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 features identifying objects for the visually impaired, photo tagging and fire whips.
TapTapSee
For: iOS, Android
Cost: Free
- Not everyone has 20/20 vision, and when that’s the case, it can be difficult to make out even the most basic objects.
- TapTapSee identifies any object that you take a photo of. Just tap the screen to take it and it will identify it for you (and it can read out the description if you allow it).
- It’s pretty accurate. In our tests, it was able to identify and describe numerous objects like a watch, post-it notes, smartphone, wallet, headphones and others. It’s better if you keep the focus on one object at a time.
- The only thing you should be aware of is you get a limited number of chances to identify a picture. You get 100 to start off with and after that, you need to pay if you want to use it more, but that’s more than enough to help you decide if it’s worth getting or not.
- An essential app for those who are visually impaired or blind.
Whisper Notes
For: Windows Phone
Cost: Free
- Who doesn’t need the opportunity to take down notes when they have the chance? Well, here’s another one to choose from
- Whisper Notes is a note-taking service designed specifically for jotting down both quick thoughts and longer ideas.
- The app isn’t exactly the hardest to learn but it does take a bit of getting used to. It’s split up into three main sections: My Notes, Search and Notifications.
- It’s quite minimalist as well. If you’re looking for customisation and options, you’re not going to find it here as it focuses on one task only.
- One for those looking for an alternative to Evernote.
PicJoy
For: iOS
Cost: Free
- The app market is starting to be flooded with photo apps with auto-tagging. Google Photos is the most high-profile example and there will be many more to come.
- The latest one is PicJoy which automatically tags photos on your phone and iCloud.
- There’s a wide variety of tags, ranging from the general (Spring) to the very specific (Emergency Medical Services).
- There’s also a story section allowing you to add extra details behind images, but each one is limited to one photo instead of combining several, limiting its use.
- If you like the idea of auto-arranging photos but creeped out by Google Photos, this is a decent alternative.
Kodi
For: Android
Cost: Free
- Kodi is designed with Home Theatre PCs in mind and is an open-source service designed around playing photos, videos, and audio on your TV without cables.
- The interface is very much one designed with PCs in mind. It’s not that it’s unwieldy but some larger buttons or smartphone specific options would be nice.
- But it does have a wealth of features and settings for you to customise. Both DLNA and local media are supported and there are a wide variety of plugins to take advantage of.
- It takes a bit of time to properly set it up but once you do, switching between different content is seamless.
- For those looking for a worthy alternative to VLC.
FireWhip
For: iOS, Android
Cost: €0.99 (iOS), €1.11 (Android)
- Are there many games dedicated to drawing circles over and over again? We’re not sure, but we’ll add this one to the list.
- The premise of FireWhip is you spin around, keeping enemies away with your (fire)whip and defeating them by cracking it.
- It does take a bit of getting used to though, but there’s a bit of strategy to it. If you spin too fast, you’ll burn out parts of your whip, letting enemies through. You’ll start off circling wildly, but you’ll soon learn that deliberate spins help you more.
- It’s fast and difficult, but it’s very satisfying when you get the timing right. You can even make GIFs from your games so you can capture your best moments (or the many times you fail as it gets challenging pretty quickly).
- Your finger is going to get pretty tired playing this, but it’s worth it.
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