Check out the latest and greatest in apps for your Android smartphone with our monthly app roundup.
Facedroid
The alternative Facebook app for tablets.
Facebook’s neglect of Android has been a longstanding frustration for users of the platform. Only over the last year or so has Facebook for Android phones finally stepped in line with Facebook for iOS, but Android tablet users are still lagging behind the iPad in terms of native tablet support.
Thankfully, there is hope. Facedroid has given Android tablet users a Facebook experience worth paying the asking price.
The app has good use of screen real estate backed by solid functionality. In fact, with inbuilt support for re-sharing other people’s posts, it’s even ahead of the official app.
You can, of course, share status updates, links, photos, and videos, but also comment, like, tag and download yours and others' photos. The team is also working on implementing places, pages and groups support, including administration, as well as multiple accounts and a settings section to control notifications etc.
One nice little feature is the ability to filter your stream for ‘all stories’, ‘status updates’, ‘photos’, ‘links’, ‘pages’, ‘events’, or ‘videos’, although this last one has a habit of showing general multimedia.
Despite still being in heavy development, this is the most comprehensive Facebook app I’ve seen for a tablet, above even the iPad version.
$1.99 > Platinum Apps > Link FolderSync
With Box giving away 50GB of free storage to new users back in March, I’ve been looking at ways to lighten the load on my (now paltry) 5GB Dropbox account. Unfortunately for me, my previous sync app of choice, Dropsync, only supports Dropbox. So, what’s a nerd to do?
Thankfully, FolderSync supports all the major online storage lockers (there are too many to list here), plus WebDAV, Samba, and FTP, and has comprehensive syncing rules, schedules and filters, including two-way support.
The free version only supports one syncing account and has no sync filters or Tasker/Locale support.
$2.25 (Lite available) > Tacit Dynamics > Link Scansfer Box Client
My obsession with my new Box account continues with Scansfer Box Client. This app actually comes in two flavours, the standard Scansfer and the version with Box support. Scansfer allows you to send files, photos, apps, contacts and money (via PayPal) using QR Codes (phone to phone or PC to phone). What’s great is that the other person doesn’t require Scansfer, just a QR Code reader.
The standard version has a 25MB storage limit, but the Box Client version uses your Box account to do the transfers, giving you no limit on what you can send to people.
Free > Scansfer Inc > Link Touchnote Postcards
Snap a photo on your phone (or download one from somewhere else) and send it to any address in the world for around $1.50. At that price, the postcards will likely cost less than buying and sending your own, and you don’t have to find a post office.
Of course, this is really of best use to people on holiday, which means they usually don’t have a data connection. Thankfully, the app supports offline queuing of postcards, meaning they won’t send until you get yourself to a Wi-Fi access point.
Free > Touchnote Ltd > Link