40+ Best Android Apps of the Month: April 2012

by Antonio Wells May 1, 2012 11:45 AM – 4 Comments

It’s that time again folks where we compile the best Android apps and best Android games that our app review ninjas at AndroidTapp thoroughly reviewed in the month of April 2012! Get your Android phone or tablet out and download, plus we make it easy to download or buy these top apps with convenient one-click tools below:

Shop our NEW Android App Store and Save on some of these Top Titles!

Best Android apps reviewed April 1, 2012 – April 31, 2012.

4.8 Stars

Draw Something is Drawsome! The Most Addictive game since Angry Birds Free Draw Something is like Pictionary meets Hangman classic games! It is a turn-based drawing game where you try to guess a friend’s or random opponent’s drawing to earn coins used to purchase advances within the game. Whether you have friends on the platform or not, it works across Android and iOS so there’s sure to be plenty to strike an addictive match with.

OnSports – must have Interactive & Community driven sports scores, news, polls, discussion app Free OnSports is an interactive and community driven sports app featuring polls, news, videos, scores, discussion and pictures. It covers most major sports including basketball, American football, ice hockey, soccer, NASCAR and baseball. The app is very well developed and polished making it fun to explore and use. If sports are a big thing in your life, this is ideal.

Pix: Pixel Mixer – gorgeous Photo Editing app full of filters & effects Free Pix: Pixel Mixer is a gorgeous photo editing tool. If you enjoy tweaking pictures within a slick user interface this is ideal for you. While not a social network, such as Instagram, Lightbox Photos and Streamzoo, Pix: Pixel Mixer offers a similar function to the superb Pixlr-o-matic or the recently reviewed FX Photo Editor. However, Pix has a few cool tricks up its sleeve…

Wallbase HD Wallpapers – Customize your Droid’s background with these cool wallpapers Free, $1.99 Wallbase HD Wallpapers is a top-draw resource for the very best Android wallpapers. Essentially a client for the fantastic Wallbase website, the app boasts access to over 1 million unique wallpapers and you can search via traditional means or by tags. It’s also an incredibly good looking and slick app to use. We all like a change of wallpaper from time to time, and this is as good as such apps get!

Treemaker – a chilled-out feel-good physic based puzzler game Free Treemaker is a feel-good, chilled-out, physics-based puzzle game. Collect seeds and grow silhouetted trees in beautiful landscapes. With similar design to games like World of Goo and They Must be Fed, Treemaker is engaging and enjoyable for adults and children alike.

4.7 Stars

JustReader – beautiful & feature rich RSS Reader… better than Google Reader Free JustReader is a beautifully ICS-themed Google Reader client. With arguably Google placing its energies away from their own dedicated RSS aggregator and focusing more on their news app; Google Currents, apps like JustReader give Reader users a more polished and up-to-date client. It appears great alongside Ice Cream Sandwich and definitely compliments an ICS themed device. Looks aside, it additionally has plenty of features under the hood to interest advanced users.

Google Currents – review of the elegant News Aggregation Android app Free Google Currents is the still-relatively-new news app that aggregates free news resources into a slick and well presented reader. Recently made available worldwide, instead of only being available in the U.S. (if only they’d do the same with Google Music), it’s high time for a proper review.

Hound – the Voice Search app for Finding Music Free Hound is a spin-off app from the hugely popular music-identification service SoundHound. Hound is essentially a voice-search tool for music. With it’s sibling SoundHound you have to play a track for it to listen to and identify. Now, with Hound simply say the name of the band, artist or song and it performs the search automatically. Ideal for music lovers, this is a great app to add to your music apps repository.

4.6 Stars

SHADOWGUN – the Ultimate third-person Shooter game for Android! $4.99 SHADOWGUN is a graphically incredible 3D shooter/explorer game. You are John Slade (although you look like a beefed-up Bruce Willis) and you are a bounty hunter in the year 2350. Track down an evil maniac in his mountain fortress and take out everything that stands in your way. John Slade doesn’t do subtle so, using a slew of powerful weapons and the assistance of S.A.R.A (a kind of beefed-up Siri), take down this evil genius with extreme prejudice!

Gravity Project – escape the space station in this blistering fast Run & Jump 3D game Free Gravity Project is a blisteringly slick 3D running game that drops you into a horrifying and futuristic space station. The aim is to get to the end of the level before the time runs out. Avoid obstacles and collect tokens in gameplay quite reminiscent of Temple Run and I Must Run. In gorgeously rendered graphics and with distinctly three-dimensional gameplay, will Gravity Project give Temple Run a ‘run’ for its money?

