Android - 21/166 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Latest Android Distribution Stats Now Available – Jelly Bean Reaches 1.2%, Gingerbread Still Dominates At 57.5%

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

With the end of another month, we now have another set of Android platform distribution numbers to look at. Updated today, the stats reveal that Gingerbread is still dominating by quite a large margin, with Ice Cream Sandwich climbing and Jelly Bean making its own gains. Take a look for yourself:

First up is Gingerbread. While its stranglehold on the distribution chart is still going strong, it has dropped off just a little bit since the last cycle, sliding from 60.3% of all devices to 57.5% last month. Ice Cream Sandwich, meanwhile, has climbed from 15.8% to nearly 21%, which definitely sounds promising.

Sep

Quora Brings Well-Designed, Functional Question-And-Answer App To Android

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, News

Quora, the popular question-and-answer website, found its way to Android today, releasing an official app that not only brings to the table great features like voice search and a handy widget, but also a user interface specifically designed for Android "from the ground up." Indeed, the app follows Android's design guidelines to the proverbial "T," right down to the app's launcher icon with its ever so slight downward perspective.

Citing the fact that 25% of its traffic comes from mobile usage, Quora's blog post today enthusiastically announces the Android client, describing a few of the features that "really make Quora shine on Android." Among them are integrated search with voice recognition, optional push notifications, a convenient home screen widget, and an adaptable interface that supports both landscape and portrait mode.

Sep

Eric Schmidt Reveals New Activation Numbers – 1.3 Million Android Devices Activated Each Day

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, News

Eric Schmidt has just left the stage at Motorola's "On Display" event in New York. Before leaving, though, he divulged some interesting new Android-related numbers.

First among them was the latest figure for "activations per day," which tracks the total number of new Android devices activated each and every day. You may remember Andy Rubin revealing that number to be around 900,000 while quashing rumors back in June, but according to Schmidt, the total number of daily activations has now topped 1.3 million. That's 1,300,000 – an undoubtedly impressive number.

Out of that 1.3 million devices per day, Schmidt noted that 70,000 were tablets.

Sep

Google Wins Multi-User Face Unlock Patent, Further Teases Our Multi-User Dreams

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Google, News

Today it was learned, through a US Patent and Trademark Office filing, that Google has been granted a patent concerning the logging in of multiple users by facial recognition.

Typically, the granting of yet another tech patent wouldn't be extraordinarily interesting news. But given the fact that Google's latest patent relates to multiple user support, and the fact that code meant for multiple user support has been sitting right under our noses in AOSP for some time now, patent number 8,261,090 is definitely worth discussing.

Without quoting the entire 17,000 word filing, patent '090 essentially covers methods that allow a "computing device" to recognize one or more users' identities based on facial recognition, and then give them access to resources specifically assigned to them.

Sep

31 Best New Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (8/17/12 - 9/4/12)

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Last Updated: September 6th, 2012

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

This edition focuses only on new games. The app roundup is coming up soon.

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 roundup editions? Find them here.

Featured Game

The Enchanted Kingdom Free

Today's game roundup is sponsored by Herocraft's Enchanted Kingdom. RPGs would seem to be a natural fit for a touch-based medium, but I've found that all too many on Android try to become action games or used outmoded styles of battle and control.

Sep

NFL Game Rewind Comes To Android, Lets Subscribers Watch Full Replays Of 2012 NFL Games On Your Tablet

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

As football season gets underway, the annual tech upgrades start. What new toys do you have for getting sucked in to your favorite not-soccer sport? Well, one of the nicest ones this year might be NFL Game Rewind. The app, which requires an existing subscription to the streaming service of the same name, will allow viewers to watch games in their entirety after they air. No live shows, but they're available via On Demand. As a bonus, they'll even get access to special features like Coaches Films and All-22, a feature that allows a sports fan to see all 22 players position on the field simultaneously, not just following the ball.

Aug

Kickstarter: Android-Inspired BERO Toy Robot Runs On Bluetooth, Batteries, And Nerd Power

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in News

A few of your friendly neighborhood Android Police writers collect the official Android vinyl figurines, but it's got to be said that they leave something to be desired in the interactive department. (By the way, if anyone has the Star Trek Android from Comic-Con 2012, I may actually trade you an arm and/or leg for it.) One Kickstarter project aims to change that, by making a 4-inch, animated, Bluetooth-controlled toy robot modeled after everyone's favorite green mascot. Be The Robot ("BERO") is currently just over a quarter of the way towards full funding, with a month left to go.

Reality Robots started off with a prototype that was basically Google's Android mascot, in all his antennae'd, verdant glory, complete with a system-on-a-chip.

Aug

Facedroid Updated To Version 2.0 – Gets Visual Overhaul, Groups, "Heaps" Of Bug Fixes

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Facedroid, Platinum Apps' tablet-centric Facebook client, got a major update today, bringing the app up to version 2.0.

For those who aren't familiar, Facedroid, which was released back in December of 2011, is a powerful Facebook client that looks to replace – and improve upon – Facebook's own mobile experience. The app does everything you'd expect and more, allowing for quick browsing, sharing, and updating, and its 2.0 update brings even more functionality, along with a guidelines-inspired redesign.

Besides the visual overhaul, the 2.0 update adds the ability to view and manage friend "Groups," improved optimization for 7" devices, performance improvements, a new Settings section, and "heaps" of bug fixes.

Aug

[Review] Magisto Is An Automatic Video Editor For Android That, Against All Odds, Doesn't Suck

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Reviews

One of the worst phrases a human being can put together is "automatic video editor." The whole thing feels like it's set up for failure. Like "vasectomy in a box" or "snooki's pregnant." Add in "for Android" and, well, let's just say I've been burned before. So it came as an unbelievable shock when I tried out Magisto, which claims to be both of these things, and it was good. I mean, really good. It doesn't offer you any control at all, but it does the job for the regular Joe or Jane in fantastic form.

How It Works

The process is stupid simple.

Aug

Samsung Galaxy Stellar - Formerly 'Jasper' - Pops Up At Best Buy, Spills The Beans Ahead Of Release

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Galaxy Stellar (SCH-I200), News, Verizon Wireless

First we caught a glimpse of the Samsung Jasper, a mid-range device slated for Big Red. Then Droid Life was leaked a photo of the price card for the Samsung Galaxy Stellar. Now we know they're one and the same,courtesy of a full product listing that has cropped up on Best Buy.

Though the Stellar is listed as available for store pickup beginning today, it's actually unavailable in stores at this point. That could be because it's before the stores have opened, or because the date was simply entered incorrectly.