Dolphin Browser HD listens, makes Webzine an optional plugin, and makes it easier to open links in a new tab

Dolphin Browser HD is probably the best web browser for Android. Its gesture control options are way better than what the competition has to offer, the bookmark sidebar works really well, and its extendability with plugins is pretty good too.

And the latest update makes it better.

The controversial Webzine feature has been pulled out of the main app, but if you really want to keep it you can add it back by installing the new Webzine add-on.

Two add-ons (the two most popular according to Dolphin) are now built into the browser, sort of. The web-to-PDF plugin and the screenshot add-on appear in the add-on sidebar, but you still have to download them if you want to use them. If you don't want them the placeholders stay in your add-on tab you're out of luck. There's no way to delete the dead shortcuts from your sidebar.

But maybe that will be fixed in a future update. After I complained about Dolphin's unencrypted backups they added encryption.

More good news: they finally got rid of the background tab popup. Now the menu that appears when you long-tap a link just gives you the two obvious choices (switch to new tab, or open it in the background) without the need for unchecking a "remember my choice" checkbox over and over again.

So yes, Dolphin listens.

It really listens now, because Dolphin added voice control too. You can navigate, search, and bookmark by shaking your phone and talking to your browser. It's an experimental feature that's really slow and fails often, but that may improve in future updates. If you don't want Dolphin to eavesdrop you can switch it off in the settings screen.

Minor annoyance fix: the sidebar sensitivity is reduced, so you no longer open them by accident when you just want to scroll horizontally in a web page.

Dolphin seems to learn from its mistakes, so I guess they managed to resist the temptation to reintroduce some sort of phone home behaviour. If not, I'm sure the Dolphin watchers in the xda forums will catch them soon enough.

• Dolphin HD (Android Market)
• Dolphin Mini (Android Market)

Grooveshark for free: Dood's Music Streamer died and resurrected, TinyShark is alive and kicking

Dood's Music Streamer and TinyShark are two apps that let you stream and download music from Grooveshark for free. You don't even need a Grooveshark account!

Dood's Music Streamer used to be the better app, but a new layout and badly placed ads were not an improvement at all. Not that it matters, because Dood's Music Streamer stopped working. Since a week or so it refuses to connect with Grooveshark.

TinyShark is a pretty good Grooveshark client too, even though its user interface is rather clunky. It doesn't need Adobe Flash anymore, and it can now scrobble your tracks to last.fm.

Anyway, there's not much choice now. TinyShark is the only free Android Grooveshark streamer left until Dood's Music Streamer goes live again.

March 1, 2012 update: Dood's Music Streamer is updated and works again.

September 4, 2012 update: Last time I checked TinyShark was no longer available in the Google Play Store. But you can download the APK elsewhere. The app still works for now, until Grooveshark changes their setup again.

October 19, 2012 update: Dood's Music Streamer got booted from the Google Play Store, but you can download it straight from the developers website.

• Dood's Music Streamer (Android Market) This app disappeared from the Android Market Google Play Store
• Dood's Music Streamer straight from its maker
• TinyShark (Android Market) This app disappeared from the Android Market Google Play Store
• TinyShark (Exigo Software)

Clean up your image with Aviary, Easy Photo Editor and Camera MX

Need a new image editor

Flashing CyanogenMod to get rid of Motoblur was a great move, except for a few things. I had to sign up with Swype to get their beta test app, because the built-in Swype version wouldn't restore in a working state to my custom ROM. And the built-in picture editing tools were gone, including Kodak Perfect Touch.

Cell phone cameras still can't replace the real thing, and you often need to process the pictures shot with your phone to make them look good. Kodak Perfect Touch corrects brightness, contrast, and colors with a single click, and usually with great results. But when I flashed a new ROM I had to look for an alternative, because the photo editing tools from my Motorola stock ROM don't work in CyanogenMod (if anyone knows a way to make them work in non-stock ROMs, please let me know).

Apps that downsize

The Android Market has many free image editors, but most of them have so many limitations that they're useless.

For example, Easy Photo Editor (by CBS Co., Ltd.), Aviary Photo Editor, TouchUp Lite, and Photo Editor by dev.macgyver won't save edited pictures at their original resolution. Instead, they shrink them into oblivion. Magic Hour only lets you keep all your pixels if you upgrade to the paid version.

Apps that keep your resolution

Magix Camera MX and Easy Photo Editor (by Paradise Android) (edit: and Aviary too) keep your pictures at their original resolution for free. These apps have one click image touchup, and you can tweak brightness, contrast, colors, and saturation by hand. They both come with red eye removal and effects like sepia.

Easy Photo Editor is based on Aviary, but it doesn't have the resolution limit of its parent app. Easy Photo Editor lets you draw on your photos and add text overlays. Unfortunately it has the annoying habit of storing your edited images in its own folder with a .nomedia file, so they won't appear in your gallery unless you move them to another folder.
Edit: the app is updated, the .nomedia file is gone. It would be nice if a future update would let us choose our own save folder. For example, saving the edited image to the original folder would make it a lot easier to find. An option to save the original file name with a custom suffix would be a welcome addition too.
Another edit: Aviary now keeps your image resolution up to 8 12 megapixels.

Camera MX has white balance correction and some effects that Easy Photo Editor doesn't have. like lomo and sketch. Camera MX also has a built-in camera app, but you're better off with the stock camera or Camera360 Ultimate.

Easy Photo Editor and Magix Camera MX both fail to preserve exif data. This means you'll lose information like the date and time you took the picture, so they'll show up out of order in your gallery. If anyone knows an Android photo editor that keeps the exif data, or an app that lets me copy exif data from one image to another, please post a comment or hit the contact link at the bottom of this page.
Yet another edit: Aviary and Easy Photo Editor now save all exif data!

• Easy Photo Editor by Paradise Android
• Magix Camera MX
• Aviary

Sometimes Android task killers make sense

Android doesn't need task killers to free up your RAM. Just mention "task killer" on any Android forum and a million people will shout that task killers are bad. Always and everywhere.

Task killers are bad if you use them the wrong way. Many task killers automatically kill apps at random, and then Android puts them back into RAM, and the task killer takes 'em out again, and then Android reloads them, and then...

Apps loaded in memory usually sit quietly in the background. They don't use any processor cycles, they don't eat your battery, and they go away by themselves if other apps ask for RAM.

But some apps do not keep quiet in the background. Google Maps is a notorious offender that keeps its network location service active when you don't need it. Facebook keeps going online after you move away, and if you try to log out it punishes you by deliberately forgetting your password. Shazam won't stay quiet either. When you exit the app, it keeps going online in the background to do who-knows-what. If you don't start the app, it still goes online all by itself when Android caches it in RAM for future use.

So even though task killers usually do more harm than good, keep in mind that there are exceptions. Sometimes there are very good reasons to kick apps out of memory after you're done with them. Just don't let them kill apps at random, but only zap those apps that really need to go away.

• Bomb That Task