Brad Ganley - 3/11 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Brad Ganley

An Android power user, Brad consumes most of his free time with unhealthy amounts of cell phones and cell phone related things when he isn't playing with his son. Brad is also an avid movie-watcher and tea-drinker.

Mar

[Review] ZDbox Delivers All Of Those Android Tools You Ordered

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

In the world of Android and, specifically, Android power-users, there are a lot of things you can do and a myriad of tools you can do these things with. One of my favorite things in the world is getting several tools I use regularly consolidated into a single package. If you use your device with any kind of regularity, you know that there are several things you like to know, modify, kill, lock, or enable. Enter ZDbox, a Swiss-army knife of sorts for Android.

ZDbox started its journey in an XDA thread and, over time, developed into a very powerful, polished power-app with a ton of tools and options.

Mar

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.

Mar

[Review] AutomateIt Allows Your Phone To Take Care Of Itself

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If your Android device relies on your interaction with it in order to do things, you're seriously missing out. There are several options that allow you to cut the cord, so to speak. The popular options have long been Locale and Tasker but, as you can see from their market pages, you have to be fiscally dedicated to the tasks they perform. In addition to that, these applications (Tasker especially) can be somewhat (read extremely) intimidating in the level of control they give you and the sheer volume of options at your disposal. If you're looking for something a bit simpler but still really powerful as well as significantly more free, AutomateIt might be just the tool you need.

Mar

[Hands-On] The GO Dev Team Does It Again - And This Time It's A Dialer/Contacts App

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

The GO Dev Team, the people who brought you the popular apps GO SMS, GO Weather, and GO Launcher, are at it again, bringing you a contacts manager and dialer that is, quite frankly, stunning, both in functionality and aesthetics. It dropped into the market not 12 hours ago and is already getting very popular as well as garnering great reviews. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

The first thing you'll notice upon installing it is that there are actually two parts to the application that will be called by your device separately: The dialer and the contacts manager.

Mar

[Review] Wave Launcher Is Like Having WebOS On A Phone That You Actually Want

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

WebOS may catch a lot of flack because it never really took off but it does, in fact, have some really awesome features. One feature was the card view multitasking, which has already found its way onto Android. Another cool thing it did was that wacky swipe-up-from-the-bottom launcher gesture. Well, folks, guess what there's an app for now. It's called Wave Launcher - and it's great.

Wave Launcher's beauty is in its simplicity, just like its WebOS predecessor. You simply touch the bottom edge of your screen and swipe up. As you swipe up, so does a bar of five or more applications for you to select.

Mar

[Review] Hextacy: Smash These Hexagons, Because You're Still Being Too Productive

Posted by Brad Ganley in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If there's one thing I hate, it's getting too much work done. Sometimes I just need to slow down and utilize my brain power to find patterns and combinations in a series of colored, hexagon shaped tiles - that's why I was so stoked when I found Hextacy. If you, too, suffer from cripplingly high efficiency, I think I can help. Follow me, and I'll show you how you can feel like you have free time, even at the office.

In all seriousness, though, I need a 12 step program to stop playing Hextacy. It's one of those games in which the graphics aren't mind-blowing, the rules are easy, and the gameplay is so simple that you can't help but devote 100% of your waking life to defeating it.

Mar

[Bootscreen Animation Roundup, Part 1] 5 Bootscreens That Will Really Turn Your Phone On

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, Development, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Let's face it: It sucks waiting for your phone to turn on. It takes too long, and you're forced to watch what is essentially a commercial for your carrier and hardware manufacturer. Well, no more! Here are five bootscreen animations that will make rebooting your phone a much celebrate event! Have your friends gather round and watch at the spectacle that is your phone powering on! Gasp at the twists and turns of pretty images on your screen before your device has even turned on!

If you have no idea how to modify your bootscreen, check out our bootscreen primer.

Mar

[Tutorial] How To Change The Bootscreen On Your Android Phone And Make Waiting For It To Turn On Suck Less

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, Development, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: June 8th, 2011

Let's face it: as Android users, we like options. One of the greatest things about this platform is the insane level of customization possible, especially if you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty. With some readily available tools (all of which are extremely free) and the proper knowledge, you can make your android phone do almost anything you could possibly want and make it look however you want. What we'll be talking about today is the bootscreen.

The bootscreen is that animation that plays during your phone's (admittedly long) power-on sequence. It's really easy to switch it out and, provided you've found one you like, I can show you how to change it.

Mar

[Review] My Taptu: Social Media + News + Eye Candy = Success

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you, like me, are constantly checking what's going on in the world of technology, science, world news, entertainment, gaming, music, and a million other things - on top of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, have I got an app for you. Picture, if you will, an Android app that will aggregate all of these news feeds and your social media streams into a cohesive and, quite frankly, sexy interface. You just imagined My Taptu, my new favorite news reader.

My Taptu's interface is really easy to grasp immediately and adding feeds, modifying the existing feeds, adding your Facebook and Twitter, and sharing all of this information just could not be any easier.

Mar

Angry Birds Seasons Updates For St. Patrick's Day, Brings The Drunken Heat To The Pigs

Posted by Brad Ganley in Apps/Games, Games, News

Last Updated: May 4th, 2011

If you haven't checked the Android Market for updates recently, you may not have noticed that Angry Birds Seasons updated to incorporate St. Patrick's Day into its pig-smashing holiday repertoire. Now you'll have something for your non-beer-holding hand to do while you pound those green brews (or green McDonald's milk shakes, for you youngins) during everyone's favorite celebration of superfluous, oddly-colored beer imbibition. They've re-done all the characters and levels in the usual Seasons fashion, and, honestly, this is one of my personal favorites: