December 2010 Archives

Dec

36 Best New Android Apps And Games From Last Week (12/14/10 - 12/20/10)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Last Updated: April 13th, 2011

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications and games that went live in the Market in the previous week or so.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets.

Best New Android Apps

Smart Diagram

Smart Diagram brings easy diagram making to Android
Organize ideas and thoughts with clear diagrams. Simple & Easy, No painful learning!
Usage: Flow Chart, Mind Map, Tree Diagram, etc
Features
- Create Shape with Gesture
- Drag & Drop Delete
- Manually Shape Movement
- MultiTouch Zooming
- Easy Sharing

Smart Diagram

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Dec

[Rumor] Playstation Phone To Be Called Xperia Play? Trademark Filing Says Maybe

Posted by David Ruddock in News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

It seems the blogosphere is abuzz with the news that an EU trademark for the name Xperia Play has been awarded to Sony Ericsson, filed the first of the month.

Companies file for trademarks a lot, so we'll see if this name pans out. If it does, it'll quite possibly be the worst marketing decision by Sony Ericsson yet, and may indicate that the Sony mother-ship wants to reserve the Playstation phone name for a later, cooler, probably proprietary-OS device. So, you may actually want this rumor not to be true.

Source: OMHI via Engadget

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Dec

SPB Mobile Shell for Android Looks To Be A Home Replacement On Steroids, Private Beta Now Open

Posted by Stephen Tenerowicz in News

It's been almost a year since we last saw SPB Mobile Shell for Android. Some of you may recognize the name from the Windows Mobile world - it's the same SPB Mobile Shell many of you probably used to make the OS bearable. Now, though, it appears that SPB Mobile Shell for Android is almost ready for prime time, and the developers are looking for testers for a private beta. Check out the video below to see how fast and amazing this SPB Mobile Shell looks. In my opinion, it's completely different from anything out there - pretty amazing. If ...

Dec

Miffed Over The Lack Of Notification LED On Your Samsung Galaxy S? Check Out BLN (BackLight Notification)

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, Captivate, Fascinate, Galaxy S, Mods, News, Samsung, Vibrant

Take a look around Google and you can see that people are seriously peeved by the lack of notification LED in the Samsung Galaxy S line of devices (excluding the Epic 4G). Developer and i9000 owner Michael R. - better known as neldar on the XDA forums - was annoyed enough by the glaring omission that he decided to come up with a solution. The result: BLN (BackLight Notification).

The basic idea behind the app is quite simple: as there's no LED on the devices, the logical decision is to light up the soft-touch keys. Doing so isn't quite so ...

Dec

Attention Loyal T-Mobile Customers: Get A Free G2 From T-Mobile's Loyalty Department!

Posted by Stephen Tenerowicz in G2 (Vision), News, T-Mobile

If you're a member of the T-Mobile Loyalty Program (like me), you're going to want to listen up. As of right now (and I’m willing to bet this won’t last long), T-Mobile is offering members of the T-Mobile Loyalty Program a G2 for free on any qualifying upgrade. If you're a member of the loyalty program or just want to find out if you qualify to be in the program and have a qualified upgrade, call T-Mobile customer service and say “contract” to the automated system. With this, you should reach the loyalty department. Get on it people, this deal ...

Dec

Android Devs To Manufacturers and Carriers: It's Not Rooting, It's Openness

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News

The Android dev team has generally been assumed to have a passive stance on rooting and unlocking Android devices. That is, do it if you want - we won't stop you. And there's certainly evidence abound supporting this - Google's Nexus One could be unlocked via a simple ADB (Android Device Bridge) command: fastboot oem unlock. The same is true of the Nexus S.

Of course, it only makes sense - Google doesn't want to put any unnecessary barriers between Android developers and the open source OS, especially on developer phones.

But a new post on the official Android ...

