Monday, July 30, 2012

New and fresh Android apps of the week (July 28 issue)


The Google Play Store never sleeps.  Android app developers hardly sleep, too.  They are always busy in their kitchens, cooking up the best and newest Android apps to help you with your various life needs — whether to satisfy your craving for entertainment, to find information fast, to tickle your funny bone, to give you your RDA of adrenaline, or to help you learn something new or develop your skills.
In this post, we feature some of the newest Android apps this week, fresh from the developers’ kitchens.  They’re so fresh you can smell the scent of Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, and other delicious treats.
In this July 28 issue of our weekly roundup of the best new and fresh Android apps of the week, you’ll find an app for recording your voice in freestyle, an app for recording and interpreting dreams, a colorful live wallpaper honoring Android’s greatest version yet (Android 4.1 Jelly Bean), an app for you who are about to get married and do not want to make it nightmarish, a racing game that puts you behind the steering wheel of a truck being pursued by zombies, a photo sharing app for exchanging private photos with your contacts, a defense-type game that puts you inside a knight’s shining armor, a video streaming app for watching videos of weird science projects and experiments, a popup storybook of a classic fairytale involving a lost glass slipper, an addictive word puzzle game, an app for those who go bonkers if ever they can’t access their favorite social networks or sites, and an app for exchanging funny faces with people you send messages to.
Go ahead, check these apps out.

If you dream of becoming a world class singer, you need the necessary tools. The first thing, naturally, is your voice. You can’t just sing acapella all the time, so the next best tool is an appropriate beat to sing your ballads to. If you only have the dream and the voice, you’re going to need some help. That’s where FreeStyle Recorder HDA Free comes in.
The app allows you to record your voice and lay it over beats. Unfortunately, the free version only lets you load and record up to 60 seconds of your instrumental. You can purchase the full one to best enjoy the app’s features.
When you load the app, you’ll instantly see its interface. It’s not particularly attractive, and it has a lot going on. The background is textured which makes reading the tiny font difficult. A lot of features, however, are crammed into one page. If you’ve got big fingers like I do, or if your device’s screen is particularly small, using the FreeStyle Recorder HDA Free app might be a little difficult.
If you don’t have an instrumental, you can purchase one from the Beats Store. Unfortunately the text explaining the beats is very small and it needs a bit of squinting to read it. You can check the available Beats and get a preview of what they sound like. Once you’ve found the one you like, you can pay using your PayPal account or your credit card.

Sigmund Freud once theorized that your dreams meant something, that they might suggest some inner struggle. A lot of modern pop psychology books claim to have a more accurate way of interpreting your dreams than Freud’s dream dictionary, but there’s really no telling. If you believe that your dreams might be telling you something, you can start a dream journal.
If you don’t want to rummage through your bed stand for your dream journal and turn on the lamp  every time you wake up just to record your latest dream, you can record them on your Android device. Dream Lobby is a dream journal app that lets you easily store your dream entries. Give your dream entry a title and then write about it. Try to remember all the details of your dream and when you’re done, you can indicate if it was a Recurring Dream, a Lucid Dream.
Do you feel that your dream is particularly significant? Set it to Public if you’d like other Dream Lobby users to read and try to interpret your dream. Who knows? Maybe someone will be able to decode your dreams and let you in on what your subconscious is trying to tell you. If you’d rather keep it to yourself, you can just set  it to Private.
You can also try your hand at interpreting other people’s dreams. Take a look at someone else’s dream, rate it and give your interpretation.

Jelly Bean is all you ever hear about nowadays. Though this live wallpaper may not be the Android 4.1 that everyone seems to be going gaga over, it’s certainly something people with a sweet tooth would love to have on their devices.
Imagine colorful bouncy beans filling your screen and moving with every tilt of your device. Jelly Belly Jelly Beans Jar is certainly a tongue twister but it’s also a great way to express your love for these delicious little sweets.
Everyone has her or his favorite flavors. If you’re not fond of a huge rainbow of flavors littering your screen, you can fiddle with the settings and select the flavors for the jelly beans. Maybe you’re an Apple Pie a la Cold Stone type of person, or perhaps you prefer the Birthday Cake Remix. Have fun selecting your favorite flavor from the extensive list of jelly bean flavors in the settings menu to best represent your taste. For maximum color, you can select all of the flavors, from A to W.
Jelly Belly Jelly Beans Jar also lets you select the appropriate background for your jelly beans. If that isn’t enough for you, you can even select the strength of the gravity affecting the jelly beans. Have fun watching those beans moving around on your home screen and, if you have friends who are as crazy over sweets as you are, challenge them to identify all the flavors on your screen.

