Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

May

[Tip] Search The Android Web Market A Lot? Do It Straight From The Url Bar Like A Boss With This Handy Trick (Firefox, Chrome)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, Tips & Tutorials

If you liked my speedy QR code tips before, you're going to love the tip I have for you today. Ever since the Android web Market was launched, I found myself loading the homepage just to make a search approximately 17 million times a day, give or take a few. As you know, the web Market homepage is quite heavy, so loading it just to make a search, especially while tethering on a slow connection, was starting to get kind of annoying.

In an effort to save both time and clicks (hello, Carpal Tunnel), I've created a much handier way of firing up a search with only a few strokes and without the need for any tools outside of Firefox or Chrome.

May

[Deal Alert] Verizon Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY On Sale For $100 For New Accounts, $150 For Upgrades

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Deals, Verizon Wireless, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

The ~~Playstation phone~~ Xperia PLAY may not have quite hit store shelves yet, but it has been up for pre-order for a few days now. Amazon and Wirefly are both stepping up their game in an attempt to beat Verizon's price of $200 with contract, though, and have discounted prices accordingly. Specifically, Amazon has dropped the price for new accounts to just $100, and upgrades are $150. Wirefly has pegged both prices at $150, but hopefully they reflect Amazon's lower price in order to stay competitive. Then again, Wirefly includes a $25 Android Market Card and free backup service for life.

May

Mozilla Launches Separate Firefox For Android Beta App To Test New Features Early

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Firefox for Android has come a long way since the project hatched as "Fennec" many months ago - there is no doubt about that. What started as a bloated, slow, and buggy pile of crap (really, it was bad), is now one of the greatest browsers Android has to offer (add-ons ftw!). Don't get me wrong - it's still lacking quite a few features - notably, Flash support, faster font redraw on zooming, better startup times, etc., but Mozilla knows this and is working hard on the next version - 5.0.

In order to test out new (but potentially buggy) builds, the company decided to introduce a separate Beta app into the Market today.

May

Confirmed: HTC Flyer On Sale At (Some) Best Buy Stores Right Now

Posted by David Ruddock in Flyer, HTC, News, Tips & Tutorials

That's right, folks - HTC's much-anticipated first Android tablet is up for grabs at Best Buy stores across the U.S. right now. You can pick one of the Wi-Fi only tablets up (note: no stylus included) for a mere $500. A stylus will costs you $80 (yikes), should you so desire one. But consider yourself warned - the Flyer doesn't support handwriting recognition at this point in time, though you could still presumably do all sorts of fun artsy things with it.

How do we know it's on sale? Our man on the street (or in the building, rather), Brad Ganley, snapped a shot of a Flyer demo unit at his local Best Buy:

What's the Flyer packing?

May

[Giant Giveaway #2] Win A Free LG G-Slate 3D Honeycomb Tablet For Doing Close To Nothing!

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Contests / Giveaways, LG, Optimus Pad / G-Slate

Last Updated: July 18th, 2011

Our first giant giveaway was a huge success, with lots of excited entries received from many countries around the world in the 2 weeks it was running. In the end, one lucky winner - Keef from the UK - walked away with a free XOOM Wi-Fi, excited beyond belief. While we could only pick one winner for that giveaway, I promised that more would be coming, one more awesome than the other.

Today, I'm glad to announce our 2nd giant giveaway, also sponsored by NVIDIA, with the grand prize of the T-Mobile LG G-Slate 3D tablet with a street price of $750-800 (Amazon $800, T-Mobile $750).

May

Jenga Hits The Android Market, Real World Anxiety Included

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Games, News

Who doesn't love Jenga? I can't think of a single person that doesn't like to drive themselves totally insane with anticipation playing this awesome leaning-tower-of-blocks game. As of... well, now, you can get that same intense feeling on your Android device, as NaturalMotionGames has brought this family-friendly game to Android.

Probably among the most important features of the game is the realistic physics. If you're going to play, you want it to be physically correct, right? NaturalMotion put a lot of work into making sure that each block is accurately affected by removing surrounding blocks, so gameplay should feel just like the real deal.

May

Hacker's Keyboard Brings A Full Keyboard Experience To Android

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you've been looking for a full, 5-row keyboard experience on your Android device, then look no further - Hacker's Keyboard may fit the bill perfectly. HK is really designed to be used with apps like ConnectBot for SSH since it features working Tab, Ctrl, Alt, Esc, and arrow keys, but it's worth noting that this keyboard may not work properly with all apps. The reason for this is because some apps may not recognize the additional keys, as they weren't built to handle that type of virtual input.

However, if you experience any other problems while using this app, the developer requests that you file a bug in the issue tracker so he can work on a resolution.

May

[Unboxing & Initial Hands-On] Motorola Droid X2: Twice The Cores, Same Great Taste

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Droid X2, News, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

The Motorola Droid X2 has only been out for a day now - and still can't be purchased via Verizon brick-and-mortars yet- but we've already managed to land one for review. I haven't had much time with it, but I do have some unboxing and hands-on pictures to go along with the initial impressions.

I'm not going to run through the unboxing in words because... well, it's me taking something out of a box.

The first impression: it feels light. Not quite as light as the Droid Incredible 2 (4.78oz), but at 5.47oz it's certainly lighter than my daily ~~brick~~driver EVO (6oz.).

May

TweetComb And Newsr Drop The Price Tag, Go Free For All To Enjoy

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

When it comes to Honeycomb specific apps, the selection isn't huge, so when you can score some for free, that's always a good thing. Honeycomb app dev Chris Stewart decided that he was in agreeance with that idea and has relinquished the price of two of his HC apps - TweetComb and Newsr - to display that.

As its name suggests, TweetComb is a Twitter client designed specifically for Honeycomb. While it may not be as good as say, Plume, it's really hard to compete with the price (even with the free version of Plume, you have deal with ads, whereas TweetComb appears to be ad-free).

May

[Amazon Appstore Lawsuit] An App Store Is Not A Store For Apps, Says Apple (No, Really, They Said That)

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

Yesterday, in the Federal Court for the Northern District of California, Apple filed its response to a counterclaim (filed by Amazon) in its ongoing suit over Amazon's use of the word "Appstore" in its new Android... app store (what else am I supposed to call it, Apple? An app acquisition service?)

The counterclaim contained one of the single greatest premises for a trademark lawsuit I have ever seen (not that I've seen that many):

Apple denies that, based on their common meaning, the words “app store” together denote a store for apps.

- Apple, Inc., 2011

Now, from a legal perspective, this makes a bit more sense given what Apple is arguing (not to say that the merits of their case don't look shaky.) From a common sense perspective, this is one of the most hilariously backward things I (and I'm sure you all) have ever read.