32 Best New Android Apps From The Last 2 Weeks (1/13/15 – 1/26/15)

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

Adobe Lightroom mobile

Android Police coverage: Adobe’s Lightroom Mobile Comes To Android

Photographers and graphic designers will be familiar with Lightroom, the portion of the Adobe Creative Suite specifically designed for more subtle adjustments of pro-level photographs. The Android app (available for Creative Cloud subscribers only) is essentially a straight port of the iPhone version, with no thought given to Android UI standards and no tablet compatibility. It does have some fairly advanced functions compared to most mobile alternatives, but it’s a disappointing offering from Adobe overall.

—

Edit and organize images anywhere, anytime on your smartphone. Enhance everything from smartphone photos to raw DLSR images using powerful and familiar tools. Automatically sync all your mobile edits with Lightroom 5 on your desktop. Easily share all your photos to social media sites. With Lightroom mobile, your photography is going places.

• Edit raw files from DSLR cameras using Smart Previews.
• Edit images from your Android phone’s Gallery.
• Enhance images using familiar Lightroom tools and presets.

• Import photos from your Gallery.
• Quickly flag and reject photos.

• Automatically sync photo edits, metadata, and collection info with Lightroom 5 on your desktop and all your Lightroom -enabled devices.
• Easily share photos online via social networks.

123D Sculpt+

Android Police coverage: Autodesk 123D Sculpt+ Lets You Play Around With Pro-Style 3D Modeling Tools

This is a full-fledged 3D computer aided design program for Android. Now, CAD isn’t particularly easy on a capacitive touchscreen device, but the experts at Autodesk have done their best to make a surprisingly usable phone and tablet interface. You can start from scratch with a 3D sculpture or modify one of a handful of included designs, then export your work to an OBJ file for use on the desktop. If you tire of that, the built-in user gallery is good for some inspiration. You can even order 3D printed versions of your designs right from the app.

—

Create fantastic 3D sculptures with Autodesk 123D Sculpt+ Design your creation, then add detailed features or paint on skin, fur, feathers. Whatever you imagine. Export your finished sculpture as an image or 3D model and 3D print into a real sculpture.

• Create or sculpt anything – creatures, spaceships, vehicles, props and more directly on your device in full 3D.
• 3D texturing and painting lets you apply your own photos directly onto the surface of your model
• Easy to use yet extremely powerful skeleton builder makes creating 3D objects as easy as drawing a stick figure.

 

Facebook Lite

Android Police coverage: [APK Download] Facebook Launches ‘Facebook Lite’ Android App For Low-Power Devices And Developing Markets

Facebook’s standard app is a little on the heavy side, especially for older Android devices or those with limited data connections. The social network has decided to alleviate that with a “lite” app, which is basically the mobile website in a wrapper. You also get contact importing and notifications (including Facebook Messenger functionality), but the app isn’t available in the United States and some other major markets. Grab it from APKMirror if you can’t access it from the Play Store.

—

This version of Facebook uses less data and works in all network conditions.

 Facebook Lite is:

Facebook at Work

Android Police coverage: New ‘Facebook At Work’ App Makes It Easier To Pretend You’re Working While Browsing Facebook

Facebook for Work isn’t what it sounds like (that being an app that disguises your Facebook feed as an Excel spreadsheet), it’s a sort of social version of a work intranet. Each “at work” hub is centered around a single company, they way Facebook used to be divided into colleges. This app is specifically for that work network, which isn’t available from the standard Facebook interface.

—

Facebook at Work is only available to people who have set up a work account through their employer. Not using Facebook at Work? To let us know if you’d like more information, visit http://j.mp/1EnZq51. Companies use Facebook at Work to give their employees a place to connect and collaborate.

• 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
• Send messages to chat with one person or small groups of co-workers

Charlie Hebdo

Android Police coverage: Following Deadly Attack, French Satirical Newspaper Charlie Hebdo Makes Sold-Out Print Edition Available On The Play Store

Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper, has been in the news a lot as of late. Maybe you’ve heard about it. This app exists solely to distribute the sold-out edition of the newspaper that was published after the attacks by radical Islamic terrorists in Paris. Initially it contained only a single in-app purchase for the French version, but now English and Spanish translations are also available.

