March 2011 Archives

Mar

[Review] Amazon Cloud Player For Android - Google Music Who?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News, Tips

It’s not much of a secret that Amazon is quickly becoming one of my favorite companies. The way they have embraced Android is wonderful, creating diversity where there used to be none. I recently ran down some of the pros and cons of the Amazon Appstore for Android, which is starting to become my go-to marketplace for new apps. Now they have released a new music streaming service, Cloud Player, which brings some of the functionality that was originally a hope of Google Music to my Droid.

Cloud Drive and the Web App

The Cloud Player is basically ...

Mar

Tip: Get 20GB Of Amazon Cloud Drive Storage For Only $0.69

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Tips

If you read today's Amazon Cloud Storage announcement carefully, you may have noticed that Amazon threw in a special offer allowing a free 1-year upgrade for your Cloud account from 5GB to 20GB with the purchase of any MP3 album. Why pay $20 a year when you can buy an album cheaper and achieve the same thing without spending the extra money (otherwise known as taking advantage of a loophole)?

Ready for it? Head over to the MP3 Albums $0.01 - $1 area and pick an album for as low as $0.69. Buy it and add it to your Amazon ...

Mar

Amazon Launches Cloud Player Music Streaming Service For Android

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, Apps/Games, News

While some companies are content to just talk, talk, talk about what they are doing, Amazon seems to be quietly hard at work. Last week they gave us the Amazon Appstore for Android and last night they dropped another bomb – the Amazon Cloud Player.

If Grooveshark and Dropbox had a baby, it would be Amazon Cloud Player. It consists of Cloud Drive - 5GB of free cloud storage on Amazon’s servers (upgradable to 20GB with the purchase of one album or for $20/year; $1 per gigabyte after that) - and the Cloud Player, which can be ...

Mar

Ad-Free Angry Birds Seasons Free Today At The Amazon Appstore

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

One of the most popular Android games, Angry Birds Seasons, by everyone's favorite developer Rovio Mobile went on a 1-day sale today as the free premium app of the day over at the Amazon Appstore. The only difference between the already-free version of the same name and this one is the absence of those annoying ads that pop up in the most ridiculous locations at the most inopportune times.

To grab Angry Birds Seasons that currently consists of 4 editions (St Patrick's Day, Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's Day), proceed to the Angry Birds Season Appstore page. As always, you ...

Mar

Sony Ericsson Promises Unlocked Bootloaders In Some Flavors Of All Upcoming Xperia Devices (Arc, Play, Neo, Pro)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Mods, News, Sony Ericsson

Today is starting out pretty well - minutes ago, we finally got the HTC Thunderbolt kernel source, and now Sony Ericsson decided to lift our spirits even further via a blog post announcing their commitment to the Android development community. And a commitment it is - Sony Ericsson may just be the first large manufacturer truly listening to us.

Sure, Motorola unlocked the bootloader of the XOOM, and Samsung did the same to the Nexus S, but Sony Ericsson is promising to release versions of ALL Xperia phones with easily unlockable bootloaders, at least ones slated for 2011. This ...

Mar

HTC Releases Thunderbolt Kernel Source Code, Let Custom ROM Development Begin!

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Dev, HTC, Mods, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

After bickering back and forth with the Android community about the terms and timelines of kernel source releases and getting flooded with emails, HTC finally put together the source code for the Thunderbolt kernel and uploaded it to their developer portal.

The file weighs in at 87MB and will enable ROM developers to finally do some proper work on custom ROMs, including improving battery life, over- and under-clocking, and implementing other tweaks (hopefully, it includes LTE drivers so that CyanogenMod devs don't have to reverse engineer the protocol and write their own).

Download the kernel v2.6.32 from HTC or ...

Mar

[Updated] HTC Insists Android Kernel Sources May Be Published "When They Are Ready," Rather Than When Devices Are Released

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Editorials, HTC, Mods, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

Some History

Update: Linux devs are not happy about this.

Update #2: And just like that, only a few hours after this article, HTC released the Thunderbolt kernel source.

If you've been following the "drama" around Android kernel source release timelines and device manufacturers (such as HTC), you should be already aware of 2 forces pushing in opposite directions:

On one side, we have the Android community, which maintains that according to GPLv2, Android kernel sources need to be published together with a given device release. Since Android kernel sources are essential to custom ROM development,

...

Mar

Go Dev Team Releases 3 New Beautiful Live Wallpapers: Sakura Falling, 3D Skyrocket, And Hyperspace

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If there is one thing I love, it’s a nice, relaxing wallpaper. I do not want to see chaos when I look at my homescreen (or computer screen for that matter), and the Go Wallpaper Dev Team has delivered a solution that is both elegant and beautiful by way of three new live wallpapers – Sakura Falling, 3D Skyrocket, and Hyperspace. Because they use OpenGL, these are some of the smoothest, most realistic live wallpapers that I have ever seen.

