articles on
Hands-On Android O Beta: My Initial Thoughts
After the announcement from the latest Android O at the Google I/O, an annual event for developers. Google released a Beta program that can give you the opportunity to try the pre-release version of Android and share your feedback. It’s a Beta version so obviously, there might be bugs and errors from the launch version. But if you own one of the eligible devices, you can easily enroll your device and get started. I decided to give it a try with my Google Pixel and here are some of my thoughts. If you are interested in giving it a try as well or/and see if you are compatible, please check out the Android Beta Site. For me, the installation process was quite simple and easy to follow if compared to another phone; for my experience for the least. Again, it’s at your own risk. Overall UI hasn't changed that much. Notifications In terms of UI, nothing hasn't changed that much except for the Settings Panel and small tweaks as you go deeper into the settings. I liked the new placement of the Settings Navigations, feels more native especially on the Pixel XL. I also liked the improved function called: Night Light where they added a slider that allows you to control the intensity of the light. New colour palette for the Settings Panel and also placement of its navigation DOTS! One of my major complaints from Android Nougat was the absence of signification of unread messages/notifications on the actual Home Screen where for example on iOS, you will notice them right away with a number inside the circle. Now you have dots, it is more noticeable and you can long-press on an icon to view your notifications. It's an improvement! What I do enjoy is that you can vaguely work on your notifications without actually entering the app. Notifications Cards, Dots and Badges New Set of Emoji It is a new design, whatever you like it or not. You'll notice that they retired the blobs for which I was fine but these are more familiar. Personally, I am not the greatest fan of the stroke around all the icons but that's just me. You can view the full list here. New set of Emoji Icons I can't wait to play with the launch version but it's definitely fun to go through what Android is cooking up. On this OS, you'll get also smoother performance and lower data usage so more memory. To add also faster boot times, battery improvements (which it is already fantastic), more fingerprint gestures and more. Hope you've enjoyed this rundown! More Links Visit the Android Beta Program Revisit our Google Pixel Review
Android Prototyping for Designers - Shapes and Click Event
Prototyping has become a very important part of the UI/UX design process. With mobile applications taking over the web it is imperative for designers to find ways to test their designs on the devices. In the beginning most designers, including myself, relied on HTML, CSS and Javascript to emulate the native experiences that the users would see. It worked quite well and still does, however it's not a very reliable approach if you really want to understand the constraints and complexities that a developer may face when translating your designs into the final product. With that in mind, I decided to focus my efforts on the Android Platform and Java to be able to create truly native prototypes. In addition, I wanted to deliver more than redlines but reusable assets that could reduce the churn and bug fixes because of differences in the jargon used by designer tools compared to the developers. Android doesn't have the same fame that its counterpart iOS has, however it's a great platform and it's not that complicated to learn for simple prototypes. Dare I say that it's easier than investing in learning Framer, for example, if you are designing for Android. The benefits of learning the right tool are enormous. Here are a few points I want to highlight Truly knowledge of platform constraints Much better communication with developers Reusable assets and styles Real craftsmanship workflow Well, enough pontificating, let's go straight to the tutorial. Android Prototyping for Designers Step 1 Open Android Studio and start a new project. The Application name I used is Shapes. Step 2 For prototyping I don't have to worry to much about older versions of Android. Of course it's important to know which one to choose. You can use the "Help me choose" option. But API 21 is the one that has the Material Design specs, so let's go with that one. You can have the spec running on older devices with the Support Library, but that is for another post. It's quite geeky, I don't understand either :) Step 3 You can select some templates to start with. For this project let's start with an Empty Activity. It will have Action Bar and some theme assigned, I will talk about that on a next post. For now, let's just play with shapes. Step 4 Okay, now it's when things get overlwhelming. Don't worry it's simpler thant it looks. What you see below is the Java file, or the behavior of our prototype. Step 5 For now let's focus on the design. On the left side, in the project tree column, select