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

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Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Accu Battery

Today's roundup is presented by Accu Battery from Digibites. Batteries today are ubiquitous with just about every device we use, as they play a critical role in our day-to-day that is difficult to dismiss. This means that it is pretty important to stay on top of your battery usage. Keeping track of what app is using too much battery or just checking your current usage projections can be plenty helpful when out and about, as every spare milliamp-hour can be crucial in getting things done. Luckily Accu Battery is here to keep us informed, that way our batteries can run longer and more efficiently.

Accu Battery protects battery health, displays battery usage information, and measures battery capacity (mAh) based on science. Batteries have a limited lifespan. Every time you charge your device, it wears out the battery, lowering its total capacity. Scientific research shows that battery lifespan can be extended up to 200%, when you charge your device to only 80%. Accu Battery measures the actual battery usage using information from the battery charge controller. Battery usage per app is determined by combining these measurements with information on which app is in the foreground. Android calculates battery usage using pre-baked profiles that device manufacturers provide, like how much power the CPU uses. In practice however, these numbers tend to be highly inaccurate.

  • Measure real battery capacity (in mAh).
  • Use the charge alarm to prolong battery lifespan.
  • See how much wear your battery sustains with each charge session.
  • Look up the discharge speed and battery consumption per app.
  • Remaining charge time - know how long it takes before your battery is charged.
  • Remaining use time - know when you will run out of battery.
  • Screen on or screen off estimations.
  • Check the percentage of deep sleep, when the device is in standby mode.
  • Ongoing notification for real time battery statistics at a glance.
  • Real-time CPU and power usage overlay for spotting battery draining processes.
  • Use Dark and AMOLED black themes to save energy.
  • Access to historical sessions older than 1 day.
  • Detailed battery statistics in notification.
Accu​Battery Developer: Digibites
Price: Free
4.7
Download

Apps

Adobe Scan

Android Police coverage: Adobe releases Adobe Scan, supports text recognition and works with Document Cloud

Adobe Scan, as the name would suggest, is a scanner app that allows you to turn any physical document into a PDF. It works through the use of your device's camera by way of taking pictures of documents. You can even enhance the document photographed, in order to clean up its appearance as a PDF. While many apps already provide a similar service on the Play Store, this is Adobe's first attempt at offering a photo-based PDF creation tool on Android. You can grab Adobe Scan today as an entirely free download that does not include any advertisements or in-app purchases.

The free Adobe Scan app turns your device into a powerful portable scanner that recognizes text automatically (OCR). Turn anything — receipts, notes, documents, pictures, business cards, whiteboards — into an Adobe PDF with content you can reuse.

  • CAPTURE. Scan anything with precision. Advanced image technology automatically detects borders and sharpens scanned content.
  • ENHANCE. Touch up scans or photos from your camera roll. Easily preview, reorder, crop, rotate, and adjust color.
  • REUSE. Turn your scan into a high-quality Adobe PDF that unlocks content through automated text recognition.
Adobe Scan: PDF Scanner, OCR Developer: Adobe
Price: Free
4.8
Download

Face Swap

Android Police coverage: Microsoft merges advanced facial recognition and Bing image search in new Face Swap app

Microsoft Corporation has been on a tear releasing new apps onto Android lately. Their latest offering this week is Face Swap, a facial recognition app that allows you to place your face into a never ending assortment of online photos. What sets it apart from other facial swap apps is how it works. You simply take a picture of your face. Then, depending on the angle, shape, as well as other qualifiers, the app will use Bing image search to find photos you face will fit seamlessly on. If this sounds like something that appeals to you, you can quickly pick up Face Swap for free without worry of any advertisements or in-app purchases.

Search & transport yourself into fun & inspirational scenes. Free, no ads, just face swaps. Just take a selfie, choose a scene from your camera roll or the web, and swipe through your results. It’s so easy with the power of search and the intelligent face tech. There is always something new to face swap into. We frequently update our categories, and the web never stands still.

