Pretty simple one this week - hopefully, one that requires little description. Which keyboard do you use on your phone? Stock - and if so, stock Android (either via the Play store or preinstalled) or stock manufacturer? Third-party - like SwiftKey or Swype? Or do you have a phone with a hardware keyboard? Sound off in the poll below, then share via the comments.
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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 week or so.
This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here and the tablet app roundup here.
If you enjoy this roundup, feel free to upvote it on Reddit.
Today's roundup is sponsored by Tasks N Todos, a TODO manager from Handy Apps, the developer of such well received apps as Easy Money and Tip N Split Tip Calculator.
The extremely popular photo-sharing app Instagram, just days after hitting the Play Store, has received another update, this time bringing some pretty awesome changes.
Perhaps the most significant change the app's update to version 1.0.3 brings is compatibility for tablets and Wi-Fi handsets, meaning users can now share photos from all their Android devices with ease.
Besides the added compatibility, Instagram's latest update allows users to install the app to their SD card, thereby freeing up a little internal storage.
If you're one of the scads of new Android-using Instagram fans, or if you've been waiting to use the app on your Android-powered tablet, just hit the widget below and grab the update.
Okay, so you like baseball. Do you go see your favorite team on a regular basis? Or maybe you have season passes? If you're a stadium regular, then MLB.com's new app At the Park is one you need to check out.
At the Ballpark is a social check-in app specifically for baseball fans that hit the stands to see their favorite team on a regular basis. The app features interactive maps and directories for each ballpark, social media integration, team schedules, ticket info, and sales; access to food and drink ordering at select parks, as well as direction and parking information.
Though movie apps like Flixster and Moviefone (which allow users to locate any theaters near them) clearly have their utility, sometimes it's nice to have an app specific to a certain theater brand. Precisely for this purpose, Cinemark Theaters, one of the biggest names in the "motion picture exhibition industry," has released an official Android app.
The application will grant users GPS directions to any domestic Cinemark theater, in addition to:
Whether you are trying to score a great deal or just read the product descriptions, you've probably used Woot before. In fact, there's a good chance you've already used the service on your Android device, as there are several Woot apps available in the Play Store. But Woot Check, a brand new app from GT Media, the developers of SeekDroid, takes things to an impressive new level.
Side note: Technically, Woot Check was GT Media's first app, but it wasn't anything special at the time and what you see here today is a completely rewritten product that benefitted from all the experience of developing SeekDroid.
I don't know a single person who has Facebook and doesn't check it on their phone. I also don't know a single person who doesn't hate how ridiculously slow the official Facebook app is. Fortunately, Facebook has APIs that allow third-party applications to do everything that you would normally use the official app to do - and it many cases, they do it better. A good example of "doing it better" is Friendcaster fro Facebook, which just so happened to receive an pretty massive update to version 5 today.
Version 5 brings many new features to the app, but the most notable is the all-new interface (which looks absolutely fantastic).
Android, as a platform, has an advantage in that apps designed for phones scale to tablets dynamically, so many are functional without a proper tablet interface. The disadvantage? Some developers take their sweet time making said tablet interfaces. Twitter, for example, is still a giant, stretched-out version of the phone app. Enter Plume, an app that sticks much more closely to the ICS design style guide.
While adhering to the style guide may not always be enough to make an app great, Plume provides a highly-customizable UI that makes use of the best parts of Android's new design elements.
A new Google Play Store v3.5.16 started rolling out to some Android users in the last 24 hours. This version replaces 3.5.15, which brought a whole host of new features last time around, and reportedly brings fixes to those having trouble seeing purchased apps or experiencing force closes.
Additionally, improvements in snappiness were reported, but it could just end up being the placebo effect. I haven't found any other obvious changes thus far. Still, if you haven't received the update yet, there's no reason to delay it whatsoever - you'll find our download mirrors below.
Download (change the extension to .apk if your browser downloads it as something else for some reason, like a .zip or .bin) and install as you would do it with any other apk - it will replace the existing Market or Play Store with the latest version 3.5.16.
Facebook’s current Android app has become the subject of much hatred from the Android community – for one thing, it rarely works properly (if at all); for another, its looks have become quite stale. Sadly, we still haven’t seen any plans for future improvements, so Redditor monkfishbandana took it upon himself to come up with a mock-up of how he believes Facebook for Android should look, especially with a beautiful OS like Ice Cream Sandwich.
Update: The mocks were updated to v2 - you can view them here (via Reddit). The original mocks are preserved below.
Facebook developers, take note:
Though there are countless improvements over the real Facebook app, a few key features have been excluded for various reasons:
Still, it’s a pretty impressive first try, especially considering that monkfishbandana claims he’s only spent a few days on it.
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