By You’d be surprised at the number of apps that come across our desks each day. Or maybe you wouldn’t be. Either way, we are daily faced with the task of navigating the ever-growing Android Market in an attempt to distill out what is and what isn’t worth downloading so you don’t have to. So we’re starting a a new feature here at Phandroid to hopefully make everyone’s lives a bit easier. Below you’ll find a roundup of recent apps we felt worth highlighting. Maybe because they are great, maybe because they fill a niche we haven’t seen before, or maybe because you should avoid them like the plague. You’ll have to read on to find out.
Solitaire Chess – This is a unique chess game that strays far from “traditional”. You play over 400 challenges (they get harder over time) that has you capturing pieces with legal chess moves. You’ll complete the challenge once all pieces but one have been captured. It looks to be a fun entry-level game that’ll give you a good idea of the nature of chess. [Market]
GTasks – The app is simple: sync tasklists from your Google account to your phone. Since Google doesn’t provide this functionality natively, users rely on applications like these to get the job done. The UI is simple, the functionality is everything you need it to be, and it’s free. [Market]
Coin Pirates – If you’ve ever been to Chuck E. Cheese’s or any other arcade that values coins, you’ve probably played a game like Coin Pirates. You drop your coins in, pull the handle and you pray that more coins will drop out in front of you. Graphics look great, sound is good and you don’t have to spend any real coin to play this one. [Market]
SnapBucket – The folks at PhotoBucket have come to market with their first Android application. You can snap a picture with the app and apply various special effects and filters. Once you’re happy with them, you can have it uploaded directly to your PhotoBucket account. You can even create your own and unlock filter sets. We’d like a fully-fledged PhotoBucket application, but this’ll do for now. [Market]
Grow – Don’t let the simple name fool you, or go ahead and let it fool you. Grow is, indeed, a simple game with one goal and one goal alone: gorge on everything smaller than you until you’re the biggest fish in the sea. Repetitive gameplay is made up for by a campaign long enough to munch away whole portions of your day. Fun graphics, smooth and easy controls, and a nifty upgrades and power-up system keep things engaging. We enjoyed it, but you may want to watch the video demo before deciding if it’s worth your $1.99. For those that can’t decide, Epic Pixel just launched a FREE version moments ago. [Market]
Official Preakness App – As a Baltimore native, the Preakness has always signified a day spent drinking epic proportions of beer while a horse race may or may not be occurring in the background. For everyone else the horse race takes center stage. No matter which side you fall on, the new official Preakness app has you covered. News and info on all the horses and jockeys, a schedule of events and map, and video replays will keep you in the action. [Market]
Prox – This handy utility allows you to assign actions to gestures made up of a combination of proximity sensor and accelerometer feedback, creating no-touch operation of you Android smartphone. Sound confusing? You can view a tutorial video over on YouTube for an idea of what to expect. The app works as advertised, though assignable actions are currently quite limited. More are promised in the future. While Prox strives to create an easy an efficient way to interact with your handset, it so far seems like little more than a novelty. With some refinement perhaps the utility’s true power will be realized. [Market]
Prox is really cool. Unfortunately by design I end up triggering actions accidentally quite often (since my hand is all over my device). Having to constantly concentrate on not passing over the top part of my phone makes this app nothing more than a cool party trick. Cool idea though.
Warning to chess players everywhere. You might hate Solitare chess.
It’s nothing like chess at all.
I like this feature. It’s the first time I’ve noticed it – possibly the first time you’ve done it – and I hope you do more. Nice work!
Pretty sure Photobucket has had an app for quite a while, actually.
“We’d like a fully-fledged PhotoBucket application”
You mean like the one that’s been in the android market for months or more? Like that one?
I’d like to see a regularly occurring app review.
Out of seven, I was interested to hear about the chess app, photobucket, Gtasks, and Prox.
That’s 4 out of 7, a majority of the reviewed apps were of personal interest.
Who could ask for more?
You can’t please everybody, but if you want to please a majority I’m willing to help! Just run your list of contenders for future app review columns by me first, and I’ll help you keep picking the right ones to review.
I can vouch for GTasks.
I want to see more app reviews, I think I may want to take a look at gTasks
Love the app reviews, Bought grow, my third paid app in the month and 1/2 that Ive had android. The solitaire chess seems pretty awesome too.
Prox is awesome, been using it since the day it came out, I got the lite version, then bought the paid version. Dev was very responsive (one minute after I emailed him, fastest response I have ever gotten) he seems to have alot planned for this app, it had a ton of potential and has changed how I use my phone..
Yup, Photobucket has a great app for Android that does album uploading, browsing, the whole bit. It will even do automatic uploads from the system album if you so wish!
I’ve tried the Solitaire chess, and it’s very addictive! No it’s not like traditional chess, but it’s an interesting twist.
I honestly cannot see anything else from PhotoBucket in the Android market except SnapBucket on my phone, but I do see it when looking at the web version of the market. Strange. Thanks!
Would have bought Prox if only the paid portion of the market was accesable to NON-credit card owners. Where is paypall? :S
Anyway, the free version of Prox, Prox lite, shows that Prox is jsut the kind of app that I want for my phone….enough with the games and website apps, I want actual new utility through apps.
Where is the facial/voice recognition to unlock my phone?
Also, so many cool apps out there that I would love to pay for if only google implements PAYPALL!!!!!
Hey that Grow video isn’t a video DEMO. :)