beta - 3/15 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

There's A New Tasker Beta In Town And It's Got A Redesigned Holo UI

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Remember back when Google showed off what Tasker could look like if it updated to support the new ICS guidelines and we all drooled? Then the dev behind it said that there's already a UI overhaul in the works and we started squirming in our seats? Well, today's the day we all freak out, because today the developer released a beta of Tasker 4.0b4 that shows off a completely redesigned interface.

If you want to get in on this action, you can download the APK here. There are two separate download links, one for those who have purchased Tasker from the developer directly in the past, and one for those who bought it from the Play Store.

Jan

AppFeed.net Releases Beta App Into The Play Store

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you use AppFeed.net's service to monitor apps in the Play Store, then life just got easier for you: there's now an official AppFeed beta app available for you downloading pleasure. The app essentially takes the place of the site on your mobile – it allows you to view, add, or remove apps from your tracking list, as well as keep up with most recent updates.

Naturally, the only requisite to use the app is that you must have an AppFeed.net account, which can be obtained for free right here. Since the app is still beta, there are currently features missing – like the ability to sign up for an account without having to visit the site.

Jan

AirDroid 2 Beta APK Is Now Available To All, Remote Camera Access And 'Find Phone' In Tow

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Do you use AirDroid? You should. It's a fantastic piece of software. While Google tends to prefer using cloud services to manage your data, there is no central app that can access and change anything on your device. This app fills that need and does so amazingly. It's so great that we gave away 20 invites to the v2 beta recently. Now, the invite-only requirement is gone and it's available to anyone who can download it. Plus, it has some sweet new features you'll want to see.

One of the new features of Airdroid 2 is the ability to remotely access your phone's camera via the web browser.

Jan

Tapatalk HD Leaves Beta, Is On One-Day Only Sale For $0.99 In The Play Store

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Back in late December, Tapatalk HD beta left the forum-only download arrangement and made its way into the Play Store as a free download. Now, the beta period has ended, the aforementioned freebie is no more, and the first stable client is available.

For those who may not be familiar with Tapatalk, it's essentially a way to natively interact with many forums from your Android device. This prevents you from having to deal with the cumbersome (and not-touch-friendly) interface of most message boards. While its phone counterpart has been available since what seems like the dawn of time, Tapatalk HD is the first build that is optimized for use on the larger screen of a tablet.

Jan

[CES 2013] New Smartphone Keyboard 'Fleksy' Promises Predictions So Accurate That Even The Blind Can Use It

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Move over SwiftKey. A challenger has appeared and it's aiming to bring even better predictions than we've seen before. This one, named Fleksy, touts predictions that are so accurate, you can type without looking at the screen. In fact, the company says that even if you get every single letter wrong, it can still tell what it is you meant to type. This is pretty impressive. Of course that means the developers need to take it one step further...

In the video above the company shows a blind user walking down the street, typing away on his smartphone (begins around 1:28).

Jan

Swype Beta For Android Updates To v1.4, No Longer Requires Registration, Adds 'Living Language' Crowd-Sourced Dictionary

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Who knew that keyboards could be so competitive? After SwiftKey released its new Flow feature, and even included the ability to fly through space, Swype had a pressing need to escalate. Well, how's this for handy: now you no longer need to register in order to download the new Swype beta! In times past, Swype's distribution model has been a little cumbersome. Of course, this will only help people who want in on the beta, but it's still a great thing. Speaking of great things, here's a video of anthropomorphized finger ninjas talking about crowd-sourced dictionaries.

Yeah, you read that right.

Jan

Tile Launcher Beta Makes Your Android Homescreen Feel A Little More Windows Phone-y

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Whether you use Windows Phone or not, chances are at some point you're going to have to get used to the concept of tiles. Microsoft's putting them everywhere. On your Xbox, PC, tablet... They're unavoidable. If you like the idea of tiles over icons, though, here's an app you might want to try out: Tile Launcher Beta. While it's not quite a clone of the MS-borne smartphone interface (for example, you can still have a custom background), it does place brightly colored squares on a continuous scrolling homescreen.

You know...it kinda grows on you. While I've never been a huge fan of the Windows Phone interface as is, the tiles here are pretty slick and, as in the left-hand screenshot above, with some custom icon tweaking they can be made to look gorgeous.

Dec

Dropbox Beta 2.2.2.8 Is Open To All, Adds Multiple Photo Selection, Future Early Releases In Settings

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

This isn't the first time that Dropbox has released beta versions of its Android app to the public, but it looks like in addition to all their other aspirations as of late, they've created a dedicated beta channel for the Android app. Adventurous users can download the latest Dropbox beta from the forums, then check the settings section of the app for the "early releases" option to get future updates. Non-Play Store downloads will have this option enabled by default.

As for what's new in this release, the standard UI tweaks and bug fixes are present, along with the ability to share or delete multiple photos at once.

Dec

My Fingers Are Threatening Legal Action Against Me After Trying Snapkeys Si, Another Failed 'Invisible' Keyboard

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Developers, repeat after me: invisible keyboards never work. Do you understand? Good. I hope we're clear on this. Because after trying to use the ridiculous "invisible" SnapKeys Si, which blocks more on-screen crap than any other input software I've ever seen, I'm ready to throw my beloved Nexus 7 through the next wall to look at me funny.

Here's the basic idea behind how SnapKeys Si works: Instead of being given a full QWERTY keyboard, you get a selection of twelve letters, divided among four colored blocks. If you want to type one of these letters, you just hit its block.

Dec

[Update: Winners] Want An Invite For The AirDroid v2 Beta? We Have 20 To Give Away

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Contests / Giveaways

Last Updated: December 12th, 2012

There's no denying that AirDroid is one of the most powerful and useful applications available for Android today, and with version 2 in the works, it's about to get even better. But the thing is, v2 is going to be in private beta testing for the next three months. That's a long time to wait to get in on the action.

Fortunately, the AirDroid dev reached out to us last night and offered up a little goodie for our readers: 20 invites into the beta program. The first round of invites is expected to go out early this week, with only 125 users gaining access into the program.