Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

This is part 2 of this week's roundup, featuring applications. For part 1 with games and live wallpapers, see 25 Best New Android Games And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (5/19/11 – 6/1/11)

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here:

Apps

Android Police coverage: [New App] LBE Privacy Guard Is Like Windows’ UAC For Rooted Android Devices

This app looks like a more sophisticated implementation of the fine-rained permission control that was added to CyanogenMod last month and both praised and criticized by many. Definitely deserves the #1 spot in the roundup.

This application requires a ROOTed phone, please make sure your phone has been unlocked and ROOTed.

Welcome to use LBE Privacy Guard, the most powerful privacy protection software for Android platform.

With the state-of-the-art API interception technology, LBE Privacy Guard provides great enhancement to Android permission system, now the first time you are able to:

- Protect your privacy by controlling the permission of each application to access your sensitive data.

- Block malicious operation from Mal-wares and Trojans.

- Block unwanted network traffic if you don’t have a unlimited data plan.

- Find out which application is trying to steal your privacy by checking the security log.

- And even more...

Android Police coverage: Hacker’s Keyboard Brings A Full Keyboard Experience To Android

Hacker's Keyboard makes ConnectBot usable on a whole new level. Great if you're used to standard desktop keyboard layouts, plus it's open source!

A full 5-row keyboard including arrow and Esc/Ctrl keys, intended for tablets.

Are you missing the key layout you're used to from your computer? This keyboard has separate number keys, punctuation in the usual places, and arrow keys. It is based on the AOSP Gingerbread soft keyboard, so it supports multitouch for the modifier keys.

This keyboard is especially useful if you use ConnectBot for SSH access. It provides working Tab/Ctrl/Esc keys, and the arrow keys are essential for devices such as the Xoom tablet or Nexus S that don't have a trackball or D-Pad.

For more information, including the user's guide, FAQ/known issues, alternate version downloads, and the source code, please check out the developer web page: http://code.google.com/p/hackerskeyboard/

Chainfire3D' pname='eu.chainfire.cf3d' video='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvKGGYfM-Dg']

Android Police coverage:

Chainfire3D is an intermediary OpenGL driver. What does that mean? It means that Chainfire3D sits between your apps and the graphics drivers, and can intercept and/or change commands between the two. It has some built-in functions, and can be further extended with plugins to provide extra functionality.

!! Chainfire3D is for 1ghz+ devices only !!

!! ROOT is required for this program, as well as a writable /system partition. S-OFF is also required on HTC devices !!

Features include reducing texture size and quality to reduce memory use and potentially increase game performance, as well as increasing memory use potentially increase performance.

Purchased immediately after seeing the demo. You guys have no idea how helpful instant screenshot and photo syncing will be for writing app and other reviews.

Automatically sync photos/videos you take to your DropBox account (requires premium upgrade).

Interested in what premium provides? Just take a picture, DropSnap will notify you that it is ready to upload your photo. When you upgrade to premium, this becomes automatic.

Keep your photos in sync! Great if you ever lose your phone or it gets stolen.

Created by @ChrisSoyars and @optedoblivion.

Prox uses the proximity sensor and accelerometer on your phone to do certain actions. Current actions include:

*Expand and contract status bar

*Emulate home button

*Turn off screen

*Toggle ringer mode

*Show some text (Toast)

*Launch an application

*Play a tone

Your phone must have a proximity sensor for this to work! Also, please download the Lite version before you try this one. ALL PROXIMITY SENSORS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL!!!

How many time have you forgot to look at the free app of the day from the Amazon Appstore? Use this to receive a daily notification in your status bar with information about the free app of the day. Clicking on the notification will open the Amazon Appstore

Features:

Daily reminder with general information about the app

Click on the notification to open the appstore

Configurable notification options (vibrations, LED's, and sound)

If you're going to roll with Firefox, might as well roll with the bleeding edge.

With Firefox Beta you can enjoy your favorite features like Sync, Add-ons and the Awesome Screen, while being one of the first to use brand new features and functionality that will be in the upcoming stable release of Firefox for mobile.

Firefox Beta for Testers Developer: Mozilla
Price: Free
4.5
Download

UK only it seems :-[

Latest and breaking news from the BBC and our global network of journalists.

