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Android's built-in video player is fine, but it doesn't support all of the formats you probably use. QQ Player supports more formats and has a few standout features, as well, but the video and audio quality aren't stellar and the app's menus can be tough to navigate, too.

The app's language is a mix of Chinese characters and broken English, which makes it difficult to understand at times. It gives you an annoying message every time you try to exit, too. When you first use the app, it can take a while for it to … Read more

Creating an animated image seems like a lofty task if you're not already an expert. Sadly, mastering heavy-duty coding and photo editing skills would probably be easier than using this app. Pics2Flix Lite has a restrictive layout and is confusing to operate. The results it gives aren't worth the time it takes to figure things out, either.

This app compiles a folder of pictures into an animation. To find your photos, you have to search through your gadget's raw file menu instead of the standard gallery -- where most of your photos will be. Once you've … Read more

One of Android's biggest pluses over an iPhone is the flexibility you get with home screen widgets. If you're looking for more ways to change the way things look, add Overlays to your home screens. It lets you view a custom home screen from any app you're using. It's a little tough to set up at first, but it's pretty cool once you get started.

Before you get to work setting up the app, it pays to view the tutorial. The developers' site has some helpful hints that will make the app easier to use, … Read more

The selection of flash cards and other education tools for infants and toddlers on the App Store is extremely large. There are thousands of apps that promise finely-tuned learning experiences for very young children, and for good reason -- the iPad and iPhone are perfect for this age group. But not all apps follow through on their promises. Baby Brain Flash Cards Series 1 manages to fall somewhere between both extremes, offering a wealth of options but a poorly-crafted interface and lack of direction that makes it hard to manage as a parent.

When you open the app you are … Read more

A common trend with mobile games is to take classic mechanics, combine them with a one-minute timer, and challenge users to get as high a score as possible. It's immediately addictive, easy to compete with others, and makes the "freemium" upgrade model easier to implement. That said, Bubble Blast Easter manages to make it work in many ways with only a handful of drawbacks to an otherwise finely-structured, free app.

The goal of Bubble Blast Easter is to shoot colored eggs at a pattern of eggs above you to match and destroy the old eggs. It's … Read more

The camera built into the iPhone is a powerful tool, but the software it comes with is fairly limited. Point and shoot -- simple enough. So there are plenty of apps on the App Store that provide additional tools and features that make it possible to get more out of your device. For those that need to tag their images with GPS coordinates, there is Eagle View Photo Capture, a new app that makes it very easy to do so.

The app is easy enough. There are four buttons on the bottom bar when you open the app: Camera, Save … Read more

The idea of an hourglass timer is a good one. Consider for a moment how bland the average timer is for the iPhone. The built-in timer is pure function and very little style, and the other apps that try to replace it are not much better. So why not use an interactive hourglass to represent the passage of time? While the concept is sound, the execution in Hourglass Timer is largely ineffective.

Start the app, choose an amount of time, and press start. The hourglass will be flipped and the timer will count down. However, instead of actually keeping track … Read more

Your iPhone is immensely distracting. It doesn't matter what you do for a living and how diligent you are, it is likely that, at some point in your day, you are wasting at least some volume of time using your phone instead of working. GoWork attempts to help people who have this problem by gently "reminding" them to get back to work after a certain amount of time. While it works to some degree, it is fairly limited in many ways.

The concept is very basic. Set a time frame for how long you are allowed to … Read more

PDF files are much easier to send and read than your standard Open Office files. This app claims to convert your Office files into PDFs, but it does the bare minimum to live up to that name. In fact, Open Office to PDF Creator seems much more like a basic file viewer than anything else.

Most of Open Office to PDF Creator's navigation buttons are clouded by ads that take up the top and bottom of the screen. That really doesn't matter, since you can do most of the converting right from your file menu. Converting .odt files … Read more