Most of us probably don’t think too hard about our phone keyboards—so why not try one that does the thinking for you? SwiftKey Neural pha leads our weekly roundup of hot new Android apps games, delivering smarter word suggestions as you type. It’s joined this week by Meter, a useful live wallpaper from ’s Creative b, along with a two-for-one Adobe pick comprised of Illustrator Draw Capture CC.
And if it’s games you’re after, ych! Outwit Your Friends is the latest Ellen DeGeneres-bred game designed to liven up a party, while NHSuperCard rolls card collecting, statistics, fantasy hockey all up into one effective free-to-play package. Make room on your phone grab some fresh apps games for the weekend beyond.
SwiftKey Neural pha
SwiftKey’s latest experiment: smarter suggestions powered by a brain-like neural network.
SwiftKey is trying to figure out the next big revolution in mobile typing—but rather than change its flagship keyboard app (for now), the company is launching public experiments. Clarity Keyboard was one promising option, with its ability to pretty accurately correct entire phrases once fully typed, SwiftKey Neural pha is its latest effort. at’s new? ll, it uses a human brain-inspired neural network to generate word suggestions.
In short-term use, SwiftKey Neural pha doesn’t seem dramatically different from the normal SwiftKey, but the next-word suggestions are consistently solid the corrections are usually on the money. so, you’ll find plenty of customization options, although the default purple scheme is a nice change of pace from black or gray. Neural should show its true benefits over time as it learns from your habits, don’t be surprised if it ends up powering the next generation of SwiftKey.
ych! Outwit Your Friends
Enter your fake answer— then try to avoid picking someone else’s from the pack.
Comedienne talk show host Ellen DeGeneres became a surprise mobile gaming star with Heads Up!, a charades-like party game that’s racked up millions of downloads since 2013. Now she’s back with ych! Outwit Your Friends, another game designed for friends in the same room, albeit with everyone using their own phones.
In ych!, each person is given the same prompt—a historical question, movie title, etc.— asked to provide a fake response or description. Those are distributed to everyone, who must each try to pick the correct response from the bunch. You’ll score points based on how often you can fake out pals. It’s a fun concept, it works fine across Android iOS, so (almost) nobody has to be left out. The app is free comes with a couple categories; you can purchase more within for a buck apiece, plus optionally pay $3 to kill the various ads that appear.
Meter
Minimal, animated shapes or useful at-a-glance data? Both, actually.
launched its Creative b onto the ay Store with a trio of apps in August, but they were fun diversions more than really helpful tools. By contrast, Meter has a bit more purpose to it: the free live wallpaper cycles through background icons that help you keep tabs on battery life, network reception, number of notifications at a glance.
ed, none of that is particularly essential, given Android’s stard, baked-in ways of giving you that information. But it’s neat to see battery life represented in a small circle that rolls within a larger one as you move your phone, or level of reception shown as a fiddly water level inside an upside down triangle. It’s simplistic could benefit from some level of customization—but that said, Meter turns useful data into minimalist, attractive artwork.
NHSuperCard
NHSuperCard is all about stats free-to-play card collecting—you don’t actually control the “players.”
2K Sports already has a proper hockey simulation game on Android with NH2K, although it hasn’t been updated since last year—but NHSuperCard is a very different beast. It’s also a very weird little game, due in no small part to the fact that the game features playing cards that literally skate around a 3D arena after you choose them. But the core premise here has already proven successful with both MyNBA2K16 E SuperCard.
NHSuperCard isn’t really for hockey fans who want to play hockey, but more for those who want to obsess over stats team composition. It’s essentially the same concept as FIFA Ultimate , as you seek better better cards to form your team, only their interactions are automated once you choose which player cards fill which roles. It’s pretty limited in that respect, but fantasy die-hards might love it.
Adobe Illustrator Draw Capture CC
t down vector sketches with Illustrator Draw (left), or grab colors from the world with Capture CC. (I have no artistic talent, sorry.)
Adobe’s Creative Cloud ecosystem exps again on Android this week with a pair of new apps. Illustrator Draw (left) is designed to quickly capture your on-the-go inspiration, letting you sketch out vector drawings then import them into Illustrator or otoshop on your or Mac. Curiously, it doesn’t support tablets, but at least you can zoom in 64x to really nail the little details.
The other new app, Capture CC, might be familiar to Adobe’s mobile fans: it’s actually an all-in-one compilation of ( replacement for) the Color CC, Shape CC, Brush CC apps released in ne. Essentially, it lets you quickly grab color themes from your surroundings, turn photos into vector graphics, create Illustrator otoshop brushes. Seems like a hy thing for creative folks to keep around, particularly now as one app rather than three.
