20 of the best Android apps and games this month

Here are 20 worth trying. Prices are correct at the time of writing, with IAP indicating that in-app purchases are used in an app or game.

Among the best new apps for Android smartphones and tablets of June 2016 are Detour, RunGo, Lost Frontier, Rodeo Stampede and BitTorrent Now

From travel tips and running guides to puzzles and elephant stampedes, it’s a good month for high-quality new Android apps and games.

Here are 20 worth trying. Prices are correct at the time of writing, with IAP indicating that in-app purchases are used in an app or game.

APPS

Detour (Free + IAP)
Available on iOS for some time, Detour is now on Android, too, and if you love wandering around foreign cities, it’s a treat. The app provides a series of audio-guided walks, initially for San Francisco with New York City, Austin, London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, and Marrakech also supported.

Blue Plaques of London (Free)
More on-foot tourism here: this official app from English Heritage is a guide to the blue plaques scattered around London explaining where famous historical figures lived. The app will help you find the more than 900 plaques, and plan a route to take in the most interesting spots.

RunGo (Free + IAP)
Three’s a trend: another app designed to help you find your way around an unfamiliar city, although in this case, you’re expected to be running not walking. RunGo is a collection of jogging routes with voice navigation to make sure you don’t get lost, and tools to track your times and calorie-burning.

BitTorrent Now (Free)
No, nothing to do with piracy, if you haven’t been following the evolution of BitTorrent (the company) in recent years. In 2016, it is using its tech to help emerging musicians and filmmakers find an audience, with this streaming app showcasing the pick of the lot – and sharing ad revenues with the creators.

Gideon AI - Smart Home (Free)
It’s still early ideas for the idea of a “smart home” to become truly affordable and mainstream, but there are plenty of devices and technologies out there pushing in that direction. Gideon AI is worth a look if you’re ahead of the crowds: an app that aims to make it easier to manage your connected home.

Toca Life: Vacation (£2.49)
The latest app from children’s developer Toca Boca, this is almost like a virtual doll’s house: a collection of holiday-themed scenes, characters and items that children can play with at will, making up their own stories and even recording them as videos. An open-ended digital toy-box, and delightful with it.

Viridi (Free + IAP)
If the pace of modern digital life is getting you down, turn off your notifications and try Viridi: a virtual plant pot that you water and take care of, dipping in and out whenever you fancy a quiet moment. Admittedly, you could get a plant pot in the real world instead, but Viridi is peaceful and well-crafted fun.

Debut (Free)
These are worrying economic times in the UK even if you’ve been working for decades, let alone if you’re about to graduate. If you’re in the latter group, though, Debut may be worth a look: an app where you build your profile and try to get talent-spotted by dozens of graduate employers.

Mobcrush (Free)
Live-streaming games footage has become a big thing on Twitch and other services. Mobcrush is hoping to popularise the idea on smartphones and tablets, too. You can use this app to live-stream your apps or games to the world, or simply find interesting streams from other users to watch.

Jiyo (Free + IAP)
Finally, the latest mindfulness app, complete with a famous name: Deepak Chopra. His app wants to “help you be your best self”, from analysing your activity data and providing tips to advice on relationships, finances and other life areas. No pot plants, sadly, but you can’t have everything.

Her Story.

GAMES

Her Story (£2.69)
Her Story has scooped a hatful of awards for its iOS version, and deservedly so. It’s a mystery that sees you digging through an archive of police video interviews in order to solve a murder. Your job is to figure out what happened. Interactive video games have a bad rap, but this is brilliant.

CSR Racing 2 (Free + IAP)
The original CSR Racing was a popular and original driving game: short, sharp drag races rather than lengthy lap-fests. The sequel looks bolder and better, with absolutely spiffing graphics, lots of car customisation, and some well-thought-out multiplayer features to keep you competing.

Lost Frontier (£2.49 + IAP)
If you, like me, harbour fond memories of Nintendo’s Advance Wars, then Lost Frontier is well worth a look. It’s one of the mobile games inspired by that turn-based strategy classic: with a fun splice of western (as in cowboys) and steampunk culture, and a meaty challenge to get your tactical teeth into.

_PRISM (£2.47 + IAP)
Another critically acclaimed indie game makes its way to Android, with its original, inventive gameplay intact. _PRISM sees you manipulating 3D shapes to progress, with excellent visuals and suitably woozy music to lull you into its charms. A challenging – but never stressful – puzzler.

Rodeo Stampede - Sky Zoo Safari (Free + IAP)
Aka Crossy Rodeo, with visual inspiration taken from mobile hit Crossy Road, although the game itself is no copycat. You have to lasso and ride a range of animals, hopping from back to back and taming new ones for your “sky zoo”, which you can upgrade as you play.

Pocket Arcade Story (£3.99)
Developer Kairosoft had a cult hit with its Game Dev Story game, which simulated a games development studio. There’s no sequel (yet) but the company’s latest release is in similar vein. You run an amusement arcade, installing games, keeping customers happy and taking on rival arcades. It’s very addictive.

PKTBALL (Free + IAP)
A fun mobile take on air hockey, as you try to slam a ball past your opponent on the on-screen table, while earning coins and unlocking new characters. Again, Crossy Road is an influence with the unlocking aspect, but PKTBALL stands on its own feet as a game.

Transformers: Earth Wars (Free + IAP)
Can this be better than the (genuinely great) Angry Birds Transformers game? It’s certainly a faithful take on the universe of the Autobots and Decepticons, as you build a team of robots-in-disguise then send them out to battle, while building up your own fortress.

Sky Force Reloaded (Free + IAP)
You can’t beat a classic scrolling shoot ’em up, and Sky Force Reloaded is one of the best mobile examples of the genre. Crisp, clear visuals and a pulsating soundtrack accompany the expected barrage of bullets, with the ability to collect new planes and upgrade them providing the strategy.

Heroes of Loot 2 (£3.79)
Fans of good, old-fashioned dungeon crawler games will find lots to enjoy here, but also some twists on the genre. This sequel involves exploring dungeons with two characters, swapping between them at will, to solve puzzles, battle monsters and – the clue’s in the name – trouser as much loot as you can.

Farm Heroes Super Saga (Free + IAP)
Lastly, King is still going strong with its “Saga” games, although adding “super” is a new move for the Candy Crush company. This will be familiar to anyone who’s played the original Farm Heroes Saga game: swap colourful crops to make matches, while using boosters to help when you get stuck.

That’s our selection, 

4 Easy Tricks to Make Google Chrome Run Faster

We should mention keeping your version of Chrome up to date, which will give you the best possible performance, and running regular spyware and virus checks on your machine are a great way to get started. For some more advanced performance tweaks, you can also check out Chrome’s hidden flag settings

1) Cut down on the extensions

This might be an obvious tip, but it’s worth emphasizing—particularly because a lot of add-ons may not be visible on the toolbar, and you may have forgotten about them. Most extensions won’t slow down the browser too much, but if you let them pile up they can cause sluggishness and buggy behavior. Getting rid of ones you no longer need is good for browser security as well as performance.

Go to More tools then Extensions on the Chrome menu to see a full list. Disabling extensions should help a little but uninstalling them is your best bet (you can always put them back again later). Open up the Chrome Task Manager (Shift+Esc on Windows) to see which extensions and apps are hogging CPU time and memory space on your system.

2) Add a small number of useful extensions

This sounds somewhat contradictory, but stick with us. If you install a small number of genuinely useful extensions, they can get Chrome feeling snappier. Take Google’s own Data Saver extension, for instance, which reroutes pages through Google’s servers and compresses the number of 1s and 0s arriving at your browser, resulting in faster load times overall.

Then there are the third-party extensions that try and improve how Chrome deals with dozens of open tabs at once. OneTab, Tab Suspender and The Great Suspendercan all cut down on memory usage and visual clutter at the same time, and there are others. You might have to experiment to find the one that gives you the best Chrome speed increase.

3) Cut down on the plug-ins

This one is slightly more nuanced, as disabling plug-ins might break functionality on some sites while also speeding up your browsing experience. It’s a good idea to disable them one by one, if you can, and check that nothing is disastrously broken afterwards. Note that you can’t fully uninstall Chrome plug-ins from the browser, only stop them from running.