Sakura Falling Live Wallpaper

By far the most relaxing of the three, the Sakura Falling live wallpaper features light pink ...

Mar

European EVO 3D Confirmed Via HTC France's Twitter

Posted by Nate Kimmey in EVO 3D (Shooter), HTC, News

It appears that the HTC EVO 3D, the CDMA version of which Sprint revealed to the world last week, will be coming in a GSM flavor after all - the HTC France Twitter account has confirmed that the device will be launching in Europe at some point, although the date is not confirmed. For those who can't remember their high school French, the tweet roughly translates to:

You want an HTC EVO 3D for France? So do we! And it even keeps the same name. Availability date unconfirmed.

No word on carrier, either, so stay tuned for more details....

Mar

Tower Raiders 2 GOLD Released, Let’s Blow Something Up!

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Games, News

Last month we told you about the beta of Tower Raiders 2, the sequel to the super-popular tower defense strategy game, Tower Raiders. The beta brought improved graphics and 6 new levels, and it looks like the devs over at Gianormous Games have been hard at work since then, because they just popped out the full "GOLD" version, which brings even more improvements and added gameplay (24 levels total, including #7 named "Charlie Sheen").

The premise remains the same, so don't expect changes to the basic principals that were in the beta and the previous version: destroy ...

Mar

Qualcomm Developer Phone Packs 1.2 GHz Dual-Core Snapdragon, 13 Megapixel Camera - But Won't Be Hitting Carriers Anytime Soon

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Gingerbread 2.3, News

The last two Android developer phones - the Nexus One and Nexus S - have both been quite popular amongst the Android fans because of their latest-gen hardware and fast-paced software updates (though maybe not so much for the N1). But a new developer phone coming straight from chip manufacturer Qualcomm won't be aiming to replace your personal phone - it's all about the development.

Knowing just a few of its specs, it certainly seems like it could be some manufacturer's next flagship phone, but there are two big catches:

1.2 GHz Dual core Snapdragon processor with Adreno 220 GPU

...

Mar

All HandyGames Go On Permanent $1.40 Sale

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Deals, Games, News, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

If you just can’t stop gaming on your Android device, then now may be a good time to add some titles to your collection, since mobile game developers HandyGames have lowered the price on all of their ad-free games from $4.10 to $1.40. Now you can enjoy all kinds of android-gaming awesomeness for less money!

Seriously, who doesn’t want to spend a nice evening with Aporkalypse: Pigs of Doom – a puzzle game where you have to save the world from all sorts of piggy-badness. And who could pass on Hamster Homie, a 2-D sidescroller where you ...

Mar

New LauncherPro Update v0.8.4 Now In The Market, Brings Gmail Widget, 2 New Transitions, Bug Fixes

Posted by David Rutland in Applications, News

After months without either official comment or update, the author of homescreen replacement app LauncherPro has finally sprung version 0.8.4 into the Android Market.

One of the smoother and more popular homescreen apps, LauncherPro offers seven screens and up to three scrollable docks, as well as Sense style full-screen widgets for paid “Plus” users, which include messaging, Facebook feeds, bookmarks, and calendars.

Part-time developer Federico Carnales announced in September that a complete rewrite was in the works, which would not be based on the stock Android 2.0 launcher. Users have been waiting with bated breath ever since, with commenters growing ...

Mar

Amazon Appstore Doubles Down: Farm Frenzy And Newsweek Mobile Both Free Today

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Deals, Games, News, Tips

That's right, Amazon's offering not one, but two free apps on the Amazon Appstore this morning! You can pick up the popular HeroCraft title Farm Frenzy along with the official Newsweek Mobile app from Amazon free of charge.

I don't know about you - but I can't tell which is which.

Newsweek Mobile offers Amazon's "Test Drive" in-browser emulation, so you can try it from your browser before making the 15 second commitment to put it on your phone. Anyways, load up the Amazon Appstore (if you can) and grab these freebies while the getting is good.

Update: ...

Mar

Google Teams Up With MasterCard and Citigroup To Bring NFC Payments To US

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, News

The smartphone is slowly becoming the "all-in-one" gadget, however one big gap that still exists is the inability to easily make purchases directly through the device instead of using cash or credit cards. According to the WSJ and "people familiar with the matter", Google is working with MasterCard and Citigroup to fill this void by using the still nascent NFC (near field communication) technology to develop a new mobile payment service.

Customers using Citigroup cards will be able to activate an app developed specifically for NFC enabled Android smartphones. This app will allow users to pay ...