StumbleUpon – Android app to stumble upon interesting content on the Web Free StumbleUpon is a popular and fun Internet exploration website that presents random websites based upon your own interests. Simply create an account, list your interests and ‘Stumble’ upon interesting content. The website then sends you to various websites that are relevant to you. The StumbleUpon app now lets you do this from your Android device. It boasts a nice user interface and is incredibly easy to use. A great way to explore the web and find new sites and content.

Circle Battery Widget, a sleek & minimal Battery Status widget for your homescreen Free There is surely no need to explain what Circle Battery Widget is. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Choose from several different widget sizes and tweak and alter the colours of the numbers and background as much as you want. It’s neat, clean, free, looks smart and is incredibly simple.

4.5 Stars

FX Photo Editor – enhance your phone’s pictures by adding cool effects, themes, filters & more! Free, $3.99 FX Photo Editor is an incredibly comprehensive picture editing tool. Whereas so many photo sharing and photo editing tools plump for a number of filters, some frames, a cropping tool etc, FX Photo Editor offers this and a whole lot more. Intuitive, resourceful and packed full of features, it’s the perfect app if you like to tweak your snaps.

Kaiten Email is a one-stop client for all your inboxes $4.99 Kaiten Email is an advanced email client for Android. Based on the award-winning K-9, Kaiten has been completely redesigned to look gorgeous on your tablet. (It looks pretty snazzy on your phone too.)

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit – drive as the crook or cop in this High Octane 3D Racer $4.99 The latest in the Need for Speed series of high octane racing games is Hot Pursuit, and it’s a racer with a difference. Choose between being a cop car or a road racer in this fast 3D racing extravaganza. With plenty of stages, bonuses and weapons at your disposal, it’s an original take on the racing genre and pretty cool to boot!

Dead Space – dark & haunting third-person 3D action Shooter game for Android! ~$7.24 Dead Space is dark and haunting 3D action adventure set in a bleak futuristic dystopia. It’s a popular horror title that has found its way to Android after appearing on PC and console and reminded me of a Sci-Fi/Gaming mash-up of Resident Evil and the William Gibson classic Neuromancer. With an engaging plot, gorgeous (if not grisly) visuals and atmospheric sound it’s an engrossing game that feels a little like an interactive movie. Not for the faint hearted though…

BeWeather – gorgeous Weather app with HD animations Free With BeWeather, you can see the current weather in stunning high definition weather animations! Contains many beautiful and customizable weather and clock widgets.

Reuters News Pro – review of Official Android app for the international news agency Free Reuters News Pro is the official app for the international news agency Reuters. Reuters is a source that takes its news very seriously. Don’t think you’ll find any fluffy pieces, Reuters is a highly professional agency and this is reflected in their coverage of international affairs, economics and politics. The app is very well developed and boasts several user-friendly features which make is a great app to use on a mobile device.

Postman SMS Spam Blocker keeps the junk spam out of your text messages Free Postman SMS Spam Blocker is a spam filter and blocker for your text messages. Tired of random spammers sending crap? Use this app to filter those messages automatically. The app can be a little overzealous when you initially install, however, you can configure the “white list” to allow false-positives the app may have labeled as spam. Learn more in our review.

SparkNotes – useful app for reading English Literature study guides on the go Free SparkNotes is an awesome resource of analysis for student of literature. If you study English Literature either in school or college this is a great heads up for lots of novels, poetry and philosophical works. I personally studied English Literature at University and, while this isn’t uber-academic content-wise, if you need to get a grasp on a particular text, this is ideal.

Alarm Clock by doubleTwist, a feature-rich and stunningly beautiful alarm clock app $1.99 Alarm Clock by doubleTwist is a feature-rich and stunningly beautiful alarm clock app. From the creators of AirSync and doubleTwist Player this new application adds visual luxury to waking up every morning.

Clockr – superb minimalist homescreen widget to customize time as text Free Clockr is an incredibly simple clock app that has been around in the Google Play Store for ages. It’s a straightforward ‘worded’ clock widget which works perfectly well with a minimalist homescreen design. It comes with basic customisation settings and looks very cool.

4.4 Stars

Empire Defense II – epic sequel Tower Defense game of Medieval times Free Empire Defense II is the sequel to Empire Defense, a tower defense game which I reviewed previously. The new game is a huge leap forward from its predecessor and has brought in a raft of improvements. Featuring all new gameplay and soldiers, ongoing plot and storyline, improved graphics and sound plus far more creative and strategic elements to the game.

