We have taken a closer look at all the apps we recommend in this article. If none of the app suggestions in this article appeal to you, it might be worth taking a look at the free apps of the week, which you can find twice a week at nextpit. But enough beating around the bush, let’s get to the nextpit app recommendations!
Train Station 2: Steam Empire
Are you bored of being a train driver or a construction worker? How about a combination of both professions? In Train Station 2: Steam Empire you are building an infrastructure. In addition to new routes, it is up to you to set up a complete infrastructure. You build new stations and manage a fleet of steam locomotives, which you can expand as the game progresses.
- Price: Free / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: Yes / Account required: Yes
To get closer to your goal, you set routes for your trains to collect resources. Use them to expand your city and improve your steam locomotives. But be careful: depending on the materials you collect with the help of your fleet, you decide which buildings you can build first. You can also keep expanding the number of locomotives. The daily goodie in the form of a box, which provides you with additional resources or another train driver, will help you do this.
The game is free and promises long hours of fun. As usual in games, you can also make faster progress in this railroad simulation by investing real money. Whether you make use of this “boost” is of course up to you.
iScanner (Android & iOS)
You know the scene from the movie Rainman where Raymond, played by Dustin Hoffman, counts a bunch of toothpicks spilled in a restaurant at a glance? Thanks to artificial intelligence, you can do the same with the iScanner app. This little tool can scan all kinds of things and evaluate them intelligently, whereby the focus here is not on toothpicks but on texts.
- Price: Free (Android), $14.99 (iOS) / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: Yes ($0.99~ $9.99 for cloud storage) / Account required: No
The main function is that you photograph documents with your smartphone. The app then extracts them and converts the content into digital text at the touch of a button. You can then copy this and send it on or have it summarized. Thanks to the integrated ChatGPT chatbot, you can even chat with the photographed text. You can even check the spelling.
As mentioned at the beginning, the app can also do other things, such as count objects, solve mathematical equations, or calculate photographed areas. Unfortunately, most of the features are only available in the Pro version. This costs $4.99 per week or $19.99 per year if you pay weekly. If you use the app on a regular basis, you will quickly recoup the costs by saving time. Just give it a try: You can test iScanner free of charge for three days.
Return to Monkey Island (Android & iOS)
Guybrush Threepwood – a name like thunder. At least for the older gaming generation or fans of point-and-click adventures. In the 90s, it was hard to imagine the genre without it and one of the greatest representatives was undoubtedly Monkey Island. With “Return to Monkey Island”, you can now return to the brain-teasing duel against LeChuck on your smartphone and finally find the island’s treasure – hopefully.
- Price: $9.99 / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: Yes / Account required: No
In addition to the hero’s well-known sharp words, you can expect exciting puzzles, explorations on the open sea, new islands, and Stan in the latest installment, which was also written by the iconic Ron Gilbert. The controls are very simple, as you tap on an object or a person and you can interact with them. If you get stuck, you can simply slide your finger across the screen and the corresponding interaction options will be displayed.
The game costs $9.99 in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. You don’t get any advertising for this, but according to Apple, in-app purchases are possible, which we have not yet been able to find. In addition, no data is collected here, but the game downloads around 3 GB at the first launch. So if you want a full load of nostalgia or simply want to return to Monkey Island from the comfort of your couch, you should definitely take a closer look at the app.
Stronglifts (Android, iOS)
You signed up for the gym in January full of enthusiasm, but have no idea what you’re supposed to do there? Then the Stronglift 5×5 app provides you with a simple fitness program for beginners that has been tried and tested millions of times. The program is based on just five different barbell exercises. Ideally, you should train three times a week, alternating between two different daily workouts. These workouts each consist of three different exercises, which you perform five times in five rounds.
You start with very low weights to learn how to perform the exercises correctly—videos in the app also help you with this. The trick, however, is to keep increasing your strength workout by workout. The app supports you with variable breaks if, for example, you no longer manage the required number of repetitions during a workout.
- Price: Free / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: Yes ($39.99 / year) / Account required: No
In addition to the main program—Stronglifts 5×5—there are also a number of other and sometimes more complex workouts for advanced users. However, these are hidden behind a payment barrier – the annual subscription costs $39.99.
However, with the Stronglifts 5×5 beginner program in particular, you can use the app free of charge and even ad-free. In addition, the StrongLifts.com app website provides really well-prepared and in-depth information about the training program. This makes the app a top recommendation for weight training beginners.
AEW: Rise to the Top (Android, iOS)
I struggled for a long time with whether to present AEW:Rise to the Top as my app recommendation, but as you can see, I decided to go for it in the end. As the name suggests, it’s a wrestling game that has been licensed by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). So you play with wrestlers you know from radio and television.
- Price: Free / Advertising: None / In-app purchases: Yes / Account required: No
But before I really get started here, I should tell you why I’m asking: Because AEW:Rise to the Top is a game of the simplest nature. It’s basically so simple that you can play it quite casually on the side. And that’s exactly the reason why I’m presenting the game to you here. Because it also needs this kind of variety from time to time.
Basically, you don’t have much more to do than collect the money that your wrestlers earn through fights. Because they fight all by themselves. So you don’t have to learn any special moves that you have to use in the fight. If you’re a real wrestling fan, you’ll enjoy names like Britt Baker, Kris Statlander, Toni Storm, Ruby Soho, Paul Wight, Taz, and Arn Anderson.
By watching short promotional videos, you can significantly speed up the process of earning money. You will also be given other objectives to fulfill during the course of the game in order to further expand your squad. Even the collection of money can later be automated by a manager.
As I have just tested the Honor Magic V2 for you, AEW:Rise to the Top was of course played on the large display. But as you can see, not entirely without losing valuable display space, which is a shame.
How do you like the featured apps of the week? Which app is your favorite? Do you have any other recommendations that you would like to share with the community? Then let us know in the comments!
