no problem finding their way without any instructions. The general strategy is to select matching items to eliminate them. As they disappear more items will fall into place. There are countless different … Read more

With great graphics and exciting gameplay, this game seems to be one of the most popular action games on the Google Play store. Dead Trigger combines a first-person shooter with social media and strategy gaming. It offers a fully immersive environment with high levels of action.

The first thing we noticed when installing Dead Trigger is the size of the application. The size will vary depending on the device, but since we tested it on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus our file was over 120MB. With a file of that magnitude the device should be plugged into the wall and connected … Read more

Good parental control and monitoring software usually doesn't come for free. Touted as one of the only totally free spy programs, Bosspy allows users to track movement of a mobile device and all the data associated with it, including SMS and email messages. While this app claims to be incredibly useful, it delivers an incredibly difficult-to-use program.

The program, itself, downloads instantly onto the device. It is around 1MB in size and seems to use very few resources once installed. The problems begin immediately after installation, though. Bosspy is intended to be completely invisible and undetectable to the user. … Read more

We know from other popular language programs that word and picture association is a great way to learn a new language. Everybody English uses that same formula to teach kids how to speak English. For a free app, it offers a good variety of words and games to make learning fun.

Everybody English opens with a colorful main menu. Labeled arrows point users to its features, including a Settings menu that lets you adjust sound, buy more games, and access the Help feature. Now, the Help feature claims you can access games from the main menu, but we found that … Read more

The idea of taking notes on a smartphone hardly seems new, but this app adds a twist. With WikiPad the user is able to create subsections through a simple process while taking notes. The app enables the user to create a Wikipedia-style database, where one note leads into several other notes. This is a fairly original idea and there are few if any applications that serve this function. While the idea is fantastic and the program does exactly what it claims, the execution needs some work.

WikiPad takes up very little memory in both usage and storage. It also downloads … Read more

Users who enjoy a little celebrity gossip may be interested in an application that draws from several sources. Urban Gossip FREE tries to accomplish this job on a small scale but fails miserably. The app crashes and is full of distracting ads.

Urban Gossip FREE doesn't consume a large amount of memory and it loads pretty quickly. The user interface is pretty rough, though. It is very busy and hard to read on a screen any smaller than a tablet. Not only is it incredibly hard to read but it is littered with invasive advertising, too. A scrolling advertisement … Read more

While it's an interesting concept and has some good points, Swipe Calc can cause ample frustration in initial uses. With a few bugs and the lack of upfront tutorial materials to show you how it actually works, the app is hard to figure out in the beginning. If you can get the hang of it, however, you will find a calculator app that performs well, overall.

When you first open Swipe Calc, you'll find a normal calculator. In the current version of the app, the calculator does not work properly in landscape mode, so be sure to hold … Read more