Fossdroid get the popularity data (most popular and trending tabs) through Piwik API mostly elaborating the pageviews and the downloads.
In this way it’s possible to list the top 10 best apps/games viewed on Fossdroid.com (last 6 months):

  1. Yalp Store
    Download apks from Google Play Store
  2. DNS66
    Block ads/hosts via DNS
  3. WebTube
    Play YouTube videos
  4. NewPipe
    Lightweight YouTube frontend
  5. MaterialOS
    Material Design CyanogenMod 12/12.1 theme
  6. F-Droid
    Application manager
  7. Trycorder
    Upgrade your mobile device to a full-fledged tricorder
  8. Open Camera
    Camera App
  9. Mi Manga Nu
    Manga reader
  10. Simple Solitaire Collection
    Simple solitaire klondike game

As you can see the Yalp Store wins the battle: it allows Android users to download apks from Play Store without OpenGapps/others (you should create a fake Gmail account because this app violates the Play Store ToS).
The statistics regarding the total number of app-downloads of F-Droid could be/are different because Piwik elaborates the data from fossdroid site and only F-Droid knows the real stats (this explain why F-Droid is not in the first position).

Enjoy!

If you want a free and lightweight camera app for you smartphone, Open Camera is the best choice.
It contains a lot of features:

  • Option to auto-stabilize;
  • Support for focus modes, scene modes, color effects, white balance, ISO, exposure compensation/lock, face detection, torch;
  • Video recording (with HD option);
  • Handy remote controls: timer (with optional voice countdown), auto-repeat mode (with configurable delay). Option to take photo remotely by making a noise (e.g., voice, whistle), or by voice command “cheese”;
  • Zoom via multi-touch gesture and single-touch control;
  • Ability to lock orientation to portrait or landscape for photo or video;
  • Disable shutter sound;
  • Overlay a choice of grids (including “rule of thirds”) and crop guides;
  • Apply a date and timestamp, location coordinates, and custom text to photos;
  • Support for (some) external microphones;
  • Support for Camera2 API: manual focus distance, manual ISO, manual exposure time, RAW (DNG) files;
  • Support for HDR and Exposure Bracketing (Camera2 API only);
  • Dynamic range optimization mode for better quality photos.

Open Camera might not look like much, given its bare-bones interface, but it’s an awesome app recommend to owners of low and mid-range devices that feel somewhat limited by their stock camera applications.

On F-Droid repository (catalogue of Free and Open Source Software applications for the Android platform) there are 2001 applications (~1420 also on Google Play) organized in 17 categories:

Category Count Graph
System 265
Multimedia 242
Games 221
Internet 217
Navigation 135
Science & Education 118
Theming 108
Time 104
Reading 104
Writing 94
Development 92
Connectivity 84
Security 68
Phone & SMS 53
Money 40
Sports & Health 35
Graphics 21

These apps have the source code in these sites:

Source site Count Graph
github.com 1589
code.google.com 124
bitbucket.org 53
gitlab.com 52
sourceforge.net 45
gitorious.org 18
launchpad.net 13
other 107

The most used licenses are:

License Count Graph
GPLv3 745
Apache2 414
GPLv3+ 231
MIT 204
GPLv2 113
GPLv2+ 79
NewBSD 36
GPL 22
AGPLv3 15
MPL2 14
WTFPL 13
LGPL 12
PublicDomain 12
FreeBSD 11
other 80

The hosts file is resolved in preference to DNS requests, if the hosts file resolves the hostname, the request never leaves the device; this means the hosts file can be edited to block the domain names of ad servers, third party cookies, adware, spyware, ect…
AdAway (not available on Google Play) update the hosts file to blocks any pop-up that appears while you are browsing on your device: it needs Android >= 2.1 and root access.
The main features are:

  • Choose your own sources of hosts files;
  • Add exceptions to your Whitelist if an app is not working when specific hosts are blocked;
  • Define extra hostnames in your own Blacklist;
  • Add your own (hostname, IP)-pairs in the Redirection List.

If you use Chrome and still see ads on web pages, remember to disable the “data saver” or “reduced data usage” browser option.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or hiding in some tall grass you’ve probably heard of Pokémon GO.
With its augmented reality platform, Pokémon GO have been appearing everywhere across the world from rivers and lakes to hospital rooms, and users of the app spend all weekend trying to catch new Pokémon and train them to be the very best.

A number of users have realized that playing the game is draining their battery extremely quickly: playing for 30 minutes reduces battery life by an average of 15 percent, which is rather high in comparison to many other apps (like Facebook or email services).

The Enhancer for GO (Google Play, Source) aim is to improve the Pokémon GO experience as much as possible:

  • Show a black screen over the game when your phone is upside down (in the pocket);
  • Block touches while the device is in your pocket;
  • Dim the screen to save battery while you are not using the app;
  • Extreme battery saver;
  • Keep the screen on while playing the game;
  • Set the brightness to maximum when the app launches for better outdoor visibility;
  • Kill background processes when the app launches (only recommended for devices with <2GB ram).

It has integration for Notifications for GO (Google Play, Source) that permits to get a notification when a Pokemon is around you while the Pokémon GO app is running (it works perfectly with the Xiaomi Mi band).

Enjoy it!

WebTube is an great and open source wrapper for the YouTube website with a couple little tweaks: it allows, for example, to navigate through channels, bookmarking, connecting through TOR and playing when the screen is off and in the background, without GAPPS on your phone.

As martykan (the main developer) says, if you have any ideas or issues, don’t hesitate to contact him, every contribution is welcome.

 

Overchan is a web-browser (with custom themes) for browsing imageboards like 4chan.org, krautchan.net, 8chan, iichan.hk, hatsune.ru, Dobrochan, 2-chru.net, 7chan.org, wakachan.org and more.

What is an imageboard?

An imageboard or image board is a type of Internet forum which operates mostly via posting images.
Imageboards, similar to bulletin board systems, are used for discussions of a variety of topics. The primary focus of imageboards, however, is directed away from text posts, and is instead placed on picture posts. The two share many of the same structures, including separate forums for separate topics, as well as similar audiences.

The most popular English language imageboard is 4chan that was born in 2003, a year before Facebook, as an image and message board in the style of a similar Japanese board called 2chan, or Futaba.

Some features of Overchan:

  • Separate preferences for each imageboard: password for post deletion, HTTP/SSL, proxy;
  • Automatic hide posts and threads using regular expressions;
  • Automatic update all open tabs in background (optional);
  • Sending posts in background;
  • Saving threads with all attachments in HTML with Dollchan Script;
  • Two ways to display replies to posts: as separate references and as list;
  • Supports the tablet interface;
  • Themes.

Hi guys,
we have a Blog! In my spare time I’ve fixed some issues and added a Blog to write about Android World: if you want to became a collaborator write me at .
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the awesome F-Droid team and the people who have taken the time to write me a mail.

Stay tuned!