09
May
1

[Update: Now In The Play Store] Hands-On: Focus@Will Launches Android App, But It's Pretty Much Just The Website On A Smaller Screen

Posted by in Applications, News

I may have just heard about focus- and relaxation-inducing music site Focus@Will, but that hasn't stopped me from already falling in love with it. For much of my stare-at-a-screen-all-day career, I've actually wanted a service like this, and even have a few stations on Pandora and Spotify that almost mimic the service. Now that I've found F@W, though, those stations are essentially defunct.

What is Focus@Will?

That's probably the biggest question on your mind right now. Here's a good definition, directly from the company's FAQ:

Focus@will is a new neuroscience based web tool that uses phase sequenced instrumental music to increase your attention span up to 400% when working, studying, writing and reading.

14
Jul
image

[Hands-On] Facebook For Android Updated To v1.6.1, Say Hello To Comment Likes, Liked And Admined Pages, Commenting As Page Admin, And More

Posted by in Applications, News

The Facebook application for Android received a nice little update today, making the earlier 1.6 update feel a bit more complete. In addition to streamlining the new, prettier newsfeed UI (screenshot #1), v1.6.1 brings these to the table:

  • Comment likes, as promised by the 1.6 beta but never delivered until now (screenshot #2).
  • Proper page support, with 2 listings - pages you've created and pages you like (screenshot #3).
    I'll give you a minute to find how to get there. Alright, 5 minutes. Still can't find it? In the most confusing move imaginable, the new Pages section can be found under Friends > Pages tab.

28
Apr

Shazam Temporarily Cuts The Crap, Lets You Tag Without Limit Until Next Year

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games

 

Shazam, the music tagging service that listens to a song and tells you what it is, has announced today that the free version of their app will support unlimited tagging until January 1st, 2012. While this is pretty cool if you're a Shazam user who doesn't want to pay $5 for Shazam Encore (or didn't grab it what it was Amazon's app of the day), it's still pretty laughable for people who have been using Soundhound the whole time. While I can appreciate what Shazam is doing here with the help eBay, who is sponsoring this unlimited tag-fest, I can't help but feel that Shazam should've done this on its own a long time ago.

24
Dec
IMAG0005_wm

[Exclusive] HTC EVO Shift 4G Appears In Best Buy's System: $150 With Contract, $550 Without

Posted by in EVO Shift 4G (Speedy), Exclusives, HTC, Knight, News, Sprint
Last Updated: June 5th, 2012

If you've got your eye on Sprint and HTC's latest WiMax-capable baby, you're in luck - an anonymous source at Best Buy has just sent us the following shot of their system:

IMAG0005_wm

It appears the EVO Shift 4G, or SKU 1768561, will retail for just $149.99 on contract. As an unexpected (but very welcome) surprise, shoppers looking to upgrade to the phone from an older device will be charged the same $149.99 as new customers, provided they also sign up for a new two-year contract.

Those of you who prefer to buy your devices off-contract will be coughing up $549.99, while those who would rather go with a one-year agreement will be handing over $299.99.

04
Nov
image

Auto Formatting Android XML Files With Eclipse

Posted by in Development, Tips & Tutorials
Last Updated: April 16th, 2010

This post and all its comments were migrated from Artem's personal blog beerpla.net when Android Police launched. If you would like to visit the original post there, please click here.

In this article I will describe the problem I've had with Eclipse's handling of XML file formatting as well as the best way to fix it.

I use Eclipse to do my Android development for a few reasons:

  • it's the only IDE fully supported by the Android dev team
  • it has a visual Layout/Resources builder that transforms XML files into corresponding visual representations
  • it's free and open source
  • I've been using Eclipse for many years and am very familiar with it

In order to use the visual features in Eclipse when developing for Android, you need to install the ADT plugin provided by Google

The Problem

However, one thing about Eclipse Android development has bothered me for a while - and that is XML formatting by the visual tools.