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One of my favorite features of Android is being able to have widgets on my device. With just a few widgets, my important information can be a quick glance away. Unfortunately, widgets typically offer a limited set of information (e.g., the last five messages) and the lack of animation on the majority of widgets makes them feel more static than they really are. Even Honeycomb's widgets are fairly limited. Fortunately, Android's live wallpapers allow for a far more engaging experience and the Bubbleator live wallpaper takes advantage of that.
If you are anything like me and you own the keyboard dock for the Asus Transformer, then you probably keep it attached the majority of the time. The dock gives you quick access to the home, search, and menu shortcut keys, but what about the recent apps button? Unfortunately, a hardware button was not included. Although it is not much work to just tap the on-screen button since it is just a few inches away, it can still be annoying.
Tablets are rapidly changing the way we approach technology. They give a sense of immediacy and tactile connection that desktops and notebooks can't touch; however, I will be the first to admit that the hype seemed stupid to me. Several coworkers purchased the original iPad on the day it launched and were eager to show them off. "But what can you do with it?" was my question, and there wasn't a good answer. The tablet was not fulfilling any needs that netbooks and laptops could not already cover.
Gaming on Android has been accelerating at the same mind-numbing speed as Android hardware, and we have quickly gone from having a limited number of decent titles to having more good games than we can track. In some cases, these games stand out for their amazing new gameplay; in others, they stand out for their high level of polish. Stardunk is one of the latter.
The screenshot, posted by khriskooper on the second page of that thread, shows just how ridiculous the issue became. Developers were reporting anywhere from 50-90% of payments being declined, with the most significantly affected sellers being outside of the United States with the purchasers in the United States. It is possible that a problem was unintentionally published to the Android Market when Google added the similar/related tab.
About a week ago, Aurora Feint, the team behind OpenFeint, publicly unveiled their Android SDK, allowing Android developers to easily incorporate things like leaderboards and achievements into their games. With that announcement came the promise of twenty new games, and we have already seen significant successes like MiniSquadron and Fruit Ninja jumping to the top of the Android charts. But now what? I flew down to the OpenFeint offices in San Francisco to find out first-hand.
One of the weaknesses of Android has been a lack of high quality games. Sure, there are some very good games, but not nearly as many as there should be, and they are often hidden in the Android Market. Fortunately, Android gaming momentum has been increasing with hits like Angry Birds arriving on Android recently. Now, OpenFeint is further increasing that momentum with the announcement of twenty Android titles in the next month, including several top 10 iOS hits like Fruit Ninja, MiniSquadron, and Super Slyder.