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

Dec

Don Bluth Insists On Making Your Life Weirder By Releasing The Laserdisc Classic 'Space Ace' On Android

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

Don Bluth... What happened? You had such a good run. You made film history by actually giving Disney a run for it's money with Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, and The Land Before Time. They were classics! But then Rock-A-Doodle happened. Then Thumbelina. Then...lord forgive me for speaking it's name...A Troll in Central Park. The decline was quick and painful. Before the movies started getting weird, though, Dragon's Lair came out and revolutionized the laser disc gaming industry (no seriously). While that title actually saw some initial success due to the unique tech (and notably high price point at $0.50 per play), the follow-up game, Space Ace, did not do nearly as well.

Jun

Amazon Mobile For Android Updated, Brings New Sorting/Filtering Options, Revamped Navigation, Wish Lists, And More

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

Everyone loves Amazon, and thankfully for Android owners, their app has always been pretty solid. Thanks to an update to version 1.6 that was pushed to the Play store last night, it's now even better:

What's in this version:

- Brand new ways to sort and filter your search results.
- Faster, easier navigation with a Cart shortcut and drop-down menu of the most popular pages.
- Launch barcode scanning directly from the home screen.
- Add items to any of your existing wish lists.
- Additional country support – shop Amazon across 8 countries, including Spain and Italy.
- Bug fixes and performance improvements.

Dec

Gingerbread Now Running On 50% Of Android Devices, Just In Time For Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Cupcake 1.5, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Last Updated: August 20th, 2012

Google has released the latest of its monthly Android version distribution charts, and for the first time Android 2.3 Gingerbread is present on over half of all Android devices. A milestone, to be sure.

We also get a look at the end success rate of Honeycomb (a tablet-only version of Android), which achieved a mere 2.5% piece of the Android pie since the first Honeycomb device release back in February. Android 1.5 and 1.6 (Cupcake and Donut) have continued their march toward extinction, commanding only 2.1% of the Android population total. Android 2.2 has remained relatively steady at 35%, but is clearly on the downtrend.

Oct

3 Years Of Android: A Look At Android's Home Screens - From Cupcake To Ice Cream Sandwich

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Cupcake 1.5, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, Gingerbread 2.3, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Jelly Bean 4.1

Oh, Android. How far you've come since the days of the G1. Actually, tomorrow, October 22nd, will mark 3 years to the day that Android has been available on consumer handsets in the United States, and the G1 on T-Mobile was concepción.

With Ice Cream Sandwich finally revealed, Android has gone through its seventh major iteration. How has Android changed? What better way to illustrate Android's evolution than its home screen, the hub of user interaction. Here's a look at the face of Android over the last 3 years.

Android 1.5: Cupcake

Android Version 1.5: Cupcake

Cupcake was step one for what was, at the time, Google's recently acquired mobile operating system Android.

Sep

Google Goggles For Android Updated To 1.6, Wants You To Snap More Pictures

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

Google's neat-o Goggles app has just been updated to 1.6, and brings intelligent photo recognition to the table. What exactly does that mean? Well, I can't put it much better than the official announcement:

Let’s say that I’m going on vacation, and I decide to use my Android-powered phone as my primary camera. Goggles would identify landmarks, paintings and other interesting objects in my photos. I can share these facts about my vacation with my friends right from my Goggles search history.

In other words, Goggles is running in the background. You snap a picture, and Goggles recognizes it. The app will notify you that it recognizes the content of the picture, and attach that info to the picture in the Goggles app.

Jun

Facebook For Android Updated To v1.6, Brings Pages, Video Uploads, And News Feed Improvements

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Following a lengthy period of beta testing (about 1 month), version 1.6 of the Facebook Android app is now in the Market. As expected, the update brings with it:

video uploads
access to pages
improvements to the news feed (though the expected comment liking did not seem to make it for some reason)

Not much to say here - the amount of new features is really not that extensive. Go grab the update from the Market or use our widget below and let us know what else you find (what are these "improvements" to the news feed for example?).

Facebook for Android

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

Thanks, Mgamerz!

Feb

T-Mobile To Offer Swag To Shafted Cliq XT Users

Posted by Josue Alamo in CLIQ XT (Zeppelin), Deals, News, T-Mobile

With many Cliq XT users threatening to walk after Motorola’s Eclair update fiasco, T-Mobile is feeling quite sympathetic. In an effort to prevent more customers from cancelling and subscribing elsewhere, T-Mobile is now offering Cliq XT users some form of compensation through their Customer Loyalty department. Due to the proposed confidentiality of the memo the exact incentive is unknown. Cliq XT users are encouraged to call and find out what’s the best they can get to remain loyal to the purple T.

Source: TmoNews

Feb

Nearly 90% Of Android Devices At Version 2.1 Or Above

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

Google released its monthly update of the Android version distribution charts today, and the battle against fragmentation is slowly being won.

Froyo now accounts for almost 60% of all Android devices, with Éclair hovering around 30%. Donut and Cupcake now make up only one tenth of all Android devices in the wild. Compare that to only 6 months ago, when they took up over 35% of the pie. Android's evolution is certainly impressive, and it doesn't seem like it'll be slowing down any time soon.

Gingerbread represents around 1% of the Android population right now according to Google, which makes sense, as the Nexus S remains the only Android handset being sold with Android 2.3.

Dec

Android Platform Version Stats Updated Again, Froyo Now Dominant

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Cupcake 1.5, Donut 1.6, Eclair 2.1, Froyo 2.2, News

If you love devouring Android stats, Google's Android Platform Versions sub-site, which is updated about once a month, just got refreshed with the latest batch of data. Last month, Froyo ate up some 36% of the pie, while Éclair was found to be running on about 41% of devices, with the remaining 23% being taken up by Cupcake and Donut.

As you can see for yourself in the graph above, this month was quite a turn-around - Froyo (at 43.4%) finally stole the throne from Éclair, which was left with 39.6%. As for 1.5 (Cupcake) and 1.6 (Donut), they each gobbled up 6.3% and 10.6%, respectively.

Nov

36% Of Android Devices Now Running Froyo - Donut And Cupcake Continue Steady Decline Into Dessert History

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

Google, as it does every month, has released updated Android platform version distribution charts today. What's changed? From last month, not a whole lot. Froyo expanded a solid 3%, from a little over 33% of the Android-verse at the beginning of October to over 36% as of yesterday, with Donut and Cupcake both losing more ground.

Pac-Man hungers for donuts and cupcakes

Éclair actually gained a few tenths of a percent, most likely due to continued sales of Samsung's Galaxy S phones, which are all shipping with Android 2.1 installed. Much of this will probably change come January, however, as Samsung has stated they hope to get all Galaxy S devices running 2.2 before the end of the year.