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If there's one thing we love here at Android Police more than anything, it's puppies. That usually doesn't come into play here, though, so we often deal with our very close second favorite thing: Amazingly playable, gorgeously rendered, ingeniously designed games. I just so happen to have one of those right here.
Gameloft, the gaming studio behind such games as Modern Combat 2, N.O.V.A. 2 HD, and Asphalt HD, has recently released a new game for all you mythology and movie fans out there. If you're familiar with Gameloft's games, though, this may be a bit different from what you've grown accustomed to.
Today, BlueStacks - a company specializing in Android app integration in Windows - will be making two large, and (hopefully) impressive announcements.
Every once in a while, an app comes along that revolutionizes the Android experience in an unimaginable way. More often, though, we get apps that simply regurgitate the same thing we've seen a thousand times before but with a different colored title bar or some such minor adjustment. A happy medium between the two, however, is necessary to the advancement of the platform. Perhaps the most important type of app is one that provides the functionality that we've been using the whole time but solidly improves how it is done. Car Tunes is just that type of application.
It's been a long time since my opinions on a device have been so torn. On the one hand, the Revolution is a pretty impressive piece of hardware, but on the other, there are some seriously annoying things about it (specifically some software elements - the lock screen makes me want to assault something adorable). All the handset's different aspects ultimately lead to one conclusion: MEH.
How many of you out there have taken a picture only realize later that, as you were snapping the photo, somebody totally photobombed you, there is an ugly light pole in the distance, or a hobo was giving you the finger in the background? All of you, you say? Well, boy howdy, have I got an app for you! No longer will you need to employ this supposed "skill" that people claim to have in photography, nor will you need to "pay attention" when taking photos. I can barely pay my cell phone bill, let alone attention to things I'm doing!
We all remember the T-Mobile Sidekick. It was the phone to have back before smartphones were a normal, everyday thing. It was the phone that did all the smartphone-y things first. It was built for one main purpose, though; messaging like a demon. It was all about staying in contact with your friends, shooting out emails, and texting all the time, no matter how fast you were driving. It did that job, and it did it damn well. Now that Danger Incorporated is dead, though, can there still be a Sidekick? Well, since Andy Rubin was part of the mastermind team behind Danger and is now heading up the mastermind team behind Android, it's safe to say a worthy successor is possible. Enter the Sidekick 4G, holding the same classic form factor but, this time around, rocking Android 2.2 Froyo, manufactured by Samsung, and possessing one of the wonkiest button layouts I've ever seen. Lil' John likes it, though:
A few days ago I posted about my experience with the Google Voice integration with Sprint and outlined exactly how I did it. In the comments section, you guys responded with a lot of good thoughts and, in some cases, some serious bugs and questions. I have done a little bit of research, some testing, and some drinking (just kidding. Kind of), and I have some answers and responses for you upstanding, early-adopting citizens.
Back in March, when we first heard about Sprint getting the Nexus S, we also heard about their fancy new Google Voice integration plan. The idea was simple: Let Sprint users do one of two things:
As a person, I'm generally less reliable than a software update schedule from Samsung. That's why I must rely on my phone to tell me to do things. My current weapon of choice for this responsibility-shifting device dependency is Taskos because it's simple and, if I'm going through the trouble of not remembering things for myself, I sure don't want to waste time while (not?) doing it. Yeah...
If you have ever tried to do tech support for someone on the go, needed to remotely see how exactly somebody did something on their computer, or found it necessary to view another person's screen from your smartphone for some other reason, you're already well aware of the frustration that arises from not having your computer handy. Fortunately for you, you've got an Android phone, and I've got the perfect tool for you.
There are two things I know about chess for sure: I like playing it and I hate playing against computers. Computers are cold, calculating, and just generally smarter than me. They don't make mistakes. They want to take over my planet with their cold, metal claw-hands and laser eyes. If something is going to make me feel stupid, it damn well better be a person. This is why I like Chess-presso. Chess-presso knows that they can delay the eventual mechanical uprising by allowing me to play the game of kings with other flawed, squishy humans.
In the world of Android and, specifically, Android power-users, there are a lot of things you can do and a myriad of tools you can do these things with. One of my favorite things in the world is getting several tools I use regularly consolidated into a single package. If you use your device with any kind of regularity, you know that there are several things you like to know, modify, kill, lock, or enable. Enter ZDbox, a Swiss-army knife of sorts for Android.
WebOS may catch a lot of flack because it never really took off but it does, in fact, have some really awesome features. One feature was the card view multitasking, which has already found its way onto Android. Another cool thing it did was that wacky swipe-up-from-the-bottom launcher gesture. Well, folks, guess what there's an app for now. It's called Wave Launcher - and it's great.
If there's one thing I hate, it's getting too much work done. Sometimes I just need to slow down and utilize my brain power to find patterns and combinations in a series of colored, hexagon shaped tiles - that's why I was so stoked when I found Hextacy. If you, too, suffer from cripplingly high efficiency, I think I can help. Follow me, and I'll show you how you can feel like you have free time, even at the office.
If you, like me, are constantly checking what's going on in the world of technology, science, world news, entertainment, gaming, music, and a million other things - on top of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, have I got an app for you. Picture, if you will, an Android app that will aggregate all of these news feeds and your social media streams into a cohesive and, quite frankly, sexy interface. You just imagined My Taptu, my new favorite news reader.
If you're anything like me, you text constantly. There are times, however, that I put my phone down and hop on the computer to do some more in-depth tasks or just enjoy some good, old-fashioned big-screen browsing. When I'm doing that, it's usually a pain to receive a text message, have to dig out my phone, open the messaging app, and use a tiny keyboard to reply, even though I'm sitting at a much larger, easier to use keyboard. Well, that's not a problem anymore - now I've got Texty.