App makers have officially shrugged off the holiday lethargy and are updating apps stores with amazing new additions to make all our lives collectively easier. Or at the very least much prettier.
This week, Microsoft is on a crazed app development bender, building more lock screens for Android, buying one of the best calendar apps out there,
and helping make its own Windows Phone platform even better. Let's take
a look at what Microsoft and other developers are up to.
Android
Picturesque Lock Screen
Microsoft Garage
is an amazingly wonderful program—it's like an app developing machine,
creating smartphone software across iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. Its
latest creation for Android reimagines the lock screen and incorporates
some Microsoft services into what is probably your Google-filled
smartphone existence. The lock screen pulls images from Bing, displays
missed calls and texts, current weather and news, and of course, a Bing
search bar. [Free]
Reserve
If you're
lucky enough to live in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, or San Francisco,
making a reservation just became waaaay easier. Reserve helps you with
your dinner reservation from beginning to end. Pick one of Reserve's
partnered restaurants in the app, choose the time of your reservation,
and let the app do the rest. You can also set the app to automatically
pay for your bill when you're done. Here's a toast to convenience. [Free]
iOS
Hopper
The U.S. is the worst place in the world for finding a deal on flights.
That's why we need all the help we can get. With features like "Watch a
Trip" and "When to Fly," Hopper tracks the trips and destinations
you're looking to visit and sends push notifications when it discovers a
significant price decrease. We'll most likely still be paying more than
all our international friends, but hey, it's a start. [Free]
Dull
This app
slipped past me in December, so I'm taking the opportunity with its
latest update for some appropriate light-shining. Dull taps into that a
very common habit: Using certain apps to fill in the dull (get it?)
moments of the day. Dull isn't meant to replace any dedicated news
reader, but instead provides a filter for trending topics on a variety
of social networks, constantly taking the pulse of the viral internet.
With its new update, the app gamifies that reading experience by
integrating with Apple's Game Center. Now leaderboards show how much
time you spend on the app, which may sound fun for some, but is
personally information I probably wouldn't want to know. Smartphone use
ignorance is bliss. [Free]
Letterspace
Letterspace
for iOS and Mac integrates the Twitter iconography we're all familiar
with and bakes it into a well-designed notes app. You can use hashtags
to mark important parts of a note and return to it more easily later, as
well as @mentioning specific people for similar reasons. The app even
improves upon your keyboard by including a blue bar that lets you easily
move the cursor through your text. [Free]
Windows Phone
#TileArt
My favorite
thing about Windows Phone are Live Tiles. They're animated. They're
fun. And they can be designed to make your homescreen look pretty damn
cool. It's why I picked one such app as one of the best of 2014.
But Microsoft Mobile's new #TileArt takes homescreen customization to
the next level, giving you access to its own gallery or letting you
upload your very own .png images. The best part is that it's all free.
Come and get it. [Free]
Post a Comment