planetandroid - 15/16 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Video: DROID BIONIC Boots Into CyanogenMod 7 For The First Time

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Bionic, Development, Motorola, Verizon Wireless

The Android dev community has a well-deserved reputation for releasing new versions of ROMs at breakneck speeds, and they're not slowing down with the newest kid on the block, the Motorola DROID BIONIC. In fact, @cvpcs has already ported CyanogenMod 7 to the device, and though he isn't ready to release it just yet, he has put out a video to whet our appetites:

Of course, since this is the very first time the BIONIC has successfully booted into CM7, there are plenty of bugs, including:

No radio connectivity
No charging
Issues with battery reporting
No audio
No camera

Regardless, this is certainly a viable first chapter in the BIONIC's ROM development, and we look forward to the continuation of the saga.

Sep

Sprint To Shut Down Premier Program, Continue Cost-Cutting Measures

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in News, Sprint

The newest version of Sprint's weekly "playbook" has been sent around to employees, and as usual, we have a copy. Sadly, this week's edition doesn't exactly inspire confidence for the future of the nation's third-largest carrier - in fact, one of Sprint's primary benefits, the Premier program, will be disappearing down the drain shortly. It's not all bad news, though, so let's dig in and see what's up and coming in the world of Sprint.

The Death of Sprint Premier

In retrospect, we should have seen this one coming - Sprint has, after all, been gradually decreasing the benefits of its Premier program over the last year or so.

Sep

DROID Bionic Augmented Reality Scavenger Hunt Now In Session, Prizes Include Quadricopter, HDTV, Laptop, And Motorola XOOM

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Bionic, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

The @DroidLanding Twitter account has awoken once more, this time with news of an ongoing DROID Bionic scavenger hunt:

In previous VZW Twitter contests, the @DroidLanding account would tweet out the coordinates of a hidden smartphone and participants would hurriedly scramble to the location lest someone claim the prize before them. With this latest scavenger hunt, however, VZW has upped the nerd factor and brought an augmented reality-based Android game into the mix:

The app lets users 'build' four virtual Bionics before sending them off to a nearby location. Then the app becomes a compass of sorts, guiding users to said location and, once they are within 100 yards of one of the four Bionics, instructing them to virtually 'grab' it and thus enter the sweepstakes.

Sep

41 Best (And 1 WTF) New Android Apps, Widgets, And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (8/19/ - 9/4/11)

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 is the app roundup. 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.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here:

Apps

ScreenCast & Recorder FREE

Android Police review: [New App Review] Screen Cast & Screen Recorder Makes Capturing Smooth, High-FPS Video Of Your Rooted Device's Screen A Breeze

Finally, a screencast app that lets you record your device interactions in high FPS (unlike ShootMe which was only about 5fps).

Sep

34 Best New Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (8/17/11 - 9/4/11)

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

Sprinkle

Android Police review: [New Game Review] Sprinkle HD Looks To Drench Lesser Puzzle Games With Its Awesome Water Physics

This game is absolutely gorgeous, with great physics and the fluidity (literally) that I've never seen before in an Android game.

Sep

13 Android 3.0+ Apps For Honeycomb Tablets From The Last 2 Weeks (8/14/11 - 9/2/11)

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

Beautiful Notes for Honeycomb

Beautiful Notes is a tablet optimized note-taking and todolist-management productivity app targeted at Android 3.0 Honeycomb Tablets.

Sep

US Release Of Galaxy Tab 7.7 And Galaxy Note Not In The Pipelines, Says Samsung Rep

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Galaxy Note (GT-N7000), Galaxy Tab 7.7, News, Samsung

If the insanely high-res screens of the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab 7.7 have you drooling, you're certainly not alone. But if you live in the US, it's all too likely that you will never have the opportunity to see either of the devices in person.

At IFA 2011, the very same conference where the 7.7 and the Note were made official, a Samsung representative told GottaBeMobile that there are currently no plans to sell the gadgets in the US. For a moment or two there was a glimmer of hope - it wasn't clear whether the rep was referring to the seven-inch mini-tablet or the five-inch jumbo-phone - but after a brief bout of texting, it became obvious: neither of the devices are scheduled to cross the pond.

Aug

LiveSorter Eases The Process Of Sorting Apps - RIP, Manually Maintained Folders

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

With somewhere around 200 apps on my phone at any given time, it can be a pain to scroll through all of them to find what I'm looking for. Categorizing apps into handy folders can also be time-consuming. Fazik Logic takes the concept of sorting your apps one step further however with LiveSorter, a new app that automatically sorts installed applications into appropriate categories.

Adding to the list of LiveSorter's benefits, it has relatively no resource drain as it only wakes when a new app is installed and needs to be sorted. At the moment the app only recognizes apps from the Android Market.

Aug

Serval Mesh, A Network-Free Communication App, Finally Makes It To The Android Market

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Applications, News

It's now been more than seven months since we first caught wind of the Serval project, which promised to allow Android users to make phone calls when conventional cell networks aren't available or simply don't work. Recently, however, the team's initial stab at network-free communication - an Android app called "Serval Mesh" - has landed in the Market.

As briefly mentioned in the above video, the Serval team also has another form of network-less phone calls in the pipelines: an inexpensive, relatively small phone tower that can be dropped into disaster areas by air.

In the meantime, you can check out the app using the QR code and link below, or learn more about the future of the Serval Project by visiting their website.

Aug

[Rumor] Verizon's Samsung DROID Prime Will Be The First ICS Device, Will Put Galaxy S II To Shame

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Galaxy Nexus, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Rumors, Samsung, Verizon Wireless

Nope, Verizon still hasn't changed its mind about skipping the Galaxy S II, but if BGR's latest exclusive proves to be true, Android fans on Big Red needn't be disappointed. Indeed, the carrier is said to be launching the Samsung DROID Prime - likely a rebranded version of the long-rumored Nexus Prime - as early as this October.

The DROID Prime's primary claim to fame will, of course, be its operating system: BGR says it'll be the first Ice Cream Sandwich device on the market. The blog didn't list any specs, but if the DROID Prime (or, if you prefer model numbers, SCH-i515) and the Nexus Prime are in fact one and the same, you can expect a 4.5-inch HD AMOLED display coupled with a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU.