Applications - 35/252 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Feb

[New App] Newscover Is An Intelligent And Beautiful News Aggregator With A Quirky Ad Campaign

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

News aggregators. We all use (or have used) them, and there is no shortage of selections in the Play Store. Some are designed to be pretty. Some are fully customizable. Some do the customization for you. Then there's newscover, an app that essentially wants to do all of the above.

In short, newscover is a very nice looking, newspaper-esque aggregator that uses what you read to personalize your feed. The developer claims it starts "getting to know you" only five seconds after the app is opened. Not sure how that works, because I usually spend 20 minutes just playing around with settings, flipping through pages, and getting familiar with any app I install.

Feb

AV-Test.org Releases Its First Report On Android Antiviruses, 22 Different Apps Compared

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

One of the most common questions newcomers to Android have is do I really need an antivirus? While there are varying answers to this question depending on who you ask, it's hard to deny the demand for such apps. Of course, most AVs have other, far more useful features than just the AV scan – like anti-theft, device location features, and more. For that reason alone, I always have one installed on all my devices.

If you've never used an antivirus on your device before, there's a huge question that needs an answer before you install one: which is the best?

Feb

Amazon Mobile App Finally Works In Canada, Loblaws Developers Scramble To Catch Up

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

Attention, kind neighbours to the north: the Amazon Mobile app now works with the Amazon.ca website. The latest update doesn't add any extra features, but Canadians can browse their own store, the US store, and stores from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, China and Japan. For Americans (and Americans only) Amazon is also offering a "Subscribe and Save" promotion: subscribe to regular monthly deliveries of five items or more and you'll save fifteen percent on the total cost. This deal isn't exclusive to the app - check it out here from your browser.

Other additions to the app include bug fixes and performance improvements.

Feb

Newly Redesigned HipChat Beta For Android Hits The Play Store, And It's Already So Much Better Than The 'Stable' Version

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Here at AP, we rely on HipChat for our internal chatroom(s). Given that, this news is probably more exciting for us than anyone else, but we're sharing it anyway. The HipChat team just released a new beta version of its app to the Play Store, and to put it simply, it's amazing. Compared to the current "stable" build, which ironically isn't very stable at all, the new beta has already proven itself to be the superior choice. So, really, the beta is more stable than the stable build which is more like a beta. How's that for confusing?

The real deal here is the interface: the app now uses Google's design guidelines, so it's Holo-ed out to the max.

Feb

WordLens Gets A Huge 2.0 Update With A Holo UI, No More Flickering Issues, German Translation, And Bug Fixes Galore

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

WordLens is one of those borderline-magical apps that make me feel like I'm living in a scifi novel. The initial release was a little buggy, and the UI made it clear the app was a direct port from iOS. The 2.0 update just dropped, though, and it takes care of a lot of those issues.

If you've never heard of WordLens, here's the deal: hold your phone up to a sign or some other thing with words on it, and WordLens uses your camera to translate those words to another language of your choosing in real time. The translations are overlaid on top of the live camera feed, which is kind of a wow moment (when it works).

Feb

Zero Motorcycles Releases A Companion App For Its All-Electric Bikes, And It's Actually Pretty Neat

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Question: what do you do when you're a motorcycle company doing something completely different by releasing all-electric bikes with built-in Bluetooth? If you guessed publish an Android app that lets you control the motorcycle, view its stats, and a lot more, then you're probably part of the Zero Motorcycles team. Because that's exactly what they did.

If you haven't heard of Zero before, don't feel bad, because neither had I. Turns out it's a pretty innovative company releasing some sleek all-electric motorcycles. Each bike comes with a bunch of neat all-electric stuff, but most importantly to the mobile geek, it has built-in Bluetooth and a companion app that lets you do all sorts of awesome junk to (and with) your bike.

Feb

HBO GO And MAX GO Apps Updated To v2.0 With Support For HDMI Out

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

HBO has been completely uncompromising in its approach to locking up content in pay-for-TV. If you want to watch what are arguably the best TV series currently running, you need to pay your cable provider. The HBO GO and MAX GO apps have provided a little more choice for existing subscribers by streaming to tablets and phones, but the new 2.0 update finally unlocks HDMI video output.

Before this update, the ability to output video over HDMI was blocked for both these apps, so this is kind of a big deal. Anyone with an HBO/Cinemax subscription already has at least one TV with access to on-demand content, but this app update lets you take that programming with you to any big screen – be that elsewhere in your house, on vacation, or whatever.

Feb

TestFlight, Having Served Over 300,000 Apps, Announces Private Beta For Android

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Development, News

Popular beta testing platform TestFlight has officially announced its arrival to Android in private beta form, in a post to the TestFlight blog. If you're wondering how popular TestFlight really is, the same post should provide some reference: the service has been trusted with smoothing the process of beta app deployment for over 300,000 iOS apps. Needless to say, its expansion to Android is big news.

Of course, Android already has HockeyApp.net, and the Play Store offers private app deployment, TestFlight provides the ingredients for an impressively sleek beta testing process with secure deployment, tracking, and – perhaps best of all – centralized feedback.

Feb

Beautiful Widgets Hits v5.1, Brings New Widgets For Tablets, Improved Layouts For 4x1, Beta Channel, And More

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Today is national app update day. Not officially, but it sure feels like it. We've already seen updates to high-profile apps like Google Drive and Any.DO, but Beautiful Widgets may have set the bar for excellent updates on February 20th, 2013. The day's not over yet, but this one's a doozie.

So, what sorts of newness does it bring? Lots. Lots of sorts of newness. Like the option to select Weather Underground (wunderground) as your default weather service. You can also get rid of geolocation and set your location manually, if you so choose.

There's also a new feature called "Lifestyles" on the forecast screen – this lets you plan your activities around the weather.

Feb

PushBullet Updated To Version 9 With DashClock Support And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Roman Nurik's DashClock Widget has seen remarkable adoption since its release earlier this month, with a handful of apps quickly adding their own DashClock extensions in a bid to populate your lock screen with useful information. Joining the list today is PushBullet which, in an update to version 9, added a DashClock extension that will let you know how many pushes await you before you unlock your device.

Besides the DashClock extension, PushBullet will now play your device's default notification tone when you receive a push, and has new localization for Italian and Dutch users, along with a couple of other tweaks.