WebUser 01 May 2019

Best Free Apps

Recommend free phone apps atwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 1 - 14 May 2019^35

TOOLS

Sensor Charts

bit.ly/sensor474

4.4

For many people,

there’s something

quite beautiful

about seeing data

represented visually,

whether it’s a

weather map or

a stea dily risi ng

sales chart. The

developers of Sensor

Charts obviously feel

this way, too, since

their app ingeniously takes the data gatheredby all the

various sensors built into your mobile device – the pressure

sensor, proximity sensor, compass, step counter, battery

meter, memory usag e and more – and turns it into stun ning ,

colourful graphs and charts. Datais recorded in

the background andyou can opt to view live

readings orhistor ic dataover a specific time

range. Less beautiful are the large and sadly

omnipresent ads.

MUSIC

Omnia Music Player
bit.ly/omnia474

5

If you’ve stuc k with
the same music
player app for years,
despite the wide
range of alternativ es
available, Omnia
could be the one to
changeyour mind.
It’s only in beta at the
moment, but the signs
are very positive.
Despite a ti ny footprint
(5MB), Omnia offers
tons of advanced feat ures , including playback for prac tically
any audio format, a built-in 10-band graphic equaliser and
suppor t for Chromecast and Android Auto. Sound quality
is excellent, due to the fact that Omnia usesits
own high-res audio engine, decoder and library,
rather than Android’s built-in decoders. And,
thanksto its smart Material Design interface,
Omnia looks great,too.

SOCIAL

Snapchat

bit.ly/

snapdroid474

bit.ly/snapios474

4.4 10

Snapchat users

on Android have

alwayshad a bit

of a ro ugh deal.

Until recently ,

the Android

version of th e

popular messag ing app performed

sluggishly when compared to its iOS

cousin. For a long time, the developers

attempted to improve its performance

via patches and updates but eventually

gave up the ghost (no pun on

Snapchat’s logo intended) and went

back to the drawing boar d, rebuilding

the Android app from the groundup.

You won’t notice any

changes to the way the

app works, but it should

feel a lot snappier (no pun

intended, again).

PODCASTS

Laughable
bit.ly/
laughdroid474
bit.ly/laughios474

5 11.4

There are dozens
of podcast apps
around but
Laughable’s
differen t in that
(as the name
sugges ts) it’s
skewed towards comedy. You can
subscribe to your favourite comedians
and get cura ted recommendations for
other artists, making it easy to discover
more of what you like. Useful profile
pages provide links to other podcasts,
tour dates and social-media accounts.
Updated for iOS with performance
and navigational improvements,
and completely new to
Android, Laughable is an
essential download for
comedy fans and podcast
lovers in general.

BROWSER

Firefox

bit.ly/ffoxdroid474

bit.ly/ffoxios474

(varies) 11.4

Mozilla has updated

its Firefox app for

iPhone and iPad

users with a number

of significant

improvements. For

example, controlling

your browsing

hist ory is now much easier. You can

clear recent histor y in a couple of taps,

and are now given the option to delete

your histor y for the last hour, the last

day or the day before. Handy new

shortcuts let you get to your

bookmarks, histor y, reading list and

downloads direct from the Firefox

Home screen, and the browser’s built-in

password manager has

been improved with the

option to enable Face ID to

keep your logins even

more secure.

This fortnight’s top free and paid-for apps

for Android and iOS phones and tablets

Our rating HHHHH Our rating HHHHH Our rating HHHHH

NEW UPDATED UPDATED

Our rating HHHHH Our rating HHHHH

NEW NEW