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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bravehearts" data-source="post: 18544327" data-attributes="member: 513648">Everything you want to know about apps... but were afraid to ask: The Mail runs down the 100 apps that will change your life Apps are the neatly packaged programs that make your smartphone smart and your tablet more than just a nice, shiny toy. They’re digital tools designed to do a specific job. Here are 100 of the best, most useful apps around. Many are functional, some are just fun. By DAILY MAIL REPORTER    Please note this is a UK based article, but still we can find some useful Apps here for us. If you have apps that suitable to use locally in sri lanka then you are welcome to put those apps here on this thread. if you are mobile app developer then you may find some cool ideas that probably we must have as local versions.                                 20 ABSOLUTE ESSENTIALS Google Apple, Android, Windows Price: Free Forget using a web-browser to get Google: just a single tap of the app’s icon takes you straight there. And you can search without having to type by asking Google questions via your device’s microphone. The app provides onscreen answers and even talks back with the latest information. Google Maps Apple, Android Price: Free Most Android users will have Google Maps pre-installed on their devices, but it’s a must for iPhone and iPad users, too. Apple’s maps aren’t quite the disaster they were, but they’re still not a patch on Google and they don’t have Google’s voice-activated search. BBC Weather Apple, Android, Kindle Fire Price: Free One of the best-designed and easiest-to-use weather apps around. It automatically locates you and gives hour-by-hour local weather for the rest of the day and night, plus less detailed forecasts for a week ahead. Enter locations around the world for news of what’s happening elsewhere, too. Skype Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free Download Skype, set up a user name and with just a click of your mouse you can video-call any other Skype user, anywhere in the world free, via the internet. It’s a revolution in face-to-face communications. For a small fee, you can also call landlines and mobiles. Facebook Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free One in six of the world’s population uses Facebook, so this is as essential as social media gets. The Facebook app keeps you up to date with friends’ posts via a News Feed, notifies you of new friend requests, comments and ‘likes’, and allows you to post status updates and photos via easy-to-use buttons. Twitter Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free Twitter’s instant, abbreviated format, with its 140-character limit is perfect for mobile devices. The app lets you post tweets and photos and send personal messages as well as tracking all your favourite twe Instagram Apple, Android, Windows Price: Free Instagram uses your phone’s camera to take square photos, styled using any one of 20 filters that give different effects from lurid colour, through faded Seventies tones to pure black-and white. Then post the results online to be seen by 150 million Instagram users around the world. YouTube Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free YouTube has been pre-installed on some devices, but if it isn’t on your screen, it should be. The app gives you access to all the countless videos on YouTube, so as long as you have internet access, you’ll always be entertained. And you can upload your own videos, too. TuneIn Radio Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free TuneIn radio turns your device into a radio that can pick up any station, anywhere on the planet. Just use the search facility to get access to your local radio from a distant beach. Or hear music, news, chat and sports from around the world. Also listen to archived shows. Spotify Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free Spotify puts more than 20 million pieces of music at your fingertips. Listen for free to whole albums, create your own playlists, or just dip into Spotify’s pre-chosen selections. The free version plays adverts between tracks, but for £9.99 a month the Premium service is advert-free and you can listen offline, too. eBay Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free Anyone who has ever bid for anything on eBay knows how vital it is to be in on the action in the final moments before the auction closes. Having the eBay app on your phone or tablet means you need never miss out. Sky Go Apple, Android Price: Free or £15 to £40 per month A must for Sky TV viewers, this app lets you watch the channels you see at home on your phone or tablet. An extra £2.50 a month (£5 after 12 months) buys Sky Go Extra which lets you download material to watch offline. If you’ve not signed up to Sky there are Sky Go packages from £15 to £40 per month. WhatsApp Apple, Android, Windows Price: Free WhatsApp is essentially a text-only version of Skype, using the internet to send text messages free. Once you sign up, WhatsApp searches your address book for friends who also use it and you can connect with them for instant messaging at the click of a button. 1Password Apple, Android Price: Free Problem: you can’t remember all your online user names and passwords. Solution: 1Password. It creates an online ‘vault’ where you can store password and account details. It even generates new passwords and holds them for you. All you need to remember is one password to open the vault. 