Must have ANDROID apps

Evernote

Evernote has long been the front runner when it comes to note taking. It has a bunch of features including device syncing, organizational features, compatibility with other applications, and various different types of notes. There is a premium option that adds more functionality but there are millions of people who enjoy the free version of this app.

Dropbox

Dropbox lets you expand your internal storage into a cloud based backup of everything that’s important to you. Music, photos, files and more can be saved, accessed on all your devices and restored if you ever lose your phone.

Google Drive

Like Dropbox, Google Drive is an excellent solution for those who want some cloud storage. Also like Dropbox, you can pay to get more storage but you do get 15GB to start with. You can store your backups, photos, videos, and pretty much any other file you can think of. Google Drive also has the added benefit of having a small assortment of office-style applications like a word editor and a spreadsheet editor. The only downside is that you have to go download those office apps separately but they are also free Android apps. You can also work on documents with other people in real time. It has a lot of unique features and it’s worth having.

Swiftkey keyboard

That officially makes it the best third party keyboard available in terms of sheer features and functionality. There are in app purchases but the only thing SwiftKey is asking you to pay for are some themes. The free version comes with a number of themes included and the entire core app is totally free to use. Its text prediction is among the best in the industry as is its auto correction. People who are sick of the stock keyboard would do well to try this one out.

GOOGLE CAMERA

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a rock solid camera app on your phone that you actually like, the next best thing is Google’s fantastic Google Camera. It’s free and it’s definitely worth trying out.

VLC for Android

VLC has been a trusted media player on desktop for a very long time and now it’s available for Android. If you want to play any media file on Android, VLC is the one app that can handle everything. VLC is technically still in beta, but it is already just as awesome as you’d expect it to be when it’s finished.

WHATS APP

Another essential app for every Android phone, if you’re not using WhatsApp, then how exactly are you communicating? WhatsApp is ubiquitous, like Facebook, and is easily the msot popular instant messaging app in the world.

Pushbullet

Pushbullet is an application that allows you to connect your computer to your Android device. Your notifications will show up on your computer as well as your phone so you’ll always know what your phone is buzzing about. Over the last year, Pushbullet has also worked hard to allow you to interact with notifications such as answering texts and messages from some types of services like Whatsapp. It’s a great way to get your computer and phone connected.

Spotify

Spotify goes up against the likes of Google Play Music, last.fm, Pandora, SoundCloud and even YouTube in the battle to bring music to your ears. An eternal playlist at your fingertips for free.

ES File Explorer

ES FIle Explorer is the king of file managers. If you spend any time downloading files, managing music or images, then a good file explorer is an essential Android app, and they don’t come any better than ES File Explorer.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office finally made it Android for free and we couldn’t be happier.If you ever use a mobile device for reading or editing Word documents, Excel spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations, then you know you need this app.

Hound a new voice assistant that will blow your mind!!!

The abilities of our digital assistants have reached superhuman heights. But just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, something like Hound comes along and further pushes the limits of what’s possible. If you consider Google Now to be fast, intelligent and accurate, wait until you see what this new voice assistant can do. It’ll blow your mind. Hound built by SoundHound, a company best known for its Shazam competitor, is a new voice assistant that’s not just accurate and fast, but supremely intelligent. It’s not limited to serving up the 10-day forecast. It can answer questions you wouldn’t even dream of asking.

Rather than it can perform any task that any other voice assistat can perform but also tasks that you can ever think. Providing info for stuff like weather, navigation, and local search, Hound is also capable of searching through Wikipedia, checking flight status, searching the news, setting alarms and timers, and much more. Just say, “Ok Hound.”

In addition to understanding natural language sentences with specific details and criteria, Hound can also understand exclusions and negation. So, for example, you can use Hound to search for places to eat nearby, but exclude burger joints.

You really must see Hound in action to really understand what it’s capable of. Hound is currently in beta for the U.S. as an invite-only. There’s a lot of room for improvement, but it’s a very promising experience so far.

Microsoft new Hyperlapse Beta app

Microsoft has just released its Hyperlapse Mobile application to Android, but only as a beta version. The app, which is now available on Android, Windows Phone and on the desktop, allows you to create super smooth time-lapse videos. Hyperlapse Mobile, you can capture video and convert it into a sped up, smooth piece of footage at speeds ranging from normal time up to a 32x speed up.

There’s a lot of interesting technology behind this app, as from Microsoft:

Rather than stitching together various pieces of frames, (Neel Joshi, a researcher in Microsoft Research’s Graphics group) created technology that looks for entire frames that have the most overlap with each other. Instead of just arbitrarily choosing every 10th frame, for example, the system might pick out the first, 12th, 18th and 29th frame.

You can only use Hyperlapse on the following devices:

•  Nexus 5, 9 and 6
• Samsung Galaxy S5, S6, S6 Edge and Note 4
• Sony Xperia Z3
• HTC One M8 and M9

Here’s a video

The Play Store now lets you pre-register for apps

Google Play recently launched a new option to pre-register for apps Store. It’s a formula already seen for music and movies, where you have the option to buy an album or title ahead of launch.

First seen with the game Terminator Genisys Revolution from Glu, Google Play users have the option to “pre-register” for the game, which isn’t available yet. Then, when it does launch, Google will send off a notification alerting you that it’s now available for downloads. If, for some reason, you decide you want to revoke your pre-registration, you can do so easily.

This is one of those simple features that make a lot of sense and feel like they should’ve been added much earlier. Thanks to it, app developers will be able to better promote their apps and stage well-oiled launches. And for users, it will become much easier to keep up with new releases. With so many quality titles hitting Android, app pre-registration could come in really handy.