BBC News Developer: BBC Media App Technologies
Price: Free
4.4
Download

Use this instead of the original SwiftKey or SwifKey beta. Plus, it's free for a limited time.

SwiftKey X Beta for smartphones builds on TouchType's SwiftKey keyboard to offer cloud personalization, a new prediction engine and a host of new UI improvements.

A free version of the very popular paid offline reading app.

Read It Later lets you save webpages to read later, even without an internet connection.

It has been called "a DVR for the web" by the New York Times, Business Week, Time, TechCrunch and more.

When you come across an article or a webpage you'd like to read but can't at that time, save it to your Read It Later list. You can then read it whenever you have a moment - whether it's on the couch, during your commute, on the plane, train, or practically anywhere. This allows you to eliminate the cluttering of bookmarks and inboxes with links that are merely of a one-time interest. It's like a staging area for bookmarks.

With the Schwab Mobile app for Android smartphones, you can keep track of your brokerage and Schwab Bank accounts no matter where you are.

  • Manage your investments with the ability to view current positions and transfer money between accounts.
  • Keep an eye on market news and real time quotes.
  • Easily trade stocks, mutual funds, ETFs and more.

Mobile deposits, multi-tasking, streaming quotes, and a Schwab branch locator coming soon.

The S.O.S. app provides step-by-step video narration by Dr. Oz and follow along demonstrations allowing people to quickly and confidently respond to common emergency situations with the goal of saving lives. This free app also includes an expansive Resource Guide for easy access to additional emergency care information.

A neat all-in-one app for rooted users that could come in handy for those who don't like to use adb. Shares a bunch of functionality with ROM Manager, but hey - it's free and well reviewed.

Current Features:

-Reboot options

-SetAPN

-Wipe Delvik

-Wipe Battery Stats

-Remount System

-Flash Recovery

-Fix permissions

-Launch Hidden Menu

-Fix Market Links

-Sim Settings

-Update Busybox

-Erase Recovery

-CM7 Themes

-Restart Status Bar

-Dual Mount Sdcard + EXT

-System App Remover

-Hot Boot

Want the best security for your personal data? Facebook, Gmail, Twitter passwords? Password Manager Free handles it all! Using a simple, intuitive interface, this application is the only security notes app you'll ever need.

FEATURES:

✓ Tablet compatible!

✓ 256-bit AES Encryption and secure password protection for 100% of your data

✓ Personalized categories to match your organizational style

✓ Customizable entries including usernames, passwords, websites, notes, etc, or create your own fields

✓ Store any information you want - no restrictive templates required!

✓ Quick copy / paste between applications

✓ Native look and easy to use interface

✓ All your info is stored locally. None of your passwords ever leave your phone!

WSJ optimized for phones - that's all there is to it.

Read articles from Today’s Paper and get updated news from Business, Tech, Life and Culture and more throughout the day. Save your favorite WSJ articles for reading later and share with your friends via email, Facebook and Twitter.

Experience rich multi-media from The Wall Street Journal including Photos of the Day, Video Center and Podcasts.

Yay! We use HipChat for our intrateam chat here at AndroidPolice and couldn't be more excited about the official Android app. Seriously, HipChat absolutely rocks for group collaboration.

HipChat is a hosted IM and group chat service for companies and teams. No ads, obscure screen names, or failed file transfers. Collaborate in real-time with colleagues and clients in persistent chat rooms. Thousands of startups, small business, and virtual teams use HipChat every day.

Gotta love them clock apps. They just keep on coming, and we can never have enough.

SPB Time is an advanced, skinnable time toolbox for your Android phone. Analog and digital clock modes, World clock, timers and stopwatches, and advanced alarms. A lot of time-related functions in this world's bestselling application!

- Analog and Digital clocks

- Classic, Bio and Paranoid alarms

- 6 Homescreen widgets

- World time

- Moon phases

- Stopwatches

- Timers

- 30+ FREE themes

- Online skin catalog

Hound is voice search. Speak it, get it. The fastest and most delightful way to search has arrived for music.

Simply speak the name of an artist or band and instantly get access to song previews, lyrics, album art, and videos, see artist bios, album info, tour dates and more.

One of the best UIs I've ever seen in an Android app. Unfortunately, it's only available on Verizon for now and didn't identify Family Guy or Lost in my tests. YMMV.

