FP: In most cases, developers prefer to make new smartphone apps for iPhone first, only moving to Android and other platforms once they get some traction.
Kevin Smith and Steve Kovach, Business Insider | July 29, 2013 11:55 AM ET
More from Business Insider
In most cases, developers prefer to make new smartphone apps for iPhone first, only moving to Android and other platforms once they get some traction.
(Android owners who had to wait months for Twitter’s video app Vine know what we’re talking about.)
But there are some outliers. There are a bunch of great apps that happen to be Android exclusives. Check them out.
Related
Ingress is a unique real-world scavenger hunt game.
Ingress is a sci-fi game that sends you on a scavenger hunt through the real world to find “hidden” virtual goodies.
Google developed the game. Here’s the plot:
“A mysterious energy has been unearthed by a team of scientists in Europe. The origin and purpose of this force is unknown, but some researchers believe it is influencing the way we think. We must control it or it will control us.”
So, basically, you run around your town trying to find this illusive “energy” before the bad guys do.
Price: Free
Facebook Home turns your home screen into a Facebook photo gallery
William Wei, Business Insider
Facebook Home adds a Facebook-powered wrapper to your Android phone. Instead of seeing your normal lock screen, you get a beautiful slide show of your friends’ Facebook photos and status updates. You can comment and like those updates directly from the lock screen without opening the regular Facebook app.
Price: Free (Only works on select Android phones.)
DeskSMS makes sure you’ll never miss a message again.
DeskSMS is a nifty app that allows you to forward text messages (and picture messages) from your Android smartphone to your desktop via Gmail, Google Talk, and the Chrome Web browser.
Price: Free
WiFi Analyzer lets you determine how strong a wireless network is in your vicinity
Have you ever been stuck on a slow wireless network?
WiFi Analyzer lets you see how strong networks are around you, helping you to pick the fastest, most reliable one.
Price: Free
Weather Bomb gives a data-intensive view of the weather on your Android device
Weather Bomb is an extremely detailed weather app that gives users seven days of data.
There are various views, but our favourite is the graph view, which gives the week’s rain, wind, and cloud forecast at a glance.
Other data includes rain, wind, cloud, temperature, pressure humidity and wave height.
Price: Free
Google Skymap lets you know exactly which star you’re staring up at.
Google Skymap is an open sourced app that lets you point your smartphone up at the night sky to decipher constellations, planets, and stars.
Price: Free
Llama Location Profiles uses where you are to change aspects of your phone like ringer and Bluetooth
KnowYourMobile
Llama is a nifty app that automatically switches specific phone settings depending on where you are. You can automatically silence your phone when you arrive at your office or turn Bluetooth on at 7 a.m. to pair with your headphones for a morning run.
Best of all, the app doesn’t use your phone’s GPS, which can drain your battery. Instead, it uses cell towers in your area to figure out where you are.
Price: Free
BetterBatteryStats helps you spend more time unplugged.
BetterBatteryStats lets you analyze your phone’s behavior, pinpointing exactly which applications are causing your battery to drain. Once you know what the culprit is you can specifically fix the issue.
Price: $2.89
APP Lock password protects specific apps.
The premise behind APP Lock is simple: password protect installed applications with a password or pattern. Now you don’t have to be nervous when someone else is playing around with your smartphone.
Price: Free
SwiftKey 3 will change how you type on your Android smartphone.
Business Insider / Matthew Lynley
SwiftKey improves your productivity by helping you to type better.
Swiftkey gives much more accurate corrections and predictions than other keyboards. Very sloppy typing will make sense, even if you miss spaces, and SwiftKey 3 also predicts your next words.
Price: $3.99
Tasker lets you automate everything on your smartphone from settings to SMS
Tasker is an awesome app that lets you tweak specific phone features like turning the flash on for alerts. You can even cancel specific notification pop-ups.
Tasker features more than 200 actions, triggers, and even an app creation section for making your own app.
Price: $6.49
Friday helps you discover new things to do
Friday’s makers say that the app brings self discovery to your life by introducing the first passive auto journal.
Friday captures your entire life through your phone and builds a timeline of the things you do. You can even filter and search your life to find the exact information you want.
Friday allows you to share and log your favourite activities that you’ve been doing all day.
Price: Free
Robin is a great alternative to Apple’s Siri
Before Google Now, Robin was the first true Siri challenger.
We love the expanded capabilities of the newer virtual assistant. You can ask Robin for directions, local places, real-time parking, traffic info, gas prices, weather, your Twitter news, and much more.
Robin is disrupting the personal assistant arena, and we only hope that her existence pushes developers to make personal assistant apps feel more like true personal assistants.
Price: Free
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Linux Today
