16
Jan
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It has been a few months since we last took a look in the Android Market for a new set of must-have root apps, and a lot of worthy entries have since entered the arena.

They battled it out in fight to the death, and the eight victors now stand before you, offering their unparalleled services at your disposal.

Okay, so maybe it didn't play out quite so dramatically, but the point remains the same: we have eight new apps that every rooted user should know about. Let's get to it, shall we?

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics.

16
Jan
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Much to the delight of TV junkies everywhere, the official NBC app just landed in the Android Market. The app lets you keep up with all the happenings of your favorite shows, check out video highlights, play games, search content across the entire NBC network, and customize the feed to display only the information you want to see. Unfortunately, you can't watch full episodes from within the app (yet), but that feature is "coming soon."

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Sounds great, right? No so fast - there is one (slightly major) downer - the app looks like a direct port of the iOS version, so there's not a bit of Android UI in sight.

15
Jan
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For some gamers, a savegame file can be an indispensable resource, allowing the user to skip past a frustrating boss battle or jump over a brain-busting puzzle.

Bringing that concept to your Android device, Made in Brooklyn has introduced Game On, an app that allows users to share progress in popular games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, and over 60 others.

The first thing to know about Game On is that it's still in its beta stage, meaning some users may experience instability or other issues. The second thing to know is that root access and busybox are required for Game On to function, so stock users are left out for now (MiB says a non-root version is in the works for the first half of 2012).

11
Jan
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If you haven't notice, the Google Search app for Android received an update a little bit ago. This update is for users running Android 2.2 or 2.3 and brings some UI and performance enhancements. Once updated, this is what you'll see:

  • New color scheme and simplified UI
  • Faster, more responsive searches
  • Enhanced suggestions and query editing
  • Better localized suggestions and search results for more countries
  • Long press to remove history items

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You can also tap that little arrow to the right of a search suggestion to add it to your search term before searching, making the whole process a little faster.

10
Jan
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Shortly after Thanksgiving last year, Google updated its Maps application, bumping its version number up to 6.0 and adding, most notably, indoor mapping. At the time it was presumed that the feature would be most useful for navigating places like major malls, airports, and similar metropolitan areas; however, Google just added a new way to use indoor mapping: finding your way around the most important tech show of the year – CES!

Update: Google's official announcement just went live - in addition to LVCC, they've also added maps of the McCarran airport, Caesars Palace, Bellagio, The Venetian, The Palazzo, MGM Grand, and many more hotels/casinos, along with some Best Buys in the Las Vegas area.

10
Jan
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Update: For anyone who can't install this because of geographical limitations, here is the apk for manual installation -- make sure to drop your results in the comments. Enjoy! Thanks, Nick!

Earlier today, popular voice recognition software corporation Nuance launched Dragon Go! by Nuance on the Android Market, bringing voice recognition that "just works" to the Android platform. Dragon Go! answers the users' queries by pulling data from a variety of sources, including Spotify, Wolfram|Alpha, Yelp, YouTube, AccuWeather, Ask.com, Dictionary.com, ESPN, Facebook, Fandango, Last.fm, LiveNation, Milo.com, OpenTable, Pandora, Rotten Tomatoes, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Bing, and hundreds of others. Additionally, Dragon Go's "Dragon Carousel" software provides users with complementary results to compare information across the most relevant sites for their query.

09
Jan
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Popular video sharing service Vimeo has finally launched its official Android app today. The new app has included all the important features found in the web version, including the ability to browse, watch, download, and upload videos onto Vimeo.

Upon starting the app, the user is shown a 3x3 grid of options for creating, uploading, watching, and sharing videos. While not a requirement, creating a Vimeo account and logging into the service also allows the user to comment on, "like", and subscribe to videos, as well as save them to the "Watch Later" list.

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Some of the other features of the app include:

  • Upload raw footage or previously edited creations in HD or SD
  • Pause/resume uploads and get reminded when a video is paused
  • Replace existing videos
  • Edit titles, descriptions, tags, privacy settings, and credits
  • Share videos via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress, Email, and SMS
  • Watch and manage all Vimeo videos and download them to camera roll
  • Watch videos from your Vimeo Inbox, Watch Later queue, and videos you like"
  • Easily like videos, comment on videos, and add videos to your Watch Later queue
  • Discover new and interesting videos curated by Vimeo Staff
  • Add videos to Groups, Channels, and Albums
  • Access stats on daily plays, likes, and comments

Although the app has received some favourable reviews, the overwhelming majority are 1-star.

09
Jan
Garmin Smartphone Link

Garmin International, the world leader in satellite navigation, has announced Smartphone Link for Android, an app which allows your Android-powered device to communicate seamlessly with your nüvi via Bluetooth, enabling live traffic information, traffic cam images, weather info and fuel prices to be displayed quickly and easily.

Smartphone Link also allows your Garmin GPS to share "favorite" locations with your device, and can help forgetful users find their car in a  crowded parking lot.

Garmin Smartphone Link

Unfortunately, many of the services (read all features besides live weather) provided by Smartphone Link come at a price. Live traffic will run users $19.99/year, traffic cams and fuel prices will cost a cool $9.99/yr each, and Advanced Weather (which provides 5-day forecasts, severe weather alerts, and radar images) runs at $4.99/yr.

08
Jan
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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 2 weeks or so.

This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.

Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Featured App

Tasks N Todos - ToDo List Manager

Tasks N Todos is a TODO manager from Handy Apps, the developer of such well received apps as Easy Money and Tip N Split Tip Calculator.