You paid extra for that curvy screen when you opted for one of the Galaxy S edge models. The Galaxy S7 edge, S6 edge, and S6 edge+. Can all put live content with just one flick away on your screen. Which makes for a great way to check the news, weather, and sports, or fire up a favorite widget.
To get the good stuff, you have to head into Samsung’s Galaxy Apps storefront on your phone, as there’s no web version like with Play. Unfortunately, this means another account update process. But that’s what you have to put up with if you want to get the latest magic. There are several panel-sized apps of varying quality, so we’ve winnowed down the list to the ten best. In fact, there’s more room for innovation here. The quick flick method is a great way to get to something fast. If you see something you love, and we didn’t give it a shout here. Definitely let us know in the comments.
CNN
A quick glance at the news is ideal for the Edge panel. CNN offers a solid app for this purpose, letting you slide through a scroll of national, world, tech. And other news topics, even politics, if you must. You can tweak the number of stories per section, picking anywhere from one to four.
Too many sections get unruly, so you’d be better off just launching the CNN app. Tapping a story takes you to Chrome. So if you want to get back to the same list of stories you saw. You’ll need to re-launch the news ticker with a flick on the side of the screen. I like it, however, as a quick way to see what’s going on.
The Weather Channel
The weather is another good concept to play with here. You can get the latest forecast without waiting for your app to load or draining the battery with another widget. The Weather Channel app does the basics well. Giving you the current conditions and a look at the next few hours in the edge panel view. But once you install it, you have several extra capabilities beyond that. Such as an always-on weather panel that lives anywhere you wish on the screen. Touching that fires up other details. You don’t have to rely solely on what’s in the edge panel if you want fast access to the weather. You also get a constant temperature in the notification panel. Which is helpful for those summer days when you want to know if it’s too hot to go outside.
NBA
If you’re a hoops fan, you’ll love the ability to perform a swipe to get the latest basketball scores. It’s convenient during the playoffs, when you may want to constantly check for updates. And don’t despair after the finals are over, as basketball will return after the offseason lasts about two weeks. When you install this from the Samsung app store. You’re essentially getting a full-blown app with game video, live box scores. And the ability to watch or listen to supported games. It’s much the same as the Play Store version, with the added edge of friendliness.
Widget Edge
You like widgets. And you want the Edge panel. Combine these loves with the appropriately named Widget Edge panel. You can put in the most common widgets in your phone. Such as Gmail, weather, and even an outdoor scene, to give some pleasantry to your day. It’s similar to the iOS concept of keeping all the widgets together in one place. Which can help keep your home screens free of clutter.
Edge RSS
CNN and other news organizations are nice to follow, but you may want a little more choice. Then grab Edge RSS, which allows you to put in a feed of your favorite site, you know, and like. It only sometimes pulls up a long list. Often, it’s just one story at a time unless you’ve plugged in a site with hundreds of stories per week. Like The New York Times. But it’s a clever way to keep up with something you like reading.
Trends from Twitter
Twitter is all about what’s happening now. The Edge panel app is another good choice for such a use case. Fortunately, it plays nicely with the Twitter Android app. Tapping an individual tweet takes you to Twitter for Android, so there’s no need to have the Play Store version. It also works with topics that are interspersed in-between groups of tweets. Much like other apps, you pull down to refresh the content, as it doesn’t do it automatically. If you’re a Twitter junkie, this may be fun, especially since it plays well with the stock Twitter app.
Keep for Edge
No, this isn’t an official extension. Still, this developer has enabled you to access your notes from Keep on the edge panel. Remember that this requires signing in with your account. Which some may not be cool with doing through a third party. It works; though others noted a few freeze-ups, my experience went fine. It’s handy if you want to have to Keep right off to the edge. Although several widgets are also created for this purpose.
My Places
Several widgets and other add-ons have tried to differentiate the apps available depending on your location. It’s another; it’s not so in-your-face about the location changes since it lives off to the side of the screen. But setup takes some work, as you have to tell your phone, the home, and work locations. Then select which apps you want to show up at those times. I’ve always found it’s more efficient to develop muscle memory regarding where the apps are on your primary home screen. But if you like this level of customization, then give it a go.
Yahoo! Sports
While this is one of the edge panels on your phone. It’s still worth highlighting here as the best sports option for comprehensive coverage of the major leagues. You can add your favorite teams so they’re always ready for a score update. Touching one of the tiles takes you to the Yahoo sports site, which has box scores and plenty of stats. There’s good coverage of international soccer leagues, though strangely, America’s own Major League Soccer isn’t included. There’s no reason ESPN or other providers couldn’t jump in on this. It’s a good use for rapid score updates.
RSS Feeds for Edge
You may like your news in much smaller bites. RSS Feeds works similarly to the other RSS app mentioned in this roundup. Still, instead, it’s more like a news ticker with scrolling headlines. It’s more of a crowd pleaser for your next party. Where you can show everyone what my phone can do that yours can’t. You probably don’t want to consume your news by slowly reading headlines that creep by you. But nonetheless, it’s pretty neat, especially since you can pick your favorite site to follow.