—

Because a pencil will always be better than barbarity… Because freedom is a universal right… Use the official app to read Charlie Hebdo and to support us by buying the latest issue, published on 14 January 2015, or by taking out a subscription. Exceptionally, the latest issue is also available in English. To read the translations tap THEN zoom. Note : subsequent issues will not be translated.

NextSong – Music Notifications

Android Police coverage: NextSong Puts Track Info And Music Controls In A Handy Heads Up Notification

NextSong displays heads up notifications every time your music player advances to a new track. That’s much more useful than it sounds if you frequently use music services that introduce you to new artists and genres. A little “pin” icon in the corner can keep the notification persistent, essentially turning it into a floating widget. Spring for the $1 pro version and you’ll also get music controls.

—

Want to know what song just started? Want to skip to the next song, but without leaving your current screen? NextSong Pro notifies you via a heads-up notification when you are listening to music and a new song starts playing on your device. You can see the song and artist name, as well as the album art on the notification. You can skip to next or previous songs, and pause and play music. You can also pin the notification, so it becomes a floating music widget.

Starlike

Android Police coverage: AOL Starlike Creates A Feed Of Your Friends’ Favorite Posts From Facebook, Twitter, And Linkedin

It takes some time to catch up on all your social networks. If you’d like to consolidate a bit, this app from AOL will show all of them to you… and by “all of them” I mean Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. (Google+ doesn’t play well with others, and also doesn’t understand why that’s ironic.) Starlike condenses all three feeds into one and allows you to comment and such on individual posts.

—

What if you could see just the stuff your friends like on your favorite social networks? With Starlike you can see all your friends’ faves and likes on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, pulling them together into one easy to browse app so you won’t have to miss anything interesting. Want to fave or like something you see? You can do it right in Starlike and have it show up on that social network. Want to save something for later? Tap the Starlike icon and we’ll keep it handy for you.

Bud Light Button

Android Police coverage: The Bud Light Button App Schedules Beer Deliveries To Your Doorstep…As Long As You Live In DC

There are already a few beer and liquor delivery services available. If you use one of these to buy Bud Light, you’re doing it wrong. This extension of Budweiser’s “up for anything” campaign is only available for the Washington DC metro area at the moment.

—

Introducing the Bud Light Button, one tap Bud Light delivery in Washington DC. Simply download the app, sign up, then tap up or down to select the amount of Bud Light you’d like delivered. It tracks your location and payment details, so it’s easy to order. ID is checked upon delivery. But be prepared: when you order through the Bud Light Button, anything can happen. You must be 21 or older with a valid ID to use this service.

Lazy Swipe

Lazy Swipe is another one of those invisible app launchers that sits on top of everything else until you’re ready to use it. The basic swipe-activated design is similar to the apps we’ve seen before, but the corner-fire triggers are smartly designed to be easily accessible with a single hand (nice for those of us with bigger phones). Lazy Swipe has the usual user-set app list, plus recently-used apps and standard settings toggles, including (wait for it) a flashlight.

—

Hands will no longer trapped by your cell phone. Free a hand and do other things. Lazy swipe, ONE HAND and ONE SWIPE,do whatever you want. Slide out the “Lazy Swipe” from your screen’s left or right bottom corner in any situation, you could:

• Find and open your most frequently used applications without any settings;
• Find and open your newly installed or recently used application, no longer need to scrolling in your many application list;
• Switch on and off the commonly used general settings, such as wifi, bluetooth, flashlight etc…

Manual Camera

Here’s a camera app that’s probably better than the one that came with your phone. Manual Camera attempts to add a host of DSLR-style features to your camera, including the standards like shutter speed and ISO. (F-stop isn’t really applicable with a fixed lens.) Not all phones can take advantage of these settings, but if you happen to be running Lollipop, you’re in a pretty good position to do some advanced shooting. It records photos in RAW format if you want them that way.

