Android

Apr

[Update: Now Live] Zynga Zombifies Mountain View's Android Statue In Preparation For ZombieSmash Global Launch

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Google, News

This morning, Google employee Steven Le posted a photo of the Android statue outside his office, which looked a bit stranger than usual:

While the statue's makeover was mysterious at first glance, a press release and accompanying video from Zynga soon clarified the situtation:

Indeed, the occasion was a promo of ZombieSmash!, a new Zynga game being launched on Google Play ~~later this week~~. To be clear, the game is technically already on Play, ~~but only in Canada~~; this week, ZombieSmash! will be made available globally.

Update: And we're live! You can download the app for $0.99 using the info at the end of the post.

Apr

Facebook Updates Its Android App With Revised Camera And Messenger Icons

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, News

Facebook for Android has been making some progress lately - just a few short days ago, version 1.9 of the app was made available, bringing some fairly major improvements. Now the app has been updated again, and while it's far from a full makeover, it has received one change that some users will surely appreciate.

Namely, the update includes revised icons for the bundled "Camera" and "Messenger" applications. While in all likelihood most of us will hardly even notice the change, it may still prove beneficial in the long term, as the "Camera" and "Messenger" icons included in the original version of Facebook 1.9 looked quite similar to Android's stock "Camera" and "Messenger" applications; the update makes them easier to tell apart.

Apr

Asus Transformer Pad 300 Review: 85% Of The Premium Tablet Experience For 80% Of The Price

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Reviews, Transformer Pad 300

Last Updated: April 30th, 2012

Meet the TF300T, the newest addition to Asus's ever-expanding line of Android tablets. While the model number may suggest that it's the successor to the TF201 - the Transformer Prime - that's not exactly the case. Pick one up and it's immediately clear that this is really the successor to the TF101 (the original Transformer, or TF); it's wrapped in plastic like the 101 (the 201 is aluminum), and the dimensions are a bit more portly, as with the 101.

Perhaps more importantly, the price marks this as a successor to the 101 - and shows that the 300 slots below the 201.

Apr

Acer Iconia A100 Ice Cream Sandwich Update Rolling Out Early To Some Lucky Users

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Iconia A100, News

Prepare to mash the System Update button, A100 owners: the promised update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich, or ICS) has apparently been rolling out since yesterday. Word came to us last night from Canadian reader Graham, who provided a handy-dandy picture as proof:

An XDA thread confirms Graham's update wasn't a fluke, with users all around the world receiving the update. So far the thread is 10 pages long but contains little by way of comments on the user experience after the update, but it does look like the ICS update is preceeded by a smaller 17MB update. Other than that, we have little by way of details at the moment.

Apr

Dan Rosenberg's Presentation On Android Modding For The Security Practitioner Is A Must-Read

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Android OS, News

While not everyone who owns an Android device roots, the Android modding community is at the very heart of everything we love about our little green buddy. Security researcher Dan Rosenberg recently gave a presentation where he elaborates on root and modding methods, as well as expounding on the security implications of modding Android phones.

Rosenberg also had quite a lot to say about how carriers influence the Android landscape. Said Rosenberg:

"Of the 10 vulnerabilities that I discovered and used for rooting on Android, 9 of them are related to "stupid" file permissioning not present in the stock Android code, but introduced by the manufacturers"

This won't come as any surprise to anyone who's not fond of carrier skins.

Apr

Google Maps Street View Support Expands To Israel

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Google, News, Videos

The Google Maps team added support for Street View in Israel's major cities this past weekend - Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. If you haven't had a chance to check out Street View yet, it can take you on a virtual stroll down city streets right inside Google Maps - on the web or on your Android device.

For example, to check out Tel Aviv's views, download Street View on Google Maps, head over to Google Maps and punch in "Tel Aviv, Israel." Then click on the city name, Street View, and voila:

Pan, click, move, show your friends and family - it's especially impressive to those who have never seen Street View in action, which could be the case if, you know, you actually live in Israel.

Apr

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Review: The Best Cheap Android Tablet Around

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Galaxy Tab 2, Reviews

Last Updated: April 30th, 2012

While we're all waiting around for the Galaxy Note 10.1 to arrive and blow us away with its S-Pen powers on a Photoshop-equipped tablet, Samsung has set a couple new tablets loose on the market. Headlining on price, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 competes head-to-head with the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire. This tablet's advantage: Android 4.0. At $250, it's the cheapest way to get the full Android experience.

When we first heard about a $250 7" Android tablet, it wasn't from Samsung, but ASUS. Since then, ASUS has grown suspiciously quiet on the subject of its cheap tablets (perhaps because of a change in plans?), but Samsung has taken up the mantle.

Apr

[Weekend Poll] Do You Use Cloud Storage With Your Android?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Do You Own An Android Tablet?

Cloud storage has been gaining popularity in the last few years, and is strongly making its way from the tech niche to the mainstream. Companies big and small have been making their files and documents available on the cloud for some time, and now they're increasingly moving their entire operating platform off local devices in favor or the web. Independent users are making the push too; particularly for Android owners, services like Picasa, Google Docs, and Google Music all take a large chunk of data off the device, and instead put it in the cloud.

Apr

34 Best (And 3 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (4/8/12 - 4/21/12)

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

Last Updated: April 24th, 2012

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 2 weeks or so.

This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here and the tablet app roundup here.

If you enjoy this roundup, feel free to upvote it on Reddit.

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.

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Apr

Eden To GREEEEN Pops Up On TegraZone With Q2 2012 Release Date, Will Let You Beat Up Steam Rollers With Flowers

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Games, News

During Mobile World Congress nearly 2 months ago, NVIDIA released some details about a few impressive looking upcoming games. One of them was the very original looking Eden to GREEEEN. Eric summarized the game well:

Built on the Unreal Engine, Eden to GREEEEN pits you "against alien machines from another planet" (so we can conclude "alien" doesn't mean "immigrant" here) who are trying to steal Eden's natural resources. It's up to you to save Euphoria, the natural energy of Eden. This totally original story comes with the descriptor "freemium", so we can probably count on some sort of in-app purchases, but NVIDIA promises Eden to GREEEEN won't "skimp on the gaming experience." Fingers crossed.