30 Best Android apps this week

Xbox SmartGlass, Britannica Kids, Amazon Cloud Drive Photos, Snapchat, Calvin Harris, The xx and more

The Xbox SmartGlass Android app controls an Xbox 360 console

It's another bumper Best Apps post for new Android apps, covering 30 releases from the last week alone. Heady times for Google-powered devices.

The list doesn't include games, as they get their own separate post: this week's selection included Android titles like Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Theme Park, Hellfire, Zombie Driver THD, Chrono Trigger and Zombiewood.

iOS apps also get their own post, which can be found here this week. Windows Phone has a monthly roundup – the latest one is here. For now, here's the pick of the Google Play store from the last week.

Xbox SmartGlass (Free) 

Launched by Microsoft, this is an official companion app for its Xbox 360 console, enabling you to control the device from your Android smartphone – alas, not tablets for now. The app can control TV shows and films, music, web browsing and other features of the console, and in time will also be usable as a second screen for games.

Britannica Kids apps (£1.24 each) 

There are actually nine brand-new Britannica Kids apps available for Android. I'm including them as one entry. The nine apps cover the solar system, Aztec empire, dinosaurs, knights and castles, ancient Rome, snakes, rainforests, volcanoes and ancient Egypt. Their content is a mixture of text, images and interactivity, all aimed at children.

Amazon Cloud Drive Photos (Free) 

Amazon has extended its Cloud Drive storage service out with a new app focusing on photos. It offers 5GB of storage (for free) to store images in, and access them from Android devices as well as computers. It supports both phones and tablets, and can share to Facebook and email.

18 Months (Free) 

This is the official app for Calvin Harris' new album 18 Months, complete with a nifty feature to play every track in full. It requires some work though: dancing. Well, moving your Android smartphone, anyway: the idea is that by dancing (or waggling the handset) you keep the song playing. Fun and innovative.

Snapchat (Free) 

Snapchat bills itself as "the first real-time picture chatting app", and has been doing rather well on iOS, where its users have shared more than 1bn photos. The idea: send photos to friends with a built-in time limit up to 10 seconds. The photo then wipes itself off the recipient's handset. Ideal for sexting people you don't quite trust, but there must be a few other uses too.

The xx (Free) 

The xx have released a stylish app that lives up to their latest album Coexist, offering "HD Visualiser videos" for every track on the album for fans who own it digitally, as well as interactive artwork, news and notifications from the band, official music videos, lyrics and ticketing info.

Bamboo Paper (Free) 

This app is the work of Wacom, and is designed to work with its Bamboo Stylus accessory. Promising "note taking on your smartphone made easy", it involves scribbling sketches or writing notes which can then be flipped through. Made for Android smartphones, it (kind of) brings them the functionality seen in Samsung's Galaxy Note devices. The stylus costs around £25.

Rockford's Musical Audiobooks (Free / £2.99) 

And more numerical cheating here, since there are four Rockford's Musical Audiobook apps: chapters one to four of children's story Rockford's Rock Opera, with the first available for free, and the other three chapters costing £2.99 each. It's an audiobook with an hour of narrated story, as well as music and pictures. Read more on the aims behind it here.

Belkin MediaPlay (Free) 

Belkin's new Android app builds on the myTwonky technology, with the aim of helping you pipe films and music from your Android device to a connected TV (via its browser), or play content from your home library on your smartphone or tablet.

Game Reward Mobile App (Free) 

British games retailer Game has had some rough times in 2012, but apps are forming part of its comeback strategy. This ties into Game's loyalty programme, helping you earn points on purchases from the stores, while also offering recommendations. If you add your console gamertags, there may be other "cool stuff" in the future too.

Photo Warp+ (Free) 

More than 14m people have downloaded developer Tonuzaba Entertainment's first Photo Warp app, so this sequel should find a healthy audience. It's all about, yes, warping photos, with a range of effects to play merry havoc with images.

Find a Tradesman (Free) 

This is definitely one of the most useful apps in this week's lineup: released by the Rated People website, it helps you dig into its directory of tradesmen for home improvement jobs, posting what you need done and getting responses from companies or people who can help.

