Welcome to the 345th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Here are the big headlines from the past week:
- There have been a lot of questions about incognito mode in browsers lately. We decided to take a deep dive and find out what it is really about. You can read our analysis here and see if Incognito Mode actually protects you from anything other than just other people using your phone.
- Three years ago, Google Maps was removed from Apple Watches in favor of Apple Maps. This week, the world's most popular navigation app triumphantly returned to the platform. It's not quite as powerful as Apple Maps. However, it's one of the few real alternatives to Apple's navigation app in this area.
- Samsung has added a new module to its Good Lock application. With the new module you can create custom live wallpapers. It's a pretty basic function. You choose a keyframe and then add effects and motion to create the effect you want. Still, it's a free product for Samsung owners who use Good Lock. It's called Wonderland in case you want to try it out and it's available on the Samsung Galaxy Store.
- Google's new phone app was quite a big deal when it came out a while ago. This week, Google announced that it would find its way to more devices outside of just pixels. In addition, the Verified Caller feature will be made available to users in a number of countries including the United States, Brazil, India, Mexico, and Spain. Click the link to learn more.
- PUBG Mobile is trying to make a comeback in India after being banned some time ago. The mobile game left Tencent to remove its Chinese app tag and return to the Play Store in that country. The responsible company is PUBG Corporation. Future updates will be carried out by the South Korean video game company Bluehole. The developers hope that this will ban the game in India.
Bella Villa
Price: Play for free
Bella Villa is a free match-three game with fashion game elements. Players solve the three puzzles from level to level and then follow the plot as they progress. The game features thousands of stages, a house to decorate and build while you play, a current story, and some unlockable items as you go. There's definitely something different in the match-three space, even if the free price tag gets in the way at times.
SlideScan
Price: Free / $ 5.99 per month / $ 19.99 per year
SlideScan is an app for digitizing old photos. You can use the app to scan old slides. Then the magic of automatic photo editing is applied and you can share or save it anywhere you want. It works pretty well. You put the slide in front of something that is backlit so the camera can see what's on it. The app then scans the image, applies some automatic enhancements, and that's it. The app worked fine in our tests, but some people had trouble focusing on the slide and so some images came out blurry. The only thing we don't like is that this is a subscription service for some reason. We recommend paying a month when you're ready to digitize your slides and then canceling when you're done.
Lord of Heroes
Price: Play for free
Lord of Heroes is a new mobile RPG and people seem to really like it so far. The story isn't anything special, but it's well executed and the mobile RPG elements seem relatively fair to gamers. Even the Google Play description in this case is pretty cool. It's a message from the game master and he says that the game should be fun and not an obstacle in your life. We only tested it a bit, but this one has shown promise for a free mobile RPG.
Yuka
Price: Free / $ 20
Yuka isn't the newest app on the block, but it recently launched in the US. It's quite a popular health app in Europe with a simple premise. You scan barcodes and the app literally just tells you whether the item is good or bad for you. It's a bit wide so there isn't a lot of context. However, when you scan a vegetable the app says it is good, and when you scan a soda the app says it is bad. This shows the basics exactly on the list. The premium version is pretty expensive for the simplicity of the app, but we're assuming that keeping a database for all of these things is probably pretty expensive.
Runelords Arena
Price: Play for free
Runelords Arena is a turn-based strategy game with some RPG elements. The players collect and improve heroes, group them into teams of five and compete against other players. It mostly focuses on the PvP aspect of things, but there are a few other things you can do too. For example, there is an idle game element that gives you loot even if you don't play with a campaign mode and a few other game modes. It's pretty decent, but we found the English translation kind of poor and the campaign story is a little unimaginative. You're definitely here for the PvP stuff if you give it a try.
Thank you for reading! Also try these:If we missed any big news or releases about any Android app or game, let us know in the comments!