Power Tune-Up. Use this app to Manage Battery & Data consumption on Android Free Power Tune-Up allows you to manage and optimize the battery consumption of your Android handset. The app features a slew of useful tools to get the most out of your battery. From time to time we pretty much all run out of battery at some point in our lives with smartphones, so it’s good that there are apps available to help us avoid that situation. Developer BitDefender has created a few security/management apps, but this one struck me as being a great option for most smartphone users.

Blingboard: Social Widget – convenient homescreen widget to check email, calls, text messages & social media Free BlingBoard: Social Widget is a cool social widget that lets you quickly and easily check emails, recent calls, SMS, Facebook and Twitter updates. The widget has a slick Ice Cream Sandwich theme which really compliments your homescreen and is simple to use. It’s also very productive too- why open all those apps when you can quickly check from your homescreen?

Floozled – check out this addictive starry Memory game Free Floozled is a bright and starry memory game, similar to Simon-says. Coloured boxes are highlighted in a random order, then it is your turn to replicate the sequence. Simple to play but hugely challenging, there are three brain-busting difficulty levels that unlock as you progress.

Pandalicious – experience this relaxing yet Addictive Puzzle game Free, $1.50 Pandalicious is a beautiful and fun puzzle game that puts you deep in a forest of bamboo and zen. By rotating hexagonal units, create long vine-paths to accumulate more points. Relaxed, challenging or addictive, Pandalicious is a must-have for puzzle and logic fans.

4.3 Stars

Zedge Ringtones & Wallpapers – the ultimate app for customizing your Android Free Zedge Ringtones & Wallpapers is the arguably the largest and most comprehensive collection of wallpapers, ringtones and notification tones available in the Google Play Store. It’s certainly not new, but with a busy and bustling community who upload and share all their favourite content, it’s a great place to start with customising the look, feel and sound of your Android device.

Zite – News app that presents interesting stories or personalize it Free Zite is a well developed and thorough news app which presents various interests and associated stories. Unlike say, Google Currents which is formulated by selecting particular sources, Zite instead highlights themes and interests and amalgamates stories accordingly. The app looks and works very well, providing a wide range of interests to choose from and the ability create your own.

UC Browser – Fast Mobile Web Browser with Voice Control Free UC Browser is an original, intuitive and user friendly means to browse the web on your Android device. Using its voice recognition feature you can quickly browse to the pages you want, and the multi-touch elements makes using the web a far more tactile and responsive experience.

The Boxed Life – this mind-numbing tricky set of puzzles & riddles requires lateral thinking. A puzzler’s must-have game! Free The Boxed Life is an entertaining and quirky puzzle game which features diverse gameplay and lots of challenging stages to unlock. The beauty of it is that you never really know what you’re going to get next. Similar perhaps to games like The Moron Test and Impossible Level Game, where the answers are often incredibly obvious and lateral thinking is required to complete levels, The Boxed Life is true puzzling bliss.

4.2 Stars

Weatherlove – simple yet beautiful Weather & Clock app to customize your Android phone Free Weatherlove is a beta stage weather application that’s simple, functional and looks good. Seriously, what more could you want? It comes with 4 different homescreen widgets, is very easy to use and doesn’t suck your battery dry like some applications can…

Boid for Android (Alpha) – superb Twitter app for Android 4 ICS devices Free Boid for Android (Alpha) is a superb Twitter client for Ice Cream Sandwich devices. It is only at alpha stage of development, so I’ll be certain to update the review as it moves forward, but it’s such a brilliant little app, it’s well worth your attention now.

XE Currency – brilliant app for comparing Currency Rates on the go Free XE Currency is a brilliant application for comparing currency rates on the go. It has a slick and user friendly interface to follow multiple currency rates at once, examine charts and currency rate histories.

Drag Racing: Bike Edition. Burn rubber on a drag strip to Race, Win & Earn cash for your motorcycle! Free Drag Racing: Bike Edition is a two-wheeled sequel to the popular Drag Racing. These are racing games with a difference; it’s a straight 2D track so acceleration is the key to winning. Timing also becomes a crucial element as changing gear at just the right moment can mean the difference between winning and losing. With a shop chock full of bikes to upgrade to, and a well equipped garage to tweak and upgrade your existing bike, it’s a brilliant little game of high octane thrill seeking.

TrailHit with Papaya, an Indoor/Outdoor Geocaching Fantasy game… you’re the hero, find the ancient relic! Free TrailHit with Papaya is a glorious adventure game where you are the hero! It’s a location based treasure hunting game where you need to search your neighbourhood for virtual boxes. Inside these boxes contain elements of ancient scrolls. These scrolls reveal clues to find an incredible device that will save the world. Similar to games like Parallel Kingdom and SpecTrek, TrailHit is a great outdoor fantasy game for both adults and kids.

thetrainline – great Travel app for checking Train times & Booking tickets in the United Kingdom Free thetrainline.com is a premier train times and ticket booking app for trains in the United Kingdom. If you’re a UK native like me and use public transport from time to time, or perhaps plan on visiting the British Isles and hope to by travelling by rail, this is a great app for planning your journey and buying tickets.

4.1 Stars

Craigslist EZ – Search & Post Craigslist ads Free Craigslist EZ is an app that allows you to search and post to Craigslist while mobile. Encompassing the power of the classified ads website on the small screen; it feature additional perks such as post management, Craigslist “ghosting” check, the ability to save frequent searches and browse favorite classified items.

Photon – Futuristic & Challenging Puzzle game you must play! Free, $0.99 Photon is a futuristic puzzle game that will feel familiar to fans of games like Bejeweled, Chuzzle and the recently reviewed RoboSockets. It’s pure connect-3-of-the-same fare, but with a freer and slicker game board. Very easy to play, incredibly hard to master it’s also massively addictive and lots of fun.

4.0 Stars

Call of Atlantis – Gem Swap game with an enchanting story Free, $1.99 Call of Atlantis is a gem swap game with an enchanting story that leads you throughout the levels. As the story goes, Atlantis is calling out for a true hero to save it from deadly peril! In the tradition of a gem swap game, match three stones to clear the space. This journey takes you around the ancient lands of Rome, Greece, Troy, Phoenicia, Babylon, Egypt and Carthage to acquire seven mysterious crystals of power. Once collected and put together, they are able to restore the Altar of Poseidon and save the fabled sunken continent.

WiFi Alarm – for setting Alarm Reminders based on WiFi- Networks Free WiFi Alarm is a useful utility for giving yourself an alarm reminder based on Wi-Fi networks nearby. For example, use it as a reminder to not forget your keys before leaving home or to browse the Internet securely when you frequent that coffee shop with the free Wi-Fi.

Quick Launch Lockscreen – slide to unlock plus launch Android apps simultaneously Free Quick Launch Lockscreen is, quite clearly, a lockscreen replacement. Ice Cream Sandwich flavoured- although available on any device running Android 2.1 and above, the app has plenty of useful functionality and looks great too. The highlight of this lockscreen is the ‘Quick Launch‘ element of it, whereas you can choose between a selection of apps to launch automatically. This two-phase unlocking is great for being able to open your device and access a particular app straight away. Read on for a bit more detail.

Carrier Coverage lets you see who is the Best Cellphone Carrier in your area Free Carrier Coverage samples your network coverage to help you answer the question, “Which carrier is best for you?” Crowd-sourcing among the community you can use it to see which cellphone carrier has the best coverage, least dropped calls, top performing devices and more. Let’s get into the review!

Money Tab is an easy-to-use manual Budget Tracker for beginners ~$0.99 Money Tab is great for those just starting to budget their finances or those savvy individuals who like to budget strict to their primary device and opt not to use fancy automatic financial syncing services. Bookkeeping of the traditional days meets a bit of smartphone technology extending the task of budgeting to record income/expenses, transactions, and even export information to Microsoft Excel format.

Nothing under 4 stars jack!

Tags: Android App Reviews, Android Apps, Androidtapp.com Android App Review, Best Android Apps, Best Android Games

Categorised in: Apps Blog, Featured, News

4 Comments

By dbareis on May 1, 2012 at 4:49 pm:

This site no longer works well on latest Chrome Browser (v18)…

Reply
- By Antonio Wells on May 2, 2012 at 5:09 am:
  
  Sure about that buddy?
  
  Reply
By dbareis on May 2, 2012 at 6:44 am:

I was sure as its been happening for weeks but only on your site. However I’m using Chrome from home now instead of work and the page looks OK…

I’ll try again at work tomorrow.

Reply
- By dbareis on May 2, 2012 at 4:15 pm:
  
  At work, the issue occurs on Chrome, IE 8 and Firefox 4 so the issue is obviously here. I suspect its something to do with how the formatting is done as it loads in stages, I’m guessing that something is not loading as some images are also not being displayed.
  
  Reply