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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 2 weeks or so.
Last night, I sent out a message from our social accounts praising the Epic 4G Touch's boot times. They amazed me as soon as I turned this Galaxy S II Sprint variant for the first time last Friday and haven't ceased to amaze me ever since. I have loaded up all the same apps and then some compared to any of my other phones, and still - the Epic 4G Touch blazes by the competition like no other device I've seen.
While watching the latest episode of Breaking Bad today (which I must say is one of the best shows on TV right now), I witnessed the latest Verizon Wireless Best Buy commercial advertising Verizon Wireless phones, boasting VZW's incredible network coverage, ultra speeds, and reliability.
After getting the Samsung Epic 4G Touch (that's Sprint's Galaxy S II) on launch day, I had to quite conveniently leave on a planned trip to the wine country half-way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. During this trip, I took this sample video in 720p HD resolution to test the Epic 4G Touch's camera performance I've heard so many great things about from everyone outside the U.S. Considering our review of the E4GT is lacking a video test, I thought this post would be the perfect follow-up.
If you're used to downloading and installing nightly builds of CyanogenMod, Android's most popular custom ROM, you may have noticed that since the beginning of this month, the nightlies haven't really been... well, nightly.
Infinite Dreams, the creators of such hits as Sky Force and Shoot The Birds, are famous for high quality and absolutely stunning graphics in their games. Their upcoming title, Jelly Defense, is no exception. Today, we have a sneak peek at the first official trailer of this newcomer to the Tower Defense genre with a few new twists (or should I say "twisters"?).
Sprint's Motorola Photon 4G, one of our favorite devices on this network, is receiving a small over-the-air update that will bring it up to version 4.5.1A-1_SUN-154_6/45.2.7.MB855.Sprint.en.US. The only publicized fixes are related to Wi-Fi, with users over at Android Forums reporting improved performance.
Android 2.3.4 Update For The US Cellular HTC Merge Is Now Ready. Goodbye, Froyo - Hello, Gingerbread
HTC Merge users on US Cellular, your day has come. Forget about Froyo, aka Android 2.2, and zoom straight to the latest version of Android available for non-Nexus phones - 2.3.4 "Gingerbread" (HTC version 3.10.573.1 to be exact - the image below taken from the update guide is outdated).
If you belong to the dying breed of people still using Facebook (at least that's what everyone on Google+ seems to think), I think you will find today's tip quite handy, to say the least.
With over 3800 entries from Facebook, Google+, and Twitter (in order of popularity), it's now time to conclude the 7th "special edition" giveaway and announce the winner of the brand new Droid Bionic, the lapdock, the HD docking station, and the Webtop adapter.
The 8th Android Police book giveaway is now over, and we've picked the winners. A copy of Teach Yourself Android Application Development In 24 Hours (2nd ed.) will be shipped to each of the following readers, as selected by informIT:
O'Reilly's Android Open conference, which is happening October 9-11, is our first real media sponsorship of an Android event (yay!), and as media partners, we were given 2 free tickets to the event, along with an exclusive 20% off code: AN11AP.
Wow, you guys sure like Android figurines - with almost 1,100 entries, the giveaway post is now our most commented post ever. After letting a whirlwind of randomness and chaos work its magic on the list of entries, I'm now ready to congratulate the following folks who will be getting a free figurine from VinylFigurines.com shipped to their doorsteps:
Out of all the giveaway/contests we do here at AP, my favorites always end up being the creative kinds because they always leave us with long-lasting memories and give a chance to truly talented people who put in work into their entries. Such were the photo, the Twitter design, t-shirt design, and most recently the 404 page design giveaways (the last one being my favorite).
Update: If you've been holding your breath waiting for this beauty, you can breathe a sigh of relief, as it's now available at RadioShack. Woot.
I'm a huge fan of 2 community news sites - Reddit and the more technical/nerdy Hacker News by YCombinator. The former has a few tablet apps but Android users haven't had as much luck with Hacker News apps for tablets. The website, while fast and looking just fine in the browser, is far from optimal for those using a touch interface with its tiny links to discussions and buttons.
Many of you have been asking how you could get your hands on those little Android guys that you can usually see hanging out in my reviews. Like these ones here:
The WakeVoice license giveaway attracted over 600 entries, and after sorting through all of them and picking 20 at random, we're ready to congratulate the following folks and send them free licenses:
With over 7400 entries from Facebook, Google+, and Twitter (in order of popularity), the 6th "supercharged" giveaway ended up being our largest giveaway yet. And no wonder - in addition to the usual main prize, the winner will also get a JAMBOX, a keyboard dock, and a $25 giftcard.
I am going to be honest - I am not a fan of phone cases myself. However, knowing my wife's affinity for miraculously sending her phones flying into the back yard from our 2nd story balcony or stomping on them with her shoes after they hit the asphalt (though her previous phone, the Palm Pre, didn't live to tell its story after drowning in our dog's water bowl), I set out on a mission to find the best protective case for her new and shiny EVO 3D.Otterbox, one of the top case manufacturers, graciously sent me all three of their cases for the EVO 3D - the Defender, the Commuter, and the Impact. After testing the cases for the last 2-3 weeks, here are my thoughts, accompanied by an array of photos in front of a tough crowd (they came over one day for tea and never left), as well as my recommendation for the winning series of the three that should satisfy most people.Let's get to it.