Applications - 208/263 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

Shazam Temporarily Cuts The Crap, Lets You Tag Without Limit Until Next Year

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications, Apps/Games

Shazam, the music tagging service that listens to a song and tells you what it is, has announced today that the free version of their app will support unlimited tagging until January 1st, 2012. While this is pretty cool if you're a Shazam user who doesn't want to pay $5 for Shazam Encore (or didn't grab it what it was Amazon's app of the day), it's still pretty laughable for people who have been using Soundhound the whole time. While I can appreciate what Shazam is doing here with the help eBay, who is sponsoring this unlimited tag-fest, I can't help but feel that Shazam should've done this on its own a long time ago.

Apr

[Download] Live Wallpaper And Weather Widget From The Eee Pad Transformer (Honeycomb Only)

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, Eee Pad Transformer, News, XOOM

Thanks to sano614 over at the XDA forums you can now have a few of the goodies from the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer on other Honeycomb tablets, specifically the super-nifty My Water live wallpaper and ASUS's weather widget. You've probably seen this wallpaper before - it's the beverage-esque one that moves around on your screen as you shift your tablet around, complete with ice cubes and bubbles. The weather widget offers what you would expect: current conditions and temperature in a visually stimulating package.

I've uploaded both the widget and the wallpaper to our mirror for convenience purposes, but don't forget to jump over the to source thread at XDA and drop a thank you note.

Apr

Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About, Part 3: Apps 17-25

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Best Apps For Rooted Users Series, Development, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

This is the third iteration in our 'Top Android Apps Every Rooted User Should Know About' series. Click here for part one or here for part two.

It's that time again - we've spent the last few months scouring the Android Market, and now we're ready to report back with nine more great root apps. There are a lot of good ones in this edition - read on for some of the best reasons to root your Android handset!

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

MarketEnabler

One of the most frequent excuses for piracy has to be "The app isn't available in my country" or "Google doesn't allow paid apps where I live." No longer!

Apr

[Hands-On] Google Docs Photo Upload OCR: It Kind Of Sucks At This Point

Posted by David Ruddock in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Reviews, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

We were all very excited to hear about the Google Docs for Android announcement this morning, and even more so when we learned it came with a special surprise feature: the ability to upload photos of physical documents from your Android phone and have them transcribed by Google Docs into editable text.

So, the first thing I was curious about, naturally, is just how well this new feature works in the real world. As you may have guessed from the title, not very. Let me show you the photos I tasked Google Docs for Android with transcribing.

Document 1: Printed handout:

Document 1 results:

OF CONSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS ON DEFAMATÍON
PUBLIC OFFICIALS GENERAL PURPOSE PUBLIC FIGURES
LIMITED PUBLIC FIGURES WHERE MATTER OF PUBLIC CONCERN
LIMITED PUBLIC FIGURE WHERE NOT MATTER OF PUBLIC CONCERN
PRIVATE PERSONS WHERE MATTER OF PUBLIC CONCERN
PRIVATE PERSONS WHERE NOT MATTER OF PUBLIC CONCERN
ACTUAL MALICE.

Apr

Official Google Docs App For Android Is Out - It's About Time

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Last Updated: October 7th, 2012

If there is one single Google service that I've wanted on my phone since the day I got it, it's Google Docs. That wait is finally over, because Google has released an official Docs app for Android - and it's nothing short of awesome.

This app not only allows you to view and edit all of your Docs, but also brings a few other killer features. Firstly, it offers a widget that allows you to quickly create a new document, take a picture and upload it, or directly access your starred documents.

The most impressive feature, however, is the ability to snap a picture of a document and turn it into a fully editable Google doc.

Apr

Facebook For Android Updated To V1.5.4; Now Allows You To... Use Facebook Without Force Closes

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications, Apps/Games

You may remember a couple of days ago when Facebook for Android received an update and, for many users (myself included, on all 3 of my Android devices), became a blue-tinted cavalcade of force-closes. Well, it seems that the Facebook team took notice and pushed an update out that (hopefully) remedies the situation for everyone. It now seems to be working flawlessly (well...from the stability standpoint) on both my EVO and Nook Color. Go to the market and grab it now. Your friends miss you.

Facebook for Android

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.katana

Apr

Twitter For Android Updated, Adds Features That Other Clients Already Have

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you use the official Twitter for Android app, then you'll be happy to know that it was updated today. This update brings some pretty decent features, some features that most other clients already have, and others that are nothing to write home about, but are probably welcome anyway. I'll do this the easy way and just give you the list first.

What's in this version:

Displays search results in a tabbed view

Add and remove saved searches from universal search suggestions

SSL used for network requests

Font size setting

Tapping on a map in detail view searches nearby Tweets

Launch links directly from a message

Ability to delete messages

Added Tweet count to user profile

Improved avatar loading

Improved the way data is cleared to conserve more space

Fixed a bug where music skips when refreshing, etc.

Apr

HoneyReader Is An Android Feed Reader Made Specifically For Honeycomb

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News

Last Updated: April 24th, 2011

While browsing the XOOM xda forum today, I saw this announcement of HoneyReader, a new application built specifically with Honeycomb tablets in mind. Because it doesn't have to support pre-Honeycomb versions of the OS or small-sized phone screens altogether, the authors concentrated on making it a great tablet experience, and I must say, their first take is pretty good.

HoneyReader uses the native to Honeycomb Fragments API that on the surface translates to fluid and flexible UI elements that can divide the screen into separately scrollable independent areas with their own lifecycles. If you're familiar with the CNN app, for example, you know what I'm talking about (I personally think the Fragments API is the greatest thing in Android since...