Cosmic-Watch
A digital
astronomical clock
spunandzoomedintotakeacloser
look at a particular region. While you
can’t zoom right in to see towns and
roads,youcanselectalocationto
show its local time and add it to a
favourites list. Tapping the three-dots
icon brings up extra options includingTime Control, which can be used to
rewind or fast-forward time – tap it
repeatedly to make the globe spin
fast like a basketball!
Other view modes include Astro
that shows the astrological positions
of planets, you can set the time to
your birth date for an instant star
chart and there’s a Stars mode that
shows constellations in a celestial
sphere around the Earth. While the
latter offers a good overview of their
positions and how they shift during
the hours of the night, there’s no way
of viewing the heavens from a point
on the Earth. So the app isn’t very
useful for precise location of
celestial objects in the night sky,
despite an option to show the
equatorial coordinates.
Hidden away in the settings is a
wide range of extra options, most
notable of which is an orrery-like
solar system mode. Use the Time
Control to make the planets orbit at
an increased speed, which is
complete with trails and more
detailed information on any solar
eclipses detected. Other options
include a compass mode along with
various overlaid guides, Earth and
sky views – the long exposure one of
these looks particularly cool.Bringing the age-old
concept of the
astronomical clock into
the digital era, the Swiss-made
Cosmic-Watch is an interesting
prospect, combining timekeeping
with astronomy and astrology.As
well as standard world clock
functions, it features a detailed
model of the solar system along
with major constellations of stars
so that you can view their
positionsinrelationtoEarthat
any given time, past or future.
Upon launch, you’re presented
withaninteractiveglobe,àla
Google Earth style, that can beSee the constellations above a location at any given timeThe cosmic ballet goes on – see the solar
system in action»PriceFree
»Designed forPhone and tablet
»Requires Android4.0 and upInkboard Be quick on the draw
OVER»Add text to your photos, using various fonts and art
elements, for postcard-style images.»like this?
try this!Billed as the simplest way
to draw on photos,
Inkboard is far from being
a sophisticated art app. Even so, it
offers a decent range of drawing
tools – easily accessed by swiping
along the bottom – including
crayons, pencils, felt tips, pens,
highlighters and markers.
Nevertheless, it would have been
nice to have more colour choice.
Before you get scribbling you can
choose from a blank canvas, an
existingphotooranewlytakenone.
Theundoorredoarrowsoftencome
in handy along with the two erasers,one of which also rubs out the photo
background that you have chosen to
work on. Your creation can then be
shared or saved to Photos.
The app also comes with its own
keyboard that lets you doodle away
on a small canvas while writing an
email for instance. The only slight
annoyance is that when using the
latter, the image is sent as a link
rather than a picture file.Daemon
Sync
Use your own private
cloud for your home
Backing up fi les and data
to cloud services is fi ne,
but users concerned
about privacy and security might
prefer to keep everything in-house.
In this case, Daemon Sync is the
ideal tool for the job with its ability to
sync fi les between devices and a
home server that’s running on a
computer on the same Wi-Fi
network. This means that no data
need ever be sent over the internet.
Upon launching the app, it’ll start
searching for servers on your
network, so you’ll need to install the
Daemon Sync software on your
computer fi rst. Once that’s done and
the app has located the server (or
enter a manual IP address), it’ll
automatically start syncing fi les to it
at a chosen regular interval. There
are toggle options to sync new
photos, videos and screenshots,
plus the ability to sync custom
folders. Tapping the Browse Server
button enables you to see everything
synced from all linked devices
(including iOS ones).»PriceFree
»Designed forPhone
»Requires Android4.1 and upBrowse the fi les on the server synced from
any linked deviceInkboard is great for drawing on photos to
create fun effectsEDITOR’S CHOICEApps