Tips Smart

The Nexus 4 has it all as far as most Android users are concerned. A gorgeous slim design, a sharp display, enough power and RAM to run games and Twitter with ease, and those critical sparkly bits on the back of it that give you something else to look at when youre done trawling your usual apps and feeds.


More importantly, being a Nexus device means its always first in line for software updates direct from Google, so it always features the very latest pre-loaded apps and tools that other Android users have to wait for their makers to port across.

Currently the Nexus 4 is running on the 4.2.2 iteration of Googles mobile software, which is as new as it gets. Were also expecting Google to push out an updated version of Android quite soon, most likely version 4.3, over the coming weeks. But until then, get the most out of your current edition Nexus 4 by installing these ten top apps that further enhance Googles current Android flagship.

DashClock Widget

One of the new additions within Android 4.2 that Nexus 4 owners can enjoy is the ability for some widgets to be installed on the lock screen, with the lock screen itself scrolling from left to right like the phones actual desktop.

DashClock Widget replaces the default clock, also letting you select from a list of additional extensions that add more data to the lock display.

You can have your emails incorporated there, the weather, battery status, upcoming Calendar entries, SMS messages and more, all in a stylish, Android-like layout. Its the Nexus advantage in full effect.

SphereShare.net

The Nexus 4 doesnt have the best physical camera in the smartphone world, but it does have Googles most feature-packed camera software -- including the impressive PhotoSphere tool that lets anyone create Street View style 360-degree panoramas by walking around in a circle and letting the phone stitch together the results.

Problem is, these PhotoSpheres are large, difficult to share and are usually only viewable through Google+, which is where SphereShare.net comes it. It lets you browse PhotoSpheres taken by other Nexus 4 users on your phone, giving you an instant gallery of staggering panoramas to leaf through and drop into.

Photosphere Live Wallpaper

If you have been so absorbed by the act of slowly rotating on the spot to categorise your surroundings you want a constant reminder on your Home screen, install this.

It lets you set a PhotoSphere as your wallpaper, using left and right swipes to scroll it roughly in time with the screens it sits behind, and the phones motion control sensors to move your "head" up and down.

Relive that great view or a 360-degree panorama of your bedroom with ease.

Chrome Beta

The Nexus 4s very latest Android OS already comes with the excellent mobile Chrome browser built-in, so the only way to get an even more bleeding-edge, nerdy web experience is to install Chrome Beta.

Its a separate, standalone app, which Google uses to test new functionality with understanding users who dont mind the odd glitch. It means you get new features first, which is one of the big reasons people invest in Nexus devices in the first place.

Feedly

If your Nexus is your mobile news hub, youll no doubt be gutted that Googles decided to close its Reader RSS feed tool by the summer of 2013.

This leaves a massive chasm in the world of desktop and mobile RSS reader apps, with few alternatives offering such a seamless RSS experience.

Fortunately, Feedlys just about there when it comes to matching Googles old Reader in terms of cross-platform reading, article syncing and sharing, plus it comes with a vastly superior design that borrows heavily from the stylish news aggregators like Flipboard and Googles own Currents app.

Twilight

This is a weird one, but it might change your life. Or at least change the sleeping part of it.

Twilight makes some very believable claims about the blue spectrum of light emitted by mobile screens, suggesting its these that tell our brains its the middle of the day -- despite the fact we tend to stare at our phones in the darkness before going to bed.

By eliminating the blue light from the screen output this app supposedly alleviates the effects of looking at a bright light in a dark room, helping your brain realise its dark and therefore bedtime. In short, it might help you sleep better if youre in the habit of using your phone before bed, in return for using a red-tinted display.

WeVideo

WeVideo adds loads more options to editing movies on the Nexus 4, letting users drag and drop videos onto a timeline to create long-form edits, add filters, drop in images and MP3s for use as a soundtrack, create titles and much more.

Google ought to buy it for a few hundred million and make it a standard thing.

Cinemagram

While Android users wait for Twitters developers to release a version of video sharing app Vine for Android, theres this stylish alternative to practise on.

Its pretty much exactly the same as Vine, letting users record short clips, live, with the press of a button to start/stop recording, which are automatically compiled into tidy, looping edits, and chucked online to share through social sites.

Theres some social network stuff built in too, but its best used as simple a simple way to share small video files.

Dextr Email Beta

There are plenty of third-party email apps competing for installation on your Nexus 4, plus the onboard generic Email option that comes as part of Android 4.2 is certainly worth using, too.

But this ones different. It syncs with a Gmail account and replaces Googles mail tools, giving you a simpler interface built around threaded messages that pop up in a modern Android-inspired layout.

