Android OS - 58/165 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Mika Mobile's Decision To Stop Making Games For Android Raises Troubling Questions And Concerns About Developing For The Platform

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Development, Editorials, News

If you've never heard of Mika Mobile, that's not a huge surprise - they're a small, but fairly successful mobile game developer that focuses primarily on iOS. Their number one title (in terms of recent sales) is Zombieville USA 2, which has over 68,000 ratings on the App Store, and the most recent version of the game has averaged 5 stars. So we're clear, that's no small feat.

Their first game, Zombieville USA, was released for Android last July. I reviewed it and, frankly, wasn't a big fan (particularly because the first release seemed plagued with bugs). It's a relatively mundane time-killing side-scroller in which you button-mash zombies to death with a variety of weapons and characters.

Mar

Instagram For Android Nearly Ready – "It's Better Than Our iOS App," Says Co-Founder

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, News

After rumors, rumblings, and annoying fakes, it sounds like Instagram is just about ready to officially hit Android. In a talk with Tech Crunch, Instagram Co-Founder Kevin Systrom disclosed a few morsels of information regarding an upcoming Android launch, namely that it's coming soon.
Systrom briefly showcased the Android app on stage at SXSW, but indicated that the app isn't quite ready for a full demo. In a sensational turn of phrase, Systrom noted that "in some ways, it's better than our iOS app. It's crazy."

Android users lucky enough to be running Ice Cream Sandwich can already enjoy breezy photo sharing and "hipster filters," but many argue that those aren't the only benefits offered by Instagram.

Mar

Google Attempting To Seize GooglePlay.com With ICANN's Help, Will Probably Win, Here's Why

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Legal, News

Cybersquatting, one of the more profitable forms of trolling, is nothing new to anyone familiar with the interwebs. In fact, it's often a source of some pretty funny disputes.

That gets us to today's story: a lot of people have noticed Google doesn't actually own GooglePlay.com (link goes to WhoIs.Net - not the actual page). Now, Google wants that page, and they've filed an ICANN dispute to get it.

It has become such a problem that the United States passed its own legislation to address the issue. The preferred method for dealing with these disputes, though, has been an arbitration body known as ICANN, whose decisions are binding around the world (mostly because they essentially control the Domain Name System).

Mar

Chrome For Android Beta Updated To 0.16.4301.233, Works With Custom ROMs Once Again

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, News

Google announced today on its Chrome Releases blog that Chrome for Android Beta has been updated to version 0.16.4301.233 (that's Chrome 16.0.912.77 for anyone counting).

The update primarily brings bug fixes, specifically addressing "issues in the compatibility check which prevented Chrome from starting up on some versions of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich." In other words, whatever it is that broke compatibility with custom ROMs in Chrome's previous update seems to have been eliminated this time around.

While there's no official change log available for the update just yet, Google does list remaining known bugs:

112923 : No way to toggle between mobile/desktop UA

113140 : Youtube links do not prompt for which application to use

113132 : Chrome for Android beta doesn't support configured proxy in wi-fi settings

Other notable issues listed here

Google also urges users to report new issues by filing a bug report.

Mar

Editorial: Why Google Play Isn't A Bad Name, And How It Represents A New Age For Google As A Company

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials

I have heard an absolute heap of unpleasantness about the rebranding of the Android Market today. Google Play is childish. It's unprofessional. It makes Google look less than serious about its content business. The logo is weird. The name is ambiguous - play what? It reminds people of Sony products. There are endless gripes and, let's face it, there always will be when a company rebrands a popular product.

Tomorrow, countless analysts and "experts" will weigh in on whether the move was a good one, hawking over Google's stock price like a cardiograph readout. Some will say it was terrible - what was Google thinking abandoning the Android branding of their content hub?

Mar

Verizon Releases List Of Devices To Get Ice Cream Sandwich, Few Surprises Enclosed

Posted by David Ruddock in Bionic, Droid 4, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 7.7, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, RAZR / RAZR MAXX, Rezound, Rhyme, Spectrum, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless, XOOM, XYBOARD / XOOM 2

Verizon Wireless has just made public an official list of handsets on the network poised to receive Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OTA updates, most being devices for which such updates were a given at this point:

HTC:

HTC ThunderBolt™

DROID Incredible 2 by HTC

HTC Rhyme™

HTC Rezound™

Motorola:

Motorola XOOM

DROID BIONIC™

DROID RAZR™

DROID RAZR™ MAXX™

DROID 4

DROID XYBOARD 8.2

DROID XYBOARD 10.1

Samsung:

Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 10.1

Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 7.7

LG:

Spectrum™ by LG

No timeframe was provided, but this is probably the most authoritative ICS update list you'll see out there, if for only one reason: in the end, it's Verizon that decides whether or not a device on its network gets updated.

Mar

The Android Market Is Now Google Play - Integrating Apps, Games, Books, Music, And Movies

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

Goodbye, Android Market, hello, Google Play. Just moments ago, Google let loose the re-branded Android content hub. What's new? Actually, not all that much (yet).

The change in name is largely an exercise in product consolidation. Google Books, Google Music, Google Movies, and the Android Market are all now under the "Google Play" banner, in an attempt to bring all of Google's content services to one place.

Aside from the UI refresh, there's really nothing new going on so far as we can tell. Google plans to roll out an updated version of the Market (Play) to Android 2.2+ devices in the coming days, as well as to discontinue the Market branding.

Mar

Still Haven't Received The Android 4.0 Update On Your Transformer TF101? Here's How To Install It Manually

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Eee Pad Transformer, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Many TF101 owners have been [im]patiently waiting on Android 4.0 to hit their devices for at least a week now to no avail. Of course, knowing an update is floating around out there and having to wait for it is even more frustrating than actually waiting for the update to become available, so ASUS UK took to its Facebook page earlier today with a tip on how to get your hands on the update right now from the ASUS support pages for the TF101.

Seems pretty straightforward, right? The only caveat to be aware of is that there are a few different versions of the 4.0.3 update available for different regions, so make sure you download the correct one.

Mar

What Is Isis, And Why Should You Care It's Now Partnered With A Bunch Of Payment Companies? Because It's Out To Kill Google Wallet

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News

Mobile payment providers. Yeah, I'm already getting a little sleepy thinking about them, too. Let's face it, they're not the most exciting topic in the world, but whenever we talk about how people spend their money, you know there are lots of companies out there eagerly eying the potential of various new payment technologies with great interest. Among such companies are cell phone carriers, and the reason why should be obvious: smartphones with NFC are ideal platforms for next-generation payment systems.

We know Google has already figured this out. Wallet was launched back in September of 2011, though only on the Sprint Nexus S 4G, and only with MasterCard as a launch partner.

Mar

Yes, Key Lime Pie Is The Only Dessert That Starts With A "K," Jelly Bean Is Probable, And Version Numbers Are Anyone's Guess

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.1, Rumors

Holy cow. The Android version name rumor-mill has been cranking at full steam for the last couple of months, and everyone seems pretty well-convinced that Jelly Bean is the chosen title for Google's next iteration of the mobile operating system. Way back in September, The Verge suggested that a "reliable source" had told them Jelly Bean was the real McCoy. Let's talk about what we know about Google's naming strategy so far with Android, and why anything but Jelly Bean would make almost no sense.

First, what names have there been? Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and Ice Cream Sandwich.