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Sep

Motorola Announces Most 2011 Phones Will Get Jelly Bean, The Rest Will Receive $100 Credit For Upgrades, Promises Developer Editions Of Phones

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Motorola, News

Today, Motorola just floored users with an unprecedented offer: if you bought a phone from Motorola that launched in 2011, most of you will receive an upgrade to Jelly Bean. If, however, you're using a phone that Motorola decides will have a degraded experience, you will receive $100 in credit towards an upgrade. This may mark the first time that a manufacturer has broadly promised compensation for a lack of updates for all of its devices.

Your eyes aren't deceiving you, though. Yes, there's a third promise on that screen. Motorola is promising "developer editions" of their phones to allow users to "enable modifications of the Android code." This doesn't exactly sound promising for average consumers who want to avoid locked bootloaders, but we'll see how Motorola implements the program.

Jun

[CyanogenMod 7 Theme Roundup Part 2] Five More Ways To Make It Yours

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Last week, we dropped our first CyanogenMod 7 Theme Roundup, and since then, we've gotten several great theme suggestions, as well as a bundle of requests to do another roundup - so here we are! This edition of the roundup brings some really nice offerings from the theming community. Everything from mellow colors with tones of blue and grey, to multiple colors that really stand out, there should be something for everyone. Without further ado, let's get started!

MattedBlues by Team MattedBlues

After last week's roundup went live, we immediately began receiving requests to feature this theme. After taking a look at it, I can see why - this theme is amazing.

Jun

[CyanogenMod 7 Theme Roundup] Sexy Up Your Cyanogen With These Five Top-Notch Themes

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

As Android users, we have a certain amount of freedom with our devices - especially if you're running a rooted device with a custom ROM like CyanogenMod. One of those freedoms is the ability change the look of Android with themes. In the past, changing themes required booting into recovery, flashing a zip file, and rebooting. On occasion, the theme wouldn't work correctly, so if you didn't perform a backup before you flashed, you were basically out of luck. That all changed with the T-Mobile theming engine, though - and it wasn't long before it made its way into CyanogenMod. Thanks to this theming engine, themes can now be universal among devices and changed on-the-fly, so regardless of what device you're running, any of the themes built for Theme Chooser should work without a hitch.

Jun

[Boot Animation Roundup Part 5] Come See The Amazing Gingergut Man

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Welcome back to another lovely edition of our Boot Animation Roundup! We've been scouring the net for the past couple of weeks looking for the coolest boot animations that we could find, and here's what we came up with: a hungry Android, the guts of a Gingerbread man, a new take on a classic, some TRON-esque lovin', and a little somethin' somethin' for all the gamers out there.

Don’t know how to change your boot animation? Take a look at our primer on the matter.

Don’t forget to take a look at the last four editions of this roundup: Vol. 1, Vol.

May

[Bootscreen Animation Roundup Part 4] Is That A Tesseract In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

I know, I know... it's only been a week since the last roundup, but when you just happen to stumble upon a gaggle of awesome animations all at one time, what else can you do? If you were thinking "post 'em up for everyone to enjoy," then you win! What do you win, you ask? Why, some sick new boot animations, of course! How sweet is that?

Don't know how to change your boot animation? Take a look at our primer on the matter.

Don't forget to take a look at the last three editions of this roundup here, here, and here.

May

[Bootscreen Animation Roundup Part 3] Five Times The Pleasure, Five Times The Fun

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Welcome to the third iteration of our super-awesome bootscreen animation roundup. It's been about six weeks since our last one, so it's definitely about time for another go. I'm sure at this point no introduction is needed, so let's get right into the screens.

If you're not sure how to change your boot animation, take a look at our primer.

You can find even more boot animation goodness in the first two editions of this roundup, here and here.

Android Vs. Apple

First up on the list is an animation that really needs little description - it's Andy destroying the Apple logo by way of ingestion.

Apr

[Bootscreen Animation Roundup, Part 2] 5 Excuses To Reboot More Often

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, Development, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

It has been almost a month since our last bootscreen roundup, so we decided it was time to give you another opportunity to pimp your power up process (I don't normally use the word "pimp", but I just couldn't resist the alliteration). After spending a few hours and literally digging through hundreds of pages, here are five more most kickass boots animations that I could find.

If you have never changed your boot image before, check out our tutorial on the matter.

Android Particles

From the same creator who brought us Smooth Ring the first time around, this is a super-elegant image of Andy appearing from what can only be described as fairy dust.

Mar

Launcher Wall For Android Review: A Poor Man’s Windows Phone 7

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Are you one of the many that likes the look of Windows Phone 7, but doesn’t want to give up your existing launcher in lieu of a WP7 lookalike? If so, we have an app for you. It’s called Launcher Wall and feels similar to Windows Phone 7, without duplicating the interface.

Launcher Wall is an interactive live wallpaper comprised of customizable, animated tile-style icons with an animated background. It is pretty straightforward; each tile corresponds to a user defined app in which you can change the size, placement, angle, size, transparency, and animation. At the time of writing this, there is no way to change the tile image or disable all animations, so expect to see some movement even if the animation is turned all the way down.

Mar

[Tutorial] How To Change The Bootscreen On Your Android Phone And Make Waiting For It To Turn On Suck Less

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, Development, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: June 8th, 2011

Let's face it: as Android users, we like options. One of the greatest things about this platform is the insane level of customization possible, especially if you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty. With some readily available tools (all of which are extremely free) and the proper knowledge, you can make your android phone do almost anything you could possibly want and make it look however you want. What we'll be talking about today is the bootscreen.

The bootscreen is that animation that plays during your phone's (admittedly long) power-on sequence. It's really easy to switch it out and, provided you've found one you like, I can show you how to change it.

Feb

Google's Newest Android App, Androidify, Lets You Create Your Own Android Avatar [Hands-On]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Google's newest Android creation is not a 4-dimensional map or a death ray - it's much more light-hearted and is aimed at the versatile and passionate Android community. Absolutely quietly and without any fanfare, Google in collaboration with Larva Labs today launched a new Android application called Androidify.

Androidify allows you to create a completely custom Android avatar and then save it as a picture, set as a contact photo, share on twitter or via email, and do pretty much anything else you want with the new mini-you. You can stretch the legs, hands, body, and head to any size, then dress your future best friend into pants, hats, shirts, shoes, etc of your choice, give it a new do, change the skin and hair color, and then save it into your collection.