SeriesGuide

SeriesGuide for Android review

   SeriesGuide is an app that helps you keep track of your TV shows.  Does not matter if you have cable/satellite, only watch Over The Air, or Stream all your shows.  This will help you keep track of what you have and have not watched yet.  Over at a friends house and watch a show, just check it off and you can delete it off your DVR later without having to watch some of it to "Make Sure".  Also great for TV shows that are on weird schedules, 5-8 episodes on, then a month or 2 of re-runs then more new episodes.  So you can avoid re-runs but not worry about missing the new episodes.
   It links to trakt (https://trakt.tv) or tvtag (http://tvtag.com) to share your watching on social networks and/or back up your shows and episodes across devices.

You several views.  The "Shows" view lets you see all your shows and when the next episode you have not seen will air (or when it already did air)

The "Upcoming" view shows what shows going to be aired soon.

And the "Recent" view are all the shows that have recently aired.

You just tap the check to mark a show as watched.  You can also open up the show to see all the seasons and get info on each and every episode.  It is a brilliant tool for anyone who has dropped cable and does all their TV watching via Streaming.

The basic app functions are free.  There is a pay version, you can either pay a subscription or a one time fee...  But the free version does a great job of keeping track of your shows.

Available from Google Play, Amazon, and their website:

http://seriesgui.de/

Silent Time for Android Review

   Silent Time is an app that helps you get control over your phones alerts and other sounds when you just want quiet.  You can program scheduled times of silence (Like for sleeping or naps).  You can also quickly quiet your phone for a movie or one time meeting.
   Sure you can manually mute and un-mute your phone, but if you forget to un-mute it then you can miss calls and important notifications.  However your alarms will still ring through (So no worries about conflicting with your morning alarm to wake you up).  And you can set up certain phone numbers that will ring no matter the Silent Time state.

   When you first start it you are presented with an screen.  This is where the scheduled silent times will be shown.



















To add one just press the + button.  You will then be presented with options to name the time you want your phone silent.  As well as schedule options.  These options include a day of the week as well as a start and stop times.












Now that you have a list you can optionally turn each entry on and off whenever you wish.

To allow certain people to contact you (emergencies or spouse/gf/bf) even during the quiet times you click the down arrow on the main screen.

This menu will show up.
Exceptions - is where you can set up who can call you when silent.

Quick Quiet - allows you to set a one time silence time starting now.

Settings - General settings. (I will go into more detail later)

When you click on Exceptions you will then see your contacts list.  Just pick a contact from the list that you want to call you during your quiet times.  If a contact has more than one number you want to let through, you will have to add them separately for each number.

You can choose if they can only call during one of your scheduled silent times, or if they can call no matter what silent time you have active.




And each person can have their own limits set.






When your scheduled silent event goes off a notification scrolls across the top of your screen.

And then when that notification goes away you can see the icon for it, and the muted icon from Android.

When you expand the notification bar there is a larger notification that gives more detail.

There is also a widget that you can set on your home screen that allows you to set a Quick Quiet.  That is perfect for going to the movies, unscheduled meetings, or whenever you just need a bit of peace and quiet.

You just tap the widget, then set how many hours and minutes you want your phone to be quiet for, and you never have to worry about forgetting about your phone again.
The "Enable Vibration" allows you to let your phone vibrate when there is a notification or call.  So that you know something happened, but not alert the whole world.

The settings (that I mentioned earlier) let you tweak just how the app does what it does.

Enable Notifications - Lets you turn the notifications for the Silent Time on and off.  (I leave it on so that I remember why my phone is quiet)
Play Sound on Notifications - This will determine if your phone plays the default notification alert when it goes silent.
Vibrate on Notifications - This will vibrate when the notification alert goes off when your device goes silent.
Persistent Notifications - This prevents you from swiping away, or clearing the Silent Time notification.
24 Hour Clock Mode - This gets rid of the AM PM and you have to set it up based on Military Time.
Start Week on Monday - Just what it says, let you set if Sunday or Monday is the start of the week.

I have been using this for quite some time, and it works great.  No more forgetting to un-mute my phone when I wake up or after a movie.  And no more forgetting to mute my phone when I go to sleep, then get woke up because I got a TXT, EMail or a Facebook notification.

Available from the Google Play Store:

Clean Master for Android review.

Clean Master is a free maintenance app for Android.  It can clean up leftover files from apps as well as shut down running processes that are no longer needed.

