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 2 weeks or so.
This is the 2nd part of the app roundup (part 1 with the first 25 apps can be found here). The game roundup from this week can be found here and the tablet app roundup 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:
Apps
"Rackspace customers will surely appreciate the release of the official Rackspace app, especially considering that it seems to be quite advanced. Very nicely done for an initial release, RS" - this is what I originally wrote. And then I dug deeper.
There is another app from them called Rackspace Cloud which bears v1.0 and has been available since 2010: http://www.appbrain.com/app/rackspace-cloud/com.rackspacecloud.android.
The new version here seems to be 1.1 and supports RackSpace Cloud Files in addition to the Cloud, and likely has a whole bunch of new stuff. They added a dot after "rackspace" in the pname and released as a separate app: http://www.appbrain.com/app/rackspace-cloud/com.rackspace.cloud.android.
Update: Rackspace clarified that the new app had to be published because they misplaced the crypto key necessary to sign updates to the original app.
The Rackspace Android app allows you to easily and quickly administer your Cloud Servers and Cloud Files on the go. Simply log in with your API key that's available at manage.rackspacecloud.com.
- Support for US, UK, and custom API endpoints
- Support for multiple accounts
- List all Cloud Servers in your account
- Create new Cloud Servers (including from any existing backups)
- Delete Cloud Servers
- Resize Cloud Servers
- Perform Hard and Soft Reboots
- Manage backup schedules
- Ping Cloud Servers
- Rename Cloud Servers
- Rebuild Cloud Servers
- Change a Cloud Server's root password
- View and Create Cloud Files Containers
- Upload text files to Cloud Files
- Download and Preview Cloud Files
- Passcode Lock
- Detailed Error Handling: if you get an error from the API, you can see exactly what happened with an equivalent curl command to reproduce it in a shell
- Links to contact Rackspace Fanatical Support via phone or Twitter
SeekDroid, one of my favorite remote security/tracking/wipe apps, mostly due to its straightforward and robust implementation and simple $1 price point, came out with a free version yesterday. SeekDroid Lite takes the most popular features of the full version, while leaving most others out, so that, you know, you'd actually have a reason to upgrade if you want.
Here's what you can do with this version: you can locate your lost or stolen Android device and pinpoint it on a map.
Here's what you will gain by upgrading to the full version (for 99 cents):
- Audible alarm (even on silent) w/ custom message
- Lock device w/ custom code
- Retrieve recent calls
- Remotely wipe entire phone
- Remotely wipe SD Card
- Hide from app drawer
- Disable App from being uninstalled
- Receive SIM ID, IMEI, and active phone number
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fsMIIdXUm0&feature=player_embedded
GO team's GO Contacts app for the GO Launcher EX received an update to v2 today, but instead of updating the original GO Contacts app, they decided to release a new app (still free) and name it GO Contacts EX. From the description, it's entirely unclear to me what has changed (come on, seriously, GO team?), and the only thing I can see different from the first look is the 3D cube animation for flicking between the 4 app tabs.
Still, if you use GO Contacts or use GO Launcher but have been looking for a decent dialer, be sure to check out GO Launcher EX.
P.S. Oh, and I love the deduper they've included - it's great for merging contacts (you can choose to search by name, phone number, or email).
P.P.S. The screenshots have some menus and items in Chinese, but on my phone everything was in English, so don't be thrown off by that. MIUI comes from China too, but look at how polished it is.
Brought to you by GO Dev Team , GO Contacts EX is yet another powerful tool, ideal replacement of stock Contacts and Dialer. It is featured by fast search, grouping, duplicates merge and secure backup/recovery.
Features:
1. Quick find: by any letter, name, company, keyword.
2. Group contacts: Drag&group; batch SMS or email by one-key press.
3. Merge duplicated identified by name,phone number or by email address.
4. Smart dialing: Only remember fraction of contact’s number or name? No problem, just press keys, it will give the matches.
5. Speed dial:press on keys call someone.
6. IP Dial:Chinese area IP dial supported.
7. Theme supported: Dark (included) and Spring, Ice Blue (download separately)
8. Backup / restore: Save contacts to or restore them from SD card, safe and secure.
This app is for both gym junkies pumping iron or those simply looking to lose weight alike. Notably, if you're wearing those portable trackers, like Fitbit, you can actually connect it to this app.
Set goals and establish a daily calorie budget that enables you to meet them. Stay on track each day by recording your food and exercise and staying within your budget. The average active Lose It! user has lost more than 12lbs and more than 85% of our active users have lost weight. Lose It! is completely free- get started losing weight with Lose It.
Lose It! is simple and fun to use, but includes great features:
- Simple, attractive, streamlined interface
- Comprehensive database of foods and activities
- Quickly add new foods or exercises to the database
- Setup recipes for more complicated foods
- Quickly add to your log with previous meals, my foods, and other shortcuts
- Track nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, and more
- Works with or without a network connection
- No advertisements
In addition, set up a free Loseit.com account to gain access to features and capabilities that no other weight loss application has:
- Log your food and exercise on Loseit.com
- Automatically keep a back-up of your data
- Add friends for extra support and motivation
- Earn badges to recognize your success
- Share custom foods, exercises, and recipes with friends
- See more detailed online reports
- Export your data to excel
- Setup daily or weekly email reports
- Share your progress on Facebook or Twitter
- Keep your data private or share with friends- you are in control
- Connect your Withings scale to automatically log your weight in Lose It!
- Connect your Fitbit tracker to automatically update activity in Lose It!
If you own one of Contour's cameras (ContourGPS or Contour+ - doesn't look like ContourHD is included), this app can come in quite handy. Rather than figure out whether the camera is positioned the right way on your helmet before ripping through the moguls, you can use the Android app and see the feed on your screen, I'm guessing via Bluetooth. Sweet deal for Contour cam owners.
Works with your ContourGPS and Contour+ video camera to turn your Android phone into a wireless viewfinder. Now you can configure your camera settings in real-time and preview what your cameras sees before you record. Line up your shot, check your battery life, and see if your GPS is locked all from your phone.
- Use it to preview what your camera sees before you record
- Review the battery and memory remaining on your ContourGPS or Contour+ camera
- Change the camera settings in real-time including video mode, video quality, microphone, GPS, and lighting
Android Police coverage: 'Limit Your Call' Monitors Your Minutes, Automatically Ends Phone Calls When Running Low
This app will help keep your conversations under a certain time limit in case you're on a plan with limited minutes, or, you know, calling in an anonymous FBI tip while trying to avoid triangulation and need to keep it under 15 seconds (that doesn't really work does it?).
1. WIDGET - the only application in market with this feature
2. sounds, vibration, status bar notifications
3. Real time call tracking
4. Auto call hang up
5. Incoming/ outgoing call alerts
If English is your primary language, you will probably want to move along, but if you ever wanted to have some apps start up in a different language from your main locale, give Localized Apps a try. It's not a proper solution and feels more like a dirty hack, but if it gets the job done (which for the most part it seems to), then all the power to it.
This app allows you to create shortcuts and choose which language each shortcut will use.
Extremely useful for people who like to use the phone in english and want to use a specific app on another language!
EXAMPLE: android system in english and run google maps in portuguese
Labelbox is now available for Android devices! iPhone users loved us, and we achieved one million downloads in 25 days, as well as hitting number one in 46 countries. We are bringing the same experience to Android users.
Labelbox is a simple, easy to use, photo labeler using a variety of beautiful tapes that stylishly labels your photos.
Select, swipe and type.
Labelbox helps you highlight areas, label items in your photo in an artistic, creative and fun way. You can even use different labels to create frames inside your photo.
Features include:
* 9 different styles FREE
* 4 premium labels as an in-app purchase
* Type in all directions
* Create funky frames using the tapes
* Steply Photo Network
* View shared amazing photos from around the world
* Share to Steply, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Sina Weibo, Posterous & Flickr
Android Police coverage: Capital One Releases Android App For Mobile Banking
Official Capital One banking app.
• Pay bills
• Transfer funds between banking accounts
• Check balances
• Find ATMs and branches
• View Rewards information
• View recent transactions
• Contact customer service
Official Bank Atlantic app (we've got one more banking app to go, folks, so strap in).
• Access your BankAtlantic accounts
• View your account balances and transaction history
• Transfer funds between accounts
• Find nearest branches or ATMs
And finally, finishing off our finance app showdown we have the official Navy FCU app for those in the Navy, I suppose. None of the screenshots show it, but it does have account balances, transaction histories, and transfers.
• Check account balances, view recent transactions and transfer money between accounts
• At-a-glance access to the rate of your choice
• Find the nearest Navy Federal branches or free ATMs worldwide
• Calculate auto loan payments, mortgage payments or even the tip when splitting the bill in an instant.
• Check currency exchange rates around the globe
Cracked.com has got to be one of the wittiest and funniest sites on the Internet, so we welcome their official app, although it absolutely couldn't look any uglier even if it tried. Also, I'm not sure what's so Lite about it, as there is no other version on the Market from the same publisher.
Chances are you’ve been navigating Cracked.com by tapping, pinching and groping your touch screen. Could that be why the man/woman of your dreams has yet to tackle you in public and make love to you? Almost definitely.
And now I want this car simply based on how good its app looks (not really).
Android Police coverage: Nissan Releases The Official LEAF App, Hopes It Proves More Popular Than The Actual Car
The Nissan LEAF app is designed to help you manage your vehicle and control many frequently used features directly from your Android phone. With the Nissan LEAF Android app, you can:
-Check state of battery charge
-Start charging
-Check when battery charge will complete
-See estimated driving range
-Turn on or off the climate control system
Android Police coverage: [New App] AmazonFresh Makes It Easy To Buy Groceries And Have Them Delivered... As Long As You Live In Seattle (For Now)
Absolutely love the concept and can't wait for the Amazon Fresh program to expand outside of Seattle. In the meantime I and the rest of you not in Seattle can enjoy the screenshots and salivate in anticipation.
Shop our complete grocery and selected Amazon.com aisles, choose home delivery times, view past purchases, and place your order quickly and easily. Enjoy convenient new ways to shop for groceries, including barcode scanning and our new My Quicklist functionality.
• Shop complete grocery and selected Amazon.com aisles
• Choose time slots for doorstep and attended home delivery
• Easily add items from your Past Purchases
• Barcode Search lets you scan favorite items to quickly add them to your cart
• My Quicklist is your shopping list for efficient batch searching – great for weekly shopping lists or recipes. Optional feature under “Settings†lets you include your past purchases in search results for added convenience.
• Make changes to your existing open orders (not yet delivered)
• Place order quickly and easily
The BIGWORDS Uber-BOT textbook price comparison uses Multi-Item Price Optimization(tm) to maximize promotions and minimize shipping, providing the lowest total cost for your entire textbook order. It’s why we save students $225 on average multi-item orders. Buy, rent, or sell textbooks: New, used, rentals - They’re all considered and calculated automatically to save you the most money.
You don't have to limit yourself to boring mid-size sedans for a ride down to the grocery store anymore. Finally!
Our Limos.com app gives you fingertip access to the world's largest online marketplace for pre-screened limo & car services. Search thousands of local pre-screened suppliers worldwide who give you specially-negotiated rates you can't find anywhere else - saving you 30-40%. Whether you are a leisure or business traveler, we feature all types of vehicles from sedans to motorcoaches.
+ Save 30-40% by going direct to local suppliers. Our supplier-partners are pre-screened, customer reviewed and carry our $10mm insurance.
+ Easy online ordering - with instant all-inclusive pricing (including tip)!
+ 24 x 7 world-class customer support
+ It's a free app, no booking fees, no contract minimums/term, no fees to use the system
+ We cover most major cities worldwide and recently expanded into China, South America and India
Games
We posted the game roundup separately - see here.
Widgets And Themes
Android Police coverage: [New App] SmartWidget Ensures That You Always Have Frequently Launched Apps On Your Homescreen
Not to be confused with holding the Home button for most recently used apps - this is not the same as frequently launched apps, and I'm not even sure why there's confusion about it (but there was when we posted the above article).
