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Dec

BBC iPlayer Updated With Extra UI Polish, Jelly Bean 4.2 Support, And BBC Alba Channel

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Today, the UK's public broadcasting service, the BBC, upgraded its mobile app for Android. The update brings improvements to the UI to bring the interface a bit more in line with Android's Holo guidelines. The new version also adds support for Jelly Bean 4.2, improved video streaming over WiFi, and a new content channel.

Here's the full changelog:

What's in this version:

Many thanks for all of your feedback on our last update. Here’s what’s new in this release:
- We’ve polished up the design of the app
- Video performance over Wi-Fi has been improved(with more improvements still to come)
- Added Android 4.2 Jelly Bean support
- You’ll find a new channel - BBC Alba
As ever, let us know what you think @bbciplayer

Of course, the BBC iPlayer isn't available outside the UK, so international users need not excite themselves too much.

Dec

[Update: It's Live] Facebook's Big 2.0 Update Is Coming Today, Ditching The Slow HTML5 Rendering For Native Code

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Last Updated: December 29th, 2012

We've known it's coming for a while and, per today's announcement, it will finally be here soon: Facebook's revamp of its Android app that will bring a proper, native UI as opposed to the mostly HTML5-based web viewer that's been powering the application for so long. The result is photos, the news feed, and timelines will load at least twice as fast, according to the company.

The company touts speed as the big improvement here, and it's sorely needed. For example, garbage collection was optimized to make photos load much quicker. In terms of new features, the company also built a new banner that will allow you to jump to new stories that have appeared in the feed while you're reading, no matter how far down the list you are.

Dec

Flying High: Falcon Pro Review

Posted by Matt Demers in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Reviews

Despite Twitter making it difficult for developers to maintain third-party clients, they just keep popping up. This week, we take a look at Falcon Pro, which seems to marry the idea of beauty, functionality, and smooth animations into a solid contender for the best of its kind.

^{Hey look, we're in this screenshot!}

Falcon Pro had roots as Falcon, a Twitter widget that was fully-functional and looked damned good, to boot. However, fans were restless for a full client release, so the development team released Falcon Pro, first as a beta and now as a complete package.

Dec

Dropping Some Science: Splice Review

Posted by Matt Demers in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews

I first played Cipher Prime's Splice when it was part of a recent fourth Humble Bundle, and it still enjoys a place in my Installed Games list on Steam. It's a puzzle game that involves taking different strains of bacteria and "splicing" them, moving around cells in order to fit an provided outline. Of course, you have a set amount of moves, and added "mutation" cells will change the game in different ways: for instance, one mutation will cause each cell attached to it to grow, or split identically. The trick is to plan ahead and think strategically in order to finish each level and move on.

Dec

[New App] Voice, Text Translator Vocre Comes To Android, Signature 'Table-Top UI' In Tow

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Vocre, a voice and text translator that won audience choice in TechCrunch's Disrupt, came to Android today, bringing with it a promising challenger to Google's own Translate app and a "tabletop UI" meant specifically for extended conversations with those on either side of the language barrier.

As shown in the video above, Vocre's interface is exceedingly simple. Users need only select languages and genders, then record their message, check for accuracy, and let the app do the rest. Vocre, for those curious, uses Nuance services to translate your words as a text string, returning results (with pretty reliable accuracy) in the desired language.

Dec

New York Times App Updated To Version 3.0 With Adaptable (Tablet-Optimized) UI And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

It's always exciting to see a new app hit the Play Store intended for tablets, but it's even better to see an existing app's UI updated to accommodate larger devices. Looking to bring Android tablet users a more aesthetically pleasing experience when reading the news, the New York Times Company today updated its app to version 3.0 with an interface that is no longer just a blown up version of its phone-centric counterpart.

That isn't to say the interface is totally new, however. As NYT indicates, the UI is now adaptable, meaning it reacts to your device's display to deliver the most appropriate interface for the form factor.

Dec

Hulu Plus App Update Brings A Special Section Just For Kids And Better Discovery Tools

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Today, the streaming service best known for completing the Netflix/YouTube trifecta, Hulu Plus, got an update to its mobile Android app. Among the new features are a special Hulu Kids section that showcases a bunch of ad-free content for the youngsters. Parents can even lock the app so that only child-friendly content can be viewed without a password (though this doesn't prevent them from accessing other apps on the device).

In addition to the kids section, Hulu has also added new features for discovering more content. This largely seems to consist of additional sections on the main page of the app that you can slide through, so nothing unfamiliar, just more of it.

Dec

YouTube Updated With Brand New UI For 10" Tablets

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

In an update to version 4.2.16, Google's YouTube app has received a (thankfully) refreshed UI for ten-inch screens, along with some bug fixes. The "revamped" UI seems to be the only thing of note in this update (though if there are any hidden goodies, you can be sure Ron will tell us about them soon), but it makes for a great refresh. For the sake of comparison, we'll take a look at a few before and after shots.

The app's start page is much cleaner, featuring a side-bar navigation system and bigger, cleaner tiles representing videos relevant to whatever selection you've made, defaulting to your subscription feed.

Dec

Tasker's Developer Is Working On A UI Overhaul Too, Plus A Bunch Of Other Updates

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Last Updated: December 9th, 2012

A few days ago, we were treated to a lovely look at what Tasker, the highly-customizable Android automation app, could look like if it got a nice facelift. Unfortunately, this was done by the Android team and was not representative of any real work being done by the developer. As it turns out, though, the developer behind said application is working on a holo conversion. There are quite a few obstacles to deal with in the meantime:

I started working on a holo conversion about a week ago coincidentally, with half the goal being use of the holo conventions and half replacing under-the-hood deprecated APIs for dialogs etc.