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Mar

Dropbox Drops New Beta v1.0.9.3 With Lock Code Support, More Languages, Honeycomb Improvements, And Other Fixes

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

If you use Dropbox on your Android device and either like to live on the edge or help the company test out the latest betas, you will want to check out this post on the Dropbox forums, announcing a new public beta v1.0.9.3 with some new translations, Honeycomb improvements, new Lock Code support for the security-conscious, and other fixes. Forum replies also indicated that some sort of a folder opening bug got fixed in the process, though I am not sure what exactly that bug was in the first place.

Check out the changelog, then proceed to the direct download link, and once you've tested everything out, head back to the Dropbox forums to post your feedback:

Release Notes

Internationalization (French, Spanish, German, Japanese)

Lock Code now protects your Dropbox from prying eyes.

Mar

In-App Purchasing Now Open For Private Developer Testing, Launching Publicly Next Week

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Apps/Games, Google, News

February 2nd was an exciting day for Android fans - we were given an in-depth preview of Honeycomb, laid our eyes on some stunning 3D tablet games, and were even treated to a much-anticipated online version of the Android Market. But 2/2/2011 was also the fateful day that spelled "doom" for lite / demo versions of Android apps, as Google unveiled their new in-app billing system.

Today, Google made another announcement regarding in-app purchases: the feature will launch publicly next week. In addition, developers can now upload apps utilizing the service to the Android Market Developer Console, though said applications won't be published until next week.

Mar

[Review] Texty Brings Texting To Your Computer Because You're Not Texting Enough Already

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

If you're anything like me, you text constantly. There are times, however, that I put my phone down and hop on the computer to do some more in-depth tasks or just enjoy some good, old-fashioned big-screen browsing. When I'm doing that, it's usually a pain to receive a text message, have to dig out my phone, open the messaging app, and use a tiny keyboard to reply, even though I'm sitting at a much larger, easier to use keyboard. Well, that's not a problem anymore - now I've got Texty.

Texty is an app that will forward your text messages directly from your phone to your desktop (specifically, Chrome) using cloud magic and allow you to reply from your computer through your phone's messaging app.

Jan

ShootMe Adds Video Screencast Support, Revamps Interface [Hands-On]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Out of all the apps that require root privileges, I probably use ShootMe the most. Before today's update, it was the best and easiest way to take a screenshot anywhere in Android without hooking it up to a computer - just turn the program on, go to the screen you want to take a snapshot of, shake the device, and ShootMe snaps the picture. After today's update, however, ShootMe is no longer just a screenshot app - it's also a screencasting app. That's right, you can now use ShootMe to record videos of whatever you're doing on your Android device, up to 10 frames per second.

Jan

Android 2.4 Is Real, Possibly An Incremental Gingerbread Upgrade

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, News

It's been a very confusing ride trying to figure out the official version number of Honeycomb, what exactly Honeycomb will be, and what devices will get it. Thanks to CES 2011, though, we're finally getting some answers.

At first, we all assumed that Honeycomb would be Android 3.0. Then we saw some evidence suggesting the existence of a Android 2.4. After that, we got the official, final word on the matter: it's 3.0.

Today at CES, a member of Tweakers.net got his hands on one of those new Sony Xperia Arcs that turned out to be running what looks like an early build of Android 2.4.

Nov

T-Mobile myTouch 4G Edges Out Win Over iPhone 4 In Wirefly's Browser Speed Test

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, myTouch 4G (Glacier), News, T-Mobile

Our good friends at Wirefly released a video a few days ago showing a browser speed test between the new T-Mobile myTouch 4G and Apple's iPhone 4. The results added another win for the Android crowd, as the myTouch 4G bested the iPhone 4 in both tests.

The win gets even sweeter, though: the second page loads faster on the MT4G, even with the embedded YouTube video (albeit, it doesn't actually load the video). Andrew (of Wirefly) reminds us that "... there's one big difference here - this [the MT4G] has YouTube on the page, and YouTube is, of course, Flash - whereas the iPhone 4 does not have Flash, so it can't render that part of the webpage."

[Source: Wirefly]

Sep

Battery Lives Of 8 Flagship Android Phones Tested And Compared - LCD Wins, AMOLED Loses, Droid X Takes Home The Crown

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Captivate, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid 2, Droid X (Shadow), Epic 4G, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Incredible, News, Streak, Vibrant

Here’s something to get your teeth into. Over at LaptopMag, a whole host of Androids have been put through their paces in a grueling battery life endurance test. The goal was to keep the phones’ screens on while doing a moderate amount of processing, namely cyclically browsing a collection of web pages. Despite the supposed power savings afforded by AMOLED screens, the phones employing that screen technology fell quite a ways behind in comparison to the traditional LCD phones.

Why is that? AMOLED is supposed to only use up power on non-black pixels, right? Well, as LaptopMag points out, the majority of webpages are actually dark text on a light background, a scenario in which AMOLED actually uses more power than an equivalent backlit LCD.

Sep

Angry Birds Beta For Android Is Here - Download It From The Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

Angry Birds, one of the top selling games for the iPhone, hit the Anroid Market this morning.

Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, promised an off-Market beta earlier this week, but got so much positive response that it decided a Lite Beta version in the Market was actually a much better idea. In fact, the Android launch is turning out to be so popular that Rovio's own servers are are too overloaded to handle all the traffic.

Gameplay

The premise behind the game is simple - you use a sling and launch angry, bickering, round birds at pigs cowardly sitting in their forts.

May

Review And Hands-On Results With HTC EVO 4G's 720P HD Video Camera - Paris In Videos

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Sprint, Videos

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Yesterday I posted my review and hands-on results with lots of photos made by HTC EVO 4G's 8MP camera, and today I was finally able to finish uploading the 720P HD videos from the same period of time during my visit to Paris (damn you, slow French WiFi!).

As before, I'll start with some details and thoughts and end with the videos themselves. Switch the Youtube player to the 720P mode if you want to see them at max quality.

Camera Details And Performance

I was very excited to finally own a device that can take HD videos, as the next best thing I owned was an old Canon SD450 which shot in questionable quality and relatively low resolution, so I jumped on the EVO's camcorder capabilities like fat Parisian kid on a bag of Parisian pastries (I suck at fat jokes).

May

Review And Hands-On Results With HTC EVO 4G's 8MP Camera - Paris In Photos

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in EVO 4G (Supersonic), HTC, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Sprint

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Over the last week, during my visit to Paris, I've been using both my regular camera and the EVO 4G I got at Google I/O for taking shots and videos of the beautiful French capital.

So what kind of pictures can you expect from the EVO, which has an 8MP camera and a dual LED flash? Just click on the images below to find out.

Camera Details And Performance

The performance of the camera during the day far exceeded my expectations - the pictures come out very sharp and crisp, for a mobile phone camera - it almost seems like there is an image stabilization packed somewhere in there.