For
the month of July, you can tell that we reconnected with an obsession over
wallpaper apps, since three made it onto the list. Outside of eye candy, we
also found an amazing app that lets you toggle system settings through Google
Now without root, checked out the new NPR One app, and watched as Google
brought Material Design to one of our most used apps, Chrome Beta.
Below
are the top
5 Android app for July
2014.
SpinIt
Live Wallpaper is easily one of my favorites of the last couple of years. This
live ‘paper includes beautiful 3D imagery, amazing parallax and motion
effects, and is buttery smooth thanks to the Unity engine powering it. There
are currently six colorful themes to choose from, but the developer has told us
to expect more in the near future. If you want an interactive live wallpaper,
one that doesn’t seem to have impacted battery life after a day’s worth of
testing, and could be something to blow the minds of your friends, give
this a look.
There
are pro and free versions, with the pro offering up multiple themes and
additional features.
If
there is one feature type that we wish Google would implement into Google Now,
it would without a doubt be voice actions that can toggle system settings.
Think of how convenient it would be to tell Google Now/Search to turn off WiFi,
raise/lower phone volume, or even read unread Gmail messages. While we wait for
Google to get on that, Commandr is already doing it, without root. With
Commandr installed you tell Google to toggle system settings, change tracks,
turn your flashlight on, and more.
The
app is free, so head over to Google Play, read all of its uses, and then
install it.
See?
Another live wallpaper! Fracta comes to us courtesy of the folks behind one of
our favorite wallpapers of all time, Light Grid. Fracta is unique in that it
takes on one of the wallpaper community’s hot trends in polygons and
triangles. You can randomize a color palette, watch as lighting reflects
throughout as you flip between home screens, or use your own photos as a source
for colors.
There
are pro and free versions, with the pro offering more pre-set themes to choose
from.
NPR
One brings you a personalized stream of public radio. The app starts with the
latest headlines and top stories, but then lets you personalize it,
pause/skip/rewind/share, search for favorite shows, and even find local news
seamlessly woven in. If you love NPR (or even if you don’t), this might be the
best way to get tidbits of daily hot news items without having to do much work.
Simply pop in some headphones, hit play, and be informed.
The
app is free, of course.
Our
third wallpaper app on the list! NowPaper takes inspiration from the
backgrounds shown in Google Now that display depending on location, but then
turns them into full-blown HD wallpapers that can be set on your home
screen. The app currently features only a handful of cities and locations
(Rocky Mountains, San Diego, San Francisco, Great Plains, etc.), but the
developer plans to continue adding more. For each location, you also have
options to show locations in night or day modes, plus it has support for Muzei
live wallpaper. If you like the look of Google Now backgrounds, you will love
this app.
The
app runs $0.99 and is worth every penny.
All Most Made it:
·
Journey: Journey is a brand new
journaling app that uses parts of Google’s new Material Design guidelines. In
other words, it is gorgeous. This is a fully-featured journaling app though,
with Markdown shortcuts, word and character counting, image attaching, and
syncing across multiple devices through Google Drive.
·
Chrome Beta: A new update to Chrome Beta
introduced its Material Design makeover, while also bringing a simplified
sign-in for multiple Google accounts while browsing around the web.
·
ESPN Fantasy Football: The
popular ESPN Fantasy Football app received a major UI makeover, plus now has
new alerts and live draft action within the app. Nice timing with football
season almost upon us.
·
Chromecast App: The Chromecast
app received an update that included an option for casting your phone or
tablet’s screen to any screen, also known as mirroring. Assuming you have a
supported device, you can now show off the happenings of your device on a big
TV, monitor, or almost any other screen that has an open HDMI port.
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