I've picked out the top 20 apps of this , see following the complete list of apps:
Digg (Free)
Web 2.0 veteran Digg has been reinvented in recent times, promising to serve up "the most interesting and talked-about stories on the Internet", from blog posts to videos and social networking updates. Its app is one of a number jostling for position as replacements for Google Reader, enabling you to hoover up RSS feeds and share stories to social networks.
Simon The Sorcerer (£2.70)
A generation of gamers has fond memories of adventure game Simon the Sorcerer, which first came out 20 years ago. Now it's been revived for modern-day Android devices, with controls tweaked for touchscreens. As before, it sees novice pointyhat Simon dealing with "goblins, dwarves, swamplings, stupid wizards and sleeping giants".
Repix (Free)
Another photo-sharing app? Well, this is more about photo-editing: the emphasis with Repix is on what you do to your photos before sharing them to various social services. Filters, yes, but also "handcrafted effect brushes" to touch up your shots with more than 30 effects, and simple cropping and adjustments tools.
Monster Match (Free)
Monster Match got me hooked on holiday last week with its combination of match-three puzzling and Pokemon-style monster-collecting. It sees you finding and battling more than 225 beasties by matching gems, with plenty of nuances in balancing the various abilities and levelling up. The inspiration is fairly clear: Puzzle & Dragons, currently one of the most lucrative mobile games in the world. But you can't yet play that here in the UK, so Monster Match is worth a look.
Lego Mindstorms Commander (Free)
Parents! If you've got £299.99 spare for the new Lego Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit for your children (or, indeed, for yourself) you'll be wanting to get the companion Commander app too. It's used as a touchscreen controller for the various robots (Ev3rstorm, R3ptar, Track3r, Spik3r and Gripp3r) that you can build from the kit, including the ability to create your own commands.
Skylanders Cloud Patrol (£1.28)
And in more parental-spending-warning news, here's the latest Skylanders game from Activision: a shooty action game that gets kids to blast troll characters and string combos together to boost their score as high as possible. As on other Skylanders games, children can also scan in the physical toys to play with them in the game.
Siegecraft Defender (£1.92)
Your Android device is surrounded by an army of tower defence games, edging in from every angle. Apt, really. Siegecraft Defender is the latest, from developer Crescent Moon Games, and it's very good indeed as lizardmen battle knights in the world of the Siegecraft games. Impressive graphics and plenty of depth help this stand out from the hordes of rivals.
Lego Duplo Train (Free)
More Lego, but this time it's the company's toddler brand Duplo providing the entertainment. Aimed at two year-olds, it's a colourful train-based game where they build their own trains, bridges and then drive around them.
Flick Kick Field Goal 2014 (Free)
I've had to uninstall the Flick Kick Football game several times after it got in the way of work, and developer PikPok has a good record with making other sports just as addictive too. This new Flick Kick Field Goal game focuses on American Football kicking, as you flick your balls (so to speak) to get as high a score as possible.
Dark Nebula HD - Episode Two (Free)
It's another good week for Android games, with this a sequel to developer Free Lunch Design's first episode of Dark Nebula HD. It's a ball-based puzzler where you tilt to move through 19 levels, with lots of obstacles and enemies trying to impede your progress.
Quip (Free)
Quip is a much-talked-about new word processing app for Android that – from this week – is available in the UK as well as the US. The schtick: it groups documents and messages about them in a chat-like "thread of updates", making collaboration clearer. It works across Android, iOS and desktop computers too.
Lego Mindstorms 3D Builder (Free)
The second of three Lego Mindstorms EV3 apps out this week alongside the kit itself: this is the instructions for actually building the five robots, with zoomable and rotatable 3D diagrams of every step in the process. Essentially it's a replacement for traditional printed instructions, to (hopefully) reduce your swearing as you build the bots for/with an expectant child.
Pulse (£2)
Pulse was excellent when it came out on iOS a while back, and looks just as impressive on Android. It's a musical game where "players become part conductor, part note-captor, part multi-touch master", tapping notes as they move around the circular environment. Hypnotic and rather marvellous.
Ollie the Cat (Free)
More fun for pre-school children here with Ollie, a cat who wants to help children learn to count by spotting animals in his garden. Narrated by a seven year-old – something that I've seen generally appeals to younger children – its illustrations have plenty of character. Soon, it'll get an extra Ollie's Colours story (bought via in-app purchase) to do the same thing for colours.
Kairo (£3.15)
More exploration and puzzle-solving here: Kairo sees you wending your way through "vast abandoned monuments" figuring out what's going on and why you're there. It's big on atmosphere rather than whiz-bang action, and all the better for it.
Lego Mindstorms Fix Factory (Free)
One last Lego Mindstorms app this week: this doesn't work with the real robotics kit, but is rather a puzzle game starring one of them, Ev3rstorm. It sees him exploring a factory looking for lost battery packs: a simple but fun-looking introduction to the new range.
Cast To UPnP/DLNA for GMusic (Free)
Google's new Chromecast dongle, Apple's AirPlay and other technology means slinging media from smartphones to other household devices is front of mind this year. Here's an app for streaming music from the Google Play service – including cloud lockers and the All Access subscription service – to devices that support UPnP/DLNA connectivity. In other words, Chromecast-like abilities for devices that can't be used with Chromecast.
The Last Express (£3)
Jordan Mechner is probably best known as the creator of Prince of Persia, but this is another of his games reworked for Android devices. Originally released in 1997 for PCs: an adventure on the Orient Express with a "maelstrom of treachery, romance, and international intrigue".
Cats vs Dragons (Free)
Not, as such, a fair fight. Or is it? Cats vs Dragons is an RPG-strategy game where the cats punch (claw?) above their wright, battling through a succession of towers duffing up dragons, looting Cat Coins and levelling up. It looks pretty fun, with in-app purchases used to boost your chances.
Clipless (Free)
Although more focused on the US and Canada, Clipless is available here in the UK too. It's a "contextual deal locator" that aims to ping you when there's a discount available at a business near your current location, hoovering up information from more than 2,000 separate discount sites.