Android Awesomeness

Compact vs. mini

Mailbox: a Gmail alternative  We had to wait quite a while, but Mailbox finally arrives on Android. The Dropbox owned mail app, is a popular email client on iOS, which is no surprise. Mailbox makes email, somewhat fun to use (it’s still email right ;)).

Cal: Any.do is a smart and beautiful calendar app Cal: Any.do Calendar is a calendar app from the same people who brought the Any.Do To-do-list app to life. Functionality wise Cal is focussed and has all the necassities. You can integrate it with Facebook for birthdays, add more calendars (and from different Google accounts) and Cal has different photo themes for the background. Cal also integrates your Any.DO to-do’s, so if you’re an Any.DO To-Do-List user, you should definitely try this app.

Zooper Widget is highly customizable home screen and lock screen widget Zooper Widget is a minimal, highly customizable and battery friendly widget. The app has a few sample templates, for instance for displaying battery info, the time, current weather, data calculations like a countdown and a lot more.

Aptrax your app usage Have you ever wondered how much you use an app over the course of a day? The battery menu can give you some insight, but it doesn’t show you very accurate app usage information. And it only shows you the app that’s draining the most of your battery, which can be the app you use the most. But it doesn’t have to be. If you want a decent insight in you app usage, there’s an app for that!

Sunday fun in the sun Sundays are perfect for gaming even if they are as sunny as today, so this Sunday I have two games for you! One is a fusion between a puzzle and turn based battle game, the other is a good old fashioned platformer. Let's get right to it!

Leave messages all over the globe with KitesThe messaging apps space is crowded. You’ve got Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, GroupMe, Kik Messenger, WeChat and a whole bunch of other apps that allow you to message people one way or the other. Kites is a new messaging app, where the developers behind the app believe that messages sometimes are more relevant at a particular place, instead of an inbox.

AcDisplay brings Motorola's Active Display to other Android devices AcDisplay brings a piece of Motorola’s Active Display to Android devices running Android 4.4. The app lights up your screen as a notification comes in, you then have about 15 seconds to act on the notification. Much like Active Display the notification is shown inside a circle, you tap and hold the circle to show the notification’s information and you swipe up to open it or down to unlock your device. Swiping to the side will dismiss the notification all together. Besides the notification, AcDisplay also shows the time and date.

3 Apps to Get Things Done Getting things done is not as easy as it seems. When you live a busy life, it’s not always easy to remember all the things you need to do. To do-list and reminder apps can are a dime a dozen in the Google Play Store nowadays, but they do help you get things done. We’ve picked some new and unusual takes on this familiar concept.

App Master makes uninstalling apps easy Android wouldn’t be Android if there wasn’t an easier way to uninstall apps. Uninstall Master (recently renamed App Master but for some reason is still Uninstall Master in the Play Store) is that easier way. The app is a dedicated uninstaller and makes uninstalling apps a simple three step program. You open App Master, select the app you want to uninstall and tap Uninstall. Easy does it.

Is Robird for Twitter the next bird on your Android device? Twitter seems to be an endless inspiration for talented Android developers with apps like Talon for Twitter and Fenix for Twitter to proof it. Last Saturday Robird for Twitter released version 2.1, an update with some design tweaks, tablet support and many bug fixes.

School Manager keeps your school life organized School Manager wants to be your school agenda, but on your phone. Just like a normal school agenda, you can keep track of you grades, tasks and exams. The app is well designed and uses a TabView to navigate from the grades, tasks or exams submenus. A swipe from the left reveals the navigation drawer, where you can navigate to the Timetable menu and a Semesters menu.

InfiniTracks is a beefed up 8tracks.com player for Android 8tracks.com is an internet radio and social media website where not algorithms, but users decide what you listen. 8tracks.com revolves around user-curated playlists consisting of at least 8 tracks, in music genres from indie rock to classical jazz and everything between. It has official apps in the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, but the Android version isn’t the prettiest one of the bunch. If you’re an avid 8tracks user, you should take a look at InfiniTracks.

One Music Widget to rule them all Jack’s Music Widget is a clean, highly customizable widget, that works with any music player that displays controls and album art on the lockscreen. The following music apps are confirmed to work: Google Play Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, Rdio, TuneIn Radio, Pocket Casts, Pandora and more.

Counting down the Days until the All New One Days is a countdown app, that has a clean look based on Google’s Card UI. Adding a countdown is just a matter of tapping the big plus in the action bar, filling in the details et voila, the countdown to an important date is added. In the settings menu it’s possible to hide past events, put past events at the bottom and change the date format. Days also has two widgets, one that displays your list of countdowns and one for a single countdown.

NetLive helps you monitor your data-usage in real-time NetLive is a nice little utility that monitors your data usage in real time while displaying which app is using the most data. There’s not much setup needed, the app works right after you’ve installed it. NetLive puts a permanent banner in your notification tray, which shows down and up speeds of your data connection. If you don’t want a notification icon, there’s an option in the settings menu to hide it. And if you want to keep your notification tray clean, you can also use the widget as well.

The best extensions for Muzei Live Wallpaper On February 12, Roman Nurik, delighted Android geeks around the globe with Muzei: a beautiful live wallpaper app for Android 4.2 and higher. Muzei is a live wallpaper that refreshes your home screen every day or any hourly interval you choose. The past week Muzei was downloaded somewhere between 100.000 and 500.000 times. An insane amount, but the live wallpaper app deserves to be on more Android devices.