BB - Give Thanks (£2.47) 

The Berenstain Bears books have a firm following among several generations of Christian parents, and they're being digitised as apps by Oceanhouse Media book-by-book. This one focuses on Thanksgiving, with voice narration, audio and words highlighted as they're read out, to help early readers.

HotUKDeals – Official (Free) 

So called because there seem to be plenty of unofficial Android apps pulling down listings from the UK's deals'n'vouchers website. This is its official app, offering vouchers from the likes of Asda, Tesco, Domino's Pizza and Sainsbury's, filtered by location. You can also comment on the offers and tip those you find in the real world.

Insync for Android (£1.49) 

Insync's new app ties in to the Google Drive service, to access documents and other files stored in Google's cloud service, upload new ones, and share with friends and colleagues. All of which you can do in the official Google Drive service. Insync claims a host of additional features though, from exporting files to the SD card in your device, to saving folders for offline use, and streaming music or video files.

Antengo Classifieds - Tablet (Free) 

The native Android tablet apps are coming, as Google encourages developers to think harder about their larger-screened software. Antengo claims to be "reinventing classified listings" in the US, with more than 2m items in its classifieds directory, and an app designed for tablets.

Flip Launcher (Free) 

This is a smartphone app for power Android users who want to save a few precious seconds when navigating to and opening specific apps and shortcuts. The idea here: you flip to them, having set up to 24 as your designated flips.

The Montblanc Worldsecond (Free) 

Luxury watchmaker Montblanc is working on an interesting digital marketing campaign that aims to get people around the world taking photos at the same instant, then making them available to browse. This app helps you do that, with four Instagram-ish filters to apply, uploading pics to the Montblanc Worldsecond site, as well as (if you choose) to Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Goalmaster | Goal Tracker (Free) 

This is a simple but potentially-useful app focused on tracking goals – of the personal motivation kind, rather than the football kind. You can create entries for your ambitions, then analyse your progress, and share your success (hopefully) on Facebook.

amie Oliver's digital magazine is available for iPhone and iPad

It's time for our weekly roundup of the best new iPhone and iPad appsreleased this week on Apple's App Store, and this one's a bumper selection.

As ever, the list doesn't include games, as they get their own separate post: this week's picks included iOS titles like Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Bubble Island, Hellfire, Gizmonauts and ARC Squadron.

Android apps get their own separate post, which can be found here. Windows Phone has a monthly roundup, with the latest edition found here.

On with this week's iOS apps!

Jamie Magazine (Free)

Celebri-chef Jamie Oliver has his own magazine, and now it's available on iOS as well as in print. Individual issues are sold for £2.99 or £3.99 via in-app purchases, or you can subscribe. Expect recipes galore, with the latest issue focusing on Christmas cooking.
iPhone / iPad

Onavo Count (Free)

Onavo has become an essential iPhone download thanks to its ability to compress the data you use, and thus eke out your monthly allowance further. Now the company behind it has a new app, which helps you understand which apps are sucking up data, breaking down usage over the month, with pretty graphs.
iPhone

Summly (Free)

Summly promises "pocket sized news for iPhone", trawling hundreds of news sites, pulling in articles from their RSS feeds, then turning them into 400-character summaries, which can be flipped through using a neat gestural interface. For more on the company behind it's intentions, read our interview.
iPhone

in:play (£1.49)

If you're pondering an alternative to the default iPhone music player, in:play is well worth a look. Not least because of its striking typography-focused design, gestural controls and some seriously nifty navigation to root through even the largest digital music collection.
iPhone

Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe (£3.99)

Scientist Brian Cox's planetary app has been out for a while on iPad, but now publisher HarperCollins has released a native iPhone version too, boiling down its text, videos and photography to something that works well on smaller screens.
iPhone

HowDo (Free)

This is very neat: an app "to show you how to do stuff in the real world", with the tutorials coming from other people using the HowDo app. The idea being that you can shoot photos, associate up to eight-second sound recordings with them, and then share them with the community, following other users who seem knowledgable.
iPhone

Threadlife (Free)