VideoSurf’s video discovery mobile application lets users discover, search and identify TV episodes, movies, music videos and video clips by doing a visual and audio search using their smartphone, or by typing a query directly into the app.

Users can discover videos by simply pointing their phones at a television or computer screen to capture a few seconds of what they are watching. The VideoSurf mobile application quickly identifies the episode and celebrities, provides more information about what was identified and suggests other videos to watch.

A bit ugly, but hey - it's free.

aCalendar. Fast. Free. Birthdays with photos & more

FEATURES

● FAST

● intuitive navigation with smooth transitions

● day, week, month & birthdays view

● birthdays with photos from you addressbook

● uses Android's native calendar backend and synchronization

● no battery drain

● moon phases

● supports Android 2.1 and later

● native language support (en|de|es|fr|he|it|ja|ko|sv|tr with more to come)

● optimized text display

● FREE

● no ads

Tons of filters and effects are available in this app - looks pretty neat for photo buffs.

The magic hour is the first and the last hour of sunlight during the day,

when a specific photographic effect is achieved due to the quality of the light.

We put the short moments of Magic Hour that make everything beautiful into our app.

New eBuddy XMS – Do more than SMS!

• Free, real-time messaging for smartphones

• Message any way you want – with text, pictures, emoticons and more

Go beyond words. eBuddy XMS takes messaging to the next level because:

Official application for the Roland Garros® 2011 - French Open.

The Roland Garros tournament brought directly to your Android device from 22 May, whichever mobile network you're with.

Features :

- Real-time scores, point by point

- Live matches and video best-of

- Real-time breaking news + photos

- Draws and results

- Video highlights, behind the scenes coverage and interviews

- player bios

- available in 2 languages

- visitor's guide + map of stadium

- the official Roland Garros radio

- access to Orange Sport mobile website

For Orange France customers only:

- Multicourt Coverage: live streaming of up to 5 matches simultaneously

- Follow your 5 favourite players with "match notification"

- Unlimited 3G and Wi-Fi access in metropolitan France with an eligible call / data plan or multimedia option (*)

A really well done app for a news source - and it's not just for NZers. Stuff has high quality content that people from all over the world can enjoy.

New Zealand's largest online news source brings you the latest, breaking news in an easy to use experience.

Stuff.co.nz Developer: Stuff Limited
Price: Free
3.3
Download

Prepare to waste a whole lot of time watching videos if you download this app. You've been warned!

You can now enjoy all of the interesting, emotional, funny, and educational videos you love on Wimp.com. Browse the latest videos, check out our archive of thousands of available clips, search and save your favorite videos to watch at your convenience.

Verizon Wireless brings you the IZOD IndyCar Series mobile application for FREE, exclusively for VZW customers.

NEW-timing and scoring during races

Live audio feed during races only

Race schedule and points standings

Detailed results for all sessions and races

Driver images, bios, related articles, videos,and tweets.

INDYCAR Developer: INDYCAR
Price: Free
2.8
Download

From the people who have delivered premium steaks, red meats and other gourmet foods to your doorstep for nearly a century, now comes Steak Time, an Android application born and bred to make mouths water.

Chock full of more than 100 tempting recipes.

I don't know... I think FriendFinder is one of the most bogus sites out there but with so many members, somebody out there is using it and could therefore benefit from this official app.

FriendFinder is the world's largest online dating community with over 50 million members.

Did I mention I like clock apps? YOU'RE WELCOME.

Create your own analogue or digital clock design and use it as a Live Wallpaper or as a Widget (or use one of the stocked clocks or available online)

Features:

- Clock Editor

- Desk clock

- Live Wallpaper with clock and scrolling picture

- Clock widget 2x2 and 4x4

- Small in size

Clock Editor Features:

- Edit clock hands (hour, minute, second, day of week, day of month, wifi, gsm, battery, weather)

- Edit clock faces

- Edit clock marks

- Include text extras (free text, date, time, timezone, battery, GSM, WIFI, weather)

- Use your own bitmaps for hands or faces

- Include sound for each hand tick

- Zoom and pan

- 10 layers to play with

BITS™ is a DIY home screen widget with a WYSIWYG editor that allows you to make your own widget. You can add, remove and arrange bits of information on the widget face.

