Three Gorgeous Apps That Give iOS a Run For Its Money [Android]

iOS hasn’t changed very much in appearance for the past few years – but it is beautiful. There’s an innate elegance and smoothness to many iOS apps; something that can’t really be captured in words, but more in the responsiveness of the interface and its functional minimalism. The same, unfortunately, can’t be said for Android – many Android apps are pretty messy, using a hodgepodge of unclear UI conventions and controls.

This, however, is starting to change. I’ve recently come across three different apps, each with a different purpose, but all united by one thing – aesthetics. These are apps by developers who take the Holo design guidelines seriously, and it shows. So today’s roundup is a different one, because it’s around form, rather than function.

For Twitter: Falcon Pro

It’s hard to count the things $1 Twitter client Falcon Pro gets right, but I’ll try – clean, flat aesthetics; clear tweets and typography; inline graphics that can be easily resized to fill the screen; and of course, lovely menus that slide in from left and right.

It’s an ambitious utility, and the animations aren’t as smooth as they can be, which is something holding back many Android utilities – iOS just feels smoother. Still, the way Falcon Pro utilizes every pixel on the screen and organizes functionality to be both clear and appealing is definitely something other developers can learn from. This isn’t a full-on review, but if you’re looking for a solid Twitter client, give Falcon Pro a shot.

I switched to it from Plume, which I’ve previously reviewed. It’s just feels better, and is more fun to use (at least for me).

For Reader: Press

I am not the only one inspired by iOS: Press is a new RSS reader that syncs up with Google Reader, and takes quite a few design cues from iOS app Reeder. We’ve looked at Reeder’s desktop version before, and just by going over the screenshots in that post you’ll see the similarity at first glance. Press shows your subscriptions on a light grey background, and its reading view is a pleasure to behold:

The only beef I have with Press is that it doesn’t sync items in the background, so every time I run it I have to tap the Sync button and wait a moment while it talks to Google Reader and pulls in all the feeds I didn’t read. Other than that, it’s a joy to use.

It’s far from the only news reader for Android – we’ve previously looked at Pulse for Android and JustReader, both fine options – but Press does have that understated visual flair that just makes it fun to use without coming off as ostentatious or overly animated (some apps just try too hard).

For The World Around You: Holo Compass

Finally, here’s simplicity itself:

Yup, it’s a compass. Holo Compass, to be exact. That’s all it does – it’s just a compass. It’s not a flashlight, not a map, not a measuring device, and not a camera. One simple thing, and it works. It’s visual minimalism reminds me of another of my favorite utilities, the Ovo timer for Android. Just like Ovo, Holo Compass uses a very flat scheme, with no shadows or anything to detract from its centerpiece, the compass. If your device has a reliable built-in compass sensor, Holo Compass is one of the best ways to use it.

A Design Trend

I feel that form follows function, not the other way around – i.e, the first thing a coder should worry about is what their app should help the user do. That said, the hallmark of a truly excellent product is that it manages to be both functional and beautiful at the same time – and I’m happy to see more and more Android apps arriving at this level of excellence. Also, I’m happy to say I’ve just included Falcon Pro and Press in our list of Best Android Apps.

Do you know of any other beautifully-designed apps? Let us know in the comments!

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Use Wolfram Alpha To Dig Up Cool Statistics About Your Facebook Account [Weekly Facebook Tips]

If you’ve heard of Wolfram Alpha before, you’ll know that it’s a wealth of knowledge that’s occasionally compared to the likes of the Star Trek computer. There are all sorts of weird and wonderful uses for Wolfram Alpha, including powerful search terms, other searching tips, widgets, a variety of cool uses and other truly powerful uses of Wolfram Alpha. However, even if you know all about these Wolfram Alpha tools, you may still not yet know about their Facebook analytics tool.

With the Wolfram Alpha Facebook analytics tool, you can find out a huge amount of information about your Facebook account. It’s quite fun to see which of your posts or photos are the most popular, who your top commenters are, who is sharing your posts the most and more interesting tidbits. Plus, it’s easy to use this tool and completely free. Why not have a go?

Using Wolfram Alpha for Facebook

Using Wolfram Alpha’s Facebook analysis tool is completely free, so all you need to do is log in using your Facebook credentials and give it access to your account. It will then either link your Facebook to your Wolfram Alpha account or create a Wolfram Alpha account for you. You’ll then see that “Facebook Report” is entered into the search box for you, so all you need to do is hit enter to get the results.

From there you’ll be able to browse information about your Facebook account or use the Wolfram Alpha search tool to find out things about your Facebook data. Then the fun starts! Here’s a video showing how it works.

What Does The Facebook Report Show?

