Liam Spradlin
Contributing since August, 2011
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1523articles
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About Liam Spradlin
Liam loves Android, design, user experience, and travel. He doesn't love ill-proportioned letter forms, advertisements made entirely of stock photography, and writing biographical snippets.
Latest Articles
Bringing its already-popular (on iOS) reimagining of the Atari classic to Android, Activision released Pitfall! to the Play Store today. For those who haven't seen or played the newly conceptualized Pitfall, it shares very little with the original – you'll still be dodging snakes, swinging on ropes, and jump over impossible pitfalls, but this time you'll be playing an "endless-runner" a la Temple Run. Unlike Temple Run, however, Pitfall's protagonist (Pitfall Harry) uses a whip to defeat whatever wild foes happen to be in his way. Harry will also find himself riding various vehicles and running through plenty of dynamic environments.
Wild Blood, the game that challenges players to "live the unforgettable journey of Sir Lancelot" (in a universe where Lancelot incurs King Arthur's wrath by having an affair with Queen Guinevere, leading to the introduction of hellish demons to Earth), got our stamp of approval in October as a great game for "mindlessly slicing monsters to death," but it may have been a hard purchase to justify for some players at a cost of $6.99.
In a somewhat disappointing turn of events, Adobe has just announced (following their disappearance from the Play Store) an end to development for all their touch apps on Android except Photoshop Touch (Ideas is still alive for iOS users), meaning Adobe has essentially killed their Kuler, Ideas, Debut, Proto, and Collage apps for Android.
In a pair of new thirty-second ad spots, Google is showing off what it does best – search. The spots both feature Google's Search app for Android, using the same cozy, refined aesthetic as Google's other ads in recent memory, even showing off Search's new "search with camera" functionality.
As Google continues the work of expanding its Play Store services across the globe, it only makes sense that the giant is also working to provide a cohesive, pleasant experience for users in the 130+ countries that now support paid apps. To that end, Google has announced in a post to the Android Developers blog that developers can now include localized promotional graphics and video in their Play Store listings.
Playmobil, famous for miniature people and toy sets covering themes from knights to doll house life to Native Americans, has partnered with Gameloft to bring their Playmobil Pirates game to the Play Store. While Pirates is significantly different from its Nintendo DS namesake, the game features the same animated Playmobil pirates and environments you'd expect, plenty of missions, and social integration.
Since its launch, we've had bittersweet feelings about the Amazon Mobile app for Tablets. The app shows promise as a tablet-friendly shopping solution, but until now has suffered an extremely limited compatibility, only working with tablets running 4.1 and up and carrying a 1280x800 resolution.
Making its second entry to the Play Store (after Dark Nebula), Free Lunch Design brought Icy Tower 2 to Android today. Today's debut marks the first appearance of the Icy Tower title in the Play Store, meaning Android users can finally enjoy the extremely popular jumper on their mobile devices.
ÜberConference, simply put, is a service that makes conference calls better. It adds not only a visual element to the call, but an extra dimension of functionality, allowing users to record, mute, have private conversations with, and even research call participants, all while keeping track of various in-call statistics. After taking a look at the service, it isn't hard to see why it won TechCrunch Disrupt NYC in 2012.
If you're still toting the US Cellular-connected Galaxy SII, good news – it seems the device's update to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 is ready to go and can be installed using USC's "Simple Upgrade Tool" any time now.
Samsung, continuing its habit of timely code releases, today let fly open source kernel files for a handful of devices including Verizon's newly announced Galaxy Camera (EK-GC120), AT&T's Galaxy SIII Jelly Bean update (SGH-I747), and last but not least, AT&T's Galaxy Tab 8.9 Ice Cream Sandwich release (SGH-I957).
Listen up, Pantech Breakout owners – Verizon has just announced an update to build S8995VWCA55F.BB that brings with it a laundry list of tweaks and enhancements. While it's not a bump to the next version of Android, the update is still refreshing, given the Breakout's debut on Verizon is now more than a year behind us.
Vocre, a voice and text translator that won audience choice in TechCrunch's Disrupt, came to Android today, bringing with it a promising challenger to Google's own Translate app and a "tabletop UI" meant specifically for extended conversations with those on either side of the language barrier.
Sony Digital Network Applications (Sony DNA) today announced Motiongraph – an app that aims to make the creation of cinemagraphs fast and easy for Android users. A cinemagraph, for those who don't know, is a still image with one or two minor elements animated (you can see some great examples here). They're a fascinating medium that can only be achieved digitally, and which have an eerie yet fascinating aesthetic.
Looking to "rebalance the relationship" between humans and their smartphones, Moscow-based Yota Devices has announced the YotaPhone, a smartphone with an LCD display on one side, and an e-ink screen on the back.
It's always exciting to see a new app hit the Play Store intended for tablets, but it's even better to see an existing app's UI updated to accommodate larger devices. Looking to bring Android tablet users a more aesthetically pleasing experience when reading the news, the New York Times Company today updated its app to version 3.0 with an interface that is no longer just a blown up version of its phone-centric counterpart.
In an update to version 4.2.16, Google's YouTube app has received a (thankfully) refreshed UI for ten-inch screens, along with some bug fixes. The "revamped" UI seems to be the only thing of note in this update (though if there are any hidden goodies, you can be sure Ron will tell us about them soon), but it makes for a great refresh. For the sake of comparison, we'll take a look at a few before and after shots.
Just like its collection of new apps, the Play Store made a strong showing in the game department last month. From Ingress to Clay Jam, there were plenty of great new games to choose from in November. With games, as with apps, there are often too many to download and try each one. To that end, we've rounded up the top seven games every Android gamer will want to take a look at from November 2012.
The Google Play Store, as always, was abuzz with new apps last month. More than just new apps, though, the Play Store gained plenty of well-crafted, quality apps. The kind that have spurred the market's recent growth spurt, and which allow users to discover functionalities they never knew they needed. As always, we've sifted through all last month's new apps and selected our top five picks – a kind of short list for those looking to get the most out of their device with awesome apps.
Chris Lacy, developer of the gorgeous, widely lauded Tweet Lanes, has finally brought his latest creation to the Play Store – Action Launcher.