Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Here are the 5 mobile apps you need to download this week

Huawei Mate S hands on
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
App stores are crowded places these days, and because storage space on your phone is often at a premium, you’ll want to fill it with not only the best, but also the most helpful apps out there. Because they come and go quicker than the latest fashion trends, and digging through Google Play, the iTunes App Store, or any of the others is such a mission; a little nudge in the right direction is often very welcome. Here are the apps we think you need to check out this week.

Fireside

Screen Shot 2015-09-10 at 11.51.21 AM
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Podcasting blew in up the last few years, turning into a legitimate medium where entertainers go to let loose and have conversations that often can’t happen anywhere else. It’s the perfect format for both the broadcaster, who just has to talk, and the consumer, who just has to listen. But many shows already have huge back catalogues and with new content coming out every day, it can be hard to keep up and know what to listen to.

Fireside aims to solve this problem. Movies and TV shows have trailers, clips, and ads that give you a glimpse at what the full product is like. That’s what Fireside does for podcasting. People can clip their favorite shows and share the best parts, making it easy to get a bite-size morsel of an episode and help you decide if you want to hear more. Plus, it’s the perfect way to stay up to date on the biggest moments in podcasting, all without investing an hour or more of your time.

iTunes

Recommended Videos

The Best Song

TheBestSong
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Music discovery is a big topic of discussion at the moment, especially after Apple’s Beats 1 Radio brought back the live DJ format as competition to the algorithm method made popular by Pandora. The Best Song app sits somewhere in between those two formats. Using a Tinder-style swipe interface, users can pick songs they like and build up their taste profile, or get suggestions from friends and even music labels or artists, as to what might be welcome coming through their earbuds.

iTunesGoogle Play

WHA

WHA
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Whether you work while on the road or are just in a new city and in need of a little connectivity, WHA has your back. The app crowdsources information about public locations so you never go into a coffee shop expecting Wi-Fi only to find out there is none. Users can rate internet speed, work space size, parking availability, price, and much more. If it’ll effect your work experience, you’ll be able to learn about it beforehand instead of when it’s too late.

iTunes

Minute Video Discovery

Screen Shot 2015-09-10 at 11.54.05 AM
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The web is filled with video content and no real way to help discover it all. Videos from YouTube, Instagram, Vine, and the like don’t have a Netflix-style interface or algorithm to get the stuff you want. Minute Video Discovery hopes to fix that. It puts the best part of the web’s finest video offerings in front of you based on your taste and gives you a highlight reel so you can decide if you want to watch the whole thing.

Google Play

Balance

BalanceApp
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Keeping a budget is not as easy as it sounds, especially when you have money coming and going from multiple accounts. You can regain control over your cashflow and see where all your money goes with the help of Balance. This handy app is perfect for anyone who has multiple financial plates spinning at any given time, and it strips out the pressure of alarms and bothersome notifications that put too much pressure on the user.

iTunes

AJ Dellinger
AJ Dellinger is a freelance reporter from Madison, Wisconsin with an affinity for all things tech. He has been published by…
iOS 18’s best AI tools arrive in December, but Siri has a longer wait
Apple Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro.

The Apple Intelligence toolkit has witnessed a staggered mix of delayed features and underwhelming perks. But it seems that the most promising set of those AI tools that Apple revealed at WWDC earlier this year is right around the corner.

In the latest edition of his PowerOn newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes that the iOS 18.2 update will start rolling out via the stable channel in the first week of December.

Read more
Google may make it easier to share files between Android and iPhone
Android 14 logo on the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024).

Wish it was easier to share files between Android and iPhone? Android Authority says a file-sharing service designed for Android devices may eventually become available on Apple products.

During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, Google announced its collaboration with Samsung to introduce a new feature called Quick Share, which aims to simplify file sharing. This feature offers a unified solution for sharing files across Android devices, Chromebooks, and Windows systems, making the process seamless within these ecosystems. Think of it like AirDrop but for Android.

Read more
Apple uses giggles to highlight new Apple Intelligence features
A screenshot from an Apple ad for Apple Intelligence.

On the same day that Apple started rolling out Apple Intelligence to iPhone 16 handsets as well as iPhone 15 Pro devices, the tech giant dropped two videos showcasing some of the new features.

The first one (below) highlights the new Apple Intelligence Writing Tools feature, which, in Apple’s own words, is designed to “help your words sound more professional, friendly, or more concise.”

Read more