Applications - 20/253 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

Kittehface Software Releases Photosphere Live Wallpaper, Gives Your 'Spheres Another Practical Use

Posted by Cody Toombs in Applications, News

Haven't you been waiting for something better to do with your photospheres than just uploading them to Google+ for other people to enjoy? Thanks to Photosphere Live Wallpaper, you can finally place them front-and-center on your home screen. The idea is simple, a live wallpaper that uses your spherical photography as a background. It's one of those ideas we've all thought of, but until now, has remained absent from the Play Store.

The developer, Kittehface Software, includes the beach shot seen above, but otherwise assumes users will provide their own photospheres. This may not be a problem to some of the natural paparazzi in our audience, but for those with less skill behind the camera, check out our recent coverage of SphereShare.net to borrow from a larger pool of publicly shared creations.

Apr

Download: Pre-Release Facebook Home App Leaks Out, Partially Functional

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Leaks, News

Update: It looks like Facebook has killed the leak remotely. Users who installed it are now reporting that their feeds have gone dark. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.

Facebook Home, the company's trumpeted home screen replacement effort, has been a popular point of discussion since before it was announced.

For those who missed the announcement, Facebook is looking to replace your device's normal launcher with a continuous in-your-face social bonanza, featuring a huge news feed on your lock screen, a new pop-up chat called Chat Heads, and pretty complete integration with the social network, allowing for status, photo, and other updates on the fly.

Apr

'Babel' Name Purportedly Makes An Appearance In Gmail, Might Be The Real Deal

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, Google, News, Rumors

From poorly-executed "leaks" to potential legitimate sightings, there's been a lot of hubbub about Google's supposed unified messaging service, likely called Babel. This isn't necessarily surprising. After all, if you asked most Android enthusiasts what feature they most wanted from the platform in its next iteration, you'd hear a lot about unified messaging. We've tried to stay clear of covering every flurry of Babel-related murmurings so far, but today we saw something new – Google+ user Patric Dhawaan posted a screenshot of what he says is a notification in Gmail, triggered when "pruning" his inbox.

At first, we were a bit suspicious of the screenshot.

Apr

[Weekend Poll] Are You Going To Try Facebook Home?

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Polls

On April 12th, Facebook Home will arrive in the Play Store... for select devices. It's a homescreen replacement app, and for those who use Facebook regularly, might be something worth looking into. The demos of the app looked smooth and simple - there's a lot of that gesture business going on - and while I'm not exactly big on Facebook, I know I'm going to give it a whirl just to see what it's like.

What about you - is your curiosity piqued enough to try out Facebook's newest mobile endeavor (assuming your phone is compatible)?

Apr

Video: This Is How Facebook Will Advertise Home And The HTC First

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, First, Videos

As we all know, Facebook had an announcement earlier this week. The most pervasive social media outlet on the planet announced Facebook Home – a product that essentially amounts to a highly integrated launcher for your Android phone. It also announced the HTC First, a phone optimized for Home, offering a fully Facebook-ed experience.

The launcher is actually pretty nice – features like the unfortunately-named Chat Heads are almost enough to sell this writer on the idea of making an Android hamburger out of a phone, with Facebook Home serving as the top bun (or maybe the lettuce). The key to its success, though, will be advertising.

Apr

Talkray Undergoes Holo Refinement In Version 1.17 Update

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Device Updates, News

Talkray, from the makers of the incredibly popular touch-talk app TiKL, is an ambitious app – it looks to be your one-stop shop for mobile communication on the go, communicating through text, pictures, videos, and voice all for free. Until now, though, the app has had a fatal flaw – its design. While not the worst design we've seen, Talkray had, shall we say, unfortunate looks. Inconsistent styles, gradients mixed with flat elements, and Gingerbread-style tabs abound.

In its latest update (to version 1.17) though, the app underwent a bit of beautification, bringing it closer to a true holo standard. The redesign isn't perfect, but it's undeniably better.

Apr

New Live Wallpaper: Battery Core Is An Attractive Way To Track Your Lithium Ion Expenditures

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

There are surprisingly few options out there for tracking details about your battery via live wallpaper (and those that are out there are quite ugly), but Battery Core seems to fill the niche quite nicely. The live wallpaper consists of a large, Tron-ish rotating disc, the speed of which varies by your remaining charge. Slow rotation means a low battery, whereas higher velocity means higher capacity. You also get text readouts of the level, charging / not charging status, voltage, and battery temperature. A sliding bar at the bottom indicates your current amount of charge, as well.

The app works on both phones and tablets, and the amount of customization you're able to perform is significant.

Apr

[New App] SphereShare.net Is A Massive Gallery Of PhotoSpheres, With Private And Public Posting

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

Want to show off the fancy spherical photography prowess of your Nexus 4, but can't find buddy rocking Android 4.2? SphereShare is here to solve your shutterbug problem so that you can post those omnidirectional masterpieces somewhere other than Google+. The app is dedicated to the PhotoSphere feature, allowing users to upload their own photos for quick and easy sharing, or post them to a public gallery for all the world to see. It's like a very narrow Picasa, minus the editing features.

The app can share your PhotoSpheres to all the standard social networks, in individual or gallery form.

Apr

[New App] Knock²+ Looks To Replace LED Notifications With Clean, Minimal Lockscreen Popups

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

When it comes to getting various notifications while your device's display is off, a built-in LED is useful. However, it's far from perfect. Sure, you can customize each notification with something like Light Flow, but that doesn't let you know the message contents at a glance. And, of course, there are also devices that don't have an LED at all, like the Nexus 7 for example. If you're looking for more out of your notification experience, Knock²+ may be the answer.

Update: Apparently the app isn't compatible with the Nexus 7 right now, but the dev is working out the kinks and should update the app "soon."

Like others before it, Knock²+ essentially provides a lockscreen popup when a notification is received, so you need only glance at your device to see what the ping was about.

Apr

YouTube Updated With 'My Subscriptions' Feed, YouTube One Channel Branding Added For Content Creators

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Today, Google rolled out an update to the YouTube app (v4.4.11) that will allow frequent users to get easier access to their favorite content producers with the 'My Subscriptions' feed. In the slide-out panel on the left side of your device, you can now tap on this section to get a list of all the most recent videos from your favorite directors in one place.

Additionally, channels that have signed up for One Channel, which allows more customization of your channel and a better branding experience, will now see their tweaks within the app. For users, this just means that you'll be able to tell which videos are from what easier.