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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.

Dec

The Sims 3 Now Available In The Android Market For $5

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Games, News

Just a short while after releasing Need for Speed Shift, EA Mobile has brought another popular mobile game, The Sims 3, to the Android Market.

A special edition of The Sims 3 has been available for some time to T-Mobile customers who own the Samsung Vibrant, but today the app has been made available to all Android users.

The official description of the app (from AppBrain):

ENJOY THIS AWARD-WINNING SIMS EXPERIENCE OPTIMIZED FOR ANDROID™! Choose your Sim’s appearance, clothing, and accessories. Make them funny or make them shy. Lose yourself in the amazing 3D open-world environment and discover what kind of character your Sim will turn out to be!

Dec

Gingerbread Keyboard APK Now Available For Eclair And Froyo Users - No Root Needed

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

Last Updated: December 19th, 2010

As exciting as seeing the Gingerbread keyboard leak out was, the fact remained that users stuck on Android 2.1 or below couldn't join in on the fun, and the same went for users of non-rooted devices.

Fortunately, the Android community rests not, and the keyboard has been neatly packaged into an APK and posted for all to see. Thanks to XDA-Developers member hotaru, both Éclair-running and non-rooted handsets can now access Google's latest input method.

To install:

Download the file appropriate to your OS (download the file from here if you're on Froyo; if you're running Éclair, grab it from here).

Dec

EA Mobile Releases Final Need For Speed Shift App Into The Android Market

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

This isn't nearly as exciting as that other thing that's just happened, but it's still fun - especially for those of us into cars and/or racing games. EA Mobile released NFS: Shift into the Market about 17 hours ago, and although it obviously packs a lot less than the PC/console version, if it's anywhere close, it should still be a blast to play. The official app description:

THINK FAST! DRIVE FASTER! OPTIMIZED FOR ANDROID™! Drive 20 awesome cars including the BMW M3 GT2, Lamborghini Gallardo, and Pagani Zonda. Features 18 tracks in 3 stunning locations, Quick Race and Career Modes, 3 difficulty settings, and physics-based accelerated 3D graphics.

Dec

Amazon Updates Kindle App, Brings In-App Purchases, Install To SD Card, Periodical Support, And More

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

Amazon has updated their Kindle for Android app to the ridiculously-numbered version 2.0.0.101810146. With the update comes a few notable new features:

Access to over 100 Kindle newspapers and magazines
"Move to SD Card" option
In-app purchases
Social network integration
Chapter titles now show in the reader status bar
Zoom for images
Volume rocker can function as page up/down

The app supports all versions of Android from 1.6 up. And don't forget - your purchases are linked by account, not device - meaning any books you purchase on your actual Kindle can be accessed in the Kindle app on your phone.

Dec

Sony Announces Official PlayStation App For Android And iOS

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Sony

It's not the PlayStation-related Android announcement we were hoping Sony would make, but the Official PlayStation app is still (sort of) intriguing in and of itself. Version 1.0 of the app will be coming soon to both our beloved Android Market and the iOS App Store, though we here in the States will be left out of the fun initially. For those lucky enough to live in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, or the Netherlands, (the areas where the app will be available upon launch) here's what you have to look forward to: