Best New Apps: must-have downloads for your phone, tablet, and more

DashClock Widget is a new widget for Android 4.2 devices that can be placed on a user’s home screen or lock screen. Developed by a Google employee, DashClock provides quick, glance-able information on your device without requiring you to even unlock it. You can see current weather, numbers of unread emails and text messages, upcoming appointments, and more. And since DashClock supports extensions, third-party app developers can tap into it to show you things like battery status, social notifications, and whatever else they feel like cooking up (we’re using a third-party extension to show battery status in our image below). DashClock also gives you some basic options for appearance of the time and date, and you can choose which order the notifications appear in the list. We’ve been looking for the perfect lock screen widget ever since Android 4.2 was announced last year, and we think DashClock Widget might just be it. The only question is, how long will it take Google to just build this in to Android by default?

Free in the Google Play Store

Traktor DJ is one of those apps that sells the entire idea of the iPad itself — it takes the fundamentals of complicated, expensive PC-based DJ programs like Traktor Pro and Serato Scratch Live and reduces them to a handful of simple touch gestures that are ridiculously easy to understand. Instead of a virtual turntable or other strained metaphor, you just tap, swipe, and drum on the waveforms of your tracks directly — Traktor is smart enough to slice up the beats, sync things up, and even suggest other songs from your iTunes library that’ll work well in your set. All you have to do is play.

DJ purists will scoff at this — Traktor DJ automates skills that take years to learn using turntables or CDJs. But the rest of us don’t have to worry about that stuff. We’ll be busy making music — and reclaiming all that space in the bedroom where the 1200s used to sit.

I'd been waiting for a great Android podcast app for a long time, and one has finally arrived. With RSS readers and Twitter clients that match the thoughtful design of their iOS counterparts, the Play Store has started to host quality as well as its undeniable quantity of software — but until now, there's never been a podcast app that wasn't ugly, a pain to use, or both. Pocket Casts is the unlikely savior: it used to be pretty terrible itself, with an awkward interface ported straight from iOS. But the app has been completely overhauled for its new version 4, and the results are fantastic.

If it's not in my calendar, I have exactly zero chance of remembering to do something or be somewhere. The biggest problem with that is "my calendar" lives in so many different places now. I have a work calendar, and a personal calendar; sometimes I only get invited to things on Facebook. Not only does Sunrise bring all that data into one great-looking app, it adds everything else I might need for the day, like the weather and whose birthday it is. The app also lets you do stuff with all that information: I can post "Happy Birthday" on my friend's Facebook in two taps, email everyone who's coming to my meeting this afternoon, and even jump straight to Google Maps to get directions to the restaurant where I'm having dinner. All without ever having to leave the app. I've only been using Sunrise for three days, and I already trust it with my life — if I forget anything now, I don't think I can blame my calendar anymore.

Free on iOS

Weather apps are a dime a dozen these days — who needs another one, right? Well, if you enjoy slick design and pretty animations to go along with your weather forecasts, Haze might be the weather app for you. Haze offers simple weather reports in a clean and attractive interface that relies on gestures to control — something we don't see too often in weather apps. Its use of animated backgrounds to tell you the forecast may not be the most efficient method of reporting the weather — and it will certainly let down those that are looking for detailed hour-by-hour forecasts and Doppler radar — but it’s a fun-to-use app that’s easy on the eyes and ears, and offers a fresh take on your daily weather.

$0.99 on iOS

Facebook Messenger began as a simple way to send messages to Facebook friends, but quickly evolved into a fully fledged texting replacement. Today, you can send pictures, your location, voice messages, and even make calls through the app — all without using any of your monthly minutes or texts. Facebook Messages sync instantly to the social network’s website, which means it’s easy to carry on conversations on your computer, then walk away and take your conversation to go. You might not trust Facebook, but by combining reliability with frequent updates and a presence on multiple platforms, Facebook Messenger might make you want to forget about your phone number.

Free on iOS

We expect only the basics from mobile apps, but Snapseed proves that it doesn’t take multi-level menus and toolbars to make a powerful image editor. The app’s secret lies in a series of simple, smart tools that intuit what you want them to do, rather than mimicking the common options of a standard editor. Once you pick a tool, there are only two choices, more or less, and it makes seeing the effect on your photo both charming and obvious, even if it is unclear what a tool named Atmosphere may do. Snapseed makes photos look exactly how you imagined them, whether you know your way around a color curve or not.

Free on iOS and Android

Cobook doesn’t fix what ain’t broke. It’s essentially Apple’s Contacts app on steroids, with the ability to pull contact information from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn on demand. Cobook can link contact cards with information like a friend’s job title from LinkedIn, location from Facebook, and Twitter handle from Twitter, all without harming your contact files. It might not be the "always synced contact app of the 21st century," but it’s your best option.

Free on iOS