And this is where StreamZoo comes in – it has all the trappings of being a successor to Instagram, all it needs is an audience. But this is what StreamZoo does well – a big part of the app is to do with the ‘social networking’ aspect.

Essentially, you take a photo, put a number of filters on it – there’s even tilt shift if you are into that sort of thing you naughty people – and then upload it to the StreamZoo. You can then add a hashtag and try and make your images popular.

Also you can search the app for streams as well. So if you are interested in a certain holiday destination, you can see what others got up to and their photos.

StreamZoo needs a bigger audience but it is a decent replacement to Instagram – so perfect time then to jump on what may well be the next big thing.

Buy this app: Download the streamZoo app now

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Now it is free the app is something of a let down. It’s not that the information of the application isn’t sound (it is). Unfortunately the way it has been presented is something of a mess.

What you can do – and this is the easiest way to use the app – is put in a favourite destination and start point. Key this is and don’t stray from this section and you will enjoy the app. For some reason the app is a little counter intuitive when you want to forward plan any journeys.

This seems to have something to do with the app being based on an iOS version and not one optimised for Android.

Still, the information when you finally get to it is sound, it’s just a shame that the developers haven’t baked in Android as much as we would have liked.

Buy this app: Download the National Rail Enquries app now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

The app is offers up a similar feeling. Its name is ballsy for a start – Red Bull Augmented Racing Reloaded sounds as if someone took a bunch of interesting-sounding words and hammered them together into a title.

It’s lucky then that the app offers up a decent virtual racing experience, dumbed down enough to play on a smartphone.

Load the game up and it doesn’t take long to go through the myriad menus before you are on the tarmac and burning virtual rubber. The controls are simple, move the handset to turn left or right, while the accelerator is on the right and the brake is on the left. There’s not much too it than that.

There’s a whole variety of cars to choose from and some different race types too. All in all this feels like a good paid-for game that’s been given away from free.

Download Red Bull Augmented Racing Reloaded now.

Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ review: First look | Best Android Phones review

Tell that to Andy Puddicombe, who did the latter at just 22 years old, and spent the next 10 years as a Buddhist monk in a Tibetan Monastery. Having returned to the UK, Andy is making meditation accessible to to the masses, and he’s doing it with Headspace.

The app begins with a basic introduction to what meditation does and how it can help you. The key to the whole principle is having an open mind. You can then follow Headspace’s ‘Take 10′ program for free – a ten day sample of some of the techniques you can use to free yourself from the stresses of life and work.

The app itself is very well built, with extremely professional animations and videos from Andy himself guiding you through and helping you take the techniques on board.

You will need an internet connection to get these videos, but you can download them all at once if needed. The primary need that original Headspace users had was for the app to be accessible anytime and anywhere.

If you like what you see, then you can subscribe to the full 365 day program for £4.99 a month. Either way, to see a website and app with such a commitment to detail and content is fantastic and whether Headspace’s techniques work for you or not, enormous work has gone into Headspace as a whole, and the resulting app is absolutely worth 10 minutes of your day.

Download this app: Headspace for Android

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This is why it’s refreshing when something like the Vivi In Stile app comes along. Created by Peroni, it is an app that isn’t centred round the beer itself but a culture that Peroni is seemingly part of – its name for a start simply translates as ‘Live In Style – Peroni’.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what Peroni’s makers Nastro Azzurro are trying to do with the app – it’s basically a neat brand association tie-up, allowing the user to browse the latest fashion, culture and food advice and this all slips down quite nicely with an Italian twist.

The app is easy to use – but you must be 18 or older to access the content within. This has nothing to do with it being of an adult nature but as this is the drinking age for alcohol, this isn’t an app for minors.

Once you have selected the nearest city to you, the app offers up decent buying advice and allows you to share this content with your Facebook contingent.

What’s surprising about the app is the lack of Peroni in it – if you didn’t know it was created by the beer maker you would think you’re just in an app that’s primed for the style crowd. This is great as the last thing you want is to feel like you are reading one big advertisement.

