Spotify 0.7.4.610 - app

Spotify is a music streaming app that lets you listen to millions of songs from your Android smartphone.

Already supremely popular as a desktop app for Windows and Mac PCs, Spotify's mobile app was once exclusively aimed at Premium subscribers. Now it's available to everyone, which places it squarely in competition with other popular music discovery apps like Pandora.

This version of Spotify looks gorgeous and makes it easy to start enjoying Spotify on your Android device. If you login via your Facebook account, you'll also be automatically be given a free 48 hour trial of Spotify's Premium service that lacks the ads and radio commercials of the free version.

Once installed, you can listen to anything from Spotify's huge and expanding library. You can sync with playlists you have on your desktop, create new ones, or just listen to albums, or artist selections. Unfortunately, it's not possible to browse music by genre or category, which would've been a nice addition for people who don't always know what they're looking for.

Spotify's Android interface is really easy to navigate. Searching is simple, while song results are easy to browse and well organized. Any track you listen to can easily be added to playlists, which themselves are easy to edit, reorder, and shuffle. Album art looks crisp as well.

There is support for offline listening too, although obviously you can't use saved music in any other app. The Spotify app is also quite a battery drainer when you're streaming via 3G.

In addition, Spotify now also offers the ability to start a Radio station based on your favorite playlist, album, artist, or song. Much like Pandora, you can now also vote songs up or down, based on how much you enjoyed listening to it. Hopefully Spotify will learn your musical tastes over time.

Spotify really gives other music discovery apps a run for their money with its intuitive interface and impressive song library.

Download Spotify 0.7.4.610

Avira Free Android Security 3.0 - app

Avira Free Android Security helps you protect your Android phone if it's lost or stolen. With the app installed, you can lock your phone, delete data, and sound an alarm remotely from your PC. 

Regain control of your device

There is almost certainly a lot of personal information on your Android device, so you could have big trouble if you lose your phone or, worse still, if it's stolen. Avira Free Android Security will let you lock Android phone to protect the information inside and show where your phone is in Google Maps. You can use the app with five devices at the same time.

How to use Avira Free

Avira Free Android Security is easy to set up and use. First of all, you need set the email address. The default is the Gmail address that you set in your Android phone, but you can change this if you like. After you set the email address, you will receive a confirmation email. Then, once you've clicked on the link in the confirmation email, the setup will be complete. If you then access the URL via a PC or other device, you can check and manage the information in your Android phone.

From here, you can check where you phone is by GPS, lock it, and display contact information. Also you can delete data to prevent it falling into the wrong hands, and even sound loud alarm for 20 seconds to warn when your phone has been stolen. The alarm is also useful if you've lost your phone at home!

Avira Free Android Security also includes an antivirus feature, which scans your apps and files for potential threats. This function is easy to use but the antivirus options are limited compared to apps such as Zoner Antivirus Free or avast! Mobile Security. These offer similar data protection solutions to Avira Free Android Security, but with extra features, such as the ability to isolate the device or SD card for scanning and scheduled scanning.

 

The verdict

Avira Free Android Security offers a fast and easy way to prevent your personal details falling into the wrong hands.

Download Avira Free Android Security 3.0

Angry Birds Star Wars 1.5.0.3 - app

Angry Birds Star Wars is an officially licensed Star Wars-themed game, which sees the famous birds meet characters from the movies, including Dath Vader, C3PO and R2D2.

It's a second trip into Space for the annoyed avians, following on the heals of Angry Birds Space. Angry Birds Star Wars retains some of the Space physics of the previous release, and there are new special abilities, including the use of the force, and light saber-wielding.

Presentation

Fans of the original movie, A New Hope, will adore Angry Birds Star Wars. It follows the plot of the film, taking you to all the iconic locations, including Tatooine, Hoth, and the Pig Star (modeled on the Death Star). The Angry Birds are themed around the heroes such as Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi and Han Solo, while the piggies dress up as stormtroopers, tuskan raiders and the like.

The locations and characters are gloriously recreated, and this, coupled with music from the original score, makes Angry Birds Star Wars the best presented version of the game series so far.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay in Angry Birds Star Wars is still the same as the original Angry Birds. You launch birds from a catapult at a structure in order to smash it and destroy the bad guys. Stars are earned based on how easily you achieve this, and progress to the next level.

There are some 80 levels in Angry Birds Star Wars and getting through them will take you a long time, even though the first few levels on Tatooine are very easy. There are some fun bonus levels too, in which you can play as C3PO or R2D2.

The gameplay in Angry Birds Star Wars has been tweaked a bit from previous versions of the game. You can now use the force to slow down your bird in mid flight, or swipe your light saber to break objects, for example.

Verdict

Despite these interesting additional gameplay elements, there's no disguising that Angry Birds Star Wars plays very much the same as previous versions. While fans of the Angry Birds franchise will enjoy this, others will find the game repetitive, frustrating and tiresome.