You’ve been dating for forever and now you’ve finally decided to tie the knot. Congratulations! Unfortunately, weddings aren’t as hassle-free as Hollywood portrays them. There’s the planning, the haggling, the negotiating. By the time the Big Day comes around, there are a hundred cameras taking pictures. Combing your Facebook newsfeed for them will take a lot of time, but as they say, there’s an app for everything.
Use your Android device and get MerryMarry to help you invite people, sort your wedding, and build your wedding album with your friends.
You’ll need to give the app access to your Facebook account. If you’ve indicated who you’re in a relationship with, the app will display it on its home screen. If you have not indicated who you’re in a relationship with, you can tap on the area where your fiance’s picture should be and you can select from your Facebook friends. (Sorry, Alvin, I had to borrow you for this one!)
You can then click on “Start Your Wedding” to indicate when your wedding will be, the time, and where it will be held. You can also set your cover photo and if your shot isn’t artistic enough, you can add effects to it. You will need to purchase the appropriate Aviary Effects packs, however.
MerryMarry also lets you add a Gift Registry. You can choose from malls such as Michael C. Fina, Belk, Kohls, Target, and a whole lot more. Once everything is ready, you can share your Wedding Invitation to your Facebook wall.
Your Wedding feed is where you can create a wedding album with friends so you can consolidate all the precious memories. For easier managing, MerryMarry also lets you view your guest list and conveniently sorts if the guest is yours or your partner’s.

Oh no! The city has been overrun by zombies. You have to drive as far as possible with the Dead Racing – Zombies app. This game is a driving zombie game app for your Android device.
Your task will be to drive your truck through a zombie infested city. Along the way, you will need to avoid obstacles. Hitting an obstacle will lower your truck’s health. If you consume all your health, you will lose your truck and it’s game over. You will need to control your truck and avoid the obstacle in your path. You can steer your truck by tilting your device left and right. Zombies will also be waiting for you on the road. Run them over with your truck and earn more points.
Along the way you can also collect power-ups. Collect the wrench to increase your trucks’ health. Grab the weapon power-up to increase your weapon’s ammo. You can use your weapons by tapping the right side of the screen with your right thumb.
The game also lets you do missions. Completing missions will let you accumulate points. Earn enough points and you will unlock more trucks, weapons, and unlock new tracks.

We take pictures to capture and remember important moments in our life. That is why your phone has a camera so you can capture all your special moments everywhere you go. Your Android smartphone also allows you to share your pictures with your loved ones. But, if you want to share your pictures while preserving the privacy of your photos, use the NixPic app to share your pictures safely with your friends.
To begin sharing your photos, just launch the app and you will be greeted with the app’s simple to use interface. The app only has three buttons: the received images, the camera, and the invite button. To take a picture, just tap the camera button and you will directed to your phone’s camera app. After taking your picture, you will be presented with a list of contacts with whom you want to share your picture. Your contacts should have NixPic installed so they can receive your images. You can also send your image together with an SMS message to invite your contacts to use this app.
Your sent images will now be sent and viewed via the app. Once you open the image, you will only have 3 seconds to view the image. After 3 seconds, the image will automatically disappear, leaving no trace of the picture. You can use this app to share private photos while keeping your images safe. The app’s concept in sharing images looks unique and interesting but the time allotted for viewing the image seems short. The 3-second time limit is not enough to study photos with lots of details. Nevertheless, the app can be useful when sharing private pictures, such as your profile pictures, with your contacts.

Defend the castle gates from enemies with the Crashers in the Castle app. This game lets you become a royal knight and defend the castle from invaders.
Before going out to the battlefield, you will need to choose your knight. The game will allow you to choose 4 knights. Don’t worry about choosing the best knight. The heroes are all the same except the color of their armor. The developer could have made each knight unique by giving them special abilities such as higher HP or faster speed.
You will also need to visit the weapon shop before taking your hero out to battle. The shop will let you choose 4 weapons: sword, scalibur, hatchet, and a hammer. Each weapon has a limited number of strikes. For each weapon bought, you will be allowed to use the weapon for about 10 strikes. You should buy an adequate number of weapons before going out to the battlefield. You don’t want to end up using a wooden stick to ward off your enemies.
Once you have equipped your hero, it’s time to go to the battlefield and kill your enemies. You will be required to kill a number of enemies to complete a round. Also keep a close watch on your health. Once it is used up, your knight will die and the invader will conquer your castle. You can control your hero with the virtual buttons that will appear on the screen during the fight.