It’s great too that the content seems fresh. The majority of it is written for the app and there’s the promise of bi-monthly updates too, so this should be an app you will want to visit again and again.

The two main sections of the app are Stile – where you can create your own fashion wishlist – an Esplorare, this area that acts like your own city guide.

Easy to use and dripping with cool, Vivi In Stile – Peroni definitely isn’t for the stuffy ale drinker looking for a bargain boozer. But if you are fashion focused then you’ll find the app fizzes with decent content and is not just there to entice you to buy a bottle of lager.

We just wish the app was a little more friendly for tablet users – but fingers crossed that update is on its way.

Download Vivi In Style – Peroni now

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There’s already a host of Euro 2012-centric apps on Google Play, but crucially this is app has the backing of UEFA which means news and information database is fed from the UEFA.com website. From the homescreen you will be able to see the latest Euro 2012 news, details about the upcoming matches and the ability to set favourite teams giving you quick access to the team’s fixtures, squad and current group table standings. You can set a maximum of three favourite teams, so you are out of luck if you want to keep an eye on teams from all four groups.

There’s also pictures and video which are again taken from the UEFA.com website and also covers Champions League and Europa League content, but you will have to pay to access it all with prices starting at £1.99.

The app also works as a notification service, so you can set alerts for kick-off times, goals, video highlights and news about your favourite team.

If you are heading out to Ukraine or Poland, there’s a section dedicated to both countries with information on the stadiums, fanzones, other attractions and really useful information in terms of travel which includes bus and train services to get to the matches.

Updates prior to the tournament should see the addition of geo-location and an augmented reality feature which means you can see points of interest through your smartphone camera and a particularly handy people finder to keep tabs on your friends.

The official EURO 2012 app is easy to get navigate around and has a nice clean interface and we’d say there is minor differences between the Carlsberg EURO 2012 app which offers many of the same features.

A UEFA.com Android app already exists on Google Play which gives access to UEFA EURO 2012 details but doesn’t have the individual player profiles or the extra functionality for supporters travelling out to the tournament. It would have been nice if images and video were of a higher quality and we did notice that it consumed some decent CPU power, but in terms of usefulness for supporters going to the Euros this is a decent free app that will help you get around Ukraine and Poland as the Euros in the pocket swiftly vacate your pocket.

This is because Sky bough The Cloud early back in 2011 and has started letting subscribers tap into this for free – all you need is the app to telly you when there is a network in your vicinity.

All you have to do is add the app and click on a Cloud hotspot when you see one. Then add your Sky username and password and you will be given free Wi-Fi.

Given that Wi-Fi is becoming as essential as water, you would hope that Wi-Fi out and about would be free but this just isn’t the case. That’s why Sky’s unlocking of The Cloud is something of a revelation – and one that works brilliantly.

Buy this app: Download SkyCloud now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

Its sequel is a completely different kettle of fish. The game is no longer bound by the platform format, but is more like a Doodle Jump rip-off which is a bit of a shame considering the original was, well original.

You control Cordy with your accelerometer, flinging Cordy through a number of power tiles which give him different powers.

We would say that it is a lot more difficult than Doodle Jump and there’s a lot more variety but there’s not enough here to keep you coming back for more. Unless you want to pay a little cash to get more incentives, but that’s always a little cynical when the game is classed as free.

Here’s hoping that this is a quasi-sequel to Cordy and a real one is in the works – that’s not to say Cordy Sky isn’t good fun, it’s just not what we were expecting.

Buy this app: Download Cordy Sky now

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But that’s the essence of Wattpad – taking the liaises faire attitude that YouTube had in its early days, the app has thousands and thousands of stories for you to read and if a copyright one does appear on the site it will eventually get deleted but you may be able to read it before this happens.

The stories that are completely legitimate appear on the app and are rated by the readers, so you know the quality of a story before you dig into it. There’s loads of categories to choose from, including the popular movement of the moment – Vampire and Werewolf – and the layout of the app is decent enough with the content very readable.

