Matt Demers
Matt Demers is a Toronto writer that deals primarily in the area of Android, comics and other nerdy pursuits. You can find his work on Twitter and sites across the Internet.

30
May
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Notion Ink's Adam Tablet to Get A Number of Updates (Including Honeycomb By June 27th), Another Round of Sales

Posted by in Adam, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Notion Ink

The founder of Notion Ink has updated the corporate blog with a number of changes that are coming to the company's Adam. For those of you interested in the Tegra-2 powered 10.1-inch tablet, the company is also opening up sales again, albeit by invite only.

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We've covered Notion Ink's tablet progress through a number of controversies surrounding shipping and build quality, but it looks like the tablet will be finally getting an update to Honeycomb by the end of June if all goes according to plan.

Other updates include an new version of the Adam-specific market (even though you can unlock normal market access yourself), a kernel update, advanced customer support and hints at @Home support in the future.

28
May
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[Review] Hyperlight Brings Tilt-Controlled Madness to a Faster-Than-Light Level

Posted by in Applications, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

During the past couple months I've seen a growing trend in Android games that seek to emulate the style of Geometry Wars, a highly successful console and PC title. I've had the pleasure of playing both Tilt Arena and PewPew in the past, so why not throw one more into the mix?

Hyperlight brings another entry into the Geometry Wars-like genre, but with a specific control scheme: tilt controls accomplish everything in this game, and have a deeper purpose than just movement.

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A Unique Control Scheme

Tilting your phone in all directions influences your movement, and moving past a certain threshold will kick your spaceship into faster-than-light (FTL) mode.

27
May
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[New Release] SwiftKey X Beta Hits The Android Market, Adds New Ways to Read Your Mind

Posted by in Applications, News

Keyboard replacement developer TouchType has released a beta of its newest software, SwiftKey X, out to the public. Previously only available to the service's VIP subscribers, the keyboard replacement will be available for free for a limited time.

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New Hotness

The newest version adds a lot of features, most of which are designed to help you get words onto the screen quickly. SwiftKey's game has always been one of text prediction: its ability to learn from your SMS and language modules made it perfect for those who find themselves relying on auto-correct a lot.

SwiftKey X goes one step further than just SMS; this time, the app is able to search your Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail for new words and commonly typed sentences.

23
May
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Miro 4 Allows for Torrenting, Video and Music Syncing, Podcasting and Everything Else Under the Sun

Posted by in News, Tips & Tutorials

Miro is an open-sourced, free solution to your media problems with Android. It's touted as an all-in-one solution, and with its feature list, I'm not about to disagree. It offers a media player, BitTorrent client, video encoder, music store and device sync component all wrapped up in a single program, which covers some of the problems Android has run into without its own downloadable client.

With your phone connected to your computer, you can use Miro to sync music and video to your phone. It maintains a library by scanning folders, and can even import your current iTunes library on first load.

23
May
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[New In The Market] Robotek Brings Lasers, Explosions, and Risk-Based Mayhem To The Palm Of Your Hand

Posted by in Applications, Games, News

Just in case you thought today would be devoid of some kind of fun, developer Hexage decided to release its latest game, Robotek. You play as the last human holdout on a robot-conquered Earth, slowly working from one base to take liberate nodes, countries, continents, and eventually the planet back from your oppressors. Combat plays out in a strategic, turn-based style, but there's a bit of a twist to it.

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You fight your robot enemies by spinning a virtual slot machine from which you gain bonuses, drone units and special attacks based on the outcome. This mechanic adds a bit of unpredictability to the game while still allowing you to plan your next move: the first tumbler moves slow enough that you can choose where it lands, but the second and third are more of a crapshoot.

23
May
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Galaxy Tab 10.1 Gets ClockworkMod Recovery Across All Its Versions; Let The Flashing Commence!

Posted by in Development, Galaxy Tab 10.1, News, Samsung

Those of you who have gotten their hands on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be pleased to know that you can now flash ClockworkMod Recovery on your tablet. This applies to the "regular" Galaxy Tab 10.1, the "Limited Edition" that was given out at Google I/O, and the 10.1v model (which is thicker and sold in different markets) as well.

Users can head over to Droid Basement to download and install the mod, which allows for a greater selection of behind-the-scenes options, such as the ability to back up and restore your entire system using nandroid as well as integrate with ROM Manager.

22
May
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[Updated] CyanogenMod Adds Support For Revoking App Permissions

Posted by in Development, News
Last Updated: May 25th, 2011

Back in March we reported on a proposed patch to CyanogenMod that would allow users to deny apps access to certain permissions while retaining the connection to others. This lets users install applications they are interested in, while remaining mindful of their privacy.

Update: Indeed, the "faking data" patches did not make it into CM and probably never will - thanks to all who posted the correction, including the patch author. See this commit for more info.

Denying permissions unfortunately has a nasty side effect - they will cause applications that don't handle the situation correctly to force close. If an application does start force closing and you've revoked some permissions, you will see a special dialog to easily reset those permissions back to "stock" and give the app a second chance.

22
May
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[New Game Review] TNA Wrestling iMPACT Brings Bodyslamming On The Go, Avoids Hitting Rock Bottom

Posted by in Game Reviews, Games, News, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Before I get this post underway, I'd like to send my condolences to the family of "Macho Man" Randy Savage, who had passed away 2 days ago. Wrestling is a guilty pleasure of mine, and his rambling promos about the Danger Zone will always have a special place in my heart. RIP Randy.

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The Game

A lot of my youth was spent playing the Smackdown series of games on the PS2; I still pop in Here Comes the Pain every now and again to relive the glory of throwing someone off the top of a ladder through a table. These games, with their arcade-y mechanics and campy story modes, were kings of replayability: if you got bored with your current roster of brawlers, you could just create a bunch more and suddenly the game was new again.

20
May
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[New In The Market] Text Clock Pro Indulges Our Literacy With a Dynamic, Readable Timepiece

Posted by in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Clock widgets, clock livewallpapers - when will we have enough of them? Never, I say! Every once in a while, a new clock variant comes out that pushes the limits of originality, and I think this is what we have here today with Text Clock Pro.

If you've been in an English fanatic's kitchen, there's a chance you might've seen a bunch of word magnets on their fridge which you can assemble into sentences. More often than not, you would take a word out of their carefully-prepared quote, or just arrange them in whichever order that sounded the dirtiest.

Text Clock Pro is the Android equivalent of that.

18
May
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[Video Hands-On] HoopsAR Creates An Augmented Reality Basketball Game Right In Your Lap

Posted by in Applications, Game Reviews, News, Reviews, Videos
Last Updated: August 2nd, 2011

Earlier today, a tip about a new augmented reality game called HoopsAR hit our inbox. Since augmented reality is a relatively new and kind of cool subject, I decided to take a deeper look and go hands-on. Before I could play the game, I needed to print out a basketball "ticket" which serves as the game board. The phone's camera then scans it and overlays the court on top of it in 3D.

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If you're still a bit confused about how it works, don't worry - I whipped up a quick video hands-on in order to explain the overlay function and simple controls that make this game worth checking out.

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