For many smartphone users, the phrase “an app a day keeps the boredom away” may ring true. However, it may seem surprising how so many ridiculous apps are widely popular, while some quality apps remain off the Top Charts. Stay updated with apps that are worth downloading or avoiding.
Juice Cubes
The developers of Angry Birds have introduced Juice Cubes, a game that connects three or more of a kind of cube to progress to the next island. Fun characters such as mermaids and pirates are unlocked as you advance. It’s a bit disappointing how it seems to be just another Candy Crush game, which is essentially the same as Bejeweled, but with fruit.
On the bright side, at least they included a few unique enhancements. For instance, to connect the fruits, you are not limited to only swiping vertically and horizontally. You can swipe however you like, as long as the fruits are touching. You can connect any two or more bombs to make big explosions as well. Because it’s so much easier to connect more, it’s more fun. Less rage quits mean more popularity; I must commend the developers on that.
Then again, to advance past Level 35, you must either pay or ask Facebook friends to give you tickets. Juice Cubes overall is a decent game, but I’m not sure that it deserves such a high rank on Top Charts.
Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock
First introduced to the app market in 2009, Sleep Cycle has over 35 million downloads for being known to improve sleep and offer better mornings. By utilizing the accelerometer in your phone and monitoring your physical movement, it can track how deep your sleep is and wake you up at your lightest sleeping stage. It sounds like a great app for only $1.99, but consider the downsides.
In order to observe your movement, your phone must be next to your pillow. According to scientists from Wayne State University and Karolinska Institute, the radiation from phones has been shown to disrupt sleep and cause headaches the next day. Also, it drains about 30% of your battery and makes some people uncomfortable when trying to sleep.
MyScript Calculator
If you don’t have this app already, you have been missing out. As you might know, continuously punching in numbers is bothersome, especially on a phone. With this app, you can write out your calculation and easily obtain an answer. MyScript Calculator supports many basic and advanced operations and constants, including pi, square roots, inverse cosines and Euler’s number.
It also gives the option to solve for simple variables, just by replacing x with a question mark. For example, after writing “6 + ? = log 4”, I immediately receive -5.397 as an answer. You can undo, redo or trash your handwriting, making it much easier than starting over completely on your calculation.
The only thing I see that MyScript lacks is the capability of cube root calculations and recognition of letter variables, but for a free app, it’s already pretty impressive. The app developers have sucessfully made calculations more convenient and math homework easier.