Type chrome://plugins into your browser to review what’s installed, and with a little detective work you should be able to work out what’s safe to disable and what isn’t. Blocking some plug-ins can stop videos from autoplaying

4) Clear out the cache

There’s some debate over whether clearing the cache can actually speed up your browser. After all, the cache is designed to load pages and elements more quickly, but like many other parts of your system it can become bloated and unwieldy over time, meaning Chrome has to do more work to dig out the cached files and cookies it’s actually after.

From the Chrome Settings tab, choose Show advanced settings and then Clear browsing data. From the dialog that appears, choose cookies and cached files, plus any other bits of data you want to blitz, from the beginning of time. Some sites may load more slowly the next time you visit but as a whole the cache should be much more streamlined than it was.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 vs Note 5 vs Note 4: What's the difference?

Samsung's Galaxy Note device is expected to launch in August, adding another smartphone to the company's 2016 flagship portfolio. By default, the next Note should be called the Note 6 but rumour has it Samsung will be skipping the 6 and heading straight...

Google shares two new videos highlighting Daydream VR experiments

Earlier today, we went hands-on with an early preview of Daydream, Google’s upcoming VR platform for Android. Now, the company has shared a pair of new videos on Daydream’s YouTube channel highlighting two capabilities of the platform.

The first video shows off Animator. Google says that this is an app experiment form Daydream Labs that, instead of animating with graph editors or icons, allows people to physically reach out, grab a virtual toy, and move it through the virtual reality scene.

An app experiment from Daydream Labs. Instead of animating with graph editors or icons representing location, people could simply reach out, grab a virtual toy, and carry it through the scene.

The second video showcases another app experiment from Daydream Labs called Puppeteer. Essentially what this does is allow developers to independently animate the joints of a character, hence the name of Puppeteer. It’s pretty sophisticated and allows developers to truly customize what users see.

An app experiment from Daydream Labs. Independently animate the joints of a single character.

Google originally introduced Daydream at I/O last month, while it recently released a set of developer tools allowing anyone with a Nexus 6P to try out the platform. Of course, Google announced Cardboard as its first mobile VR initiative, but Daydream takes its VR efforts to the next level.

You can view both of the new videos from the Daydream team below.

COZMO ( The little Robot with a BIG Heart )

So how do you make the perfect robot? If you're a designer or engineer working at Californian robotics firm Anki, the answer is, "You don't." Instead, the firm has created a purposely flawed little robot creation that uses smart AI to create a machine with personality and quirks.

The company's latest creation, the Anki Cozmo, boasts a striking resemblance to a certain ultra cute chappy from Pixar film Wall-E and that similarity isn't coincidence either. Two of the designers who worked on him were animators at Pixar so it's clear the firm is looking to capture that sense of childlike wonder that make's those characters so memorable.

The Cozmo has been designed to work as a smart AI that learns as it explores the environment around it - the face-like LED screen on the front animating into different expressions depending on what or who it's looking at. For instance, it will instantly recognise people it's met before yet act shy and tentative around those it hasn't. It also makes plenty of chirps and noises like BB-8 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, making it even cuter.

It'll even 'snore' when plugged into the supplied charing dock and muck about with the 'smart cubes' included with the robot. Anki wanted to build on its experience working with intelligent remote control cars and create something funny, silly and memorable. It has a retractable arm that it uses to interact with those smart cubes, and can play games with you as well as stack and knock down objects around it.

2016: The Year of Good Looking Smartwatches

A collective of high-profile fashion brands are banding together in a big push for better-looking wearables.

Kate Spade New York, Emporio Armani, Chaps, Diesel, Michael Kors, Misfit, Skagen, and Fossil are all planning to push out more than a hundred new Internet-connected watches and trackers this year aimed at making wearable tech more fashion-friendly.

The announcement comes just as smartwatches are eclipsing Swiss watch sales for the first time ever.

The Fossil Group is powering the tech behind the new products, betting that 2016 is going to be the year fitness tracking goes high-fashion. To get things started, Fossil is launching several new operating systems and apps to support all the new baubles.

“Customers will be delighted with the sheer volume of styles and options available when shopping for a wearable that fits their personal style,” said Fossil Group chief strategy and digital officer Greg McKelvey, in a release this week.

