Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

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

DigiCal Calendar & Widgets

Today's roundup is presented by DigiCal Calendar & Widgets from Digibites. DigiCal is a complete calendar solution that integrates with Google Calendar, matching it feature-for-feature and then some. A wide selection of calendar views (agenda, day, week, month, text month, list) and great tablet compatibility means that your calendar will look great and be easy to use no matter what device you're using. DigiCal also includes a variety of widgets, all of which put the stock Google Calendar to shame, and integrated location search within the app. DigiCal even checks Google Now for travel and traffic time, letting you know when you'll need to leave to avoid being late. The standard DigiCal is free, but the $4.95 DigiCal+ includes a month widget, extra visual options, and zero ads.

Experience the most stylish Android calendar with Holo light and dark themes with 6 powerful calendar views and 5 beautifully designed widgets! DigiCal is a stylish and easy to use calendar application that syncs all your appointment with Google Calendar. You can choose from 6 powerful calendar views (day, week, agenda, month, text month and list) in both portrait and landscape mode. DigiCal also comes with 5 beautiful widgets (list, grid, day, day list and month). Following the latest Android Holo light and dark theme, DigiCal is bringing the clean and intuitive user interface experience to smartphones and tablets running Android 2.2+. DigiCal’s innovative features such as the smart action bar make it easy to edit, move, copy, paste and delete events. With our unique built-in location search, adding a location to your event has never been easier. All you need to do is type in the name of the place (cafe, store, and park) and DigiCal will automatically look up the address and save it. With this feature, Google Now (Android 4.1+) knows where you'll need to go. It'll watch current traffic, plan your route and notify you when you should leave.

DigiCal Calendar Agenda Developer: Digibites
Price: Free
4.4
Download
DigiCal+ Calendar Developer: Digibites
Price: 5.49
4.6
Download

Apps

Google Now Launcher

Android Police coverage: Google Releases The Google Now Launcher To The Play Store, Only Compatible With Nexus And GPE Devices Right Now [APK Download]

Here it is, the much-lauded Google Now Launcher, complete with a quick swipe to the left for instant access to Google Now. You can get it on your Android device from the Play Store right away... so long as that device is either Nexus or Google Play Edition, and also running Android 4.4. So, yeah, move along, nothing to see here. (You can use it on some custom ROMs, and it can be side-loaded onto at least some 4.4 devices - check the link above for the APK.)

Upgrade the launcher on your device to make Google Now one swipe away. From your primary home screen, swipe right to access Google Now cards that give you just the right information, at just the right time. Available on Nexus or Google Play edition devices with Android 4.4 (KitKat).

• Google Now on your home screen - it's easier than ever to get just the right information at just the right time.

• Just say "Ok Google" - when you're on your home screen, just say "Ok Google" to trigger voice input. Then say your search query. Or tell your phone what to do, like send a text message, get directions, or play a song (available in the US, UK, and Canada).

• Faster search - tap the search box and you can enter your query immediately.

Milk Music™

Android Police coverage: Hands-On With Samsung Milk: Music Made Refreshingly Simple... And Creamy [Video]

Samsung now has its own streaming service. Why? To create exclusive content for Samsung users. If you've got a late-model Samsung phone, you have free access to the library and streaming stations. It's not the best streaming service out there, and it's not the worst (the "Dial" interface is actually pretty novel), but you can't beat free. Note: non-Samsung owners and anyone on a tablet need not apply... unless you use this handy trick for root users.

Milk Music™ is a free radio service, with no ads.* With Milk Music, instantly hear music you love – and what you didn’t even realize you’re into – with the turn of a dial. No charge. No fuss. No ads. All music.

INSTANT AND EFFORTLESS MUSIC LISTENING

• Stumble across new hits and old favorites with a turn of the dial.

• Music plays instantly, as you scan through stations.

• No registration or set-up required.

Notifications+

Android Police coverage: [New App] Notifications+ Brings Robust, Encrypted Android Notification Mirroring To Chrome

There are a ton of options for getting your Android notifications onto your desktop, but this might just be the most complete. Notifications+ pairs with a Chrome extension to move all your phone or tablet alerts to your desktop computer or Chromebook. The Android app lets you control which notifications appear and which ones don't, and unlike some other solutions, you can actively dismiss notifications from your desktop browser. It doesn't hurt that all the communication is encrypted.

Notifications+ sends notifications from your Android device to your Google Chrome browser. Notifications+ uses Google Cloud Messaging for Chrome to deliver notifications to your Google Chrome browser. Google Cloud Messaging for Android is used to send messages from Google Chrome back to your Android devices. Your notifications are encrypted using AES256 with GCM authentication.

RAR for Android

Android Police coverage: [New App] Official RAR For Android Arrives To Archive All The Things

Most decent Android file browsers can handle ZIP archives, but everything else tends to baffle them. Now the official creators of the RAR standard have made their own app, and it will unpack or archive just about anything you like. You can do most of the important archiving and compression functions right from the app, including setting a password on newly-created files.

RARLAB's RAR for Android is an all-in-one, original, free, simple, easy and quick compression program, archiver, assistant, extractor, manager and even a basic file explorer. RAR for Android can create RAR and ZIP and unpack RAR, ZIP, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, 7z, ISO, ARJ archives. List of functions include repair command for damaged ZIP and RAR files, benchmark function compatible with RARLAB's WinRAR benchmark, recovery record, usual and recovery volumes, encryption, solid archives, utilizing multiple CPU cores to compress data.

RAR Developer: RARLAB (published by win.rar GmbH)
Price: Free
4.3
Download

Glimmer (luminous alarm clock)

The idea behind Glimmer is to wake you up with light instead of sound, and to do it while looking really, really good. That last bit isn't unique on the Play Store, but Glimmer has at least a few features that you won't find in competing apps, even if you do have to pay for some of them via in-app purchases. It can manage your WiFi state, disable wakelock or keyguard, and even flash your camera's LED light for an extra-luminous alert.

This gorgeous software softly wakes you up. It turns on the screen 30 mins before the alarm with the darkest screen and increases slowly the brightness. In the middle of the process it can play birds sound, and if you didn’t wake up 1 minute after alarm time, it plays a strong sound to be sure you don’t miss. It also let the phone check the emails by turning the notification sound off and internet on. So when you wake up, you don’t have to wait to know what’s new :)

viaProtect (public preview)

Android Police coverage: [New App] ViaProtect Gives A Basic Look At Where Android Apps Are Sending Your Data

The idea of tinfoil hats and paranoia was funny a couple of years ago. These days, an app like ViaProtect seems a lot more vital. The basic function is to give you a very vague idea of how much data you're sharing, and with whom. It can pinpoint which company's servers are collecting the outbound data from your phone or tablet, which country that data is heading to, and how much of it is encrypted. There's also a rough approximation of how "risky" your current app and sharing habits are.

Leaky and insecure apps pose substantial risks to personal data on mobile devices. These apps may transmit information without encryption or to overseas servers which allows data to be intercepted by unwanted parties. The harsh consequences can include identity theft, financial theft and loss of privacy. viaProtect makes proven enterprise-grade technology available to anyone, to reduce their risk. The app gather mobile forensic, system, network, security and sensor data from devices, then utilizes statistical analysis and risk indicators to detect suspicious events or behavior.

Per-App Modes

Android Police coverage: [New App] Francisco Franco's Per-App Modes Lets You Choose System Settings For Individual Apps [Root-Only]

Per-App Modes aims to make your Android device more efficient by setting up a system of conditions for any, or indeed every, running app. The central idea is to save battery life, with a focus on CPU and GPU scaling - higher for more demanding apps and much, much lower for less intense apps. Unfortunately (and in common with every CPU-clocking application) you'll need root permissions to run the app.

