app - 69/80 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

Videosurf Will Bring Video Recognition To Your Cell Phone; "It's Like Shazam, But For Video."

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Videos

With all the mind-blowing news coming in from CES 2011, it's easy to forget that interesting and innovative things are coming from other sources at the same time. Here is one of those sources.

A new service somewhat reminiscent of Shazam and Sound Hound has surfaced on our radar, but with one major distinction: this app does videos. Using proprietary algorithms and software (read: magic), newcomer Videosurf will not only help you identify what T.V. show or movie you're watching, but what episode you're looking at, summaries, actors, actor information, and all kinds of information you didn't know you were missing out on right there on your cell phone.

Jan

Opera For Tablets Previewed, Looks As Slick As Ever

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, News

Opera already has one of the most popular alternate browsers for Android phones, and now it seems they're moving into the tablet territory with Opera for Tablets, a new version of their browser with a revamped UI that takes advantage of tablets' larger screen size. You won't find much information besides that in the video below, but CES is just days away, so you can look forward to seeing the app in action then.

Source: YouTube via Phandroid

Jan

Android + PacMan + Google Maps = PacMap

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News, Videos

Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

Yesterday, we received an email tip about a new app called PacMap, which blends virtual/augmented reality, Google Maps, and... PacMan. Unsure of what to make or think of this potentially dangerous, but extremely original and interesting concept, I decided to test the waters last night by submitting the app to reddit. This morning, it was #1 in /r/android, which shows that thinking outside the box is always welcomed. Oh, and did I mention that PacMap is open source? Bravo, Stefan Wagner (that's PacMap's developer).

The goal of the game is described by the author himself as follows:

Your goal is to eat all the dots.

Dec

[Comic] Plan: Buy Nexus S, Write Awesome Android App.

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

If you're ever looking for a good webcomic, look no further than Abstruse Goose. Case in point: today's Nexus S comic. There's not much to say about it, so here it is:

_{Bonus lols: the image name is "Rovio_is_pure_evil.PNG."}

Probably safe to say we've all been in a similar situation - which is pretty good for Rovio.

[Source: Abstruse Goose via Reddit]

Dec

[Update: Hands-On] Honeycomb Music Player Leaked, Now Available To Download

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

We've known about the fancy new music player contained in Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) since Google I/O, but up until now, we haven't really had a chance to get a look at it ourselves. Well the suspense ends today - an APK has just been leaked and is now available to download.

First off, the much-anticipated wireless syncing feature isn't here, as this is most likely a beta version of the final app (which wouldn't be surprising considering how buggy it is in its current incarnation). What it does have, however, is a gorgeous new UI. Judging by what I'm seeing in the video above, it's a lot like the Gallery app that's been with us since Éclair, right down to the stacks of music seen in landscape mode.

Dec

VLC Player Coming To Android In "A Matter Of Weeks"

Posted by Anuj Ahooja in Applications, News

The incredibly popular VLC Player is finally coming to Android after months of hard work by the open source project developers. Originally a desktop media center for Linux, Windows, and Mac, this versatile player will bring many new video-playing features to our beloved OS including a wide variety of formats such as DivX and Dolby TrueHD. The lead developer in the project, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, has confirmed that it will hit the Android Market in "just a few weeks", which means that Android will ~~be the first mobile platform to have a version of this software~~ finally follow iOS and get its own port (thanks, Mikeyy).

Dec

All EA Mobile Games Just $0.99 Today For Holiday Sale

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

If you've been holding out on buying any EA Mobile games, today's your lucky day - they're all priced at just $1. Oddly, we've heard no official word of this from EA themselves (rather, just an anonymous tip), so we have no idea how long the sale will last. A look at the Market confirms it to be true, although AppBrain takes a bit to update, so only two of the four titles show the sale price as of writing.

Unfortunately, EA Mobile only has 4 games on the market at the moment - but at least they're not half bad (regular price is in parenthesis):

Need For Speed: Shift ($5)
Tetris ($3)
The Sims 3 ($5)
FIFA '10 ($5)

[Thanks for the tip, 'whatever']

Dec

Tunerfish Releases Android App, Aims To Be FourSquare For TV, Movies, And Videos (Complete With A Back Story - Read It)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Tunerfish, which dubs itself "a social discovery engine for TV, movies, and online video," released version 1.0 of its Android app to the Market today.

The idea behind Tunerfish is similar to the one behind 4square, only if you replaced locations with TV shows, movies, and online videos. In order to use Tunerfish, you can create an account or log in using Facebook or Twitter. Once logged in, you can:

see what your friends are watching in real-time
see what they were watching in the past
check out trending shows, movies, and videos, i.e. what's being watched now by everyone
earn badges and awards
participate in discussions, view profiles
check in and share what you are watching on Tunerfish, Facebook, and Twitter

You can read more about Tunerfish here.

Dec

Modder’s Column: How To Remap Your Android Phone’s Hardware Buttons Without Touching A Single Line Of Code

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Editorials

So maybe you've recently upgraded your Android phone and haven't gotten used to the new device's button alignment yet... or maybe you never use that pesky Search key and want to turn it into the camera key your EVO 4G has always wanted... or maybe you just enjoy tinkering with your phone. If you're in one of those situations, what you may be lusting after is a way to remap your phone's hardware buttons (i.e. making the Search key take on the duties of the Home key, or vise versa).

Up until now, there haven't been any user-friendly methods of doing this, at least not any that can be so greatly customized.

Dec

Déjà Vu: WSJ Study Suggests Many Android & iOS Apps Transmit User Data To Advertisers

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, Development, Games, News

Way back in July, Lookout released the results of a study on app security, and found that many apps have access to user data that they have no need for - suggesting that there was plenty of potential for illicit information use. Two months later, a group of researchers from Intel, Penn State, and Duke came forth with data showing just that: 15 of the 30 apps tested sent GPS data, 7 sent unique hardware information, and a few sent more private information such as phone and SIM numbers.

Fast forward to today - the Wall Street Journal has released the findings of a very similar study they conducted, and the results are surprisingly similar.