With Facebook conducting tests for its new Like button and Apple Pay rolling out to new chains like Starbucks, you may have missed some of this week's best new apps.
Every weekend, we round up a few of our favorite new and updated apps. This week's list includes the latest party game from Ellen DeGeneres, a meditation app to help you relax and a weather app that crowdsources its predictions for more accurate forecasts.
Check out the gallery below to see our top picks. If you're looking for more, take a look at our last roundup of can't-miss apps.
Burner
Despite what you see on TV, there are many useful reasons to create so-called “burner” phone numbers you can use for a bit and then ditch. The Burner app helps you do exactly that by letting you quickly create disposable numbers for texting and phone calls. The company just made the service even smarter by adding new integrations with Slack, Dropbox, Soundcloud and Evernote so you can automate what happens to voicemails and text messages received within the app (automatically send voicemails to Dropbox, for example.)
How it works: Sign up with your phone number and choose the area code you want your “burner” number to be. The app creates a number that you can use for a limited amount of time to send texts and make calls. (You’ll get a limited number of both for free with more available via in-app purchases.)
Pro-tip: You can always “burn” your number early to make it, and the messages associated with it, go away forever.
Free: iOS and AndroidIMAGE: AD HOC LABS, INC.Meter
The latest experiment to be featured by Google’s Creative Lab, Meter is an interactive wallpaper app that displays system information about your Android device.
How it works: The app shows visualizations that reflect your current battery level, Wi-Fi signal and the number of notifications currently on your device. The visualizations subtly change throughout the day and you can interact with them by tilting and moving your device in different directions.
Pro-tip: The wallpaper changes with each unlock of your phone, so if you want to see a different visualization, lock and unlock your device a couple times to bring it back up.
Free: AndroidIMAGE: GOOGLE CREATIVE LABPause
Sure, smartphones make our lives easier, but they can also add to our stress levels. Pause aims to helps you slow down and relax for a few minutes. Created by the team behind Monument Valley, the app claims to use Tai Chi-based relaxation techniques via your phone.
How it works: Trace your finger slowly around the screen as the lava lamp-like effects change slowly with your movements. The slow deliberate movements and the soothing soundtrack are meant to force you relax and unwind for small chunks of time throughout the day.
Pro-tip: You can adjust the length of each session in the app’s settings, but the default length of time is set at 10 minutes. You can also keep track of how much time you’ve spent in the app in the stats section.
$1.99: iOSIMAGE: USTWOPsych! Outwit Your Friends
The latest collaboration between Ellen DeGeneres and Warner Brothers, Psych! Outwit Your Friends is another mobile party game endorsed by the talkshow host.
How it works: Players choose a themed deck like “Name That Show” or “Word Up!” each of which has a different category of trivia questions. Each player is tasked with making up ridiculous-sounding fake answers to the trivia questions. Then, everyone must pick the real answer from the group of fakes.
Pro-tip: You score points for both picking the right answer and for each of your friends you successfully psych out with a fake answer, so choose your dummy answers carefully.
Free: iOS and AndroidIMAGE: WARNER BROSSunshine
The premise of Sunshine is that people (and their smartphones) can be a more reliable indicator of the current weather conditions than forecast models alone. The idea is something like Waze: the app uses government data, along with information from the barometric sensors in iPhones and user-reported conditions to make its predictions.
How it works: The app shows you the current conditions in your area and a slider at the bottom of the screen gives you a look at what’s to come in the hours ahead. Each user is able to contribute their own updates about the current conditions in their area, which is used in conjunction with sensor and government data for what the company says is a hyper accurate forecast.
Pro-tip: You can set your own personal “comfort zone” for your preferred temperature range and the app will send you a personalized forecast based on your preferences.- Free: iOSIMAGE: SUNSHINE TECHNOLOGIES
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