Did you ever wonder how you can improve your device battery life while playing a game, or reading an ebook, or simply while using your favorite applications? Wonder no more, you've come to the right place. With Per-App Modes you can create special profiles for each of your applications, you can create a mode with a lower maximum CPU frequency to use when you're reading a book, or while playing a game that is less hardware demandable. The possibilities are limitless.

App Habits

Android Police coverage: [New App] App Habits Tracks Your App Usage, Translates Your Shameful Procrastination Into Helpful Graphs

The most shameful part of using Steam to play PC games is watching how much of my life gets wasted in Skyrim and Team Fortress 2. If you'd like that same soul-crushing data on your phone, App Habits is happy to oblige. It monitors your usage time for different apps and gives you a report on your habits. This isn't just for shame: App Habits also learns your behavior, and uses a simple notification bar to predict which app you want to use right at this moment.

How much time do you spend in calling? or in reading emails? do you have the feeling of wasting your time with useless tasks or apps? How about a magic tool that helps you to understand how you use your time and will suggest the right app at the right moment? A sort of daily journal about your device usage? According to O2 Media Advertising, 70% of users consider their smartphone their "most important screen" (http://goo.gl/4yGnsx) and we know that the time you spend with your device needs to be useful and efficient.

Nick

Android Police coverage: [New App] Nickelodeon Releases Official Android App Complete With Full Episodes, Games, And Original Content

If you were a kid in the 90s, you would have killed for on-demand Nickelodeon episodes. But if you were a kid in the 90s, you might have your own Rugrats now (who'll never know how good they have it). You can spoil them with always-on episodes from Nickelodeon... assuming that you pay for it from one of a wide variety of cable packages. Cord-cutters need not apply, but they can get a consolation prize of games and video clips.

The Nick app puts the best of Nickelodeon at your fingertips…hilarious original videos, animated shorts, games, recent episodes and more. So have fun, play around, and prepare to laugh until you snarf milk from your nose. What are you waiting for? Let's get APPIN' already – download now. Oh, and watch out for those Do Not Touch buttons. Get even more full episodes with select cable providers: AT&T U-verse, Atlantic Broadband, Bright House Networks, DIRECTV, EPB Fiber Optics, Optimum, RCN, Service Electric Cablevision, Suddenlink, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS, WOW.

Taskei - Tasker for Muzei

Android Police coverage: [New App] Taskei Gives Muzei The Tasker Treatment, Provides Greater Control Over Which Wallpapers You See And When

The Muzei live wallpaper has fast become a favorite for fans of customization, and when it comes to customization, Tasker rules. Taskei creates a link between the fancy live wallpaper and the action engine, allowing the latter to control your homescreen wallpaper through any Tasker action you like. It can also interact with other Muzei plugins, combining for a truly staggering amount of actions and possibilities. You'll need a good understanding of Tasker to make the most of this plugin.

Show the Muzei wallpapers you want to see when you want to see them with Taskei. Taskei allows Tasker to control your Muzei wallpaper sources. Just enable Taskei in Muzei, add one of the 3 available tasks, and add set up any conditions or events to trigger them. It's really that simple.

  • Show a certain wallpaper source only on WiFi
  • Show album art when your headphones are plugged in
  • Choose groups of Muzei extensions for different locations or parts of the day
  • Shake your phone to show the next artwork
  • Show a source when your phone is upside down

Solid Explorer Cast Plugin

Android Police coverage: Solid Explorer v1.5.7 Adds Chromecast Support Via A Separate Plugin, Multiple Bug Fixes, And More

This little plugin lets you play movie and music files on your Chromecast streaming device directly from the popular Solid Explorer file browser. Just install the app, then navigate to your media files in Solid Explorer, select a file, and "share" it to the Cast plugin. It's a free add-on to Solid Explorer, which is a reasonable $2 itself.