—

This app takes full advantage of Lollipop’s Camera2 API, and therefore requires it to be properly implemented in your Android ROM. If your device runs on Lollipop, and still the app is not compatible with it, please contact your ROM provider (e.g. Samsung, LG) and ask them why they haven’t implemented Camera2 API? So far the situation looks really bad. Only Nexus 5 works perfect. Nexus 6 is almost perfect (only white balance is not working). But the rest of manufacturers are not willing to take this effort, and therefore their devices are not compatible at all.

RadPad: Apartments for Rent

This is an apartment finder app. There are many like it, but this one is RadPad. It includes map-based listings, search filters, a mandatory minimum of three photos in each listing, and a quick function to tell you how long it takes to get there. Most impressively, it includes a feature that lets you pay your rent or other expenses to a landlord. Which is definitely cool… provided that your landlord actually uses the app.

—

Use RadPad’s apartment finder to search for apartments and houses for rent, or use Pay with RadPad to pay rent online with any major credit or debit card. With more than 600,000 Apartments and Homes for rent on RadPad, we’re obsessed with helping you find that special place you’ve been thinking about. Whether you’re looking for a charming one bedroom on a quiet street or need a modern loft in the middle of the city with a parking spot, you’ll find it on RadPad.

Workestra

Workestra is basically a separate inbox just for web service notifications. It’s not to be confused with standard Android notifications, or indeed, the notification emails that you might get in your other inbox. If you’re trying to cut down on the amount of email you get, or perhaps you’d like to get rid of a handful of apps that you use just for notifications, give it a try.

—

Workestra shows notifications from all your favorite apps in one place. It’s the best way to stay organized and make your apps work in a single inbox. Workestra supports Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Slack along with over 50 apps. It supports all your favorite platforms wherever you go.

Homefacts

Looking for a new house or apartment? This app is specifically designed to give you information on urban areas, including major quality of living factors like school districts, property values, unemployment statistics, local criminal activity, and risks for natural disasters. Homefacts is refreshingly simple, offering straight data readouts as well as map views.

—

Homefacts provides important information and key statistics on more than 30 local and neighborhood data sets for residential properties nationwide. Use the Homefacts app to look up neighborhood data at your current address or get information on any one of the 100 million+ properties in the U.S. using the address, city and zip search tool. You can also use Homefacts’ map search tool to view the information on a city and neighborhood level.

Air-Share

Air-Share is essentially an extension of Android’s standard Share menu that lets it work across devices. You can share any piece of content to another device paired over the app, including PCs and odd devices like Android-powered HDMI sticks. It’s definitely a little on the barebones side, but if you’re constantly pushing links or files across gadgets, it could come in handy.

—

Designed with Android TV and Android HDMI sticks in mind. Air-Share extends the Share feature for all Android apps to share media content between devices. It’s not exactly a File Transfer app (but it can do that). It’s not a DLNA/UPNP app (but it can replace that). It definitely beats emailing documents to yourself. It is not a Cloud service; there is a tiny web server running inside the Air-Share app. The shared files never leave your home network.

 

Xpire

I’m not sure why you would want to post a tweet that automatically self-destructs, unless you were staging some kind of nouveau version of Mission Impossible. But with Xpire you can – once your Tweet implodes, favorites and re-tweets that use the standard systems will also vanish. Xpire can also search through your old tweets and give you a “social score” that determines how safe or unsafe your profile is based on what you’ve shared.

—

Xpire is the easy way to shrink your digital footprint. In a world full of social media, it can sometimes be hard to monitor your online presence. Let Xpire be your safety net for all things social networking.

With Xpire you can:

• Share timed Twitter posts that automatically self-destruct (The tweet, favorites, and retweets are all deleted.)
• View and delete your past tweets
• Use keywords to search through your old tweets
• Calculate your Social Score to determine how much potentially risky content you share on Twitter
• Manage your tweets, favorites, followers, and who you’re following
• Manage multiple social networking accounts