iSahabi - A Must Have For Your Next Trip To Makkah

Note: The app in this review is for Islamic pilgrimage.

Hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many Muslims around the world. The number of people trying to visit Makkah is significantly higher than what the place can hold, therefore, going for Hajj is a valuable experience for Muslims as they may never get to do it again.

iSahabi is an app that aims to make that experience more meaningful. The app helps you prepare for your trip, learn more about the location you're visiting and buy gifts for friends. It also includes an Ibadah Mode that can help you focus on prayers and avoid distractions during your short and valuable trip.

In this review, we'll look at all the above features and discuss how they can be beneficial, and where they fall short.

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Lifline 2 Review- A Choose Your Own Adventure Game

When Apple introduced iOS 8 and the Apple Watch with interactive notifications, a game called Lifeline hit the top charts on iPhone. For those of you who haven't heard of it: Lifeline is a text-based game where you choose your own adventure. The objective was to save the life of a stranded astronaut called Taylor.

3 Minute Games, the company behind Lifeline, released Lifeline 2 last month with a completely new story. This time you're in contact with a young woman called Arika that cast a spell to help her communicate with you. She's trying to avenge her parents and rescue her long lost brother. At the start of the game she even mistakes you for her brother, and it's your choice whether or not you lie to her.

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Stitch together screenshots on Android & iPhone

Imagine it's a sunny day and you're chatting with this girl you like and your friends want to stay updated on the situation. One option could be to screenshot multiple times and then send all the images to your pals. However, this doesn't always work since some messaging apps like WhatsApp do not send the images in the right order. This results in you explaining to your friends the order of the chat for the next five minutes.

Let's take another situation, you're reading an article which you find interesting and want to share it with your parents. Normally, you would simply share the URL of the webpage but knowing your parents, you know they won't know how to open it. So you take screenshots but you face the same problem mentioned above.

The question is, is there no other way? Well the answer is, there is. For Android the savior app is called, Stitch & Share: big screenshot.

Note: iPhone users can download a free app called Tailor that does the same job. It works a lot like Stich & Share for Android.

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3 Great Free Games To Play On Your iPhone or Android Phone This Weekend

The weekend is here which means it's time to refresh the games on your phone. You can spend your weekend searching through the App Store's wilderness or check out the 3 games I've collected here for you. These are games I've been playing a lot last week so I guarantee they're fun. All three games are available for both iOS and Android for free and are in different categories.

1- Orbits - by Turbo Chilli

Jump from circle to circle with one tap. The game can be played with one hand and is fast paced. Collect diamonds, dodge spikes and complete levels. Despite being a one handed game it requires a lot of focus and thinking in order to complete the levels.

If you're after a beautiful game that you can play with one hand then you may want to try out Orbits. You can disable ads and skip levels with in-app purchases, but can play the full game for free.

Download on: iPhone/iPad, Android.

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Climax Game: Dumb Ways To Die for Movies

Most of you are familiar with the Dumb Ways to Die game. Short mini levels with three lives and fast paced game-play. Climax by Baikin Studios has a similar gaming style, but with a different concept. Instead of playing mini games where you avoid dumb deaths, you play mini games related to some very popular movies.

The game has 60 different movies. You have 10 unlocked by default and can unlock more as you reach higher scores. This gives an incentive to play the game more often as there's a challenge to defeat.

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Best free apps to watch movies and tv shows on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac & PC

Before you go ahead and read the article, please be aware that all the apps below use piracy for content. While Alwaraki Blog is against piracy, people living in countries in the Middle East and elsewhere where there’s no Netflix or a good selection of movies and shows on iTunes have no choice other than piracy.

If you have a method of watching shows and movies legally please do not pirate.

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iOS and Android are now leveling out- and how the future is no longer in the phones

Apple announced iOS 8 a few months ago. It was an indication of the software finally becoming more open and flexible with features such as extensions, third party keyboard, widgets and interactive notifications. Other than the interactive notifications, Android has had those features for years. Only difference is that they are implemented differently.