Some may baulk at the idea of reading stories that have not gone through a major publishing firm but WattPad’s readers seem to be a savvy bunch and if something is given a good review then it is probably worth a read. And anything has got to be better than those torrid Twilight books!

Buy this app: Download Wattpad now

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Dark Legends has come among a heap of hype and you will be glad to know that it is a decent game, albeit one which will push you to paying if you ever want to see the end of the thing.

As this is an MMO, the story of Dark Legends doesn’t actually matter that much. What you need to know is that you play a friendly vampire that’s all about kicking butt and collecting coins. The first few levels are blink and you miss them. There’s some parts of the game where all you have to do is click on the level icon and, well, that’s it. You win and the game progresses to the next stage. And that next stage is usually some sort of fight. At the beginning all you have to fight the undead hordes is a couple of swords. There is a special move, which involves holding down the fire button. Slowly but surely, though, there’s more power-ups along the way – which adds to the hack and slash fun.

And then there’s the fact that you can add in some multi-player gaming to the mix, which is a rarity in a mobile game.

Buy this app: Download Dark Legends now

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Apart from some snazzy panel zooming, though, they don’t offer much more than what you get in paper for. Iron Man MKVII is a comic that’s trying to change this. It’s a freebie, so don’t expect a massive amount of story here. But what Iron MKVII does is plug the gap between the second Iron Man film and the Avengers movie. It basically tells the story of Iron Man’s changing suits and, well, that’s pretty much it.

But it is done in a different and more interactive way. For instance, the comic is narrated and each panel has moving bits – like a pop-up book for the digital world.

To make these things move you just tap on the objects on the screen and they shake or make some sort of noise. It’s not perfect – sometimes it is difficult to get to the next panel because you prod the screen and it awakes one of the objects.

The narration is also a little clunky – sounding more like an RPG than a comic book, but the idea of a moving comic is great.

Buy this app: Download the Avengers: Iron Man – MKVII now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

As it stands, though, StickMan BMX Stunt Bike is great in short bursts but one you won’t miss if it disappeared from your phone.

Open the app up and the first ‘game’ you have to play is the ‘dodge the other game advertisements’ game. As you can expect, this isn’t actually that much fun but it is something that you will become familiar with once you progress through Stunts. Get this out of the way and the controls of the actual game are straightforward – left button to cycle and the right button to jump. And that’s pretty much it –

dodge the obstacles, do some decent stunts and collect the stars.

We couldn’t help wishing for a little more fun but the game is great to look at and has just the right amount of fun. Except for those pesky bloomin’ adverts.

Buy this app: Download StickMan BMX Stunt Bike now

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Given that Pinterest is taking the online world by storm at the moment, you would have thought that its makers would have sorted out an Android app. It’s lucky then that in its place is a similar service called Fancy.

Fancy is a pretty good word to describe this app as this is exactly what it is – it looks fancy and the images and contents you can look through all seem very fancy.

The idea is that you set up an account, get your friends on board and then pin, sorry, upload stuff to the site that you lust after. This can be anything from clothing to cars to buildings and then the images of what you like are shown off within the app’s minimalist design.

In the sense that this is a site that puts pictures in favour of words, Fancy is definitely similar to Pinterest, but there’s a bit more of an e-commerce aspect to Fancy – in that some of the things pinned can be bought through the site.

Without friends you get what’s most popular at the moment – in short, you need friends for Fancy to work properly but it’s a decent enough app to peruse over things people seem to like in life.

Buy this app: Download Fancy now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

So it’s interesting that the beating heart of the internet, Google, has created its own magazine app which does away with website and takes the information and puts into a nice magazine style format.

Design wise it works to an extent. The app looks lovely when you first load it up – you do need to sync your Google account with it but this is what you have to do with all Google apps.

There’s a number of sites already pre-loaded into Currents. The Guardian, the NME, Shortlist, the Independent and The Sun are all on the front page but there’s hundreds more in the library.

