Planning
to pick up a new Android device over the holiday break? If so, you'll
probably want to break it in with a few killer apps. Here are six of the
hottest available from Google Play today.
With the holiday season fully under way, there's a good chance many of you are planning to pick up a new
Android phone or
tablet. Heck, you might even be looking into one of these new "phablet"
thingies that people are talking about. Whatever the case may be, if
you're rocking a new Android device, there's no question you're going to
want to some killer apps to test its limits. Lucky for you, we've put
together a list of some of the hottest ones.
Amazon Cloud Drive Photos (free)
Relatively new to the Android platform is the Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app, which links to your Amazon account and lets you store photos directly from your mobile device to the cloud. For existing users of Amazon Cloud Drive, it provides a more streamlined way of getting your photos from your mobile device to your cloud account. For new users, it provides a nice, simple way to free some storage space on your phone or tablet. While the relatively young app is far from perfect (it doesn't let you rename files or move items between folders), it is easy to use, and it syncs to the cloud reliably. Plus, Amazon offers new users 5GB of free storage space, which is reason enough to give it a try.
(Credit: CNET)
Crackle (free)
Crackle is one of the few legit apps on the market that provides completely free streaming of television shows, movies, and other video content. Similar to Netflix or HBO Go on Android, the app offers featured content up front and some simple navigation buttons leading to pages with Movies, Shows, and a personal Watchlist to which you can save your favorite programs. While you probably won't find all of your favorite shows and movies on Crackle, the app does offer some classic shows like "Seinfeld," and "The Three Stooges," plus a few newer hits like "Homeland," "Dexter," and "The Walking Dead." Content is not available in HD, but video and audio quality are still high.
(Credit: CNET)
Air Patriots (free)
If you just got yourself a new Android device, then I'm sure you'd love to test drive it with a game or two. If that's the case, I suggest starting with Air Patriots, the very first mobile game developed and released by retail giant Amazon. Available for free download, Air Patriots puts a new twist on the popular tower defense game genre, by incorporating only mobile units instead of the stationary towers and turrets that you might be used to. Rather than simply buying a unit and plopping it down next to an enemy's route of travel, you have to tap and swipe patrol routes for your units, which might be a little jarring at first. The difficult part, of course, is creating an efficient network of patrolling aircraft that keep raining down the pain at every point along your enemies' path. That's also the fun part.
(Credit: CNET)
Fotodanz (free)
A cinemagraphs is a mostly static image with one or more isolated areas looping in animation. Essentially it's the artsy cousin of the animated GIF. Manually, a cinemagraph is difficult to create, but with the Fotodanz app for Android, you can actually create one in seconds, using only your mobile device's camera. While Fotodanz is not quite as popular (or as powerful) as the iOS hit Cinemagram, it certainly serves as an adequate alternative. It lets you isolate up to six different areas to animate and can capture up to 5 seconds of video to loop.
(Credit: CNET)
TuneIn Radio Pro (99 cents)
If you're looking to use your new device as a music source, then I suggest checking out TuneIn Radio. Different from an algorithm-driven "radio" app like Pandora or Slacker, TuneIn Radio actually taps into more than 70,000 AM/FM and Internet radio stations from around the world. This means you can use it to listen to your favorite local stations, talk radio, foreign language offerings, sports stations like ESPN, and even podcasts. What's more, with the paid Pro version of the app (99 cents), you get DVR-like functionality that lets you pause, rewind, and record radio for later playback.
(Credit: CNET)
Google+ (free)
OK, this one is pretty well known, and it's not exactly new, but there are still a lot of Android users out there who are ignoring it. Yes, we all know that right now all of the action is on Twitter and Facebook, but the fact is that the Google+ mobile app still has a lot to offer. For instance, you can fire up a group video chat via Google+ Hangout (perfect for sending holiday greetings to faraway family members). You can create a circle of family members with whom you can share holiday photos privately. And you can even use Google+ to automatically back up your photos to the cloud, as soon as you take them. So, even if you're not interested in sharing your daily musings with yet another social network, there's still a lot to like about the Google+ app.
Relatively new to the Android platform is the Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app, which links to your Amazon account and lets you store photos directly from your mobile device to the cloud. For existing users of Amazon Cloud Drive, it provides a more streamlined way of getting your photos from your mobile device to your cloud account. For new users, it provides a nice, simple way to free some storage space on your phone or tablet. While the relatively young app is far from perfect (it doesn't let you rename files or move items between folders), it is easy to use, and it syncs to the cloud reliably. Plus, Amazon offers new users 5GB of free storage space, which is reason enough to give it a try.
(Credit: CNET)
Crackle (free)
Crackle is one of the few legit apps on the market that provides completely free streaming of television shows, movies, and other video content. Similar to Netflix or HBO Go on Android, the app offers featured content up front and some simple navigation buttons leading to pages with Movies, Shows, and a personal Watchlist to which you can save your favorite programs. While you probably won't find all of your favorite shows and movies on Crackle, the app does offer some classic shows like "Seinfeld," and "The Three Stooges," plus a few newer hits like "Homeland," "Dexter," and "The Walking Dead." Content is not available in HD, but video and audio quality are still high.
(Credit: CNET)
Air Patriots (free)
If you just got yourself a new Android device, then I'm sure you'd love to test drive it with a game or two. If that's the case, I suggest starting with Air Patriots, the very first mobile game developed and released by retail giant Amazon. Available for free download, Air Patriots puts a new twist on the popular tower defense game genre, by incorporating only mobile units instead of the stationary towers and turrets that you might be used to. Rather than simply buying a unit and plopping it down next to an enemy's route of travel, you have to tap and swipe patrol routes for your units, which might be a little jarring at first. The difficult part, of course, is creating an efficient network of patrolling aircraft that keep raining down the pain at every point along your enemies' path. That's also the fun part.
(Credit: CNET)
Fotodanz (free)
A cinemagraphs is a mostly static image with one or more isolated areas looping in animation. Essentially it's the artsy cousin of the animated GIF. Manually, a cinemagraph is difficult to create, but with the Fotodanz app for Android, you can actually create one in seconds, using only your mobile device's camera. While Fotodanz is not quite as popular (or as powerful) as the iOS hit Cinemagram, it certainly serves as an adequate alternative. It lets you isolate up to six different areas to animate and can capture up to 5 seconds of video to loop.
(Credit: CNET)
TuneIn Radio Pro (99 cents)
If you're looking to use your new device as a music source, then I suggest checking out TuneIn Radio. Different from an algorithm-driven "radio" app like Pandora or Slacker, TuneIn Radio actually taps into more than 70,000 AM/FM and Internet radio stations from around the world. This means you can use it to listen to your favorite local stations, talk radio, foreign language offerings, sports stations like ESPN, and even podcasts. What's more, with the paid Pro version of the app (99 cents), you get DVR-like functionality that lets you pause, rewind, and record radio for later playback.
(Credit: CNET)
Google+ (free)
OK, this one is pretty well known, and it's not exactly new, but there are still a lot of Android users out there who are ignoring it. Yes, we all know that right now all of the action is on Twitter and Facebook, but the fact is that the Google+ mobile app still has a lot to offer. For instance, you can fire up a group video chat via Google+ Hangout (perfect for sending holiday greetings to faraway family members). You can create a circle of family members with whom you can share holiday photos privately. And you can even use Google+ to automatically back up your photos to the cloud, as soon as you take them. So, even if you're not interested in sharing your daily musings with yet another social network, there's still a lot to like about the Google+ app.
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