Applications - 59/262 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

[New App] Blockbuster Launches New Disc Rental Android App To Complement 10 Streaming Apps

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

Blockbuster probably has bigger problems than scattershot Android app development, but it's a problem nonetheless. On the surface any effort to clean things up seems like a great idea, but the way Blockbuster has gone about it is... well, bizarre. The company, which was acquired by Dish when everyone stopped renting discs, has released a new Android app. Can you guess what it's for? Yep, renting discs. Brilliant!

Blockbuster's movie streaming apps appear to still be listed in the Play Store, but these are device specific. There is one app for HTC devices, one for LG devices, and so on.

Jan

Amazon Releases Official AWS Console App To The Play Store

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Amazon's AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a hugely important web service that is responsible for much of Amazon's functionality, and plenty of content you look at every day (remember that time Reddit, Flipboard, Netflix, and others simultaneously stuttered in part of the US?). Looking to keep AWS account holders connected to their services and abreast of service health while on the go, Amazon released its official AWS Console app to the Play Store today.

Amazon calls the console a "good companion" to the web interface, and it brings much of the key functionality AWS users will be looking for, from seeing a general overview of your EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing) instances and CloudWatch alarms to the ability to stop or reboot EC2 instances, to viewing AWS service health statuses.

Jan

[CES 2013] New Smartphone Keyboard 'Fleksy' Promises Predictions So Accurate That Even The Blind Can Use It

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Move over SwiftKey. A challenger has appeared and it's aiming to bring even better predictions than we've seen before. This one, named Fleksy, touts predictions that are so accurate, you can type without looking at the screen. In fact, the company says that even if you get every single letter wrong, it can still tell what it is you meant to type. This is pretty impressive. Of course that means the developers need to take it one step further...

In the video above the company shows a blind user walking down the street, typing away on his smartphone (begins around 1:28).

Jan

Swype Beta For Android Updates To v1.4, No Longer Requires Registration, Adds 'Living Language' Crowd-Sourced Dictionary

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Who knew that keyboards could be so competitive? After SwiftKey released its new Flow feature, and even included the ability to fly through space, Swype had a pressing need to escalate. Well, how's this for handy: now you no longer need to register in order to download the new Swype beta! In times past, Swype's distribution model has been a little cumbersome. Of course, this will only help people who want in on the beta, but it's still a great thing. Speaking of great things, here's a video of anthropomorphized finger ninjas talking about crowd-sourced dictionaries.

Yeah, you read that right.

Jan

[App Roundup] Our Top Five Favorite New Apps To Check Out From December 2012

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications

Now that we've said goodbye to December, it's once again time to take a look at the month's best new apps. Of course having reached January, we've also started a new year, and our full look at 2012's best new apps and games will be ready shortly. That being said, December 2012 had plenty to offer. In the interest of saving our readers some time, and possibly expense, we've rounded up five of the very best apps to hit the Play Store in the last month.

Action Launcher

There are a lot of post-Ice Cream Sandwich launchers out there, but there aren't a lot of launchers that do something different.

Jan

Titanium Backup Updated To Version 5.8 With Web Server Backup Upload/Download, Support For USB MTP, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Titanium Backup, perhaps the most popular and powerful root backup solution available, got an update to version 5.8 today, an update that brought with it fixes, added support, and new features.

Probably the most significant new feature is the addition of web server backup uploading and downloading (for Pro users). If that sounded like a sentence written in Greek, we'll try to expound – what this means is that your device can now start a web server right from the Titanium Backup interface. You can then download and upload backups on your PC by accessing the server (in a method similar to AirDroid).

Jan

Falcon Pro Updated To Version 1.5 With Light Theme, Multi-Window Support For Galaxy Devices, Various Enhancements

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Falcon Pro, the beautiful Twitter client born of Joaquim Verges' Falcon Widget, got an update today, bringing the app to version 1.5. Besides the usual bug fixes, this update brings several big enhancements, not the least of which being a completely new, completely appealing "light theme," which will switch your Twitter experience to a pleasing holo light look.

Jan

Sphero Drive App Updated, Adds Beta Support For 'Multi-Ball' Mode

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

If you have a Sphero – the Bluetooth-controlled robot ball – then you know just how much fun they can be. If you happen to have more than one Sphero, you're in for a real treat, as you can now operate multiple Spheros from a single device, thanks to a new feature in the app called Multi-Ball.

It's worth noting that Multi-Ball is still in its experimental stages for the time being, so it may not work properly 100% of the time.

To use the feature, all you need to do is select each ball individually from the connection screen, hit done, and...

Jan

SwiftKey Flow Beta Updated To v4.0.0.61

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

SwiftKey Flow Beta, which came out just a month ago, has received its first major update since release. Version 4.0.0.61 brings some significant changes, along with a massive changelog (well, it's a things-to-be-aware-of / known issues log, too). More important to you, though, is probably where and how to download it. Here's the smartphone version, and here's the tablet version. Now, for the log:

SwiftKey Flow Beta 4.0.0.61 changelog

Flow-through-space autocommit: if you flow-through space but mess up your last word, all the prior words will be inserted (instead of losing all the words)

Flow in landscape on tablets (not on split layout with numpad)

Battery usage improved (when flowing and when not in use)

Performance of flowing and tapping improved

Longpress of bottom-right (smiley/enter) button now works

Fixed some force close issues

Fixed some memory leaks

Predictions not lost when changing keyboard layout (e.g to symbols)

Fixed DOuble CApitalization issue

Things to be aware of:

Flowing currently only works in fields where you see the prediction bar: in fields that have their own prediction or completion there is no prediction bar and therefore no Flow (e.g.

Jan

Tile Launcher Beta Makes Your Android Homescreen Feel A Little More Windows Phone-y

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Whether you use Windows Phone or not, chances are at some point you're going to have to get used to the concept of tiles. Microsoft's putting them everywhere. On your Xbox, PC, tablet... They're unavoidable. If you like the idea of tiles over icons, though, here's an app you might want to try out: Tile Launcher Beta. While it's not quite a clone of the MS-borne smartphone interface (for example, you can still have a custom background), it does place brightly colored squares on a continuous scrolling homescreen.

You know...it kinda grows on you. While I've never been a huge fan of the Windows Phone interface as is, the tiles here are pretty slick and, as in the left-hand screenshot above, with some custom icon tweaking they can be made to look gorgeous.