Applications - 203/251 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Ad-Free SoundHound Infinity With A Homescreen Widget Is Today's Amazon Appstore Free App Of The Day

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

If you've ever needed to identify a song that is playing somewhere around you, you've probably already used SoundHound or Shazam which both listen to your surroundings and pop up the best guess - usually right on the money.

The two apps are pretty similar, though they obviously use different algorithms, so I always keep both on my phone just in case. Additionally, SoundHound recognizes humming and whistling, which makes it even more valuable.

While the free version of Shazam allows only 5 IDs per month, SoundHound went unlimited in their basic app a few months back. So, why would anyone use SoundHound Infinity then, a $5 app that is free in the Amazon Appstore today, when they could identify an unlimited amount of songs for free?

Mar

48 Best (And 2 WTF) New Android Apps, Games, And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (3/16/11 - 3/29/11)

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

Last Updated: April 13th, 2011

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 ~~2 weeks~~ or so. Due to CTIA last week, we decided to postpone last week's roundup and roll all the apps into one big 2-week post.

Get ready - the list is quite massive and may freeze up your browser while loading - I suggest you open up links in new tabs to avoid page reloads.

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

Mar

[Review] Amazon Cloud Player For Android - Google Music Who?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News, Tips & Tutorials

It’s not much of a secret that Amazon is quickly becoming one of my favorite companies. The way they have embraced Android is wonderful, creating diversity where there used to be none. I recently ran down some of the pros and cons of the Amazon Appstore for Android, which is starting to become my go-to marketplace for new apps. Now they have released a new music streaming service, Cloud Player, which brings some of the functionality that was originally a hope of Google Music to my Droid.

Cloud Drive and the Web App

The Cloud Player is basically a frontend to all of the music that is stored in the Cloud Drive (which can be used to store any file type).

Mar

Amazon Launches Cloud Player Music Streaming Service For Android

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, Apps/Games, News

While some companies are content to just talk, talk, talk about what they are doing, Amazon seems to be quietly hard at work. Last week they gave us the Amazon Appstore for Android and last night they dropped another bomb – the Amazon Cloud Player.

If Grooveshark and Dropbox had a baby, it would be Amazon Cloud Player. It consists of Cloud Drive - 5GB of free cloud storage on Amazon’s servers (upgradable to 20GB with the purchase of one album or for $20/year; $1 per gigabyte after that) - and the Cloud Player, which can be accessed from the web or from an Android device.

Mar

Go Dev Team Releases 3 New Beautiful Live Wallpapers: Sakura Falling, 3D Skyrocket, And Hyperspace

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If there is one thing I love, it’s a nice, relaxing wallpaper. I do not want to see chaos when I look at my homescreen (or computer screen for that matter), and the Go Wallpaper Dev Team has delivered a solution that is both elegant and beautiful by way of three new live wallpapers – Sakura Falling, 3D Skyrocket, and Hyperspace. Because they use OpenGL, these are some of the smoothest, most realistic live wallpapers that I have ever seen.

Sakura Falling Live Wallpaper

By far the most relaxing of the three, the Sakura Falling live wallpaper features light pink flowers falling across a dark fuschia background.

Mar

New LauncherPro Update v0.8.4 Now In The Market, Brings Gmail Widget, 2 New Transitions, Bug Fixes

Posted by David Rutland in Applications, News

After months without either official comment or update, the author of homescreen replacement app LauncherPro has finally sprung version 0.8.4 into the Android Market.

One of the smoother and more popular homescreen apps, LauncherPro offers seven screens and up to three scrollable docks, as well as Sense style full-screen widgets for paid “Plus” users, which include messaging, Facebook feeds, bookmarks, and calendars.

Part-time developer Federico Carnales announced in September that a complete rewrite was in the works, which would not be based on the stock Android 2.0 launcher. Users have been waiting with bated breath ever since, with commenters growing incrementally more anxious on the official website since the last update in January.

Mar

Amazon Appstore Doubles Down: Farm Frenzy And Newsweek Mobile Both Free Today

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Deals, Games, News, Tips & Tutorials

That's right, Amazon's offering not one, but two free apps on the Amazon Appstore this morning! You can pick up the popular HeroCraft title Farm Frenzy along with the official Newsweek Mobile app from Amazon free of charge.

I don't know about you - but I can't tell which is which.

Newsweek Mobile offers Amazon's "Test Drive" in-browser emulation, so you can try it from your browser before making the 15 second commitment to put it on your phone. Anyways, load up the Amazon Appstore (if you can) and grab these freebies while the getting is good.

Update: We've gotten in touch with Herocraft, the developer of Farm Frenzy, about extra permissions that their game uses (such as access to contacts).

Mar

The Pros And Cons Of The Amazon App Store: A Promising Market Replacement?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in App Reviews, Applications, Editorials, News, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

On March 22nd, the long awaited Amazon Appstore was released, bringing a whole new way to find, install, and share apps on Android. After its initial debut, we decided that this new Appstore was the real deal. In this post, we'll break down what Amazon's done right, and what it still needs to improve on.

Pros

1. Better descriptions and more in-depth comments

Most users will tell you that finding good Android apps is not an easy task. If you're browsing the Android Market looking for something specific, then the only bit of information that you have to work with is what the developer wants to say (which usually isn’t much) and one-line-comments from other users.

Mar

QuickOffice Pro HD For Honeycomb Now Available, Spreadsheets Imminent

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Apps/Games, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Has your XOOM experience just been incomplete without the ability to view Power Point presentations and Excel spreadsheets? Well, hold on to your triple mocha decaf vanilla sugar free latte, then - QuickOffice Pro HD has arrived to super-size your productivity for maximum tablet utility.

Seriously, though, QuickOffice is a must-have if you need to view formatted documents as part of justifying that Honeycomb-tablet purchase. In addition to reading Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files (both the old 2003 and 2007+ file versions), QuickOffice Pro comes with a powerful file browser utility that hooks into your Google Docs, Dropbox, Box, Huddle, SugarSync, and MobileMe accounts to make accessing your cloud-synced documents a breeze.

Mar

Amazon Is On A Roll: Today's Free Premium Android Appstore App - SwiftKey Keyboard

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Deals, News

Without taking a break from yesterday's free Shazam Encore deal, Amazon is continuing its daily giveaway of awesome premium Android apps with another one of our favorites - SwiftKey Keyboard.

SwiftKey normally costs $1.99 in the Android Market ($1.79 in the Amazon Appstore), but for the next 24 hours, U.S. residents will be able to download it to their Digital Lockers for free, thereby claiming it forever. Even if you are not a fan of SwiftKey just yet, there is no reason to pass on this deal if you can get it - just do it now, then think and decide later.