EACH WEEK, WE highlight five apps that are worth downloading for your smartphone and tablet. There are a lot of apps released on a daily basis, but not all of them are worth paying attention to.
This week includes a way to control your music player via hand gestures, Skype’s answer to instant messaging, and the perfect app for those who just can’t get the right shot.
LockAgenda
For: Windows Phone
Cost: €1.49
- There are plenty of lock screen apps for WP8.1, each one allowing you different degrees of functionality and usefulness.
- LockAgenda aims to separate itself from rivals by prioritising your appointments and schedule.
- The app takes you through four stages when setting up: setting it as the lock screen, choosing a background image, choosing a display type and updating your image.
- Once you’ve that done, it’s simply a matter of choosing how much of your schedule is displayed although the result might seem congested.
- It’s not earth-shattering, but practical all the same, and the trial version lasts for five days, giving you plenty of time to make up your mind.
Multicam
For: iOS
Cost: €1.79
- As easy as it is to snap a photo, getting the perfect shot is difficult. When the conditions aren’t perfect, some adjustments are necessary to get it right and by the time you’re finished, the moment might have passed you by.
- Multicam aims to solve this by allowing you to set the focus and exposure after you take the photo.
- The app revolves around capturing and saving multiple exposures on the phone and choosing the right one to save.
- It works better with still objects mind. Moving objects will mean you’ll end up filtering through numerous photos with different angles, somewhat like burst mode.
- Note: it only works on iOS 8 so if you have an older device, you’re out of luck.
BrainWave (beta)
For: Android
Cost: Free
- Considering there are so many music players out there, it’s always nice to see one that tries something different.
- BrianWave is a beta app which allows you to control your music player through hand gestures. The gestures are picked up by the front-facing camera and in theory
- Once you’ve set it up, it connects with all major music players and streaming services like Spotify and Google Play Music.
- To its credit, it does a decent job in detecting gestures and is very easy to use, although you would want to make sure it’s facing up otherwise it might pick up movements from someone moving in the background.
- As mentioned before, it’s still in beta so it can be a case of trial and error when starting off, but it’s a fun novelty app.
Skype Qik
For: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Cost: Free
- Skype mightn’t be a headline grabber like WhatsApp or Snapchat, but the video messaging app is still going strong and shows no sign of disappearing.
- Now, it’s finally jumped on the instant messaging bandwagon by launching Qik, a video messaging app.
- It doesn’t take pictures or text, it only records videos, and you can create quick five second videos should you need a quick go-to response.
- Messages are automatically erased from the app after two weeks but you can erase them at any point, and the interface is really nice.
- So long as you’re aware that it’s going to use a fair bit of data, a lot of videos can be tough on your data bill, there’s certainly a lot of potential for it.
Joinz
For: iOS, Android
Cost: €1.79 (iOS), €1.41 (Android)
- Imagine if Tetris and Threes! (or 2048) ended up combining to create a game. Chances are you would end up with something like Joinz.
- The premise is quite simple. Slide the blocks around, create the shapes shown at the top of the screen and clear the grid.
- It’s actually quite relaxing, and there’s a great deal of logic is required to overcome later stages.
- That said, those later stages can get a little bit convoluted though as the difficulty rises. It doesn’t ruin it, but it can feel a little unfair at times.
- A decent puzzler should you be looking for another game similar to Threes!.
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