Hands on with the best new smartphone and tablet apps
July hasn't seen any slowdown in the number of new apps hitting the various app stores. Here's our selection of some of the latest worth checking out on your device.
Google+
iPhone, Android, free
Google's new social service made its native mobile app debut on Android, unsurprisingly, but it's now available on iPhone too. It feels very much like a version 1.0, focusing on a few key features but with lots of room for additions in the months ahead. You can fiddle with your Circles to add different people to your groups and browse the stream of updates from those contacts, although you can't yet tweak your own profile from the phone. There are mobile-specific features too: Huddle group messaging, which works well, and the ability to upload photos taken using your camera phone. The stripped-down approach means it lacks some of the features seen in, say, the Facebook app. Even so, Google+ has made a decent start on phones, just as it has online.
Stuart Dredge
Wi-Fi FastConnect
Android, free
Accessing Wi-Fi on the go from your smartphone remains a little fiddly, but hotspot network The Cloud is trying to make the process easier for Android users with its new app. FastConnect provides a map of the company's hotspots across Europe, which is useful if you have an account with The Cloud and want to find the nearest coffee shop or other venue that'll get you online. For O2 customers, it will also automatically connect whenever it detects a hotspot – potentially a good moneysaver especially for people who spend a lot of time in cities with plenty of hotspots.
Stuart Dredge
Zappar
iPhone, iPad, Android, free
An augmented reality app that brings pictures and posters to life. Primarily a marketing tool – it was used recently for the advertising campaigns for the Warner Bros films Green Lantern and Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – Zappar inserts sound and video into posters you come across at bus stops, cinemas and elsewhere. With the Lantern and Potter posters, you point your device, hit the Zap button and instantly the background comes to life; then you get the trailer for the film. It's early days yet – this version of Zappar is a preview only – but it shows just how much closer we're getting to life in a Minority Report world.
Stuart O'Connor
Sid Meier's Pirates! for iPad
iPad, £2.49
The memory of the original Pirates! game rightly makes former Commodore 64 owners go woozy with nostalgia, and its more recent console updates weren't bad either. Now the piratical adventure has been launched for Apple's iPad, and lives up to its reputation. The game sees you travelling the Caribbean battling ships, plundering towns and chatting up governors' daughters, while searching for treasure and your lost family. The action translates well to a touchscreen, and while the individual elements are fairly simple – sword fighting, ship battles and town raids – as a whole they make for a rich and captivating game, whether you have played previous Pirates! games or are new to the series.
Sky Go
iPhone, iPad, free
BSkyB has just relaunched its Sky Sports app under the new brand of Sky Go, with new apps for iPhone and iPad. The key change: the apps are now available for existing Sky customers for free, if they have a subscription to Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 at home. The app can then be used to watch all five of Sky's Sports channels over Wi-Fi or 3G, although the latter is probably best used in stuck-on-the-train emergencies for the sake of your data limits, as well as streaming quality. Two devices can be registered to use Sky Go, which is good: no more paying extra if you want to have the service running across an iPhone and iPad. The latter in particular makes a strong case for itself as a second screen in the house, if the main set isn't available for that crucial football match.
Stuart Dredge
The SMH Newspaper
iPad, free (for now)
The Sydney Morning Herald, once Australia's best-quality broadsheet, shows the way for newspapers on the iPad. Its elegant layout and clear navigation system make it a joy to use, and articles are easy to read (there is a choice of three font sizes). From the front page, you can easily swipe your way through, from section to section, as though you are reading an actual print newspaper. Or else there's a dropdown menu that will take you straight to the section you want – be it world news, business, opinion of any of the features sections such as Metro, Drive or Good Living. The only annoyance is the occasional full-page ad that pops up, but I guess that's the price you pay for a free app (although I believe the SMH is to start charging a subscription fee from December).
Stuart O'Connor
Free App Hero
iPhone, £1.99
Smartphone owners are notoriously hungry for freebies, but how to pick the good ones from hundreds of thousands of possibilities? Free App Hero is one of the better filters we've seen: it's a paid app that sorts through the torrent of free iPhone games to weed out the best. It's overseen by a team of journalists who promise to play every game that they recommend – and that's more than 100 a month. The reviews are short and snappy, giving you a glanceable guide to whether a game is up your street or not. A bargain hunter's dream, as long as you don't mind paying a couple of quid to feed your freebie addiction.
Stuart Dredge
Train Times
BlackBerry, £4.99
Train Times is an officially-licensed travel app based on data from National Rail Enquiries. It sucks down data from live departure and arrival boards around the UK, as well as the timetables. You can set specific stations as your home and work in the My Commute feature, to check whether your daily journey is likely to be disrupted. The obligatory location-based feature will also help you find times from the nearest station when you're in more unfamiliar territory. National Rail Enquiries has apps on other smartphones, but this BlackBerry version makes use of RIM's software in a couple of ways, tying into the calendar to set reminders, and email to let people know when you'll be travelling.
Stuart Dredge
UK 3G Survey
Android, free
Are you constantly swearing about a lack of mobile coverage in your area? The UK 3G Survey app is aiming to get an accurate picture of 3G coverage around the nation, running in the background on Android handsets as people travel around. The crowdsourced data project is a partnership between the BBC and Epitiro, and will eventually generate a map to be shown on the Beeb's website. With that in mind, the UK 3G Survey app doesn't give you any benefits now: you're installing it for the greater good so the final results can be as accurate as possible. The one thing that may put a dent in this altruism is the effect on battery life, which is noticeable.
Stuart Dredge
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/jul/22/app-reviews-google-plus-sky-go-pirates
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