Threadlife is picking up a fair bit of buzz this week, thanks to its aim to make "shooting video as easy as taking photos". That involves shooting three-second video clips, which are then "stitched" together into longer stories, or "threads", including your own videos and/or those of other users.
iPhone

Viz Profanisaurus Das Krapital £1.49

Dennis Publishing pleased fans of Viz with the launch of its Profanisaurus iPhone app earlier in 2012. Now there's an iPad version of the sweary dictionary, offering 12,000 definitions too rude to read to your grandparents.
iPad

Path (Free)

Social app Path has fervent fans, who love its status as a more private version of Facebook and other services. It's traditionally been a smartphone thing, but now it's available on iPad too, with bigger photos and film/music/book previews, as well as the ability to see your whole day's posts in an attractive landscape view. It makes very good use of the larger screen.
iPad

James Bond: 50 Years of Movie Posters

As cinemagoers get excited about the new Bond film Skyfall, there's an app from DK showcasing some of the poster art that promoted previous films. 105 posters are featured, with accompanying text from "Bond expert" (now that's a job worth having) Alastair Dougall.
iPhone / iPad

Wreck-It Ralph Storybook Deluxe (£4.99)

Talking of movies, Disney has launched an iOS book-app for its animated film Wreck-It Ralph, which tells the story for children with voice narration, animation, clips from the film and a racing game where kids get to build their own kart.
iPhone / iPad

Happy Places by Coca-Cola (Free)

This is pretty surprising: a photo-sharing app from Coca-Cola, with a clean and stylish design, and the ability to share shots out to Facebook or Twitter, as well as Coke's own Happy Places community. The question is whether this kind of branded app will tempt anyone away from Instagram, Facebook Camera, Path and other popular apps.
iPhone

Bubble Guppies: Animal School Day (£1.99)

There are a number of big entertainment companies getting into app-education (appducation?), with MTV the latest. Its new app aims to teach children about animals: what they're like, where they live, and what they eat. Rewards, a doghouse to decorate and the option to register up to four children separately with the app should be a hit with parents.
iPhone / iPad

LinkTV World News (Free)

iPad app LinkTV has a focus on international news, aggregating videos from broadcasters around the world tied to topical events, as well as text articles, documentaries and personalisation features.
iPad

18 Months (Free)

Calvin Harris has a new album out, and there's an app for that. And unusually, the app lets fans stream the album in full, with one caveat: they have to dance. A simple yet fun motion-detecting feature ensures that songs will play as long as the user is dancing – or at least moving the phone.
iPhone

The xx (Free)

The xx's last album Coexist has a very slinky iOS app that's just come out, offering high-definition videos for every song on the album, interactive artwork, and the promise of messages and news from the band, as well as ticketing details.
iPhone / iPad

Junior Astronaut - Breaking through the space barrier (Free)

This is another excellent education app for children, this time from UK firms Immediate Media and Crank Publishing. Aimed at 9-15 year-olds, it focuses on space travel: rockets, gravity and other topics, with a look and feel inspired by children's space books from the 1950s and 60s. It's free, with an in-app purchase of £3.99 unlocking the whole book-app.
iPad

Oakley Airwave (Free)

This one's for snow-sports fans, claiming to be "the perfect app to enhance your day on the mountain". It tracks your alpine stats, connects to friends and syncs with Oakley's new Airwave goggles' innovative heads-up display.
iPhone

Monogram (Free)

Described as "a shoppable magazine for your iPad", Monogram blends editorial with shopping links – "everything you can see, you can purchase". Like most fashion mags, really, but of course the key thing here is that the buying is built into the magazine. Monogram is a hint at how many of the more established fashion magazines will develop in their digital incarnations.
iPad

HuffPost Live (Free)

This is only available in the US for now, but it's an interesting sign of the way Huffington Post is developing: "a live-streaming video network that uses the most engaging stories on The Huffington Post as the jumping-off point for real-time conversations and commentary". The idea being that readers (viewers? users?) join in with the debates.
iPad

Beamr (Free)