 

Fossil thinks so.

A collective of high-profile fashion brands are banding together in a big push for better-looking wearables.

Kate Spade New York, Emporio Armani, Chaps, Diesel, Michael Kors, Misfit, Skagen, and Fossil are all planning to push out more than a hundred new Internet-connected watches and trackers this year aimed at making wearable tech more fashion-friendly.

The announcement comes just as smartwatches areeclipsing Swiss watch sales for the first time ever.

The Fossil Group is powering the tech behind the new products, betting that 2016 is going to be the year fitness tracking goes high-fashion. To get things started, Fossil is launching several new operating systems and apps to support all the new baubles.

“Customers will be delighted with the sheer volume of styles and options available when shopping for a wearable that fits their personal style,” said Fossil Group chief strategy and digital officer Greg McKelvey, in a release this week.

It’s the latest move in Fossil’s big bet on wearable tech. The group acquired Misfit in November of last year for $260 million in a bid to get the company back on track after slow earnings earlier in 2015. Some of the Misfit trackers don’t need to be charged, which could make them easier to integrate into jewelry or accessories.

Though the company’s earnings improved in the fourth quarter, analysts are cautious about whether or not wearable tech fashion is something Fossil can really pull off, as MarketWatch reports.

In contrast, timepiece maker Swatch is still largely waiting things out in the smartwatch market. The company has only rolled just a few smartwatch options while guarding its patents, and it is waiting to see if the tech really takes off.

Michael Kors announce android powered smartwatch

Michael Kors may not be thought of as a premium watch maker in the same league as of Rolex or Tag Heuer, as the company is more of an all-round fashion house or retail brand, but its range of male and female watches have becoming increasingly popular over the last few years. It now joins the likes of Nixon and Fossil in accepting that the future of the personal timepiece probably lies on the smarter end of the scale.

The Access range will be available this coming fall from Michael Kors stores, MichaelKors.com, and select department stores as well. Starting price of Access will be $395.

Closing iPhone apps won't save your battery life

Apps are not like browser tabs.

There has been a myth for quite some time that closing the open apps on your phone will save your battery life.

But an iPhone app isn’t like an unused open tab in Google Chrome that’s hogging precious processing power and memory. Take it directly from an Apple executive: Having 20 apps open isn’t going to hurt your battery.

The battery life boost for closing apps is negligible or nonexistent, since the phone only devotes resources to them only if a background process is in use, as in the case of uploading a file, playing audio, or utilizing GPS.

Wired reported this week that the same rules apply for Android users: Closing apps is actually worse for battery life. If you’re trying to limit battery usage, turning down screen brightness, background refresh, GPS, and going into “Doze” (Android) or “Low Power Mode” (iOS) are your best bets.

Steve Wozniak on Apple Watch: ‘This isn’t the company that Apple was originally’

Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak took part in an AMA session on Reddit yesterday, during which he conceded that Apple’s current approach to hardware and product fit isn’t what he and Steve Jobs intended necessarily.

The comments came in response to a query about the Apple Watch, with Woz’s specific concern being the company’s reduced focus on hardware. He also said that the launch moved the company into selling into the jewelry market, rather than tech.

“I worry a little bit about – I mean I love my Apple Watch, but – it’s taken us into a jewelry market where you’re going to buy a watch between $500 or $1100 based on how important you think you are as a person. The only difference is the band in all those watches. Twenty watches from $500 to $1100. The band’s the only difference?

Well this isn’t the company that Apple was originally, or the company that really changed the world a lot. So it might be moving, but you’ve got to follow, you know. You’ve got to follow the paths of where the markets are.”

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs S7 Edge

Can't decide which handset to buy? Maybe this video from Pocketnow will help you choose.

Spotify has ended support for its Windows Phone app

The popular streaming music service Spotify has ended support for its Windows Phone version. The company has confirmed to one of its customers that the current app will no longer be updated.

Spotify launched a Windows Phone 7 version of its app in 2011 and a Windows Phone 8.x version was launched in 2013. Twitter user Alessandro S posted a support email he received from Spotify on the future of the Windows Phone version.

