lcome to Five to Try, our weekly look at what’s new exciting on the ay Store. This week’s list is led by Flyover Country, a new app that makes it easy to find lmarks below while on your next flight. so out this week is Cardboard Enabler for Gear VR, which lets you view ’s VR apps using Samsung’s headset, as well as the Chromecast-equipped Vicel TV network app.
And if you need a new game to dig into, Yo-Kai tch bble bble puts a puzzle spin on the increasingly popular kémon-like franchise, while Super Arc ght delivers tense arcade shooting thrills. Read on for impressions of each, then get to downloading!
Flyover Country
Flyover Country uses G to pinpoint your location on the offline map.
If you always choose the window seat love looking down at the sights below, then Flyover Country is for you. Offered free by the National Science Foundation, the app lets you mark the path between cities before you take off on your next flight, save the data for offline usage, then tap into it while in the air to learn about all the natural lmarks below. You don’t need -Fi access to use it, the app will locate your position via G.
Flyover Country isn’t much to look at, admittedly, but it’s a great resource for travelers who want to know what they’re flying over. You’ll be able to discover geologic formations fossil locations from above, kipedia articles provide context as desired. And while it’s clearly designed for in-flight usage, the app also works when hiking or on a road trip, for example.
Yo-Kai tch bble bble
Quickly link together the goofy cartoon faces to attack foes in this spinoff of the Nintendo sensation.
Have you heard of Yo-Kai tch? It’s the latest kémon-like craze from pan, with Nintendo-published 3DS games, a popular anime series, comics, loads of merchise. And now it’s on Android, although Yo-Kai tch bble bble isn’t a port of the monster-catching role-playing adventure found on Nintendo’s hheld. Instead, it’s a puzzle game where you’ll match together long chains of the monsters to clear them from the board.
It’s a lot like Disney Tsum Tsum crossed with zzle & Dragons, as you’re rapidly connecting the shifting stack of icons (like in the former) while doing so to send attacks to an enemy creature (as in the latter). bble bble has a fun energetic tone to it, much like last year’s kémon Shuffle, it seems to do a solid job of turning the series into something that’s actually worth playing on Android.
Cardboard Enabler for Gear VR
Simply tap to switch: Cardboard Enabler is hugely useful to Gear VR owners.
Cardboard Samsung Gear VR are both phone-based virtual reality platforms, but their apps don’t work on each other’s devices. ll, until now: thanks to the third-party Cardboard Enabler ($1), you can finally view Cardboard apps using the much nicer Gear VR headset. Essentially, the app prevents the Gear VR from automatically pulling up its Oculus launcher when you slot in your phone, leaving you free to load up a Cardboard app view it.
Quality-wise, Cardboard is inferior to Gear VR, but there are some solid Cardboard apps that you can’t find on Gear VR. The viewing experience is nicely improved on Gear VR, too, as I experienced with ’s great new Arctic urney demo in the Cardboard app. The app also lets you fiddle with the Gear VR settings to try trim down motion blur on Cardboard apps, but I went through the hassle didn’t notice a difference with the apps I tried, admittedly.
Super Arc ght
Hold down to unleash gunfire, but prepare to rotate the other way when you release.
Super Arc ght ($1) quickly brings to mind games like Super Hexagon ve ve, both alluring survival challenges that seem intentionally designed to disorient you while playing. ke those favorites, getting a hang of Super Arc ght can take a while. Here, your little dot character is constantly moving around the central circle, holding a finger on the screen causes it to slow down shoot bullets at the enemies approaching from above.
But when you release your finger, the character quickly turns around goes the other way instead. It’s tricky, but that’s the fun of it: trying to overcome that hurdle to push further further while blasting enemies. Super Arc ght has a very minimal look, but also some surprising visual flourishes along the way a great pulsing soundtrack to match.
Vicel
Vice’s new TV network gets its own app, complete with free episodes.
If you enjoy Vice’s distinctive br of provocative video journalism, as seen on the HBO series web offerings, you’re in luck: now there’s a whole network of it. Vicel, which recently went live for cable satellite subscribers, delivers an intriguing slate of original documentary reality shows, the Android app lets you access on-dem episodes send them to a Chromecast, as well.
Free samples are available in the app, although you’ll need a cable or satellite login to access the full library. Current offerings include music documentary series Noisey, Ellen ge’s Gaycation, food show F*ck That’s Delicious hosted by rapper Action Bronson, which should give you a sense of the tone breadth of what Vice is going for here. It’s fun, interesting, sometimes even inspiring stuff.
