Well, one holiday week has drawn to a close, and another is nearly upon us. Frankly, that means a slow-ish week for apps. And yet! There were still some notable newbies to the app scene. Download these babies and let your phone feel as bloated as you do.
Multi-Platform Updates
Translate
Powered by Translate.com, this free Android & iOS app accepts written, spoken, or photographed input, translating in over 75 different languages. The best part is the community translate option, where logging in through Facebook lets you submit text, audio or a photo for a more nuanced translation from an experienced speaker. [Android] [iOS]
Android
Calendar Status
An app that puts your Android calendar alerts in your notification drawer seems like a tiny thing, but once you’ve got it you’ll probably wonder how you lived without it. Calendar Status syncs events on your built-in calendar (alas, no direct support for outside calendar apps) and gives you some customisation options, while the $1.26 Pro version lets you tweak appearances and performance to your heart’s content. [Free]
Meetup
Meetup’s new-for-2014 look is cleaner and clearer. The new tab setup gives direct navigation to your own meets, nearby activity, and groups, and clearer Yes/No/Waitlist statuses make sure you’ll never inadvertently miss out on an event. [Free]
iOS
Bubble Chat for Facebook
A more visually immersive option for Facebook chatting, Bubble Chat takes full advantage of iOS 7’s impressive physics and graphics capabilities. With the ability to change fonts, customise backgrounds (via a $US1 in-app purchase), and send drawings rather than text, Bubble Chat makes Facebook messaging a bit more lively. [Free]
Google Play Music
It may seem strange downloading Google’s music player through iTunes, but if you’ve got Google Play purchased songs floating around, this will automatically sync them to your iOS device. And if you’ve got All Access, you can listen to unlimited, customised radio stations, complete with Google’s trademark “I’m Feeling Lucky” randomiser. [Free]
Windows Phone
GIF Chat
GIFs are the language of the internet, but until now you could only really share looping videos via Vine. Not very private. GIF Chat solves that with a free app that lets you record 6-second looping videos, add captions, and send them like texts to any friend who has the app. You can even make the videos self-destruct after so many loops, Snapchat-style. [Free]
4Blend HDR
Using your phone as a camera just got boosted into high-end-amateur territory with 4Blend HDR, offering full manual or automatic camera settings you’re used to seeing on cameras that can’t text. Multi-layer HDR capability and a plethora of filters round out the app’s photogenic bag of tricks. [Free]