The Android Realm App Review Pedometer

If you're like me, you like Google Now's monthly walking summary. The only thing missing is a regular count for how many footsteps or how many miles I walk daily or monthly. That is where the Pedometer app does its magic.

After installing the app, the user is given the choice to login with Google+, Facebook, or e-mail. Once the account is setup, getting your distance walked (or run for that matter) is simply a matter of starting the workout. The main screen keeps track of the number of steps walked, duration, approximate speed, etc. The app continues to run in the background with minimal resource usage (which may vary by device). Once the workout is stopped, the user can rate how they felt, the kind of surface, weather, etc. to keep track of changing conditions if desired.

The app does have various configurable settings like the size of the user's footsteps to adjust by stride or height, adjusting what the app should consider a normal, fast, or slow walking speed and the ability to adjust how the app interacts with the screen timeout. The final feature of the app is the ability to have it play music once the workout is started if the user wants something to keep them going. This feature defaults to the user's default music app (i.e. Google Play Music).

Accuracy of the app will most likely vary based on the sensors available on the user's device along with how new or old the device is as well. Newer devices should be more accurate/reliable with older devices being generally accurate but not necessarily spot on.

The app itself is free with a paid version unlocking more features like weather.

Google Play - $Free

Android 2.2+

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The Android Realm App Review Muzei Live Wallpaper

Do you like changing your wallpaper based on your mood? Do you like quality art from famous painters as your wallpaper? Then the new app called Muzei Live Wallpaper may be for you!

Use of the app is very straightforward. Everyday, a new image is loaded from http://www.wikipaintings.org/. From there the user can set how sharp or blurry the wallpaper should look along with how bright or dim the image should be. These settings are basically there to help the user decide how they want the wallpaper to look with on-screen icons and widgets. The app also lets users select their own images (or image directory) which changes every so often automatically.

Google Play - $Free

Wiki Paintings

The Android Realm App Review Galaxy Parallax

This "app" nicely takes the parallax effect from iOS and brings it to Android as a live wallpaper. The app drawer settings button lets users set the frame rate, quantity of star, color among many other settings. From there, the user clicks on set wallpaper to go set the wallpaper and that is it. While parallax is nothing new, the shifty live wallpaper is pretty and provides minute changes at a very smooth resolution.

Google Play - $Free

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The Android Realm App Review - EverythingMe Launcher

Getting new content without moving away from the stock Android experience has generally been a difficult process. While launchers solve the homescreen solution for organizing apps with apps and widgets helping with content, merging the two is always difficult. EverythingMe solves this by providing the context right from your homescreen. 

After installation, a brief walkthrough shows the features it adds to a stock Android launcher experience. The feature brought forward from other launchers is to customize the number of homescreens but here is where this launcher parts ways. The folder system is an enhanced to be more than just groups of apps. Dragging two apps together will create a group of similar apps installed and recommended website and other apps. For example, creating a folder with Pandora and Pocket Casts will add other apps like Google Play Music and Shazaam with links to sites like SoundCloud and Lyrics.com.

On the homescreen itself is a permanent clock widget which links to the clock and switches to recently opened apps and a link to a feature called 'My Day' which provides weather at the right time along with upcoming events and applicable services the user may need throughut the day.

The final feature is the 'Find' search bar which searches the user's device for content and apps along with doing a web search for new content matching the search term. Voice search is included if the user wants prefers that method of searching.

Overall launcher performance is very snappy, even with background folder images changing by content type. The only feature "missing" is the ability to customize the size of the homescreen as by default the homescreen grid is set to 4x3 (or 4x4 without the Find bar). Otherwise, this launcher shows lots of promise in content discovery right on the Android homescreen(s).

Google Play - $Free

(Requires Android 4.0+)

The Android Realm Game Review Flappy Bird

Do you find Jetpack Joyride too much of a game? Love the classic Super Mario Bros look and feel? Flappy Bird can fix this need!

The basic concept of the game is straightforward. The player must navigate the bird up and down between a series of tubes. Tubes are static but are on the top and bottom of the screen. The opening between the tubes remains the same but the location of the opening varies. The game ends when the bird hits a tube or the player is unable to keep the bird flying. To keep the bird flying, the player only needs to tap the screen. Aside from that there are no other controls so remember or worry about.

The game supports Google Play Games so the user can choose to have their scores shared and ranked among their friends who are also playing the game.

Overall the game is quite fun to play and is very challenging. I haven't gotten past 5 tubes so I can't say how hard the game gets after some time but if the early part is any indication, it should be quite a tough game to beat, if it can be beat at all.

Google Play - $Free

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The Android Realm Game Review Robocop

Ahead of the 2014 release of Robocop on February 12, developer Glu has released Robocop to Google Play as a game. As with most games of this style, the player is taken through a series of training simulations to learn controls, features and navigation within the game. This also gives users the ability to do some basic upgrades with further upgrades throughout the game. Graphics are very smooth with fluid gameplay. Play style is similar to VirtuaCop with  modern day graphics. In-game play is performed via swyping to hide. Dragging and holding allows the user to fire the currently armed weapon. Android version 2.1 or higher is required to play the game so just about any device should work with general performance being the caveat.

Google Play - $Free

The Android Realm App Review - GalleryNext

Want one place to see all of your pictures and videos? Hate not having that place all in one app? GalleryNext by CyanogenMod aims to fix that. The app integrates your local content along with Flikr, Facebook, Picasa and Dropbox to have a single interface for all your photo and video media. The app is currently in beta and follows the Android 4.0+ design guidelines.