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May

Roundup: Our Top Six Favorite New Apps From April 2013

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Roundups

Readers probably don't need to be reminded that each month, we distill all of the Play Store's latest entries into a selection of the very best apps of the previous month, hand-picking a shortlist to save you both time and money in testing everything out. This month, though, there were just too many worthy apps to cut down to the usual five, so we've got a slightly-less-short list of the best six apps from April 2013. If you're looking for something to spice up your device, you can't go wrong with any of the below selections.

FL Studio Mobile

First up is FL Studio Mobile.

May

Google I/O Android App Updated For 2013 With A Ton Of New Features

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

As the start of Google I/O 2013 grows achingly close, Mountain View has seen fit to grace us with a pretty significant update of the official Google I/O app for this year's conference. For anyone attending the event, this app is going to be their golden ticket. The app should work on most Android form-factors (2.3 Gingerbread or higher), with a killer card-based UI that's consistent with Google's new design aesthetic. As for features, there's quite a lot going on:

NEW! Scan attendee badges via NFC
NEW! Schedule changes are immediately synchronized between devices
NEW! Lock screen widget for viewing your agenda on the go
NEW!

May

Want Advanced Play Store Filtering (Such As Seeing Just Paid Apps) And Ability To Add Your Own eBooks Into Play Books? Do This Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Google, News

I know many of you have been longing for a way to filter the apps you've paid for into one convenient list. Neither the web nor the app Play Store currently allow this, despite years of outcry. Things are looking up, however, as I believe Google is finally paying attention.

You see, there is a little-known official channel with current top suggestions for Play Store-related features called Suggest a feature for Google Play. You can suggest your own ideas at the bottom, but it also contains a curated list of current top suggestions you can vote for by clicking Suggest it (I think it's a little ambiguous to have a Suggest it button in a list of existing suggestions - it should probably be called Vote for it).

May

27 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (4/25/13 - 5/6/13)

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, News, Roundups

Last Updated: May 13th, 2013

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.

This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here.

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.

Featured App

3CX Mobile Device Manager

Today's roundup is brought to you by 3CX Mobile Device Manager. The app is designed as an employee, device, and inventory tracking service, allowing employers to take a fast and accurate look at where all their mobile devices are at any given time.

May

Action Launcher Updated To Version 1.6 With Easier Shortcut/Widget Placement And Home Screen Locking

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Alternative launchers have been on Android since the beginning, and most of them have made their name by taking the stock experience and piling on new features. Action Launcher is a little different. This app shakes up the UI conventions of the Android home screen, and it's really got some good ideas. The new update fixes a few niggling issues with the way apps and widgets are added to the home screen.

Adding new app shortcuts or widgets to Action Launcher before this update was perhaps the most clunky part of the experience. You'd have to open the customization menu and scroll through the list to find the items you wanted.

May

[New App] XonoMail Beta Promises Smart Automatic Organization Of Multiple Email Accounts

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

The stock Gmail app is one of the best mail experiences on a mobile device, but it can still be nearly impossible to tame particularly active inboxes. XonoMail Beta has just arrived in Google Play, and it promises to keep your email in order without a ton of configuration. Best of all, it's completely free and has no ads while in beta.

XonoMail is based on the open source K-9 Mail project. The official K-9 app doesn't get a lot of attention these days, and it's UI is extraordinarily outdated. XonoMail goes the Holo route (#YOLO) and pulls multiple mail accounts into one place.

May

23 Best (And 3 WTF) New Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (4/19/13 - 5/1/13)

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News, Roundups

Last Updated: May 13th, 2013

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.

This edition focuses only on new games. The app roundup is coming up soon.

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.

Featured App

Boulder Dash®-XL™

Today's roundup is brought to you by Boulder Dash XL from Herocraft. Boulder Dash wasn't considered the greatest game of the bygone 8-bit era, but it had its share of fans thanks to interesting "Dig-Dug meets Tetris" gameplay.

May

WeatherBug App Gets Complete UI Overhaul – No Longer Looks Like A Hot Mess

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

WeatherBug has been a big name in online weather forecasting for a number of years, and it was one of the first full-featured weather apps on Android. The problem, however, is that the app looked like it was designed by inebriated orangutans. Well, no more. The WeatherBug app has been updated with new features and a streamlined (not ugly) UI.

The new app has Holo-style tabs up top along with a drop-down for your locations. It also uses the left side slide-out menu system many apps are implementing these days. It still does all the usual weather app things like updating the current conditions, multi-day forecasts, and animated radar maps.

May

Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About, Part 8: Apps 58-65

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Best Apps For Rooted Users Series, Roundups

Last Updated: May 13th, 2013

There are plenty of apps in Google Play these days, but a relatively small proportion are designed to unlock the power of a rooted device. Since it can be easy for these powerful apps to get obscured by the crush of retro, free-to-play, side-scrolling platformer games, we like to aggregate the best root-only apps on occasion. Whether you want to free up some screen real estate, change icons around, or manage your backups, the apps you need are right here.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

Apr

Microsoft Just Released An Android App That Prepares You For Switching To Windows Phone By Lying To You

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Changing ecosystems is hard. You have to download your apps all over again and if you're going to a platform that's not made by Google or Apple, you have to wonder whether or not you'll even have your apps available to you. Well, thankfully, Microsoft has stepped in to provide a tool for users to find out whether or not you'll be covered if you switch. I tried it out and guess what it found? 92% of the applications I use are available on Windows Phone! Except...