mobile - 2/12 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Dec

[Editorial] Play Store Wishlist: How We'd Like To See Google Improve Its Content Storefront In 2013

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, Google

Hey guys, have you heard that 2012 is almost over? Yep! The new millennium is about to be a teenager. It's exciting. (No, the year 2000 is not included, you mathematically remedial cur.) The past twelve months have been fantastic and we'll be hearing more about that later, but one of the things we felt the need to talk a bit more in-depth about is the Play Store. You know the one.

The last year has been hugely transformative for the Play Store. Most notably, it's now called the Play Store! Play Store Play Store Play Store. Let it sink in real deep, because you're gonna be stuck with it for a while, much to David's dismay.

Dec

AIDE - Android Java IDE Goes On Sale For 75% Off, Develop For Android On Android For $2.49

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

We've talked about AIDE, the mobile developer toolkit that allows you to write Android apps (almost) entirely on your phone or tablet. In those past discussions, we've mentioned that you can probably get by with just the free version. The premium key offers a few nice extra features, though, like APK publishing, Git push/commit, and saving large project files.

Most of the features of the premium version are handy if you want to code entirely on your mobile devices which, admittedly, most of you probably won't want to do. Ideally, this app works as a companion to your typical IDE (like Eclipse), but while this sale is going on, it's a small price to pay for a little extra convenience.

Dec

Amazon's Tablet-Friendly Mobile App Not Just For Your Nexus 7 Anymore – Update Brings Increased Compatibility

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Amazon, Applications, News

Since its launch, we've had bittersweet feelings about the Amazon Mobile app for Tablets. The app shows promise as a tablet-friendly shopping solution, but until now has suffered an extremely limited compatibility, only working with tablets running 4.1 and up and carrying a 1280x800 resolution.

An update to the app today, however, has changed all that. Along with a few bug fixes, the update (to version 5.50.1010 for those keeping count at home) brings support for devices in 7" or 10" form factors, with a variety of resolutions, and loosened OS requirements. Here's the full change log:

What's in this version:

* Now available for Android tablets that are 7" to 10" with resolutions from 600x1024 to 1200x1920 with Android OS 4.0.3 and up.

Dec

Ong Bak Tri The Video Game Trailer Shows Off That Unity3D Engine With Some Flair

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

Ong Bak is a fine series of Thai martial arts movies that received plenty of critical and commercial success both in Thailand and around the world. Naturally, when a film about people kicking things and stuff getting punched makes it big, a game must be sure to follow. That game, Ong Bak Tri, is being built on the Unity3D engine for PC, consoles, and Android. The newly released gameplay trailer looks pretty fantastic for a mobile game.

Of course, the trailer seems to be showing gameplay that involves quick time events requiring a user to press a colored button that looks like they correspond to an Xbox 360 controller, so it's a little unclear if we can expect the graphics to look as nice on mobile as they do in this trailer.

Nov

[New App] Tablet-Friendly Amazon Mobile Hits The Play Store

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Android's tablet-optimized app selection being what it is, we're always excited to see a useful new app get revamped for bigger screens. It's true that a separate app package isn't technically necessary for transitioning to a great tablet layout, but Amazon has taken a step in the right direction, having just released Amazon Mobile for tablets to the Play Store.

If you've used the regular Amazon Mobile app, you know what you're getting with Amazon Mobile for tablets. Easy searching, reviews, purchasing, and account management – in tablet format.

The app certainly looks promising, and supports both landscape and portrait browsing, but right now it's only compatible with "Android OS 4.1 & up and 7” 1280x800 resolution screen," meaning the Nexus 7.

Oct

Google Docs Can Now Share Directly To Google+, Natively Embedding PDFs, Videos, And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

The integration of all the services you use from your favorite search provider just keeps on getting better. Today, Google announced that you can now share content from your Google Drive directly to Google+. It's not just a matter of a simple link, either (unless you're on mobile). A built-in viewer for PDFs, videos, slideshow presentations and more make the experience virtually seamless.

To share to Google+, you simply click the Share button like normal where you'll find the new option waiting, in addition to the usual Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter. Of course, none of the other methods have quite this level of integration and ease of use.

Oct

How To: Install Sony's New PlayStation Mobile For Android On Any Rooted Device

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Games, News, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: October 19th, 2012

Sony's PlayStation Mobile for Android just went live for certified devices last night. But what if you don't have a certified device, which so far includes only a number of Sony phones and tablets as well as the HTC One series? Heck, I have a One series device - the EVO LTE - but turns out it's not certified. That's just silly.

Not a problem - if you have root on your phone or tablet, getting the PSM (PlayStation Mobile) apk to work is a matter of pushing a few files it relies on to your /system directory and rebooting.

Oct

2Checkout Mobile Arrives In The Play Store, Allows Users To Track Sales, Issue Refunds From Their Phone

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

For the uninitiated, 2Checkout is a web-based storefront service that allows users to both create an online checkout system for their products as well as handle merchant services like credit card payments. If you've ever tried to set up your own shop, you know how difficult it can be to get all the moving parts together. Now, 2Checkout is making it even easier with the release of its mobile app that will allow sellers to track sales, issue refunds, and even contact customers.

If you're already a 2Checkout user, the company notes that your existing logins via the Back Office API won't work.

Aug

[New App] Autodesk ForceEffect Motion – Create Fully Articulated, Movable Mechanical Designs From Your Mobile Device

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Autodesk, the company behind AutoCAD and hugely impressive Android apps like Design Review, Buzzsaw, and Sketchbook, brought another awesome app to the table recently with ForceEffect Motion.

Improving on the original ForceEffect for Android, ForceEffect Motion offers the same quick, smooth freehand sketching, construction, and constraining capabilities but with the added ability to simulate motion, allowing users to create complete mechanical system designs on mobile devices, using tools like Autodesk 360 to then share and collaborate for a continued workflow that doesn't have to miss a beat.

Autodesk's ForceEffect Motion is also incredibly versatile. Users can create functional mechanical joints from welded to pinned, sliding, collar, and crossing, mechanical supports, utilize animation and functional drag, create working actuators (motors and linear), and save and load files from the Autodesk Cloud.

Aug

Google Rolls Out Aesthetic And Functional Improvements To Mobile And Tablet Search Quick Answers

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Google, News

In a post to its "Inside Search" blog, Google announced today that several improvements are currently being rolled out to mobile search (for phones and tablets), making some of the engine's quick answers "richer, more beautiful, and more interactive."

In the recent past, users have enjoyed improvements to weather and calculator searches, with handy interactive cards (reminiscent of Google Now's visual style).

Google is now updating a heaping handful of other quick answer features including finance, currency conversion, unit conversion, dictionary definitions, local time lookup, and holiday and sunrise times.

With the aesthetic and functional improvements, Google Search will keep its intuitive quality – for example, a user could search for "how many miles are 42 kilometers" and see an interactive quick answer card with the answer to your query displayed prominently above a host of interactive elements.