Get your weekly selection of app picks from the AC writers right here
Welcome back to another Saturday afternoon edition of Apps of the Week, our compendium of apps, tools and games from the Android Central writers. Each week we gather up picks from the folks here at AC, asking them to submit an app that they’ve been using recently. It can come from any area of the Play Store, with any rating or feature set — all that matters is that we use it and it works.
This week we’re looking at a couple of Halloween-themed picks, a game, a great app for making some music on your tablet and a few other odds-and-ends as usual. Stick around after the break and see how this week’s picks stack up against the rest.
Sean Brunett – Halloween Soundboard
Halloween is next Thursday, so this app is for all of you who want to set a scary ringtone or notification to get in the mood. It comes with 28 different Halloween-themed sounds, from screams to the theme to Friday the 13th, one of my favorite classic horror films. When you open the app, you will see each ringtone listed in a grey bubble. To hear it, simply click. If you like what you hear, long-press on the option and you can set it as your ringtone, alarm or notification. It’s a nifty little app that will help you get in spirit of Halloween. Even the icon is ghost face from Scream. Enjoy!
Download: Halloween Soundboard (Free)
Simon Sage – Terrene
Terrene is a deceptively simple physics game with a recognizable retro look. Players are in command of a broken spaceship with no thrusters and only a tractor beam. They have to use the tractor beam to pull themselves forward and collect data logs floating in space for bonus points. The physics are very tricky. Even though using your tractor beam on asteroids pulls you forward, it also pulls them towards you, which can have some destructive consequences. You’ve got three lives to get as far as possible, which, when you’re first starting, you’ll chew through pretty quickly. You can switch up the color scheme to keep things fresh, which make a pretty significant change in mood. Overall, Terrene offers simple, challenging gameplay with a serene, lost-in-outer-space mood.
Download: Terrene ($0.99)
Casey Rendon – GrubHub
Being busy means not having a lot of time to cook at home. Like it or not (who am I kidding, eating out is great), a lot of my meals are ordered from local food establishments by necessity. Thankfully, many of my area’s restaurants and take out places accept orders through GrubHub. Up until recently, I was only using their website, but I finally broke down and downloaded the app. If you live in a major city (or even some smaller ones), chances are there is a GrubHub restaurant near you. With the app it’s easy to place food orders, check the status of orders, look at previous orders and order the same thing again, as well as pay using any credit card or even PayPal. My favorite feature is Yummy Rummy, the game you get to play after every few orders where you can win free food and drinks (I won $10 the last time I played). If you are already using the GrubHub website, do yourself a favor and download their app.
Download: GrubHub (Free)
Jerry Hildenbrand – Music Maker Jam
You no longer have to be a musician to make music. With programs like Music Maker Jam, you can string pre-recorded loops together to find just the sound you want.The secret has always been trying to find a way to do it that’s not complicated as heck.
Some of us are musically inclined, and want to be able to bring in their own recorded loops and do all sorts of micro-adjustment and want all the complicated controls. But some of us, like yours truly, just wanna play and pretend that we’re some sort of Jellybean Benitez. That’s where Music Maker Jam shines. Every thing is touch friendly, and with just a few taps you’ll be able to make a song that sounds like a song. Maybe even a good one.
The app comes with a small selection of loops, from HipHop beats and short raps to classic arena-style rock ballad guitar leads. There are plenty of others available for purchase, and each genre costs about $2.50 and includes a nice selection of loops. And when you’re done, you can export your mix as an .ogg file for further editing or playback on just about any device.
There are no goofy permissions, and the basic app is free to try. If you’re looking to get a little creative — especially with an Android tablet — give it a try.
Download: Music Maker Jam (Free)
Chris Parsons – Zombie World Live Wallpaper
I don’t often suggest using live wallpapers given how they can react on different devices however with Halloween just around the corner I figure I couldn’t pass this one up. It’s simply called Zombie World Live Wallpaper and it fills you screen up with zombies. They move around on your screen popping up out of the ground and if you leave them alone, they’ll cover it all up. But the fun thing about this wallpaper is that if you tap on them.. Boom! They blow to bits. Give your phone a shake and you can kill them all at once. It’s free and kinda mesmerizing to watch plus, if you need to take out some frustration — just blow up some zombies.
Download: Zombie World Live Wallpaper (Free)
Andrew Martonik – LivingSocial
I know, I know … LivingSocial. Best known for its annoying emails and generally useless deals, why would I recommend such an app? Well, if you’re willing to hold out for an actual good deal, you can really find some diamonds in the rough browsing this coupon site. Every few days I (or more likely my significant other) will open up the LivingSocial app and just browse for a few minutes and see if there’s anything going on in the city that I’d be interested in.
There’s a lot of junk and useless coupons, but sometimes you’ll find deals that are good — for me that usually means they’re discounts on restaurants. And when you do decide to buy a coupon, you can use the app to present a barcode for the merchant to scan, so you don’t have to bother printing anything out. LivingSocial may not appeal to everyone, but if you’re looking for some food or fun on the cheap, you may want to take a look.
Download: LivingSocial (Free)
Happen to miss previous editions of our weekly app picks? You can check them out right here. Our continuing weekly app coverage can also be seen right here as well.