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

Feb

Flipplr Demoed At MWC: A Homescreen Designed For Quick Info Access

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, News

There's certainly no shortage of homescreen replacements for Android, but who's to say that we can't have one more? And you've got to admit, this concept app - Fipplr - looks really nice, and doesn't appear to fall short in terms of functionality, either.

Fipplr includes widgets for multiple apps, including Flickr, Twitter, and Google Latitude, although they aren't exactly the widgets we are used to. These widgets display quick information, and a quick swipe to the right will bring up an expanded view of the widget. On the right side of the homescreen are the launcher icons, which - while unmistakably similar to Windows Phone 7 - still look great.

Feb

Confirmed: Netflix App Available Exclusively On Future Qualcomm-Based Smartphones, Starting With The LG Revolution

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, LG, News, Revolution, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: February 16th, 2011

Want Netflix on your current Android device? Too bad - as LG and Qualcomm told Engadget, the Netflix app will not be available on existing Android hardware (at least not officially).

Apparently, future Qualcomm CPUs will include additional DRM libraries that no current smartphone processor has, making the decision slightly more understandable (though still extremely disappointing). There's still no word on exactly what processors will support Netflix, but we do know that the LG Revolution will be compatible with it - meaning that the app works with single-core chips.

Disappointing news? Sure, but if it's any comfort, the app does look pretty sweet - check out Engadget's hands-on video:

Source: Engadget

Feb

32 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Games From Last Week (2/9/11 - 2/15/11)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Last Updated: April 13th, 2011

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous week's roundup? Find it here: 26 Best (And 7 WTF) New Android Apps, Games, And Live Wallpapers From Last Week (2/1/11 – 2/8/11)

Apps

Androidify

Android Police coverage: Google’s Newest Android App, Androidify, Lets You Create Your Own Android Avatar [Hands-On]

The picture on the left is what I quickly threw together for Android Police.

Feb

Feeling Suicidal? Karoshi By YoYo Games Now In The Android Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News, Videos

Another game hit that was previously available only as a Flash game on PCs is now on Android, and its premise may surprise you. Mr. Karoshi, who happens to be an "overworked Japanese salaryman" is feeling suicidal. Your job? Finish him off.

The puzzle game features dark humor (no kidding?), 50 levels, a mini game, and is actually quite a bit of fun. Check out the trailer below - it shows off the Karoshi quite well:

Download Karoshi

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yoyogames.droidkaroshi

Source: Android Market

Feb

Android Movie Studio For Honeycomb Unveiled At MWC By Eric Schmidt, Looks Awesome

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Right now at MWC, Eric Schmidt is showing off a brand-new, Google-developed Android app: Movie Studio. The app, as the name may suggest, is a video editor. It's designed specifically for Honeycomb tablets, and as a video editor, that sort of makes sense. It's pretty rough trying to edit video on a smaller screen, though not impossible (which is to say, I imagine an XDA port for phones will happen as soon as an APK gets leaked).

Movie Studio will contain most of the features you'd expect in a competitive (*cough* iMovie *cough*) video editing app: transitions, audio import, splicing, A/V timeline, and multi-format export and sharing options.

Feb

[Hands-On] Make Your Clock Widget: Because Everyone Should Have A Totally Customized Clock

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, Development, News

The open-endedness - particularly, the customizability - of Android is exactly what makes me love it so much. And Make Your Clock Widget is a perfect example of that, offering seemingly infinite possibilities for what you can create. Don't believe me? Take a look at the sample screenshots:

Intrigued, I took a few minutes to play with it, and came away hugely impressed (note: I didn't include a picture of my final clock because... well, I made a goofy clock just playing around with the app.)

You can add the date and time in nearly any fashion or format you can think of - there are tons of options available.

Feb

Engadget Reviews The Motorola Atrix 4G, Finds A Great Phone, Highly Overpriced Gimmicky Docks, Awful Data Speeds, Bootloader Lock, And Lots Of Crapware

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Atrix 4G (Olympus), Motorola, News, Phone Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

One of the few tech blogs who managed to get their hands on Motorola's upcoming AT&T flagship - the Atrix 4G - is, of course, Engadget. The reviewer, unsurprisingly, is the infamous cool geek and editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky, who, from my experience reading Engadget's reviews, does a good overall job but fails to go into those details that matter to most Android users. The Atrix 4G review is exactly what I had expected, and I'm going to summarize it and save you 20 minutes reading it.

The Good

The phone is blazing fast, which is unsurprising, considering its 2 cores and 1GB of RAM.

Feb

[Videos] WireFly Reviews The HTC Thunderbolt, Compares It To HTC EVO 4G And Verizon iPhone 4

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in HTC, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless, Videos

Last week our friends at WireFly unboxed the HTC Thunderbolt, but spent little time actually using the device. They left us with a few tantalizing tidbits though, saying "this phone cranks," and promising a full video review, as well as head-to-head comparisons with the iPhone 4 and the EVO 4G. Yesterday, the last of the three videos went up - let's take a look.

Video Review

The review video is just over 8 minutes long. The first few minutes are spent running through the system, and from the 4:10 mark onwards, they run some benchmarks and compare the scores to other devices.

Feb

Android Intervention, Part 4 of 4: The Android Market - A Work In Progress?

Posted by David Ruddock in Editorials

Uhoh, he's at it again. No, I'm not going to make this a rant that is hugely controversial or upsetting. Seemingly contrary to what I write sometimes, I love Android. And anyone who loves Android can agree: the Android Market kinda-sorta sucks sometimes.

Whoa there, let me qualify that - some aspects of the Market are less than fantastic, and I think every Android user has come to realize this. In fact, I doubt it's a stretch to say that the Market's shortcomings are the single biggest reason Android hasn't eaten the iPhone for breakfast in terms of critical acclaim.

Feb

HTC Announces Six New Android Devices (Desire S, Wildfire S, Incredible S, Salsa, ChaCha, And Flyer Tablet), Confirms That Android 2.4 Is Gingerbread

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in AT&T, Chacha, Desire S (Saga), Flyer, HTC, Incredible S (Vivo), News, Salsa, Wildfire S / Wildfire 2 (Marvel)

Last Updated: February 16th, 2011

To say the expectations were high for HTC's MWC press conference would be a drastic understatement, especially since the company didn't really announce anything new at CES. So were those expectations met? Personally, I'd have to say "no," but read on to discover the complete specifications of each of their six new devices and decide for yourself.

Update: Now with official HTC videos.

Update #2: Here is the spec sheet from HTC with all the official specs.