library - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

Amazon's Kindle App Hits Version 4.0 With Reworked Interface

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Amazon, Apps/Games, News

Amazon's Kindle app has just received a significant update, bringing the reader up to version 4 and introducing a refreshed UI, among other things.

Just when I'd decided to try switching to Play Books (despite giving up things like quick two-finger brightness adjustment), Amazon has introduced a redesigned library that's much more lively than a simple grid of book covers. The new library interface has your books plus a nice "carousel" up top for recent items. The navigation panel has also been expanded for quick access to documents and Newsstand items, along with items that used to hide under the overflow button.

Feb

Plex Media Center Gets Completely Rewritten From The Ground Up And It's Gorgeous

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Apps/Games, News

Can we be honest with ourselves? Plex kinda sucks. Hard to blame it, most third-party media centers on Android do at the moment. As a lengthy blog post by the developer points out, part of that has been due to Android's inflexibility and lack of a coherent UI in its history. That's changed over the last couple years and now Plex has been rebuilt from the ground up to be a lot more beautiful and a lot more functional.

The new version has followed the Android Design Guidelines very closely and it shows. While most of us here at Android Police are of the opinion that Holo alone does not make a good UI, the addition is most welcome, given the way the old version looks.

Dec

ARCHOS Releases Its Custom Video Player App To The Play Store, Charges $5 For The Privilege

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

You know, if I'm honest, I feel a little sympathy for Archos. While they don't usually stand out as a manufacturer of the best tablets, they've gotten a decent reputation as being good for the low-end. Then the Nexus 7 came out and redefined what "budget tablet" means. Still, the company has to make money somehow, and putting its custom video player on the Play Store is as good a way as any, right?

The player is decent enough as a video player. Cover art and meta data is aggregated to create a pretty nifty-looking library with slick animations.

Dec

Google Finally Brings Scan And Match To Play Music, Doesn't Require Uploading Your Whole Friggin' Library Anymore

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

While Google's been working feverishly to build out its Play Store, bringing it to other countries and expanding its offerings, the company's music store has been lacking one crucial feature that its competitors have: library matching. Where Amazon and iTunes can scan your current collection and add the songs to your online storage, Google has, until recently, required users to upload every individual track manually. A long and tedious process. In mid-November, the scan and match feature came out for Europe, and today it arrives for US residents.

Where Google differs from Amazon and iTunes, however, is that this scanning and matching service will be entirely free.

Jul

Pre-Built XBMC Apk Is Available, Here's What It Looks Like Running On A Nexus Q

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Earlier this week, we mentioned that the amazing folks behind the XBMC project are bringing the app to Android. Well, it's still very early, but would you like to see what it's gonna be like? Of course you do. If you've got a Nexus Q or an Android-compatible set top box, you can download the apk from our mirrors below. For the rest of you, here's what it looks like running on a lovingly hacked Nexus Q, courtesy of Cyanogenmod developer Jason Parker:

The interface is still very much centered around arrow keys/a d-pad. Touch input does work, but text is very small on a phone and not much better on a tablet.

Jun

Google Currents Updated To Version 1.5.1, Now Features Improved UI, Enhanced Performance, And More

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, News

Google Currents has always been a pretty impressive app - arguably the best Android news aggregator around town. Especially praised has been its beautiful UI; however, that didn't stop Google from looking at what it had and making it even better.

Indeed, the app just hit version 1.5.1, and the UI has been updated to "Android standards." Notably, the top navigation bar now features "auto hide" and "touch-to-show" controls, and it includes the library/trending toggle that was previously located elsewhere. Additionally, Google has enhanced the app's performance and made the usual bug fixes.

If you have already have Currents, you can download the update from the Play Store now; if for some reason you don't have it installed yet, all the info you need is below.

Jun

'StandOut' Is An Open Source Library That App Developers Can Use To Build Floating Apps

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Between AirCalc, AirTerm, OverSkreen, and LilyPad HD one this is certain: we love floating apps. And by "we," I mean basically every Android user in existence who multitasks with their device. These apps are insanely useful, especially on large-screened devices like tablets.

What we need, though, is more of them. Now, thanks to a new open source library called StandOut, it's going to be easier than ever for developers to create floating apps.

As you can see, this basically lays the framework down for app developers to build their own windowed apps. Best of all, StandOut is completely free and open source, so, with enough support, will likely get better as time goes on.

Mar

[Impressive Demo] Librarian's Dream App - Augmented Reality Meets Book Shelves

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

While augmented reality apps can be pretty flashy and cool to look at, there are only a few I would actually call useful and practical in real life situations. Sure, I can pan my Yelp or Layar apps around to see nearby food locations, kill virtual ghosts, or run away from non-existent zombies, but those are not nearly as meaningful as what a Miami University professor Bo Brinkman has up his sleeve.

The Augmented Reality App for Shelf Reading, developed by Miami University Augmented Reality Research Group (or just MU ARRG - ha!) and headed by Bo, will have librarians salivating over its potentially time-saving capabilities.

Dec

App Of The Week: Grooveshark For Android (Insert Tooth-Related Or Aquatic Pun Here)

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Well, here we are again. Another week, another slew of apps to choose from. For a while there, we were doing an "App of the Week" series and then, for an even longer while, we weren't. I'd like for us to get back on the right path here, so I'm going to fix this.

App of the Week, Season 2: Eclectic Boogaloo

I've been a long time fan of Grooveshark. It is a service that, in my mind, cannot be beaten. There are tons of music streaming apps in the vein of Pandora, like Last.fm, and Slacker Radio, but they don't let you chose your songs or make a playlist.

Sep

Now We're Talking - Google's Latest Follow-up To The License Verification Fiasco Showcases 4 Methods To Make Pirates' Jobs Much Harder

Posted by Justin Case in Apps/Games, Development, News

Update: Tim Bray responded in our comments letting us know Trevor Johns, a hands-on guy in the Android back-rooms, was the author of the post.

After we blew the faults behind Google's License Verification Library out of the water last week, Google's Tim Bray promised us some tips for protecting our applications against piracy, and in the latest post at Google's official Android blog he delivered them. Tim's article is loaded with easy to follow sample code, and advice that just makes sense. Mr. Bray covers several protection methods including:

obfuscation,
customizing the Licensing Library,
making your application tamper resistant (with a code sample that is nearly identical to what I published a week ago),
and using a secondary server for added protection.