A widget that displays a Zelda-like heart health bar indicating your current battery level - love it. I wish the graphics was even more 8-bit and I'm sure the developer will update it at one point, but so far reddit absolutely loved the concept of this app. Very nostalgic, indeed.
4x4 Twitter widget for GO Launcher, which has dethroned LauncherPro Plus and ADW EX for me as my new favorite launcher.
- View Timeline/Mentions/Messages
- Favourite, Retweet, reply
- follow and unfollow
- Share your mind and photos
4x4 Facebook widget for GO Launcher, yet again. The level of polish in GO products doesn't cease to amaze me.
-View
-Like
-Comment
-Share your mind and photos
Live Wallpapers
A stock ticker-like live wallpaper for your homescreen that can display new tweets, Facebook posts, calls, texts, and upcoming events. Absolutely love this idea, as it kind of removes the need for individual bulky widgets.
The Bubbleator collects and notifies you about the things you care about. The Bubbleator is a live wallpaper that displays your Facebook news feed, Twitter posts, missed calls, texts and upcoming events conveniently on your device's home screen.
This unique live wallpaper transforms your Android home screen into a live stream of your important information so you never miss an event, text or social message. You can choose which items you want to display and control the number of posts by person. It even lets you set the background to any image from your gallery.
The Bubbleator supports Android 2.1+ devices and tablets.
Android Police coverage: Marvel Entertainment Enters Android With The Official Captain America 3D Action Game [Bonus: Live Wallpaper Too]
Be the hero with the official Captain America Shield Live Wallpaper! Tap to bombard your screen with bullets and deflect with the unbreakable shield!
Luma is a colorful, interactive live wallpaper featuring beautiful combinations of drifting shapes and colors. Luma Lite comes with a set of designer themes that are made to match a range of homescreen themes and styles. Transform your screen into a beautiful mosaic of moving shapes and color.
You can further customize the look of Luma Lite with an easy selection of options. You can create your own color schemes and change the types of shapes. Now with touch interaction, brush your fingers across the screen to scatter shapes away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEG0MaM0wP8&feature=player_embedded
This live wallpaper features tree silhouette, on top of a morning sky background with soft cloud moving, birds flying, and rainbow appearing occasionally.
For Tablets
We posted the tablet roundup separately - see here.
WTF App(s) Of The Week
I'll just let the pictures do the talking.
In all seriousness though, this app is not a farce - it's a legitimate sex guide of sorts, but the amount of illustrations put it over the top and into the WTF category. You know, that and the position Randomizer tool, the Choreographer sex position playlist tool, the Famous Movie Sex Scenes recreation tool, and sex homework assignments.
"Go Naked In The Software, examines a situation where six girls and six boys decide to stay in an abandoned (but upscale) mining camp in order to have the complete secrecy that they need to develop a software application that will make them all rich."
Oh, and it's $4.99.
Who comes up with this stuff?
Imagine the kind of fart noises poor Fred will make when he:
- drinks a can of unrefined oil
- eats a questionable mushroom
- swallows radioactive waste… The possibilities are endless!
OK, OK, OK, I have to try to contain my laughter. This app, whatever it is, has the worst cases of Engrish I've ever seen in Market descriptions. Here are some of my favorites:
"Install an app, the most ideas? "
"Galaxy S Users yesterday new installation of some apps do that? "
"If you have any questions, free real-time directly to the message asks. "
"I've used some apps, daily, weekly and monthly basis to determine the aggregate. "
"My phone is installed just run the app."
"Would you like a game of Parcheesi?" - oh, would I ever!!
And the crown jewel: "Ahyiponen there? Sunny von decorating"
In case the app is updated, I've preserved the original description here.
Click through and lol away, guys.
Best comic book plot ever or best comic book plot ever?
Its 2018 and a new virus is spreading called the "Vodka Virus". People who become infected with this virus slowly start to decay away until they die. The only thing that slows down the virus is alcohol. Which has caused mass panic and has created a worldwide shortage of alcohol.
Jonny, the owner of "Jonny's Pub", is trying to protect himself and his friends from acquiring the virus. Along with trying to protect his precious stash of booze.
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.