Beamr sounds like a novelty at first, turning your photos into "a glossy-style magazine with a custom cover". But look closer, and there's a much better hook here: the ability to share photos at their original resolutions as shot on the iPhone, including the new panoramic shots. People you share them with can view, download and print the pics, too.
iPhone

Creatorverse (£2.99)

Linden Lab's main business is virtual world Second Life, but you won't see any 3D avatars in its new iPad app. Instead, this is a playful physics app that gets you to create... things, using joints, motors, forces, teleporters and other items. Then watch them in motion: "From the simplest bouncing ball to an elaborate pinball machine".
iPad

DJZ TxT (Free)

DJZ is a brand new website devoted to dance music (or, as the US would have it, "EDM"). It has just launched, with a spin-off app that isn't about presenting the site's content at all. Instead, it's a messaging app with the twist that you can include graphical "emojis" (emoticons) that act as beats and loops. "Every conversation is a new remix," notes the App Store listing. Which sounds silly, but it's actually enormous fun.
iPhone

Thoughtful Gift Finder (Free)

When you've finished making dubstep-scronk messages, how about thinking of someone else for a change? Thoughtful Gift Finder does exactly what its name implies: released by Notonthehighstreet.com, it's a way to research gifts for friends and family, based on some of their key characteristics. More than 60,000 products are covered.
iPhone

Sooty Paint (£1.99)

Sooty is 64 now, y'know. He's making his first appearance in an iPad app though, along with friends Sweep, Soo and Richard from his TV show. The app focuses on digital painting, with 20 pictures for children to colour in, and a blank canvas to come up with their own creations.
iPad

PC Pro Enhanced (Free)

Another app from Dennis Publishing, but this time with less swearing and more computers. A digital version of PC Pro magazine, it includes more photography and podcast snippets alongside kit reviews, as well as product comparison features. The app charges £9.99 a quarter for the digital issues.
iPad

HotUKDeals (Free)

British website HotUKDeals gathers discounts, deals and vouchers from a host of retailers and sites. Now it's got an app, which adds location into the mix to pinpoint nearby savings, while also letting you rate and comment on deals, or add those you've found yourself.
iPhone

First@Scene (Free)

This app comes from the Australian branch of St John Ambulance, and wants to help reduce road accident deaths and serious injuries, providing advice for anyone who finds themselves in a position to help after a car crash. Text, photos and revision questions all feature.
iPad

Trucks - Byron Barton (£0.69)

Byron Barton's Trucks book will be familiar to parents around the world: a colourful children's book covering trucks of all shapes and sizes. This is a digitised version of the book, with interactivity and features to help young (2-5) children practise their fledgling reading skills.
iPhone / iPad

Shatoetry (£1.99)

And last, something ridiculous: an official app from William Shatner in which the Star Trek veteran has recorded a host of words, which you can then string together into sentences to hear him say them. The idea being you compose poetry (sorry, "Shatisms" – one senses the developer hasn't tested the lingo on Brits), or create them with friends through the app's Game Center integration.
iPhone

That's our selection, but what new iOS apps have you been using this week? Make your recommendations in the comments section.

15 best Windows 8 apps available today

Windows 8  has many interesting new features, but the most important has to be the Store. It's now easy to enhance your PC with a host of powerful apps - games, multimedia, tools, productivity and more - and these can then automatically be installed on all your other Windows 8 systems in a click or two.

You'll have to find them first, of course, which is something of a challenge, since the Windows Store now has thousands of apps competing for your attention.

But don't worry, we've been scouring the latest releases for the hidden gems, so if you'd like to save time and jump straight to the Store highlights then read on for our guide to the best Windows 8 apps currently available.

1. Metro Commander

One immediate advantage of the Store is it makes it very easy for developers to plug whatever gaps Microsoft might leave. So don't waste time wondering why Microsoft hasn't provided a file manager for the Start Screen, for instance - just install Metro Commander, instead.

The program provides a dual-pane interface on your files and folders, provides easy access to all the usual core functions - View, Rename, Copy, More, New Folder, New File and more - and offers integrated SkyDrive support, too.

