New apps for every platform

JAMES O’CONNOR REVIEWS THE MOST INTERESTING NEW APPS FOR iOS AND ANDROID.

Disney + GO SEE A STAR WAR. $8.99 a month | disneyplus.com

Now that Stan has lost all of Disney’s back catalogue (but, sidenote, has maintained a tremendous library that gives local Netflix a serious run for its money), you’ll need to migrate over to Disney + to watch Star

Wars and your favourite Marvel movies without having to fish out the Blu-rays you probably also own (thanks for calling me out - Ed). Disney + will, more than likely, have something you care about, whether it’s a so-so new Star Wars TV series or every episode of The Simpsons ever released, and one account can be used across ten separate devices, which is fantastic. Putting aside whether or not Disney is openly damaging the entertainment industry with its gross, terrifying monopoly for a moment (although, sidenote: yes it is), Disney+ is a good service (that we review in full on p.16) with a great app. The clean UI is very readable, the search options are useful, and while I wish you could search in landscape instead of needing to switch how you hold your phone whenever you exit content back to the menu, that’s a minor quibble.

Daily Haloha YOU SAY GOODBYE, AND I’LL SAY HALOHA. Free | www.dailyhaloha.com

Daily Haloha’s central philosophy is the idea that we’re “all in this together”, and that the simple act of sharing our cute answers to equally cute questions will make us feel a bit more connected. It’s very simple – every 12 hours you’re presented with a new fill-in-theblank, like “one of my personal superpowers is ” or “an action I can take to make today better is ”, which you answer. You swap answers with another user, and pick from a handful of reactions, which are then sent back to them. You can also view a log of every answer submitted. The app relies on the idea that making a complete stranger potentially smile once or twice a day is nice, and it absolutely is – I was surprised by how good I felt when I got a smile back for my asinine response to a question. Still, Daily Haloha is perhaps more harmless than actually helpful, and so far it hasn’t revealed any grand truth of human nature or made me feel legitimately more connected to anyone. Regardless, it’s a bit sweet.

Spkr PODCAST PICK ‘N MIX. Free | www.spkr.com/

Spkr is the kind of app that you’ll likely come away from thinking “I suppose there must be a market for this nonsense, right?” It’s a podcast app that gives you themed channels to jump between, and gives you a bunch of little podcast samples from across the genre. Jump into True Crime, for instance, and you’ll be treated to some short snippets of all the hot podcasts that you’re probably already aware of. These don’t seem to be sections that the podcasters themselves have submitted, mind; it’s common practice for podcasts to make their own highlight clips or episodes to entice new listeners, but the curated feeds here mix together news reports with out-of-context bits from long-form series and a bizarre number of ads for the service you’re already using. You can seek out and listen to full episodes through the app too, but the interface for doing so is a mess. It’s true enough that podcast curation is less than ideal across every major app, but this is not the answer.

MIA – Live NBA On Demand A SLAM DUNK. $6.95 per month | missinginaction.com.au

MIA is basically what it sounds like – on demand NBA at an affordable price. When you sign up and log in, you have access to the last ten NBA games played in the “On Demand” portal, and there’s also a continuous station that airs matches, interviews, commentary, and other basketball-related programming. You can check the tables, watch shorter recap and highlight clips, and watch games live as they happen. Like Kayo before it, the start points of broadcasts can be a bit off, and I found that often the beginning of one game would spoil the outcome of another. It’s also badly lacking in playback options, with no skip forward buttons or preview of the next clip that’s about to play if you’re watching short videos. But sports fans have long had to either sign up to Foxtel or pay high fees for season passes, and MIA represents a nice, cheap system for casual fans to enjoy the NBA. It’s a great entry point if you want to start getting into the sport.

Spelfie GIVE ME SOME SPACE. Free | www.spelfie.com/

Spelfie’s on this list not because it’s particularly worth reviewing, but because it strikes me as an interesting object to talk about. The app is functionally useless unless you happen to be near the site of an upcoming event with Spelfie functionality; so far there have been very few. It allows you to take a selfie at one of these sanctioned events, and then you’ll later receive a photo taken from space by a satellite with a powerful telescopic lens. It’s obviously going to be used for marketing stunts, and while it’s a logistically impressive concept you’re not going to see anything as exciting as, say, a nice photo taken out a plane window from someone flying over Sydney. It’s an advertising concept wrapped up in space fetishisation, designed to let you help brands better sell their products while consumers are made to feel like you’re taking part in something bigger because of the inherent symbolism of it all. We’re not living in the sci-fi future we were promised yet, but already space has been corrupted by capitalism.

Door Dash CHEW ON THIS. Free | www.doordash.com/

Food delivery service Door Dash is slowly making its way into Australia, with restaurants from Melbourne and Sydney now appearing on the app. If we’re just talking about the app itself, and the user experience, it’s honestly hard to fault Door Dash. At launch delivery is free on orders over $15, and all the information you could want on each restaurant is laid out clearly. There are helpful photos, the search functionality is great, and the UI is inviting. Plus, plenty of restaurants have already come on board. So far so food, but it doesn’t take much digging before you might start to question whether this app, like Uber Eats and Deliveroo before it, are businesses you feel comfortable supporting. Door Dash is notorious in the US for underpaying workers and relying very heavily on tips; it’s unclear what payments are like in Australia. There have also been reports of restaurants being signed up for the service against their will, not realising that the pick-up orders they’re receiving are for app users until the delivery folks arrive. We might hold off until we hear more about the worker’s experiences.