It’s Appday Sunday and that means we’re back with more of our favorites to share. Every week we bring a handful of great apps to the table and share them with everyone. Sometimes they are new apps, sometimes old standards, but every time they are apps we love to use.
Give these a look and then take a minute to tell us all about the apps you are using and love so we can give them a try. We all find some of our favorites right in the comments on these posts!
Alex Dobie — WifiMapper
Finding reliable, non-terrible public Wi-Fi can be a challenge. Whether you’re traveling abroad without a roaming data package, or just looking to save a few megabytes on your cellular plan at a coffee shop, WifiMapper by OpenSignal is a fantastic guide to tracking down Wi-Fi hotspots that don’t suck. The main app view shows you open hotspots nearby, along with their estimated location and signal strength, and details of whether it’s paid or free.
You can also scroll around and see hotspots further afield, complete with the same data, as collected by OpenSignal. And there’s also a neat filter system for narrowing down different types of hotspots. While it’s not an app I use every day, it’s one that’s extremely useful when I really need it.
Download: WifiMapper (free)
Ara Wagoner — DC All Access
DC is awesome, and if you watch the DC All Access series on their YouTube channel, like me, you’ve no doubt been hearing a lot about their new app. I downloaded the app this week to see what the fuss was about, and I’m keeping it in my app drawer for the foreseeable future because not only will it give me the latest info on what the hell is going on in Rebirth, but it gives me plenty of stickers, gifs, and DC ’emoji’ with which to express my shock, joy, and rage at the changes. You can even decide how many stickers you want taking up space on your phone by starting with the basics and then downloading (not buying – just downloading) extra packs from the DC gallery.
And since these stickers are sent to your other apps through the Share menu, you can save them to Google Drive for use on your computer! Win-win!
Download: DC All Access (Free)
Andrew Martonik — OneBusAway
OneBusAway is the app I use for transit information around Seattle, and this week it received an absolutely massive Material Design interface update that’s worth making note of. For so long I reluctantly used its tired interface so I could have access to the great data it had, but that’s no longer the case — the new design is beautiful.
The new layout makes it even easier to see upcoming busses/trains/streetcars at every stop, how they’re doing in terms of on-time performance and where they’re going. You can still set favorite routes and stops, as well as search for specific routes and stops or just look at recent stops you’ve used. The wealth of transit data on offer is really wonderful if you need to make it around a city without a car.
OneBusAway isn’t expansive in its available regions like some bigger apps, but it works in the following areas: Atlanta; Rogue Valley, Oregon; San Diego; Seattle/Tacoma/Puget Sound, Washington; Tampa Bay, Florida; Washington, D.C.; and York Region Transit, Ontario. If you have an opportunity to use it one of these places, I can’t recommend it enough.
Download: OneBusAway (Free)
Russell Holly — S Health
Since I’m already using a Galaxy S7 and a Gear S2, I figure why not give more of my data over to Samsung and actually give their health and fitness app a try. S Health is surprisingly good, active as a full meal breakdown tool, a step counter, a heartrate health monitor, and a sleep tracker all at once for me. I’m barely scratching the surface of what this app is capable of, and the only thing I’ve found that it doesn’t do well so far is to give me a good idea of how many calories I’m burning as I sweat to death shooting hundreds of virtual arrows in Holopoint on the HTC Vive.
Download: S Health (Free)
Jen Karner — Atomas
I really like puzzle games. Games that make me think strategically, or plan out future moves. So when I found Atomas, a game that is based on combining elements to create bigger elements I was intrigued. The game is deceptively simple. All you need to do is combine similar elements in groups of two to get to the next tier. But as you’ll quickly realize grouping atoms becomes difficult quite quickly, especially if you aren’t paying attention. If you have too many atoms on your screen, the game will end.
Atomas encourages you to think critically when placing your atoms, and occasionally throws you boosts which will help clean out your screen so it isn’t game over. On top of the classic mode, you can also play a timed game. There are also upgrades that you can grab after you’ve unlocked them by playing in classic mode. It’s ridiculously fun, and a great way to burn time while traveling or waiting for your appointments.
Download: Atomas (Free)
Jerry Hildenbrand — Bitmoji
What’s more annoying that a message filled with emojis? When the message has one giant obnoxious emoji sticker!
That’s where Bitmoji comes into the picture. You can create a stylized avatar of yourself and choose from a pile of different poses, backgrounds and words of inspiration. Once you have created your masterpiece of emoji terror, you can share it with just about any app that will let you attach a .png file, or you can save them to your phone so you have them ready when needed.
The app is free, but you can spend real money to buy new theme packs that include even more stickers.
Download: Bitmoji (Free with in-app purchases)
