It’s the end of the week. e to relax, unwind from the workweek, download a bunch of new apps to enjoy in the days ahead. Our latest Five to Try entry collects five new apps games worth a look, headed up by Tinkerplay, a neat tool that lets you construct your own 3D-printable action figures. Meanwhile, HTC’s Fun Fit might get you moving again as spring takes shape, while Armageddon provides eye cy in the form of glossy live wallpaper.
For gaming fans, Four tters is an addictive word-builder with smart design a social hook, plus Motion Tennis Cast lets you recreate an active, i Sports-like experience with your Android phone a second screen. Ready to hit the ay Store? Here’s what you should snag this week.
Tinkerplay
Create fully poseable action figures on your phone or tablet— then 3D-print the pieces if you’d like.
Sure, 3D printing is transforming industries far wide, making it much easier to prototype gadgets construct all sorts of items, but there’s also fun to be had. Tinkerplay helps bring that to light, as this free Android app from Autodesk makes it easy to build your own action figure, then export the plans have the pieces printed out, if desired.
But even if you don’t want to bring your creation into the physical space (what, you don’t have a 3D printer in your home?), Tinkerplay is still fun to mess around with. The basic interface is simple enough for a child, yet there’s complexity in the customization—like adding surface textures other tweaks—for anyone willing to dig through the menus. It’s a powerful tool make approachable amusing.
Four tters
The clean, clear interface is really appealing, although ads begin appearing after a while.
If you like word games love the motivational spark that comes from online leaderboards, be sure to check out Four tters this week. As you might surmise from the title, this fast-paced affair prompts you to create a four-word term as quickly as possible from the provided letters. Complete a word suddenly you’ve got four more letters to work with— just a few seconds of time.
It doesn’t feel like totally uncharted territory, especially if you’ve played a lot of tap-based word-builders. However, Four tters is impeccably presented plenty of fun, the ability to compare your scores against Facebook friends adds a lot of incentive to keep playing. It’s a free download with ads built in, although a $3 in-app purchase clears them away for good.
Motion Tennis Cast
This is what you’ll see on the second screen—your phone serves as the swingable controller.
Motion Tennis Cast recreates a i Sports-like motion gaming experience using your Android phone— I mean “using,” because you’ll need a second screen. It’s likely best enjoyed with a Chromecast on your TV, but I played using the Chrome browser on my MacBook o. There’s a bit of a process to get up running, but it only takes about five minutes before you’re swinging away.
Swatting your Android phone like a racquet proves decently responsive, while the game isn’t terribly complex, it’s solid— free, with occasional ads. You’ll find varying difficulty levels court options within, you can compare time attack scores with online foes, but there’s no true multiplayer within. Still, it’s worth trying out, although I highly recommend finding some way to strap the phone onto your h. Don’t shatter your screen(s) over a tennis tech demo!
Fun Fit
HTC’s Fun Fit tracks your steps compares your stats against friends—but you may need to convince some to join.
Need an extra push to walk to work instead of grabbing the bus, or take the stairs instead of boarding the elevator? Maybe HTC’s Fun Fit can assist. It’s a simple step-tracking app dressed up with a social component, letting you connect to Facebook, pick an adorable animal avatar, compare your fitness metrics with those of your friends (if they also sign up).
Fun Fit isn’t a particularly robust fitness app; the interface is spartan, the modules are limited, it seems to revolve around the singular purpose of counting steps. But if a little bit of social motivation (or shaming) is what you need to make better decisions throughout the day, it could certainly help. You don’t need an HTC phone, but compatibility seems finicky: it won’t download on my Nexus 5, but a few budget Motorola Blu phones on my account are all compatible.
Armageddon
nt a bit of grim eye cy on your phone? This customizable ever alluring live wallpaper might suffice.
Enabling live wallpaper might not be the smartest way to stretch your phone’s charge throughout the day, but if you want something flashy distinctive behind your app icons, Armageddon ($1.95) is certainly that. Inspired (at least in title) by the Bruce llis live-action film, this glossy wallpaper puts a series of burning space rocks on your screen as they approach the Earth below.
The camera pans rotates around the flaming asteroids, movement is also optionally tied to your phone’s gyroscope, so the perspective shifts as you use your device. Settings let you tweak the look of the backdrop rocks themselves, if you’re worried about the battery hit, you can slow the animations. Armageddon is cool enough to warrant the battery life trade-off, however, if you can manage it.
