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Jul

[App Roundup] Our Top Five Favorite New Apps To Check Out From June 2012

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications

What would be another month without another quick roundup of our top five favorite apps? For those just joining us, our monthly "top five" roundups are meant as a quick primer for those who don't have time to wade through the dozens upon dozens of awesome apps we've looked at in the course of the past four weeks. We've selected the cream of the crop, and taken a quick look at five of our favorite apps from June 2012.

Tasker App Factory

First up is Tasker App Factory, an app that, though still in beta, easily gains a spot in our top five for June 2012 thanks to its incredible potential and versatile functionality.

Jul

PSA: Developers, You Can Now Sign Up For Early Access To The New Android Developer Console

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, News

On day one of Google I/O, the Play Store team announced an upcoming brand new version of the Android Developer Console - a publishing interface developers use to, you guessed it, publish apps to Google Play. The completely redesigned UI contains improvements based on feedback from the past several years and is fantastic. For further details, hit the link above or just watch this video:

As promised, you can now sign up to be first in line to give the private beta a go by following this url. Approval is not immediate, but at least you'll get there before everyone else.

Jul

Research Team Creates "Clickjack Rootkit" For Android That Can Hijack Apps, Exploit User Input

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Development, News

Xuxian Jiang, along with his research team at North Carolina State University, has cooked up a proof-of-concept "clickjack rootkit" which targets Android. The rootkit is unique not only in that it can function without a device restart, but also in that it targets Android's framework, not requiring deep modifications to the underlying firmware or kernel.

Clickjacking, for those unfamiliar, is a malicious technique typically used on the web to "trick" users into handing over control of their device or confidential information.

The researchers' rootkit, which can itself manipulate an infected device, works by hiding apps on a device, and redirecting app launches to said hidden apps.

Jul

Official (And Open-Source) iFixit App Hits The Play Store – Tear Down And Repair From Anywhere

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Perhaps the most popular (and complete) free repair manual in existence, iFixit, launched an official app for Android recently, bringing detailed step-by-step repair instructions and (of course) the saucy teardown images we've come to know and love from the service's online counterpart to your Android devices.

For those who don't know, iFixit provides users with incredibly detailed repair guides for a huge variety of things from laptops to mobile devices, game consoles, and even cars, including great imagery and nice explanations for why hardware is the way it is.

The free repair manual's official app offers the same easy-to-grasp instructions as iFixit.com, delivering them to your mobile device with a simple, easy interface.

Jul

Costco's Official App Lands In The Play Store – Shop, Ship, And Save From Your Mobile Device

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Costco, promising to take customers "beyond the warehouse walls with the ease of [their] smartphone," released an official Costco Wholesale app to the Play Store recently.

The app, created by one of the most popular (and largest) wholesalers in America, allows users to do much of what they could do in a physical Costco location, or shopping online – users can shop Costco.com's "unique, expanded" collection, locate the nearest Costco location, grab online and in-store coupons, refill prescriptions, read "The Costco Connection," choose business or home delivery options, and take note of what you need to buy with a handy built-in notepad.

Jul

Flow Is An Amazon-Powered Augmented Reality Product Search App That's Not Really As Cool As It Sounds

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Amazon-owned development house A9 Innovations has released a product search app built on the idea that instead of tapping buttons to take pictures of products, you'd rather just point your camera at products. Probably not a bad notion! Not exactly the most important thing to spend a bunch of money and time developing, but hey, if you can just wave your phone in front of a movie and get pricing and review information, it's gotta be worth it, right?

Well, it would be, if it worked like that. Unfortunately, in practice the augmented reality app has some trouble recognizing cover art.

Jul

Weather Underground Is Now Available For Google TV, Makes You Forget The Weather Channel You've Already Forgotten

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Now here's a novel idea! Putting weather information on the television! Weather Underground is now available for the Google TV, bringing a rather nice, simple weather app to the Google TV. The app features a 6-day forecast, hourly forecasts, and maps of your local area with weather information overlaid. It's pretty nifty.

It may not be the most exciting app, but this is the way it should be, shouldn't it? Gone are the days of turning to a static channel and waiting around for a man in a suit to eventually get around to talking about your area. Just pop open the app and see.

Jul

From The Creators Of Tagy: Imgy Offers Unlimited Homescreen Capacity, Resizes Your App, Bookmark, And Contact Icons Based On Click Frequency

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, News

Just under a month ago, Minimax brought us Tagy, a cool little widget that would turn your app names into "tag clouds," where some would be bigger than others, based on your click frequency. Now, with Imgy, the developer has applied the same principle to app icons - have a look:

After you select the apps / bookmarks / contacts you want, Imgy will create a homescreen widget (you can decide how large said widget will be) with icons for the selected content. Mind you, you're free to choose as many apps, bookmarks, or contacts as you'd like - Imgy will just resize their icons appropriately, making for unlimited homescreen capacity.

Jun

SwiftKey 3 Is Now The Top Paid App In The Play Store, Company Is Unfazed By Google's Fancy New Keyboard

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Swiftkey 3 recently arrived on the Play Store, and not too long afterwards, the company has posted a statement on its blog letting us know that the app is currently the best-selling paid app on the Play Store. Not too bad, SwiftKey! Of course, the biggest challenge is ahead, as Google announced yesterday that, from Jelly Bean onwards, the default Android keyboard will attempt to predict your next word. Which smacks just a little of SwiftKey's pitch.

The company says it's not worried about it in the least:

It’s also good news for us. Google’s commitment supports the vision we had two years ago when we launched the world’s first keyboard that learns from you to predict your next word.

Jun

Google Currents Updated To Version 1.5.1, Now Features Improved UI, Enhanced Performance, And More

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, News

Google Currents has always been a pretty impressive app - arguably the best Android news aggregator around town. Especially praised has been its beautiful UI; however, that didn't stop Google from looking at what it had and making it even better.

Indeed, the app just hit version 1.5.1, and the UI has been updated to "Android standards." Notably, the top navigation bar now features "auto hide" and "touch-to-show" controls, and it includes the library/trending toggle that was previously located elsewhere. Additionally, Google has enhanced the app's performance and made the usual bug fixes.

If you have already have Currents, you can download the update from the Play Store now; if for some reason you don't have it installed yet, all the info you need is below.