Level Upstudio apps

Roy Aguilera · 05-21-2010, 12:15 PM

There have been many of the following threads:
-What are the best apps?
-What apps should I get?
-What are your top 3/5 apps?
-What apps can’t you live without?
Although some are slightly helpful, I have never really found them to be very useful due to the vagueness of the replies. I have given these questions a ton of thought and have been able to narrow the list down to 3 apps. Today I will discuss 2 as they are developed by the same man (Tama Chan/Level Upstudio).
First a little about the man behind the 2 apps and then I will get to why I need these 2 in my life. Tama (who you can contact via twitter @levelupstudio or email: )has proved to be the true prototype of what an android developer should be. He reads every single market comment, replies instantly via twitter and although he receives thousands of e-mails he gets to those in a timely manner also. Yet the beauty of his work is that you/me/we really are behind all the changes that his applications take. Yes, your comments are taken seriously and eventually make it into his applications. I don’t know about you, but I have contacted many developers and have been ignored completely. Therefore to me this is a very meaningful quality of said developer.
Tama Chan/Level Upstudio has developed some great apps, here is the rundown.
FoxyRing:

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This application has proved to be extremely handy for a family man like myself. It is a smart ringtone/notification application that is highly customizable. You can set a time frame for the android device of your choice to go into a silent state. In my case this would be between 11PM and 7AM when my wife and son are sleeping and should not be deprived of sleep because someone decided a late night tweet was a great idea. This however does not mean that you will miss an emergency call that might come in at night as you can set certain numbers to ring as normal while everything else is on silent. The application accounts for the noise level in your surroundings and adjusts your ringtone/notifications accordingly. You can also set it to go into silent based on location. Although I love and use this app it is not among the top two. Best of all, this app is free.

Beautiful Widgets:

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By far my favorite app (images provided by Jorge Olivera). If you do not have sense this is for you, yet even if you do this beats the sense clock widget. Here is why:
-The app allows for custom hot spots (hot spots are in the time, date and forecast)
-You can skin the time and weather icons separately
-If you chose to not skin it you can select from different time fonts
-The Geolocation feature stomps the sense versions location based temps
-You can change the font color on your widget
-Unlike the sense widget you can see the wind and humidity of your current location
This app is paid ($1.86) yet the price is well worth all the customizability and updates that it receives. Tama is also working on a special feature for all the 2.1/2.2 users.

Touiteur: This is one of the newer yet by far the best Twitter app around. I know there are many simple apps around yet I personally am into customizability. The UI is also beautiful.
Key Features of this app are:
-Custom colors for people you are following
-A widget (3 different sizes) that rotates your tweets, allows you to tweet from, open the app and scroll.
-You can switch from Timeline to Direct Messages to Mentions by swiping left or right.
-You can have multiple accounts
-Custom LED color
-Custom Notifications
-Has an integrated browser
-Choose what tweets you want to be notified of (DM’s/Mentions/Tweets)
-Offers the Tweet Longer feature allowing you to use more than 140 characters
-Url shortening
-3 photo services (YFrog, Twitpic and Tweetphoto)
This application continues to improve and Tama has even started an online feature suggesting/voting site with the sole purpose of improving the app. Give these apps a shot. If you are new to the android platform, these are must haves. This is also a paid app ($2.49). Check them out and leave your feedback as it will help to continue improving the app. Tama is also a member of AC.
I have to get some current Touiteur screen shots they will be up shortly. Yes I know this is the longest post I have ever made in any site.

*Last but not least these are my opinions and not those of Android Central.

**nox** · 05-21-2010, 12:29 PM

Best dev I have ever met and talked to. Has great apps, and actually replies back to his users. I have the majority of his apps, and have talked to him numerous times.
He knows that the success of his apps rely on his users, and therefore looks for input by them.
All these apps are great and everyone should get them, well worth it.

**Dennis_H** · 05-21-2010, 12:53 PM

I love Beautiful Widgets, but FoxyRing force closes every time I try to calibrate the mic on my Moment. Looks like it won't start until calibrated, so it won't work for me...

Roy Aguilera · 05-21-2010, 12:59 PM

Touiteur Pics:

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**nox** · 05-21-2010, 01:07 PM

Btw that's Marylin Monroe

**Shay D. Life** · 05-21-2010, 01:13 PM

Awesome developer, the people need to be able to give input on paid apps and he takes everything into consideration. He also continues to work on already great apps to make them better. Respect due to @Levelupstudio.

Roy Aguilera · 05-21-2010, 01:17 PM

My only question is "What the hell is Taz doing up in our pics?"
LOL

**Shay D. Life** · 05-21-2010, 01:24 PM

Lol. That's just mean.

**Chillout80s** · 05-21-2010, 01:33 PM

Beautiful Widgets was the first app I've ever paid for when I got my Droid and I haven't regretted it since. Works awesome.

I've never used Foxy ring before so I might give that a shot, thanks!

Roy Aguilera · 05-21-2010, 01:38 PM

Same here. First app I bought for my Droid.

**nox** · 05-21-2010, 02:40 PM

Is it weird that it was my first app I purchased too?

**Shay D. Life** · 05-22-2010, 02:24 AM

Originally Posted by JorgeOlivera

Is it weird that it was my first app I purchased too?

Not really, considering when I first got my Droid you recommended it to me.

**WallaceD** · 05-22-2010, 10:12 AM

Tama Chan is a great dev, and his products are fantastic. He is VERY responsive to feedback, and several suggestions I (and others) have made regarding Touiteur have been implemented.

Speaking of Touiteur, it's the best damn Twitter app I have used. It's gorgeous, simple, and best of all it's fast. It beats the pants off the official Twitter app, and I even prefer it over Seesmic (which I absolutely love).

I love Beautiful Widgets, and Beautiful Home replaced my standard Hero Sense Clock/Weather widget long ago. Even with the new 2.1 Sense widget being much improved, I'm sticking with Beautiful Home. It simply works better.

Question to the original poster: is that standard Sense looking "flip-clock" skin still available for Beautiful Home? I tried searching and could not find it. I thought after the HTC C&D that particular skin disappeared...