  • See yourself with a new hairstyle
  • Try on different fashions
  • Pop yourself into trending scenes
  • Swap multiple faces on a group photo
  • Put your friend’s face onto some funny pictures
  • You can swap any face into any picture.

TapTapTap Tile

Sometimes the best apps are the simplest. TapTapTap Tile most definitely fits inside of this category. Simply put, this is a toggle that you can place in you pull-down notification bar. It allows you to turn off and on the "Show Taps" function of your device. Typically this toggle is squirreled away inside of your Settings under the hidden Developer Options section. For those that often need to turn this feature on and off, (say for YouTubers who record gameplay) this easily accessible toggle is a godsend. TapTapTap Tile is available for free, and there are no advertisements or in-app purchases.

A very simple straight to the point tile for devices with Quick Tiles support. It adds a shortcut to enable or disable "Show taps", a switch inside Developer Options. I got tired of going to Dev Options every time I needed to use the tap circle overlay so here it is. This is mostly for developers or designers capturing screen records.

Cabana - Hang Out, Watch Stuff

To be quite honest, Cabana - Hang Out, Watch Stuff is pretty similar to the functionality found in Hangouts. You and up to five friends can video chat while watching YouTube videos. Of course, the user base is slightly different as this is an app intended for Tumblr users, which is owned by Yahoo. So I suppose you could say this is Yahoo's version of Hangouts, just that it is more geared towards social interaction. One thing to keep in mind is that even though Cabana - Hang Out, Watch Stuff is a free app, it does contain advertisements. While there are no in-app purchases to worry about, that does mean there is no current way to remove these ads.

Cabana is Tumblr’s new app for hanging out and watching stuff. Video chat with up to five of your friends while watching YouTube videos together. Anytime, anywhere. It’s just you and people you like, so you’re already camera-ready.

  • HANG OUT: Video chat with up to five of your friends.
  • WATCH STUFF: Watch YouTube videos together while you chat.

Garmin Golf

Garmin is no stranger to the sport of Golf. That is why it is a bit of a surprise that it took this long to see a Golf centric app from the company. I suppose they wanted to sell their equipment instead of relying on an app. But it would appear that plan is over, now that we have this Android release. Essentially Garmin Golf is an app that gamifies Golf by way of allowing the user to create their own tournaments at a local Golf course. While that does sound like a fun tool, it is the fact that Garmin Golf is offered as a completely free app that makes me happy. Rest assured, there are no advertisements or in-app purchases included with this download.

Add another level of fun and competition to your game with the free Garmin Golf app. Download it to your phone to compete with your friends and fellow golfers. Each round can take on a tournament feel on any of more than 40,000 courses worldwide. Compete in weekly leaderboards on any golf course, or you can set up your own tournament event and invite multiple friends to compete. Players can also live chat with each other and post their results for others to see. If you have a compatible Garmin device, your scorecard will upload when you sync to the app through Garmin Connect or Garmin Express.

Garmin Golf Developer: Garmin
Price: Free
4.3
Download

Dog Lens | Recognise Breed

Dog Lens | Recognise Breed is something of an interesting idea. Essentially you take a photo of a dog in order for the app to tell you what breed the dog is. In practice, the experience is a bit more painful than you would think. While I can appreciate that the app is still under development, it does crash quite often. When it is not crashing, it does appear to work for the most part, though your best bet so far is to take a pic of a full breed dog. There is no system in place currently to identify mixed breeds or mutts. If you would like to give this app a go, Dog Lens | Recognise Breed is available for free and there are no advertisements or in-app purchases weighing the experience down.

Introducing Dog Lens. It is a simple interface which helps you to recognise breeds of dogs with ease. Since the application is under development, it only supports 120 dog categories. I am working on adding more as soon as possible. You can check/request for more food categories below. I am a college student, and I don't have the resources to keep high end servers running. The app might be slow at times. Please bear with me. The usage of the application is quite simple.

  • Start the camera within the application by tapping on the camera button.
  • Click a picture of your dog
  • Let us take it from there.

