Apps/Games - 350/409 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Latest SwiftKey Keyboard Beta Hits VIP Members, Offers Much Improved Prediction And Finally Adds Option For Arrow Keys

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Even though SwiftKey has always been my favorite keyboard in theory, I've never been able to truly make the move from the HTC keyboard on my EVO to it for one reason - it didn't have arrow keys exposed on the main screen. Prediction was also about the same - sometimes worse, sometimes better, so I stuck with the HTC stock offering, giving SwiftKey's new versions a try here and there.

Everything changed with the new beta that was just sent to VIP members (if you are one of them, you can grab the download link from here). Not only is the new prediction engine much better than before, but there is finally a checkbox in the options for arrow keys that users without trackballs need so badly.

Mar

Meet Scoreloop - A Helping Hand For iOS Game Developers To Come To Android

Posted by Will Shanklin in Games, News

The future of Android gaming is looking very bright these days. Just a day after news came that portions of a $100 million Chinese fund would be devoted to helping iOS developers port their games to Android, another company, Scoreloop, has revealed its own very different approach to the same goal. Scoreloop's method is to offer an entire assistance program that holds the hands of devs every step of the way from Cupertino to Mountain View.

If you run a business that offers a platform to handle the social elements of mobile games, you would naturally want to expand your business with new developer clients.

Mar

Another New RSS App? Feedly Is One That May Be Worth Checking Out

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

With no shortage of RSS reader apps in the Android Market, it's getting pretty hard for a new one to grab our attention. However, Feedly, which now has a (beta) version available in the Android Market, does manage to stand out above most of the crowd.

Having been available for some time as both a desktop browser extension and an iOS app, Feedly sports an extremely simple interface and syncs with your Google Reader account. Rather than presenting a text-only list of headlines, you get a full-screen view of your first item, complete with pictures, headlines, and the very beginning of the post.

Mar

Ticketing Marketplace StubHub Gets Punched Into The Android Market

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

Say you have some extra tickets to next week's A Flock of Seagulls concert that you want to unload, but you don't particularly want to stand outside of the gate four hours early, calling out "Need tickets?". Starting today, your Android phone can save you the time and humiliation. StubHub, the world's largest ticketing marketplace, has released an app into the Android Market.

Bought by eBay in 2007, StubHub is an online venue for buying and selling second-hand tickets. The popular website has been around for over 10 years, and thankfully, the new Android app does exactly what you would expect it to.

Mar

Has Your Android Market Been Automatically Updated To Allow The Featured Area To Scroll Up? [POLL]

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, Off-Topic, Polls

Last Updated: September 3rd, 2011

Some of us noticed today that our Android Market received an OTA update to v2.3.4 sometime last night. Before, when on the main page of the Market, the big 'Featured' section at the top would stay put. Now, we scroll down and - poof! - it vanishes (though, only on the main page and not on Apps/Games/etc pages for some reason).

This got us wondering how many of you have found the new Market change in place. We asked around a little and found we weren't the only ones. In fact, some of you had received it a long time ago.

Mar

[App Giveaway] 1 VPN Is A 1-Click VPN Widget That Can Save Your Passwords - Win 1 of 20 Free Licenses ($3 Each)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Contests / Giveaways

Last Updated: May 4th, 2011

This contest is now over. We have selected the winners - see if you are one of them towards the bottom of the page.

One of my greatest annoyances with Android, as a developer and an employee having to connect to my company's VPN, is the complete lack of attention to usability of VPN-related activities. Not only is it impossible to pull out a widget to connect to a VPN server, but Google apparently thought it wasn't useful (and so insecure that it shouldn't even be an option) to add the ability to save the VPN password. Sure, it's more secure to type it up every time, but I give you 3 tries before you want to pull out your hair, especially on a shaky connection.

Mar

MIUI Weather Beta 1 Now Available For Download - And It's Every Bit As Beautiful As You'd Expect

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Development, News

Fans of ~~the iPhone~~ MIUI should be happy to hear that Beta 1 of MIUI Weather has been released to the public, and can now be downloaded in APK form. It looks every bit as beautiful as what we've come to expect from MIUI, and is done in a style to match other MIUI offerings (namely, the browser, ROM, and clock).

The app does have geolocation, but users need to download different APKs depending on their region - for example, there's an APK specifically for Europe, and there are 5 for the US (broken up alphabetically).

Mar

[Review] Texty Brings Texting To Your Computer Because You're Not Texting Enough Already

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

If you're anything like me, you text constantly. There are times, however, that I put my phone down and hop on the computer to do some more in-depth tasks or just enjoy some good, old-fashioned big-screen browsing. When I'm doing that, it's usually a pain to receive a text message, have to dig out my phone, open the messaging app, and use a tiny keyboard to reply, even though I'm sitting at a much larger, easier to use keyboard. Well, that's not a problem anymore - now I've got Texty.

Texty is an app that will forward your text messages directly from your phone to your desktop (specifically, Chrome) using cloud magic and allow you to reply from your computer through your phone's messaging app.

Mar

PSA: Infected "Android Market Security Tool March 2011" App Floating Around

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

It seems evil-doers' depravity knows no bounds: we've just heard word from Symantec that an infected version of Google's Android Market Security Tool March 2011 is floating around the "black markets" - meaning it's not in the Android Market, but it is floating around the 'net in APK form. Luckily, it's not nearly as bad as DroidDream (the malware it was designed to remove), but it's malware nonetheless.

Specifically, Justin says it's closely related to (or possibly the same as) "Fake 10086" malware. Asian users seem to be getting the brunt of it, and it collects information such as IMEI, phone number, and other minor tidbits, which it then uploads to this site.

Mar

Love For Android! Portions Of $100 Million Fund Set Aside To Help Indie Devs Port From iOS To Android

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

If you are an indie developer who has had success with iOS apps, your prospects of porting your work to Android may have just improved. Social gaming platform OpenFeint and Chinese game operator The9 have committed unknown portions of a staggering $100 million fund to help move things along. The two companies will review games based on quality, downloads, and the strength of the game developer to determine who the lucky beneficiaries will be.

It was reported elsewhere that an entire $100 million was being allocated exclusively for porting from iOS to Android, but that was a misinterpretation: the $100 million Fund9 also supports "mobile app, game engine, and platform technology developers around the world." It is currently unknown exactly what portion of this will be devoted to Android development, but we certainly welcome any of it as good news.