Blackberry and Smartphone

Need a guide through the maze of mapping apps out there? Lost in a Spaghetti Junction of software? Go straight ahead for two sentences. Ignore this one. You have reached your destination.


There are loads of reasons to use a smartphone - but one of the best is to get from A to B. Android really has that sewn up for the basics, but theres loads more to be gained from having a quick run through the Google Play Store.

So check out our rundown of the best apps to get where you want to go, see the best things or explore the night sky.

Google Maps

Download from Google Play
The world belongs to Google now, so who better to guide you through it? The app already offers voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, live traffic info, Street View and indoor maps for major stores, hotels and airports, with increased personalisation just announced.

Navfree

Download from Google Play
This open-source satnav lets you download route maps before you start a journey, so you dont need a data connection once youre on the road, something that still trumps Google Maps. Its various routing options including walking routes, and automatic redirection whenever you take a wrong turn.

Outdoor Navigation

Download from Google Play
Aimed at hikers, bikers, joggers and doggers (probably), this route planner uses Google Maps and others to help you find your way through the woods. Maps display latitude, longitude and a digital compass, while stats track your progress, speed, etc.

Maverick GPS Navigation

Download from Google Play
Another good option when going off-road, Maverick lets you scroll through a wide range of online maps then caches them for use offline.

Save and share options include Google-friendly GPX route recording, so everyone can see exactly where youve been.

GPS Essentials

Download from Google Play
Casual travellers will be overwhelmed by the wealth of data, but hardcore navigators will feel they were headed here all along.

A customisable dashboard offers 45 widgets, ranging from altitude, bearing, declination and distance to latitude, longitude, sunrise, moonrise and more.

Tube Map Live Underground

Download from Google Play
The iconic London Underground map is a classic of no-nonsense navigation and this is the best of many Android apps to give it an interactive update, with a GPS station finder and route planner, live arrivals and departures and more.

Boat Beacon AIS Navigation

Download from Google Play
Offering basic marine navigation, this clever app uses AIS (Automatic Identification System) data to keep you apprised of your place on the water in relation to other vessels, up to 12 miles off the coast in the UK and US.

StarStruck Navigation

Download from Google Play
Taking the art of navigation right back to its roots, this app determines your location by the stars and planets in the night sky.

Using your smartphones sensors as a makeshift sextant, its a fun and battery-friendly alternative to GPS.

Soviet Military Maps Free

Download from Google Play
This app delivers exactly what it says: cold war topography from behind the iron curtain.
Though mostly complied in the 1980s, its coverage of Africa and Asia offers details Google is yet to get to grips with.

Plus: just look at it. Its more detailed than you can ever hope to see, and reminds us of the long car journeys where looking at the map was the only thing to keep us entertained.

Geocaching

Download from Google Play
A modern take on the treasure map, the official app of Geocaching.com includes coordinates for close to two million hidden containers around the world, with options to sort by difficulty or location. A great way to discover this GPS-based hobby.

The Nexus 4 has it all as far as most Android users are concerned. A gorgeous slim design, a sharp display, enough power and RAM to run games and Twitter with ease, and those critical sparkly bits on the back of it that give you something else to look at when youre done trawling your usual apps and feeds.


More importantly, being a Nexus device means its always first in line for software updates direct from Google, so it always features the very latest pre-loaded apps and tools that other Android users have to wait for their makers to port across.

Currently the Nexus 4 is running on the 4.2.2 iteration of Googles mobile software, which is as new as it gets. Were also expecting Google to push out an updated version of Android quite soon, most likely version 4.3, over the coming weeks. But until then, get the most out of your current edition Nexus 4 by installing these ten top apps that further enhance Googles current Android flagship.

DashClock Widget

One of the new additions within Android 4.2 that Nexus 4 owners can enjoy is the ability for some widgets to be installed on the lock screen, with the lock screen itself scrolling from left to right like the phones actual desktop.

DashClock Widget replaces the default clock, also letting you select from a list of additional extensions that add more data to the lock display.

You can have your emails incorporated there, the weather, battery status, upcoming Calendar entries, SMS messages and more, all in a stylish, Android-like layout. Its the Nexus advantage in full effect.

SphereShare.net

The Nexus 4 doesnt have the best physical camera in the smartphone world, but it does have Googles most feature-packed camera software -- including the impressive PhotoSphere tool that lets anyone create Street View style 360-degree panoramas by walking around in a circle and letting the phone stitch together the results.

Problem is, these PhotoSpheres are large, difficult to share and are usually only viewable through Google+, which is where SphereShare.net comes it. It lets you browse PhotoSpheres taken by other Nexus 4 users on your phone, giving you an instant gallery of staggering panoramas to leaf through and drop into.

Photosphere Live Wallpaper

If you have been so absorbed by the act of slowly rotating on the spot to categorise your surroundings you want a constant reminder on your Home screen, install this.

It lets you set a PhotoSphere as your wallpaper, using left and right swipes to scroll it roughly in time with the screens it sits behind, and the phones motion control sensors to move your "head" up and down.

