Apps rush: Angry Birds Friends, Cache Cleaner

Angry Birds Friends

Angry Birds Friends isn’t a new game, as such: it’s been available to play on Facebook for some time now. This is the new mobile version though: Angry Birds given a social refit so that you’re competing in weekly tournaments against your Facebook friends. Bragging and gifting is built in, as are in-app purchases.

Bejeweled Blitz

Another big freemium-game hit makes its way to Android courtesy of EA and PopCap. Bejeweled Blitz is a reengineered version of the classic match-three puzzle game, with rounds lasting 60 seconds each, and the emphasis on power-ups and high-score tables of friends.

AVG Memory Cache Cleaner

AVG’s latest productivity app for Android aims to clean up people’s devices, erasing browser, call and text histories, zapping unneeded cached app data, and monitoring memory usage to spot processes that are slowing down your smartphone. At least, that’s the promise.

Loss of the Night

This app wants you to contribute to a “world-wide citizen science project” that’s aiming to measure light pollution and star visibility. “Just look up to the sky, find certain stars, and tell us whether you can see them or not,” explains its Google Play listing. All measurements are sent anonymously to the Globe at Night database, which is aggregating the data.

Dextr Email Beta (Free)

Dextr is one of a clutch of startups trying to improve the way we read and send emails on our smartphones. Its Android beta aims to “cut out the clutter of your inbox and focus solely on conversations with the most important people in your life”. With email overload a real problem for a growing number of people, if Dextr can nail it, this is sure to be popular.

Player FM

Looking for a high-quality podcasts app on Android? Player FM might just be it. The app aims to be a way not just to play podcasts from a range of sources, but to find new ones that you might like. It downloads new episodes to your device, but you can also stream and if you have several Android devices, it’ll sync your subscriptions across all of them.

Fixya

This handy app ties into the Fixya community, and aims to help you with broken products. “Ask almost anything by using your device’s video camera to easily communicate your problem instead of trying to describe it with just text,” explains the Google Play listing. “Helpful Fixya community members will watch your video problem and will try their best to provide you a solution.” Potentially a godsend if you’re not handy around the home.

Switch to Windows Phone

It’s fair to say there are quite a few angry Android users because of this app, which Microsoft launched as a way for Android owners to check if the apps they like are also available on Windows Phone before switching. Criticism is focusing on how exact the “matches” are sometimes they’re similar apps rather than the same ones.

Beautiful Widgets

I know a number of Android users who swear by the Beautiful Widgets Pro app as a way to customise their home screens. This brand new (separate) version is free, enabling more people to give it a go. Weather, clocks, themes and other useful features are included, with in-app purchases to unlock them, or the option to earn virtual currency by downloading other free apps.

Weebly

Blogging platform Weebly now has an Android app, aimed at getting a few more of its “millions” of users blogging from their smartphones as well as their computers. The app lets you post, check stats and respond to comments, and can be used to start a blog if you’re not already a Weebly user.

Dust Fighter

Well, this is certainly intriguing: a free mobile game released by Bosch to promote its range of DIY products that it describes as “the endless runner for real professionals”. That translates to running a jigsaw along planks of wood, avoiding obstacles and collecting coins to upgrade yourself.

XonoMail Beta (Free)

Finally, another app to help with your groaning inbox. In this case, it “automatically categorises your email” if you’re a Gmail user, although it also supports other POP3, Exchange and IMAP accounts.

Guardian News and Media 2013