Earth has made 7 rotations since we were here last week. Let’s celebrate with some great new apps!
Multi-Platform Updates
Timera
Timera lets you combine historic and current photos in one image, right from your phone. With a location-based feature to help you find historic image locations and a community of users tagging new locations, you’ll have plenty of chances to make old/new photo mashups with this free app. [Android] [iOS]
YPlan
Living in a big city, with something going on every night of the week, can sort of lead to option paralysis — what the hell are we gonna do tonight? Lucky for you (if you live in NYC, London, or San Francisco), YPlan gives you a curated short list of the best events going on near you tonight. Pick a category of things you want to do, and book and buy tickets right from the app. [Android] [iOS]
Android
Link Bubble
Link Bubble loads in-app links in the background, rather than taking you to the webpage and boring you to death as you watch it load. It’s also got some neat flick-gestures for sharing links or adding them to reader services, and it shortcuts embedded YouTube videos to play in your YouTube app. One perplexing feature is that Link Bubble will show you a stats page calculating how much time the app has saved you. Yeah, because time efficiency is my biggest concern when I’m dickering around on my phone. [Free]
Wonder Timer
This one-tap timer app gives you quick timer buttons for standard units you might need to time. One tap starts, one tap stops, and a hold edits the amount of time if your event doesn’t fit neatly into the parameters offered. Simple, easy, and with a whole bunch of icons you can customise. [Free]
Maps Measure
Personally, I really love apps that pick one task to do and do it well. Maps Measure is just such an app: select a route or an area in Google Maps, and the app will tell you the distance or area of what you’ve selected. It’s switchable between Standard and Metric units, as well as map and satellite view, and it’s open-source and ad-free. [Free]
iOS
FireChat
Here’s an interesting one: iOS 7 has Multipeer Connectivity Framework built in, allowing nearby iOS devices to communicate without a cellular or wireless connection. FireChat uses that capability to let you chat with people within 30 feet of you. It’s envisioned for public events like games and concerts, but you could feasibly use it anywhere you want to chat with nearby iOS users you may or may not know. [Free]
Flying
Flying promises to be the one-stop app for keeping track of your upcoming flights, journaling your past trips, and analysing your travel patterns. It even notifies you if your delayed or canceled flight makes you eligible for a refund. Plus, there’s a gamified feature where you can compete with your friends for achievement badges (like crossing the Pacific or taking a redeye) and total time spent in the air. [Free]
Cloak
Sometimes you just really don’t wanna talk to people. Cloak gets that — it scrapes Instagram and Foursquare to let you know when your friends are nearby. With a charmingly realistic view of other social media services — Cloak’s page encourages you to “use foursquare (which you aren’t checking anyway) or make a dummy Instagram account to follow people you don’t want in your actual feed” — Cloak encourages you to be antisocial. Not that you needed any encouragement. [Free]
Windows Phone
Office Lens
Ever had to share your notes from a whiteboard or a receipt with someone offsite? Office Lens trims and straightens your awkwardly angled pictures of documents, posters, whiteboards, or whatever, making an easy-to-read image that you can share like a normal photo or sync with OneNote. This ain’t some fly-by-night app maker either, it’s a genuine Microsoft joint. [Free]