Instead of doing work on Monday, how about idly playing around with your smartphone instead? Make the most of it with these new apps.
Android
Gmail
A few nice updates arrived on the ol’ Gmail app this week, including the ability to save attachments directly to Google Drive, profile pictures on the “switch accounts” page, and a swipe-from-the-left menu that’s now available on all screens. [Free]
Chrome Browser
Another week of updates for another near-ubiquitous Google app. This week, Chrome got the ability to un-close the last tab you closed (handy for fat-fingered button-mashers [like yours truly]), a nice new fullscreen video mode with subtitles, and expanded ability to throw video to your Chromecast wonder-dongle if you’re so equipped. [Free]
iOS
Marco Polo
This app turns frantically searching for your misplaced phone into a fun game of Marco Polo. Yes, you read that right — with this app installed, your iDevice will constantly be listening for you to shout “MARCO,” and even if it’s a couple rooms away, and/or in silent mode, it will shout back “POLO!” If you’ve got the app installed on multiple devices, you can set a different call word for each. And if you’re bored, just play a constant game of Marco Polo with your phone. Nothing pathetic about that. [$1.29]
Notifyr
When you’re at your work desk, you probably keep your phone on silent — and end up missing texts and phone calls. Notifyr harnesses the Bluetooth Low Energy capabilities of your iPhone (4S or newer) to duplicate your lockscreen notifications on your Mac computer. Never miss a crucial Instagram notification phone call again! [$5.99]
djay 2
The immensely popular (and perhaps the best) DJ app for iOS just added 20 million songs to its library — in the form of full Spotify integration. If you’ve got a Spotify Premium account, now you can mix using the entire Spotify library, along with the 30 new audio effects and a bunch of new samples added to this week’s update. [$6.99]
Windows Phone
MovieJax
This handy and easy-to-use movie editing app just underwent some pretty extensive refreshing, making it even easier and smoother to shoot, edit, caption, annotate, and soundtrack your videos right from your Windows Phone. [Free]
Channel 9
Channel 9 is Microsoft’s in-house video broadcast channel, geared toward developers and tinkerers who like to fool around under the virtual hood. This new app lets you watch all that nerdy content right from your Windows Phone. It’s a fringe app for a very small subset of people, yes — but it’s a cool one. [Free]