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Today’s Apps
- Solar Battery Charger [Charge your Android device using solar power]
- Algeo Graphing Calculator [Calculator app that mimics the functionality of a graphing calculator]
- 100 Floors [Game]
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About Android Apps of the Day
Android has over 450,000 apps. With so many apps out there, app discovery (aka finding new and useful apps) is extremely difficult. With our Android Apps of the Day initiative, dotTech aims to change that. Everyday we post three apps, allowing our readers to discover new apps, daily. Enjoy! [Subscribe to our Android section to never miss an article: RSS Feed | E-mail]
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Apps for June 2, 2012
Solar Battery Charger
Want to save the money spent charging your Android device? Want to “go green” and use renewable energy (in this case, solar power) to rejuice? Solar Battery Charger is an app that does exactly that — use solar power to charge your Android device.
To use Solar Battery Charger all you have the do is turn the app on and point your phone towards an energy source, such as the sun or a strong light. Solar Battery Charger absorbs that heat/energy through your device’s screen and uses it to power the battery.
Or does it?
In reality, Solar Battery Charger is a prank app. You can’t really charge your Android device using solar energy (unless your device is specifically designed to do so — I don’t believe there is such a device in existence at the time of this writing). Rather, Solar Battery Charger is an app that is best used as a joke to trick friends and family into thinking you are using solar energy to charge your device. What Solar Battery Charger does is it uses the light sensor in your device (if your device doesn’t have a light sensor then you can’t use Solar Battery Charger) to detect how much light your device sees; then based on the amount of light detected, Solar Battery Charger displays messages like ‘Charging 3.5V’ and ‘Charging 1.2V’ to trick people into thinking the device is actually charging. It even says ‘Low Light’ when there isn’t enough light to “charge” your device.
Take note you shouldn’t leave your device out in direct sunlight for an extended period of time, especially without its back cover. As I mentioned, Solar Battery Charger is a prank app — it doesn’t actually charge your device using solar power. Ashraf and dotTech are not responsible for any gain or loss incurred due to your foolishness.
Price: Free
Version discovered: v1.0
Requires: Android 1.6 and up
Download size: 1.2 MB
Solar Battery Charger on Play Store
Algeo Graphing Calculator
I don’t know about other eduction systems around the world but in most places in the United States graphing calculators are required (specifically, expensive TI Instrument calculators are recommended) for pupils studying Pre-Calculus and above. If you don’t want to shell out the money for a real graphing calculator, you can give Algeo Graphing Calculator a try — a graphing calculator app for Android.
It has been a while since I’ve used my graphing calculator for graphing calculator functionality so I cannot attest if Algeo Graphing Calculator can be a true replacement for a real graphing calculator in environments like the classroom. However, I can say Algeo Graphing Calculator has those mathematical functions that are usually found in a graphing calculator; functions such as drawing functions, finding intersects, and seeing value tables. In addition to that, Algeo Graphing Calculator has the functionality of a regular addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division calculator; and the functionality of a scientific calculator such as sin, cos, tan, natural log, pie, square root, etc.
Price: Free
Version discovered: v0.9.7
Requires: Android 2.0 and up
Download size: 491 KB
Algeo Graphing Calculator on Play Store
100 Floors
Enjoyed DOOORS? Then you will surely enjoy 100 Floors. Like DOOORS, 100 Floors is a puzzle game in which you must unlock the door on each level (‘floor’) to progress to the next level. However, it isn’t as easy as simply tapping on the door to open (actually the first level is that easy — but it gets harder after that); instead, you must use your keen sense of touch and cleverness to perform actions like pinch, tap, shake, tilt, swipe, etc. to find ways to open the doors on each level. Some levels even include items you must gather (by tapping on them) before the door opens.
Despite the name of the game, at this time there are a total of thirty levels you can play. However, the developer does promise to continually add more levels; and you can always juggle between DOOORS and 100 Floors if you are waiting on new levels.
Price: Free
Version discovered: v2.0
Requires: Android 2.1 and up
Download size: 14 MB
dotTechies: We have tested all the apps listed above. However, Android Apps of the Day articles are not intended as “reviews” but rather as “heads-up” to help you discover new apps. Always use your best judgement when downloading apps, such as trying trial/free versions before purchasing paid apps, if applicable.
