Android

You may be fine with your smartphone's onboard camera software, and maybe the popular Instagram photo-edit-and-post app, but there are many alternatives to them. Here are a few. Snapseed , a photo-editing app for Android and Apple devices from Nik Software, is now free. It used to cost $5, but Google Inc. bought Nik this year and has tuned the app to work smoothly with the Google+ social network. Some longtime users say the heart of the app remains about as it was, and it happily posts to Facebook (which owns Instagram)

If the world ever seems to be spinning too fast, my advice is to stay away from the latest crop of smartphones: Apples, Androids, Windows, probably even the latest BlackBerry. If you're not keeping up, the pace of progress can make you dizzy. The LG Spirit 4G, debuted in January by MetroPCS, is a case in point. For just $199 (after a $70 rebate), you get a responsive, full-featured Android smartphone with a 4.5-inch screen - longer and wider than an iPhone 5, yet less than four-tenths of an ounce heavier.

Next week, Amazon will start to sell Philips' new, personal control, Hue LED bulbs. Boasting a built-in microprocessor and Wi-Fi receiver, each Hue can be remotely triggered to turn on, dim, and change color from a free app loaded onto an iOS, Android or Kindle device. A starter bundle of three "60-watt equivalent" Hue bulbs and (Internet linked) base-station module will go for $199.97 at the online retailer.

Now that it's baseball season, smartphone applications are making it easy to check scores during important meetings and dinner dates. Just keep nodding. ESPN ScoreCenter , free for Android and iOS from ESPN Inc., lets you check any score, anytime, for virtually any sport. To set up the app for your favorite sports and teams, you'll need to log in with a Facebook account or register at http://espn.go.com . Then log in from the app and start selecting. While following a live baseball game, you can see who's at bat, check stats, tap on "game feed" to read about each pitch, tap "social" for a Twitter feed, or comment in an area called "Section 140," where you are warned that your posts "may be used on TV and other ESPN media platforms.

Getting to the school in a remote Tanzanian village meant 22 hours of travel, including three plane rides and an exceedingly bumpy, four-hour Jeep trek. But Sister Francesca Onley, the 79-year-old president of Holy Family University, is glad she made the trip. With money from a United Nations organization, Holy Family teamed with a Stanford University professor to give handheld learning computers and phones to teenagers who live in impoverished conditions who had little previous experience with technology.

Bring on the potholes. The freeze and thaw of winter inevitably results in a rash of suspension-rattling, tire-popping, bone-jarring craters. But now you can fight back with one more tool - your smartphone. Pothole Alert , from Cab Match L.L.C., is a free application for iPhones and Android devices that is ridiculously simple to use for reporting potholes to local authorities and a website that logs and maps pothole locations. Launched last year in Washington, the app's coverage is now available in parts of 30 states, including some of North Jersey; on state roads throughout Pennsylvania; city streets in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; and county-maintained roads in Montgomery County.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google's stock price topped $800 Tuesday for the first time amid renewed confidence in the company's ability to reap higher profits from its dominance of Internet search and prominence in the growing mobile market. The milestone comes more than five years after Google's shares initially hit $700. Not long after breaking that barrier in October 2007, the economy collapsed into the worst recession since World War II and Google's stock tumbled into a prolonged malaise that eventually led to a change in leadership.

A proliferation of place-specific apps can help you catch a bus, stop blight, or drop the dime on municipal fraud. Many cities have released "311" apps that help individuals report potholes, illegal dumping, and the like to the proper authorities without a lot of phoning, running around, and filing of forms. There are NYC 311 , Baltimore 311 , Grand Rapids 311 , and so on. Philly311 is a free app for Android and Apple devices. Its maker, PublicStuff, has a roster of apps for municipalities around the country under titles such as Fix It Plano for that North Texas suburb and DigiTally for the good citizens of Tallahassee, Fla. With Philly311, if you spot an eyesore - say, graffiti on a building or a mattress by the roadside - tap the "New Request" icon on the menu screen.

Get hyper-local with Trover. Share your discoveries with fellow travelers, from a delicious meal in New York to a pride of lazy lions in Kenya. Name: Trover Available for: Android, iPhone What it does: Opens up the world one image at a time. Merges geolocation and photo-sharing to let users capture and share snapshots from their current locations. Cost: Free What's hot: Launched by online names such as Rich Barton, chairman and founder of Expedia.com and cofounder of Zillow, and Jason Karas, who founded the eco-social gaming company Carbonrally.com.

Can a trip planner work overtime as a travel journal and protect confidential documents too? Maybe. Name: Tripini Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android What it does: This app keeps all of your pertinent travel information - medical, passport, visa, flight, hotel, car rental information, photos, and more - locked in a password-protected area on your Apple or Android device. Cost: Free, for an introductory period. What's hot: The password system worked for me, and I would feel safe leaving my information on the app. I hesitated only when I came to filling out my debit and credit card info.