Explorer remains far more powerful, of course, but if you need something simple and more touch-friendly, then Metro Commander should do the job.

2. musiXmatch Lyrics

Another advantage of the Store is it means PC software isn't isolated any more, somehow apart from your other devices. If you use the musiXmatch Lyrics app on your iPhone, iPad or Android device, for instance, then good news: it's now free to use on your Windows 8 system, too.

If you're new to musiXmatch, the app makes it easy to locate the lyrics for just about anything in your music collection. And we really do mean anything - the database now holds lyrics for around 6 million songs.

But if you're just feeling bored, you can alternatively browse the latest US and UK hits, listen to them, and watch the videos via YouTube.

3. Reversi Free

And so there are three difficulty levels, for instance. You can go first, or second. And while the AI won't be too challenging if you're skilled at Reversi, if you get tired of the computer then there's an option to engage a human opponent, instead.This fun version of the classic strategy game Othello is simple, straightforward and easy to use, yet still has more than enough power to keep you entertained for many hours.

All this is presented in an appealing interface, nicely designed to look as though it's pencil-drawn. And this even extends to the sound of a pencil shading in pieces as they change colour (surprisingly, we didn't find this annoying, although if you do then you can turn it off). No bells and whistles, then - just the gaming basics done very well indeed, and that's fine with us.

4. Norton Satellite

Easy integration with online services such as Facebook is a plus point for Windows 8 - but you need to keep an eye on your security. And the free Norton Satellite can help.

The program uses apps to scan your Facebook links and Dropbox files, for instance, alerting you to threats before they have a chance to infect you. And if your worries lie elsewhere, then Satellite can scan particular files or folders on demand.

You don't get real-time protection for your whole system here, and so Satellite is no substitute for a full-strength antivirus package. It's simple, lightweight and easy to use, though, and will add a welcome extra layer of security to any Windows 8 system.

5. TuneIn Radio

Internet radio has always been a great way to keep yourself entertained, and TuneIn Radio shows off the technology with real style.

The app's huge database (more than 70,000 stations) means you're sure to find something you like, for instance. You can browse by music, sport, news, comedy, chat, language, country, or even just find a local station (assuming you've enabled the app to access to your location).

The program can also maintain a list of your favourite stations, for easy access later. Or you can even pin some to your Start Screen, so you can begin listening at any time with a click.

6. Fractal Photographer

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If you've not come across the Mandelbrot Set before, then Fractal Photographer makes an excellent first guide, slowly revealing the fascinating infinity of gorgeous fractal patterns.

The app is perfect for tablets, its multi-touch support enabling you to zoom in or rotate to get the best possible view. But the authors haven't forgotten mouse users, either: you can click to move focus, scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in and out, and everything works just as you'd expect.

The program can also use multiple colour schemes to create new effects. If you find a particularly interesting point then you can bookmark it for easy access later. And a Save option enables you to save HD versions of your best patterns, ready to be shared with others.

7. Multimedia 8

If you're missing Windows Media Centre, then fear not, the Store does have some interesting alternatives - and Multimedia 8 is one of the best.

The program makes it easy to browse your music, video and playlists, for instance. In a click (or a touch) you can access files on a media server, or the web.

And a host of bonus features includes 3D video support; the ability to convert videos to MP4 or WMV; playlist creation, DLNA media streaming, subtitle support (SRT/ WebVTT), video stabilisation, video and audio capture, and more.

8. News Bento

Whatever your view on the introduction of the Windows 8 Modern interface is, there's no doubt that its apps can look fantastic, and News Bento is a perfect example.

Launch the app and a group of tiles show you constantly-updating news photos and headlines from top US sites. A host of others are available via the "more news" link, and Google Reader support combined with RSS search provides easy access to your other online favourites.

Choose a source and story summaries are neatly displayed in various panels. And most conveniently, clicking any of these (for the sources bundled with the program, anyway) displays its content within the app, so there's no irritating switching to and from an external browser.

9. Free Books

There's more to ebooks than Amazon and Kindle: no, really. And by way of evidence, look no further than Free Books. This attractive app offers more than 23,000 free books (mostly old classics), neatly organised by category and author, with an interesting selection of "Featured" books if you just want to browse.