This is a plugin for Solid Explorer which adds support for Chromecast. Please note that this is not an autonomic application. Make sure you have Solid Explorer installed first. The plugin doesn't have its own icon in launcher. In order to launch it, you need to open a media file in Solid Explorer and choose Solid Explorer Cast option as shown on the first screenshot. That's it. Have fun.

Type Your Ringtone Lite

Android Police coverage: [New App] Type Your Ringtone Uses Text-To-Speech To Turn Words Into A Ringtone [Banana Phone Video Demo]

Want your phone to say something when you get a call, like "pick up your phone" or "hailing frequencies open"? With Type Your Ringtone you can do just that, assuming you're OK with text-to-speech (a.k.a. the robot voice). The standard app has no ads or in-app purchases, and a reasonable pro upgrade lets you control a few more options like pitch and speed.

Make your phone talk to you when you're getting a call or a text. Just type whatever you want your phone to say, then hit “play.” Once you’re satisfied, save it as your ringtone or notification sound. Boom. Simple as that.

  • The ability to set a ringtone for a specific contact
  • The ability to control both pitch and speed of the speech
  • No ads
  • No ringtone limit

Adobe Revel

Android Police coverage: [New App] Adobe Revel Comes To The Play Store To Provide Adobe-Flavored Photo Sharing (And Editing) On The Go

If you're a regular user of Adobe's creative products, you might go all-in and share your photos using Revel as well. Now Adobe's official Revel Importer has been graduated to a "full" app, allowing you to upload and share photos directly from your phone to the branded service. There's also some basic image editing baked in - it's a lot more primitive than the Adobe Photoshop Android app, but it's also free.

Bring your family closer together with Revel, the private place to view and share your everyday photos. Encourage family members to add their photos, and together you'll create a library rich in memories. Five things you'll love about Revel:

1. Keep your personal photos private. Revel lets you share family photos confidently, knowing that unwelcome viewers cannot access your library of photos and videos.

2. Revel works on a variety of devices, so everyone can play a part. Get the whole family involved.

3. Stay in touch with faraway family members by sharing daily moments, automatically. Easy-to-use settings make it a cinch.

4. Syncing without thinking: be confident knowing that your memories are secure, backed up in the cloud, and sync'd to your various devices.

5. With all your photos and videos in one organized, accessible place, there's no more headache locating photos and videos.

PhotoDirector - Photo Editor

Android Police coverage: [New App] PowerDVD Developer CyberLink Releases PhotoDirector Photo Editing App For Android Tablets

Need yet another photo editor for Android? Probably not, but Cyberlink has one anyway, and it's surprisingly effective. PhotoDirector includes a lot of powerful tools without many options, but those that are there should made your photos look dramatically better. Unfortunately there are a lot of limits: in order to use the app you'll need a 7" tablet at least, and some of the best features (like high-quality photo saving) are hidden behind in-app purchases.

PhotoDirector puts a powerful set of photo editing tool in the palm of your hand. You can quickly edit images on your device, and share them on Facebook, Flickr and more. You can remove an unwanted person or object from your photo, adjust saturation, tweak the tone, apply one-click photo presets, or even add HDR effects, to create vivid, beautiful images on the go. Anyone can achieve outstanding, DSLR-like results in a matter of seconds with PhotoDirector.

Sony's news app/Socialife News

Android Police coverage: Sony Opens Up Its Socialife News Reader App To Non-Xperia Devices Running Android 4.1 Or Higher

Why do you want a social network that's made by Sony? You don't. So it's a good thing that when Sony opened up Socialife to other manufacturers, they brought the news and sports functionality along for the ride. This is basically Sony's answer to Flipboard and the various device-specific news feeds out there. It's attractive enough in a stark white way, but the ability to add customized RSS feeds is a very welcome one.

Socialife News is an Android App that enables you to check your Facebook posts, Tweets, YouTube™ videos, blog posts, and interesting news articles in one central place. Socialife News is an "exclusively yours" social news reader application used with Android smartphones and tablets.Simple operation with a beautiful and easy-to-see screen layout optimized for touchscreens. The "Featured" section of Socialife News helps you to find variety of news feeds by leading publishers. By tapping "+" you will instantly start subscribing to your favorite sources.

