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Download this: 6 apps to try right now (February 2016)

These are the best six apps and updates you need to try in February.

Sarah Mitroff
Sarah Mitroff is a Managing Editor for CNET, overseeing our health, fitness and wellness section. Throughout her career, she's written about mobile tech, consumer tech, business and startups for Wired, MacWorld, PCWorld, and VentureBeat.
Sarah Mitroff
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1 of 6 Screenshots by Sarah Mitroff/CNET

Pyro

Hailing from DJ audio software company Serato, Pyro mixes your music and suggests new tracks from what's already playing. If I were to pick a favorite app of this list, this is it.

What does it do? Pyro works like a personal DJ, seamlessly transitioning from one song to the next and cutting out slow starts and trail-off endings. Queue up music from Apple Music or Spotify (Premium account required) and Pyro will mix the tracks so they sound great back to back.

The app also finds similar songs to what you're playing and adds them automatically, so the playlists never ends and you'll hear tunes you may not already know.

Why should I care? Pyro does a great job of blending songs into each other, so the music flows well. Because it matches the tempo from one song to the next, it's especially great for workouts when you want to keep the energy going.

Free, iOS only

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2 of 6 Screenshots by Sarah Mitroff/CNET

Kommute

If you commute by subway, you know that browsing your favorite websites is usually impossible underground. Kommute is trying to remedy that.

What does it do? Kommute downloads articles, slideshows and other content from websites for offline reading. The app has categories, such as world, technology and sports, to find popular websites you can download, or you can manually add your own.

With a free account, you can only download one site at a time. For $2.99, £2.29 or AU$4.49 the premium version lets you download an unlimited amount of websites.

Why should I care? Whether you commute underground daily, or just want something to read on your next flight, Kommute can help out when you don't have a connection.

Free, iOS only

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3 of 6 Screenshots by Sarah Mitroff/CNET

Microsoft Translator

Microsoft's free Translator app gets offline translations on Android and image translations on iOS.

What's new? This month, Microsoft revamped Translator, the app that offers on-the-fly translations for 50-plus languages. The apps use text or speech to translate words and phrases.

The Android app gets offline translations. Just download a language pack (available in Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, Russian, Polish and Portuguese) before your next trip, and you can translate without connecting to the Internet.

Microsoft Translator for iOS now has optical character recognition so that you can point the app's camera at a sign or document and translate it by taking a photo.

Free, Android and iOS

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4 of 6 Screenshots by Sarah Mitroff/CNET

Movesum

Movesum is probably the prettiest pedometer app I've ever seen.

What does it do? The app measures the steps you take everyday and translates that number to real-world food examples. Walk 5,000 steps in a day, and Movesum shows that you've burned off one beer or 24.5 stalks of celery. Movesum encourages you to keep up a daily streak of hitting your step goal, which you can change anytime you want.

It works on Android and iOS, and uses the step data recorded by the free Google Fit app or Apple's built-in Health app.

Why should I care? If you're trying to move more to stay healthy, it can be hard to tell how much of a difference an extra thousand steps can make. Movesum makes it more relatable with simple food illustrations and a simple design.

Free, Android and iOS

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5 of 6 Screenshots by Sarah Mitroff/CNET

My Blend

Newsletters don't always look awesome in your inbox, especially when you're on your phone. This new app can help.

What does it do? My Blend gathers all of your email newsletters and promotional emails into a pretty, magazine-like layout that's so pleasing to look at that you might actually read them.

You can pick which emails are added to My Blend and it will build your magazine from that. You can also browse popular newsletters to add to magazine.

Why should I care? If like me, you inbox gets so overrun with newsletters that you rarely open them, My Blend can give you a better place to read and enjoy them. Plus it's a great way to determine if you even want to keep getting a newsletter and easily unsubscribe.

Free, iOS only

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6 of 6 Screenshots by Sarah Mitroff/CNET

Peach

Peach, the social network of the moment, has finally arrived on Android. The app is a bit of a mix between Facebook and Tumblr, letting you share status updates, GIFs, photos and more in a stream that looks a bit like a personal blog. You can follow friends and see what their stream looks like.

What's new? After debuting on iOS in January, the app is now officially available for Android.

Free, Android and iOS

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