the folder "res" and then "layout". Click on "activity_main.xml". That's the layout of our prototype. Step 6 Delete that "Hello world" string. We won't need that for this prototype. In this screen we have the layout of our app. We have a column with widgets and right below a panel called "Component tree". You see that there's a component called "activity_main (RelativeLayout)". That is the main container of our prototype. We will add more components inside this one. Note also on the right side there's a column called properties. There will will find all the properties for the component selected. I bet it sounds a bit more familiar. Especially for the Dreamweaver users out there :) Step 7 Let's change the background color of the "activity_main" to #eee. Just select the background option and enter the value. Step 8 Now let's create our rounded rectangle. In order to do that we will create a "drawable" for it. It's like a vector that can be used as background and will scale accordingly to the component we use it with. So, select the "drawable" folder and click with the right click of the mouse. Select "New" and then "Drawable resource file". Step 9 Name it rectangle.xml. In android pretty much all the files in the "res" folder will be .xml. With exception of bitmaps. Step 10 This is the default file created. It has the XML tag and a tag called "selector" Step 11 Just rename the "selector" to shape. Add a property called "shape" and use "rectangle". Inside of the shape tag add a item called "solid" with the color you want to use and another one called "corners" with the radius of the rounded corners you want. Use the image below for reference. Also take advantage of the Android Studio autocomplete. It will save you so much time. Step 12 Back to the "activity_main.xml" file. Now let's add a new component to our layout. But before make sure the activity_main component has 0dp for padding. Step 13 Just drag a RelativeLayout component to the center of the screen. Change its height to 200dp and use 24dp for margins. Step 14 Now let's use our drawable for the background. Find the "background" property and click on the "..." icon to open the "Resources" dialog box. Step 15 Search for the "rectangle" drawable we created and selected it. Step 16 There you go, you have a card designed in Android Studio and ready to be deployed. Now comes the fun part. With Material Design we have the light properties that we can play with. Android renders that in real time. You can use either "elevation" or "translationZ" to cast shadows. Step 17 Let's try elevation. Set it to 4dps and Run your prototype in the emulator. Step 18 And there you have it. A nice card, rendered natively using nothing but XML. It's as easy if not easier than using HTML and CSS. Step 19 Now let's get a bit more advanced and try to add a click event to this card. The first thing we need is an "ID". Enter and id name "card" to the card, very creative :) Step 20 Now open the MainActivity.java and let's write some JAVA code. In order to access the card layout from the XML file we need to declare and bind the data. The first thing to do is to create a JAVA variable that will be a RelativeLayout like the component we use. To do that just write "RelativeLayout card;" Use the image below for reference. Note the position of that variable is important, write before the OnCreate method. Step 21 Once we have the "card" variable created, let's linked to our xml card. To do that bind it using the ID. The code is quite simple: "card = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.card);" - Don't ask me what the "R" is. I still don't know. Step 22 After that, it's almost like JavaScript. Just create a ClickListener event. Use the auto-complete. Note, every time you see the red underline alert press "Command+Return" to show the options. Step 23 Here's the auto-complete OnClickEventListener{...} - once you select that it will create the necessary methos and overrides for you. Step 24 Step 25 Now just change the cards properties. Here I just set the elevation to 300. So when you click the card will pop out. Step 26 So let's get a bit fancy. Instead of using setElevation, let's animate. To do that is even simpler. Just write "card.animate().translationZ(300).start(). That will animate with the click. Step 27 Let's also make the card scale X and Y. Step 28 In order to change the curves in android we have to use something call Interpolator. Here I am using a subtle elastic one called "AnticipateOvershootInterpolator()". It's pretty much the same thing as translation, you just add "setInterpolator(new AnticipateOvershootInterpolator())". Conclusion If you want to get fancier you can create an "if" statement with a "boolean" value to go back from one state to the other. Again, it's quite similar to JavaScript in my bad coding knowledge. The best thing is that you get full native experience and understanding about the medium you are working with. That, for me, is the true definition of craftsmanship. Knowing the tools, the materials and having the skills to do it. I hope you enjoy this uber long tutorial. I'll endeavor to write shorter ones for the forthcoming parts. Download Android Studio project
