An Xtreme alarm clock, a couple of brain teasers and a fancy calendar, here are the apps of the week

By Abhilash Pavuluri

With the last week of July rolling in, we’ve rounded up one last selection of apps for you that aren’t quite as popular as Prisma (yet). A gentle alarm clock, a game with dots, and an efficient notepad. Read on to check them out!

Alarm Clock Xtreme+Timer

If you’re annoyed with the blaring of your alarm every morning and need something a little softer, try Alarm Clock Xtreme. A far more customisable app than the usual stock alarm, Xtreme lets you add as many alarms as you want. It has a gentle awakening mode so you don’t have to curse the alarm every time, and it also has a sleep tracker (that’s currently in beta mode) so you can keep track of how much sleep you’ve been getting over a time period. There’s also the usual stopwatch and timer.

The alarm’s ringtone can be set to start slowly and then gently increase in volume to wake you gently. You can also customize the method of resetting the alarm, like shaking the phone, or even solving a maths problem (Which might not be the most prudent option, early in the morning!).

The sleep tracker uses your phone’s sensors and accelerometer to track sleep behaviour and duration. Once a simple calibration is done, the phone starts to track sleep.

Alarm Clock Xtreme is available on Android

Brain It On!

Physics geeks, this one is for you. ‘Brain It On!’ Is a puzzle solver that uses real-world physics for each puzzle. The puzzles start off easy, say drawing a simple shape to project it into a container, but then increases in complexity. You draw shapes to solve the puzzle. Physics applies here so each shape you make will have an impact on the ultimate outcome of the game, when the shape “falls” onto the field.

There is a time limit to each level and you must be quick. You also have a limited number of moves. We think these constraints are the reason for the game’s quirky name, and it certainly lives up to its name. You can also share challenges with your friends and compete for the ‘Brain It On!’ crown against other people.

Brain It On! is available on  Android  and iOS

DigiCal Calendar

DigiCal is a calendar, reminder, notifier, weather station and a lot more all in one. Based on Material Design, the app looks really neat and ‘linear’.

To start with, the calendar is neatly laid out and can be viewed in black or white. It integrates itself with your Google account and so all dates highlighted there are visible here as well. Even birthdays and holidays.

You can add calendar widgets, add events (which appear like Post-it notes that come in over 42 colors) to each day, and subscribe to the DigiCal catalogue that displays upcoming events, holidays, sports shows and the like. The calendar layout can also be adjusted to show a single day’s schedule, the week’s schedule and so on.

You can also subscribe to the global weather forecast, which nicely integrates into the calendar so that you can plan events accordingly. There is a pro version that has two extra widgets, no ads and a custom snooze option for reminders.

Download Digical is available on Android

Launcher Lab

Launcher Lab is a 100 percent customizable launcher plus theme pack for Android. Using Launcher Lab, you can set one of the pre-loaded themes, design your own home screens and download themes from others as well.

The launcher is highly customizable. You have the ability to change even the minutest of details, such as how the battery icon looks, the size of individual icons on the home page, and so on. You can also change the size and resolution of the background for the text. You also have the ability to change the transitions and animation of the launcher when using the phone, depending on touch or even shaking the phone.

Launcher lab also allows you to design your own theme from scratch and download themes from the theme store.

Overall, it’s a versatile app with a huge level of customization.

Launcher Lab is available on Android

Transmission

Transmission is a relatively old game on the Play Store, with the last update having been in October 2014. Still, it’s a great puzzler whose goal is to make as many network connections in a circuit as possible. There are different levels based on different forms of communication, like Telegraph, Telephone and so on.

You have a transmitter, and your job is to make sure that connections to a receiver are made. There are transceivers in the middle to store information and send it when needed. As with every puzzle game, there are a limited number of moves and the levels increase with difficulty as you go on. It’s a minimalistic game and a very small download of about 8.2MB, so don’t wait any more.

Transmission is available on Android and iOS