Android tablets have come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes over the years, with the current device typically ranging from the smaller, more portable 7.0-inch devices up to the larger, 12.2-inch tablets. And whilst tablet can generally run the same applications as their smaller smartphone peers, one of the reasons why customers like their Android tablets is that the larger screen can make the same applications even more enjoyable, or makes some applications much easier to use. However, what does the industry consider to be the best tablet applications? The source website, VentureBeat, has put together a list of the favorite applications from across the industry pieced together by an international panel of experts and chaired by Otto Toth, Chief Technology Officer, The Huffington Post.
He had this to say about the awards: “The competition for this year’s Tabby Awards was fierce. The best entries were high-quality creative apps that utilized the capabilities and advantages of the tablet size, and those which created an entertaining and engaging user experience for all demographics.” In addition to the industry expert panel, worldwide app users were invited to vote at TabbyAwards.com for their preferred apps among nominees. The website received over 100,000 votes for this year’s Tabby Awards Users’ Choices.
Rather than detail the full list of Tabby Awards – you can hit up the link at the bottom of the article for this – let me cherry pick a few of the winners, picking on the winner of the Media, Music, Photo & Video application first, PowerDirector. PowerDirector is available as a free and a premium download and is a go-to suite for editing video right on your Android tablet, allowing transition effects, audio mixing and exporting to HD or Full HD. Your tablet needs Android 4.1 or higher and for best results, Cyberlink recommend a reasonably modern processor (the Tegra 3, Snapdragon S4 or Exynos 5000-series of later is mooted); the application runs smoothly on older tablets and with a little practice, users can produce some professional looking video clips. PowerDirector is a great way to utilise the larger screen.
The winner of the news category is News Republic, which is already a decorated application when it comes to awards. News Republic is a comprehensive news application with hundreds of links to websites and news sources around the planet, presented in a beautiful way. You can download the application on both smartphones and tablets, but on the tablet form factor the application looks especially beautiful. News Republic also has an offline mode whereby the application will download the news at a predetermined time ready for your commute into work, or perhaps mid-morning ready for your lunchtime browse. News Republic is available either free (supported by adverts) or premium and it can be quite demanding on older hardware.
Expensify was given the users’ choice award for the Personal Productivity & Finance category. Expensify is designed to take much of the pain of recording expenses by allowing users to take photographs of paperwork and assigning it to a particular category, then letting the application take the strain. If you lose the receipt, Expensify can produce an IRS-guaranteed eReceipt based on your credit card statement. The application can be used to create a PDF, export data to a number of different locations or email your manager. If you have an Android tablet, you might want to take a look at these three applications if you don’t already have them on your device. Of the three, News Republic arguably has the broadest appeal as one of the more popular uses for a tablet is reading, especially catching up on the world’s events. This is not to discount Expensify or PowerDirector! And of course you can hit up the source for even more application ideas.