California Highway 1 - Wallpaper
The wallpaper of this week is a photo I took while driving up north on Pacific Highway 1, one of the most beautiful drives in my humble opinion. The cliffs and the ocean combined with a beautiful winter blue sky will always offer great photo opportunities. It's hard to describe the feeling of 'driving up the 1' through photos. For me, there's nothing like the cold breeze of the ocean and the sound of the water hitting the rocks on deserted beaches, no houses just you and nature. It's a connection hard to describe in words, but I hope this picture captures a bit of what I am trying to depict. Full image for download
Weekly Apps: Lifesum, Sprig, Wildcard and more
A post with amazing new apps for iOS and Android users! Take a special look today at Lifesum, Ultratext and Wildcard. Also, for photography addicted give a try at Gallery Doctor I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. Wildcard - trywildcard.com Wildcard is a news and entertainment experience like no other. It’s everything that’s happening in the world that’s interesting, broken down into easy, understandable experiences perfect for your phone.Sprig - sprig.com The best ingredients, thoughtfully prepared, delivered to your door in 15 minutes. Food has finally caught up with the way we live. Lifesum - lifesum.com Lifesum helps you make better food choices, improve your exercise, and reach your health goals. Build healthy habits in small, sustainable steps and make health a part of your lifestyle, not another thing on your to-do list. musical.ly - musical.ly musical.ly makes it easy and fun to create amazing videos and impress your friends. Simply select a sound and start lip syncing! Ultratext - ultratext.co Ultra-fast, Ultra-colorful. Our type-to-create interface is the fastest way to make a GIF message. Ever.
Weekly Apps: Gallery Doctor, Skedule, Schoolhub and more
This post is dedicated for those who want to stay organised or at least try to be! If your a student, take a look at Class Timetable and Schoolhub! Also, for photography addicted give a try at Gallery Doctor. I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. Class Timetable - icemediacreative.com Class Timetable is the perfect companion for school, college or university. Keep track of classes and add events to your week's schedule with ease.Gallery Doctor - gallerydoctor.com Free up valuable iCloud and iPhone storage with Gallery Doctor, the only iPhone cleaner that automatically identifies the unwanted photos on your device. Skedule - stanfy.com Skedule remembers your classes, homework and exams, so you don't have to. Schoolhub Students - schoolhub.com Schoolhub Students is the key to managing your academic life. Use our dashboard for a one-stop overview of your assignments, courses, exams, and more. SoundCloud - soundcloud.com Find new and trending music. Collect tracks and playlists. Follow friends and artists. Discover podcasts, comedy and news.
Weekly Apps: Waterbalance, Atmos, KakaoStory and more
Simple interfaces and great UX, this is what you'll find on this post. Take a special look at KakaoStory, Vevo app and Atmos! I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. Hotel Tonight - hoteltonight.com HotelTonight helps you find & book hand-selected hotels at great price.KakaoStory - kakao.com KakaoStory lets you share life as it happens with photos, status updates and more. Ultra simple and easy to use, KakaoStory is a perfect way to keep up with your friends and share their special moments. Waterbalance - stanfy.com Waterbalance helps you to control level of water in your body taking into account your individual parameters: height, weight, age & way of life. Vevo - vevo.com Vevo offers the largest collection of premium official music videos. Start watching your favorite music videos and catch daily video premieres by downloading Vevo for iOS today.Atmos - atmosapp.com Atmos is an easy to use and stunningly beautiful weather app for your iPhone and Apple Watch.
Weekly Apps: ChefsFeed, Revolut, Red Bull Alert and more
Today we're featuring the beautiful Red Bull Alert, the cool ChefsFeed and the funny Soundtracker apps! I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. Revolut - revolut.com Revolut democratises international finance by removing all currency exchange fees so you can now send, exchange and spend money globally with no fees at all.Soundtracker - play.google.com Soundtracker lets you discover and play in real time music with friends and anybody nearby from a catalog of over 32 Million tracks. ChefsFeed - chefsfeed.com Chefs Feed - The Best Food App for Local Restaurant Recommendations and Reviews from Top Chefs. Red Bull Alert - redbull.com Red Bull Alert is the world’s first alarm clock app that gives you the motivation to get up faster and make the most of your day.Lyrics Mania - lyricsmania.com With Lyrics Mania, you can listen to your music on your device and get the lyrics, synchronized for the most popular songs, karaoke-style!
