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

Oct

Adobe AIR Lands In Android Market, Doesn't Do Much Of Anything Yet

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications, News

A while back we were shown a leaked release of Adobe AIR for Android and told stories of its incredible capabilities. Well, the time has come. Twitter is now lighting up with reports about it and it is now available in the Android Market.

Here is Adobe's explanation of AIR for Android:

Adobe® AIR® will let you publish ActionScript 3 projects to run as native applications (.apk) for the Android OS. These AIR applications can be delivered to Android devices through Android application stores such as the Android Market.

Developers can write new code or reuse existing web content to build AIR applications for the Android OS.

Oct

Universal Androot Hits The Market, Now Supports One-Click Rooting Of 23 Android Phones

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Droid (Sholes), G1 (Dream), Hero, Hero (Sprint, HeroC), Milestone, Milestone XT720, myTouch Slide (Espresso), News, Nexus One (Passion), Streak, Xperia X10 (es209ra), Xperia X10 Mini / Mini Pro (Robyn / Mimmi)

Last Updated: October 16th, 2010

Update: As Artation has pointed out in the comments below, Universal Androot has since been removed from the Market for unknown reasons. If you're still heartbent on using it though, you can download it it from here.

If you can think back to the time Universal Androot was released, you'll recall the then small xda-developers startup that allowed for one-click rooting of a very limited number of phones, all of which had to be running Android 2.1 Eclair or lower.

Now, the app has hit the Market and is ready for prime time with support for a multitude phones, including devices running Android 2.2 FroYo (though, only limited to Nexus One before 2.2.1 and an older FRG01B Droid build), 2.1 Eclair, 1.6 Donut, and even phones stuck on 1.5 Cupcake, like the HTC Magic.

Oct

CherryPal Introduces Cherrypad America: A Low-End 7-Inch Android Tablet That's Priced To Match

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in News

Once upon a time, Android tablets were few and far between, but with tablets like the Notion Ink Adam (if it proves to be anything more than vaporware), Samsung's Galaxy Tab, and even Archos' entries into the tablet space, that might be changing sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Cherrypal (a company most of us have never even heard of), has just introduced the Cherrypad America, a 7-inch Android tablet that may not be another high-end iPad competitor, but may instead be a pretty decent low-end tablet, featuring specs such as:

a 7" 800x480 resistive touchscreen display
an 800MHz Samsung ARM11 CPU + GPU + DSP system-on-a-chip
256MB of RAM
2GB of internal storage (ROM)
a 3.5mm headset jack
WiFi 802.11 b/g (no support for 802.11n, sadly)
a 3200mAh battery with a stated run time of six to eight hours
an external adapter for USB 2.0
an optional external (!) 3G modem
a weight of 1.3 pounds
aluminum casing

While the resistive touchscreen worries me since our own Brian O'Toole was bitterly disappointed with Nationite's MIDnite tablet, I don't see any real dealbreakers here, especially as the tablet costs a mere $188 and is available today from Zecozi.

Oct

PayPal Payment May Be Coming To The Android Market

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Apps/Games, News

According to news website TheStreet, Google may be finally relenting on the Google Checkout-only system currently employed in the Android Market by letting PayPal in on the action. This is a facility that users have demanded for some time, and the ubiquity and convenience of PayPal payment should be a nice incentive for people to buy apps if they have not done so before. TheStreet also speculates that this new payment option may be the final piece of the puzzle in the long-awaited Google Music project, allowing for seamless payment from your device or PC. An announcement at PayPal's October 26th conference in San Francisco is expected to unveil this new partnership.

Oct

This Dancing Live Wallpaper Is Worth The Impact On Battery Life

Posted by Adam Litke in Applications

If you're like me, the one item on your phone that changes more than your partner's mind is your wallpaper. As a general rule of thumb, I don't use live wallpapers since they eat away at my Droid Incredible's battery so quickly, but today I found a live wallpaper that was worthy of a download and an installation just so I could show it off to my friends. The live wallpaper showcases our little green buddy dancing his heart out for our pleasure. See it in action below and download it from the source link if it catches your eye.

Source: xda-developers via Androinica

Oct

Firefox For Android Finally Hits Beta Status, Set To Silence Critics

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, News

As we've seen in the last few days, The Artist Formerly Known As Fennec has really been hitting its stride lately. Riding on this wave of improvement comes a shiny new Beta status, making Fennec now, officially, Firefox 4 For Android Beta.

We won't labour you with details, as many words have been written before about F4FA's arduous journey towards usability. Just get out there and download it.

You might also want to check out Mozilla's official blog post, and their little promotional video at the source link below. Sadly, our main man Matt Brubeck is not featured, but he's probably too busy making Fen*cough*Firefox 4 for Android Beta even better.

Oct

SmartSMSVibrate Automates Your SMS Notification Settings

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, Apps/Games

Over at the bustling hivemind of xda-developers, poster Carsten4207 has just published his first app to the Market, and it's one with a neat little trick. The app, when enabled, uses the proximity sensor to determine whether your phone is in your pocket/face-down or facing up on a surface. You can then decide whether or not you want your phone to vibrate for incoming SMS messages depending on the situation.

The application does not poll constantly, instead tapping into your SMS state. Additionally, the app is only activated when a message is received, limiting the impact on battery life.

As it's Carsten4207's first app, it's forgivable that the functionality is somewhat limited - the automation does not extend to calls, for example, but if you don't care much for calls and just want something not overly complex, then SmartSMSVibrate may be just the tool for you.

Oct

[App Review] WolframAlpha Makes Your Phone A Supercomputer

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Recently, Wolfram Alpha LLC dropped the official WolframAlpha app into the market. It is one of my favorite services and I purchased it ($1.99) as soon as it came out. For those not familiar, this is a clip from the "about" page of WolframAlpha to give you some idea of what this is all about:

Wolfram|Alpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.

Oct

Webkey For Android: Take Full Control Of Your Android Device Using A Web Interface From Your Computer

Posted by Adam Litke in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Everyone knows that smartphones are awesome, but it’s hard to beat using a large screen and full keyboard to control a device. Developers Peter Mora and Zoltan Papp believe they have come up with a compelling compromise: Webkey, for Android. Webkey allows users with a rooted Android device to text or call contacts, view SD card contents, and more - all from a web based interface.

The Interface

Webkey's interface leaves a lot to be desired, as it is more bare and utilitarian than polished and perfected. As the picture above shows, you have access to the following options:

Phone
GPS
SMS
Call List
Notify
Export
Users
SD card
Help

Clicking on "phone" gives you the screen above.

Oct

HTC Posts Q3 '10 Financial Results - Profits Double Year Over Year

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in HTC, News

Well isn't this a surprise, Nokia? HTC's just posted their profits for Q3 of 2010, and not only are they almost double those of Q3 2009, they are, in no small part, due to Android, according to RBS analyst Steven Tseng.

That's right - the company has posted profits of T$11.1 billion, or about $360 million, for the months of July, August, and September. By ways of comparison, last year's Q3 profits were a mere T$5.695 billion, or about half of this year's profits. Additionally, HTC's stock has risen to T$719, up from T$264.69 in February. Boring? Sure, but hopefully this will teach HTC that they don't have to cripple their devices to be successful.