Some cases of use:

_________________

1. Add custom texts on your home screen and call your friends by clicking on

2. Add your favorite photos where you want and attribute the functions

3. Put your applications anywhere you want.

4. Put your icons upside down

5. Create a reminder

Etc ....

Unlimited number : you can put 10, 100, 1000... contacts, applications... on your home screen.

No layout grid : you can put it anywhere

For Tablets

Zinio is the premier app for magazines on Android, featuring top titles from around the world in pure digital form. With Zinio, you can browse the world's largest newsstand, download digital subscriptions or single issues of your favorite magazines and sync your library on multiple devices. You can read what you like wherever and whenever you want!

★ Read full-color pages or text mode for simple reading.

★ Purchase full subscriptions for the best value, or buy single issues and find your new favorites.

★ Sync your entire library easily with your computer and other supported mobile devices.

★ Read with interactive features, rich media, and digital-only content in select magazines

★ Magazines worldwide, published Canada, UK, Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Russia, Japan and more.

Most Popular:

Business and News — Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Economist, HBR

For Men — Maxim, Esquire, Car & Driver, Men’s Fitness, Outside

Fashion — Elle, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Nylon, Harper’s Bazaar, BlackBook

Home / Lifestyle — Saveur, O: The Oprah Magazine, Dwell, Wine Enthusiast

Tech — T3, Macworld, PC World, PC Gamer, X-Box World, Layers

Science — National Geographic, The Smithsonian, New Scientist, Science

International — Vogue France, Esquire UK, Hola Mexico, GQ Japan

New Arrivals — Harper's, Computer Arts, Business Traveler, Guitar Player, Edge, Consumer Reports

ZINIO - Magazine Newsstand Developer: ZINIO
Price: Free
4.1
Download

This is my new favorite news reader app on Honeycomb.

News360 for Android Honeycomb-based tablets aggregates more than 1500 different news sources around the web to bring you news stories in a concise and useful stream. The semantic analysis technology behind News360 allows you to get background information and dossiers about all the companies, people and locations that make the news, and to personalize the news for your location, and create feeds based on your specific interests.

• Enjoy English-speaking news streams, live, from respected sources around the globe and around the corner

• Read the hottest stories from an ever-expanding range of sources, political, cultural and social, collected by sophisticated linguistic algorithms

• Dive deeper into the details about people, companies and brands, with hyperlinks to detailed dossiers

• Get local news by using your tablet's GPS or WiFi connection to find your location

• Connect to Facebook to automatically import your interests and you’re your own personalized news feed

• Connect to TripIt to keep up with fresh local news from your upcoming destinations

• Use the landscape “discovery” mode to find unexpected, fascinating stories

TweetCaster HD is TweetCaster you know and love, optimized for Honeycomb. It's not my cup of tea, however - I still prefer the multi-column layout of other clients, but it definitely has its appeal.

Millions of users agree. TweetCaster is the #1 Twitter app for Android, with the most innovative features and the only app with “Zip It”. Now for Tablets running Android 3.0—Honeycomb!

The HD version introduces the newest and COOLEST TweetCaster feature yet: TweetCaster Smart Filters. Now you can see filtered views of your timeline that allow you to only look at tweets containing photos, links or videos! Plus TweetCaster HD has all the features you’ve come to love on a fully tablet-optimized version.

TweetCaster HD has all standard Twitter functions—reading timeline, viewing profiles, sending tweets, clicking links—plus:

* Zip It – Zip annoying tweeters or keywords from your timeline without unfollowing

* Simultaneously post to Twitter and Facebook

* Multiple Twitter account support

* Color-coding Tweets

* Retweet with or without comment

* Twitlonger service

* Conversation thread view

* Twitter lists

* Customized Twitter notifications

* Enhanced search functionality, including user and nearby search

* Suggested Users (suggests people to follow)

Know A Worthy New App? Let Us Know!

If you have an application in mind for the next issue of the roundup, feel free to send us an email and let us know.

Important: there are 2 requirements in order for the app to be considered, listed below.

  • the app's launch date has to be between Monday and Sunday this week
  • it has to be original, ground-breaking, well-reviewed, interesting, fun, etc - the cream of the crop

Now, if and only if the above requirements have been satisfied, fire up an email to this address: oh.no.its.the@androidpolice.com.

1 sponsored placement per week is available (your app would be featured at the top and marked as sponsored) - please contact us for details.