Weekly Apps: Infinit, My Discogs, Oxygen Now and more
A new weekly apps with a selection for iOS and Android users. Take a special look today at My Discogs, Shazam and Infinit app! I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. Oxygen Now - oxygen.com Oxygen Now is your new destination for full episodes of your favorite Oxygen TV shows. Full episodes are available the day after they appear on TVMy Discogs - play.google.com A brand new app using Material Design to browse Discogs.com. Shazam - shazam.com Shazam is one of the world’s most popular apps, used by more than 100 million people each month to identify music, get song lyrics, and now to discover the music that artists discover themselves. WebMD - webmd.com WebMD for iPhone offers physician-reviewed health content and interactive tools in addition to on-demand healthy living information.Infinit - infinit.io Infinit is the easiest app for sending photos and videos to your friends; and transferring files between your phone and computer.
Weekly Apps: NYTimes, Showtime, Musixmatch and more
This time we selected some nice apps for entertainment and news, such as the new NYTimes for Android and the Showtime app for iOS. I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. NYTimes - nytimes.com The New York Times app for Android delivers breaking news and our award-winning journalism wherever you are. Read the latest headlines from today’s news and original content in our completely redesigned free news app for phone and tablet.Showtime - sho.com SHOWTIME ANYTIME is available at no additional cost as part of your SHOWTIME subscription through participating TV providers. Musixmatch - musixmatch.com usixmatch is the world’s largest lyrics catalog, that lets you enjoy diverse music with synced lyrics. Lyrically - wikia.com Get accurate lyrics fast with an easy-to-read interface. Lyrically offers more than a million lyrics curated for fans, by fans.Badoo - badoo.com Badoo is the App that shows you the people nearby, and even better, the people you’ve bumped into in real life!
Weekly Apps: Peak, Kitchen Stories, Medium and more
A selection of free apps it's what we're bring today! Take a special special look at Timer and Peak for iOS. And for Android you need to try Kitchen Stories, it's beautiful. I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. Timer. - timer.launchrock.com One of the simplest timers ever, beautifully designed (yes we're bragging a little), and repeats over and over again. When the time is up you'll get a buzz and the session will repeat just like that! Peak - peak.net Peak is a personalized self-improvement app specifically designed to help you train your Memory, Focus, Creativity, Emotional Intelligence, Problem Solving, Mental Agility and Language skills with fun, challenging games, reaching goals and building healthy habits. Medium - medium.com Welcome to Medium for Android. Read, recommend, highlight, and respond to stories that matter most to you. Kitchen Stories - kitchenstories.de Loved by millions of users, Kitchen Stories offers aspiring and seasoned chefs alike the opportunity to hone their cooking skills and discover delicious new recipes and cooking inspiration.SmartUp - smartup.io SmartUp is a virtual mentoring and business simulation app designed to help entrepreneurs make better decisions.
Native Android Prototypes with Android Studio - Introduction
I have been working designing interfaces for the web for over 15 years and for the past couple of years I have seen the switch to native apps being a big shift in the industry. I am a huge fan of the web but it's important to keep up with the industry. The design process also has been evolving and getting close to the Industrial Design process I was taught in school, where prototyping is a crucial part of the process. So in order for me to test my designs I have been relying on different tools and techniques to prototype. From pure Javascript/CSS/HTML5 to Framer I have seen a lot of potential, however for me, especially at work, I felt that using the native tools would give me a much better understanding of how to talk to engineers, see how things really work and if possible, help with the front-end process. So for this tutorial and a new series of tutorials I will show you how to create Android prototypes using Android Studio. I am far from proficient in Java, but I have been self-teaching myself by trial and error and use Google Search for most of my answers. So, I will try to share a bit of what I've learned along this new journey and I hope you can avoid making the same mistakes I made and save some extra time. In the end, the most important thing you will be able to visualize is your prototype running on your phone. Step 1 First thing to do is to download Android Studio. Go to http://developer.android.com/sdk and download your copy of Android Studio. Step 2 After downloading, install the app following the recommended options Step 3 Select the Licences and then select the Accept options. I know this sounds obvious but it took me a bit of time to figure our how that worked, I am just trying to save you