Apps of the Day: Bird Bar, Sandago, and More
Every day we peruse the Android Market looking for the best, worst, interesting, and most unique apps in an effort to sift out a few gems. We call it Apps of the Day. We can’t guarantee that every app featured below is a real winner, but each is worth at least a quick look. It’s all in an effort to help you, our faithful readers, get the most out of your Android handsets. Read on to see what we found today!
Animated Greetings – What do you get when you take two ex-Googlers, your pictures and voice, and some funny animations? Animated Greetings, an app that turns messages to friends and family into cartoons. The app allows you to add your face to an animated character, record a greeting and manipulate your voice, and share your creations on social networking sites or by email. To get the most mileage you’ll need to provide the humor. Do so as you see fit. [Market]
Bird Bar Notifications Tool – Don’t you just hate it when you have to interrupt a full-screen game just to check your latest text? Bird Bar looks to provide the remedy. Using a simple swipe gesture (the same one you’d use to pull down your visible notification bar) from any side of the screen, a floating notifications tray appears on top of your game, leaving your progress exactly where you left it. No more restarting levels after finding out that text you just received didn’t even warrant a reply. We could see the swipe gesture conflicting with the controls of some games, but so far it hasn’t been an issue. Customizations in the paid version are a bonus. [Market]
Make It 3D – So what if you don’t have a fancy phone like the Optimus 3D or EVO 3D, that doesn’t mean you still can’t create 3D images! Using the decades-old technique of anaglyphic stereoscopic 3D, Make It 3D helps you to align two consecutive shots, each aimed at the same subject but spaced a few inches apart. The app stitches the results together and color separates the final image for viewing with red/cyan 3D glasses. The technique makes the app only useful for still subjects and a steady hand provides the best result. [Market]
Sandago – As its Android Market description suggests, Sandago is a game in the style of Tetris, but at first glance you probably wouldn’t make the connection. Instead of stacking blocks, colored sand pours from the top of the screen. Once a pile grows big enough it disappears. Deceptively simple in theory, pretty tricky once it gets going. The real draw here is the physics of the moving sand, which often can shift in unpredictable ways. The game could use a bit more polish, but it gets major points for being an original take on a tried and true genre. [Market]