Best Free Apps
Recommendfreephoneappsatwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 10 - 23 July 2019 35
WEATHER
AppyWeather
bit.ly/appy479
8One of the (few)
well-loved apps
for Microsoft’s
now defunct
Windows Phone
platform, Appy
Weather makes a
belated leap to
Android. The app
gathers highly
accurate weather
data from Dark
Sky and presents it
in a friendlier format – specifically a detailed hour-by-hour
forecast for the current day, a timeline with cards for
significant weather changes, and a forecast summary for the
next seven days. The only catch is that the free
version allows just 10 weather requests per day.
Paying £3.99 for Appy Weather+ not only
removes this limit but gets rid of ads and unlocks
useful widgets and notifications, too.GAME
HarryPotter:WizardsUnite
bit.ly/wizardsdroid479
bit.ly/wizardsios479
5 10
Potterheads rejoice!
A brand-new Harry
Potter mobile game
has arrived – although
if you’ve ever played
Pokémon Go, you’ll
find that there isn’t an
awful lot that’s
‘brand-new’ about
Wizards Unite. It’s
basically the same
‘gotta catch them all’
formula, reskinned with characters and monsters from
JK Rowling’s Wizarding World. The basic premise is that
‘foundables’ – magical artefacts, creatures and people from
the Potterverse – have started cropping up in the
world around you, and it’s up to you to find and
capture them using spells. It’s fun, but it can be
annoying, too, unless you pay to avoid the
limitations of the free-to-play version.
TOOLS
Scrypted
bit.ly/
scrypted479
5Home
automation is
incredibly
handy, but you
can easily find
yourself in a
situation where
you have
different devices that require different
apps and hubs. Scrypted is an entire
homeautomation platform aimed at
enthusiasts and developers. Once
installed, the app turns your Android
device into a cross-platform homehub.
Enter the IP address provided into your
browser for access to a powerful
control panel that lets you set up
schedules, write simple
scripts and more. Scrypted
integrates with Amazon
Alexa, Google Home and
Apple HomeKit.LAUNCHER
Shade
Launcher
bit.ly/shade 479
5
Shade is a
brand-new
Android launcher
from the
developer behind
the excellent
Pixel-inspired
Rootless Launcher
(bit.ly/rootless479). It does
pretty much everything its
forerunner does, and adds a few
welcome ideas of its own. There’s
greater scope for customisation, with
a choice of themes and the useful
ability to categorise or hide apps in
the app drawer. A Smart Unread
widget on your homescreen highlights
your most important
notifications, while the
app’s support for plugins
enables other developers
to design add-ons.
MEDIA PLAYER
MXPlayer
bit.ly/mxplayer479
(varies)MX Player has always been an excellent
alternative to Android’s stock movie
player, so we’re pleased to see that the
developers are continuing to nurture it.
Its advantages include hardware
acceleration and multi-core decoding
for smooth playback. The app recently
gained support for Chromecast, and
the latest update adds a picture-in-
picture mode. If you enable it from the
Quick Options button
during playback, you can
watch videos in a floating
window as you send texts,
check emails and so on.This fortnight’s top free and paid-for apps
for Android and iOS phonesand tablets
Our rating HHHHH Our rating HHHHH Our rating HHHHH
NEW UPDATED NEW
Our rating HHHHH Our rating HHHHH
NEW NEW