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Jul

Review: Spotify For Android (US) - Is It The Music Streaming Service You've Been Waiting For?

Posted by David Ruddock in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

No, it's not. At least not for Android - and that's what we're here to talk about today. The merits of Spotify as a music streaming subscription service for your desktop are substantially greater - it's well organized, searching and streaming are quick, powerful, and pretty. There's a lot to love - and at $10 (or free for ad-supported and no Android playback) a month for unlimited streaming, those plusses are hard to argue against.

Unfortunately, if you plan on using Spotify on your Android device, there's a lot less to love, unless your musical needs are very specific. Spotify for Android is good for one thing: finding music.

Jul

[Coming Soon To Android] Protoxide: Death Race Is An Insane Hovercraft Racing Game... With Guns

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Games, News

Remember F-Zero from back in the Super NES days? Or perhaps the more modern WipEout for PS3? Those are both great hovercraft racing games. Do you know what would make them better, though? Guns. And bombs. And all other sorts of artillery that can be used to blow folks up. That's where Protoxide: Death Race comes in, because it has just that. Have a look at the gameplay teaser:

Looks sick, right? It features four single player modes, WiFi multiplayer mode, 12 battle war gliders, and 16 monstrous tracks for you to attempt to blow your adversaries to smithereens.

There is but one problem with this game: it's not yet available.

Jul

Subsonic Updated To 3.0 - Brings UI Changes And... An Equalizer!

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

Long have Subsonic users awaited the day the do-it-yourself music streaming platform would finally incorporate an equalizer in its Android app. Today is that day. Subsonic has been updated to version 3.0, and there's a slew of changes. For one, there's a brand-new widget. There's also a basic music visualization option, and the notification on the pull-down menu now shows album art. Take a look at some of the new features, below:

Subsonic, if you aren't familiar with it, is a music streaming platform that utilizes your home computer and personal music collection to provide a cloud-esque experience. That is to say, it's 100% your bandwidth being used, there's no unnecessary middleman transcoding the files (ahem, AudioGalaxy), and you can customize the experience from the server side to almost no end.

Jul

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Google+ App Gets Update, Brings Fixes For Swype, Huddles, Circles, And More

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

The Google+ app received an updated today that brings about several much-needed enhancements, bug fixes, and performance improvements. Have a look at the changelog:

Customize the main stream view to show streams from individual circles
Fixed some issues encountered by users with the Swype keyboard
Set permissions for who can start a huddle with you
If someone you've never huddled with before invites you to a group huddle, you can now dismiss the invitation (without blocking them)
New UI allows adding multiple people or entire circles to an existing group huddle
Set photo as wallpaper
Performance improvements and bug fixes throughout the app

The update hasn't made it to the Web Market just yet, but you can pull it directly from your device.

Jul

Qualcomm Releases Vellamo: A New Web Benchmarking App

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

It's a well-known fact that Android enthusiasts love benchmarks. When new devices hit our hands, what is one of the first things we do? Run benchmarks. It's how we compare devices to one another, and what we use to develop the standards on which future devices will be set. At this point, we use a set of benchmarking tools that have become clutch throughout the community: Quadrant, Linpack, SmartBench, etc.

Now, Qualcomm is getting into the benchmarking game with a new web benchmark called Vellamo that aims to judge device performance in areas that really matter: rendering, javascript, networking, and user experience.

Jul

[Deal Alert] Carrier-Unlocked HTC Inspire 4G For $350 With Free Shipping From eBay

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Deals, Inspire 4G (Ace, Stallion), News

This is an excellent deal for anyone looking to pick up a new handset without having to sign up for a two-year commitment with a wireless carrier. You can grab a carrier-unlocked HTC Inspire 4G (GSM) for $350 from eBay right now. This may seem a bit steep compared to the relatively low price that you can nab this handset for in-store or for one of the third party manufacturer - until you remove the contract from the equation, that is. If you were to walk into an AT&T store to pick up this phone sans-contract at this very moment, you would be leaving $450 lighter.

Jul

Unboxing & First Hands-On With The Motorola DROID 3

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Droid 3, Motorola, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

I'm fairly certain that I don't need to tell anyone about the impact the original DROID had on Google's mobile OS. It almost single-handedly brought Android to the masses, saved Motorola from bankruptcy, and made Verizon's then-stale smartphone line-up interesting once more.

Then there was the DROID 2. While it was by no means a bad phone, it would be difficult to argue that it carried the same significance as its predecessor - not to mention its locked bootloader and the godawful addition of Ninjablur.

Well here we are, just about one year later, with yet another iteration in the DROID series: the DROID 3.

Jul

[New Game] Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack Coming To Android This Month [Video]

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Games, News, Videos

Fans of the classic first person shooter series Serious Sam can rejoice, as the cult video game is making its way to Android sometime this month. Titled Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! you play the role of Sam's arch nemesis The Headless Kamikaze, as you make your way through various obstacle-filled levels in order to fulfill your greatest desire: destroy Sam.

The game features 40 levels of action-packed adventure, with one seemingly common theme: you're going to die. The beautiful graphics and rich environments are both inviting and distracting while you journey down the treacherous path to your demise. The developer, Be-Rad Entertainment, highlights the overall look of the game with a fantastic and memorable quote: "Cartoon dismemberment has never been so pretty."

The game will also feature social media integration so you can share you achievements with all of your homies on Facebook.

Jul

[Poll] Some Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1s Experiencing 'Newton's Rings' - Is Yours?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Galaxy Tab 10.1, News, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

It looks like owners of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 are facing yet another display issue: Newton's rings. According to Wikipedia, Newton's rings is an "interference pattern caused by the reflection of light between two surfaces;" but how does this apply to the Galaxy Tab, you ask? Imagine what motor oil looks like when combined with water, now place that under the screen of your Tab 10.1.

^{Image by wesbalmer of XDA Forums}

That's what a whole slew of users over at XDA are dealing with at this very moment. The thread is currently up to eleven pages, and basically every single post is an affirmation of this issue.

Jul

[Book Giveaway #5] Looking To Develop Adobe AIR-Based Android Apps? We're Giving Away "Developing Android Applications With Adobe AIR" To Three Lucky Readers

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Contests / Giveaways, Development

Last Updated: July 26th, 2011

To help aspiring Android developers get off the ground and develop our next dream app, Android Police has partnered with O'Reilly Media, one of the largest technical book publishers, to give away a multitude of Android books to our readers. Each week or so for the next few months, we'll be giving away a different O'Reilly Android book, asking for nothing but a minute of your time in return.

Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR

For the fifth contest in the series, we chose to give away Véronique Brossier's Developing Android Applications with Adobe AIR, which was published by O'Reilly just a few months back (in April 2011, to be exact).