"We can confirm Windows Phone 8.x is no longer supported. You can still use our Spotify application on the associated devices, but it will no longer receive any further updates and download the application. We apologize for the inconvenience."

The app is still available in the Windows Store and it will also work on Windows 10 Mobile. Spotify would not comment on if will release a native app for Windows 10 for PC Mobile, saying only, "as there is something new, you will receive a notification on your device that an update is available and prompted to download it."

HTC One M10 To feature Super LCD5 Screen and 3000mAh Battery

The HTC 10 will feature a 3,000-mAh battery and a new generation of the same display technology that powered its predecessors.

The details come courtesy of @evleaks, the source that revealed many of the other specifics that surfaced about the new HTC flagship, including its commercial name, HTC 10.

HTC has adopted AMOLED technology for the One A9, and there was some hope that the 10 will follow suit, but it looks like that won’t be the case. According to @evleaks, the 10 will feature a Super LCD 5 panel – the leaker didn’t confirm the screen dimensions, but we know from an older report that we should expect a 5.15-inch Quad HD panel, a slight increase over the 5-inch panel of the M9.

As for the battery, we’re looking at a small increase in capacity over the 2,840-mAh unit inside the One M9. At 3,000-mAh, the HTC 10’s battery would match the Galaxy S7’s and be slightly larger than the LG G5’s 2,800-mAh unit. The latter does offer the benefit of a user-replaceable battery, an exceedingly rare luxury these days.

Chrome app launcher is no more

On Tuesday, Google announced it would retire the app launcher in the summer. First, in a few weeks, the launcher will no longer be enabled when users first install a Chrome app. Users who already have the launcher installed will get a notice telling them the launcher will soon be gone, and in July, it will be automatically removed from users' computers. 

The reasoning behind the move is quite simple: no one really used the launcher. 

"The app launcher makes Chrome apps easy to open outside the browser, but we’ve found that users on Windows, Mac, and Linux prefer to launch their apps from within Chrome," Google Chrome Engineering Director Marc Pawliger wrote in a blog post. 

The launcher will continue to exist on one platform, however: Google's Chrome OS. 

The few users that did in fact use the launcher to find their Chrome apps should switch to launching the apps from Chrome's bookmarks bar or by typing chrome://apps in Chrome's omnibox bar.

Why the iPhone Battery will never last more than a day

Every year Apple introduces a new iPhone, and every year we all get our hopes up that this will finally be the model that can go two or three days without needing to be recharged. But according to a lithium-ion battery expert, the odds of Apple adding a power source capable of boosting iPhone battery life like that are practically zero.

Dee Strand, chief scientific officer at battery research firm Wildcat Discovery Technology, says the throughput on smartphone batteries is rapidly improving every year. The problem is, new features are bogging them down.

“I love this question,” Strand said yesterday during a reddit AMA, when asked when we’ll get multi-day battery life. “The answer is never.”

That doesn’t sound good for most of us, we're always longing for a longer iPhone battery life.

“With every improvement in the battery, the cell phone company wants to add more features (and so do you),” Strand said. “Bigger screen, brighter display, more apps, touch screen features, etc. All those features are designed to work such that your phone can (hopefully) last a day with recharge overnight. The batteries will continue to get better, but the phone will continue to to get even better.”

DJI's New Phantom 4 Can Almost Fly Itself

Drone manufacturer DJI has announced its Phantom 4 drone. DJI's Phantom line is one of the go-tos for any consumer wanting to play with airborne camera-wielding robots, and now "the iPhone of drones" has something new to offer: the DJI Phantom 4 features built-in obstacle-avoidance features.

The degree of human skill required to pilot a drone without crashing it is beginning to decrease. What is usually a carefully coordinated mashing of buttons in order to keep one's drone aloft is increasingly looking like the casual button-pushing associated with playing a video game. Furthermore, the manufacturer claims to have added an extra five minutes to the device's flight time, making for a total of 28 minutes for the Phantom 4, 23 minutes for the Phantom 3.

 

In the press release formalizing the announcement, DJI CEO Frank Wang drops this line: "People have dreamed about one day having a drone collaborate creatively with them. That day has arrived." We don't know about a drone "creatively collaborating" with the pilot, but if nothing else, the machines are becoming a little more self-aware. And sure this is really a piece of gear aimed at professionals, but it's still pretty cool.