Click on one of the icons and what you instantly get is a load of stories you can browse. Click into these and the content is spread on to a double-page spread.

We found that the app worked best on a tablet. We used a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the extra space is great. Leave the app open and you will continually get a load of images coming up on the left-hand side of the page. This keeps the app fresh.

We did think that the layout of the pages could be better and apps like Pulse do a better job of making websites look fresh and original but as a first attempt it’s a good try.

Buy this app: Download Google Currents now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

Sporting some brilliant graphics and frustratingly catchy gameplay, Temple Run is a refreshing change from slinging birds and chomping on candy.

The premise is simple: you are running away from some demonic monkeys and you have to use your phone’s accelerometer and the touchscreen controls to make sure your adventurer dodges all the crevices and catches all the coins.

Now, the game is repetitious but brilliantly so – it’s essentially endless so you want to keep striving for a better score or to knock off the latest achievement.

When it comes to paying for stuff, the game is essentially free but you can pay for power-ups and the like. But that’s essentially cheating so you wouldn’t do that, would you?

With brilliant graphics that are almost 3D in nature and gameplay to constantly keep the heart pumping, Temple Run is one you will keep on playing.

Buy this app: Download Temple Run now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

Directions are clear and accurate, and although a few fixed cameras were missed, the vast majority were correctly indicated. On the downside, audio directions can be a little tardy in complex situations, and advance roundabout directions can be somewhat unclear, requiring last minute lane changes to compensate.

A recent revamp of the app included a a slew of social integration and integrated content from Barclays Cycle Hire, Good Pub Guide and Top Table to name but a few, and these bolt-ons give an extra dimension to standard navigation. In addition, a ‘car locator’ option allows you to quickly save your parking spot’s location, a brilliant extra for complex and unfamiliar parking situations.

Is it better than Google Navigation? Yes, but there is a cost attached to this, depending on your network (it’s available through Orange Maps, Vodafone Find & Go, and O2).

Download: Telmap Navigator for Android

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Essentially it makes a million daily tasks disappear, and means that your phone is often doing exactly what you want, when you want it, without you having to remember to do anything manually…

It’s one of those apps that you wonder what you did without, and for free it’s a complete winner – download it now…

Download: Llama for Android

Best Android Apps | Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

If you focus the camera over an ‘aura’ that the app recognises (in our case, the side of a Lucozade bottle), the app will match that image with the content connected with the aura, whether that be a streamed video, a link to a website or in this case, a preview of the latest Plan B single. For something that seems so complex, it all works very smoothly, and the interface is very intuitive.

You can create your own auras, by focusing the camera over an image and attaching content. This works most of the time, but lighting conditions and the angle of the image do make a difference and it’s clear that the technology is still in its infancy.

It’s difficult to find a real reason to use this app. Don’t get us wrong, the technology is quite cool and there’s masses of potential here. But outside of the occasional Aurasma logo, it’s hard to know where Aurasma can give you extra content and where it cannot and the reality, augmented or otherwise, is that there simply aren’t that many auras out there yet.

At the same time, we love the idea of being able to walk anywhere, see a billboard with something interesting, point our phone at it and get all the information we want instantly. We’re still a long way from that, but the potential is there.

Compatible with: Android 2.2 and above

Download this app: Aurasma Lite for Android

Best Android Apps | Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

As this game is something of a looker, it’s unsurprising that it’s a massive 41MB to download but once this is done, there’s no waiting on new levels – it’s all there within the app, which is something of a bonus.

The first couple of levels are far too simple but this is one game where the difficulty level is something of a sharp incline.

When you first load the game up you get the option to tap control the Frisbee or use the motion controls to guide the Frisbee through the numerous hoops and collect the stars on the way.

The game’s graphics look great. There’s a real 3D feel to the whole thing and while the control system sometimes leaves a lot to be desired there’s a lot of fun to be had when you get the hang of it.

With oodles of levels and the fact you can better your score each time you play, Frisbee Forever, like its name suggests, is a game you will play time and time again.

