Software

If you're trying to keep your texts a secret, Hide SMS can help. It's a stylish lockbox for all of your text messages. Sadly, it only works with plain texts. Apps, contacts, and even picture messages aren't included.

This app shows up as different names on the Google Play store and in your apps locker. You may see it referred to as Hide SMS, Keep SMS, or KeepSafe depending on how you're looking at it. Once you load it, you have to set a four-digit password to get inside. You can lock any conversation in your … Read more

Insta Photo Editor will require plenty of patience. You have to sift through ads and tons of other junk to get to the goods this app offers. Once you find them, you'll probably be disappointed.

Before you use this app, you have to page through two different ad requests. These want to put ads on your browser, status bar, and more. You can only say no to one of them, and it keeps coming back every time you load the app if you do. As for the editing, itself, it's pretty standard. You can do some minor crops … Read more

Eye Color Changer goes so much further than red eye removal to make your eyes look any color in the rainbow. Eye Color Changer's effect looks a little cartoony and bizarre at times, but that's probably the effect most people are going for.

This app's menu could use some major editing, itself--it's quite the eyesore. It houses eight buttons, but only two of them actually go to features in the app you really want to use. The rest beg you to rate the app and download more of the developer's apps. If you can find … Read more

InstaSize seems to only be capitalizing on the success of Instagram without bringing anything to the table. It's a photo editor in name, but it doesn't really do anything.

The goal of InstaSize is to find the "perfect" size for your photos. In reality, it just shrinks them a few pixels without even caring about the content of the picture. When you tap the button to "resize" your photos, you're hit by an ad before the app gives you results. Ads actually tend to litter the app and take up plenty of screen … Read more

You won't find IQ Light with competitor flashlight apps on the Google Play store, and that's not just because it isn't on the Play Store. This app fails so soundly at doing what you need it to that it isn't even worth downloading.

This app isn't available from Google's official market, so you need a side-loader to install it. Instead of using your camera's flash to light up the dark, this app turns your screen bright white. It's not bad if you only have to see a foot or two in front … Read more

Jelly Bean Launcher makes your home screen look and feel like you have Android 4.1 instead of an older version. There are a few weird issues with the execution, but Jelly Bean Launcher is a nice compromise if you don't want to root.

You can make this launcher your full-time home screen by making it the default app. The launcher grabs a few widgets from your current app's menu to paste on your home screen. It doesn't check your current home screen layout, though, so you'll be stuck rearranging things to make them match. Since … Read more

If you just need to view (not edit) documents, Office Documents Viewer is a free download that lets you read just about any sort of Office file. It's ad-heavy, but it certainly works in a pinch.

The most prominent aspect of the reader is that it sticks animated ads in any file you try to read with it. They usually don't get in the way, but it's still annoying. Office Documents Viewer displays text and HTML files smoothly, but it has to convert other files before they show up. This can take a long time if the … Read more

If you're looking for a solid, non-Google planner, you've found it in mOffice. It has a smooth layout and most of the features you love about Google--all in a neat package.

This app is designed to sync with your Outlook desktop program. It will also sync with a client called Mobisynapse, but that costs an extra $10. This app falls under the "Getting Things Done" category, which seems to mean it's optimized to make work convenient. As such, mOffice has a very clean interface that makes it easy to find the features and menus you'… Read more

Muzy has one of the most robust set of features we've yet seen in a photo editing app. You won't even have to put up with ads to use it, either.

This app makes you log in before you can start editing your photos. You can save some time by connecting your Facebook profile. If you go that route, you can edit all of your Facebook photos and even some of your friend's photos. The app doesn't stick to one type of photo editing; it lets you create collages, add filters, crop, retouch, and more. There … Read more