   It is simple to use and does a good job of cleaning up after un-installed apps as well as cleaning up leftovers from apps you currently have installed.  It scans both the internal memory of a device as well as any external storage currently installed.
   It also checks for any running processes left over from apps you are not currently running and shuts them down.  You can choose what processes to leave running if you wish.  Such as any Instant Messengers, any Antivirus Software, or any app you want to get notifications from.

   It has a very simple to understand interface.  You are shown 2 graphs side by side.  The one on the left is your total storage (internal + external) combined.  How much that is used is shown in a % as well as in GigaBytes.  On the right you are shown how much ram is in use in only a %.  Under the graphs you see 4 buttons.

   The first one is "Junk Files".  Tap this and it will scan all the storage on your device for files that are no longer needed.  These useless files build up and over time can slow your device down and consume your storage.


  The second one is "Memory Boost".  This is the one that checks for running processes and lets you choose what you do and do not want to leave running.

  The third one is "Security & Privacy".  This  scans your device for any security or privacy risks.  This ranges from insecure apps to something simple like your browser history.  You can choose to address each issue it finds however you see fit.

   The fourth one is "App Manager".  It shows you a list of all the installed apps, and it can sort them by how frequently they are used, in order of least used to most used.  This is an easy tool to help you remove apps you have either forgotten about or no longer use.  You can check the boxes next to the apps you do not use, then choose to backup (if your device has root) or just uninstall them.  You can uninstall one at a time, or to save you time you can check several apps at once and remove them all with one button press.

   Clean Master does have some Active Protections, and other tools that I just did not see a need for.  And these active tools can decrease your battery life and potentially slow your device down.  I will go through the settings and show you what settings I have selected for my use and explain why I chose them.  Feel free to try out the other features, as they may work better for you and your device.

   I have this turned on so that the app can alert me when I am getting low on free space.  You can play with the "Notification Toggle Style" to change the color of the notification to whatever you prefer.

   I do not use many widgets so I turned this off so that when I go to add a widget it is one less thing to sift through.  If you do use widgets feel free to turn this on.

  I have the "Low Space Notification" turned on so that if I start to run low on space I can be alerted before my device starts acting up because I am running out of space.  I turned off the "Junk Reminder" mainly because I have no problem remembering to run Clean Master about once a week to clean my junk files.  If you feel you are not remembering to run it, then feel free to turn "Junk Reminder" on there are 2 triggers for the junk reminder.  When you have gone a certain number of days between cleanings, or when the junk files take up a certain amount of space.  You can customize both of those triggers.

   This will scan your storage for Apks* that are no longer needed.  This usually comes from side-loading an app or installing an app from another app store like Amazon, Humble Bundle, and AppBrain to name a few.
*APK is a packaged file format used by Android to install applications.  More info available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APK_(file_format)

  This will help you find large (larger than 10mb) files that you may have forgotten about.  (Movies or audio books for example)

   This will filter files by extension...  Exactly how it works I am not sure, as I tend to manage these kinds of files manually.  Feel free to tinker and discover how to use it for yourself.

   These are not needed if you are running another antivirus/real-time security app (which I highly recommend).  Turning on Real-time protection will cause your battery to drain rather quickly.  (Most dedicated antivirus apps barely touch the battery)  And the "Safe Browsing" feature will also be covered by most other Anti-virus apps.
   I have no idea what the Ignore List under Security does.

   SD card scan is a feature I just have off.  I would rather leave a few small junk files in place than risk loosing a file I need.  Use this feature at your own risk.

   Auto-delete events erases the event log.  I have it set for all, you can change this if you want.

This is only useful if you want to be nagged about apps that you have not used in a while.  I just turn it off.  I do not need to be nagged about apps I do not use often.  That is what the App Manager is for.

   Task Killer reminder is more annoying than anything else.  By the time the reminder pops up, I have already noticed my phone being slow.
   Kill tasks at screen turnoff is overkill and not needed.  I think this is designed for people with OCD.  ;)

   Ignore List is a list of files and tasks that will not be shut down or deleted.  You can add or remove files and tasks from here.  You can also add to the Ignore List when you run the scans as well.

   Fun Extras are little easter eggs that appear for holidays and such.  They are only active over WiFi and do not effect performance.  Feel free to set this to whatever you want.
   Send anonymous usage statics is an optional feature.  It allows the programmers to see how their app is used in the real world.  All the data is encrypted and anonymous.

  One last feature is the Game Booster.  It is not just for games tho, you can add any app you want to the list.  It prevents memory hogging processes from starting when you are running certain apps or games.  This is useful if a particular app or game tends to be a bit laggy this can help you get the best performance.








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