A friend system lets you sort the humans from the automated notices that plague modern email, hopefully making reading messages less of a chore.

CloudMagic

Make sense of that mass of social networks, email providers and cloud services with Cloud Magic, which lets you search through all of them in one go.

The first task is the not insignificant chore of opening the app and separately signing in to everything again, but climb that mountain of tedium and you can then use its interface to search your Google account, various social networks, Microsofts mail systems, Evernote files and more, all through one little search box.

Do it often and you have to pay for increased access, but the occasional rummage is free -- and theres a lock screen widget for ease of access, too.

The Korean company has renewed its family of hybrid “Tab Book” by launching a new model that recovers the origins and revolutionizes the concept. The first LG Tab Book fact was born exactly one year ago and had Windows 8, this summer has gone to Android, but the change did not last long. The new LG Tab Book Duo back to Windows 8 and is lighter and thinner than its predecessors, or so the slogan of LG.

 LG Tab Book Duo has two strengths: its weight and the keyboard dock, which this time does not slip but is detachable. The new hybrid Korean company is in fact a 2-in-1 detachable, and then sold as a tablet and a separate keyboard. The tablet weighs only 530 grams, “equal to the weight of a bottle of mineral water” for LG, and reaches 792 grams when it is combined with the Bluetooth keyboard. In any case, always well below the tolerable kilo then either be transported in short / long journeys is to hold for a few hours. The keyboard is also a key to the accessory-Tab Book Duo, because it manages to turn a consumer tablet in a device for productivity. E ‘with a one-button push to ease the “contact” with the tablet and is also compatible with other mobile devices. Unlike the old Tab Book, this model is equipped with a stand on the back that allows you to keep upright the screen when using in “notebook”.

 We do not know much about the technical specifications; LG is left only escape that will be equipped with a quad-core Intel (probably a Boradwell? We hope so!), 10.1-inch IPS screen and Windows 8.1 OS. On board is also a USB 3.0 port, a micro HDMI and a battery capable of delivering up to 11 hours of battery life. LG Tab Book Duo is available on the local market (Korea) for the price of ₩ 740,000, about $ 670 or 550 Euros. Both the tablet and keyboard are declined in white and black. For now, we do not know availability and price official Tab Book Duo in Europe and USA, but probably we will know more at CES 2015 in Las Vegas.

LG Tab Book Duo: Hybrid 2-in-1 10-inch with Windows 8

The Asus Transformer Book Chi T100 is a team of 10 inches that combines the use in tablet format with a small laptop, thanks to a keyboard dock that can disengage the panel at any time. Among the most interesting features of this model Full HD resolution of 1,900 x 1,200 pixels to enjoy a good level of detail in the content, a remarkable fineness of just 1.3 inches or Intel Core Atom processor quad-core included to run smoothly menus Windows 8. To see this model in the market will have to wait a few weeks. Its price is expected to rise to 400 euros. We tell you the details.

 The Book Chi T100 uses a 10.1-inch IPS panel with full HD resolution of 1,900 x 1,200 pixels, with a density of 222 dots per inch. This figure allows us to enjoy a good level of detail on the contents of the computer. Furthermore, the use of IPS technology provides extended viewing angles up to 178 degrees both horizontally and vertically. In the design of this model, we have a device that has maintained fineness and a very competitive weight. The tablet has some measures 265 x 174.5 x 7.2 mm with a weight of 570 grams. Meanwhile, the keyboard dock has some measures 265 x 174.5 x 6 mm and weighs 510 grams. In total, we can enjoy a team with a total thickness of only 13.2 mm and weighing just over a kilo. Very competitive figures that facilitate the transport of Asus Transformer Book Chi T100 in your backpack or hands .

 In the bowels of this tablet are an Intel Atom Z3775 processor-Trail Bay family with four cores and a power of 1.46 GHz, RAM with 1 or 2 GB. At this point, we strongly recommend users to buy the team were opting to setup 2 GB of RAM, since otherwise it would be a really limited set to tackle recommend Windows 8.1 operating system. The Microsoft platform is the first serious attempt by the US Company to combine the traditional world of desktop applications with mobile devices oriented touch interface. Of course, this attempt has been widely criticized so far, and is already preparing to launch a new Windows (Windows 10 should arrive this spring).

 By purchasing this Asus Transformer Book Chi T100 we can enjoy a year of Office 365 for use with this tablet. Yes, we must bear in mind that this team is not very powerful, so it may be a bit short to use most demanding desktop applications. As to the internal memory of this equipment, Asus will sell two different configurations with 32 GB or 64 GB eMMC format. This model will hit the market over the next few weeks for a starting price of 400 euros.

Asus Transformer Book Chi T100 - 10 inch tablet with keyboard