planetandroid - 14/16 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Oct

[Review] ASUS Eee Pad Slider: Heap Another Honeycomb Tablet Onto The Pile, Albeit One With A Trick Keyboard

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in ASUS, Eee Pad Slider, Reviews, Tablet Reviews, Tablets

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

When we first saw ASUS' Eee Pad Slider at CES, we very nearly dismissed it at once. It was thick, tablets with physical keyboards showed no sign of gaining popularity, and Honeycomb had yet to come out of the woodwork. Besides, ASUS' own cheaper, slimmer Transformer had already caught our hearts. Our confidence was not raised by the long period of silence that followed - in fact, the only Slider-related posts we've written since January are an unofficial hands-on by a Romanian blog and the announcement of the slate's pricing.

Nevertheless, the Slider is, at least on paper, easily in the top tier of Honeycomb tablets - in addition to its slide-out QWERTY keyboard, it has one of those legendary IPS displays, coupled with a full-size USB 2.0 port and a comparatively low price tag of $475.

Sep

60 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 3 Weeks (9/5/11 - 9/27/11) - PART 2

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 3 weeks or so (as opposed to the usual 2 - sorry, my work schedule has been kicking my ass in the last 2 weeks).

This is PART 2 of the app roundup. You can find PART 1 here. The game roundup from this week can be found here and the tablet app roundup here.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Sep

60 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 3 Weeks (9/5/11 - 9/27/11) - PART 1

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

This is PART 1 of the app roundup. You can find PART 2 here. The game roundup from this week can be found here and the tablet app roundup here.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Sep

31 Best New Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (9/5/11 - 9/24/11)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

This edition focuses only on new games. The app roundup is coming up soon, and you can find the tablet app roundup here.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Games

Pocket League Story by Kairosoft

Kairosoft's latest game, Pocket League, is an instant hit.

Sep

Deal Alert: Motorola DROID X2 Now Just $0.01 With An Additional $50 Gift Card At Amazon Wireless

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Deals, Droid X2, Motorola, Verizon Wireless

Let's not beat around the bush here: the DROID X2 is hardly the star of Motorola and Verizon's DROID production, what with its PenTile display and CDMA-only radio. But then again, it's not a complete train wreck; and besides, who doesn't love a free phone? Oops, did I say free? I meant you actually get $50 back in the form of a gift card due to a promotion Amazon is currently running. Not bad, huh?

As you can see, that's precisely (or at least almost precisely) what Amazon's mobile division, Amazon Wireless, is doing: it's now selling the DROID X2 for just one cent with a new two-year VZW contract.

Sep

Rumor: Motorola DROID HD/Spyder To Be Released As The DROID RAZR, Infused With A qHD Super AMOLED Display

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News, RAZR / RAZR MAXX

Last Updated: October 18th, 2011

Remember that sleek 4.5-inch Motorola looker we encountered last month? It's back, but no longer will it be known as the DROID HD or the DROID Spyder; according to the latest rumor (courtesy of This is my Next), the device is none other than the DROID RAZR. Yes, that's the name of the phone that in 2004 saved Motorola from bankruptcy (before it plunged into the profitless dregs of mobile society a second time, that is).

The name change is accompanied by a full list of specs, but first let's take a look at the handset itself and see what the hype is all about:

And now for the spec sheet - in a word, it's drool-worthy:

4.3-inch 960x540 Super AMOLED display (no PenTile!!!

Sep

Motorola XOOM 2 Pictures Leak Out: Angled Corners, "HD" Camera, And... The Same Weight As The Original XOOM?

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XYBOARD / XOOM 2

The Motorola XOOM was a truly unique device: it marked the beginning of the Android tablet era, stole a portion (admittedly a very small one) of the iPad 2's pre-announcement hype, and... weighed about as much as a tank driven by Chris Christie.

Well now its successor, the XOOM 2, has begun to hit the rumor mill - just a few minutes ago, Droid Life leaked two pictures of the slate:

We don't have a ton of information on the device as of yet, but DL's "sources" say that its weight is similar to that of the XOOM (!), and it has "big physical flush" buttons on its back, HDMI and microUSB ports on its bottom, and a SIM card slot.

Sep

MadFinger Games Puts Out Mind-Blowing Trailer For The Soon-To-Be-Released Shadowgun

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Games, News, Videos

Unity3D has paved the road for some seriously stunning mobile games, and as smartphones and tablets continue to become more powerful, 3D shooters and other graphics-intensive apps will finally begin to reach their full potential.

A perfect example of this is MadFinger's latest project: Shadowgun, which we last saw in May. The OTS (over-the-shoulder) shooter puts you in the shoes of John Slade, an assassin hired to surreptitiously sneak into Dr. Edgar Simon's heavily guarded mansion.

Of course, the game's graphics are the real center of the hubbub - they're just that ~~good~~ breathtaking:

The game will be launching in just 5 days (9/28)...

Sep

12 Best Android 3.0+ Apps For Honeycomb Tablets From The Last 2 Weeks (9/3/11 - 9/21/11)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News, Tablets

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.

This edition focuses only on new tablet apps or ones that added Honeycomb support. Regular apps and games are coming soon.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

For Tablets

Antipaper Notes HD

Can't ever have enough note-taking apps on tablets, right? I love the UI on this one - it's absolutely gorgeous.

Sep

[Editorial] Let Android Be Android: One Year Later

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Editorials

Introduction

It's now been exactly a year (minus one day) since I published my very first editorial for Android Police, Let Android Be Android. A lot has changed since - dual-core CPUs are now table stakes for a high-end smartphone; Android has evolved from an exclusively mobile OS to a software powerhouse for phones and tablets alike; and we've been given several seminars on stretching the truth about the speed of a wireless network (yep, that would be the "4G" drama).

Sadly, one thing has remained almost entirely stagnant: the diminutive amount of vanilla Android devices on the market. In fact, it would be more than accurate to say that the skin situation has been exacerbated since my article on it last year.