apps - 44/55 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

All HandyGames Go On Permanent $1.40 Sale

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Deals, Games, News, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

If you just can’t stop gaming on your Android device, then now may be a good time to add some titles to your collection, since mobile game developers HandyGames have lowered the price on all of their ad-free games from $4.10 to $1.40. Now you can enjoy all kinds of android-gaming awesomeness for less money!

Seriously, who doesn’t want to spend a nice evening with Aporkalypse: Pigs of Doom – a puzzle game where you have to save the world from all sorts of piggy-badness. And who could pass on Hamster Homie, a 2-D sidescroller where you play the part of the thuggish-ruggish hamster, Tony, navigating through twists and turns to impress your scientist owner with your maze navigation skills.

Mar

Launcher Wall For Android Review: A Poor Man’s Windows Phone 7

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Are you one of the many that likes the look of Windows Phone 7, but doesn’t want to give up your existing launcher in lieu of a WP7 lookalike? If so, we have an app for you. It’s called Launcher Wall and feels similar to Windows Phone 7, without duplicating the interface.

Launcher Wall is an interactive live wallpaper comprised of customizable, animated tile-style icons with an animated background. It is pretty straightforward; each tile corresponds to a user defined app in which you can change the size, placement, angle, size, transparency, and animation. At the time of writing this, there is no way to change the tile image or disable all animations, so expect to see some movement even if the animation is turned all the way down.

Mar

It's Official: RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Will (Sort Of) Support Android Apps

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

Some combinations are as natural as peanut butter and jelly - Avatar & 3D, Apple & dictatorship, and Conan O'Brien & late-night comedy, to name a few. But are Android apps and the BlackBerry PlayBook also such a sweet match? If you ask RIM, the answer is a firm, definitive "yes."

The BlackBerry maker just confirmed the age-old rumors - it's announced that the upcoming QNX-based PlayBook tablet will support Android apps. There are, however, certain limitations - while the process doesn't sound overly complicated, developers of existing Android apps will need to put some work in to porting their software over, namely "repackaging, code signing, and submitting" it to the BlackBerry App World.

Mar

Valve Looking Into Expansion Onto Android, According To Gabe Newell

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Games, News

Those of you familiar with PC gaming will no doubt be well aware of Valve Corporation's digital distribution platform Steam. Well, member PoliticalGamer over at the Steampowered User Forum just got back from a trip of a lifetime to Valve HQ in Bellevue, WA, and he brought back some interesting news.

In a discussion with Valve co-founder and frontman Gabe Newell, PoliticalGamer caught wind of Valve's interest in expanding its Steam operations onto both iOS and Android. While he had no direct quote, the paraphrasing below gives us some hope:

he said they were looking into the iOS/Android platform for possible expansions with Steam

It might seem like an obvious move for Valve given the recent explosion in mobile gaming, but it's nice to hear from the man himself that Valve do have their eyes on portable systems.

Mar

[Updated] The Amazon Android Appstore Now Live - Angry Birds Rio Is The First Free App Of The Day [Download]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Moments ago, after months of preparations and precisely on the rumored release date of March 22nd, the Amazon Android Appstore finally went live.

Update: The Amazon App Store is now back up, but it looks like it's US-only. Also, the Test Drive is not available anymore, at least for now.

If the appstore is still down for you, try downloading the app using this direct link to the appstore APK (I got it via an SMS from Amazon): http://amzn.to/getappstore. You should be able to log into your account, browse, and download apps this way.

You can filter apps by featured categories, such as Instant Trials, Bestsellers, Top Rated, New Releases, Free, and Deals, as well as conventional categories, such as Games, Music, News & Weather, etc.

Mar

37 Best (And 3 WTF) New Android Apps, Games, And Live Wallpapers From Last Week (3/9/11 - 3/15/11)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Last Updated: April 13th, 2011

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.

One thing I'd like to point out this week - the apps are just getting prettier and prettier. They are no longer those ugly ogre-like beasts we used to see so much, but polished, pretty flowers (I mean, muscle cars, beer, bench press, aww, it's too late now).

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Mar

[Review] Wave Launcher Is Like Having WebOS On A Phone That You Actually Want

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

WebOS may catch a lot of flack because it never really took off but it does, in fact, have some really awesome features. One feature was the card view multitasking, which has already found its way onto Android. Another cool thing it did was that wacky swipe-up-from-the-bottom launcher gesture. Well, folks, guess what there's an app for now. It's called Wave Launcher - and it's great.

Wave Launcher's beauty is in its simplicity, just like its WebOS predecessor. You simply touch the bottom edge of your screen and swipe up. As you swipe up, so does a bar of five or more applications for you to select.

Mar

Want To See Android's Meteoric Rise In A Graph? Appbrain Introduces "Android Stats"

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

With the recent release of Google's Android Web Market, app discovery site Appbrain's relevance has been threatened and perhaps they see a future in statistical reporting. The website has introduced a new tracking system for the Android Market, which they like to call "Appbrain Android Stats."

The initial offering from Appbrain's new service finds the following:

There are now 150,000 apps available in the Market (this contradicts a report from Business Insider, which claims that there are currently 250,000 apps - we tend to think Apprain's is likely more accurate)
The most popular Android phone among AppBrain users is the Samsung Galaxy S
The most used Android version is Froyo
The category with the most apps is 'Entertainment'

If charts are your thing, Appbrain has those too.

Mar

Number Of Apps In Android Market Rapidly Gaining On Apple's App Store, But Android Tablets Aren't So Lucky

Posted by Will Shanklin in Android OS, Applications, News

If your Apple fanboy friends (surely you have at least one somewhere) like to taunt you with the old "iOS has more apps than Android" spiel, then you may not have to grudgingly agree with them for much longer. Business Insider published data this week that shows the Android Market's number of apps continuing to rapidly approach the amount of apps in Apple's marketplace. While the Market's trailing of the App Store by 100,000 applications would not, at a casual glance, appear to be encouraging, the rate of growth is clearly in Android's favor. In October that same gap was 185,000.

Mar

Love For Android! Portions Of $100 Million Fund Set Aside To Help Indie Devs Port From iOS To Android

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

If you are an indie developer who has had success with iOS apps, your prospects of porting your work to Android may have just improved. Social gaming platform OpenFeint and Chinese game operator The9 have committed unknown portions of a staggering $100 million fund to help move things along. The two companies will review games based on quality, downloads, and the strength of the game developer to determine who the lucky beneficiaries will be.

It was reported elsewhere that an entire $100 million was being allocated exclusively for porting from iOS to Android, but that was a misinterpretation: the $100 million Fund9 also supports "mobile app, game engine, and platform technology developers around the world." It is currently unknown exactly what portion of this will be devoted to Android development, but we certainly welcome any of it as good news.