Applications

May

HBO GO And MAX GO Update To Support ICS, A Very Small Number Of Users Rejoice

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

If you're among the minority of users who own an Ice Cream Sandwich device and have a cable subscription that includes access to the HBO/MAX GO services, you can now access your mobile video service on your device. HBO already has an impressive library of shows available on GO, including Game of Thrones and the Sopranos, and MAX GO is the companion Cinemax service that offers 400+ movies for instant streaming.

As always, you'll need to already have a cable package that includes access to HBO and Cinemax channels and that includes the bundled internet channels. Of course, we can hope that HBO and Cinemax will start offering their services without a cable package but sometimes the entertainment industry just has bad ideas.

May

New SwiftKey 3 Beta Now Available, Offers A Handful Of Highly-Requested Fixes

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

In the midst of all the Samsung Galaxy S III hullabaloo, SwiftKey decided to release the latest best of its mind-reading keyboard. This new beta brings some of the most highly-requested features since the last beta release:

Improved the UI: there is now a dedicated comma key, and the <123> key is now in the bottom-left corner. And of course you still have the larger spacebar.
Refined the Smart Punctuation pop-up.
Reintroduced the Long-press duration setting.
Improved Smart Space functionality.
Further reduced lag on some devices.
Fixed a number of bugs, including the missing decimal point in the numpad and the "What's New" dialog popping up all the time.

May

Flipboard, The Popular Gesture-Based Reader, Is Finally Coming To Android, As An SGSIII Exclusive At First

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Galaxy S III, News

Yet another perk to the Galaxy S III (like we needed more), Flipboard, a popular iOS app for aggregating and reading news feeds, is going to be an SGSIII exclusive for a short period, before landing on the Play Store. Just like the iOS reader, you can integrate various news feeds, as well as feeds from your social networks, and control them all with a gesture-based interface.

No word yet on how long Samsung will have the exclusive on this app. We imagine it won't be too long, though. Samsung already has a plethora of intriguing features that make this device seem extra enticing.

May

[New App] CNNGo Gives You Travel Info About Asia, Also A Little Bit Of Info From The Rest Of The World

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Heads up, jetsetters! CNN has released an app for those of you who like to travel abroad. Specifically, those of you who travel to Asia or Australia will find the app particularly useful, but everyone who's about to leave their 20 square mile home area should take a look. The app aggregates local info, photos, and news coverage that you can filter by region.

The app, and the website for that matter, despite billing themselves as sources for "global" info and views from around "the world", seem to focus heavily on Asian stories and topics. So, if you need a wealth of info on travel in Europe, and never plan on venturing to the East, this app might overwhelm you a bit, but it's still packed with tons of great info and beautiful photos from around the world.

May

WhatsAppSniffer Shames WhatsApp's Plaintext, Unprotected Chat Transfer Protocol, Shows Off Just How Much Can Be Sniffed

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Who uses WhatsApp Messenger? From The look of the Play Store listing, a damn lot of people. Considering it's so popular, it's probably a pretty secure app, right? Think again.

WhatsApp actually sends all chats in plaintext, so anyone on the same Wi-Fi network can easily pull your entire conversation - including pictures and videos - straight out of the air. And now, that process is even easier than ever thanks to a new app called WhatsAppSniffer. It's basically just a packet sniffer, but it makes the process of pulling WhatsApp chats out of the sky stupid-easy, and that's never a good thing.

May

[Updated] Paper Camera Moves Up to Version 3, Brings Front-Facing Camera Support, Social Integration And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Everyone's favorite novelty camera app that hasn't been bought for a billion dollars, Paper Camera, saw an update to version 3 today. Among the new features, the app has added support for the front-facing camera, the ability to share to a variety of sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The app also allows users to buy extra controls via an in-app purchase that add even more customization controls to the already impressive filters.

The previous version of Paper Camera added support for video recording, so this rounds out a rather ample set of features. While it may not be enough to take Instagram down, this will certainly be worth it for users of the app.

May

Further Proof That The Entertainment Industry Is Stuck In Time: Hulu Reportedly To Require Paid TV Subscription

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

To the more budget minded, services like Hulu are a godsend; for a fraction of the cost of Cable TV, you can get a large chunk of the content. The deal isn't great for everyone, though, since it cuts into cable providers and networks' huge profits (instead, they just get... normal profits). Clearly this is a serious problem, and it's been speculated that it's probably the main reason companies like Comcast have instituted bandwidth caps on their internet service - so as to curb enthusiasm for streaming services in favor of their own (more expensive) in-house offerings. Unfortunately, it appears the companies are still too threatened by streaming content, and word has it that Hulu could require a paid cable TV subscription to work.

Apr

NotifierPro And SMS Flash Are Two Apps That Will Help You Text Without Interrupting Your Game

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

We've got a two-fer for you gamers today. While Android has always excelled at managing notifications, the one area that's always been a little bit troublesome is when you're using full-screen apps, like games. When receiving a message, your phone might vibrate, but you'll get no info on what kind of message you just received. NotifierPro and SMS Flash are two apps that are designed to help with this.

The first app, NotifierPro, provides a notification overlay that appears above whatever you're running. This includes full screen apps like games, as well as the notification shade itself. If you're looking for customizability, this is it.

Apr

[New App] Solid Explorer Beta Is One Of The Most Solid Beta Explorers That We've Ever Explored

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you don't have at least one file explorer installed on your device, then I'm not sure how you actually use it (if you an even call it "using"). However, there are a veritable plethora of file managers in the Store, so choosing one as your primary can be a real task.

If you're on the side of the fence that most of us here at AP are, and have tried nearly every reasonable-looking file manager in the Play Store, then you've probably gotten to the point where you don't even check out new offerings any more, right? That's exactly how I was about an hour ago, before we found Solid Explorer Beta.

Apr

[New App] Zillow Releases Houses And Apartments Rental App, Lets You Select Where You Want To Live By Circling Areas On A Map

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Searching for a new place to live can be ridiculously frustrating. Often times, the combination of price, size, location, and type of housing can make it nearly impossible to find exactly what you want. Fortunately, there are apps like Zillow Rentals to help.

Zillow Rentals take a similar approach to other apps when it comes to helping you find a new place to live. It can sort location by price, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, and location. The really neat thing, though, is that it actually lets you circle specific areas on a map where you'd want to live and only shows you listings from those areas.