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    16-Jul-2020

Apps for the mobile world

 

Jean-Claude Elias, The Jordan Times

 

How many apps do you have installed on your smartphone? How many do you really use? Are you happy with the performance of each of them?
 
Mobile apps constitute a tech world on their own. These small software programmes (or applications, hence the short form “app”) have become a must, and most tasks you can think of and that be performed using a mobile device, typically a smartphone of course, have an app associated with them.
 
The main, the major ones are well understood and their purpose clear. These would be, for instance, Google Maps, the phone’s Gallery, your phone operator’s App (Orange, Zain, etc.), Shazam, the phone’s Camera, Skype, Messenger, or Facebook. The list of these essential apps does not really exceed a hundred or so.
 
There is at the same time a flabbergasting number of other apps out there, whether on App Store if yours is an iPhone, or on Google Play if you live in Android land. The first holds some 2 million apps and the second about 13 million, according to statistics dating to the beginning of the current year.
 
These numbers are a problem per se. For obviously there are not millions of categories of apps, but hundreds, or maybe thousands. The huge number just comes from the fact that for each kind of app you may look for, you will find tens if not hundreds of apps that claim to do the same thing. Choosing the best is a headache and a time-consuming work. It is only by trial and error, by experimenting, by reading the reviews or checking with your friends, that you can — hopefully — find that ideal app.
 
And yet, one should not feel overwhelmed by the numbers and give up the search too easily, for there are many really useful apps out there, some of which you can hardly think of, and that might prove to be very useful to you.
 
A sampler. A very humble one.
 
Open Camera is one such app. The camera software that comes with your phone is simple and does a decent job. But its somewhat limited settings do not do justice to the device’s camera full possibilities. Open Camera is one of the apps that allows you to treat and use your smartphone camera almost like a professional DSLR and even more! The extent of the settings range is mind blowing and will let you in the end take photos that you think were not possible.
 
Ever wondered why your phone or tablet did not charging fast enough? Did you suspect a poor quality cable, a defective charger of simply your device itself? Ampere can help you troubleshoot the issue. The nice, free and small app will show you exactly how fast (or how slowly) the charge is being done. It will also show you how fast your phone is discharging, when not connected to a charger.
 
Package Disabler app helps you tame bloatware, these annoying applications that come pre-loaded in your smartphone, that you never asked for in the first place, and that you are not allowed to uninstall. Package Disabler will let you easily and nicely disable or enable them one by one, selectively. It is smart and clean, and will preserve your phone’s processor and memory resources for the really important job you want to use it for.
 
I love Caffeine, and not just in the morning. This truly intelligent small app lets you keep your screen awake for the time you like: seconds, minutes or all the time. You can also decide if your device’s screen should stay up in specific cases or conditions: when connected to USB external equipment, or when specific applications are running, etc. There is no equivalent to Caffeine in the apps or the settings that are built in your smartphone.
 
Again, this is but a modest sampler. By searching the apps stores one can find countless little really useful software jewels.
 
 

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