Blimps - Floating Dialer feat.

"Floating" apps have been a popular UI idea ever since Chat Heads popped up, but the truth is there are only a few instances where they might be useful. Blimps seems to understand that: it's a set of basic telephony tools that appears only when you're in a call. It's a great idea if you find yourself constantly checking email or web pages during a call - this way you won't have to constantly switch back to the dialer application for basic functions like mute or speakerphone.

True human mutli-tasking during a call. Blimps are small floating dialer features triggered only when you receive or make a call. Blimps will stay on top of your screen (float) all the time until the call ends. With Blimps you get an extremely comfortable control on your call while doing more things with your phone, like : chatting, SMSing, browsing, checking mail... Blimps are dynamic so if its blocking a part of the screen you want to see just move them around freely on your screen.

Mime-O

Keeping with the idea of a contextual floating app, Mime-O attempts to improve on the somewhat clunky cut and paste function in Android. After copying any text, Mime-O (man, what an awkward name) creates dynamic buttons that will give you quick links to relevant applications. Mime-O will also directly share your clipboard to your desktop or laptop via a free Windows/OS X program.

MIMEO- biggest improvement to copy and paste since copy and paste. Copy and Paste has been the wheel of information sharing for decades. It is definitely the easiest way to share information with the help of just a few clicks. MIME-O takes it a step further. Every content you copy contains information according to which it's paste location can be predicted. Suppose if you copy a phone number its likely that you might use it in dialer , or when you copy a link you might want to paste it in the browser

Pixl Preview

If you're an app designer using Photoshop extensively, you need to check out Pixl Preview. This tool lets you send working proofs directly to your phone or tablet, giving you a good feel for how the app will work on the device. Additionally you can send screenshots right into Photoshop without having to use any extra syncing software. Unfortunately, the tool requires Photoshop CS5 or later - sorry thrifty graphic designers.

Pixl Preview lets you view your Photoshop® designs on your Android device in real-time. Get an accurate look and feel of your designs the moment you're making them, and instantly get an on-device image of all your iterations and tweaks. Additionally you can also send any screenshots or images from your device straight to Adobe® Photoshop®.

Flipp: Flyers and Weekly Ads

There are plenty of deals that never make it to the usual bargain hunter websites, on account of being featured only in old-fashioned dead tree newspaper inserts. Flipp scans in and annotates all of those annoying loose-leaf advertisements, meaning you get the heads-up on potentially lucrative local sales without having to scan through six pounds of soggy pulp. Filters by store and discount amount will help you find the deals you care about quickly.

Flipp is the easiest way to browse flyers/weekly ads and save money. In fact, you can save up to 40% each week using flyers. With all your favorite stores at your fingertips, you can quickly search for the items you need, highlight the best deals and clip items straight to your shopping list. More than 300 retail stores can be found on Flipp including: Target, Walmart, Best Buy, IKEA, Macy’s, Sports Authority, Big Lots, Kroger, Sears and many more.

Aptrax | App Usage Tracker

As someone who tries out a dozen apps a week as part of his job, it's amazing how long a test app can hide on my tablet. Aptrax tries to combat that bad behavior by identifying the apps that you never use, telling you to get rid of them to improve the performance and storage on your device. Handy, though the idea of installing an app to combat too many apps seems a little odd to me.

Have you ever wondered what apps you have installed and never used? Or just curious which applications you use the most on your device? Say hello to Aptrax. Aptrax is an app usage tracker which runs in the background and monitors what apps you are using. As soon as you install it, Aptrax will start keeping track of the amount of time you spend on each app, as well as the number of times you launched them.

