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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 real way of identifying those battery hogging apps, an easier way to create panorama photos and your opportunity to control a tentacled blob.
TouchRetouch
For: Windows Phone
Cost: €0.99
- While there are many photoediting apps out there, the majority focus on brightening, cropping or filters. You have to look elsewhere for more advanced features.
- It’s best to think of TouchRetouch as a mini version of photoshop. If you want to clone out unwanted objects from a picture, you can.
- The interface is simple and even if that isn’t straightforward enough, there are video tutorials which will show you how to use it.
- For the most part, it’s quite decent. Since you’re editing for the small screen, you will have to look closely to spot an edit although it doesn’t have traditional editing features like cropping or brightness adjusting.
- A nice complementary apps for when traditional tools just won’t do the job. Just be sure to trial it first to make sure you find it useful.
SpinMe Alarm Clock
For: iOS, Android
Cost: €1.79 (iOS), Free (Android)
- Smartphone alarms are becoming smarter, waking you up at the right moments, but sometimes that still not enough for you to actually get out of bed.
- SpinMe puts a (literal) twist on this, instead of tapping or swiping to turn off the alarm, you have to physically get up and spin around.
- Chances are you don’t want anyone to see you while you’re doing this. You will look silly doing this although hopefully they’ll be too sleepy to notice
- The alarm is very basic, mind. There’s little room for customisation except what time you want to get up at, but if it gets you out of bed, is that really a problem?
- If you have a serious problem with oversleeping, you probably need this.
Google Photo Sphere
For: iOS, Android (part of Google Camera)
Cost: Free
- It’s always strange when a Google or Microsoft product ends up being better on iOS, but in this case, it really is.
- As the title suggests, Google Photo Sphere lets you create 360 degree panoramas of an area you’re in.
- It takes a few tries to get a panorama right, but the directions are straightforward and creating a sphere is pretty easy if you’re not a perfectionist
- Once it stitches everything together, you can share it to Google Maps or elsewhere.
- If you’re looking for a more straightforward method of creating panoramas, give this a go.
Tentacles: Enter the Mind
For: Windows Phone
Cost: Free (includes in-app purchases)
- If there’s one way to describe Tentacles: Enter The Mind, it’s trippy. Not just in the visuals but the gameplay too.
- Controlling Lemmy, you have to make your way through the mind of Dr. Phluff, a insane dolphin that’s… well, we did mention it was trippy.
- The gameplay has you tapping your surroundings as you move Lemmy around a 3D world, collecting coins, secret eggs, eyeballs and obtaining new powers.
- The world is neatly designed and while it takes a minute or two to get accustomed to the controls, Lemmy moves really well and it’s always clear where to go.
- A game that’s as fun as it is bizarre.
Rune Dittmer / Vimeo
Normal
For: iOS
Cost: €0.89
- If there’s something all smartphone users complain about, it’s battery life. Everyone has problems with it and they never seem to last long.
- There are enough battery monitors out there, but Normal separates itself from others by being user-friendly and a different approach to identifying battery hogs.
- It gathers data on all the apps you’re running and analyses them, comparing them to data collected from other iOS devices.
- From there it pinpoints which apps are draining your device and whether it the same for other users.
- Definitely worth getting for properly picking out problem apps.
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Wowza. Has 40% of this been sponsored by Microsoft? No amount of pushing is gonna make windows phone fly.
No. On the off-chance that the sponsored by Microsoft bit was a serious question, I only put two WP apps in this week just to mix things up a bit (and Tentacles is genuinely a lot of fun to play so I figured what the hell). I don’t get paid to feature something and never will, I only cover apps (and services) because I feel they be interesting/useful to people.
Quinton – Don’t dignify that with a response. Love the column!
Ship Antics : The Legend of KIKI beast ios/android game <<<< Irish studio based in Dublin called Powwow . KU : Shroud of the Morgan ios/android and Steam PC/mac game <<<< Irish studio based in Dublin with people from the west working there as well
Electric Jake 3D game <<<< windowsPhone Studio based in Portlaoise (more of a trial all before the real release ) . This list could go on and on ….. If the journal would like I could put together an extensive list of apps / games being developed here in Ireland
Please do! :)
Just tried the SpinMe alarm clock. Now I feel sick. Thanks Quinton. On a side note imagine spinning around your room at 5 in the morning when you’re still half asleep, recipe for disaster. Even worse when you have a hangover and the room is already spinning.
Eh, yeah, sorry about that. If it helps, you won’t feel as dizzy if you close your eyes while you’re spinning around (At least that’s what I did when I was testing it out so hopefully it works for everyone).
Any possibility of a link to Normal? Loads of results when searched?
They did give a link
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/normal-battery-analytics/id886528617
Click on the “iOS” link beside Normal
Thanks, missed that
Thanks, managed to miss that.
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