Apps rush: Google Keep, UP, Doodle Jump and more

Google Keep

It may be a transparent attempt by Google to compete with cloud-memory service Evernote, but Google Keep is still attracting plenty of attention. It’s an app for entering and storing text, voice notes and photos, colour-coding notes for later reference, and storing them on Google’s servers to access from web browsers.

UP by Jawbone

Jawbone’s UP wristband is one of a plethora of fitness gadgets available to track your activity and sleep patterns (see also: Fitbit, Withings, Nike FuelBand etc). Now its companion app is available on Android, enabling UP owners to dig into their data, while also logging their eating and drinking, setting sleep alarms and see what friends are up to.

Doodle Jump

Doodle Jump? New? Well, a version of the hugely-popular upwards-platformer has been available on Android before, but the game’s original developer Lima Sky has now replaced that with its own version (“finally properly optimised for Android” as they put it). As before, the game involves jumping up a sheet of graph paper, avoiding enemies and big drops. Still as addictive as when it came first out.

Al Jazeera English for Tablets

News and current affairs channel Al Jazeera already has an Android smartphone app for its English-language service, but now there’s a separate tablet version. It includes a live stream of the channel, as well as video clips, news and blog posts, photo galleries and social sharing features.

Order Chaos Duels

Gameloft’s Order Chaos games have found a wide fanbase on iOS and Android alike. Now the company has used its fantasy franchise to leap on board the card-battler bandwagon. This game involves collecting more than 250 cards, sorting them into decks and then fighting other people online. The publisher promises “Accessible gameplay. Deep strategy”.

iRig Recorder

IK Multimedia has made a number of high-quality music apps for iOS, but now it’s on Android too. iRig Recorder is a recording app, which offers a number of editing effects as in-app purchases for musicians (or, indeed, anyone who needs this kind of app podcasters for example) to upgrade to.

Mini Golf MatchUp

Thousands of people have already downloaded the Android version of this social mini-golf game in a couple of days since its release. It sees you playing 70 holes over five courses, negotiating dinosaurs, pyramids and sharks along the way, while challenging Facebook friends and bragging on Twitter.

Astraware Crosswords

Crosswords are certainly big in the print-media world, but are they set to be popular as apps too? Astraware is one of the developers hoping to find out: its game offers 45 crossword puzzles and three difficulty levels, with the promise of another new puzzle every day which players around the world will compete to be fastest at solving.

The Jump: Escape The City

If 3D racing games are your bag, The Jump may be the latest to flex your fingers on Android. One nice touch: it’s designed around “bitesize” play as you try to escape a series of challenges in five minutes or less. There’s also music from DJ Poet a Grammy award-winner, no less.

Rethink

Finally this week: Rethink, which bills itself as a “revolutionary way of keeping track of your tasks”. A To-Do list app, of which there’s no shortage on Android. Here though, you’re able to create what its developers describe as “context-specific tasks”, setting triggers to remind you of a task based on location, time and specific contacts.