Double-click any book to download it to your library. Double-click again to read it; tap right or left to turn the appropriate page; and of course the app remembers your current page, so if you leave it and come back later then you'll be able to carry on where you left off.

Some people may feel the app is a little too basic, and it would certainly benefit from settings to adjust text size, colours and so on. The simplicity does mean Free Books is very simple to use, though, and on balance it'll be a great addition to most systems.

10. Dredd vs Zombies

Mega-City One is in terrible danger of a zombie invasion. And even though this game has been a hit with iOS and Android users, they still haven't saved the day - which means that now it's your turn.

After equipping yourself for the battle ahead (there's your trusty Lawgiver pistol, assorted other weapons, body armour and more) this fast-paced top-down shooter throws you into 30 levels of hectic, challenging combat.

This isn't really a game for PCs, unfortunately - the mouse interface is relatively poor, making it hard to recommend for a conventional desktop. But on a tablet (or anything else with a touch interface) Dredd vs Zombiesproves to be an entertaining game that offers plenty of zombie-killing fun.

11. OneNote MX

Microsoft's excellent freeform notetaking app makes it easy to build documents from photos, (handwritten or typed) text notes, pictures, drawings, audio files and more.

The ability to tag items on the page adds a little flexibility. Add "To Do" tags, say, and your items will gain checkboxes that you can click when they're complete. You can create multiple notebooks, each with as many pages as you need, then save them to the cloud for access from any of your devices (or perhaps to collaborate on with others).

And of course the program works with Windows 8 Search, making it easy to find the note you need. Even if it was written on a PC, and you're now on your mobile device.

12. WeatherBug

Launch this comprehensive weather app and you'll immediately gain access to detailed information on your current weather conditions, as well as what's coming your way in the next few days.

A powerful Maps module gives you the big picture, with satellite imagery, humidity, temperature, pressure, wind speed and more. Live Tile support keeps you informed about conditions from your very own Start Screen, and you can also have WeatherBug raise a custom notification to warn you about rain, snow, fog, freezing temperature and more.

On the down side, the ads can be annoying, and we had some issues animating the radar maps. But this is still a very powerful and configurable weather app.

13. Daily Wallpapers

Windows 8 comes with some attractive and eye-catching images for the lock screen, but let's be realistic - you'll be bored with them before long. And that's where Daily Wallpapers comes in. This app can customise your system with images found in local folders, on Facebook, SkyDrive, or perhaps that you've just taken with the system's camera (if you have one).

The real fun is to be had in the "Today's Wall" and "Trending Images" sections, though, where you can browse a host of gorgeous images (with new examples added every day), and set up your favourite to be displayed on the lock screen.

And many of the images are so beautiful that you can waste plenty of time just browsing them in Slideshow mode (although the ads sometimes spoil the atmosphere, since they can be a little intrusive).

14. Wikipedia

While it's a fabulous website, packed with essential information, Wikipedia has never quite looked as glossy as the best print encyclopaedias. But the Windows 8 app changes all that.

Launch it and gorgeous "featured pictures" catch your eye immediately, for instance. Clicking any of these drills down to the relevant article, carefully formatted for better display on mobile devices.

Scroll to the right and you'll find a similar set of "featured articles", a collection of events that happened "on this day" and links to recently changed pages, all useful as starting points for browsing. But best of all, once the app is installed, you can search Wikipedia at any time from the regular Windows 8 Search tool. And you just know that's going to be very useful indeed.

15. SnagFilms

There's nothing on TV. Again. Annoying, but it doesn't have to be a problem - not if you've installed the SnagFilms app. This simple tool provides on-demand access to thousands of independent films, for free, whenever and wherever you want (as long as your internet connection is up to it, anyway).

Start by browsing the site's categories - Thriller, Comedy, Drama, Family Friendly, Science and Nature and more - and you'll find all kinds of offerings, from obscure shorts to major pictures with big Hollywood names.

And you can then read more details about the movie, add it to your own movie library, or start watching in just a click or two.