The Android vs. iPhone debate is a tedious one, but don’t expect it to slow down anytime soon. While this endless debate can often be boring for those of us who aren’t overly enthusiastic users — “fanboys” — there are some aspects of the iOS vs. Android rivalry that are pretty interesting.
For example, it’s great to know the advantages and limitations of your platform of choice, and that’s why we’ve put this series of posts together. In this latest entry, we’ve found five terrific free Android apps that feature impressive functionality the iPhone simply can’t match.
DON’T MISS: The only Samsung phone never accused of copying Apple just beat iPhones in a massive study
APUS Launcher
The creators of this app say it brings the iOS UX to Android. While that suggests this might be something you can do on the iPhone… not quite — good luck completely changing your user experience on an Apple device.
APUS delivers an intuitive user experience to 150 million users worldwide through its APUS User System.
With APUS Launcher, you can use APUS Mobile Search to find apps or websites easily, boost your device’s speed using APUS Boost, save your battery life with Power+, and personalize your home screen with APUS Themes and Wallpapers.
APUS Launcher Features:
● Priority Apps and Smart Folders – Conveniently locate apps, which are automatically sorted on the home screen by category or usage.
● Boost – Clean your device’s RAM in one tap so you can switch between games, apps and messages faster than ever.
● Mobile Search – Search the web, fun apps/games, and find apps in your phone or tablet right from the home screen.
● Radar – Discover trending apps nearby in real-time.
● Wallpaper – Set new breathtaking HD wallpapers for your home screen. Share your favorite wallpapers through Photo Story with APUS users worldwide.
● Themes – Download new themes, added monthly, for free.
● Free Swipe – Swipe the Free Swipe tab to quickly open a menu of recently-used apps and your device’s system settings.
● Newsfeed – Read trending news or search the web with just a swipe right on the home screen.
● Enhanced App Market – Browse the App Market effortlessly with a simpler layout.
● Screen Transition Effects – Customize the way you flip between screens with Transition effects.
● Power+ – Extend your device’s battery life and monitor battery usage.
Clean Master
Speed up your phone, clear out the junk, and our favorite feature: Lock individual apps being a PIN code or swipe pattern so you can hand your phone to someone without worrying about them being able to access things they shouldn’t have access to.
The World’s Most Trusted Android Optimizer, Speed Booster and Free Anti-Virus app, Clean Master Helps Accelerate and Clean Up Over 400 Million Phones! It Also Provides Real-time Protection With the #1 Antivirus Engine, and Secures Your Private Data With the AppLock Function.
Have you ever encounter the following problems?
Your device has become laggy and freezes all the time
You don’t have enough space to take more pictures or install apps
Your battery has started draining quicker than ever
Your device overheats and needs to cool down
You want to lock your photos, gallery and messages from prying eyes and nosy friendsFeatures
► AppLock
AppLock can lock Facebook, SMS, Contacts, Gallery, or any other apps you choose. With AppLock, only you can see the photos you protect. Guarding your privacy is easier than ever!► Duplicate Photo Remover
Clean Master can identify similar photos & blurry photos automatically, giving you the choice to keep or delete them. It’s just like a gallery doctor for your device.► JUNK FILE CLEANING
The junk-creating behavior of millions of apps has been analyzed so that Clean Master can efficiently hone in on its targets (cache and residual files) with perfect accuracy. Delete cache and residual files to reclaim storage, boost speed and improve the performance of your device and SD card.► MEMORY BOOST
Boost your games and apps, free up memory (RAM), speed up your device and save more battery. Our 1 Tap Boost and Game Boost features make it easy to optimize directly from your homescreen.► CPU COOLER
Cool off your device by finding and stopping the apps that are causing it to overheat and make your battery last longer!► ANTIVIRUS
Ranked #1 by AV-TEST for the seventh time! A professional quality antivirus service scans devices in just 8 seconds, 500% faster than other paid antivirus apps. Scan the system, pre-installed and user-installed apps to keep your device safe from viruses, trojans, vulnerabilities, adware and spyware. Keep your privacy safe by scrubbing personal info from your device.► Game Booster
Automatically improve your game speeds by 30%+ when launching games.► Autostart Manager
Prevent apps from autostarting to speed up your device. (Root needed for this feature)► APP MANAGER
Uninstall unwanted apps or bloatware and back up important ones. Some rooted devices will be able to move apps to the SD card as well as uninstall pre-installed and system apps. Our own Picks section lets you find useful apps that match your interests.
Battery Doctor
We constantly share tips that help you get as much time as possible out of your iPhone’s battery, but this Android app will do all the work for you.
Battery Doctor is a FREE battery saving app that can extend your battery life up to 50% by finding apps and settings that drain power on your device. Join 330+ million users on Android and iOS who have seen the benefits!
Professional, easy to use and supporting 27 languages, Battery Doctor by Cheetah Mobile (formerly known as KS Mobile) gives a longer life to your Android phone , provides you with detailed battery information and helps it charge healthily with our unique 3 Stage Charging system. Enjoy an incredible power saving experience that’s as good as Project Volta, even before Android L comes out.
Defend your Juice!
Find out what’s draining your power. Adjust your draining settings (e.g. brightness) and disable unnecessary apps that drain your battery.Accurately Estimates Remaining Battery Time
Tells how long battery will last under a variety of situations (playing games, wifi on or off, etc)Professional Charging
Battery Doctor regulates the manner in which your device is charged with a Unique 3 Stage Charging system to ensure you get the most out of your battery and reminds you not to over charge. It also has features that can monitor and regulate power consumption.Widget Included
Our “Task Killer” widget will optimize your power consumption conveniently. The 4×1 widget makes it easier to manage Wifi, Data, Brightness, etc, and set power saving modes.Key Features
– Disable unnecessary apps that drain your battery!
– Task Killer kills tasks with one click!
– Kill apps when screen is off!
– Accurate battery remaining time!
– Accurate charging remaining time!
– Schedule power saving modes for work/class/sleep and more!
– Unique 3 Stage Charging system!
– Wifi/Data/Bluetooth toggle!
– Brightness control!
– CPU Management (for rooted phones)!
– Battery temperature!
– Charging Tips!
– 15 languages supported!
– Simple easy-to-use interface!Battery Doctor fans, please join our beta testing group. Be the first to try our recent updates, report bugs, and contact developers. http://bit.ly/17AtLdn
Trigger
Trigger is a great app that triggers various features and functions on your phone or tablet based on your surroundings. In the free version of the app, triggers can be based on NFC, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi network connections.
Note: We are still working on Trigger! There will be an update soon.
Bored of putting your phone on silent every time you get into the office? Tired of turning off Bluetooth to conserve battery every time juice gets low?
This app interacts with your surroundings to configure settings on your phone automatically. Combine triggers and actions to create tasks, then activate the tasks that you create with conditions that you set!
Here are examples of what you can do:
In your car: Use Bluetooth as a trigger to open GPS and launch your favorite music app
On your nightstand: Program an NFC tag to set your ringer to vibrate, dim your display and set an alarm
In your home: Configure mobile data to turn off when your phone detects your own Wifi
The current triggers are as follows:-NFC
-Bluetooth
-WifiAnd as part of our Pro-Upgrade we also have these additional triggers:
-Battery Level
-Location
-Time triggersAnd here are a few examples of the actions that you can perform:
– Change WiFi, Bluetooth, mobile hotspot, airplane mode (root users in Jelly Bean and up), auto-sync, GPS (root users), and mobile data settings.
– Change your volumes or notification tones.
– Change your display brightness, timeout, auto-rotation, or notification light settings
– Check in on social media like Foursquare or Google Places
– Send messages using Twitter, SMS, Email, or Glympse
– Start or stop Applications (root required for stopping applications), dock modes, open URLs, speak text, or navigate to an address
– Set Alarms or create calendar events
– MORE!This app allows you to easily program your device to do the actions you do regularly.
So go ahead and create your own combinations to automate your life. The only limit is what you can come up with!The Wall Street Journal calls it “living in the future.”
Additional actions can be found when experimental features are enabled in advanced settings. Auto lock screen and airplane mode are restricted by Android but we’ve created some work around solutions for these actions. (Note: They aren’t 100% reliable which is why they’re classed as “experimental features”).
Some demos can be viewed on the application website
Note: When using NFC Tags you can create a Switch task that will toggle between two tasks with each tap.
We’re always working on adding new actions to Tasks. Please get in touch if there’s something you’d like to do that’s not currently offered.
This application supports NFC Forum Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 and Type 4 Tags as well as third party NFC Enabled tags like the MIFARE Classic, DESFire, Ultralight and Ultralight C. Now supporting read-only tags & allowing you to write any amount of data to any tag using Tagstand’s cloud service. This allows you to use your tags just as you would any writable tag without worrying about size.
All permissions are listed and explained here: https://answers.tagstand.com/q/309-faq-permissions
HPSTR
Looking for some change but you don’t feel like putting in the effort? HPSTR is a great simple app that changes your wallpaper automatically to something beautiful and new on a schedule you set.
Live hipster wallpapers to your phone or tablet, enhanced with a sensation of motion.
The background, the shapes and the effects change randomly from time to time, with beautiful pictures provided by 500px, Reddit and Unsplash. Choose from dozens of wallpaper sources, shapes and filters to make your home screen truly stand out.
Basic wallpaper features – with only one in-app purchase:
★ Wallpaper sources – choose from 500px, Reddit and Unsplash; more coming soon,
★ Hipster shapes – outstanding geometry on the top of your wallpapers,
★ Random wallpaper generator – never be bored.
★ Hipster wallpaper effects and filters – washed, darken, saturated, flipped, etc.
★ Save – your loved wallpapers
★ Share – the most hipster wallpapers
★ Settings – tailor to your needs
Pro wallpaper features to be more hipster – with only one in-app purchase:
★ Multiple wallpaper sources – you can choose up to three wallpaper sources at once,
★ Customize wallpapers – pick the shape, the effect and the filter by hand,
★ Pause auto refresh – disable the auto-update feature if you like the given hipster wallpaper.
Useful stuff
→ Press the refresh icon to get a new random hipster wallpaper.
→ You can disable the filtered shape overlay on wallpapers, just go to the settings.
→ Parental lock: un-tick the enable adult categories checkbox in the settings to hide NSFW sources.
→ When you share the wallpaper, it will be saved in the Pictures/hpstr folder.
Important
→ the hipster wallpaper may stand still while scrolling the home screen, enable the ‘Force wallpaper scrolling’ option in the settings to fix this.
Download HPSTRLooking for more awesome Android apps? Be sure to check out our earlier posts in this series.