The Phantom 4 is now available to order from DJI's website for 1600 Euro
 

HTC Rumoured to be building Googles Nexus phones for the next three years

HTC and Google had a very close relationship when Android was introduced. HTC built the first prototype hardware for Android (Google Sooner), the first commercial Android phone (T-Mobile G1) , the first Android developer phone(Android Dev Phone 1) and the original Nexus One. This partnership helped HTC solidify its position as the top Android smartphone manufacturer. Google eventually turned to Samsung to build two Nexus devices and LG was selected to build three. While Nexus phones have never been popular among regular consumers, the manufacturers who have built the phones have benefited greatly through their close partnership with Google.

It’s been rumored for a while that HTC and Google are working on two Nexus phones for 2016, but a new rumor has surfaced which claims that we will be seeing even more HTC-built Nexus devices in the future. According to the report, HTC and Google have worked out a deal which puts HTC in line to build Nexus phones for three years. If we assume the deal start with the two 2016 Nexus phones, we should see additional HTC-build devices with a Nexus logo on the back in 2017 and 2018.

Google just hired the founder of 4Chan

The founder of 4Chan, Christopher 'moot' Poole, has been hired by Google. 

In a brief blog post, Poole described the move as "a new chapter" for him, and praised Google's "intelligence, passion and enthusiasm".

Moot's statement focused on his experience "building online communities", which hints at his future role within Google rebuilding the remains of its Google+ social network experiment.

"When meeting with current and former Googlers, I continually find myself drawn to their intelligence, passion, and enthusiasm," he wrote. "I’m also impressed by Google’s commitment to enabling these same talented people to tackle some of the world’s most interesting and important problems."

"I can’t wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company."

Although he hasn't confirmed what his new role will involve, Poole's appointment was quickly announced by Bradley Horowitz, head of Google+, leading to some speculation that he'll be joining the Google+ team. 

"You might have seen this post from Chris Poole. I'm thrilled he's joining our team here at Google. Welcome Chris!" Horowitz wrote on his own Google+ page. 

The perfect wearable for Arctic (or Irish) temperatures

YodelUP is a waterproof wireless wristband that not only controls music from your phone, but doubles as a walkie talkie for easy communication with your friends. The device connects over Bluetooth to work as a media player, walkie talkie, and even answer calls. It has its own speaker, fits over any glove, can be operated with your mittens on, and use your phone’s other functions uninterrupted.

The YodelUP technology is very simple. Basically, the device is an ergonomically shaped wireless controller that fits on a customizable elastic band. The controller pairs with the world’s number one walkie talkie app Zello, and connects to your phone via Bluetooth. This Bluetooth connection allows for multiple devices, so you can also hook up a Bluetooth headset or helmet, and it even has its own speaker in case you want to unplug completely.

 You can pre-order one at the YodelUP Kickstarter page right now.

Should you buy an Android or an iPhone?

The age old debate of iPhone vs Android. If you're in the market for a new phone but have yet to choose a side, perhaps this infographic posted by http://carlcheo.com/iphone-vs-android will help you make up your mind. 

What do you think? Have your say in the comments below.

This New Wearable Keeps You Energised All Day Long

Drinking coffee has become so common in our daily lives that it is impossible to imagine how life would be without this beloved elixir. However, some people suffer harsh effects caused by the frequent consumption of coffee: stained teeth and stomach pains become constant for those who cannot live without a good cup of coffee. The good news is that it is possible to solve this problem by quitting coffee, while still having your daily dose of caffeine.

What I'm talking about is the world’s first wearable caffeinated bracelet that releases caffeine directly into the blood stream of the user – kind of like nicotine patches. In addition to the basic version, which comes in black, blue or pink, Joule also comes as a watch, so you never forget coffee time.The wearable is currently seeking crowdfunding on Indiegogo, and the campaign was so successful that the makers have managed to earn four times their initial $15,000 goal.

The Joule claims to offer the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee. The difference is that this amount is slowly administered over a period of four hours, maintaining you energized longer without causing side effects such as energy spikes and crashes. The invention promises to be especially useful for those who suffer from stomach pains or want a boost during sports practice.