There's no doubt that Angry Birds Star Wars is a lavishly-produced arcade game, which fans of both the game and the movie will fall in love with.

Download Angry Birds Star Wars 1.5.0.3

Angry Birds Seasons for BlackBerry 10 4.0.1.2 - app

Angry Birds Seasons has been tested by Softonic, but it still doesn't have a review in English.

Download Angry Birds Seasons for BlackBerry 10 4.0.1.2

Google Translate 3.0.3 - app

Google Translate for Android brings all of the utility of Google’s online service to your mobile phone for instant translations when on the go.

The translation app for Android is really simple to use and if you have ever tried it online, you’ll have no problems at all. Google Translate supports the same languages as the original â€" over 64 in fact â€" so all you have to do is choose your language combination, write what you want to say and Google Translate will give you the translation immediately.

Depending on the language combination, Google Translate will also display some grammatical information and a text-to-speech feature which will read the translation out loud.

The Google Translate app also makes it very easy to copy and paste the translations. You’ll have access to past translations via the History option, while the SMS Translation feature will immediately offer you the ability to translate any of the messages in your inbox.

One of Google Translate’s coolest aspects, however, is Conversation Mode, a feature that lets you speak, translates what it hears and plays it back to the listener in their own language. It's not always perfect, but it's available in 17 languages and is fast and fun to use.

Google Translate is the perfect app for multilingual Android users.

Facebook Messenger 3.2.1 - app

Facebook Messenger is a stand-alone app that allows you to chat with your Facebook friends and send SMS and text messages to any contact on your phone.

Communicate with everyone

Facebook Messenger combines friends and mobile contacts to allow for group messages, along with location-based functionality.

Since Facebook Messenger is focused on messaging, the app may seem a bit simplistic. It functions very similarly to other communication apps though, with the addition of location services. The group chat combines multiple users together and allows for messages to be collated in one window.

If you have SMS enabled, you can also use Facebook Messenger to talk with phone contacts. The application now allows you to send messages to any contact in your phone, not just your Facebook friends. Facebook contacts show up with a blue bubble and SMS messages show in green. When you are finished communicating, you just swipe the icon down and remove the notification from your screen.

Facebook Messenger supports stickers, including a decent range of default stickers, plus the opportunity to purchase new stickers through the store in order to brighten up your conversations.

Simple to use thanks to Chat Heads

The interface is simple to use is and themed in the same way as the Facebook app for Android. Facebook Messenger includes Chat Heads, which means that if someone messages you while you're doing something else on your phone, a small little circle will appear showing the face of the contact on your screen. You just tap on the contact, and it will open the conversation.

The design of the Facebook Messenger user interface is clean and tidy. The blue of the menu icons and green of the alert messages stand out clearly against the app's white background and this understated look gives greater presence to the conversations themselves.

The verdict

Facebook Messenger allows you to chat with your friends easily - regardless of whether they use Facebook or not.

Tango 3.3.71043 - app

Tango allows you to make voice and video calls for free on your Android phone. You can also use the app to send instant messages, share photos, play games, and even listen to music.

Hang out with your buddies

Tango allows you to connect to your friends face-to-face. You can make calls to your buddies on Tango regardless of whether they use iOS, Android, Windows Phone, or PC; using WiFi, 3G or 4G to connect.

As well as letting you make voice and video calls, Tango allows you to play games and send animations while you're chatting to someone. This is great for killing some time with a buddy who is far away, or just to liven up a dull conversation!

Text chatting with Tango is great fun, too. Besides just sending typed messages, you can add fun animated emoticons, record and share voice and video, and even search for and share music, which you can then listen to together via Spotify. The app supports group chatting with up-to 50 different people, and includes support for SMS messaging.

Tango is good for meeting new people too. The app includes a 'People you May Know' and 'People Nearby' section, where you can hook up with people who you might be interested in hanging out on Tango with. On the flip side, this means that you can be contacted by random people, and there doesn't appear to be any option to make your profile private - or many privacy settings at all in terms of who can see what.

How to chat with Tango

The setup process for Tango is painless enough. You just need to your name, phone number and email address to get started (no verification code is required like with WhatsApp or Viber, for example). Tango automatically adds contacts from your phone who have the app installed, so you can get chatting to these right away. Connect up to Facebook with Tango and you'll be able to see all of your Facebook friends who use the service in your Tango contacts, too.

The menu for the Android version of Tango is easy enough to get around, and the user interface is smartly designed. The various features of the app are well labeled in the top menu bar, and there's a Facebook-style news feed where you can see all your friends and photos together.

In general, call quality through Tango is good, and rivals that of most other video chat apps for Android.

The verdict

Tango makes it fun, easy and free to chat with your friends. It boasts decent call quality and more features than you'll see in most mobile VOIP and messaging apps.

Download Tango 3.3.71043