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Oct

[Update: It's Most Likely Fake] BlackBerry Messenger On The Horizon For Android, Leaked BlurryCam Photos Show Up As 'Proof'

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, News

Update: It looks like someone has way too much time on their hands. As reader benjymous pointed out in the comments, the second image is clearly ripped directly from a demo java app from the BBM SDK, giving us solid reason to believe that this is indeed fake. Boo!

As an ardent Android fan I spent the better part of the last few months trying to convince my girlfriend to switch over to the green robot after she lost her beloved BlackBerry and required a replacement phone. However, nothing I said would convince her to give up the corporate mainstay, I even suggested that an iPhone (*gasp*) was a superior device to the BlackBerry.

Sep

HandyGames Releases World War 2 Themed Sequel To Guns'N'Glory

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Games, News

Popular Android game developer HandyGames has released a sequel to its well received Guns'n'Glory tower defence game called Guns'n'Glory WW2. The original Guns'n'Glory was a Wild West themed game that put you in charge of mobile units which you had to place in strategic position in order to ambush settlers, stagecoaches and "the gold train". The original game took the concept of a tower defence game and put an intriguing spin on it by allowing the enemy units to fight back. So, what makes a great game that much better? Why a World War 2 themed sequel, of course!

Building on the popularity of the original game, HandyGames has wisely not made any significant changes to the sequel Guns'n'Glory WW2, save for an updated setting and improved graphics and gameplay.

Sep

Skype For Android Updated To v2.5 With Whitelist For 13 More Devices, Landscape Support, More. Oh Yeah, And Ads

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Atrix 4G (Olympus), Bionic, Droid 3, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Iconia Tab A500, News, Optimus 2X (Star, p990), Optimus 3D (p920) / Thrill 4G (p925), Optimus Black (p970), Photon 4G, XOOM

Skype for Android, an app that gets almost as much love as it does hate, was updated to version 2.5 a few minutes ago. Because the last update unofficially opened up Skype to all 2.2+ devices, this time around Skype simply listed 13 more devices as whitelisted and approved for video chat capabilities:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (T-Mobile)
HTC SHOOTER (KDDI)
Sony Ericsson Xperia Live with Walkman
Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V
Acer Iconia Tablet (A500)
LG Optimus Black LANDSCAPE ONLY
LG Optimus 3D LANDSCAPE ONLY
LG Optimus 2x LANDSCAPE ONLY
Motorola Photon
Motorola Droid3 LANDSCAPE ONLY
Motorola Bionic LANDSCAPE ONLY
Motorola Xoom
Motorola Atrix

Notice how the list contains 13 devices, even though the changelog says 14.

Sep

Tip: App Icon Pinching In GO Launcher EX - Can Your Launcher Do This?

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Tips & Tutorials, Videos

As a fan of first Launcher Pro Plus, then ADW EX, and now GO Launcher EX (which is absolutely free, by the way), I wanted to show you guys a recent addition to the latter that made it stand out from the rest of the pack even more than it already does. Lately, LPP hasn't given me any reasons to continue using it whatsoever - the app seems to have been abandoned by Fede, and ADW EX, while a very worthy opponent, also fell victim to GO team's fine offering.

Imagine that you want to organize your busy homescreen and swap some icons around.

Sep

PSA: Chase Increasing Mobile Check Deposit Limits To $2,000/$5,000 From $1,000/$3,000 On October 2nd, 2011

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Ever since Chase launched its mobile deposit feature in the Android app, I've been using it to deposit checks pretty much exclusively. The only times I couldn't use it were when check amounts exceeded $1,000 or I went past the $3,000 calendar month limit.

Thankfully, according to the letter we just received from Chase, these limits are going up on October 2nd to $2,000/check and $5,000/month. Hopefully, this means that they've tweaked the check recognition algorithms and increased confidence in the program enough to continue increasing these limits in the future. Excellent.

You can find the full text of the letter below:

Dear Chase Customer:

You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in Chase QuickDeposit^SM.

Sep

CrashPlan Comes To Android, Allows You To Retrieve Your Backed Up Files On The Go

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

CrashPlan is an amazing service that I've been using for a number of years to back up not only my desktops and laptops, but also all the Linux servers. I can't recommend it enough due to the fact that it's cross-platform (Java), can be headless (client/server architecture), has no storage limitations, can use various configurable destinations (cross-backup across my devices), multiple schedules and backup sets, practically unlimited file versioning, etc, etc - it is literally the best offering on the market that I've tried so far.

I can talk about CrashPlan forever, but this post is not about that. This post is about two Android apps that Code 42, the maker of CrashPlan, just dropped in the Android Market - CrashPlan and CrashPlan PRO.

Sep

Hulu Plus App Updated, Brings Improved Performance And Support For Nine More Devices

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

The Hulu Plus app for Android has just been updated to v1.0.139 and adds support for 9 new devices:

HTC Incredible 2
HTC EVO 3D
HTC Sensation
Motorola Droid 3
Motorola Bionic
Motorola X2
LG Revolution
LG G2x
HTC Flyer

The only other change that's listed is "Improved playback performance." A small update, but significant for the devices it adds.

Here's to hoping that they continue to add devices at a healthy clip!

What's in this version:

Improved playback performance

Added support for 8 additional handsets: HTC Incredible 2, HTC Evo 3D, HTC Sensation, Motorola Droid 3, Motorola Bionic, Motorola X2, LG Revolution, LG G2X

Added support for 1 additional tablet: HTC Flyer

[Source: Android Market]

Sep

Android Voice Actions Now Available In Europe In British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, News

A little over a year ago Google introduced Voice Actions, which allowed Android users to perform a variety of tasks by simply issuing voice commands. Unfortunately, to the chagrin of non-English speakers, the app was only available in US English. Today Google is updating Voice Actions for users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain with support for British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

To use Voice Actions simply say one of the following commands (spoken in any of the aforementioned languages):

send text to [contact] [message]
call [business]
call [contact]
go to [website]
navigate to [location/business name]
directions to [location/business name]
map of [location]

It is also possible to perform standard Google searches with Voice Actions.

Sep

Google Goggles For Android Updated To 1.6, Wants You To Snap More Pictures

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

Google's neat-o Goggles app has just been updated to 1.6, and brings intelligent photo recognition to the table. What exactly does that mean? Well, I can't put it much better than the official announcement:

Let’s say that I’m going on vacation, and I decide to use my Android-powered phone as my primary camera. Goggles would identify landmarks, paintings and other interesting objects in my photos. I can share these facts about my vacation with my friends right from my Goggles search history.

In other words, Goggles is running in the background. You snap a picture, and Goggles recognizes it. The app will notify you that it recognizes the content of the picture, and attach that info to the picture in the Goggles app.