18 Best Android Apps from January 2015
Previous Best Apps of the Month
We’re back with another round-up of the best Android apps from last month. App releases slowed down a bit during the Holidays, but they’re picking up speed again now. If you’re currently snowed in we’ve got a great list of apps you can check out. There were even a bunch of new Android Wear apps, and one important Android TV app. Here are the best 18 apps from January.
Asana
Asana is a teamwork app similar to Trello. It keeps everything your team is working on and talking about in one place instead of scattered across email threads. You can create tasks quickly for yourself or a teammate. Add to-dos, reminders, and requests. Get updates on the progress of your team’s tasks and projects, track due dates, and much more. [Download]
CoffeeNotes
CoffeeNotes is the ultimate coffee app for the coffee connoisseur or simply for those that would like to brew coffee like a barista. This app predicts coffee strength upfront for the selected brewer and coffee type. Based on the “Science of Coffee”, you will immediately see how adjusting the grind size will effect the coffee brew ratio while maintaining the same coffee strength. [Download]
Facebook at Work
Facebook at Work allows businesses to create a local social network for only their employees. A Facebook at Work account is not connected to your own personal Facebook account. You can stay up-to-date with a News Feed that shows what’s new and relevant at your company, create and join groups to collaborate with co-workers, and send messages to chat with one person or small groups of co-workers. [Download]
Facebook Lite
Facebook Lite is designed for 2G networks and areas with limited network connectivity, but it’s also great for people who hate the bloated full featured Facebook app. It’s less than 1MB and uses very little data. If you live in the U.S. you can’t install Lite from the Play Store, but it’s easy to find an APK to use. [Download]
Google Translate
Google Translate is certainly not a new app, but it received a big new feature called “Word Lens.” You point your camera at a sign, menu, or what have you, and it’ll transform any foreign words on it into the language of your choice as it would show up on the actual sign. [Download]
MakerBot
MakerBot fans finally have a mobile app to go along with their 3D printer. With this app you can choose a downloadable digital design from Thingiverse or any 3D model file stored in your MakerBot Cloud Library, then use MakerBot cloud servers to optimize, scale, and slice your design for 3D printing, layer-by-layer. Aall you have to do is confirm the print on your MakerBot 3D Printer. [Download]
Manual Camera
Android 5.0 Lollipop has a bunch of new camera API’s available, but very few apps are actually using it (including Google’s own camera app). Manual Camera takes advantage of the API’s so you can control Manual Shutter Speed, Manual Focus Distance, Manual ISO, Manual White Balance,and Manual Exposure Compensation. [Download]
Microsoft Office for tablets
When Microsoft first began previewing Microsoft Office for Android tablets, you needed an invite to even use it. Now they’re letting anyone with an ARM-based Android tablet (almost all tablets that don’t use Intel processors) between the sizes of 7 and 10-inches in on the fun, and you can grab the download right from Google Play. [Download]
Outlook Preview
More and more Microsoft apps just keep making their way to Google Play. The latest is Outlook, Microsoft’s email platform for those who aren’t fans of Gmail and Yahoo. The app is in open preview status for Android phones and tablets. With this app you will get easy access to your Microsoft-handled mail, calendars and contacts. [Download]
QualityTime
If you fee like you’re spending too much time on your phone or tablet you need this app. QualityTime is a fun, visually engaging and easy-to-use app that allows you to monitor and get real-time reports on how much time you spend on your mobile device and specific apps. You can set your own time restrictions to help you manage and control your usage. [Download]
Roadie
Roadie is like Lyft for your mail. With this app you can pay other people to “ship” stuff for you. Say you need to send something to the next city over but you don’t have time to do it yourself. You can use Roadie to find someone who is already driving that way and pay them to drop the item off for you. How cool is that? [Download]
Shyp
Shyp aims to be the easiest way to send your items anywhere in the world. All you do is take a photo of the item you want to ship, enter the destination address on your phone, choose a shipping speed, and request a pickup. Then for $5+shipping Shyp will send someone to pick it up, professionally package it, and ship it to your destination. [Download]
Next: Android Wear and Android TV apps
Android Wear
AccuWeather
AccuWeather made their great app compatible with Android Wear. When you open the AccuWeather app with your voice or from the app list you’ll be greeted with much more weather information. You can see the current conditions, precipitation report, hourly forecast, and alerts for things like flooding or wind chill. [Download]
Glance Tweet
Reading Twitter on your smartwatch is not a great experience. Glance Tweet is an app that keeps track how many tweets you have missed since last checking Twitter. When you tap on the card that shows the unread tweet count you can scroll through the list of new tweets. [Download]
Little TV
“It’s like a Little TV on your wrist!” If you’ve ever wanted to make a .GIF into a watch face for your smartwatch this is the app for you. Every time you check your watch a different random .GIF will be displayed. There are a bunch of different channels that you can browse, but the fun part is seeing the new .GIF every time you check. [Download]
Pizza Navigator
This might be the best app that has ever been made for smartwatches. Pizza Navigator is like a compass, but instead of pointing north it points to the nearest pizza place. That’s pretty much all it does. You can swipe between 5 different nearby pizza places and choose the one you want. [Download]
Wake Up Well
Wake Up Well is an app that tracks your sleep and attempts to wake you up at the most optimal time. Unlike the traditional alarm clock, which works to wake you up at a specific time, Wake Up Well wakes you up gently with vibrations at the optimal time when you’re rested, relaxed and in REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep. [Download]
Android TV
VLC for Android TV
VLC is taking their knowledge and expertise of handling the world’s many video formats on over to Android TV. It’s probably the most logical move for VLC given the platform is made primarily for watching videos. Now your Android TV will be able to play almost any file type you can throw at it. [Download]