Apps/Games - 355/390 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Dec

Google Maps Update Bringing 3D Buildings, Offline Caching "In A Matter Of Days"

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, News

After Andy Rubin showed off a Honeycomb-running Motorola tablet, he proceeded to demo the latest version of Google Maps. The update promises a 3D viewing mode, compass orientation, and offline caching of maps. But, perhaps best of all, Rubin claimed that "it'll be on cellphones in a matter of days."

The biggest change is the ability to render 3D buildings at the street level. Because it will render vectors instead of tiles, maps will supposedly load several times faster, no matter how fast your connection is. Vectors are also easier to store than tiles, which will allow offline caching of maps, even entire cities.

Dec

[Review] Google Books for Android: Reading Just Got Better

Posted by David Ruddock in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

What is Google eBooks?

Google unveiled its long-awaited eBook store this morning. What makes it different from, say, the Amazon eBook store? Well, sheer selection of titles for one: Google's eBooks has debuted with over 3 million pieces of literature to choose from - including a vast library of free and public domain materials, many of which you won't find anywhere else (trust me). It would appear Google's massive digitalization efforts have paid off.

Perhaps more exciting is that Google has simultaneously made available its Books application on a range of devices - Android included, of course. But, if you're stuck with a piece of iOS hardware, there's no need to fret, the Books app can be found in the Apple App Store.

Dec

[Updated] "Similar"/"Related" Tabs Appearing In The Market For Android Users

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Last Updated: December 4th, 2010

Update: ~~Looks like it's not~~ We're not sure if it's the Flash update that does it - that was just a coincidence for Brian and utcarbs (update: And Bateluer in the comments). We're also not sure which phones this is affecting... I've tried updating Flash on my EVO, as well as uninstalling and reinstalling, to no avail. --Aaron

Update #2: As I expected, this is definitely not related to Flash. I updated Flash yesterday and didn't get the new tab. Today, I updated some random programs and the tab showed up. I'm pretty sure the Market UI is server-side, so checking the Market app's version does not help (my /system/app/Vending.apk is 1.82).

Dec

Theft Aware Giveaway - Win 1 of 20 Free Licenses (EUR10 Each)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Contests / Giveaways

Last Updated: December 12th, 2010

Ingenious apps come out very rarely, but when they do, I make sure to have them installed on all my Android phones and recommend them to everyone I know. Theft Aware is one such app, as you may have already found out if you've read my review. It hides itself in your phone so well, especially if it's rooted, that unless the thief installs a whole new ROM (a hard reset doesn't remove Theft Aware on rooted phones) or knows you are running Theft Aware for a fact, you will be able to track your device for as long as it has battery life.

Dec

Official Google Reader Android App Now In The Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Completely unexpectedly and without much fanfare, Google just dropped its official Google Reader app into the Market. I gave it a quick look and found that it's basically a great interface to the mobile version, lacking any advanced features (such as pre-caching) or settings.

The 3 great things about it are:

Google Reader login integration, which uses your phone's built-in Google auth, after you grant it permission. This means the app never asks for login credentials.
The app syncs everything with the web version very seamlessly.
It's fast and doesn't hang anywhere, unlike gReader.

Now the bad things:

As far as I can tell, there's no pre-caching or any kind of cache control at all.

Dec

Rovio Releases Angry Birds Seasons With 70 New Christmas And Halloween Levels [Hands-On]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News

Just as promised, Rovio, the maker of the oh-so-popular Angry Birds, released a separate game called Angry Birds Seasons today, which contains 45 Halloween levels, previously only available on iOS, as well as 25 Christmas levels.

I haven't spotted any new birds yet, and I doubt they've added any, but I'm sure a few hours later, when you all finish every level, you will let us know. Oops, I take that back - the snow levels are available one per day, starting today, all the way through December 25th (see the last screenshot to see what happens if you try to click on day 2).

Dec

Been Lusting After Wireless Syncing? Here It Is - It's Called Airsync [Hands-On]

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Last Updated: January 11th, 2011

If you're like me, you've been longing for cable-free syncing ever since you got your Android phone. Well, the wait has now ended, thanks to doubleTwist, otherwise known as the iTunes of Android devices.

Their latest update includes a handy new feature called AirSync, which does exactly what its name implies: it syncs your music, videos, and photos over the air. The desktop client and the regular Android app (both of which you'll need for AirSync to work) are still 100% free, but the AirSync feature itself will cost you $4.99 (on sale for $0.99 until 10,000 people download it).

Nov

Samsung Captivate And Vibrant Finally Get GPS "Fix" Via GPSSamsungRestore App

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Apps/Games, AT&T, Captivate, News, Samsung

The Galaxy S phones are, without a doubt, among the best Android phones out there, but for some time now, the handsets have been plagued by one potential showstopper - malfunctioning GPS capabilities. Worry not, though - in addition to an update that rolled out a few months ago, Samsung has developed an app called GPSSamsungRestore which is now available from the Android Market for all users of AT&T's Captivate and T-Mobile's Vibrant. So what does it do? It undoes any modifications to the GPS and basically reverts it to its original state. While it remains to be seen how reverting the GPS to its original, broken state fixes it, I suppose it can't hurt to give it a shot if you're a Captivate or Vibrant owner.

Nov

Last Week's Best New Android Apps And Games (11/22/10 - 11/29/10)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Best Apps/Games/LWPs Of The Week, Games, News

Last Updated: April 13th, 2011

Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications and games that went live in the Market in the previous week or so. This roundup is a day late, apologies for that - the Theft Aware review stole a lot of my time.

Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the AppBrain widgets.

Best New Android Apps

Team Viewer

Team Viewer is a remote access app done really well. For some reason it's not available on the Market and can be downloaded here: http://teamviewer.com/download/mobile.aspx. See our review of Team Viewer here: [Review] TeamViewer Lets You Remotely Control Your Friends’ Computers, And It Does It Well

Solipskier

Solipskier is a fast paced skiing game where you draw the slopes to pick up speed and do jumps.

Nov

Winamp 0.9.2 With Shoutcast Support Now In The Market

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

Winamp feels incomplete without Shoutcast radio streaming support, and 2 weeks ago, some folks at DownloadSquad got their hands on a private beta version that had just that. Fast forward to today, and you can finally download the new Shoutcast-enabled v0.9.2 from the Market.

Top stations, search, favorites, recent, and genre browsing are all there and work exactly as expected. Now if only we could play custom .pls playlists, such as the one di.fm premium generates, I would be on cloud 9.

Grab the latest version of Winamp from the Market by clicking the QR code below on your mobile or scanning it with Barcode Scanner: