One of the apps in this week’s roundup is brand spankin’ new (hint: it’s the one at the very top). There’s also an extremely advanced widget creator for Android, a news app that wants to be your best driving buddy, and a Facebook app that wasn’t made by Facebook. Enjoy!
Android
PHHHOTO
PHHHOTO — yes, that’s with three Hs — for Android is here. This app is part camera, part gif-maker and part social network. Using it is pretty easy, you just tap once and your phone will take a quick burst of shots and then loop them to create a Gif. After that it’s up to you what comes next: You can share it with your PHHHOTO network (that’s already been bolstered by healthy iOS adoption), you can save it, or share it elsewhere. One thing you can’t do, though, is upload from your existing photo/video gallery — but “latergrams” aren’t that great anyway. (Free)
KWGT Kustom Widget Maker
Here’s an app that’s going to let you make the home screen widget you’ve always wanted. There’s only one catch: It’s not super easy to use. But if you really want that widget, you’re probably willing to work for it. KWGT Kustom Widget Maker uses the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor to help design data in a way that suits you (animations and all). Another perk: The app doesn’t kill your battery life. Once you grasp the app’s controls, there’s really no limit to what types of widgets you can make (clocks, live maps, music players, a battery meter and more). (Free)
iOS
Pipes News
What can I say — except that I’m a sucker for a good news app and a good easter egg (check out the developer). If you’ve used a news aggregator before, you shouldn’t be too shocked to see what Pipes News has to offer. But it’s not all the same. For instance, Pipes has a recommendation engine so that over time the app will be able to learn what you like to read and start offering good suggestions. One more cool thing about Pipes for the road: there’s a NewsList feature that lets you listen to stories in case — you know — you’re driving or something. (Free)
Crumbles
This app is like one of those jokes that’s just so good it never gets old. Crumbles is an easy to master app that lets you splice together movies to make your own funny videos. It works like this: You type in a phrase. The app finds movie clip matches for single words in your phrase, and whatever words it doesn’t have you can record yourself saying. Then Crumbles mashes all the clips together to make a short video. When you’re done, you can save the creation or send it to someone directly from the app. (Free)
Windows Phone
Facebook (beta)
The Microsoft-developed Facebook beta just got an update (actually, it got an update last week too) , which rolled out to all the phones running Windows 10 mobile. The update brings with it some new settings menu icons, some design tweaks to better match the new OS decor and a more compact news feed. A few new settings for the app can be found under the hood (so to speak) if you go to “Upload and Roaming Settings” and “App Permissions.” But that’s not terribly exciting. The biggest change to look forward to is the ability to start writing a post on your phone and then finish it on another device. (Free)