Google announced Android L a few months ago. It was an indication of the software finally becoming more beautiful as well as simpler for the basic user. It includes features such as lock screen notifications, more animations & attractive design, remote wipe, heads up & actionable notifications. Other than the actionable notifications, iOS had those features for years. Except with different names.

Do you see my point here?

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Mustard- Upcoming App To Find Someone To Do Something Now

Smartphones have helped us with many things in our lives. It's now a lot easier to keep in touch with family and friends that lives continents away. You can turn your lights on and off using your smartphone, as well as order pizza in one tap. There are still aspects of our life that haven't been improved by smartphones yet, such as finding someone to hang out with right now. And that's what Mustard is for.

Mustard is an upcoming app that lets you find people to hang out with. No more sending messages in group chats and never reaching a conclusion, and no more texting a lot of people to find out if they're free. Mustard solves all that.

You can check in as free for temporary periods of time such as 2 hours or the weekend, and friends will do the same. This will lead to you having a list of all your free friends at the current time. So if you're bored at home and want to grab some coffee with a friend or if you want to watch a movie in the weekend; you can just open Mustard and see who's free too.

Mustard has a lot of potential. I think it'll kick off really well since I'm sure it'll help most people one way or another. I can already see it helping me in the future when the app is released.

I asked the founder of Mustard, Matt Hurley, why would people use Mustard to connect with their friends rather than traditional texting and calling. His response was:

While there is definitely no shortage of services keeping you "connected" to your friends - showing you what they've been doing, where they've been, or helping you organise events in the future - nothing answers the question: which of my friends is looking for something to do, right now? Traditional texting or calling is certainly an option if you know who to call, but finding someone who is available and keen can prove difficult.

Mustard will provide a simple answer to that question by showing you which of your friends are keen when you are. It could be someone you see regularly, or someone you haven't seen for years.

He absolutely nailed it. Mustard is an app to serve a completely different purpose than texting people when you're bored. Instead, it helps you meet these people in real life and have face to face conversations with them, which is a lot more sociable than online communication.

To keep up with Mustard, make sure you join their mailing list for prototypes and betas: getmustard.io 

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Lucky Dragon- a game that makes dragons cute

Apple updates the hardware of the iPhone every year to allow it to run games with more intense graphics and gameplay. The iPhone 5S features a powerful 64 bit processor that allows the 4 inch device to run games with almost console-level graphics. Yet, users tend to like simple games with minimal graphics that require a tap or so to play a game (think of flappy bird).

I am one of those users who wants a quick game to play on the go, and if you are too, then I'm sure you'll enjoy Lucky Dragon.

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Whatsapp vs Telegram

Whatsapp is an extremely popular instant messaging application with a user base of 500 million users all across the world. It gained fame since it provided free messaging between people regardless of where they live. Telegram is a less popular app, and could be seen as a Whatsapp clone. However, the app has a much larger focus on privacy than Whatsapp and also does better in other comparisons as seen below. Ellis Hamburger from The Verge wrote an article titled: Why Telegram has become the hottest messaging app in the world.

I'm going to compare both Whatsapp and Telegram in five different challenges, and we'll see who wins overall. Keep in mind that some features which I consider important to me may not be important to you, and vice-versa.

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5 Trending Apps You Should Try

This is a guest post by Blaine Kelton. Blaine shares 5 trending apps that you should try if you haven't already done so.

The iTunes Store and Google Play are both beyond-brimming with new and notable apps, many of which can be yours on the cheap—or just the cost of your bandwidth (aka free). And with so many choices comes the eventual quandary, especially for newcomers to smartphones: Where do I even start?! It's a good question and one that I myself have struggled with as I continue to get more interested in tech, particularly mobile phones. So in trying to help out readers with the same issue, I've put together a list of five recent apps that are well worth your time.

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Google vs Apple [Infographic]

I don't usually like to share any Apple vs Google articles on my blog as it will almost certainly end with an "Apple is better than Google" or "Google is better than Apple". I personally believe it's opinionated. There is currently no company that is completely better than the other one in all aspects.

Having said that, below is an infographic titled Apple vs Google. The infographic shows differences in ideas and the history of the two companies, and it's certainly a good piece for any tech fan to take a look at.

