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Mar

The Pros And Cons Of The Amazon App Store: A Promising Market Replacement?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, Editorials, News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

On March 22nd, the long awaited Amazon Appstore was released, bringing a whole new way to find, install, and share apps on Android. After its initial debut, we decided that this new Appstore was the real deal. In this post, we'll break down what Amazon's done right, and what it still needs to improve on.

Pros

1. Better descriptions and more in-depth comments

Most users will tell you that finding good Android apps is not an easy task. If you're browsing the Android Market looking for something specific, then the only bit of information that you have to work with is what the developer wants to say (which usually isn’t much) and one-line-comments from other users.

Mar

CyanogenMod May Soon Allow Users To Revoke Specific Application Permissions, Cue Mass Force Closing As A Result

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, News

One of the ways Android protects application users from unwanted activities is by requiring every app to declare a set of permissions and allowing users to view those permissions during the installation phase. Don't like what an app can do? Just don't install it.

However, this all or nothing approach doesn't allow you to selectively turn off specific permissions, so if you don't like that an application accesses your phone state, you can't just disable that and still have the app installed. This forces you to either potentially compromise your privacy or miss out on what could be a great piece of software.

Mar

[Weekend Poll] Now That The Amazon App Store Is Here, What Are Your Thoughts?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, News, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

This is the newest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see AT&T Is Buying T-Mobile USA; As The Dust Settles, What Are Your Thoughts?

We saw it coming from a mile away (and knew all the details), and now it's finally happened: the Amazon Appstore officially launched on Tuesday, March 22. So far, with the exception of a minor hiccup, it looks like the launch has been fairly smooth. Now that you've had a few days to test the waters, we'd like to know what your thoughts are on the Appstore.

As always, you can vote in the poll below, and we encourage you to drop us a line in the comments to voice your opinion.

Mar

Amazon Appstore's Free Premium App Of The Day: Shazam Encore (Normally $5)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Deals, News

To those who can access it (read: U.S. users), the Amazon Appstore may seem like one of the best things since sliced bread - it trumps Google's own web-based Android Market in almost every way. One of such differentiating features is the Goldbox-like Free Premium App of the Day concept that, like Groupon and its competitors, was introduced to provide great deals to consumers and giant spikes in traffic to app developers.

Of course, it was no surprise that the first such premium app given away was Angry Birds: Rio (though, it remains free to this day and was clearly more of a marketing ploy), but the next few apps were not really that exciting.

Mar

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.

Mar

Official Formula 1 App Crosses The Android Market Finish Line, Puts You At The Heart Of The Action

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, News

The 2011 Formula One season is set to start this Sunday, and what better way to kick it off than with the introduction of the official F1 timing app for Android.

There have been a number of F1 apps available in the Android Market, however they have all had their shortcomings. Some have been slow, some have prematurely crashed, some have had cumbersome and ugly interfaces, and some just plain did not work. So, I am ecstatic that Formula1.com have finally decided to launch their own app, and I can't wait for the Australian Grand Prix this weekend to test it out.

Mar

Apple Sues Amazon Over Use Of 'App Store' Name

Posted by David Ruddock in Apps/Games, Development, News

Amazon's upcoming Android Market competitor, the Amazon Appstore, is in hot water for its namesake. On Monday, Apple filed a lawsuit in a California federal court claiming Amazon had infringed on its trademark of the phrase "App Store." Apple applied for a trademark to this name way back in 2008, but it wasn't approved until January of 2010. Since then, Microsoft has filed a dispute with the trademark office alleging that the grant was improper. That complaint's outcome is still pending.

In the meantime, Amazon may have a difficult time asserting that its use of "Appstore" (as opposed to "App Store") doesn't violate Apple's trademark - it's hard to deny that Apple's App Store is a well-know name in the mobile world.

Mar

First Beta Of The Split-Key SwiftKey For Tablets Keyboard Now Available To SwiftKey VIP Users, Multitouch In Tow

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

At the end of CES, right after the barrage of almost 100 Android tablet announcements, SwiftKey teased us with a new version of its popular keyboard, specifically targeting tablets. The company later officially announced the new product, complete with a Tron-like, mysteriously glowing UI. The split-key design, especially useful for larger tablets, looked like a real winner to tablet owners.

Today, the first beta of SwiftKey for Tablets v2.0.0.36 was released to VIP members in the SwiftKey forum, and, of course, I immediately took it out for a spin. The current release, which you can see below, has 2 layouts - 1 normal and 1 split-key, but compared to the version in the official announcement, has weird alignment issues and lacks any arrow keys (I checked - there was no setting to enable them, like in the newest beta for phones).

Mar

[Review] CamTranslator For Android Takes On Word Lens For iOS, Helps You Translate With Your Eyes; But Does It Actually Work?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews, Videos

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Have you ever been in a foreign country and tried to find your way around, order from a menu, or read a map in a language that you don’t understand? Language barriers can be incredibly frustrating, but we found a new app designed to go head-to-head with iOS’s Word Lens that can help you next time you’re in that kind of situation.

CamTranslator is a new app from IntSig that is designed to help break the communication barrier between languages using your phone’s camera. It includes a massive collection of over 50 languages that will translate both ways, two different modes of translation, and a few other quaint features.

Mar

Rovio (Of Angry Birds Fame) Valued At Over $200 Million, Has Already Raised $42 Million In Funding

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Apps/Games, Games, News, Off-Topic

The success that the Angry Birds games have brought to Rovio is stunning, really: the company was reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy when it released the game, and today, revenue is estimated to be between $50 and 70 million annually. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that the company raised $42 million in funding earlier this month, and they enjoyed the luxury of picking and choosing their investors. They even reportedly determined the terms of investment - quite the reversal of roles.

Rovio's valuation is estimated to be over $200 million already, but the company hopes that's merely the beginning.