Applications

Feb

Awesome 3D Launcher 'TSF Shell' Now Available In The Android Market, Complete With A Massive $17 Price Tag

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Back in December, we told you about a new launcher called TSF Shell that was set to raise the bar for custom launchers. After two and a half months of waiting, that app is now available in the Android Market, albeit for a ridiculously high price of $17. For a launcher. These people have lost their minds.

Still, if you can get past the immediate shock due to the high price and start reading the Market description, you'll immediately realize that, well, it's not all that easy to follow. In fact, it looks like a straight-up copy/paste from Google Translate.

Feb

New York Times Releases 'Election 2012' App To The Market, Lets You Easily Keep Up With The Latest Political News (Subscription Required)

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

The New York Times just released a new app to the Market that exclusively covers anything and everything going on in the world of politics, with a focus on the upcoming election. The app, simply called "NYTimes Election 2012" is a must have for NYT subscribers who want to keep up with the latest political happenings, as it offers some useful features:

News grouped by topic so you can quickly and easily find the topics that you care about
Latest stories are highlighted with a red dot, making it easy to find the latest news at a glance
Live election results and country-by-country maps
Vote projections
A database of polling results
Candidate pages with updates, bios, and stats
Primary calendar
Editorials, etc.

Feb

eBay Releases Half.com App, Allows You To Browse, Buy, Search, And Scan Barcodes From The Comfort Of Your Android Device

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

Popular game, book, and textbook site Half.com (owned and operated by eBay) now has an official app, and as with just about every other shopping app, it allows you to browse the virtual store shelves, search for specific items, and place orders. It also includes a nifty barcode scanner to help make sure you snag the right item (and don't get ripped off... *ahem* college bookstores).

With the Half.com Android application you can buy media titles in books, textbooks, movies, music, games and game systems - anytime, anywhere.
Get the best price for next semester's classes by using the barcode scanner to search for textbook titles and have them shipped right to your door.

Feb

[Weekend Poll] Let's Talk Music Apps: What Flavor Do You Use?

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Polls

Earlier this week, unofficial word came out that Google wasn't happy with Music's performance to date. I attribute part of the problem to the mediocre music app, though that's something that could be remedied by the unofficial Google Music API in the near future. Despite its shortcomings, some people - myself included - use the app. Others use the app that comes stock bundled with manufacturer UIs (for example, Sense, TouchWiz, and Blur all include their own custom music players). Still others use third-party apps, available on the market or as APKs (for example, Artem uses PowerAmp).

So, what do you use to play music locally?

Feb

Unofficial Music API Close To Completion, Could Soon Allow Apps To Integrate With Google Music

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, Dev, News

A few days ago, we heard unofficial reports that Google was disappointed with the performance of Music thus far. While it's barely been out for a full quarter to date, there have been a few major factors holding the service back. In my opinion, one of the biggest factors holding it back thus far is the lack of an API - or, in English: third-party app support for the service. Luckily, a developer by the name of Simon Weber read the post about Google Music and got in touch a few days ago to let me know that he had a solution to the problem: an unofficial API he's been working on.

Feb

Domino's Pizza Introduces App For US Customers – Create, Order, And Track Pizzas From Anywhere

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

After releasing apps for both UK/Ireland and Australia/New Zealand markets, Domino's Pizza has finally introduced an official app for Android users in the US, bringing the aptly named Domino's Pizza USA app to the Android Market recently.

The app has all the functionality of the pizza maker's online ordering system, with a streamlined, intuitive interface. Users can view the national menu, order from nearly 5,000 locations, and even find location-specific coupons.

The Domino's Pizza USA app also allows users to pay for their pizza via in-app purchase, and remembers location and other preferences (meaning you'll never have to log in).

Feb

Download APKs Directly From The Web Market To Your Computer With The 'APK Downloader' Extension For Google Chrome

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

One of the biggest restrictions that we face as Android users is "device incompatibility" issues in the Market, even though the app in question may work perfectly on our device. For example, according to the Android Market, Plants Vs. Zombies is "incompatible" with my Galaxy Tab 10.1; however, when it was initially released to the Amazon Appstore (and before Popcap was bought by EA), I always played it on the Tab. Case in point: it isn't "incompatible" with the Tab 10.1, EA just chose to list it as such (no surprise there).

This type of thing happens far too often, be it due to device restrictions or regional discrepancies.

Feb

Popular Gallery App QuickPic Updated To V2.0 With Brand New, Faster, ICS-Inspired UI, Apps2SD, And More

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

My favorite gallery replacement app QuickPic, which is notorious for its speed and simplicity, just got updated with a brand new spiffy UI based on the new Android design guidelines that were published at the time of the Ice Cream Sandwich release.

The new UI in v2.0 is now much cleaner and more fluid, with action buttons at the top right and context buttons showing up dynamically on the bottom when they're needed. QuickPic did have to rebuild all the thumbnails, but once it's done so, it loads faster than it ever has.

v2.0 beta
New clean UI like Android 4.0(ICS), lots of UI optimizations
Replace list mode to explorer mode, support hierarchical folders
Bigger square thumbnails without border
Fix some minor bugs
App2SD for Android 2.2+

Check out the new 2.0 beta in the Market, and if you've never tried QuickPic before, I strongly encourage you give it a go.

Feb

Excellent Mobile Security App Cerberus Hits 100,000 Users, Offers Free Lifetime Licenses For A Few Days To Celebrate

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

A few months ago, Liam spent some time with 17 mobile security apps, one of which was an app called Cerberus. He came away quite impressed - so impressed, in fact, that he crowned it the winner (and, as a license is just $4, it was also crowned the best for the budget-minded).

The app is always free to download and comes with a 1 week free trial, but a lifetime license is normally $4. I say normally because, as you have likely deduced from the title, the developer is offering free lifetime licenses in celebration of hitting 100,000 users.

To get the license, just download the app and register an account (it requires a username, password, and email address - nothing tricky), then fill out the form and hit Submit.

Feb

[Update: Changelog] Chrome For Android Gets An Update to 0.16.4215.215

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

A mysterious update for Chrome for Android just landed in the Market; at this point, though, it's not entirely clear what this update does, as a changelog is seemingly absent from the listing.

Update: Here's the changelog:

Chrome for Android Beta has been updated to 0.16.4215.215, picking up changes that have gone in through Chrome 16.0.912.77. Beyond the Chrome changes, this update contains:
Android Beam support - now beam URLs from Chrome to other devices with NFC.
Support for additional countries
Compatibility checks to ensure system prerequisites for Chrome are met
Essential bug fixes
Known issues
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

What we do know, however, is that the update brings Chrome up to version 0.16 and it appears to break support for devices running custom ICS builds (such as CM9).