Dec

Modder’s Column: How To Remap Your Android Phone’s Hardware Buttons Without Touching A Single Line Of Code

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Editorials, Mods

So maybe you've recently upgraded your Android phone and haven't gotten used to the new device's button alignment yet... or maybe you never use that pesky Search key and want to turn it into the camera key your EVO 4G has always wanted... or maybe you just enjoy tinkering with your phone. If you're in one of those situations, what you may be lusting after is a way to remap your phone's hardware buttons (i.e. making the Search key take on the duties of the Home key, or vise versa).

Up until now, there haven't been any user-friendly methods of ...

Dec

Motorola Teases Honeycomb Tablet, Promises Unveiling At CES 2011

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News

Samsung might have made some cool commercials for the Galaxy Tab, but you and I both know that when it comes to advertisements, Motorola still reigns supreme. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the first promo video for their upcoming Honeycomb tablet is nothing short of epic:

As you can see, Moto thinks it has what it takes to take out both the iPad and the Galaxy Tab - in fact, the video calls the former "a giant iPhone" and accuses the latter of running "Android OS for a phone." Furthermore, tablets of old (i.e. ancient Egyptian ...

Dec

Yet Another Galaxy S Feature Missing From The Samsung Nexus S: Gorilla Glass

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

Given the incredible durability (and entertainment) that Gorilla Glass has provided the Galaxy S phones with, one might think that Samsung would be eager to carry the feature over to the Nexus S. Unfortunately, like 720p video recording, LED notifications (which are available on some Galaxy S variants but not others), and a microSD card slot, Gorilla Glass has not been included in the world's first Gingerbread phone.

The omission was probably necessitated by the curved glass that covers the phone's mug, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing, especially since the effects of the so-called "Contour ...

Dec

Some Details Of Notion Ink's Proprietary "Genesis" Market Found In Developer T&Cs

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Adam, Dev, News, Notion Ink

Earlier today, we received a tip regarding Notion Ink's yet-to-be-released developer program for its "Genesis" app platform. Indeed, while the developer homepage remains relatively useless, the leaked developer program registration page the tipster sent us does appear to be legitimate and even comes complete with terms and conditions.

Update: As some of you so eloquently pointed out, the developer program was indeed active at one point, and the registration has now been closed (at least partially, apparently). Nevertheless, we believe some details weeded out of the terms and conditions and displayed below are relatively unknown and quite valuable.

After ...

Dec

HTC To Start Rolling Out Froyo To European Wildfires This Week, Rest Of The World By February 2011

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Froyo 2.2, HTC, News, Wildfire (Buzz)

While the owners of HTC Wildfires have known for a while now that their devices would be eventually receiving Froyo, and that it probably wouldn't happen until Christmas, they were still secretly hoping HTC wouldn't take over 6 months to accomplish the feat. At least it looks like the company is keeping its word, which is refreshing nowadays, to say the least.

Starting this week, HTC will be rolling out Froyo to European Wildfire variants, with the rest of the world following sometime between now and February 2011. Better late than never, I suppose, although by then, we could ...

Dec

Sprint Launches WiMax Network Along The Colorado Front Range And In Bridgeport, Connecticut

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Epic 4G, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Sprint

Aspen, loads of snow, and now coverage from Sprint and Clearwire's WiMax network... yeah, Coloradans pretty much have it all. Just over an hour ago, the nation's third largest carrier announced that its 4G network is now live along Colorado's Front Range (which includes such cities as Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and Greeley) as well as in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Sprint's already got two mighty fine devices - the HTC EVO 4G and the Samsung Epic 4G - on its WiMax network, and if the Shift 4G is as good as it looks, the carrier's subscriber base could be set ...

Dec

Nexus S UK Pre-Order Price Drops To £430 SIM-Free, £0 On Contract

Posted by Nate Kimmey in News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

Planning on buying the latest Google phone in the UK? Then you're in luck - the pre-order price from Carphone Warehouse has been cut to just £429.99 for the SIM-free option and £0 for the version that comes with a two-year contract. It's worth noting that the device is currently listed as being on back order, so you may be have to wait for some time before you get your phone. Still, at least the Nexus S is available from third party retailers, unlike the device it succeeds.

Source: Carphone Warehouse via Zath

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Dec

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