Your personalised Wolfram Alpha Facebook report will show all sorts of statistics about you, your Facebook usage and your friends. Every time you visit Wolfram Alpha in the future these will be updated to reflect your current situation, so you’ll always see new information. The main screen shows an overview, but each section can be expanded by clicking the “More” button in the top-right.

Your personal data will show interesting facts related to your birthday and age, such as your star sign, how old you are in days, and some fun star and moon chart information (which presumes you were born in your listed home town).

Data collected about your friends will show you their locations on a map, charts of gender differences, age distribution, relationship statuses, friends who have the most mutual friends, most common names and surnames, and more. You can even see a diagram of your network, showing where the overlaps are between friend groups.

Statistics about your Facebook usage are also available, including when you log in and from which device or application, which posts you made were the most popular (across the whole of Facebook), which posts you made got the most likes, how often you post updates, how often you upload photos, how often you post links, your top commenters, the people who share your posts the most, post length, a map of your check-in history, your most commented on photo, your most liked photo, word frequencies and a word cloud.

All of the data can be filtered to show results for different timeframes or with other filters, such as for gender or age. This means you can keep exploring your Facebook data for quite a while before the fun stops!

Sharing The Fun

Of course, once you’re done exploring your Facebook data, you may want to share the results. It’s simple to share your favourite chart or a permanent page of your Facebook statistics with your friends via Facebook.

What did you find out about your Facebook account? What was your favourite statistic from Wolfram Alpha?

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What You Need to Know About Native Social Networking Tools In Windows 8

Whenever you switch to a new operating system there are always a few new things to learn – and with Windows 8, the learning curve has increased considerably with the new user interface and built-in store adding a new dimension to Microsoft’s long-running OS.

One of the key differences in Windows 8 is the approach to social networking. Whereas previously it was something that was easily covered by visiting websites or installing third party clients, social networking in Windows 8 – typically accessing services such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – is made all the more simple by the provision of integrated support and approved clients that can be downloaded from the store.

Getting to grips with social networking in Windows 8, therefore, might prove quite difficult to start with – until you’ve got to grips with the People screen.

Windows 8 People Explained

For many years, Windows has got by without having its own dedicated contact management system. Unlike Mac OS X, Windows has instead relied on its integrated email tool or third party solutions, but with Windows 8, this comes to an end with the introduction of the People screen.

Like its Windows Phone namesake, this holds the contact details for all of your friends and family, and can display details from various social networks.

Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live, LinkedIn and Google accounts are all supported, and can be added either by opening People and clicking the Connect option in the top right corner and entering the account username and password.

The immense benefit of this is that Windows 8 will then effortlessly import the details for all of your contacts from Facebook, Google or whatever your preferred social networking service is. Opening the People tool will then display your friends for you to scroll through, and you can use the What’s New button to see the latest news. Updates will also be displayed on the live tile on the Start screen.

Facebook On Windows 8

At the time of release, there is no dedicated Facebook app for Windows 8. Rather, users are expected to integrate the social network into their computers via the People screen, as described above.

This isn’t really a massive hardship; although there is no access to groups and pages through this tool, and Facebook games are also disabled (all of which can of course be viewed through the Internet Explorer browser), you can effortlessly move through conversations on Facebook through the People screen.

Engaging with your friends is simply a case of clicking their update, reading through the comments and leaving your own. The View Notifications button in the People screen will display any responses to threads that you’re involved in.

If you want to update your own status, meanwhile, you can do so from the main People screen – click Me and in the Facebook “What’s on your mind?” field you can leave your thoughts. This view also provides access to your Facebook photos by scrolling right.

Twitter For Windows 8

It’s not too different with Twitter. Importing an account requires the same steps, and the What’s New button displays not only updates from Facebook but also Twitter.

When you want to comment on or like a Twitter update, once again all you need to do is select it and tap the Like button and/or leave a comment; new status updates can be left by clicking the drop-down arrow (if there are multiple accounts setup) and selecting Twitter, before entering your thoughts.

You will be alerted to mentions and retweets in the View Notifications screen. Although not the most ideal way of using Twitter, the integration is good, and the Start screen live tile updates make it ideal for quick use.

Social Networking, The Windows 8 Way

Simple integration of these popular social networks enables users to skimp on installing dedicated apps, although in the case of Twitter this isn’t recommended for intensive use.

Accounts for both Twitter and Facebook can be added to Windows 8, thereby populating your contacts screen (People) and enabling you to quickly interact with friends and family on your new computer.

Meanwhile, third party apps (for Twitter at least!) are provided that expand on the native integration – and if you want to play Facebook games, you can simply launch the web browser!

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