Android - 160/167 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jun

Everything You Need To Know About Android 2.2

Posted by John Thompson in Android OS, Froyo 2.2, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

I’ve been using Android 2.2 (codenamed ‘Froyo’) on my Nexus One for a while now, and it’s packed with lots of additions and tweaks that make it the best version of Android to date. Although we’ve since been informed that the leaked version of Froyo is in fact a release candidate, and not a final release version, I’ve found it to be perfectly stable, and haven’t had any issues with it after constant use for the past two weeks.

Home Screen

The first thing you will notice when seeing Froyo for the first time is a slight tweak to the home screen.

Jun

Carrier Billing For Android Applications Without Google

Posted by Andrew Huff in Apps/Games, News

As a developer myself, one issue with the Android market has always been the payment methods…or rather, the lack thereof. Aside from Google Checkout and carrier billing for some companies within the US, there really aren’t a whole lot of options to consider, especially when dealing with the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement.

Well, as with all things in the world of technology, a company seems to have found a bit of a loophole in regards to carrier billing for developers, or more specifically, integrating it into their applications and games. This has a lot of implications, including a big one: countries without access to paid apps and games on the Android market could still purchase them through free demos released by the developer.

Jun

Google Update Platform Versions Chart, Call Fragmentation A ‘Bogeyman’

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Android OS, Devices By Manufacturer, News

Yesterday, Google Open Source & Compatibility Program Manager Dan Morrill (his business cards have to be 10 feet long to fit that title) wrote a pretty interesting blog post over at the Android Developers blog, where he called the idea of fragmentation a ‘bogeyman’.

He tries to diffuse a lot of the controversy that the idea of Android fragmentation has stirred up – indeed, it’s probably the biggest argument used against Android by its detractors.

He doesn’t directly address the fact that there are still a lot of devices in the wild that are running legacy versions of the operating system, and are unable to take advantage of some of the new APIs the newer versions have introduced, but instead implies that it doesn’t necessarily matter anyways.

Jun

A First Look At The MSI WindPad 110 Android Tablet

Posted by John Thompson in Devices By Manufacturer, News

There’s no doubt that 2010 is the year of the tablet, with manufacturers promptly following suit after the release of the iPad. With Computex getting into full swing, there’s no shortage of tablets on the showroom floor, with many of them running Android.

One such tablet is the MSI WindPad 110, which, according to Engadget, is running Android 2.1. Sporting a 10-inch touch screen interface, the WindPad 110 has a glossy, black exterior and is powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chip, as opposed to many tablets which are running Intel’s Atom processor.

In addition to the capacitive touchscreen, the WindPad 110 also comes with a USB port for peripheral access, and video-out capability, allowing you to view your photos and videos on the big screen.

May

The Best 5 Twitter Apps For Android

Posted by John Thompson in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

With so many Twitter clients available for Android, it’s hard to decide which one best suits you. Although I don’t think that there’s a ‘best’ Twitter app on Android, because different applications excel in different areas, I’ve selected five of, what I believe to be, the best clients available right now. Each app is available on the Market for free, with some offering ‘Pro’ versions too.

Touiteur (Free, Pro Version Available for €1,99)

If you manage to spell it correctly when searching in the Market (which I failed to do several times), Touiteur is well worth taking a look at.

May

Lenovo Ditches Skylight OS, Joins Team Android

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in Devices By Manufacturer, News

OK, so I have some good news and bad news. First, the bad news: if, like me, you were looking forward to some hot notebook/tablet hybrid action with Lenovo’s U1, well, you might as well keep watching that YouTube video, because it doesn’t look like it’s going to hit store shelves anytime soon. And by ‘anytime soon’, I mean ever.

That’s right, Lenovo canned their Skylight operating system, which is what the notebook was to run when it was in tablet mode. So, because of that decision, it looks like they’ve shelved the U1 as well.

Now, onto the good news: Lenovo ditched Skylight OS because they’re now planning on using Android for their ‘mobile internet devices’ – in other words, tablets and smartphones.

May

Amazon Kindle App For Android Demoed, Integrated Store Rumors Debunked [Post Google I/O Coverage]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

A few weeks ago we reported that the official Amazon Kindle app would be coming to Android, most likely this summer, with direct access to all your Kindle books and buying books from within the app using a special Android optimized store with wireless auto-delivery, which would set the app apart from its equivalents on some other devices.

App Demo At Google I/O

At Google I/O, I got to demo the app that Amazon was showing off, and managed to snap a few photos describing pretty much all of its functionality. Unfortunately, Amazon's rep was quite adamant about keeping the release date private, even when I offered them the EVO 4G I got in return (yeah, right!), and only quoted the already known "this summer".

May

App Review: Sirius XM For Android

Posted by John Thompson in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you’re a Sirius subscriber, you’ll be glad to hear that the Sirius app for Android was released today! I’ve been listening to online radio on my Nexus One for the past few hours, and have come across no problems. Subscribers can get the app and login with their credentials to start listening to their favorite channels, and those of you who haven’t got a subscription for the service will be offered a 7 day free trial upon installation.

The layout of the app is similar to that of the Sirius iPhone application, with tabs at the bottom of the screen making it simple to navigate between categories and channels.

May

Skype Mobile Coming To Android This Year, Possibly With Video Calling

Posted by John Thompson in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Since Skype pulled their app from the Android Market, allowing access only for Verizon customers, the rest of us have been left wondering if we’ll see a Skype app re-appear on the market for all carriers.

Fortunately, Skatter Tech were wondering the exact same thing, and asked Skype for details on their future plans for Android. When asked about the availability of the app to users on all carriers, Brianna Reynaud from Skype PR answered

We will be bringing a direct to consumer app to the Android marketplace later this year. This application will be available for all consumers globally to download regardless of carriers.

May

Get Ready For An Even More Social Android - Facebook SDK Has Gone Live

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Facebook, which demoed a new Android SDK at Google I/O last week, has put up the library online for all developers to see and use [github link].

Created by Steven Soneff, an engineering intern, the library enables support for

Strong authentication using OAuth 2.0
Making requests to the new Graph API
Publishing stories back to Facebook via Feed forms

This means that any Android developer will now be able to easily incorporate Facebook interaction into their own application, so get ready for a boom of Facebook connected apps.

As an example, hypothetically speaking, if we had an Android Police app, we would now be able to use this API to get upvote functionality for a post in a matter of a few function calls and then share it to a list of selected friends.