Here they are: Our top 5 Android and iOS apps of the week
Like every weekend, we meet on NextPit for my selection of 5 free or paid mobile applications and games that caught my eye on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
Every week I try to bring you the best possible apps that are not data traps or microtransaction nests. In addition to my own finds, I also add the apps found by the NextPit community and shared on our forum.
From mobile games to productivity apps, here are the 5 free and paid Android/iOS apps from NextPit this week. We publish this selection every week, you can also check our 5 apps from last week.
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Symfonium: Music player & cast (Android)
This music player allows you to add many different media sources (your smartphone locally, Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, Kodi) into one merged interface and play them locally or cast them to Chromecast / UPnP / DLNA / Kodi devices.
- Discover other music streaming apps for Android and iOS
The app works with Android 5 and above is compatible with Android Auto and supports audiobooks. It also offers an offline cache for files and images, everything can work completely offline and you can access your songs without a connection. The player supports most formats (FLAC, ALAC, ...) and the very clean interface uses the Material You cues of Android 12.
The application is still in early access but the developer has planned to make it paid. However, you have a 7-day free trial to make up your mind and I think that the price of $3.99 is not excessive.
- Price: $3.99 / Ads: No / In-app purchases: No / Account: not necessary
- Download Symfonium from the Google Play Store
Elden Ring Death Counter (Android)
Elden Ring is the hit new game from From Software, the studio responsible for Dark/Demon Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. Released a few weeks ago, the game is almost unanimously successful and would almost make me regret not buying a 900 bucks PS5 on eBay from a scalper.
But if you know this style of games you know that the difficulty is part of the experience. Whether you like it or not (the debate on the difficulty of games is interesting, but let's save that for the comments section), if you play Elden Ring, you're going to die, and often. That's where the death counter I've selected here comes in.
The application is quite simple. Every time you die, tap the screen and your loss is added to the counter. You also have a button to subtract a death added by mistake and another to totally reset your death total. That's it. The app is fan-made, doesn't have ads or in-app purchases on the horizon. I wish the developer would have added some artwork from the game to make the interface a bit nicer, but that's just a detail.
- Price: free / Ads: no / In-app purchases: no / Account: not required
- Download Elden Ring Death Counter from the Google Play Store
Foundation, The Morning Show and more!
Motivate: Social Fitness (iOS)
"Hey bro, did you do your sets of pushups, bro?"
"Yeah, bro, did you do your 40 squats yesterday, bro?"
"Well yeah, bro, you believed what, haha." *flexing muscles while taking a selfie*
That's how to sum up the premise of this app. You can share your workouts and progress with your friends and view theirs to motivate each other or challenge each other. The application is free but contains ads. I couldn't find an in-app purchase for a pro version to remove the ads.
On the other hand, there is a store tab that allows you to buy different products and supplements.
- Price: free / Ads: yes / In-app purchases: yes / Account: required
- Download Motivate: Social Fitness from the Apple App Store
tOndO keyboard (Android)
Like the Renaissance painting done on a round canvas, the Tondo, from which the app takes its name, tOndO keyboard is an alternative Android keyboard that arranges the keys in multiple circles.
This non-linear layout is supposed to make the keyboard more compact and thus maximize the visible screen area. The idea is also to allow you to write faster while making fewer mistakes. At first glance, the layout is quite counterintuitive to pick up. Basically, there are 6 circles of letters that orbit around 6 key characters including the 5 main vowels (not the "y") and the space key.
To type words, all you have to do is slide your finger from the center of each circle to the letter of your choice. Mechanically, the gesture is similar to that of a dial. The layout is QWERTY, so once you understand the principle, you start to type relatively quickly. The application works with most messaging and other applications.
- Price: free / Ads: no / In-app purchases: no / Account: not required
- Download tOndO keyboard from the Google Play Store
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The Bard's Tale: Warlocks of Largefearn
The Bard's Tale is a seemingly cult RPG from the 2000s that I didn't know about and that had a mobile port a few years ago. But recently, an edition of The Bard's Tale: WoL appeared on the Play Store.
This game was originally designed to be played on connected speakers, it was an audio RPG, a kind of interactive audiobook in which you could make choices and actions via voice command. Now, this game is also available for smartphones and tablets using the same principle.
The only difference is that the developer has added visuals and buttons for dialogue and action choices. But you can still control the game only with your voice. The system isn't the most responsive, and I couldn't get it to work on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra I'm currently using. On the other hand, on the iPhone 13, everything was fine.
The game has a microtransactions tab and both the Play Store and the App Store indicate that it contains in-app purchases, but they must not have been implemented in this early access version yet.
- Price: free / Ads: no / In-app purchases: yes / Account: not required
- Download the game from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store
NextPit's app central
What do you think of this selection? Have you already tested some of the apps on this list? What would be your Android and/or iOS apps of the week?
Thank you so much for the tOndO keyboard review! Much appreciated!