An APP a day helps you doctor your play: Five to fit in

Image by Yutaka Tsutano Some apps are designed to help you work better, some to make it easier to socialise, but without a doubt, the most fun of them are the ones that help you play. There are, of course thousands of apps out there covering all of those functional categories, but since I’m feeling playful, let’s take a whistle-stop look at some of the lightweight leisure apps that have taken my fancy recently.

Just to refine this down slightly, I’m going to restrict this to tablets. There is a growing distinction between the catch-all smartphone market and the less neat and nimble world of the tablet. It’s life in the slow lane maybe, but the practical implications of a larger device and a correspondingly bigger screen do make a difference. And that’s all-the-more true when it comes to the more sophisticated recreational software that’s out there.

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Developer applications for the MasterCard N>XT hackathon now open

Applications are now open for MasterCard's N>XT hackathon! MasterCard is challenging developers to Lead the Retail Revolution by competing to create a 'next-generation application to enhance the customer retail experience in-store and online."

Garry Lyons, MasterCard’s Chief Innovation Officer, will officially open the event at 9 a.m. on October 4^th. The event will run until Sunday, October 5^th, giving developers less than 48 hours to build their idea. 

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Android gets Afterlight photo-editing app

If you dabble in smartphone photography, Android devices just got another extensive photo editing application. Afterlight offers a wide array of tools for you to play with. It lets you adjust everything from brightness, exposure compensation, shadows, temperature, highlights, contrast, etc. You can control these with a slider that appears at the bottom of the screen. The US$0.99 app also offers you a total of 59 filters, including 27 original filters, 14 created by Instagram users, and 19 special “seasons” filters. If that isn’t enough, you also get 66 textures that add artificial light and dust to your photos.

Source: The Next Web

CEA: Majority of US online users own tablets

A report coming from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) says that more than half (54 percent) of online U.S. consumers indicate they own tablets, a four percentage point increase since January, according to research released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)^®. Consumer Outlook on Tablets (August2014 Edition), a semi-annual report examining trend information on consumer behavior and sentiment regarding tablets, also shows tablet owners' purchase intent for all consumer electronics devices increased to 62 percent since January – a nine percentage point jump.

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