automatic - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Oct

Quick Hands-On: CyanDelta Updater Brings You Incremental CM Updates, Eliminates Nightly 200MB Downloads

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, Development, News

Many of you probably already know how I feel about CyanogenMod – I swear by it, especially on my EVO LTE. Nothing beats it in terms of bringing a (mostly) stock experience to your device with just the right amount of tweaks and extra features. Plus, there are nightly updates that satisfy my need to stay on the bleeding edge and get a daily fix of… fixes. The only downside to this is that each nightly update (for my EVO, anyway) hovers around 180MB, a download that takes just a little more time than I care to spend sometimes.

Enter CyanDelta Updater.

Aug

[Review] Magisto Is An Automatic Video Editor For Android That, Against All Odds, Doesn't Suck

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Reviews

One of the worst phrases a human being can put together is "automatic video editor." The whole thing feels like it's set up for failure. Like "vasectomy in a box" or "snooki's pregnant." Add in "for Android" and, well, let's just say I've been burned before. So it came as an unbelievable shock when I tried out Magisto, which claims to be both of these things, and it was good. I mean, really good. It doesn't offer you any control at all, but it does the job for the regular Joe or Jane in fantastic form.

How It Works

The process is stupid simple.

Aug

Tasker Updated To Add Support For 'AutoRemote', An Insanely Powerful Remote Control Utility

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

There are few limits to things you can make your phone do with the power of Tasker. Everything from simple automation to some of the most complex things imaginable can be handled by the app, making it one of the most versatile on Android. Now, thanks to a new app called AutoRemote, it just got even more powerful.

With AutoRemote, you can execute commands remotely - from your desktop, laptop, tablet, another phone... basically anything with a web browser. For anyone familiar with the more advanced features of Tasker, setting up AutoRemote shouldn't be much of a problem. For those unfamiliar with the software, though, it looks a little bit tricky at first.

Jul

Slice, The Amazing Package Tracking App, Gets Updated To 2.0, Supports Outgoing Package Tracking, New Email Services, And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

When we first discovered Slice, the app that scans your email for packages that you're waiting to be delivered, has updated to version 2.0 and brought a host of new features with it. For starters, if you use Hotmail, AOL, or iCloud as your primary email, you can now join in the fun. You can track outgoing packages by scanning tracking barcodes as well or entering the number manually, and filtering options have been improved.

The app also adds a new feature called "Thingerprint" which, aside from having a truly bizarre name, allows you to see how much money you've spent on what types of goods.

Jan

[Quick Look] RingDimmer Automatically Adjusts Ringtone Volume Based On Ambient Sound, Saves Users From Embarrassing Disruptions

Posted by Liam Spradlin in App Reviews, Applications, News

Do you find yourself constantly adjusting the volume of your phone's ringtone, or wishing that the annoying buzz of your phone's vibration could be toned down a little? Looking to solve all of your ringtone/vibration woes (while making sure you don't miss a call), Michael Pardo has introduced RingDimmer to the Android Market. The app adjusts vibration intensity and ringer volume based on ambient noise, ensuring that you never miss a call, and never have to be disrupted by an inappropriately loud ring tone.

The first thing users will notice about RingDimmer is its simple interface. When I say simple, I mean the entire app consists of one screen and two checkboxes.

Nov

[Download] Latest Android Wi-Fi Tether 3.1 Update Finally Brings Inactivity Shutdown, Stops Turning Off Bluetooth On Start

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

In the last couple of days, I've been closely interacting with Harald Mueller, the developer behind Android Wi-Fi Tether for root users, a free and open source tethering app for Android. Android Wi-Fi Tether is pretty much a de-facto app when when it comes to tethering on Android devices that have native Wi-Fi tethering disabled (thanks, carriers), and is what I consider one of the most important apps in our supposedly open ecosystem.

In my correspondence with Harald, I have brought up 2 specific issues that have been on my mind for a while now, and to my surprise, Harald solved them both in a matter of days.

Aug

LiveSorter Eases The Process Of Sorting Apps - RIP, Manually Maintained Folders

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

With somewhere around 200 apps on my phone at any given time, it can be a pain to scroll through all of them to find what I'm looking for. Categorizing apps into handy folders can also be time-consuming. Fazik Logic takes the concept of sorting your apps one step further however with LiveSorter, a new app that automatically sorts installed applications into appropriate categories.

Adding to the list of LiveSorter's benefits, it has relatively no resource drain as it only wakes when a new app is installed and needs to be sorted. At the moment the app only recognizes apps from the Android Market.

Nov

For Android Developers: Next Version Of Eclipse ADT To Include Auto Formatting Of XML

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, News

I was browsing the Android commit tree, as I like to do at 3:20am sometimes, and I just saw a new commit by Tor Norbye with the following description that made my heart skip a beat: "Add autoformatting of XML." This little update may not mean much to the regular folks, but to Android developers, like myself, this has been a long requested feature.

About a year ago, I wrote this article: Auto Formatting Android XML Files With Eclipse, which described how easy it is to achieve uniform, formatted XML files in Eclipse while doing Android development. Since XML files comprise a very large portion of an average Android project (the whole app layout is XML based), keeping XML files tidy becomes a very important, but mundane task.

Oct

Tip: Set Up Automatic Scheduled Nandroid Backups Using ROM Manager

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Development, Tips & Tutorials

This article is aimed at rooted Android users using ROM Manager - if you are one of them, you should definitely consider looking into it; otherwise move right along, as this info will not apply to you. To see what ROM Manager can do for you, check out our guides here:

When was the last time you did a Nandroid backup? Was it this week? This month? Three months ago?

Oct

SmartSMSVibrate Automates Your SMS Notification Settings

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, Apps/Games

Over at the bustling hivemind of xda-developers, poster Carsten4207 has just published his first app to the Market, and it's one with a neat little trick. The app, when enabled, uses the proximity sensor to determine whether your phone is in your pocket/face-down or facing up on a surface. You can then decide whether or not you want your phone to vibrate for incoming SMS messages depending on the situation.

The application does not poll constantly, instead tapping into your SMS state. Additionally, the app is only activated when a message is received, limiting the impact on battery life.

As it's Carsten4207's first app, it's forgivable that the functionality is somewhat limited - the automation does not extend to calls, for example, but if you don't care much for calls and just want something not overly complex, then SmartSMSVibrate may be just the tool for you.