17
Dec
unnamed (5)

Amazon's Tablet-Friendly Mobile App Not Just For Your Nexus 7 Anymore – Update Brings Increased Compatibility

Posted by in Amazon, Applications, News

Since its launch, we've had bittersweet feelings about the Amazon Mobile app for Tablets. The app shows promise as a tablet-friendly shopping solution, but until now has suffered an extremely limited compatibility, only working with tablets running 4.1 and up and carrying a 1280x800 resolution.

An update to the app today, however, has changed all that. Along with a few bug fixes, the update (to version 5.50.1010 for those keeping count at home) brings support for devices in 7" or 10" form factors, with a variety of resolutions, and loosened OS requirements. Here's the full change log:

What's in this version:

* Now available for Android tablets that are 7" to 10" with resolutions from 600x1024 to 1200x1920 with Android OS 4.0.3 and up.

27
Sep
unnamed

Titanium Backup Updated To Version 5.6.0, Adding Ability To Restore From ADB Backup Files, Other Improvements

Posted by in Applications, News

Those of us with rooted devices and a penchant for flashing ROMs know just how valuable a great backup tool can be. Titanium backup is undoubtedly one of the most popular (and most useful) backup tools around, and it just got an update to version 5.6.0.

The update, which had been floating around as a "test version" prior to official release, brings a few UI enhancements and fixes, an updated set of translations, and improved "Market Doctor" and "Force Attach" functions to repair broken links between apps and the Play Store.

The real story here, though, is Titanium Backup's new ability to allow for the restoration of ADB backup files (which can be created without root) from TB when rooted.

07
Jul
espnradio

ESPN Replaces Its Old, Crappy ESPN Radio App With Brand New, ICS-Ready Hotness

Posted by in Applications, News

ESPN hasn't exactly been the poster child for great app design in the past. While the company has made several Android apps, many of them have looked rather atrocious and a bit too iOS-y. ESPN, however, has re-launched its ESPN Radio app. The old app appears to have been made by independent company Airkast, while the new app has been brought in-house. And, apparently, ESPN's house does a fine job of making an app. Just take a look:

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The old ESPN Radio app

espnradio1 espnradio2 espnradio3

And the shiny new one

The new app adheres much more closely to Google's app guidelines and looks much better for it.

30
May
unnamed

Google Translate Updated To Version 2.4 With Holo UI And More Text To Speech Languages

Posted by in Applications, News

Google has just dropped a Google Translate update into the Play Store, bringing it into a new ICS-flavored age. The most obvious change is the switch over to a Holo interface complete with clean drop down menus, an action bar, and better speech recognition. For the weary world traveler, things also get easier with wider language support.

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The app performs sometimes imperfect text translation between 64 different languages. The app can also listen and transcribe spoken words in 17 languages to save you keystrokes. This version ups the number of dialects that can be spoken out loud by the phone to 40, including Esperanto (which people totally still speak someplace).

11
Nov
image

8pen Updated To v1.1 Bringing New Features And A Free Price Tag

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games, News

It seems that the creators of 8pen have been listening intently to user feedback on their radical new input method (see our original post for a video demonstration), because yesterday they released a rather nice update. One of the main issues of contention that Android users had with 8pen was that it was not free, and simply took too long to get used to to trial fairly within the Android Market's 24-hr refund period. It appears that 3qubits have either made enough money from 8pen already, or are planning to pursue a different revenue model, since this update removes the entry fee altogether.

09
Nov
image

Skype For Android Updated, Packing QVGA Support And Performance Enhancements

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Today is obviously the day for popular applications to add QVGA support. As Rovio did only hours ago, Skype have added support for the increasingly-common 320x240 resolution in their application. That's good news for owners of the HTC Wildfire, Motorola Charm, Huawei IDEOS and LG Optimus T/S, who were left out in the cold until now. Skype for Android has had some nice bug fixes and improvements added, too:

Improvements:

  • 320*240 and 240*400 screen resolutions are now supported.
  • Hardware back key is now supported.
  • Reduced power consumption in idle mode.
  • Signing out from Skype now exits Skype.
  • Improved login stability and behavior.

02
Oct
Federico Carnales

LauncherPro Updated To 0.8.0.0, Adds Swipe-up Dock Notifications For LP Plus Users

Posted by in Applications, News

If you're not using the launcher that came with your phone's version of Android, chances are you're either using ADW Launcher or Launcher Pro. Launcher Pro may not be open-source like ADW is, but it includes some enviable features. This is not the total re-write that dev Federico Carnales blogged about a few days ago, but it is still an upgrade worthy of a new decimal increase.

Besides bugfixes, this latest update brings another cool trick to the table, specifically swipe-up pop-ups in your launcher's dock which show details of relevant notifications. Currently there is support for missed calls and unread SMS, but more will appear in later versions.

17
Jun
droideye

Verizon Updates The Droid Site, Offer More Details On The Droid X

Posted by in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, Droid X (Shadow), Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless

We’ve been hearing a number of things about the upcoming Droid X in the past few weeks, and Verizon have now updated their Droid site, giving us a few more details about their latest and greatest device.

The page confirms three things that we already suspected of the device. Firstly, it has a 4.3” display, most likely with a resolution of 854 x 480. Originally, when you hovered over the phone, you were told that it has a “720p screen”. This has now been changed to say “Captures 720p”, undoubtedly dashing the hopes of many people who saw the original post.