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5 Android apps you shouldn't miss this week - Android Apps Weekly
Welcome to the 414th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the last week:
- We know that this is a software-oriented roundup, but CES 2022 was this last week and there was truly a ton to see. We have a round-up post for it that includes TVs, phones, PCs, laptops, gaming, and a lot more. Hit the link above to check it out.
- Telegram squeaked in a feature update just before the end of the year. The update includes message reactions, a direct translation feature, and a spoiler formatting option. All these features work about the same as they do in Telegram’s competitors. It’s nice to see Telegram keeping up.
- Razer (the gaming company) is launching a smart home platform in 2022. The company made the announcement at CES 2022. It seems to work mostly with lights and lets you do things similarly to Razer’s existing Chroma RGB platform. LIFX and Micron are already on board. Hit the link to learn more.
- C. Scott Brown took a deep dive into LaunchBox for Android. It’s an emulator frontend similar to RetroArch and Lemuroid, except this one isn’t in the Play Store. The article talks about the app’s launch, why it’s not in the Play Store, pricing, and installation instructions. Check it out, it’s pretty good.
- Finally, we posted our picks for the most controversial apps and games from 2021. The list includes YouTube TV twice, Roku, Disney, Facebook, WhatsApp, and the ol’ Fortnite vs Google Play war. Some of these beefs should continue well into 2022 as well.
Matrix Code – Live Wallpaper
Price: $4.99
It’s been years since we had a good, high-resolution Matrix-style wallpaper launch. This one fits the bill quite nicely. The effect is the same as every other Matrix live wallpaper except this one looks really good. You can customize it in a variety of ways, including changing the color, size, falling interval, length, and more. It has no permissions and a single price tag. There’s a lot to like here.
Active Gaming Media (3 games)
Price: Free / $5.99
Active Gaming Media is a developer on Google Play and they launched three mobile games in a very short period of time. The first is Kero Blaster ($5.99), a side-scrolling shooter with platformer elements. The graphics are retro, but the mechanics are solid. The other two games are Pink Hour and Pink Heaven. Both are platformers and they are also free. Both games are sort of like demos of Kero Blaster so all three games kind of link to each other. The order of play seems to be Pink Hour, Pink Heaven, and then finally Kero Blaster.
Tracker Detect
Price: Free
Tracker Detect is a recent app from Apple. It’s an app for finding your lost AirTags, and other items compatible with Apple’s Find My network. We put off writing about this one for a few weeks in hopes that Apple would fix the issues with the app. Aside from it missing some features that some users want, the app seems to work pretty well. In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t have any AirTags so I had to rely on user experiences to see how well it worked.
Angry Birds Journey
Price: Free to play
Angry Birds Journey is the first slingshot-style Angry Birds game in years. It soft launched in the US and other territories last year and should launch globally sometime in January 2022. It’s a fairly typical old-school Angry Birds experience. There are hundreds of levels to play, familiar mechanics, and power-ups to help you out in sticky situations. It features old characters, new characters, and a full story to play through. The microtransactions turn a decent overall playing experience into a mediocre one, but otherwise, it’s classic Angry Birds.
DINA: Personalized Weather (Early Access)
Price: Free
DINA is a personalized weather app. It understands that weather is different depending on who you are. After all, some people like the cold and some people enjoy the heat. It recommends what clothes to wear based on the temperature. The user can switch the clothing around and the app learns what you prefer at which temperatures. It’ll then start recommending the kinds of clothes you might actually wear.
It’s a neat concept, but it is in early access beta so you can expect bugs until the developers release the stable version.
If we missed any big Android apps or games releases, tell us about them in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.
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