Top 10 Recently Released Android Apps
Android - Google's mobile operating system
If you’re a mobile phone enthusiast then the choice probably comes down to the iPhone and the huge selection of Android smartphones currently on the market. Some people will argue pro and against both of the two platforms, but the truth is that they’re both just as interesting and worth having. While Apple gained the interest of the audience first, by launching the iPhone in a period when touch screen smartphones weren’t really common in stores, Google slowly but surely turned Android into a very viable alternative.
As you may have noticed, Android grew and grew and has now become one of the most promising operating systems. It probably won’t take long until it becomes the leading mobile phone OS in the world. It’s true that Android users currently have access to a somewhat lower number of applications through Android Market than iPhone owners through the App Store. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a ton of interesting and worth using applications for Google’s OS. In fact, Android Market is well known for offering a large number of free to use apps and games. We can’t really say the same about Apple where the vast majority of apps worth having cost money. While at the beginning most developers would focus on releasing something for the iPhone and only months later consider releasing the same app for Android, nowadays things are becoming a bit different and Android is of increasing interest in the developers’ world. We won’t cover the best Android apps of all time for the moment. We’ll just stick to the apps released in the past few months and we’ll present a top10 list of them. As always, let’s start from number 10.
Yes, WTFSIMFD is a very interesting name for a mobile application. You may have figured this out on your own but I’ll mention it anyway: the name is short for something, namely “What the F Should I Make for Dinner” a question most people frequently ask themselves. From my general experience, every time I want to cook something, I have no idea whatsoever what I’d like. That’s why I can only be thankful for food and recipe apps. This app is exactly what you might expect, but it’s much more simple as looks and to the point.
It offers users a large number of recipes, all picked up from cookstr.com, a pretty popular website dedicated to people who care a lot about what they eat and know how important food is to a person’s happiness and well-being. I’d link to the website of the app’s developer but we’re generally fond of keeping f words out of the picture so I guess in this case you’ll have to Google it on your own. The app is available for Android through Android market and all you’ll need to do to use it is to download it. iPhone owners will find a version for their own handset.
Ok, so one thing that Android users might like is a more elegant, efficient form of multitasking. Fortunately, whatever platform will allow apps is definitely open to a lot of improvement assuming enough developers want to improve any given feature. This app called Itching Tumbs, which is available for download for free, is a launched and task manager at the same time. It can be used to replace the original task manager on Android with something that may remind some people of the WebOS. Double tapping on the Home button will render you all apps running in the background displayed in a horizontal stack of “cards”. You can tap your finger on any of them to open them up. If you tap and hold you’ll be able to select out of several options including activate, kill or uninstall.
Tasks can be managed visually and through gestures. Users will also be able to save previews as snapshots. What makes this particular app even more interesting than others is that it allows users to assign gesture-based shortcuts. Just draw a letter on the screen with your finger and you’ll be able to launch the app assigned for that letter. When you have a ton of apps on your phone but need fast access to some of them, this particular app might seem like a great one to have. Did I mention you have nothing to lose in trying it out? It’s free.
One of the best things about mobile devices is that they can remind you of what things you have to do. Assuming you’ll have to shop for groceries tomorrow, you’ll definitely need to make a list of what you should buy and then be reminded that you need to go shopping in the first place. Some of us can handle all this with no lists or reminders whatsoever. But people who are already having a busy day and need to keep track of a lot of things they have to do might appreciate this simple and to the point notes application. Pinched Notes HD is basically a notes app that also offers an alarm function.
When you need to be reminded of anything in your notes, the app’s alarm will go off and play a sound. You may send notes through e-mail or Bluetooth or add them to Notification bar. On top of that, you can import notes from text messages. Assuming for one reason or another you won’t be able to read the notes, the app fortunately features text to speech and it will simply read out the notes for you making it as easy as possible for you to remember everything you need to remember.
When you need to pass the time with something fun, the first thing you may think of is to play a game on your mobile phone. Usually, puzzle games are quite addictive and the best type of games for this particular goal. One of them called Bubble Blast 2 guarantees to keep you stuck to the screen for hours, perhaps even more time than you wanted to waste in the first place. The main point of the game is to burst bubbles. Once you tap on a bubble, that bubble will burst into even smaller ones which will then scatter across the screen. Assuming these hit surrounding bubbles, those will burst as well. The whole process will continue until bubbles disappear off the screen.
The goal of the player, as you might have expected, to achieve an empty, bubble-free screen while at the same time using the minimum number of touches. This means you’ll have to think while you play it and not just tap bubbles frantically. Since it’s free, I’d just go ahead and install it if I were you. It’s great fun when you’re bored and sitting in line somewhere.
This one you’ll probably know assuming you have a computer at home (and since you’re reading this, you definitely do). This one was one of the first music players I discovered when looking for something better than Windows’ standard media player. Just as I wasn’t very happy with media player, most Android users aren’t exceptionally happy with the stock player on the mobile operating system. Winamp, one of the best known music players on the market is now available for Android as well.
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that it’ll do much more than just play your music and offer several settings. Winamp will also offer to sync your library either over USB or WiFi (much like iTunes does for Apple iPhone owners) and let you create playlists so you can enjoy whichever set of favorite songs you want at whatever time and place. On top of that you’ll get a widget for the app so you’ll be able to access the player straight from your home screen. One of the reasons why Android offers much more freedom than the iPhone is that you won’t have to care whether the music has licensing or not, your songs will get album art anyway and yes, they’ll be playable. Other features include: the display of song info, album art and other information for songs that are playing; users can press and hold on the song info to interact with other apps such as Pandora, YouTube and the Amazon MP3 Store; scrobbling with the Last.fm app installed is supported. What’s even nicer about Android is that most interesting apps are free. This one is too. Just go ahead and download it and then you can enjoy it whenever you want.
