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The weather is all nice and sunny at the moment, isn’t that awful? Well not really, since it’s nice enough to be able to get to places without being drenched in rain or blown away in a gale, but man are the bugs out in force. It’s nasty, and they keep trying to move into my house without offering to pay rent. If I have to pay rent, you can be sure those random mayfly-looking things aren’t getting away with their freeloading.
Anyway while I try and seal up all my windows with bug-proof netting, you should try this week’s lot of apps.
Festival de Cannes (Update)
The 2017 Cannes Film Festival is going on until the end of the week, and if you need to keep on top of things easily there’s no better place to go than the official app. It’s got hour-by-hour live coverage, all the biggest news coming out of the festival, film trailers, photo galleries, and more. A must for the hardcore film fans.
Duolingo (Update)
The ever popular language education app has just added a new language in the form of Japanese, which should be helpful for anyone who likes manga, anime, JRPGs, the 2020 Olympics, or those of you who want to visit Japan on some sort of trip in the near future. Everything you learn is designed to help you pass the JLPT N5, which is the most popular Japanese proficiency test in the world.
Echo
Free: iOS
This is a helpful one for anyone who has to deal with the hassle of repeat prescriptions, saving you a trip to the chemist everytime you need a top up. You need to be registered with an NHS GP, and with your doctor’s information the people at the app can partner you up with a local pharmacist who will get the repeats on your behalf. Those prescriptions will get delivered to you, and while most of them are free scheduled medication has to be sent recorded delivery – which is going to cost you monies. Obviously you need to pay for the prescriptions as normal (unless you’re exempt).
Find My Device (Update)
Free: Android
Android Device manager has had a rebrand, so it’s now the much less confusing ‘Find My Device’. That way not even the most tech-illiterate person could get confused about its purpose. As ever this will let you locate lost devices via GPS, fire off the ringer if need be, lock up the screen if they really are lost, and —in the worst case scenario— erase all your data. It also lets you find Android Wear devices, and showcases battery and wi-fi information on all your devices.
Screenbits
Free: Windows
Nice and simple here, this is a screen recorder so you can record everything that happens on your desktop for whatever reason you like. Whether you’re making tutorial videos, recording evidence of a problem, or something else entirely, this is well worth checking out – especially since it’s free until Saturday-ish. (It’s £3.89 normally). It also records audio, can add watermarks to the final result, and more.
Send to OneNote
Free: Windows
This one is pretty much a one-trick pony from Microsoft, but if you’re a OneNote user this is worth your attention. Just open any file or web page you want to see in OneNote, hit print, and choose the ‘Send to OneNote’ option. Hey presto! There will be a copy waiting for you.
SofaScore
An app for sports fans, particularly those that pay attention to teams or sports that most sporting news sites don’t cover very well. It’s got all the information you need to follow a team or league, regardless of the sport or team in question, including results, fixtures, and video coverage. It probably won’t have your kids’ local football team, but it’s got everything else you might care about.
TaskRabbit
The gig economy means you can use your phone to do pretty much anything these days, and TaskRabbit lets you hire people to do some sort of odd-job so you don’t have to deal with it yourself. Well, provided you live in London at least. Just describe the task you need to get done and you’ll be connected with all the ‘taskers’. All payment is done through the app, and everything is insured to the value of $1 million.
Townske
Before you head somewhere on your holidays, make sure you know the kinds of places you’d lime to visit – and I don’t mean the places recommended in every tourist guidebook under the sun. Townske is a guide to cities and areas around the world, filled with blogs from local residents talking about the places they love. Locals know a place best after all, and you can be sure everything is going to be reasonably up to date.
WSJ VR
Free: Android (Daydream only)
Have you ever felt like experiencing the new in VR? The Wall Street Journal hopes so, with a brand new app letting you sort through the news, interact with real-time marketing data, and (naturally) watch 360-degree videos. If you have a Daydream controller lying around gathering dust, checking this out might be worth a few minutes of your time.