Relive that great view or a 360-degree panorama of your bedroom with ease.

Chrome Beta

The Nexus 4s very latest Android OS already comes with the excellent mobile Chrome browser built-in, so the only way to get an even more bleeding-edge, nerdy web experience is to install Chrome Beta.

Its a separate, standalone app, which Google uses to test new functionality with understanding users who dont mind the odd glitch. It means you get new features first, which is one of the big reasons people invest in Nexus devices in the first place.

Feedly

If your Nexus is your mobile news hub, youll no doubt be gutted that Googles decided to close its Reader RSS feed tool by the summer of 2013.

This leaves a massive chasm in the world of desktop and mobile RSS reader apps, with few alternatives offering such a seamless RSS experience.

Fortunately, Feedlys just about there when it comes to matching Googles old Reader in terms of cross-platform reading, article syncing and sharing, plus it comes with a vastly superior design that borrows heavily from the stylish news aggregators like Flipboard and Googles own Currents app.

Twilight

This is a weird one, but it might change your life. Or at least change the sleeping part of it.

Twilight makes some very believable claims about the blue spectrum of light emitted by mobile screens, suggesting its these that tell our brains its the middle of the day -- despite the fact we tend to stare at our phones in the darkness before going to bed.

By eliminating the blue light from the screen output this app supposedly alleviates the effects of looking at a bright light in a dark room, helping your brain realise its dark and therefore bedtime. In short, it might help you sleep better if youre in the habit of using your phone before bed, in return for using a red-tinted display.

WeVideo

WeVideo adds loads more options to editing movies on the Nexus 4, letting users drag and drop videos onto a timeline to create long-form edits, add filters, drop in images and MP3s for use as a soundtrack, create titles and much more.

Google ought to buy it for a few hundred million and make it a standard thing.

Cinemagram

While Android users wait for Twitters developers to release a version of video sharing app Vine for Android, theres this stylish alternative to practise on.

Its pretty much exactly the same as Vine, letting users record short clips, live, with the press of a button to start/stop recording, which are automatically compiled into tidy, looping edits, and chucked online to share through social sites.

Theres some social network stuff built in too, but its best used as simple a simple way to share small video files.

Dextr Email Beta

There are plenty of third-party email apps competing for installation on your Nexus 4, plus the onboard generic Email option that comes as part of Android 4.2 is certainly worth using, too.

But this ones different. It syncs with a Gmail account and replaces Googles mail tools, giving you a simpler interface built around threaded messages that pop up in a modern Android-inspired layout.

A friend system lets you sort the humans from the automated notices that plague modern email, hopefully making reading messages less of a chore.

CloudMagic

Make sense of that mass of social networks, email providers and cloud services with Cloud Magic, which lets you search through all of them in one go.

The first task is the not insignificant chore of opening the app and separately signing in to everything again, but climb that mountain of tedium and you can then use its interface to search your Google account, various social networks, Microsofts mail systems, Evernote files and more, all through one little search box.

Do it often and you have to pay for increased access, but the occasional rummage is free -- and theres a lock screen widget for ease of access, too.

If you are the lucky owner of a Samsung GALAXY Note II then you need to check out our video guide to the best apps to make the most of Samsungs innovative pressure sensitive S Pen.


The real beauty of the Samsung GALAXY Note II is the fact that it opens up a whole new world of apps that work even better with the S Pen. Check out the video above for a run through of our current favourite apps on the Google Play store that make the most of the S Pen.

LayerPaint

£1.99
If you want to create something really spectacular on your Note II, then an arty app is a good place to start. LayerPaint makes the creative process even easier by allowing you to work with different layers.

There are loads of handy tools available to help perfect your masterpiece, including brushes, bucket tool, gradation and hand tool.

Once youre happy with your creation, you can even export your work as a Photoshop file to pick up where you left off on your laptop or desktop computer.

Touch ReTouch HD

£0.62
An app thats essential for any keen photographers out there is Touch ReTouch. Using your S Pen, you can tweak and edit your GALAXY Note II photos in great detail quickly and easily. You can remove shadows, ghosts and flare, touch-up facial tone and even remove whole bridges and buildings from a background.

Then if youre unsure of the changes, theres an unlimited undo/redo feature and you always keep the original image resolution.

Maze Racer

Free
Maze Racer is hand drawn and looks beautiful. It was originally created for a Best S Pen app competition, so is perfect for the S Pen.

The aim is to draw a line from the word start to the word finish, with lots of obstacles getting in your way.

Youre even encouraged to draw your own levels and send them in – which is made infinitely better using the S Pen.

Angry Birds Space

Free
Angry Birds isnt an S Pen specific app, granted, but we reckon its even better to play with one. The precision of the S Pen is loads better than clumsy fingers and you can swipe your catapult across much faster too.

This time the eponymous Angry Birds and the enemy insolent swines find themselves floating in a strange new galaxy. But of course the games built on the same principles as before – launch your birds to destroy as many pigs as possible. This version has 140 levels to complete too, so should keep you busy.