Security & Privacy

There do seem to be quite a few security apps already available on Android. Why Verizon feels the need to release yet another app similar to the rest is a bit of a pickle. Sure, I suppose it is a nice service to offer to the public. But it strikes me as odd to re-brand what is essentially a Mcafee app. Who am I kidding though, why wouldn't Verizon want to make some money on a subscription plan to a security app they didn't even make. If you feel that your device is not quite secure enough, you can pick up Security & Privacy for free without worry of any advertisements. Rest assured there are in-app purchases that are used for a subscription fee if you want to use this on multiple devices.

Security & Privacy from Verizon (S&P) helps your device be at its best by keeping it safe from viruses, risky apps and un-secure Wi-Fi networks. Verizon customers can download the Single Device version here and also upgrade to the Multi-Device version (which extends protection to unlimited devices) through the app or through My Verizon.

Digital Secure Developer: Verizon Consumer Group
Price: Free
4.5
Download

Audvel - podcast app

If you are an avid podcast listener, I would imagine that you already have landed on a favorite podcast app. For those that have not, Audvel - podcast app is the new kid on the block that may be worth a look. Sure, it may not contain all of the features found in the more robust options available, but it is free and performs quite admirably. The only caveat with Audvel - podcast app is the fact that it does contain advertisements that can not be removed.

Audvel is a brand new podcast app available for free. With Audvel you'll be able to find and listen to your favorite podcast, sync a podcast and listen with your web browser and much more. Audvel enables you to easily browse through your subscriptions with a timeline view of all your episodes. You'll also be able to bookmark and download your favorite episodes to listen offline.

GameSpot Now

If GameSpot Now was an app that allowed you to read the full catalog of articles available on the site I could see its usefulness. Sadly that is not what we are receiving with this release. There are only ten articles available through the app daily, which really limits the content for those interested in a broad selection of gaming news. While I can appreciate that being an RSS reader for GameSpot is not the intention of the release, I see little reason to specifically limit my amount of gaming news coming from GameSpot. What is nice about this title is how GameSpot Now is available for free. What isn't great is the fact that it does contain irremovable advertisements.

GameSpot Now delivers the most important and recent gaming and entertainment news, reviews and opinions, all in one easy daily dose. The app has GameSpot’s 10 biggest stories of the day at the tip of your fingers. Staying up to date on the latest game announcements and news is hard. That’s why we built GameSpot Now, the simplest, fastest, free-est way to get a quick look at what’s big right now in gaming and entertainment news. GameSpot Now gives you a look at the “big picture” by delivering a selection of best stories based on the most popular topics right now. GameSpot Now is perfect for your commute (but please, not while driving.) or while in line at your favorite coffee shop.

Link Sharing, formally known as Simple Sharing, is Samsung's solution to sharing content through a wide selection of apps. It is available for most Android devices, not just for Samsung's, which is refreshing. Sadly it would seem that Samsung users did not get a choice in whether the app should be installed in the first place. While it is a useful service, the fact that you can not uninstall it from a Samsung branded device can be infuriating. The good news for the rest non-Samsung users is that Link Sharing is available for free without worry of any advertisements or in-app purchases.

The name of Simple Sharing is now Link Sharing. If you download Link Sharing at first, there is no App Icon, Please select “Link Sharing” in Share panel for sharing contents in your app. You can add Link Sharing App icon if you want in Link Sharing settings. Link Sharing is a file sharing app that can conveniently share large video clips or massive quantities of photos (at their original sizes) to large groups of people.

Manufacturer And Tie-In Apps

[roundup_app name="Microsoft Planner" pname='com.microsoft.planner' video='']

Android Police coverage: The Microsoft Planner app is now available on Android [APK Download]

To begin with, Microsoft Planner requires a work or school subscription to Office 365. While the app is easily installed on many devices, it will not run unless you are paying for the service. With that out of the way, Microsoft Planner is a Trello style kanban board that utilizes a collaborative functionality similar to Basecamp. The service has been available since last summer, but this week is the first time Android has received an app for said service. You can grab the Microsoft Planner Android app for free, and there are no advertisements or in-app purchases available to ruin the experience.