some time ;) Step 4 Wait for all components to be downloaded. It might take a little while. Step 5 All set? Now it's time to star our new prototype. Click on Start a new Android Studio project Step 6 Use whatever you want for Application Name. Also select the location of your project in your machine. Step 7 This is an interesting screen. It gives a lot of options: are you creating an app for Phone and Tablet, TV, or Wear? Then you can choose the Minimum SDK. The cool thing is that the tool gives an idea of the average of users with that SDK, in the case of API 19 (KitKat) it's 33.9%. Step 8 For our case, as we are building a prototype, I will use the API 22. If you want to test on you phone, use the API that your phone has. Step 9 Now the tool offers you some options for the type of Activity you want to create. Activity is the same thing as screen. If you think about in terms of HTML, that would be one HTML page. For our first prototype, let's use Blank Activity. Step 10 Now you need to give a name to the Activity. I will use Home. Step 11 This is the UI of Android Studio. It might look a bit overwhelming but we will go through the main things and you will see that it's not that complicated. Step 12 I like the dark theme of the Android Studio, so go the the Android Studio>Preferences>Appearance. Use Darcula for theme. Step 13 So let's go through the UI. The left column, you have the Project files. With the App, then 3 directories: manifests, java, and res. Res is where the layouts and assets will live. The Layout folder is where the layout of your screens will be. In our example, the activity_home.xml. Step 14 In the center of the screen is the visual UI. You can select the components, move them around, delete and do whatever you want. You also have 2 taps for Design and Text. That is pretty much a toggle between two ways to design the UI, via a WYSWYG or code. Step 15 Step 16 If you want to see how your prototype looks, just press the Play button and select the emulator option. Step 17 To change the app name, go to res>values>strings.xml. Change the App name to the name you want to use for your application. I am using Abduzeedo. Step 18 Now let's add some content. The first thing to do is to add a ScrollView. We want our content to scroll so we need to use that component. In Android all components are views. Step 19 To change the size of your scroll view you can go to the property options on the right corner of the screen. There you can see the first 2 options layout:width and layout:height. Click on the right side and select wrap_content for both. Step 20 Select the Relative Layout that was automatic added to your activit and then in the properties scroll to padding and change the all to 0. Step 21 To add an image to your layout the first thing to do is to add it to your project folders. Select the drawable folder and with the right click of your mouse select Reveal in Finder. Then move the any bitmap to that folder. There's one thing to note, the filename should be lowercase. Step 21 Select the ImageView from the component column, move it to your screen. Then in the property view scroll to src and click on the (...) to open the Resources window. Select your image (cover_img). Step 22 Resize your image to the size you want. I am previewing the layout on a Nexus 5, so I change the layout:height to 512dp. If you want your ImageView to be the exact size and aspect ratio of your image, select the Adjust Bounds options. Step 23 Now let's add the title. To do that select the LargeText View. Then move it to your layout. Position it at the bottom of the ImageView. Then make sure that the layout:width is fill parent, and layout:height is wrap_content. For the padding use 16dp. for the textColor use #ffffff, for the fontSize use 32sp (the screenshot is wrong) and for the background get one color from the image. In the next tutorials I will show you how to extract the color from images. Tip. To use rgba colors you have to use the hex values that include alpha. There's a screenshot with some basic values, but Google is your friend to find out other values. Step 24 This is the image and the title text with background color. Step 25 Now let's add another RelativeView and a normalText view in it for our content paragraph. Paste a copy you want for the text and our first layout will be done. Tip. If you want to preview the whole screenview in your WYSWYG view, just make sure that the parent view is a ScrollView. Step 26 Run the emulator to preview your prototype and scroll to see the text. In future tutorials we will get more advanced with some scroll effects as well. Step 27 To replace the launcher icon click with the right click of the mouse on Drawable>New>Image Asset. Step 28 Select the icon you want and the app will generate all sizes you need. Conclusion Run the emulator once again and you will see your prototype with the right icon. Also plug your phone and enable it for USB debug. Then press Play and your phone will be listed in the options for where do you want to run the app. Select the phone and run the app. You will have your first app/prototype.
