Applications - 189/250 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

May

[New App] Chainfire3D Hits The Android Market, Tweaks Your Graphics To Improve Performance And Battery Life

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Android app developer Chainfire released an interesting app into the Market recently called Chainfire3D - "an intermediary OpenGL driver." Basically, this app sits between your app and the proprietary graphics driver on your device and can manipulate the commands between the two.

This enables you do some pretty rad things with your device in order to increase efficacy, battery life, performance, etc. For example, you can use Chainfire3D to enable night-mode, which basically only powers the red pixels on your device in order to save battery life (yes, it makes everything look red - see below).

Other features of Chainfire3D includes a multitude of texture manipulations, including the ability to reduce texture sizes and quality (for faster gaming) and unroll textures, which converts non-32 bit textures into 32 bit.

May

[Review] CrossTxT Bridges The Gap Between Phone And Computer For Easy Texting - Regardless Of Browser

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

A few months ago we reviewed an interesting app called Texty. This app connects an Android phone to a computer through Chrome, and allows the user to send text messages straight from said browser. This is useful when you are working on your computer and you do not wish to move your hands away from your comfortable ergonomic keyboard and start pecking away at a small 3-4" screen. CrossTxT performs a similar function, but in my opinion, is far superior to Texty.

Set-Up: Android

Firstly, CrossTxT is currently in beta and you will have to sign-up for a free invite.

May

Thumb Keyboard, Hands Down The Best Tablet Optimized Keyboard, Receives Major Update To V4.0

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Thumb Keyboard, a multi-layout keyboard compatible with both phones and tablets, is, in my opinion, the absolute best single piece of software you can grace your precious tablet with (see our review for more details).

The split-key design allows for comfortable typing without having to reach too far, and the number of bells and whistles keeps increasing with every release. Different designs for each orientation, multiple themes, multiple size customizations, a multitude of layouts (phone standard, phone split, 5", 7", and 10"), 34 languages... I can go on and on.

I've tried the stock keyboard, SwiftKey Tablet, and the Samsung keyboard, but none of them come even close to Thumb Keyboard.

May

Mozilla Launches Separate Firefox For Android Beta App To Test New Features Early

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Firefox for Android has come a long way since the project hatched as "Fennec" many months ago - there is no doubt about that. What started as a bloated, slow, and buggy pile of crap (really, it was bad), is now one of the greatest browsers Android has to offer (add-ons ftw!). Don't get me wrong - it's still lacking quite a few features - notably, Flash support, faster font redraw on zooming, better startup times, etc., but Mozilla knows this and is working hard on the next version - 5.0.

In order to test out new (but potentially buggy) builds, the company decided to introduce a separate Beta app into the Market today.

May

Hacker's Keyboard Brings A Full Keyboard Experience To Android

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you've been looking for a full, 5-row keyboard experience on your Android device, then look no further - Hacker's Keyboard may fit the bill perfectly. HK is really designed to be used with apps like ConnectBot for SSH since it features working Tab, Ctrl, Alt, Esc, and arrow keys, but it's worth noting that this keyboard may not work properly with all apps. The reason for this is because some apps may not recognize the additional keys, as they weren't built to handle that type of virtual input.

However, if you experience any other problems while using this app, the developer requests that you file a bug in the issue tracker so he can work on a resolution.

May

TweetComb And Newsr Drop The Price Tag, Go Free For All To Enjoy

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

When it comes to Honeycomb specific apps, the selection isn't huge, so when you can score some for free, that's always a good thing. Honeycomb app dev Chris Stewart decided that he was in agreeance with that idea and has relinquished the price of two of his HC apps - TweetComb and Newsr - to display that.

As its name suggests, TweetComb is a Twitter client designed specifically for Honeycomb. While it may not be as good as say, Plume, it's really hard to compete with the price (even with the free version of Plume, you have deal with ads, whereas TweetComb appears to be ad-free).

May

[New In The Market] Text Clock Pro Indulges Our Literacy With a Dynamic, Readable Timepiece

Posted by Matt Demers in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Clock widgets, clock livewallpapers - when will we have enough of them? Never, I say! Every once in a while, a new clock variant comes out that pushes the limits of originality, and I think this is what we have here today with Text Clock Pro.

If you've been in an English fanatic's kitchen, there's a chance you might've seen a bunch of word magnets on their fridge which you can assemble into sentences. More often than not, you would take a word out of their carefully-prepared quote, or just arrange them in whichever order that sounded the dirtiest.

Text Clock Pro is the Android equivalent of that.

May

36 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps From The Last 2 Weeks (5/6/11 - 5/19/11)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, News

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 part 2 of this week's roundup and is dedicated entirely to apps. For part 1 dedicated to games and LWPs, see 26 Best New Android Games And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (5/5/11 – 5/18/11).

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 week's roundups? Find them here:

Featured App

Today’s roundup is sponsored by XIMAD and their game Kung Fu Tic Tac Toe.

May

Theft Aware Gets A Licensing Tweak, Now Allows For Device Transfers

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Remember the super-sweet anti-theft software Theft Aware that we first showed you back in November? The creators of said software have pinged us with some pretty rad info: the licensing has been tweaked so you can now transfer it to a new device!

Initially, the license was tethered to the handset for which it was originally purchased, so once you upgraded your phone, you had to buy a new license to go along with it. Now, though, they are offering a new, separate licensing model that allows you to transfer your license from your old device to the new one.

May

Hot Out Of The Oven: Pizza Hut Serves Up An Android App

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

You love pizza, right? And we all know you love Android... but now you can have some sort of socially acceptable ménage à trois with the two. If you interpreted that sentence as "Pizza Hut dropped an official app in the Android Market," then you are totally right!

With the official app you can order from the full Pizza Hut menu on the go, take advantage of special coupons and deals, and keep a quick list of all of your favorites for those I-need-to-get-pizza-right-now moments. Unfortunately, this app is US only as of right now, so all non-US residents are going to have to stick with the old-school way of ordering pizza: calling.