ThrowBack

Have you ever wanted to feel like Marty McFly? You're not getting a self-drying jacket or a hoverboard any time soon, but you can send photos and messages to your future self with the app/service ThrowBack. Take a photo now, attach a short message, and ThrowBack will send it to you in the future, from one month to five years. There's no local copy saved, at least until you get the photo "back" in the future. Neat.

ThrowBack is a photography app that sends your photos to your future self. It captures a photograph but does not save it to your phone. Instead the photo is thrown into the future and emailed back to you at a random time, anywhere from 1 month to 5 years from the day the photo was taken. ThrowBack provides a unique opportunity to forget your photos so they can be remembered again.

Fairshare

Here's another limited social network for housemates and roomies. Think of it as the fridge whiteboard: it lets you know whose turn it is to do the chores, and who's due on the rent and the electricity. There's a lot of other sharing stuff in there too, which I'm sure you'll be eager to do with the people you see every day. In real life. Because they live with you.

Fairshare is the app to bring happiness to your household. It's a free and easy way to see what's being done at home, who's around and what's been paid. Do the house work you think is fair and focus on the things you enjoy. Eat together like a family. Encourage each other for jobs well done. Live together as a household.

Togethera: Share Family Photos

Togethera lets you share photos and short messages with your friends and family. In that way, it's pretty much like every social network, ever. But Togethera aims for a more enclosed experience, keeping out everyone who isn't in your immediate family. Or whoever else you invite. It's a social network, after all. Why do you need this? I suppose if you really hate Facebook and you (or your parents) can't figure out Dropbox, it could be pretty useful.

Share photos, videos and updates with your family in absolute privacy and create a beautiful family photo album. Togethera makes it easy for everyone to participate, so the whole family, including grandparents and children, can share in a safe, private and simple environment.

  • PRIVATE SHARING: only you and your family can see your photos, videos and updates. No friend requests, no followers, no subscribers.
  • SIMPLE: we work hard to make Togethera easy for all members of your family to use, from young children to elderly grandparents.
  • MULTIPLE GROUPS: Create separate private groups so you only share with the right people.
  • ON ANY DEVICE: you can access Togethera on a smartphone, tablet or computer.
  • NO ADS: only your family's content and nothing else. We won’t share your data with a third party.
  • FREE: no monthly fee or upfront payment.

Glip

Glip is another one of those team-based chat programs, ideal for small teams and businesses. There's not much to say about the official Android version: it handles group and person-to-person chat, plus basic project management. You'll need a Glip account for your company to access the service.

Glip is your conversation platform to plan, share, and organize work. NOTE: Use of this application requires an account on Glip.

RingCentral Developer: RingCentral
Price: Free
4.6
Download

WTF App(s) Of The Week

BroApp

Dude, bro, you hear about this sweet new app? It, like, totally messages your gee eff automatically so you can focus on the important stuff, like Call of Duty. You don't even have to think about it, just tell BroApp (awesome name, dude!) your gee eff's number and it will send automated messages to her. She'll never figure it out, assuming that she's the kind of person who's dumb enough to date the kind of person who would try to automate communication with the opposite sex. It's awesome bro.

BroApp is your clever relationship wingman. It automatically messages your girlfriend sweet things so you can spend more time with the Bros. Select your girlfriend's number, add some sweet messages, and set the time of day when you want those messages sent. BroApp takes care of the rest. BroApp is smart, taking all possible steps to safeguard the BroApp secret. BroApp's unique detectors integrate advanced Android technologies that ensure your girlfriend never becomes suspicious of your relationship wingman.

Baby Selfie

Samsung, I'm blaming you for this. That doesn't make any sense, but I'm still doing it.

Baby Selfie is peek-a-boo with a camera twist. Capture your baby's delighted expressions as colorful animals dance onto the screen. Baby Selfie uses custom drawings and fun sounds to grab your baby's attention and surprise them. We capture your baby's reaction in a unique, unexpected photos that you'll love to share. You'll need a device with a front facing camera for the best results.

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 no longer than 2 weeks ago
  • 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.