Buy this app: Download the Frisbee Forever app now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

It also created a brilliant central character in Om Nom, the monster that can’t get enough its candy. So, you’ll be glad to here that him and his cardboard boxes are back with come added extras.

Its quasi sequel offers up more of the same but with the added twist of contraptions. There’s loads of them here and they add an extra level of complexity to the game.

Although the original, great gameplay is still there, something was needed for its sequel and the folks at ZeptoLab brilliantly spin the old with the new.

We would say that the game is just that little bit too simple – it only took as an hour to complete the whole thing and that was with three stars.

But the wacky contraptions are good enough to keep you coming back for more.

Buy this app: Download the Cut The Rope: Experiments app now

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Essentially, you have a load of Scrabble-like letters on a grid and your job is to make up as many words as possible in the allotted time. Along the way there’s numerous add-ons you can get which freeze time and so forth which will help with trying to get as many points from the words and letters as you can.

Not as addictive as Words With Friends and a little bit more complicated, Scramble With Friends is a great game if you have lots of people to play with but completely useless on your own.

There’s also the fact that you need to get tokens to play the game regularly and what you have is a few too many hurdles to make this word game a classic.

Buy this app: Download the Scramble With Friends app now

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The Sims FreePlay is different. It allows you to manage your Sims life in real time. So when you go to work you can check up on them a few times in the day and make sure they are okay. By doing this EA has managed to make the Sims workable on a mobile device.

This isn’t to say the game is perfect. For a start, there’s the fact that the game is free but to play it properly, you need to buy packs for your sim. You can get things elsewhere but this takes a lot of time in the game and you’ll probably decide to buy your upgrades rather than work hard to get them.

This does mean that game is that little bit boring to play – there’s just not enough to keep you coming back for more.

Buy this app: Download the Sims FreePlay app now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

Get Glue is a little different. It takes the idea of watching TV, listening to music and lets you put your stamp on it. So, instead of checking into actual places, you check into things. It’s a great idea and one that works.

Load the app up and it is dead simple to use. There’s five sections to the app – the first being the actually check in part. Then you have a feed that tells you what everyone else is up to and you can also add reviews and notes to the things you are checking into.

Other features include a rating section, where you can add your star rating to a movie or song and then you have your own profile to deal with.

There’s also a gamification part of the whole thing where you get stickers when you check into something multiple times.

In all there’s plenty to do with GetGlue, and this app makes the whole process simple.

Buy this app: Download the GetGlue app now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

It’s more than annoying but Photon is addictive enough to make you forget about this little foible.

For a start, the classic version of the game is completely free – and it is just as addictive. It’s like a cross between Connect 4 and Tetris, where coloured discs fall from the sky and you have to connect three of them to get rid of them. If you don’t do this fast enough then the discs build up and you lose. This is great fun to play and there’s almost no need to purchase the Arcade version of the game.

Unfortunately, and it pains us to say it, the arcade version is worth forking out for. We just wish we were told this would be the case before opening the app up.

The difference between the arcade and the classic game is that the graphics are a whole lot better and there’s different features as well.

All in all, it’s great fun.

Buy this app: Download the Photon app now

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Best Android Apps: Free | Best Android phones

As you can guess by the name, Net-A-Porter isn’t really an app for men, unless you are a man that likes to buy your partner things through his phone. What this is is an A-Z of fashion designers and loads of pictures and information about their clothes. And from here you guy buy up whichever sartorial specialities catch your eye.

The look of the app is great. It’s very much in keeping with its expensive style. When you load up a designer, you will see the clothes on catwalk models and there’s usually about five pictures of each item and more information about the item when you dig deeper into the app.

Interestingly, there’s no 360-degree view of what you want to buy which is a little annoying but all the information is there and you can choose which country you are in so all pricing will be right for wherever you are.

And the fact that there’s no men’s section on the app is another untapped resource that the makers of the app should really take advantage of.

Buy this app: Download the Net-A-Porter app now

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