News - 2/20 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Feb

[New App] Newscover Is An Intelligent And Beautiful News Aggregator With A Quirky Ad Campaign

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

News aggregators. We all use (or have used) them, and there is no shortage of selections in the Play Store. Some are designed to be pretty. Some are fully customizable. Some do the customization for you. Then there's newscover, an app that essentially wants to do all of the above.

In short, newscover is a very nice looking, newspaper-esque aggregator that uses what you read to personalize your feed. The developer claims it starts "getting to know you" only five seconds after the app is opened. Not sure how that works, because I usually spend 20 minutes just playing around with settings, flipping through pages, and getting familiar with any app I install.

Feb

New York Times App Updated With A Night Mode And Customizable Widget

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Last Updated: February 22nd, 2013

The New York Times, old guard or not, is still a huge source of news to a lot of people and to the company's credit, it's paying a decent amount of attention to its mobile apps. Now the publication is issuing an update that brings a night mode that inverts the colors for easier night reading. As someone who likes to minimize the amount of bright white light blasting into my eyes, I appreciate the option.

Additionally, the company is adding a customizable widget that, frankly, gets nearly everything right: it's resizable, you can customize which categories show up in the feed, and there is an easy button to change the widget settings if you should so choose.

Feb

NARR8 Motion Comic Reader Comes To Android, Offers A Unique Take On Indie Art

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

I like comics. They're wonderful. While the modern world makes it difficult for local shops to maintain the footprint they once did, online distribution has made it insanely easy (and cheap!) for major and minor artists to gain a following and make money doing it. However, is digitally reproducing static artwork on a powerful, portable computer really the best we can do? Narr8 doesn't think so.

The app functions similarly to most digital comic stores now: you can download individual "episodes" and keep track of all entries in a series. However, the capabilities of each story go far beyond regular graphic novels.

Feb

[App Roundup] Our Top Six Favorite New Apps To Check Out From January 2013

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Roundups

Last Updated: May 13th, 2013

January, like most months, had plenty in the way of new apps and games. We've already published our list of the top five games from last month, so it only seems right that we follow up with the month's best apps.

From backup utilities to social/RPG/motivational fitness apps, January 2013 had something for everyone. In the interest of saving our readers time, energy, and perhaps some money, we've rounded up the six very best apps every Android user should know about from the past month.

Feb

Yet Another Study Shows The Galaxy Brand Is Becoming Synonymous With Android

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

One of the biggest problems Google faces with Android is avoiding a situation where one manufacturer controls so much of the market that everything else falls by the wayside. As study after study shows, though, this is becoming an increasing risk as Samsung gobbles up more customers. To wit, this survey from Localytics—a company that provides analytics for mobile apps— showed that of the top ten Android devices its customers used, eight were made by Samsung, and seven had the Galaxy brand attached.

The trend is staggering, but not surprising. After all, between Samsung and Apple, the two companies account for somewhere between most and more than all the smartphone profits.

Jan

Carrier-Unlocking Smartphones Will Be Illegal In The U.S. Tomorrow: Here's How (And If) It Affects You

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Features, News

At this point, you've probably heard that starting tomorrow, it will become illegal to unlock your smartphone to use it on another carrier. You certainly should have heard so since the decision was made three months ago. That being said, there are still quite a few questions that folks want to have answered. Chief among them, 'How does this affect me?' Well, I'm glad you asked, dear reader.

For a bit of context, first, let's take a look at exactly what has changed. This is not new, sweeping legislation. What happens is that every three years, the Librarian of Congress issues a set of exemptions to the DMCA.

Jan

NASCAR Mobile '13 Screeches Into The Play Store, Covered In Engine Grease And Logos

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Round and round and round she goes. Where she stops nob-holy mother of crap! That car just exploded! Okay, alright. Maybe I can understand a little bit of why folks like NASCAR. And in solidarity with my fellow southerners who adore the sport, allow me to share this with you: NASCAR Mobile '13.

The app gives you access to news, schedules, driver information and a ton more. It even looks nice, utilizing the sidebar navigation we're all getting used to, and a Holo-ish feel. There are a few quirks, though, as some features (like the Sprint Unlimited Vote) require the user to open a browser, and sliding between videos—as in the center image above under the "Latest" subheading—was very difficult when I tried it.

Jan

[New App] Umano Is An App That Has Real People Read The News To You

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Last Updated: January 20th, 2013

Sometimes using your eyes is just so darn tedious. It can be preferable at times like that to just get information directly through your ear-holes. Radio? Sure. Audiobooks? Alright. News? Surprisingly, yes. Umano is an app that lets you find news stories on the internet and hear them read to you by real people – not some robotic monstrosity that can't even pronounce names correctly.

The selection in Umano is fairly broad, but not that deep. There's finance, politics, science, and there's even some tech. You just won't be able to hear stories from your favorite blog unless it's a very popular site.

Jan

Larry Page On Apple's Thermonuclear War: 'How Well Is That Working?', Also Facebook Is 'Doing A Really Bad Job On Their Products'

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

It's hard to argue that Google hasn't been a significantly different company under Larry Page's leadership. If nothing else, it has certainly become more directly competitive. Mountain View has generally (though not always ) preferred to be passive in its approach to other companies, allowing the product to speak for itself (whether for good or ill), rather than outright antagonize others. Apparently all that reservation was just saving up for when Page would take the helm and let the zingers fly. In a Wired interview, the CEO had this to say on the subject of Apple:

Wired: Steve Jobs felt competitive enough to claim that he was willing to “go to thermonuclear war” on Android.

Jan

Canonical Announces Ubuntu For Smartphones, A New Version Of Its OS Just For Your Pocket 'Superphone'

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

While Ubuntu (and Linux as a whole) may not be hugely popular among the consumer desktop computing crowd, it'd be folly to discount the OS as a whole. Especially among the Android developer crowd. Well, if you happen to be among the tech-literate faithful who use open source desktop operating systems to write code for your open source phone operating systems, Canonical would like to make your life a little weirder: introducing Ubuntu for smartphones!

Not to be confused with Ubuntu for Android, which allowed a docked Android phone to run a more-or-less full version of Ubuntu a la Webtop, this new product is a full-blown smartphone OS, distinct from Android entirely and meant to run all on its own.