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May

Popular iOS App WeekCalendar Brings Easy Calendar Management To Android

Posted by Bertel King, Jr. in Applications, News

Last Updated: May 23rd, 2013

Week Calendar may be another iOS hand-me-down, but it's a good one - an intuitive interface and comprehensive feature set have made it one of most popular calendar apps to hit Apple's App Store. Android has no shortage of calendar options available, but few are this simple to use.

People who despise the amount of effort necessary to stay organized should take notice. Week Calendar doesn't weigh anyone down with a complicated setup process. It simply imports from Exchange, Google, Outlook, Facebook, or other calendars that are already configured on your device. Managing the app is even more straightforward. Events can be rescheduled using simple drag-and-drop, and appointments can be duplicated by just copying and pasting.

May

Multiple Reports Now Indicate Babel Will Be Called Google Hangouts, May Be Unveiled At I/O

Posted by Kyle Wiggers in News, Rumors

Readers, Babel no more. As first reported by a historically credible member of The Verge forums and confirmed today by a Tech Radar source, Google's unified messaging platform will be known as Hangouts when it's officially unveiled, and may launch as soon as Google I/O. Tech Radar's contact provided a screenshot that further lends credence to the new name: nestled among the emoticons and toolbar of the alleged interface, an expanded drop down menu includes particularly conspicuous options referencing "Hangouts," which is the closest thing to a dead giveaway that I can think of.

Google's efforts to consolidate its Talk, Google+ Hangout, and photo sharing services into a cohesive product have been rumored for the past several months.

Apr

[Editorial] Stop Making Crap Up And Then Whining About It

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Android OS, Editorials

Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we? The year was 2012, the Galaxy S III and the HTC One X were still new, and some jerk on the internet suggested that maybe it's cool if people started appreciating their amazing phones instead of complaining about how their device wasn't revolutionary.

In the time since then, certain segments of the tech community have opted to go in the other direction. Rather than accept that smartphones are incredible and that the wow-factor comes from using them instead of hyped up tech events, some people believe that the next revolution is just right around the corner.

Apr

AppAnnie: Play Store Downloads Reach Nearly 90% Of App Store Levels, iOS Still Bringing In 2.6x Revenue

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Android OS, Google, News

Last Updated: April 19th, 2013

Back in January, we learned that if you want to be a developer and avoid leaving money on the table, you need to be on both Android and iOS. One or the other isn't going to cut it. However, according to AppAnnie, if you have to choose just one platform, Android is still struggling to prove it's the one you should go with.

According to the report, Play Store downloads are nearing App Store levels, reaching close to 90% as much as the iOS store. Unfortunately, equal exposure isn't quite translating to equal revenue. As it turns out, Apple's platform is still bringing in about 2.6 times as much revenue as Google's counterpart.

Apr

[Editorial] Facebook (Shockingly!) Didn't Fork Android, Because Forking Android Rarely Makes Sense

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, Google

Today, Facebook announced the Facebook Home suite that we've been hearing so much about. Well, to be more accurate, we've been hearing that Facebook is going to build its own phone and fork Android and create its own special social OS and that it would be the end of Google and that civilization will crash around us and we'll all wear monkey pelts and "Like" statuses by hurling spears through our enemies. Or something. Well, as it turns out, the world didn't end, Android is still whole, and Zuckerberg even thinks the idea of forking an entire OS to make an app is silly.

Apr

comScore Releases February 2013 U.S. Numbers: Android Drops 2%, Apple And Samsung Gain OEM Share

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

comScore just dropped some new U.S. market share numbers on us and if you like drama, you're going to love this one. According to the analytics company, for the three month period ending in February 2013, Android's share actually dropped 2%, while Apple's rose 3.9%. Before you panic, though, no, this isn't the end of the world.

Since comScore actually gives us the total number of smartphone subscribers in the country (by its count), we can use that percentage to get an idea of just how many total users a platform gained or lost. There were 133.7m total smartphone users in February, versus 123.3m in November.

Apr

Espier Screen Locker Gives Repressed iOS Fans The Gateway Lockscreen They've Been Looking For On Android

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

It's time for us to come clean. We've been collectively living a lie, Android fans. Hiding our deepest desires and hoping they go away. Praying that maybe, Duarte willing, that we'll get something that's close enough that we'll be satisfied. But no more! Today, we shed the façade and embrace the truth: all we really want is a clean, simple UI that's not cluttered by drawers, widgets, or icons in shapes other than rounded squares. Oh yes, and slide-to-unlock. Glorious slide-to-unlock. Well, now we can have it with the Screen Locker plugin for Espier Launcher.

The plugin is an addition to the Espier Launcher that gives you the look and feel of the OS you've always dreamed of.

Feb

Hideman Is A Stellar Multiplatform VPN App That Lets You Route Traffic Through One Of 22 Countries [Deep-Dive Look]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

For the past few weeks, I've been testing Hideman - a VPN solution with a feature set I've been seeking for a very long time. I've been using both Android and Windows apps to test the service, and let me tell you - it is everything I was hoping it would be and then some.

Hideman is available for the following operating systems:

Android
Windows
MacOS
Linux (via OpenVPN - you can find configs once you log in)
iOS.

But let's start from the beginning.

Feb

Stock Android Isn't Perfect: Jelly Bean 4.2 Edition

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Features, Jelly Bean 4.2, Stock Android Isn't Perfect

Last Updated: February 7th, 2013

A few months ago I wrote "Stock Android Isn't Perfect," an article where I turned my usual harsh UX critique on stock Android, instead of just picking on TouchWiz and Sense all the time in my reviews. The article went over pretty well, and even got a few responses from Googlers! I didn't cover everything that was wrong with Android, though, and there have been a bunch of updates since the original article, so it's about time I wrote a sequel.

So we're officially making this a series now, and it'll serve two purposes: One, there's a new version of Android out, and more things to complain about; and two, to give credit where it's due, because, since I wrote that article, a lot of things have been fixed.

Jan

Developer Economics 2013 Report: Devs Want A Third Platform, Tablets Nearly As Important As Phones

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

The Developer Economics 2013 report—a sort of State of the Union on app development—is out and it's packed with helpful tidbits, both for armchair analysts and programmers trying to make some sense out of this crazy software world. One of the most interesting observations the survey showed is there is still demand for a third platform. And right now they're getting it in a surprising place: on Blackberries.

Above is the graph of OSes that developers list as their "main" platform. That is not to say that any of them code exclusively for them, just that it is the primary target for attention.