As the name says for itself, it’s only an app player, no Android operating system user interface at all. The home screen of the program features an ugly font (looks ugly because by default BlueStacks is launched in fullscreen mode) and simple icons.

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YouWave is a sort of virtual machine (it uses some VirtualBox components) that will run Android Gingerbread 2.3.4 in a friendly user interface with an easy method of installing apps by just placing apks in a YouWave folder found by default in the “My documents” folder or for Windows 7 in “hardiskletter:\Users\yourusername\youwave”.

While the window is neither resizable nor switched in fullscreen, there’s a  button to switch in horizontal mode that is useful for netbooks with maximum resolution of 1024×600.

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In a previous post, I explained what Android is and how Android smartphones can be used to empower people. I mentioned that smartphones from HTC, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola and LG now run on this platform developed by Google.

A Fortune Magazine study published on 16 June 2011 shows that Android smartphone sales in the U.S. is ahead of all other smartphones platforms (e.g. 35% market share compared to 18% for the Apple iPhone).

A major difference between a regular phone and a smartphone is that one can install applications from third parties on smartphones and this is, of course, true for Android devices. The Android Market has, to date, over 240,000 applications, some free, others requiring payment, which have been downloaded more than a billion times to date. In this post, I would like to introduce you to five very interesting Android applications which are all available for free!

World Newspapers

This free application provides access to all newspapers, magazines and online news sites existing in the world. The 6000 newspapers are sorted by country which greatly facilitates exploration. Of course, World Newspapers also lists the few online newspapers available in Mauritius. Keeping oneself abreast of world events becomes easy, fast and pleasant thanks to World Newspapers.

Google Translate

Google Translate is simply magical. You only have to loudly say a sentence and your Android smartphone translates and says the same sentence in a different language! A far cry from the days when you had to use a dictionary for a translation! The potential of this application for people who travel is enormous. Right now, Google Translate requires an Internet connection as the voice recognition and translation are done by the Google cloud.

Facebook

 Can we talk about Android applications without talking about Facebook? In a few years, Facebook has become the essential social network where everyone is connected daily. The official Facebook application provides access to profiles of friends, allows people to interact through walls, share pictures and naturally converse in real time using chat.

An interesting aspect of the Facebook application is its successful integration with the Android address book (also known as contacts). It allows you to enhance your contacts with photos from Facebook (and thus make them more recognizable, for example, during a call) and also to synchronize the status (which gives a clear idea of what your friends are doing in real-time).

Other social networks are not left out. Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn and of course, Google Plus, have applications equivalent to that of Facebook.

Google Earth

Yet another application from Google, some would say! But why not if the result is as fun and interesting as Google Earth? This application allows you to visit, from the comfort of your chair, the entire surface of the globe from Acapulco to Zuxiang via Mauritius. The satellite view is very precise and allows you to recognize the details of a few tens of centimeters. Visit the exterior of the Taj Mahal or the Louvre Museum and try to recognize the lions in the African savannah. Google Earth is a great discovery tool and has enormous potential in the educational environment. It is easy to imagine a teacher doing a course on the rivers of Mauritius and who asks his students to determine what towns and villages the river passes through using this application. Google Earth is the atlas of modern times.

Angry Birds

It is impossible to ignore the global phenomenon which is Angry Birds! This game is deceptively simple because it involves projecting angry birds (hence the name) on pigs to be killed. This gets complicated because the pigs are often between walls must be destroyed so as to reach the animals. Since the number of birds is limited, it requires the player to follow a deliberate tactic in order to kill all the pigs to advance to the next level.

This strategic dimension largely explains the success of Angry Birds. This free game, being so addictive, is responsible for a lot of sloppy work hours, of marital discord and wrinkled friendship! But no matter what, Angry Birds has become a necessity for a lot of people! Perhaps because it allows us to externalize our appetites for destruction