A smartphone isn’t much without apps. It’s where the whole “smart” part of the equation comes from. Without them, we’re back in the 1990s again. Nobody wants that — except maybe Dustin Diamond. So exercise some of those smarts and outfit your phone with the best apps of the week.
Android
Seene
Seene has been a neat 3D photo-taking application for iOS for some time now, but this week it finally made its Android debut. However, the team worked specifically with the Android platform and made the app Google Cardboard and VR compatible. Whether as a mea culpa to Android users or just a legitimate awesome feature — who cares! For those who’ve never used Seene before, all you do is take a picture and move your phone around simultaneously. The resulting picture is an image that has tilt effects and added dimension, and it definitely beats the work intensive, post-production alternative. [Free]
MakerBot
I have been eyeing the MakerBot Replicator Mini since the moment it was announced back at CES 2014. It’s the perfect little mini printer for all my mini printing needs. Now, MakerBot has pushed out its Android app, compatible with all its hardware, and once again I’m making some quick calculations to my bank account. The app adds awesome features, letting you control the whole printing process from your phone. You can also watch the printing job right inside the app. Plus, you can keep a complete list of your printers and what they’re doing. But seriously, if you have more than one, we can’t be friends. [Free]
SnapWire
It’s not easy being a photographer nowadays. Earlier this week Sports Illustrated laid off all its staff photographers, following in the footsteps of other publications around the world that have done the same. Even though a lot of these publications think reporters with smartphones are just as good (they’re not), at least smartphones can also help photographers and artists sell their work. Snapwire, the photographer’s mobile marketplace, just migrated from iOS to Android so you can make some cash for the photos you’re painstakingly taking. [Free]
iOS
Shifts
In high school, I worked as a backroom stocker and my local Target. I worked early mornings, late evenings, and also the occasional double, so keeping track of my life without the predictable 9 to 5 was kind of a mess. Shifts is made with my teenage self in mind — and all the people who work in shifts and ever-changing schedules. At its core, it’s not much different then a standard calendar app. But with a super clean interface and widget integration, it could make you want to ditch iCal all together. [$2.49]
Alfred Remote
Alfred is the insanely convenient workflow platform for Mac that was essentially Spotlight search before that neat little feature was supercharged for Yosemite last year. Now, the team’s developed Alfred Remote, an app that can turn your iDevice into a controller for your Mac. Like a lot of recipe services such as IFTTT and Workflow, Alfred Remote gets better over time as you tweak it to how you work and discover powerful ways to use it beyond just turning things on and off. Give it a look and see if it’s worth a $6.49 experiment. [$6.49]
Windows Phone
Sygic
It was a quiet week for Windows Phone considering all the uproar from the Microsoft event last week, but Sygic did bring its impressive navigation app to Windows Phone. The app offers free route planning and offline maps, so that’s a plus, but you need a subscription for services like turn-by-turn and voice navigation — things that come standard with Here Maps, the go-to Windows Phone-based mapping app. But at the very least, you can give it a test drive for free. [Free/in-app purchases]