1Password takes care of the rest. Dropbox Apple, Android Price: Free Dropbox is not the most glamorous app, but it’s incredibly useful. Just save a file into Dropbox from your computer, then access it on all your mobile devices — perfect for working on the move, or taking notes to a lecture or meeting. It also saves your photos for syncing to other devices. Kindle Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free If you prefer e-books to paper, then Amazon’s Kindle store is the place to buy and download them. And now you don’t need a Kindle Fire to do that because virtually all tablets can get the Kindle app and you can have new books within seconds of placing your order. Around Me Apple, Android, Kindle, Windows Price: Free Around Me finds your location then shows you where to find anything from a coffee shop or a cash machine, to a hotel or a hospital, and how to get there. Perfect for when you’re in an unfamiliar place and do not want to depend on random passers-by for directions.               TV, art and hit movies - in the palm of your hand                           CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT Plenty of apps cater for culture vultures... Dickens Dark London Apple Price: Free This app uses a map of London in 1862 with superb, brooding illustrations and brilliant narration by actor Mark Strong to bring extracts from Charles Dickens’s novels vividly to life. An episode set in the Seven Dials area of the city is free with the app: four more, each set in a different location, cost £1.49 each. Shakespeare’s Sonnets iPad Price: £9.99 There are apps in all formats that collect the Bard’s sublime poetry, but this is by far the best: all 154 sonnets, read by star actors — including Patrick Stewart, Stephen Fry, Harriet Walter, Sian Phillips, Dominic West and David Tennant — with notes explaining every line. And it looks as beautiful as it sounds. Love Art: National Gallery, London Apple Price: £1.99 The National Gallery’s finest masterpieces are discussed by scholars and art-lovers who really care about their subjects. For example, Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With A Pearl Earring, talks about her hero, the Dutch artist Vermeer. This beautifully illustrated mix of learning and humanity brings great art to life. The Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms Apple Price: £1.99 Here’s help for anyone who’s baffled by modern art. All the fancy words used by critics and myriad art movements are covered, from American Abstract Artists to Zero, with illustrations from the Tate collections. Download this and you’ll be an instant art expert! Wattpad Apple, Android, Kindle Fire Price: Free Wattpad is a huge library of free books, with more than 20 million titles from literary classics by Jane Austen, the Brontes and Conan Doyle to the most featherbrained fan-fiction. So you’ll always have something to read, and you can even upload your own literary efforts onto it, too. Shazam Apple, Android, Windows Price: Free There’s something miraculous about Shazam. Play even the tiniest scrap of music and it recognises what it is and who recorded it. So now you can track down that nagging tune that’s been in your head. It also links to news about the relevant artist and concert ticket sales. IMDB Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free The Internet Movie Database is the perfect argument settler. It has every detail of info on every film, every U.S. TV show, every actor, everything Hollywood-related, not to mention providing reviews and rankings on all new releases.                                           TELEVISION BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD Apple, Android, plus Kindle Fire for BBC iPlayer Price: Free Imagine, even ten years ago, being told it wouldn’t matter if you missed a TV show because you could see it online. Not only that, but you could do it on your phone or tablet. Now you can, free, and it’s great. Virgin TV Anywhere / Sky Go Apple, Android Price: Free to subscribers If you subscribe to one of the big satellite/cable TV systems, you can download their apps to keep watching on the move. For £5 a month more, Sky Extra allows you to download shows to watch offline. Netflix Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free to subscribers Netflix started life as a subscription service for online movies — the internet equivalent to the old video rental shops. In the past few years, though, its branched out into original programming, with hit, hip series such as House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black. Sky Plus Apple, Android Price: Free This app makes your phone or tablet a portable Sky+ controller. Scroll through TV schedules and set your Sky box at home to record. Or download via Catch Up and On Demand facilities and they’ll be waiting for you when you get home.                                         GAMES Angry Birds Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free / £2.29 In January, Angry Birds passed 2 billion downloads, so the world now knows about those crazy birds and their war against green pigs. The Angry Birds games now cover land, sea, sky and space, plus there are tie-ins with Star Wars and the Rio cartoon films. It’s the best app game ever. Minecraft Pocket Edition Apple, Android, Windows Price: £4.99 Minecraft is a gaming oddity. It has clunky, old-school graphics and players collaborate to create their own worlds and keep them alive in an endless game with no winners or losers. Yet Swedish schools use it as a teaching aid and it’s so popular, Microsoft paid $2.5 billion to buy it. Candy Crush Saga Apple, Android, Kindle Fire Price: Free Candy Crush Saga is an utterly addictive puzzle game in which you rise through 400 