Sep

Angry Birds Beta For Android Is Here - Download It From The Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

Angry Birds, one of the top selling games for the iPhone, hit the Anroid Market this morning.

Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, promised an off-Market beta earlier this week, but got so much positive response that it decided a Lite Beta version in the Market was actually a much better idea. In fact, the Android launch is turning out to be so popular that Rovio's own servers are are too overloaded to handle all the traffic.

Gameplay

The premise behind the game is simple - you use a sling and launch angry, bickering, round birds at pigs cowardly sitting in their forts.

Sep

SwiftKey Receives A Substantial Update - Multitouch, Better Voice Recognition, Less Lag

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, News

One of the more popular tip-tap software keyboards got a nice little upgrade today. SwiftKey, an aftermarket keyboard that uses intelligent statistical methods as well as scanning of your SMS inbox to predict the most likely next word, now has support for multitouch typing. As seen previously on the Droid X’s keyboard, this greatly enhances possible typing speeds… unless you have one of HTC’s infamously erroneous older touchscreen panels, that is.

What, DroidSans not good enough for you?

Moving on with a more positive spin, SwiftKey claims to have nixed many bugs, as well as reducing or eliminating the lag that was plaguing some users.

Aug

TweetDeck For Android Beta Now Live, Come And Get It!

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

We leaked an early build of the TweetDeck for Android app yesterday, but now it seems the real deal is available to TweetDeck users. To obtain the beta, you must have a TweetDeck account (or create one), sign up here. The instructions for downloading and installing TweetDeck for Android, below (You still need to be signed up for the Beta Preview for the app to work):

Hi there!

Thank you for your interest in Android TweetDeck. We've been hard at work developing the next generation Deck experience and we're excited to give you a sneak peak.

Please use the TweetDeck account you signed up for the beta test with inside the Android application.

Aug

Swiftkey Beta Now Updated To Include Speech-To-Text! Also Includes Various Fixes And Improvements

Posted by Ron Hamelin in Applications, News

All I can say is “YAY—FINALLY!” Can you tell that I am totally psyched about the addition of speech-to-text to Swiftkey?

If you recall, I did a brief review on Swiftkey beta back in mid-July. I have been using this keyboard exclusively since that time and have not looked back. In my humble opinion, it is better than any keyboard, including Swype, that I have tested to date on my Droid Incredible. Yes, it is THAT good. Now, with the addition of speech-to-text, there is very little that I can suggest to make this any better. In fact, if you look at the changelog below, they have improved the overall appearance of the keyboard with clearer lettering and larger keys.

Aug

[Updated: Screens, Hands-On, Official Beta Tomorrow] TweetDeck For Android Beta v0.9 Leaks Online - Download And Try It Now

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

The long-awaited TweetDeck beta (or pre-beta) that we knew was coming this week got leaked online today, after someone very diligent found a direct link to it on TweetDeck's own site. The link is no longer working, but not without a bunch of people grabbing a copy first and uploading it to a multitude of mirror sites.

I had the pleasure of demoing an early version of the software at Google I/O and was highly impressed. I do believe TweetDeck has a very good chance to become the best Social client on Android.

Remember: this is a beta, a pre-beta even, so it will be buggy.

Aug

VR Tunnel - A Brain-Melting 3D Live Wallpaper

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications

Want a live wallpaper that will make your friends’ heads explode? XDA-developers member chopsui is the man you are looking for. Check out the video he posted on YouTube in July to get an idea of just what you’re in for.

In a manner similar to the popular Labyrinth motion-controlled game, VR Tunnel LWP uses the phone’s accelerometer to judge the viewing angle and turns the viewpoint into the tunnel accordingly.

A couple of days ago, chopsui posted the APK of the live wallpaper on the XDA-devs forum, for Nexus One users to try out. Having installed it, I can say it works very well as a proof of concept, and is a very impressive demo.

Aug

TweetDeck Beta For Android Out Later This Week!

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

If you've been anxiously waiting for TweetDeck for Android, like we all here at AP, you can start jumping up and down right about now, because the company blog just announced that a public beta will be rolling out this week.

Ever since I had the pleasure of seeing a private demo of the app given to me by TweetDeck's CEO Iain Dodsworth at Google I/O, I've been anxious to get my grabby hands on a copy. Expected back in April to be "a few weeks," the app's release timeline apparently got stretched to a few months, in the best traditions of Blizzard and 3D Realms.

Aug

BlindType Keyboard To Come To Android - Type Anywhere On Your Phone's Screen, Even With No Keyboard Present

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, News

In a market that is rapidly becoming saturated, we have yet another entry. BlindType is a replacement software keyboard, but it’s one with a little twist. As the name might suggest, BlindType seeks to remove the visual aspect of typing on your smartphone’s software keyboard. Know the QWERTY layout by heart? This keyboard is for you.

Irrespective of where you tap on the screen, BlindType can figure out where on the keyboard you meant to hit by comparing the positions of your previous keypresses. Even if you shift your typing up an entire row of keys, BlindType will (probably) adapt and adjust to accommodate you.

Jul

Swiftkey Keyboard For Android Now Available In The Market As A Public Beta. Swype Begone - It's That Good!

Posted by Ron Hamelin in Applications, Apps/Games, News

For those of you who don’t like your stock or alternative add-on keyboards on your Android device, have I got good news for you: the Swiftkey beta is now available in the Android market.

I’ve been using Swiftkey through a private beta for the past few weeks and there’s one word I have to describe it: fantastic. I replaced my Swype keyboard with Swiftkey and haven’t looked back since.

Predictive Text

One of the best features of this keyboard is the predictive text. I’m not talking about predicting the rest of a word that you’ve already begun to type. I’m talking about actually predicting the next word that you might type based on what you’ve already input.

Jul

CyanogenMod 6.0.0 Release Candidate 1 Hits The Streets For Nexus One, Dream and Magic Devices (Download Links In Post)

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Development, Dream, Magic, News, Nexus One (Passion)

The long-awaited first beta (release candidate) of CyanogenMod 6 is available for download on the HTC Nexus One, Dream, and Magic devices as of 10:15PST this evening. While Cyanogen’s site is experiencing some seriously debilitating traffic, we’ve managed to get links to all the downloads for those of you eagerly awaiting a taste of what CyanogenMod 6 will bring to your phone. Additionally, Cyanogen has said it will be available via ROM Manager very shortly.