We’re heading into the summer months here in the northern hemisphere and it can be felt because there wasn’t all that much to talk about in the world of applications. Unless your name is Google. Google had a lot going on. This included updates to Chrome Remote Desktop, Google Hangouts, Google Now, YouTube, and the Google Play Store itself. A new Google Chrome extension called Google Stars was also leaked but there are some caveats to trying it out. Finally, here are four Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week!
Nova Launcher
[Price: Free / $4.00]
First up this week is the venerable Nova Launcher. It was recently updated to give users the “Okay Google” functionality from within Nova Launcher. This is really cool because really this phrase should be enabled everywhere for everyone and this is one step closer to that. Also in the update are subgrid positioning improvements, dynamic calendar icons, and more color options.
Dragon Quest VIII
[Price: $19.99]
Fans of Square Enix games can rejoice this week because Dragon Quest VIII is now out. It’s really expensive at $20 and even an avid Final Fantasy fan like myself has a little bit of an issue forking out that much dough. Nevertheless you get a fun RPG experience that’s already ragingly popular around the world and we’ve no doubt that fans of the series have no problems dropping $20 on this game.
Sunrise Calendar
[Price: Free]
Next up is Sunrise Calendar and it actually made our list of the best applications released in May of 2014. It’s a wonderfully designed calendar application that brings an interface that is more pleasing to the eye than most calendars along with some nifty features like the ability to invite people to events on your calendar. It’s free to try and if you’re bored of your calendar, why not try this one?
Instagram
[Price: Free]
Last up this week is Instagram. The venerable photo social network has updated their application and it now has more photo editing options. This includes more filters and filter settings as well as new settings for brightness, contrast, and shadows. Of course there is also the usual bug fixes and performance improvements.
