19
Oct
unnamed (1)

WhitePages 2.0 Released With New Interface, Social, Discovery Functionality

Posted by in Applications, News

Following up on the success of its Current Caller ID app, WhitePages has released version 2.0 of the WhitePages app, bringing a slick new Android-oriented UI and new social/discovery features along for the ride.

Besides its newly holo-fied interface design, the WhitePages app adds the ability to connect with friends and neighbors with a Nearby People functionality that can be used, as seen in the video, to "find a friend" and plan a lunch. Likewise, you can search for nearby businesses and restaurants, even taking a sneak peek at restaurant menus.

Once you get tired of finding new friends and businesses, you can share where you're going (or where you've been) with friends via various social media outlets, and invite them to come along.

27
Sep
fieldtriptiny

Google Wants To Take You On A Field Trip With Its Newest Location-Aware Exploration App

Posted by in Applications, News

Hi. Welcome to the future. Mountain View, California, 2012. I'm telling you it's great here. You've got a location-aware, always-connected supercomputer in your pocket. What good is it, though, if you're only ever using it to check what's going on in Facebook land? Enter Field Trip, the latest app to be released by Google (via the obscure Niantic Labs), which offers you information about all the things around you, including trivia, facts about local monuments, restaurant reviews, and more.

The coolest thing about this app is that you don't need to pull it up to use it. Very similar to Google Now's notifications, Field Trip won't wait to tell you about something it thinks you might want to read up on in the area.

12
Aug
unnamed

Mapsaurus Takes App Discovery To A New Level With An Interactive Map Of The Play Store

Posted by in Applications, News

Mapsaurus, released today by a developer team of the same name, is perhaps the new app to end all new apps. By pairing an interactive map of Google's Play Store with an intuitive UX, Mapsaurus takes app discovery to a new level – not just of ease, but also of convenience.

The app, which promises to help users "discover apps you never would have known to search for," can branch out an interactive web of apps and games based on apps you already have installed, curated subcategories, or general categories and function sets.

What's great about Mapsaurus is that it not only helps you find new apps and games, but that the selections it displays are curated to ensure that no "mediocre" or sub-par entries are suggested.

10
Mar
8trackstiny

8Tracks Gets Updated With A New Tablet UI, Asks Turntable.fm Who?

Posted by in Apps/Games, News

In the world of the future, where music is as easily accessible as air, the new bread and butter of the music industry is discovery. While services like Turntable.fm center around small social gatherings, and Pandora uses fancy algorithms to predict your tastes, 8tracks asks "Um, hey, what was wrong with how radio worked? Also, do you guys like tablets?" The answers, of course, are "You know, that's a good point," and "Um, YEAH."

8tracks2 8tracks3

8tracks1

8tracks was already a great service centered around user-created playlists. The idea being that people know better than machines do what good music is. Unlike Turntable.fm, though, 8tracks allows all you virtual DJs to create custom playlists that others can then listen to.

31
Jan
likes

[New App] Likes! For Android Uses Your Facebook Friends To Tell You What's Good Around Town Or Around The World

Posted by in Apps/Games, News

In the information age, discovery is a profitable trade. Google even built its fortune on discovering new and relevant info. As everyone and their mother begins sharing everything about their lives online, startups and large corporations alike have a new source of data to pull from. Enter Likes!, an app that uses things your friends and family have liked on Facebook to help you discover restaurants, movies, events, and more.

menu dubstep beerrun

The app is a great concept. In theory it would show you all the cool places your friends know of. Your friends are probably a better judge of what's cool around town than a search engine, right?

19
Apr
image

Discovery's Official HowStuffWorks Android App Now In The Market

Posted by in Applications, News

HowStuffWorks.com, together with its numerous video and podcast series, like the hilarious Stuff You Should Know, is arguably one of the most interesting websites on the Internet. It's no wonder - HSW is owned by Discovery Communications, which you may recognize from, oh, I don't know, the Discovery channel. Sometime ago, Discovery finally decided that Android users are not discovering enough and not figuring out exactly how all of this stuff works, and got to work on a dedicated HowStuffWorks app.

Today, the final product, which lets you stalk HowStuffWorks podcasts, videos, articles, and all their authors better than a dedicated stalking app made by your ex-girlfriend could ever do, was unleashed onto the Android Market.

06
Feb
2011-02-06 15h02_00

The Race Is On Again - Fast Web Installer Returns To AppBrain

Posted by in Apps/Games, News

As the results of our Friday poll show, quite a few of you aren't convinced by Google's official Android Market Web Store; it looks like a lot of people are sticking with good old AppBrain. Well you AppBrain fans will be happy to hear that one of the site's best features - Fast Web Installer - has finally returned after being disabled back in November of 2010.

To utilize it, you'll need to download the latest versions of the AppBrain app and Fast Web Installer to your phone. Next, enable Fast Web Installer in the AppBrain app's preferences before signing into appbrain.com on your computer.

04
Feb
image

Interview With Uwe Maurer, The Co-Founder Of AppBrain: "The Android Web Market Is Here - Now What?"

Posted by in Apps/Games, Editorials, Interviews, News
Last Updated: April 14th, 2011

Google's web-based Android Market announcement earlier this week was by all means no surprise to anyone - we've been waiting for it to arrive ever since its announcement at last year's Google I/O. In the meantime, alternative web-based markets, such as AppBrain.com, have skyrocketed in popularity because they allowed Android users to browse apps and games from their computers rather than being confined to their small phone screens. Even more importantly, alternative web markets had full control over app presentation, which allowed them to develop their own app discovery mechanisms.

AppBrain is probably the best example of such innovation - it combines easy-on-the-eye looks with functional app pages that don't look overbloated with ads, and their slicing and dicing of the Market using advanced filters goes way beyond Google's - it's simply excellent.