Brandon Lancaster
Contributing since December, 2011
-
70articles
About Brandon Lancaster
Brandon says he likes to live life on the edge. By that he means eating ice cream for breakfast and wearing house slippers to class. Aside from all of the ballsy action he partakes in, he's a mass communications student that spends much of his time studying or tinkering with his phone.
Latest Articles
I already know that some of you may be wondering how in the world an alarm app made it into our March roundup for best newly released apps, so let's start with a simple explanation. DoubleTwist Alarm Clock made our cut for two reasons: it's quite possibly the most good looking alarm option on the Play Store at the moment and it keeps waking up simple by eliminating many of the useless features we find in other alternatives.
We were first introduced to Star Defender 3 a short time ago, but it has already become one of our favorites. This spectacular space shooter by Awem Studio really has quite a bit going for it, and if you happen to be a fan of games similar to Space Invaders then this title will definitely whet your gaming appetite.
If you've ever dreamed of syncing your Android apps and games up with your PC and using them on a larger screen you'll be excited to hear that your dreams are becoming a very well-designed reality. Actually, if you've been following along with the development of BlueStacks then you know that this dream-to-reality transition has been in the works for several months now.
While the rest of the world looks to the next super-spectacular smartphone with the latest technology, Pantech has decided to keep it simple and cheap with the Burst. This nice little smartphone comes in at a measly $49.99 with a new two-year contract through AT&T, and that makes it great for Android fans on a budget, those looking for a decent but cheap phone for their kids, or people who are new to the smartphone world and are looking to test the waters. I know you must be thinking (because I did, too) that overall quality must suffer greatly for Pantech to get to such a low price point, but that's where you (and I) would be wrong. While the Burst doesn't sport the most cutting edge features available, it is still pretty powerful, and for just $49.99, you honestly can't beat it.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by having to keep up with multiple social networks? Seesmic Ping brings a much needed sigh of relief by allowing you to post to multiple Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts with just one update, effectively making your online social life much easier to handle.
This is quite possibly one of my favorite games from the entire month, and even beats out many of the titles from the January installment of the Best Of series. In Zombie Wonderland 2, you play the role of Chuck, who just so happens to be Niceville's only Zombie Cleaner. That's an odd job title, is it not?
Sony officially unveiled the Sony Tablet P at IFA last August, but we have yet to see it here in the U.S. despite its release in other parts of the world. For those of you that don't remember, this unique tablet features two 5.5-inch LCD displays that fold over one another much like a Nintendo DS. What's neat about having two individual screens is that you can use use them for different functions simultaneously, so multitasking is a bit easier. Naturally, you can also combine the two screens into a single display, but personally I think the seam between the two would get in the way.
Nearly half a year ago, Samsung shocked the smartphone world with the unveiling of an entirely unconventional phone at IFA 2011. Why was it unconventional and shocking, you ask? Well, because it sports a massive 5.3-inch screen. That phone is none other than the mighty Samsung Galaxy Note.
If you've ever used an Android tablet, then you probably know that they could really use some true multitasking functionality. Currently, we don't really have an option to do multiple things at once, and when we do try, it becomes cumbersome and annoying. Well, we can always count on our good friends from the CyanogenMod team to answer our pleas and requests for features that we likely wouldn't ever see otherwise. They recently posted on Google+ about integrating an intriguing Android extension called Cornerstone into CM9, and it looks beautiful.
[Review] Despite Lacking A Few Features, Powow By HandMark Delivers A Sleek Messaging Experience To Android
Despite Lacking A Few Features, Powow By HandMark Delivers A Sleek Messaging Experience To Android
Powow: Text Messaging is an alternative messaging app made by Handmark, the company that produced One Louder Apps. Now, I know that you're thinking about all of the other messaging apps on the Market and want to know what makes this one special. The fact of the matter is that only a small percentage of the endless waves of similar apps are worth using, and despite missing a couple key features, Powow is one of few I would consider fully committing to.
Okay, so Redditastic isn't technically an app, but it is a pretty sweet widget that lets you throw your favorite subreddits on one of your homescreens. Unfortunately it's only currently available for devices running Honeycomb or ICS, and it probably won't see any previous builds of Android simply because scrollable widgets aren't supported by them unless you use a custom launcher. That being said, if you do own a supported device, this Reddit widget is definitely one to check out.
Seeing as I'm hopelessly addicted to Portal and Portal 2, I was pretty excited when we came across Asantee's new game Magic Portals. Basically, it's a physics-based puzzler that revolves around the whole portal concept. While it obviously isn't exactly unique, it is absolutely entertaining and fun to play.
Osmos HD, by Hemisphere Games, made its jump to the Android Market in late January, and brought with it some insanely relaxing gameplay. It was previously available on computer and iDevices, so you may have played it before it became available on Android. However, if you haven't played it already, the concept is ridiculously simple, but oh-so awesome.
Wikipedia is the go-to site when you need to find accurate information quickly. Well, mostly accurate information, right? Right.
The guys behind the official Dropbox Android app have an enticing present for everyone to check out. They just released an experimental beta v2.0.9 that includes a brand new automatic Camera Upload feature. There are definitely third party apps out there that offer this same service, but it's nice to see the official version updating with some fresh new features.
You may know Gamevil as the developer of the ever-popular Zenonia and Baseball Superstars series, and a bunch of other awesome games, but their latest leaves something to be desired. Similar to their earlier title Cartoon Wars: Gunner+, Gamevil's latest installment - Cartoon Wars - uses a well-know (if not overused) game concept, which is just a nice little time-killer at best. That being said, it's still fun to play and does a good job at keeping you occupied.
[Brilliant] The Humble Bundle Lets You Pay What You Want For 4 Hot Indie Android Games, All While Supporting Charities And Developers
The Humble Bundle Lets You Pay What You Want For 4 Hot Indie Android Games
The Humble Bundle has been around for a couple of years now, but I have never heard of it. They're known for bundling up indie games, letting purchasers set their own price, and dividing up the profits among developers and charities. This is just an absolutely fascinating concept, and the first ever Android bundle has arrived!
Amuse has been out for some time now, and there certainly are apps like it, but we decided this one was worth mentioning simply because it works great and has an insanely high rating on the Android Market. The function of this app is very simple, it basically provides you with a mobile feed consisting of the most popular 'entertainment' sites like Rage Comics, Demotivators, 9gag, and many more. Populate the app's home screen with your favorite sites from the list, and see a feed of content directly from the site in an easy-to-consume mobile layout.
[Review] 11 Bit Studios Revolutionizes The Tower Defense Genre With Anomaly Warzone Earth HD
11 Bit Studios Revolutionizes The Tower Defense Genre With Anomaly Warzone Earth HD
You may have heard of Anomaly Warzone Earth HD before, and while it isn't new to Android, it is new to the Android Market. 11 Bit Studios released this game exclusively into the Amazon Appstore some months ago, but now it's fully out in the open for everyone else to enjoy. What's so great is that this game is both fresh and entirely unique. Hearing that about a title coming out of the tower defense genre sounds weird, right?