February 2011 Archives

Feb

30 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps, Games, And Live Wallpapers From Last Week (2/16/11 - 2/21/11)

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, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous week's roundup? Find it here: 32 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Games From Last Week (2/9/11 – 2/15/11)

Apps

MapQuest

MapQuest's answer to Google Maps. But is it enough? (Probably not)

Absolutely FREE – There’s no trial period, subscription, or upgrade necessary. You get all these capabilities absolutely free!

Feb

[Download] Tegra 2-Compatible Flash Player Build Leaks Out

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Mods, News

Good news, Tegra 2 users: you can now obtain a version of Adobe's famous (or perhaps infamous) Flash Player compatible with your devices. The leaked beta APK comes courtesy of XDA user rothnic, who received it "from the Malata Zpad owners."

As always, proceed with caution - and be sure to let us know how it works for you!

Download Link

Source: XDA Developers via Droid Life

Feb

US Cellular Announces Buy-One-Phone-Get-FIVE-Free Campaign, Lowers Prices Of All Android Phones

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Deals, LG, Mesmerize, News, Optimus U, Samsung, US Cellular

There are deals, and then there are deals. US Cellular's latest offer definitely falls into the latter category - now through March 10th, customers can buy a Samsung Mesmerize ($99.99) and receive five free Optimus Us. Alternatively, you could buy one Optimus U for $29.99 and get five more for free - ridiculously awesome.

That's not all, however; US Cellular also announced that it's trimming the price of each and every one of its Android phones - the HTC Desire now costs $69.99, the LG Apex goes for $29.99, and the Samsung Acclaim can be had free of charge.

Sure, US Cellular's phones might not be the flashiest devices on the market anymore, but there's no denying that these are two insane deals.

Feb

The Barn Is Now A Rooftop - Verizon Releases A New Thunderbolt/LTE Commercial For A Phone Without A Release Date

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless, Videos

The most anticipated Verizon phone of the month, the HTC Thunderbolt, just got its first official commercial, complete with lightning, thunderbolt (no kidding), and a guy on the hunt for HTC's newcomer who ran away straight from the Ocean's 11 set. Two things are for sure - rooftops are definitely cooler than barns, and lightning is always a good idea.

Oh, and you know what else would be a good idea? A release date for the very thing Verizon is advertising as well as Skype at launch. That would be just super.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2TkxqVrVeQ

Source: VerizonWireless

Feb

[Updated: Nexus One & Desire] Android 3.0 SDK Preview Ported To The Droid Incredible, EVO, Desire HD - Actually Looks Like Honeycomb

Posted by Zak Stinson in Desire HD (Ace), Dev, Droid Incredible, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Mods, Videos

Update: If you're a Nexus One or Desire owner and you're feeling a little left out of the Honeycomb SDK fun, I have some good news. The folks over at XDA managed to get a port running on both devices over the weekend. Hit up the links below to check them out and remember, these ports lack the basic functions of a phone and should only be used by people who know what they're doing. Enjoy!

Desire: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=962759

N1: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=961994

(Also, Brian gave the N1 port a shot. He only made it a few minutes before flashing to a normal ROM.

Feb

Tower Raiders 2 Beta, The Sequel To The Best Tower Defense Game On Android, Just Landed In The Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

One of my most favorite Android games and by far the best tower defense game I've tried is Tower Raiders. Once you try Tower Raiders, you simply can't go back to Robo Defense and other clones (I honestly don't understand why Robo Defense is so popular). Last year, I was traveling to France, and Tower Raiders proved to be hours of incredible fun, making 2-hour lines to museums and long metro rides more than bearable.

I haven't heard from the developer of Tower Raiders, Gianormous Games, for many months, and started to get worried that we'd never see an update.

Feb

Photos Of NEC MEDIAS - World's Thinnest Android Smartphone - Leaked

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in NEC, News, Rumors

Last Updated: October 10th, 2011

If rumors are to be believed, NEC's newest Android phone - the MEDIAS E-04C - will be the world's thinnest smartphone at 7.7mm when it launches this Thursday. It has only been a short time since Sony Ericsson launched the razor-thin Xperia arc and Samsung crowned its Galaxy S II phone as the "world's thinnest smartphone," but at 8.7mm and 8.49mm at their thinnest points, respectively, these phones look positively obese in comparison.

According to Akihabara News, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo will be announcing its new spring collection later this week, but apparently someone could not wait and leaked photos of NEC's newest offering to Japanese blog Ameba.

Feb

Verizon Confirms February 24th Release Date For Motorola XOOM; Adobe Flash Not Included Until Spring

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Verizon just updated its product page for the Motorola XOOM, and in the process, the tablet's release date has been made official. Just as expected, you'll be able to buy the Honeycomb-loaded beast this Thursday (2/24), but unfortunately, Adobe's Flash Player won't be included out of the box. Instead, the page's fine print says, the software is "expected in Spring 2011."

Engadget speculates that Verizon / Motorola are waiting for Flash 10.2, which is supposed to launch in the coming weeks, and I would say that's a pretty fair assumption. Still, it's kind of disappointing that the XOOM won't have Flash at launch since even the Galaxy Tab can play back Flash content.

Feb

Samsung Video Editor Available For 2.2+, Irony Effect Included

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Samsung

Whilst browsing the Apps and Games section of XDA-Developers we came across an interesting thread about a relatively new application from Samsung, for the Galaxy S. This simply-named Video Editor looks to fill the void until the delicious-looking one from Honeycomb trickles down to our phones' OS versions.

Strangely enough, the app appears to only work on 2.2+ devices, limiting it to the i9000 and Vibrant when it comes to Samsung's own devices. The XDA devs have unsurprisingly gotten it working on a bunch of non-Samsung devices too, so check out the source thread beneath for that. Along with this thread also came a highly informative walkthrough from Aatif Sumar at ZOMGitsCj.com, so we'd suggest you give it a read before having a go yourself.

Feb

Twidroyd Returns To Android After Twitter Ban

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Twitter's banhammer of UberMedia's properties - Twidroyd, UberTwitter, and UberCurrent - caused a bit of an uproar and panic on Friday, but both companies quickly issued their statements on the matter. Twitter clarified that UberMedia's apps were violating policies and trademarks, while UberMedia promised to release an update fixing the problems as soon as possible.

Here is what Twidroyd clients were seeing on Friday:

Over the weekend, the team behind Twidroyd came up with all the necessary fixes to the app to make Twitter happy again and released an update v5.0.2:

To our delight, things indeed seem to be back to normal, but we'll see if Twitter is satisfied for good when its engineers return to work on Monday (or Tuesday, since the U.S.