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Top 5 Apps of the week: These apps for iOS & Android you have to know

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There are thousands of apps on the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. It's really a task to find the select good ones among them. But why worry when we are here to do that job for you?  Every week, we scour through both of these app stores to find for you some very interesting apps. Is there something for you this week? Read on to find out! 

Top app of the week: Two Player Games

Let's start with a free mobile game! Two Player Games is a collection of mini-games for iOS and Android, which you can play either against a computer opponent or against a second player. Since the second player is not connected online, but has to sit opposite you, the game is twice as much fun.

Two Player Game
The graphics of "2 Player Game" are very well done. / © NextPit

The games and the handling are really well done. Besides classics like billiards, basketball, air hockey, table tennis and a penalty football game, there are also more unusual ideas like "Money Grabber", or "The Last Sashimi". The game's graphics have a comic book look, and ads are refreshingly rare. The game runs particularly smoothly, as the maximum FPS is 60 frames per second. However, you can also lower this if you wish.

If you play two player games with your partner or a friend, the game is especially fun and has a tournament character thanks to an automatic score counter. If you are interested, you can download the mobile game for iOS and Android for free. If you wish, you can remove the ads for $1.99.

Two Player Games for Android / Two Player Games for iOS

Place 2 of the top apps: Disney+ with new star offer

Possibly the second place of our top apps is already on your phone: the video streaming service Disney+. Disney expanded this this week with a huge catalog of new movies and series. Disney+ Star finally offers a little more entertainment aimed more at an adult audience.

Star ARtikel
With the new Star offering, Disney+ is now even more worthwhile. / © NextPit

Among other things, you can catch up on the real-time series 24, watch nine seasons of The X-Files, binge Futurama or watch legendary series like Sons of Anarchy or The Walking Dead. For movie fans, titles include Out of Control, Big Trouble in Little China, Borat, Boys Don't Cry, The Martian, The Fly, all the Die Hard installments, and countless more.

While the Disney+ app is free, you'll need a subscription to use it, which is available for $8.99 a month. In addition to the new star offering, you'll also find every Disney and Pixar movie imaginable on the popular streaming service, as well as some in-house productions.

Disney+ for Android / Disney+ for Apple iOS

3rd place of the top apps: BirdNET: Bird sound identification

BirdNET is a free app that was developed in cooperation with several international research institutions. It helps you to find out the origin of the animal sounds. If you give the app access to your microphone and your location, it can detect bird sounds and tell you what that bird is.

BirdNET
Use BirdNet to find out which birds are chirping outside your window. / © NextPit

Simply hold the phone with active recording to the window and wait until the bird repeats its call. Now you pause the recording and mark the beat on the kilohertz chart. A tap on "Analyze" sends the data to the servers of the research institution and after a few seconds the bird will be displayed.

To try it out, I picked out a few bird songs on YouTube and sure enough, the app was right on most of the recordings. Only birds that are not native to this country were apparently excluded by the app based on GPS location. If you are interested in local fauna, you will find a lot of additional information about native bird species in the app.

BirdNET for Apple iOS / BirdNET for Android

Rank 4 of the top apps: Flora Incognita

Since it just fits thematically well with the change into March, you will also find Flora Incognita, an app that offers a similar concept for plants. Since plants are usually quite silent, you take photos of flowers and leaves and the app tells you what's blooming right now in spring.

Flower Identifier
The app "Flora Incognita" looks for you which flowers are growing outside / © NextPit

Again, you will find a lot of additional information about the respective flower species in the application. The graphical interface of the app is not quite as successful as BirdNET, but the results are convincing!

Flora Incognita for Android / Flora Incognita for iOS

Life Hack Tips

"Life Hack Tips" summarizes hundreds of life hack tricks in a beautifully designed application and divides them into about 20 categories.

The operation is wonderfully simple. You navigate to a category and then tap your way through cards that list the respective life hacks. For example, I found out that ants can be chased away simply by using coffee powder and not just chemicals - just to name one example!

Life Hacks
Life hacks can make life easier and in this app you will find them presented in a very nice way / © NextPit

Most of the content of the app is free, but with "Money Making", "Motivation", "Productivity" and "Gardening" quite important categories are hidden behind a paywall. The premium version is without any ads, however, costs only $2.99.  This app is also available for Apple iOS and Android.

Life Hack Tips for Apple iOS / Life Hack Tips for Android

Have you been able to try out any of the apps yet? Then let us know in the comments if the application convinced you!

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Benjamin Lucks

Benjamin Lucks
Head of Editorial DE

Ben has been working in tech journalism since 2018, was a freelancer in the middle of the CoVid-crisis and has been full-time at NextPit since November '20. Since then he has tries to find the right mix between professional competence, humor and fresh perspectives in reviews and texts.

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