--

Microsoft Planner requires an eligible Office 365 work or school subscription. This app does not support Office 365 personal accounts (for example: name@outlook.com or name@hotmail.com). If you are not sure about your company’s subscription or the services you have access to, please contact your IT department. Planner provides a simple, visual way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for your team to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share files, chat about what you’re working on, and get updates on progress.

[/roundup_app]

Device Maintenance

Android Police coverage: Samsung uploads its Device Maintenance tool to the Play Store

Device Maintenance is an app Samsung pre-installs on their devices. It is essentially a cleaner tool that is intended to keep the user's device free of spyware or viruses. This last week it was finally released on the Play Store. This means it can be updated from the store itself, keeping it far more up to date that if Samsung relied on its glacial OTA updates. If you own a Samsung device, you can see that Device Maintenance is available for free without worry of any advertisements or in-app purchases.

For a more pleasant experience while using your Galaxy smartphone, try the "Device Maintenance" app by Samsung Electronics. With the "Device Maintenance" app, anyone can easily keep their smartphone in good condition. The intuitive screen layout and interactions help the user check the condition of their device at a single glance and maintain their smartphone easily without expert knowledge, as it enables them to take prompt actions if problems, such as malware (viruses, spyware), arise.

Device Care Developer: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Price: Free
4
Download

MLB.com At Bat VR

Android Police coverage: MLB's At Bat VR app lets you stream live games with Daydream

MLB.com At Bat VR is a Daydream application that allows you to stream out-of-market Major League Baseball games in virtual reality. The experience is quite similar to MLB Advanced Media's MLB.com At Bat app, just in VR. If watching baseball in virtual reality appeals to you, MLB.com At Bat VR looks to be a solid choice, if not your only. While the app is free to download, there are extra features if you purchase At Bat Premium. As with anything MLB related, there is always a price attached.

The #1 source for LIVE BASEBALL comes to Daydream. Stream out-of-market games from your favorite team anytime with this official Major League Baseball app. Get closer to the game and dive into immersive data like never before. At Bat VR is the first VR app to bring live game streaming and real-time data visualization to fans and broadcasts the most live games of any VR sports app, start watching today.

Vicarious

Virtual Reality apps still seem to keep trickling out. While there is a certain price hurdle to any VR platform, it does appear that Daydream has had constant development support. Vicarious is the latest Daydream release to prove this point. It is a media collection app that allows you to store and group together not only VR content, but 2D and 360 content as well. What is nice, is that Vicarious is offered as a free app that does not include any advertisements or in-app purchases.

Vicarious lets you create and share snippets of your life by using 2D photos/videos, 360 photos and embellishing them with text, and audio to add emotion and tone to your 5-page story. You can consume and create both in VR and as a regular 2D mobile app. By using life’s most intimate captured moments, Vicarious empowers the world to share, understand and experience each other in VR.

Live Wallpapers

UCL Real Madrid C.F. Wallpaper

UCL Real Madrid C.F. Wallpaper is a new and free soccer themed live wallpaper from Sony Mobile Communications. While the Play Store states that the wallpaper is only tested on Sony devices, it actually works on plenty of others. So don't worry if you do not own a Sony product, this live wallpaper will work for you all the same. You can pick up UCL Real Madrid C.F. Wallpaper for free, and there is no worry of any advertisements or in-app purchases included with the download. Oh, and good news for those of you not enamored with this wallpaper, UCL Juventus F.C. Wallpaper is also available for free from Sony.

UEFA Champions League Real Madrid C.F. live wallpaper for Sony XPERIA™. Tested on Xperia Devices XZ, X, Z5, Z5 Compact, Xperia Z4 Tablet, Xperia Z3 etc. Requires Android 5.0 and above. Download gorgeous and high quality wallpapers developed uniquely for your Xperia smartphone from Sony Mobile. Download your favourite and personalize your phone today.

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.