beta - 9/16 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

T-Mobile USA Testing IPv6 On Select Devices - Here Is What It All Means (And Yes - No More NAT)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in LG, myTouch, myTouch Q, News, T-Mobile

This post is going to be a bit more technical than most people are probably comfortable with, but I'll try to explain it as simply as possible. T-Mobile USA is running an open beta for enabling IPv6 address assignment to some devices on its network in place of the traditional IPv4 addresses.

If you have one of these devices, you can sign up for IPv6 support here right now, change a few settings on your device, and start ~~rocking~~ testing your IPv6 address as soon as you're approved:

Additionally, if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, you don't even need to fill out a form - IPv6 is already live here, and you just need to change some settings for it to take effect.

Jan

SoulCraft THD Open Beta Hits Android Market – Experience Apocalypse, Fight Angels, Demons, And Humans From Your Tegra-Powered Device

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Games, News

Remember SoulCraft THD, the awesome action RPG game we mentioned last month? Well, the open beta finally hit the Android Market today, bringing angels, demons, apocalypse, and rich, realistic environments to your Tegra device. Check out the video below for a taste of the action:

SoulCraft THD allows you to play as an angel (with human and demon options coming later), taking part in a compelling story, set at a time when humans are on the brink of discovering the secret of eternal life.

The game takes players through several real (and realistic) locations including Venice, Rome, and Hamburg (with more locations coming soon), using weapons and spells to battle "lots of different and diversified enemies" as you decide who will win this epic war.

Dec

Dropbox Preview Build 1.3.0.6 Now Available On The Dropbox Forums

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Apps/Games, News

Everyone knows and loves Dropbox, and with build 1.3.0.6, its Android version is about to get even better. For now it's but a preview -- a "forum build," by official Dropbox terminology -- though we'd expect that to change soon, as in my experience it seems quite stable.

The main addition here is "optimization" for Android 4.0, presumably consisting mainly of performance tweaks. Additionally, the update features:

support for foreign languages
quick offline access to files ("favorites")
the ability to bulk upload photos and videos
the option to rename files and folders
single-tap access to all file and folder actions
an improved gallery
uploading from and exporting to local storage
the obligatory bug fixes

Interested?

Nov

[New App] Call Master Open Beta Is Probably The Most Impressive Call And Text Firewall In The Market

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you want complete control of how your phone reacts to calls and text messages in nearly any situation, then a tool recently released to the Android Market called Call Master has your number. This is probably the most in-depth, advanced call and text firewall for Android, offering some insanely useful features. It's from the same developer as Root Call Blocker, and actually uses that as its base.

This app is for rooted users only.

With Call Master, you can block calls and texts from a specific number after a certain time, send certain number straight to voicemail or auto-hang up on them, keep calls or texts private, and much more.

Oct

Swype For Android Beta Update v3.26 Released, Brings Automatic Updates And More Languages - And An Intelligent Prediction Engine Is Right Around The Corner

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

A new beta version of Swype for Android, version 3.26, has been released, with the chief improvements being automatic updates, 11 new languages, a refined key layout, and enhanced settings in help. Now that they've nearly doubled the number of supported languages, the Swype package has been broken into four: one each for the Americas, Western and Eastern Europe, South-East Asia, and one for all regions.

Undoubtedly the most substantial improvement to existing Swype users: automatic updates. Rather than having to manually uninstall and reinstall each update, users are automatically notified when an update is available, which can then be installed via the Swype settings menu.

Oct

New Dropbox Beta Brings Improved UI, Favorites, Renaming, Bulk Upload, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Dropbox, arguably one of the best file storage/sharing services around, recently released the new beta version of their app for Android, making it even easier to access files on the go that may otherwise be spread across several devices.

Besides bug fixes, the new beta includes the ability to store "favorite" files for quick offline viewing, bulk upload for multiple photos and videos, renaming of files and folders, upload from and export to local storage, and last but not least, a hugely improved UI which includes a more appealing gallery view and quick, one-tap access to file options.

Sep

New SwiftKey X Private Beta Released, Brings Better Personalization, Bug Fixes, Performance Improvements, And More

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

A new version of SwiftKey X has been released to private beta testers, and it brings quite a few improvements. Chief among them: the ability to learn from your blog via RSS - certainly a nifty feature. Other highlights include better error reporting, general performance improvements, and a number of bug fixes. The update also brings a new novelty feature in the form of the "My typing heatmap," which keeps track of keystrokes and displays a "heatmap" of the keyboard.

What's new in this version?
New features:

Autocaps toggle - now choose whether your sentences begin with a capital letter or not

Better personalization - SwiftKey can now learn your typing style from your blog

Language switching - easy transitions between (e.g.) English and Russian keyboards, just slide the spacebar

More stats about how you type with SwiftKey - and more links to share them

My typing heatmap - cool visualization shows how you use your keyboard

Improvements:

Alternative character selection - now select with a slide rather than a new tap (this works for smileys too)

Instant language updates - refresh your language list to see new languages and new updates as soon as they are ready

Various layout and user interface usability improvements.

Aug

New Nexus S 4G Version Of Swype Will Be Coming To All Handsets This Week, Minus Sprint Branding

Posted by David Ruddock in Apps/Games, News

In an official communication with the company, we've been told that the Sprint-exclusive update to Swype on the Nexus S 4G will be coming to the Swype beta channel for all supported handsets this week.

The update will lack the nifty Sprint-specific skin of the Nexus S 4G version, but will contain the improved capitalization, the Swype-specific personal dictionary, and the new gesture support for launching apps like Twitter and Facebook, as well as editing text in a quick and efficient manner by providing gesture shortcuts for select all, cut, copy, and paste.

We've removed our links to the ported .apk in our previous post at the request of Swype, who have valid concerns about licensing of the Sprint-branded version which is currently floating around over at XDA.

Aug

Total Commander For Android Leaves Beta, Moves Into Release Candidate Stage - Finally, No More Annoying Beta Popups

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

About a month ago, I discovered that my favorite desktop file manager, Total Commander, had an Android implementation, written by the author of the program himself - Christian Ghisler.

If you need a recap of all the awesomeness TC brings to the table on both Android phones and tablets, and why it replaced Root Explorer, ASTRO, and all other file managers for me, go ahead and read [Total Nerdgasm] Total Commander For Android Is Very Real And Functional, With Root Support And Plugins - No Ads And Free Forever - I'll wait right here.

The app, which is currently not available in the Market but rather via download links found in the TC forum, was just updated to RC1 from Beta10, which means it's finally considered stable enough by the author for daily use (really, it was stable enough as of beta 10 as well).

Aug

Apparatus Finally Leaves Beta, Unveils A Bunch Of New Features (Including Rockets!)

Posted by Matt Demers in Games, News

I feel a little bit of an attachment to Apparatus - we were one of the first blogs to review the game, which was a nice discovery while browsing Reddit one day. I've seen the app grow and add a whole boatload of interesting features; it truly is one of the Android platform's best games.

So when we got word today that it was finally leaving beta and stepping into the world of "finished" products, I couldn't help but smile a little bit. It's good to see games go through an entire development cycle and remain interesting and relatively bug-free all the way through.