NBA Jam now available on most popular Android devices

Top 10 most popular Android apps from last week: Shot Control, Google Drive, …

Every week we cover Android gaming on Wednesday, followed by Top 10 app updates on Friday. Now every Monday we will look back and see which ones were the most crowd-pleasing among our audience. Read on for the 10 most popular Android apps from your peers.

For the second week in a row, AfterFocus was the most popular app on our site. This camera app is still less than a month old, but it continues to surprise me with the number installs it gets each day. Last week we saw the app receive its first update, which fixed several bugs and improved support for the Galaxy Nexus. The developer says a Pro version is coming in May, so be on the lookout.

Any app related to the camera, battery, or weather normally performs pretty well and Weatherwise followed that trend by debuting at the #2 spot this week. This app was featured in #thenextinstall column and I think people responded to the cool looking promo image above. The app is free so I gave it a try, but it didn’t impress me that much. Only one theme comes with the app, and then additional themes are $0.99 each. It still has an average review score of 4.3, so others are enjoying it more than me.

Carrier Coverage won week 3 of #thenextinstall, so it’s no surprise to see it finish near the top this week. The app still has some bugs, but the developer tells us that a new version is already in the works. If you like the concept of this app, some other alternative include Coverage Mapper, Cell Phone Coverage Map, and Sensorly.

Last week Google updated their Docs app into Google Drive, and the daily installs spiked to an all time high. The wait for Google Drive was a long one, but many people checked it out to get the 5 GB of free cloud storage.

Phonedeck is a new app that lets users manage a mobile phone right from their computer. The online dashboard lets a user read and send SMS, get incoming call notifications, edit contacts, view usage stats, and even locate a lost phone. I don’t have a need for the app so I haven’t tried it out, but early users are giving it mixed reviews. Some love the included features, while others say the app is clunky and uses up too much data. The app is still young with only 10,000 installs and we think it has potential, so it will be interesting to see how it develops over the coming months.

Samsung unveils the next Galaxy phone on May 3rd, and you can watch it live on the Unpacked 2012 app. It had some problems when it was first released, but Samsung has pushed out several updates that add support to a host of devices.

Down a couple spots from last week, AIVC comes in as the #7 most popular app. Voice functions in the free version allow you to control call, SMS, email, translation, navigation, alarm, timer, app launcher, calculator, Facebook, web search, weather, and search images. The app is ad-supported, but a Pro version kills them for $2.99.

For the 3rd week in a row, Battery HD makes our Top 10 list. If anything, I think this shows how important battery life is to the average Android user. The app has racked up 500,000 installs this month and it’s on pace to pass 1 million soon. Battery HD won’t extend your battery life, but it can tell you how long you can use each app.

Nova Launcher is a highly customizable, performance driven, home screen replacement for Android 4.0+ devices. We see launchers come and go quite frequently, and Nova and Apex Launcher are the new kids on the block right now. Both launchers are free, so give each one a try and see which fits your needs.

Shot control is a paid camera app designed to help serious photographers take better photographs. I haven’t used it yet, so I’ll refer you to a reader review from Trent. ”Simply put: this is a great tool for every mobile photographer out there. Having all of the camera controls on the main screen is heavenly, & you are able to adjust white balance, flash, exposure, & basically everything else without opening a menu. I love that you can map camera functions to the volume rocker. The developer is extremely responsive & the app is constantly being fine-tuned & refined. He is clearly committed to making this the most flat-out functional camera app on the market. Get it!”

Top 10 most popular Android apps from last week: EyeEm, Temple Run, GPS Essentials

Every week we cover Android gaming on Wednesday, followed by Top 10 app updates on Friday. Now every Monday we will look back and see which ones were the most crowd-pleasing among our audience. Read on for the 10 most popular Android apps from your peers.

This game was a smash hit on iOS and we have been waiting a long time for it to come to Android, so it’s no surprise that Temple Run received over 1 million installs in the first three days. Readers of our site clicked on Temple Run 2x more than any other app last week. It was almost my most-played game in the last Android Gaming Weekly.

Gameloft’s Dungeon Hunter 3 only debuted this weekend, but it was still able to grab 2nd place. We think it got a lot of installs because it’s a free title, but that same freemium model might also be responsible for the poor average review score of 3.2. Some people still love the game, so give it a try if you are looking for a free action RPG to burn up some time.

We had never covered GPS Essentials until it appeared in our Top 10 app updates, but this little app described as “The Swiss army knife of GPS navigation” was the 3rd most popular on our site. It’s free in the Google Play Store where it has an average review score of 4.4, so try it out if you love GPS tools.

Installs spiked to 30 day high.

We first featured Camera360 a couple weeks ago and it debuted at #1 in our first ever Top 10 Most Popular Apps last week. This time around it dropped 3 spots, but it’s still racking up the installs and maintains an average review score of 4.3. I named Camera360 one of my favorite camera replacement apps, and I’ve still been using it quite frequently.

Installs spike after featured on A&M.

I fully expect EyeEm to become the most popular app next week. It’s that good. EyeEm is another camera replacement app, but it has a unique real-time photo search engine that automatically tags your photos based on location, time, and the objects in a photo. All the standard filters and frames are included, and EyeEm also has a social network that includes public albums of similar topics you might enjoy. If you already installed Camera360, try out EyeEm and let us know which you like better.

GO TaskManger already has over 10 million installs, but it managed to capture the #6 spot when we mentioned it for the first time last week. The latest major update turned their widget into a more powerful app that they claim is more useful. The app is free in the Google Play Store, so try it out if you need a new task manager.

Camera apps have been hot lately, and Lightbox continues to ride that wave. Last week Lightbox ranked #4, but it still managed a respectable #7 this time around. It’s special because it has it’s own social network with a feed of all your friends pics. The app is free and still maintains an average review score of 4.4.

The King of Fighters briefly appeared on the Google Play Store last week, but it was mysteriously pulled down by the time we mentioned it in Android Gaming Weekly on Wednesday. We included a download link in case the game came back, and enough people clicked on it for the game to rank #8 this week. Hopefully, the developer SNK Playmore will resolve any issues and get this classic fighting series back up for sale.

This week MobileBits expanded their open beta of SoulCraft to include non-Tegra devices for the first time. Gamers responded and installed the game over 10,000 times so far. Early reviews are positive, and it looks like this game will keep getting better as it nears release.

Google’s MyTracks has been around a long time, but last week an update added a new feature that let users play back a track as a tour using the Google Earth mobile client. It sounds awesome, and that was enough to help MyTracks crack our Top 10 list.

Some quick notes from this week’s Top 10 most popular apps:

Only 2 apps held over from last week: Camera360 and LightBoxGames held the top 2 spots, and 4 of the top 10If you app is featured on A&M, installs could spike to all time highsI like writing these weekly columns

Find an app that we should feature on Android and Me? Send us your suggestions and we will check them out.