It’s that time of the week when we reveal to you the best Android apps currently available for download to your treasured Googlephone. This time around we’ve got a couple of time-sapping games, a painless way to organise your next train trip and even a chuckle-inducing Meme generator. No need to thank us – the pleasure is all ours.
As ever, you’ll want to download the handy Barcode Scanner to ensure those lovely QR Codes work. Simply point your phone’s camera at the screen and you’ll be on your way to getting the best Android apps known to mankind.
Slice It!
When a game is capable of knocking Angry Birds off the top game downloads slot, you know it’s instantly worthy of inclusion in the official Electric Pig best Android apps list. Slice It! may be old news to iPhone users, but this touch screen-friendly romp is like a gust of fresh air on a warm bus during early morning rush hour.
Like all truly brilliant mobile games, the concept which underpins Slice It! is deceptively simple. You have to equally divide a series of shapes using your finger. Although initially the challenge is fairly basic (if you can’t cut a square in half then how you’re able to operate a mobile phone is beyond us), the shapes soon become nightmarishly complicated and it’s at this point you realise you’ve been playing the game for the past three hours, your dinner is stone cold and the rest of the family have gone to bed. You have been warned.
Raileasy
Despite being comfortably surpassed in technological terms nearly one hundred years ago by the motorcar, the humble locomotive still seems to hold a disproportionate grip on our working lives. Any Android app which is capable of making train journeys easier is highly commendable in our eyes, and Raileasy certainly qualifies.
It’s the first mobile application that allows you to search for, book and purchase train tickers using nothing but your trusty blower. Once you’ve signed up you’re given a pin code which has to be inserted whenever you book a trip, but other than that it’s easier than falling out of a boat. You can even book multiple trips in advance, thus removing the usual pain and aggro of travelling on our nation’s railway network.
Meme Maker
If you’re the kind of person who chuckles uncontrollably at LOLcats and the now-ubiquitous Advice Dog, then you’re not alone. Millions of other perfectly sensible humans find internet ‘Memes’ to be incredibly amusing, and as if to prove that very little talent is required in their construction, you can now bash together your own slices of irreverent brilliance with Meme Maker.
Using the tools provided you can create your own deliciously silly nuggets of advice, all of which will be rendered side-splittingly funny by the addition of animals and other stock characters. Once you’re done, you can post your silly creations to Facebook and Twitter, or inflict them on your friends via MMS. An image of a dog handing out lifestyle tips shouldn’t be funny, but somehow, it really, really is.
Pocket Legends
A World of Warcraft-style online multiplayer game on your mobile phone may sound like a recipe for highly dangerous gaming addiction, but that hasn’t prevented the launch of Pocket Legends – the second game to feature in our best Android apps countdown this week.
Boasting gorgeous 3D visuals and the ability to connect with thousands of other players over both Wi-Fi and 3G, this pint-sized role-player could revolutionise Android gaming as we know it. Although the swords-and-sorcery gameplay is rather primitive compared to most full-blown console RPGs, the fact that you can hack and slash alongside fellow Android users is ridiculously entertaining. Kiss goodbye to all those spare moments you thought you once had, but bear in mind that it’s currently in beta, so there may be a few niggles that need ironing out.
Lookout Mobile Security
Having your phone constantly connected to the net is great when it comes to downloading emails and watching amusing pratfall videos on YouTube, but you have to wonder exactly what other information is being beaming out of your device without your knowledge.
Lookout Mobile Security – which has now entered the ‘premium’ phase of its development – allows you to monitor the activities of all the apps on your phone. So if that shady-looking Angry Bird clone you downloaded the other week starts surreptitiously uploading your personal data to some dodgy server in China, Lookout Mobile Security will be kind enough to inform you. It also seamlessly backs up your contacts and other precious information too, which will come in handy if you ever accidentally drop your phone in a puddle.
The cost of this level of care is just under £2 a month, or £20 for an entire year. It’s pricey, but it could potentially save you a lot more than that.
