The perfect apps for Sony’s waterproof photo star of a smartphone…
Just bought a Sony Xperia Z1? Lucky you – as our review points out, it’s a stonker of a smartphone with a fantastic camera and one of the most life-proof builds in mobile. Here are ten ideal apps (eight of them free) to get you started.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP EXPRESS (FREE)
Snaps taken with the Z1’s camera can be cropped, straightened, rotated and flipped, and adjusted via slider for parameters like colour, contrast, clarity and tint. Alternatively, just tap the auto-fix button and the app will tweak everything using its own algorithms.
There are also over 20 filters to apply, and the ability to share photos directly to all the usual social media suspects.
FLICKR (FREE)
Photo sharing service Flickr has been around for eons (in internet terms at least) and over the past couple of years flirted with fading into near-obscurity – but owner Yahoo! recently gave it a much-needed shot in the arm by handing every user a free terabyte of storage space.
The mobile layout is much improved too, with a cleaner look and the ability to watch slideshows of your (or anyone else’s) shots, or simply swipe through them.
Get it here
MAPMYHIKE (FREE)
The Xperia Z1 is tougher than 99 percent of its rivals – one of the few flagship smartphone models you could take out on a hike and not have to clad in some kind of watertight kevlar case.
This app, from the makers of MapMyRun, is designed for hikers and thus tracks time, distance and elevation as you yomp through the wilderness. And because it plots accurate maps of your routes, it’s a great way to remember the best ones for next time.
Get it here
INSTAGRAM (FREE)
Instagram needs little introduction: it’s the app that created a social network from square-format, artistically-filtered smartphone photographs (and now video clips). A great way to get more use out of the Z1’s excellent camera, not least because your contacts’ shots will likely inspire you to try new things.
NOVA LAUNCHER PRIME (£2.60)
It won’t suit everybody, but if you want maximum scope to customise your Xperia Z1’s home screen Nova Launcher is the app for you.
It lets you create folders in the app drawer (woo!), create custom tabs to organise apps more effectively (double woo!), but its sexiest trait is that it gives you the ability to set actions and app startup to certain gestures. It also shows missed call, SMS and email counts on the home screen.
REDDIT IS FUN (FREE)
This app aims to change all that, and largely succeeds. The UI is much more phone-friendly than the browser layout, making subreddits pain-free to browse, and you can sync it all up with your Reddit account. And despite being in beta, it’s largely stable and glitch-free.Reddit is one of the web’s greatest repositories of interesting links, images, videos and memes – but it’s not the easiest thing to view on your phone.
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