Weekly Apps: Todoist, Cameo, Ello and more
This selection has some nice new apps you'll love it! Take a special look at Cameo, by Vimeo, the release of Ello app and the brand new Todoist app for Android! I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. CloudPlayer - doubletwist.com/cloudplayer CloudPlayer is a revolutionary music player that puts you in control of your music, no matter where it's stored. Cameo - vimeo.com/cameo Easily edit and share cinematic videos on your phone with our award-winning (and free!) app for iOS. Ello - ello.co Join Ello, a beautiful & ad-free social network. Connect with friends, be inspired, and share what you love. Todoist - todoist.com/android Join the 4 million+ people around the world who are accomplishing amazing things with Todoist.Housing - housing.com Housing’s real estate and property search app makes searching for a home to buy or rent easier than ever.
Concept Design: Medium for Android
Medium has grown so big and beautiful in last few months. It it probably most elegant, fast and functional platform to share the amazing stories and ideas with everyone out there. Every day thousands of new voices publish their unique experiences, views, and reflections to Medium.com, creating the largest, most diverse collection of stories on the internet. Medium for Android, is a simple app that lets you read and write the stories that matter most to you. My goal with this project was to imagine Medium for Android by making use of Google’s Material Design language as seen in Android 5.0 Lollipop. The concept is to innovate Medium platform for Android using Material Design, without losing its brand identity. That was my goal, to make the Medium to modernize without losing any functionality and not cause any loss of users. Find out more about the designer Sahil Vhora behance.net/sahilvhora. Read the full article at Medium: https://medium.com/@sahilvhora/medium-app-material-design-11866aed0309
Wallpaper of the Week by Heiko Klug
The wallpaper of this week is a beautiful artwork created by Heiko Klug, a art director, digital artist and illustrator from Oberhausen, Germany. The titled of the image is Shade - Custom Tattoo Machine and as you can see it's super cool 3D composition with great style and attention to details. For more information visit http://thejesar.tumblr.com/ Desktop Version iPad Version iPhone Version Resolutions: Desktop iPhone iPad
Weekly Apps: BLACK, Slack, Moments and more
Between huge players like Google and Facebook with their Movies and Moments apps, we bring today amazing others such as BLACK and Slack, check that out! I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. Google Play Movies & TV - support.google.com Watch your favorite movies and shows instantly on your Android phone or tablet, or on any HDTV using Chromecast. You can also download and watch from anywhere, even when you're not connected.Moments - momentsapp.com Finally, an easy way to get all the photos of yourself trapped on your friends' phones. After events, celebrations, trips or just hanging out, it's no longer a hassle to collect all the photos you'll want to look back on. Free - ffrree.com Free is a tool to make the most of your free time, and make seeing people you like fast, fun, and easy. Slack - slack.com All your team communication in one place, instantly searchable, available wherever you go. That's Slack.BLACK - blackapp.photo A unique, professional and accurate black and white analog photo film emulator.
Wallpaper of the Week - 80s
The wallpaper of this week is an amazing image that I created last weekend inspired by the Kung Furry movie. As you can see the image is all about the 80s with neon/light effects with the classic computer generated grid. If you want to know how the image was created in Photoshop check out the tutorial at: http://abduzeedo.com/80s-artwork-photoshop Desktop Version iPad Version iPhone Version Resolutions: Desktop iPhone iPad
Weekly Apps: Barneys, Pixelmator, Shazam and more
Almost all the apps today are both for iOS and Android, so give a look to their websites to check that out. Take a special attention today at Shazam and Soundhound, they are beautiful! I hope you guys enjoy these apps and all the whole selection, and stay tuned for the next week! You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe and include #abdz_apps in the message. CircleBack - circleback.com CircleBack is the only contact manager that keeps your address book up-to-date & organized. SoundHound - soundhound.com SoundHound is a music search and discovery experience that identifies what is being played around you. Shazam - shazam.com Shazam is the best way to identify music and TV. In seconds you’ll know the name of any song, or more about what you’re watching - touch to Shazam to start your journey. Barneys - barneys.com Get Barneys style, wherever you go: Introducing the Barneys New York app for your iPhone. Pixelmator - pixelmator.com Pixelmator is a powerful, full-featured, layer-based image editor that lets you touch up and enhance images, sketch and paint, as well as create complex image compositions on iPad and iPhone alike.