10. Hurricane – American Red Cross
Let’s be honest, there’s nothing fun about extreme weather but, for some people it’s something they have to be prepared for. Knowing when something like a Hurricane coming is pretty useful to say the least and could help you get things in order before you get out of dodge. American Red Cross have done a pretty good job of bringing a well-designed app to Android to keep you up-to-date when Hurricane season rolls around.
9. Snapdragon BatteryGuru
Qualcomm have been really pushing themselves as a consumer brand these days, much like Intel and what says you’re a consumer brand more than a battery saving app? There are so many of things in the Play Store that it’s hard to imagine Qualcomm doing anything better or even a little bit different. Having said that, with this app only available for those using a Snapdragon CPU there’s a good chance that Qualcomm have spent the time making some optimizations and adjustments. Give it a go and see if you notice any difference.
8. Superuser
This is the latest in a long line of superuser apps and this time around it’s from Koushik Dutta, of ClockworkMod fame. What’s different about this is up to you really but, it’s an open source project and has proved pretty popular since it first came out in beta form. It’s even been integrated into CyanogenMod. For those out there that are rooted and use root a lot of the time, keeping track of things is important, give this latest superuser app a try.
7. MLB.com at Bat 2013
Hardcore baseball fans will doubtless be already using this latest update but, for those more casual fans, there’s still reason to jump in with At Bat 2013. With some brilliant coverage of the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues there’s no other MLB app a fan could want. Maybe. It’s well worth a look if you’re a big baseball fan and well worth recommending if you know someone that is!
6. Device Info Live Wallpaper
If you like to be able to see what’s going on with your device at all times then there’s a good chance that your homescreen is crammed full of widgets. With Device Info, you can say goodbye to the widgets and have one live wallpaper do all the work. It’ll give you readings for all the important staff like the date and time, your battery readings, how much of your RAM and CPU is being used and more. It’s a great way to keep an eye on your device and it’s a good-looking wallpaper in its own right. There’s a more customizable version available as well as the free version.
5. Opera Browser Beta
The Opera browser has been around for a long time on Android and while it’s often not been looked upon fondly, that could be about to change. They’re making the move to a WebKit based browser and with a lot, a lot of changes are coming to their Android browser. There’s a beta that you can go ahead and try out from the Play Store right now and while it’s certainly not perfect, it’s a promising start. If you enjoy comparing browsers, then you’ll enjoy giving this a go. It’s definitely worth a try at least.
4. Photoshop Touch for Smartphones
There’s been a lot of noise made about Adobe deciding to charge for both the smartphone and tablet versions of Photoshop touch and while I, too, think it’s a poor move I can’t deny the great features of the app. For retouching photos on the go there’s perhaps no equal to Photoshop Touch, it’s got a lot of the features you might be familiar with on the Desktop and it’s a well-designed app as well. If you’ve paid for it on the tablet and want to use it on your phone then you have to pay for it again, which is pretty stupid but, depending on how much you’re going to use it, the asking price might not be too bad after all.
3. Quickly
Android’s notification drawer has always been pretty useful and since Jelly Bean arrived with expandable notifications, it’s only gotten more and more useful. With Quickly, you can create app launchers that sit in your notification tray and allow you to have up to 12 shortcuts in each one. You can have apps, direct call shortcuts to contacts or messaging shortcuts. It’s a great little app and if you find yourself pulling that tray down a lot, then you’re really going to like this app.
2. DirecTV for Tablets
DirecTV subscribers have a lot to be thankful in this latest update to their app, which is sort of a new app altogether. It’s designed for tablets and it can really help with discovering new content, seeing what’s on TV, what’s hot etc. Sports fans can organize their sports channels and you’ll be able to find something to keep the kids entertained whenever you need it. It’s a well-designed app and for those that watch a lot of TV, you can set your DVR and tailor the app to your liking. This is how Android tablet apps should be, kudos to DirecTV finally showing them some love.
1. Pocket Casts
Shifty Jelly have done an excellent job redesigning Pocket Casts. Lovers of podcasts are going to love this app. Not only does it work fantastically for subscribing to your favorite podcasts, discovering new ones and playing them all back in one place but, it’s also one of the best examples of a brilliant Android app. This is how all Android apps should look like and while a lot of them are moving in this same direction, Pocket Casts has created a fantastic template to follow. Even if you only listen to a small rotation of shows, this is well worth taking a look at. Most music apps don’t cater to podcasts and when they do, it’s done pretty poorly but, Pocket Casts is the only app you should be considering listening to podcasts with.