levels by clearing grids of brightly coloured sweeties. There’s just one problem: it’s really hard to win without buying add-ons to help you complete each level. And it’s just amazing how those 69p purchases add up. Beware! Wordfeud Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free There is an official Scrabble game for £2.99, but Wordfeud is a near-perfect copy of the classic format, and it’s free. You can play solo by challenging the app, or take on friends. Sudoku Apple, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows Price: Free Sudoku’s a must for any game-lover, but there isn’t one dominant Sudoku app across all formats. The top-ranked versions on Android and Windows are both called Sudoku Free, but they’re not the same. The best Apple version, Sudoku2, has particularly nice graphics.                                               KIDS AND TEENS My First Numberjacks Apple, Android, Kindle Fire Price: £1.49 The Numberjacks are a set of colourful, animated numbers from the BBC’s children’s channel CBeebies. There are three Numberjacks apps, all designed to help infants learn their numbers and have fun. And with lots of games and counting aloud, Mum and Dad can join in, too. Dipdap Apple, Android, Kindle Fire Price: £1.99 Dipdap is a funny little animated man who goes for walks and has adventures. You can draw his spaceship and watch it fly into the air, or paint a lawnmower that chases him back across the grass he’s just mown. As enchanting for adults as for children. Revision App Apple, Android Price: Free Revision App is a one-stop shop for GCSE, A-level and university students. There are free flash-card tests on English, maths and the sciences, more than one million downloadable Q&A cards and — for £4.99 — 56 video tutorials on key aspects of core subjects. So now your bright young things have no excuse for slacking! Steller Apple Price: Free Steller is like a much more sophisticated, creative Instagram (see front page of Essential apps). Users take photographs and alter them with filters. But then they arrange their images into albums, then publish them online to share with their friends. The results can look fantastic. Paper by 53 Apple Price: Free This onscreen sketchbook turns your finger into a pencil, pen or paintbrush and was iPad App of the Year in 2012. A magical feeling when you draw with it. Crime Map England & Wales Apple, Android Price: Free If you're moving to a new area, you need to know if it is safe. Crime Map shows the location and category of every reported offence in any given month. For 69p, an augmented reality feature shows you the exact locations of crimes when you point your phone at the street in front of you. Kirstie & Phil’s House Hunter iPhone Price: £2.99 This is the closest thing you’ll get to a private visit from Channel 4’s intrepid house-finders. With lots of video clips from the stars giving practical advice, it’s a comprehensive guide to working out how much you can afford, deciding what kind of home you want, then finding and buying it. Zoopla Property Search Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free For Zoopla, read Snoopla. This app shows you properties for sale or rent in any area, what recently sold homes went for and what they might now be worth. Indispensable to househunters. Houzz Formats: Apple, Android, Kindle Fire Price: Free A must for the stylish decorator or home builder. It’s packed with countless stunning interior and exterior design photos, marked with green tags that tell you what you’re looking at, who makes it and how to buy it. Houzz even finds designers and tradespeople in your area. IKEA catalogue Apple, Android Price: Free See and buy virtually all Ikea products, with embedded videos and pictures showing styles and colours. You can see how items from the catalogue would look in your home, share ideas with friends and scan pages in the printed catalogue to download even more ideas and info. Clinometer Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Price: Free Turn your smartphone into a spirit level. You just hold your phone on the surface or object you need to check and the app will tell you the vertical, horizontal or diagonal tilt.                                        GARDENING RHS Grow Your Own iPhone Price: Free This Royal Horticultural Society app is filled with expert advice on growing 40 vegetables and fruits. But it’s available only on iPhone and to get more plants you have to buy four packs of veg, fruit and herbs at £1.99 each. Garden Bugs iPhone, Android Price: Free A guide to a gardener’s worst enemies: the pests and diseases that attack your plants, from slugs and bugs to fungal infections and blackspot. If something’s attacking your garden and you want to know what it is and what you can do about it, this is a good place to start. Gardenate iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Price: 99p to £1.49 If you want to grow your own veg, then Gardenate is well worth having. It has a long list of vegetables and a few fruit, giving detailed instructions for cultivating, tips on using them in the kitchen and a monthly calendar to tell you what to do and when. Ideal for green-fingered beginners.                                                                        Read more: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2810346/Everything-want-know-apps-afraid-ask-Mail-runs-100-apps-change-life.html#ixzz3dmEGvF9q" target="_blank">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2810346/Everything-want-know-apps-afraid-ask-Mail-runs-100-apps-change-life.html#ixzz3dmEGvF9q</a></blockquote>

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