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Smartphone Shortcomings- 4 big ways smartphones are expected to improve [Infograph]

Smartphones are credited for being so advanced and convenient. Most modern smartphones show you directions to a nearby shop without you needing to even touch the screen. There are however limitations that have been created. I used to charge my very old Nokia once a month, and now an average smartphone is charged 2.4 times a day in New York.

There is room for improvement for smartphones, and today I'm sharing with you an infographic from the folks at Computer Science Hub that shows the 4 big ways smartphones are expected to improve in the near future. I hope you like it.

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Infographic: Smartphones Users By Numbers

Check out the infographic below and tell us what you think:

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SkyBell- The best doorbell you can buy for $199

When was the last time someone rang your doorbell and you wanted to find out who it is without having to get up? If the answer is 'pretty recently' and you have a spare $199 to spend then SkyBell should be on your Christmas list.

SkyBell is a sleek doorbell packing many great features. It features an invisible infrared LED, a camera, button, LED indicator, motion sensor, speaker and a microphone.

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Windows phone 8 vs Android's 4.4: Which OS is easy to operate?

This is a guest post by Diana Maria.

With the increase in availability of smartphones and still newer ones anticipated for release till the end of this year, it can be difficult to choose the best device. Goggle and Microsoft have both released new versions of their mobile operating systems. The fact is that both these OS platforms have their own merits and demerits. Depending on what you’re already using and what you are expecting out of your computing experience, any one of these two choices may be the best option. Understanding your own requirements and each OS will deliver the most positive experience possible. Failing to do homework before buying a new phone will lead to disappointment. Comparing the two platforms can help you make a more sensible purchase in the end. 

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Stop Instagram From Auto Playing Videos

Three weeks ago, Instagram introduced videos on it's popular photo sharing app. The announcement didn't come as much of a surprise at first as many rumors were pointing to the announcement days before it was actually announced. The announcement also continued the battle between Facebook-owned Instagram and Twitter-owned Vine.

The announcement brought a few good jokes to the internet too.

"instagram are you okay?" "yeah I'm vine" "what was that" "I said i'm fine"
— Story of My Life (@ComedyOrTruth) July 8, 2013

At first I was against Instagram videos, but later on things were different. It was really easy to skip past videos. More importantly there's also an option to stop the videos from auto playing if that's bothering you. Below is a step-by-step guide to stop Instagram from auto playing videos.

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Use A Free VPN To Access Websites Such As Netflix Anywhere In the World On iOS, Android, Mac, PC, PS3

I haven't blogged much recently, in fact I haven't done much recently. I was too busy on Netflix watching TV Shows. You can't blame me though. The happiness of getting Netflix working in the Middle East on my iPhone, iPad and PS3 as well as starting my summer break both lead to me spending endless hours a day on Netflix. I decided to stop with the procrastination and share with you how to unblock region-restricted websites on just about any device.

In this article, I'll show you how to unblock Netflix on:

• iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)
• Android
• Mac or PC (preferably running Google Chrome)
• Play Station 3

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Is the Samsung Galaxy S4 a smart camera or a smart phone

It turns our today to me that there's an argument over whether the Galaxy S4 Zoom is a smart phone or a smart camera. Not any sort of a bad argument, just voted and articles about which side the device belongs to. After some thinking it turns out that the Galaxy S4 Zoom certainly has a mix of both, and both sides are debatable, but in my opinion one side wins.

The Galaxy S4 Zoom is a smart camera, and this is why.

If you think about it, what makes a smart phone a smart phone is because it's a phone with extended capabilities. People buy it because they want a phone. A phone with extended features. Yet, the main reason behind buying a phone is that it can call. The special feature that makes you call a device a phone is because that device calls.

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Blackberry announces BBM on iPhone and Android for this summer

Big news today. Blackberry announced plans to release BBM for iOS and Android this summer. A move which should have arguably happened earlier. Yet, the announcement came in as good news for most people. There's a lot more behind this though, and what it means for the future of Blackberry.

BBM will first get released with basic features. Users will have the ability to chat using text with individuals and in groups. According to the plan, this is it for the summer. But more features such as voice chat and screen sharing will come later in.

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