Looking for new apps for your Android phone or tablet? Check out our weekly round-up for the latest apps and click on the links to download them for free.
1. Picklor : Camera Color Picker (Get it for your android) Free
Graphic designers will love this one. Picklor does one thing and one thing only: it finds and identifies colors via your device’s camera. See something, shoot a photo, and get a hex or RGB value lickety split. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from doing the same thing with a regular photo once you get back to your PC, but Picklor will let you save it socially via Android’s standard share menu.
2. glasses.com (beta) (Get it for your android) $17.25
Either the most fun or the most tedious part of going to the eye doctor (depending on your attitude towards fashion) is trying on all those glasses frames. Glasses.com is giving you that experience on your app, and impressively, the experience doesn’t end with a selfie and a selection. The app “scans” your head as a 3D model, and you can select up to four pairs of glasses for a trial run after they ship them to your address.
3. Thingiverse (Get it for your android) Free
The 3D printer revolution isn’t quite here yet, but if you’d like to speed it on its way (and especially if you’ve got one of your own), then here’s the official MakerBot app. It doesn’t actually interface with any hardware, it’s more of a gallery for MakerBot’s Thingiverse design center. Featured designs and a bit of social magic make the Thingiverse app a lot like an Instagram for nerds. Well, 3D printing nerds, anyway.
4. G Cloud backup (Get it for your android) Free
Phones get lost, stolen and misplaced every single day. In this hectic life we’re leading, it’s hard to remember where you placed your keys, so having a backup plan is always a must! With G Cloud installed, one can rest assured that all the precious contacts and data can never be lost. You can get up to 10GB of free storage, and with the new update, G Cloud 3.0 grants you web view access and many more new features. If you want to backup all your app&game settings just download the key for rooted from here!
5. Dash (Get it for your android) Free
Dash is a digital readout for your car that connects to a standard onboard diagnostics device (OBD) with Bluetooth. It’s smart enough to tell you where you’ve been and how good your driving is, but it also has a live efficiency readout, a database of gas prices, and the capability to alert your friends and family if you’re in a crash. Best of all, it can diagnose basic problems with your car and tell you how much it will cost to fix them. At the moment, Dash is intended primarily for US vehicles.
6. Viddme (Get it for your android) Free
Uploading videos to YouTube is stupidly easy in Android, but it does have one drawback: they’re connected to your Google account. If you want fast and (ahem) discreet video uploads with easy sharing, Viddme will throw your video up on its servers without even asking for an email account. It’s basically Imgur for video. If all you want is a quick share without messing with the usual muss and fuss of a video service, give Viddme a try.
7. Johnson & Johnson 7 Minute (Get it for your android) Free
There are plenty of variations on the popular 7-minute workout idea, but if you want yours with an international mega-corp behind it (and, admittedly, some pretty snazzy user interface touches as well), give Johnson and Johnson’s a try. The exercises require no special equipment, and the app has guided walkthroughs of the various mixed sessions and integrated videos explaining the exercises.
8. Studio Design (Get it for your android) Free
This is Instagram with some pre-made word art thrown in. That’s it. You can read through the app description down there to hear some lofty talk about design and artistic creativity, but it’s just a bunch of filters, fonts, and logos. If you need a quick and dirty cover for your indie rock band’s iTunes debut, this is the app for you.
9. Olympic TV (Get it for your android) Free
Here’s the official Olympics app from the International Olympic Committee, complete with live video from at least some of the events in the Winter Games. Here’s the catch: the IOC isn’t broadcasting video to any country where a media company has bought the rights to the Games. That means that if you’re reading this, statistically this app is probably useless to you. Most of the countries it works in are in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.
10. Energy Bar (Get it for your android) Free
Adds a configurable Energy Bar at the top of your screen indicating current Battery level. And just when you think, such a simple bar can display such a crucial information, try plugging in your charger – you’ll be amazed by the details of the animation you’ll see.