Get your daily dose of science videos with the Weird Science app. This app lets you view videos about science on your Android device. With this app you will learn science facts, perform science experiments at home, and make your own do-it-yourself projects.
Just like the famous video streaming app YouTube, this app will let you watch science videos right on your Android device. You can watch videos on how to make your own periscope, create a huge ice cube, and how to create your own dry ice cream. Choose a video from the list and tap on it to play the video. You will also need an active Internet connection to play your videos.
Since the app is still in its early stage, you can only choose a limited number of videos in the app. It would be cool if the app offered a variety of videos to watch. When the number of videos increase, a categories tab and a search bar would also perfect feature additions to the app.

Everybody knows the story of Cinderella, the poor girl who was maltreated by her stepmother and stepsisters but was later blessed with the chance to meet and dance with the prince, thanks to her fairy godmother’s help. This fairytale had always been one of the stories that is never forgotten to be shared to children.
Relive the story of Cinderella with Cinderella 3D Popup Fairy Lite. This app doesn’t only tell the wonderful story of Cinderella but also allows interactivity with the user. It comes in a pop-up story book style with great-looking full HD graphics. When you tilt your Android device to the side, the book also tilts correspondingly, making it seem like it’s a real book.
You can opt to have the story read to you and your kid or you can read the story yourself. You get to participate in helping Cinderella do some chores, making you feel like you are part of the story. Cinderella 3D Popup Fairy Lite is great for kids for it allows them to touch some items in the story which will certainly hold their attention.
Cinderella 3D Popup Fairy Lite can be downloaded for free but it doesn’t tell the full story. Download the pro version of this app so you and your child can witness the rest of the story of Cinderella in 3D.

People who love word puzzles will definitely hit it off with Word Soup Free. It is a word search game you can readily play on your Android device anytime, anywhere. Word Soup Free is not limited to just a number of puzzles.  You can download different categories using either a data or Wi-Fi connection. Download various puzzle categories, from aliens to butterflies, food to sports, and even companies to holidays.
Word Soup Free also allows you to play with a random opponent in a timed match. Battle against each other as you strive to search all the words in a shorter span of time to win against your opponent. And, if you are not really comfortable playing with strangers, you can invite a buddy to compete with instead.
Word Soup Free is one word game app that you’ll have a hard time parting with. It is highly addictive. Get it now and compete with others to see who reigns supreme in this word search game.

From the app’s name alone, you’d probably think this just some gimmick or something not worth wasting time on. Believe it or not, this app may actually come in handy for people who are having difficulties pulling themselves out of Facebook or other websites.
Facebook Withdrawal is an app with a mission. The mission to keep you sane if ever you have to go by a day or two without any Internet connection. It may sound a bit absurd but this app intends to help you cope in times when accessing the Internet is just plain impossible and you’re starting to feel withdrawal symptoms.
This app provides screenshots of various websites for you to view. If you are that addicted to Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, or other websites and you think you can’t survive without taking even just a glimpse of them, then this app is a gift from the heavens.
Facebook Withdrawal can be your buddy especially when you are in a place where Internet connectivity is scarce. With this app, you’ll get to see your most beloved websites even when you are offline, making sure that you’ll get by just fine.

We see rage faces all over the internet: on 9GAG, Facebook, Tumblr, and even Twitter. They definitely are fun to look at, most especially when they are coupled with text that will certainly make you burst into fits of laughter. Now, you can send these rage faces to your friends not only through the use of the Internet but also through SMS.
SMS Rage Faces makes almost all of your conversations livelier and funnier with its collection of over 1,400 faces. You just need to tap on the face of your choice, choose your sharing method (through SMS, Facebook, or Twitter) and voila, you’ll have your recipient laughing like crazy. The app also groups the faces according to categories, making it easier for you to browse and choose the face that you want to use.
You also have the freedom to save faces in your gallery for later use. Save faces you want to send using SMS in case you won’t be connected to the Internet. What’s more, you get to send in an e-mail to the developers if the app is missing your favorite face.
SMS Rage Faces is downloadable for free.
Which of these apps did you try on your Android phone or tablet?  Let us know about it by joining our poll below or leaving a comment.
(with contributions from Alvin Ybañez, Dan Evans, and Elmer Montejo)
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TAGS Android AppsBest AppsFresh AppsNew Apps


We're all multi-talented and multi-faceted here, but, perhaps, Carl is the most multi-faceted in the bunch. Among Carl's many interests, Android holds a special place. He's particularly fond of reviewing Android apps and writing step-by-step guides for fellow Android fans.

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