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Oct

[Updated x2] Security Advisory: A.I.Type Keyboard Sends All Your Keystrokes To Their Servers In Plain-Text - Sometimes You Can't Trust The Cloud

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Last Updated: November 8th, 2011

One of the features that really differentiates Android from other mobile operating systems is the ability to install a custom keyboard that works for you. I constantly keep jumping between a variety of keyboards as new updates come out (right now I've settled on SwiftKey due to its unparalleled prediction technology), but when some of our readers pointed out A.I.type Keyboard's "psychic" word completion, I had to check it out.

However, what I found in A.I. Keyboard's Market description prevented me from even installing it - all smart predictions happen in the cloud, which means everything you type (or almost everything) gets sent over the data connection to their servers.

Oct

Rumor: Google's Music Store Will Not Have Subscriptions, But It Will Have Song Sharing

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

Google's Music service has been an incomplete experience since its unveiling at Google I/O back in May. While Music Beta does allow you to upload your songs and stream them to your Android device, it lacks any kind of storefront. Google does have a small library of featured free tunes for Music users, but I can't say any of the albums or artists there have ever really interested me too much.

A quick note on the "rumor" status of this post before we actually discuss it - Business Insider was contacted by a music industry insider regarding Google's deal with various labels, and it sounds legit to us.

Oct

Dolphin 7.0 Adds Cloud Sync Of Preferences And Gestures, Revamped WebZine, Exclusively Available In GetJar Now And Android Market October 23rd

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Dolphin HD, one of my favorite browsers (at least until ICS), was updated to version 7.0 today, available exclusively from GetJar until October 23rd, at which point it will be released to the Android Market.

The new version brings cloud sync of browsing preferences and gestures in addition to bookmarks across all your Android devices - something Dolphin is calling Dolphin Connect. In addition to that, Dolphin 7 revamps the WebZine interface for easier navigation and prettier, more robust UI.

Download: Dolphin HD 7.0 from GetJar

Dolphin HD

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser

Source: Dolphin Blog

Oct

BlueStacks Announces App Player For Windows And Cloud Connect

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

Today, BlueStacks - a company specializing in Android app integration in Windows - will be making two large, and (hopefully) impressive announcements.

One of these announcements is the Alpha version of their App Player for Windows. If the name didn't already clue you in, BlueStacks App Player allows you to run Android applications on your Windows machine and enter a whole new level of Appoholism. This means that all of your favorite Android apps are now also your favorite PC apps and, by extension, your favorite Android games can now be your favorite PC games. Imagine the convenience of playing Angry Birds on a huge screen that isn't in your bathroom (Android Police cannot be held responsible if you get confused in this scenario and require new pants).

Oct

[Weekend Poll] Will the Amazon Kindle Fire Light Up The Tablet World?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Amazon, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see How Many Apps Have You Purchased In The Last Month?

The first of Amazon's two new Android tablets has officially been revealed (the second one is rumored to be coming out towards the end of the year), and features a 7" 1024x600 display, 1GHz dual-core CPU, 8GB of storage, and a heavily modified Android experience with an emphasis on Amazon's cloud services - all for just $200.

Given that the price of similar (but larger) tablets is still in the $400+ neighborhood (unless you want to compare it to the Nook Color or original Galaxy Tab, though both are substantially less powerful), will the lower cost yet powerful specs be enough to make the Fire the de facto standard in the tablet world?

Jul

Review: Spotify For Android (US) - Is It The Music Streaming Service You've Been Waiting For?

Posted by David Ruddock in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

No, it's not. At least not for Android - and that's what we're here to talk about today. The merits of Spotify as a music streaming subscription service for your desktop are substantially greater - it's well organized, searching and streaming are quick, powerful, and pretty. There's a lot to love - and at $10 (or free for ad-supported and no Android playback) a month for unlimited streaming, those plusses are hard to argue against.

Unfortunately, if you plan on using Spotify on your Android device, there's a lot less to love, unless your musical needs are very specific. Spotify for Android is good for one thing: finding music.

Jul

Subsonic Updated To 3.0 - Brings UI Changes And... An Equalizer!

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

Long have Subsonic users awaited the day the do-it-yourself music streaming platform would finally incorporate an equalizer in its Android app. Today is that day. Subsonic has been updated to version 3.0, and there's a slew of changes. For one, there's a brand-new widget. There's also a basic music visualization option, and the notification on the pull-down menu now shows album art. Take a look at some of the new features, below:

Subsonic, if you aren't familiar with it, is a music streaming platform that utilizes your home computer and personal music collection to provide a cloud-esque experience. That is to say, it's 100% your bandwidth being used, there's no unnecessary middleman transcoding the files (ahem, AudioGalaxy), and you can customize the experience from the server side to almost no end.

May

Mega-Music App Comparison: Google Music v Amazon Cloud Player v Subsonic v PowerAMP v Winamp

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, App Reviews, Applications, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Listening to tunes on your Android device is serious business - no doubt about it.

It's so serious that many of us are pretty well set in our ways for what we consider the "choice" Android music-listening application, and we aren't willing to budge on it.

PowerAMP users, for example, swear by the application's seemingly endless list of customizations and options. On the other hand, Subsonic devotees like myself are advocates of what is probably the most configurable music streaming experience in existence. But the big boys have come to play, and with Google Music Beta entering the foray, along with Amazon's still-somewhat-new Cloud Player, the war for musical dominance on Android getting louder by the minute.