Five to Try: Angry Birds 2 finally arrives, send self-destructing messages with Kaboom

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Published 31 Jul 2015

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Angry Birds 2 certainly isn’t the second entry in the frequently-exped series, but at first blush, it does seem like a return to form— it leads the week in new Android app releases. so out this week is Kaboom, a service that lets you send “self-destructing” messages via social media, email, texts, or however else you prefer. And Yahoo’s new vetext app aims to merge the best of texting video chat… without audio, curiously.

Bringing up the rear are Five Nights at dy’s 4, the eerie conclusion to the massively successful survival horror series, Microsoft’s Groove, which puts a new spin on its Xbox Music streaming service. Ready for the weekend? Grab the latest apps games enjoy. 

Angry Birds 2

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th an aesthetic that’s somewhere between watercolors cel-shading, Angry Birds 2 offers a glossy upgrade.

After spotty detours into role-playing, match-three puzzling, bubble popping, Rovio’s classic mobile series is back in fine form with Angry Birds 2. It’s finally a proper sequel, almost six years after the original, exping out the familiar pull–fling concept with new mechanics, revised progression design, really striking graphics.

ed, like all of the company’s work these days, it’s a free-to-play game—which means regenerating lives, a map screen that surely has barriers between later worlds, frequent Facebook prompts, paid “spells” (read: cheats). If you can stomach all of that, it’s solid fun in the early stages, there’s plenty to dig into with 240 levels right off the bat. lcome back, old friend.

Kaboom

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Tap out a message, add an image if you’d like, then share it with the world—it’ll disappear when you want it to.

Snapchat is ideal for sharing ephemeral messages with another user, but what if you want to send out a temporary message to all your Twitter followers or Facebook friends, or pass along a short-lived link via SMS or email? That’s where Kaboom can help: it creates a “self-destructing” web link with your text or image message of choice, then disappears when you want it to.

You can choose the length of time it stays live share directly to social networks from within the app, or you can snag the UR simply paste it wherever you please. ed, Kaboom can’t delete your tweets or posts pointing people towards the link—only the contents of the links themselves—but if you want to pass along a message that won’t haunt you in a day (or hour, or 10 minutes), Kaboom is an easy way to accomplish that.

Yahoo vetext

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nk up on vetext you can text while seeing the other person in real-time. That’s the whole premise!

Here’s another app trying to butt into a space that Snapchat currently has on lockdown, the concept is a bit perplexing. In short, it’s a video chat app that doesn’t transmit any sort of sound. Instead, you’ll tap out text exchanges emoji that sit atop the streamed image, so there’s still active communication beyond the visual image. 

It’s an unconventional premise, to be sure, but we can imagine places in which it might be hy: while sitting in a classroom, on the train, or waiting in a queue. On the other h, it seems like the kind of app that’s so niche that you won’t find many friends on it. But if your besties are into watching you while you text them, maybe that’s enough. 

Five Nights at dy’s 4

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dy’s still has a janky, lo-fi aesthetic… which probably amps up the scares, to be honest.

Since last August, indie developer Scott Cawthon has released three Five Nights at dy’s games, which have collectively spawned tens of millions of downloads kicked into gear a Hollywood film adaptation. Make that four games: Five Nights at dy’s 4 just launched this week, while it maintains the survive-the-night premise cheap scares that made the earlier games YouTube favorites, it shakes up the gameplay style.

eviously, you had to watch the cameras at a kids’ amusement center as creepy creatures began popping up. In dy’s 4, you’re a child at home, the game relies more on audio cues: you’ll need to listen for breathing other sounds use your flashlight at the right moments to ward off eerie invaders. Despite all its success, Five Nights at dy’s 4 looks as drab haphazardly built as the others, but if you like to be spooked, this odd horror sensation can deliver.

Microsoft Groove

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Groove is a better name than Xbox Music, for sure, although the app does little to actually point you towards tunes.

Microsoft debuted an attractive new launcher this week, but it’s in invite-only beta for now, so we’ll loop back on it when it’s officially released. However, the company had something else brewing in the Android world this week amidst its big ndows 10 launch: the rebring of Xbox Music to Groove, along with a new app.

Groove brings together Microsoft’s $10-a-month all-you-can-stream service, ra-style custom radio stations, the ability to put your own music into OneDrive play it from the cloud. That last feature is its biggest perk, because otherwise, this app feels absolutely sparse compared to Spotify. It doesn’t bother with discoverability (beyond radio) or recommendations, so if you’re not excited by OneDrive usage or love Microsoft’s ecosystem, consider Spotify or Rdio instead.