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.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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

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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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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

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And this is where Zeebox comes in. Already a hit on iOS, the TV companion app has come to Google Play in beta form and it’s been given some big-name backing with BkyB offering up a 10 per cent stake in the company.

Couple this with the brains behind the iPlayer – Anthony Rose heads up Zeebox’s operations – and the pieces come together to form a simple but great little app.

Load the app up and it will want you to sign up through Twitter and Facebook. Do this and you will be able to see what other people within your social network are watching.

The great thing about the app is how easily it ingrains itself in the process of TV watching. It all starts from before a show starts. This is because the app offers information about shows and the stars. It takes info from a variety of online sources and offers it up in an easy to digest way.

When you have chosen what show to watch then the app begins its real work – tapping into the social feeds surrounding the show.

Through something called Zeetags, you and search for actors on the show they are on, then look at any tweets about this person or the show itself.

It’s all good fun and essential for anyone who is curious about what they are seeing.

As this is beta, there’s no access to the 7-day planner that was recently introduced but the other features are all there and the app works brilliantly.

What we do want is to see this app work better with shows pre-recorded shows. Considering a lot of shows are watched from the EPG, this could be the next step for Zeebox but for the moment, this app is essential for who wish to tap into the TV zeitgeist.

Buy this app: Download the Zeebox app now

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At the moment there are 23 channels which offer up their content through your smartphone. These channels vary from sport to movies to entertainment and all you to watch whatever is on the television at the moment.

When you load the app up, the first thing you need to do is link it with your Sky account. This should only take a few seconds but you have to bear in mind that you can only have two gadgets linked up at any one time.

One this is done, all you have to do it click on the channel and then the programme you want to watch and that’s pretty much it.

It does take a few seconds for the buffering to work on the app. When you first see the feed you may be taken aback by how poor it looks, but things becomes much clearer after 10 seconds or so. When the picture quality sorts itself out, so does the sound and the feed works great.

This isn’t an on-demand app, so it is a duplication of what Sky offers through a dish but as a facsimile of parts of this service it is great.

Buy this app: Download the Sky Go app now

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What’s interesting about this then is that Rovio, its makers, haven’t gone down the official sequel route – trying out different ways to enhance the brand rather than making an out and out successor.

So, after Angry Birds Seasons – one which is sill being updated – and Angry Birds Rio, there’s now Angry Birds Space. Given that this was a game that was announced on the International Space Station, the actual gameplay is a little of a letdown. It’s still very much Angry Birds – it both infuriated and excites in equal measure – but it’s nowhere near as addictive as previous incarnations.

The real change, however, is the added dimension of gravity. Now the pigs hide in weird planetoids and this means that you can’t have the same game plan all the way through the game.

There’s also a new bird, called the Ice Bird – which will know doubt help Rovio sell more cuddly toys than ever before.

Angry Birds Space isn’t a game changer like the original but it is great interstellar fun, even if the gameplay is getting a touch repetitive.

Buy this app: Download the Angry Birds Space app now

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Interestingly, Instagram is meant to also be a social network, where fellow Instagramers can show off their photos to one and another but this aspect of the app doesn’t really work and you can simply opt out if you want to – although this is set to change with the Facebook acquisition. What does work is the myriad filters on show that can be added to a photograph after it’s taken. And you can also add them to photographs that you took well before you loaded the app on to your Android smartphone.

Once you have added a filter – there’s 18 available – you then have the choice of uploading the image to a number of social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

The app makes taking pictures easy and no matter how bad an image, there always seems to be one filter that will perk it up, which is great considering the app is completely free.

Buy this app: Download the Instagram app now

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There’s two ways to you can use the app. The first is a food voyeur. Load the app up and you can see what food people around you have flagged as being decent. It took seconds for the app to figure out our locations, which was impressive and then a few more seconds to show me food people had thought was decent enough to take a picture of and add to the service.

Another way to use the app is to partake yourself. If you sign up to the app, then you can begin to liking foods around you and uploading your own content. This isn’t an app to show off your own culinary skills, though. This is an app that is for those who visit the restaurants around them and want to tell all what they think of the food.

It was inevitable that food would go social, with the likes of Masterchef bringing eating into the mainstream, and Foodspotting manages to tap brilliantly into this.

Buy this app: Download the Foodspotting app now

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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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