Welcome to this week’s Best Android apps round-up! As always, we’ve hand-picked the finest downloads for your Android smartphone, with a selection of games and apps to keep you entertained throughout the next seven days. If you’ve got an Android phone, or are just curious what’s new out there in app land, read on.
Snapping those lovely QR Codes using the excellent Barcode Scanner app is probably the quickest and easiest way to get these apps onto your phone’s internal memory, but you can also click the title to achieve very much the same effect.
£1.87
Tower defence titles are so common on smartphones these days that it takes something truly amazing to stand out from the crowd – and in Fieldrunner HD’s case, it’s gorgeous high-res visuals, rock-solid presentation and polished gameplay. The game has already conquered hearts and gained significant critical acclaim on the iPhone, so it’s little wonder that we’ve made this our first absolutely indispensable entry in this week’s best Android apps run-down. Just ensure you’re not too emotionally attached to your spare time before you download it.
Free
With many people choosing to leave their digital cameras at home and instead use their mobile phone for family snaps, we’d imagine that most of you have experienced the annoyance of having loads of great images on your Micro SD card but no quick and easy way of turning them into proper, physical photos. This handy application is here to provide a solution, as it allows you to upload your treasured snaps to Jessops’ servers, where they print them off on professional-quality photo paper and mail them back to you – for a price, naturally. The app is relatively low on visual thrills but it works well enough, and saves you having to venture out to the shops in order to collect your embarrassing holiday shots.
Free
Seb Vettel may have this season sewn up tighter than Scrooge’s purse strings, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get all excited about stats and lap times. This ‘lite’ version offers you the chance to gaze longingly at team and driver news, race data and full Championship results. All of this amazing info gets updated following each race, and if you want to take things to the next level you can upgrade to the premium version, which grants access to live sessions, including the real time 3D track positions of each car. You can also re-watch key moments via the replay facilities. The downside is that the premium pass will set you back £19.99, but if you’re a dedicated F1 fan, you’re likely to get your money’s worth.
WipEout (Xperia Play exclusive)
£3.99
Way back in the dark, dim days of video gaming history (well, 1995, to be precise) Sony launched its PlayStation console alongside this futuristic racer. At the time it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, combining exciting gameplay with polished 3D visuals and a pumping soundtrack which boasted the talents of Leftfield and The Chemical Brothers. Sadly, the latter element has been removed from this Xperia Play release due to tiresome licensing issues, but everything else has made the transition intact. Sony may be taking its sweet time with these PlayStation Pocket re-launches, but this is easily the best title to hit the service thus far.
Free
With last week’s space shuttle launch marking the final ride of the famous craft, now is a great time to download this official NASA application for your Android phone. While we could crack a weak joke about NASA being a bit pointless now that it has almost resigned itself to not flying men into space anymore, we’ll resist the urge because the wealth of information, imagery and video contained with this download is incredibly humbling. You can literally spend hours sifting through mission logs, official photos and footage. A stunning achievement, and one that should be grabbed as soon as possible.
