Applications - 20/21 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Now We're Talking - Google's Latest Follow-up To The License Verification Fiasco Showcases 4 Methods To Make Pirates' Jobs Much Harder

Posted by Justin Case in Apps/Games, Development, News

Update: Tim Bray responded in our comments letting us know Trevor Johns, a hands-on guy in the Android back-rooms, was the author of the post.

After we blew the faults behind Google's License Verification Library out of the water last week, Google's Tim Bray promised us some tips for protecting our applications against piracy, and in the latest post at Google's official Android blog he delivered them. Tim's article is loaded with easy to follow sample code, and advice that just makes sense. Mr. Bray covers several protection methods including:

obfuscation,
customizing the Licensing Library,
making your application tamper resistant (with a code sample that is nearly identical to what I published a week ago),
and using a secondary server for added protection.

Aug

App Roundup: Hurricane Season Edition

Posted by T. Carter Ross in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

With the Atlantic hurricane season ratcheting up and several named storms expected to form before the season ends on Nov. 30th, it makes sense for those of us in potential hurricane zones to look for an app that will help keep an eye on developing tropical systems. For example, Hurricane Danielle has dissipated in the North Atlantic, but Earl is expected to hit the East Coast before the end of the week and Fiona is hot on its heels.

Several applications are available through the Android Marketplace with varying degrees of usefulness. All of them rely on public domain information from the U.S.

Aug

Response To A Response: More On Google's Android Licensing Service

Posted by Justin Case in Development, Editorials

Today I awoke to see a response from Tim Bray on the Android Developer's Blog regarding my previous article on circumventing the Android License Verification Library, and I almost completely agree with him. The License Verification Library is a very good start - above and beyond what, if anything, Google owes developers. Copy protection is and should be the responsibility of the developer. Google has given us a great tool, provided thorough documentation, and even open sourced the project.

However, what I don't agree with in Mr. Bray's post was his calling my article a "how-to-pirate piece," as this was not my intent at all.

Aug

Android Gets App-Switching Eye Candy: Visual Task Switcher Now Available On The Market

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, News

One of the most vaunted features of webOS was its decidedly pretty multitasking interface. Users could invoke an overlay of thumbnail “cards” of their running applications and switch to or close them.

Fresh onto the Android Marketplace is Visual Task Switcher. Continuing on from some progress made earlier this year (although probably not using the same method), this application grants you thumbnail application switching. While not as polished as Palm’s version, this is an encouraging step towards that alluring goal.

Users can switch to a running application by tapping the thumbnail, or kill it by long-pressing.

Visual Task Switcher allows multiple pages of grid thumbnails which can be scrolled through by swiping.

Jul

Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About, Part 1: Apps 1-8

Posted by David Ruddock in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Best Apps For Rooted Users Series, Development, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Ok, I’ve Rooted, So Now What?

Aside from allowing the installation of popular ROMs developed by the Android community, rooting your phone also comes with the benefit of being able to install apps that require root permissions.

Finding such apps can be a hassle, so we’ve done some of the leg work for you and come up with a detailed rundown of our top 8 root-only applications.

Titanium Backup

Cost: FREE (Full Version: $3.99)

The thought of losing all the apps on your Android device likely evokes a slight sinking sensation in your gut.

Fortunately for root users, Titanium Backup provides a 2-click peace of mind solution, should such a tragedy befall you.

Jun

[Giveaway] Vlingo Voice Control App Reviewed + We’ve Got 25 Licenses To Give Away!

Posted by Chris Dehghanpoor in App Reviews, Applications, Contests / Giveaways, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

The winners have been selected and contacted via email.

Enjoy your Vlingo licenses and look out for future AndroidPolice contests!

Living in Houston, you encounter some pretty horrendous traffic. Out of the 45 minutes I spend commuting(one way), about 20 are probably spent at a red light.

With all of that downtime it’s pretty tempting to reach over and check your latest email, or, if you’re like me, compulsively check the market for updates, but every time you do so, you’re risking injuring yourself, and those around you. We all know it’s dangerous to use the cell phone while driving, but how many of us actually heed those warnings?

Jun

EVO 4G DamageControl v3.0 - Fast, Improved Battery Life, Tweaks

[EVO 4G ROM] DamageControl v3.0 - Fast, Improved Battery Life, Tweaks

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Eclair 2.1, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Sprint, Tips & Tutorials

What a day for EVO 4G ROMs! Hot on the heels of the release of Fresh ROM for EVO, another former HTC Hero ROM developer damageless, notorious for his DamageControl Hero ROM, announced his version for the EVO.

DamageControl v3.0 is damageless' and his partner TrevE's first crack at customizing the EVO and making it both faster and much more battery efficient. First, a little introduction:

I am proud to present the first DamageControl ROM for the HTC Evo!

The ROMs I release are always focused on stability, speed, and ease of use.

My partner, TrevE and I, continue to present ROMs that are easy to update through an application that is bundled with the ROM, DCUpdater (based upon cm-updater).

Jun

Fresh Evo 0.1d - Better, Faster, More Battery Efficient, With Bloatware Apps Removed

Updated: [EVO 4G ROM] Fresh Evo 0.2 - Better, Faster, More Battery Efficient, With Bloatware Apps Removed

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Eclair 2.1, EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Sprint, Tips & Tutorials

EVO 4G users, listen up! Flipz, the creator of one of the best custom ROMs for CDMA HTC Hero - Fresh ROM, has dropped his first version of a custom ROM for the EVO 4G a few hours ago.

The ROM is faster and more efficient than the stock ROM due to optimizations and bloatware removal (yup, the bloated apps provided by Sprint and some HTC ones are moved to the SD card and disabled!). It also comes with some visual changes.

Android 2.1 Eclair for now but will be updated to 2.2 Froyo as soon as humanly possible.

Of course, if you know Flipz, this is all just the beginning.

May

SysAdmin Series, Article #1: ConnectBot

Posted by Ian Douglas in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Welcome to the new SysAdmin Series, where we will cover apps and other tips and tricks for using your Android device to help you get the job done and stay on top of things in the realm of system administration.

Probably the foremost tool for any sysadmin is a good SSH client. My favorite so far is ConnectBot, by Kenny Root and Jeffrey Sharkey. At the time of this writing, this free, lean, simple SSH client is at version 1.6.2, weighs in at 352KB and has had more than 250,000 downloads and enjoys a 5-star rating from over 10,000 users, and describes itself as such in the Android Market:

ConnectBot is a powerful open-soure Secure Shell (SSH) client.

Apr

Android Market Hits A New Milestone - Now Serving 50,000 Applications

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Today Android celebrates another milestone - all Android Markets combined count over 50,000 applications and games, according to the Android Market tracker AndroLib. AndroLib is one of the biggest market trackers out there and monitors over 10 separate marketplaces in addition to the main one.

10,000 apps were cranked out in less than a month, as exactly 4 weeks ago we celebrated the 40,000 mark, and, as you can see, the progress has been excellent.