Apps/Games - 52/395 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

[New Game] City Conquest Is An Innovative Mix Of Tower Defense, Tower Offense, And Real Time Strategy

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, News

If you're looking for something new in the stagnating world of tower defense, this is it. City Conquest turns the genre on its head, by forcing players to defend their own territory and attack others simultaneously, with a combination of real-time and turn-based gameplay. It's a bit hard to wrap your head around, but trust me, the experience is well worth the effort. City Conquest is a free download in the Play Store (ad-supported, no in-app purchases) for devices running Android 4.0 or later with a resolution of at least 960x720.

Like the RTS games of yore, each round starts with a Capitol (town center/nexus/construction yard) for both players.

Mar

[New App] Opera Browser Beta, With Ground-Up Redesign And Webkit Rendering Engine, Is Live In The Play Store

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

Get those fingers ready, Opera fans: the biggest thing to happen to your favorite mobile browser in years has arrived. Opera Software announced a new and retooled version of their browser in February, and demonstrated it during Mobile World Congress. The Opera browser beta (no Mini or Mobile here, it's the "full" version a la Chrome) is live in the Play Store. It's a free download for just about any Android device, so get to it.

The biggest draw in this new release is the WebKit rendering engine, the same one used by both Chrome and the AOSP Android browser.

Mar

Open Garden 2.0 Comes With Channel Bonding, Enhanced Reliability, Same User-Friendly Mesh Networking

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Everyone's favorite mesh networking startup Open Garden today announced its 2.0 refresh at LAUNCH festival, having allegedly already served 2.1 million installs since version 1.

Readers would be forgiven for not remembering exactly what Open Garden is, or why it's interesting – we last covered the app in its beta stage.

Basically, the idea behind Open Garden is to create ubiquitous internet access by linking various smart devices together and sharing a common internet connection in a mesh network. For example, if your smartphone is connected to the internet, Open Garden would allow you to create a mesh network to which your tablet, another phone, a PC, or all of the above could connect.

Mar

Photoshop Touch For Phone Review: Worth The Price, Even If You've Already Paid It

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, Reviews

When we first covered Adobe's "new" Photoshop Touch for smartphones, we were skeptical - after all, the tablet version wasn't cheap, a and an extra five bucks for what was essentially the same app seemed like a bit of a rip-off. (Adobe isn't exactly known for their reasonable pricing in any case.) But after using it extensively, I can say that not only is it worth every penny, it's worth it even if you already own the tablet version.

I don't say that lightly - in a former life I was a graphic designer, and I've paid entirely too much money to this particular company over the years.

Mar

Twitter Will Kill TweetDeck Android App (And Air App, And Facebook Integration) In May, Stops Caring If You Think They're Evil

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Applications, News

It's a widely-known fact that Google's unofficial motto when it comes to potential monopolies, privacy violations, and other slightly gray areas of technological ethics is "don't be evil." Lately it seems like Twitter is taking the opposite approach. The latest victim of their incredibly frustrating corporate policy is TweetDeck, the once-loved power app for Twitter that was acquired by the service itself in 2011. In a rambling post on the official TweetDeck website, the developers mentioned that they are ending support for the Android version (as well as the iPhone and Adobe Air versions, and Facebook integration) in May.

The reason for TweetDeck's less-than-graceful exit from the mobile world is obvious: Twitter would rather you use their official app.

Mar

Canadian Start-Up Mobiroo Introduces "All You Can App" Subscription Service For Android Apps

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

There are a lot of Android users that don't much care for buying paid apps. This is doubly true since the old 24-hour return windows was replaced with a comparatively small 15-minute one. A company called Mobiroo seems to think it has the solution: subscribe to an all-you-can-download service for paid apps. It's a little bit like Netflix for apps, and it only costs $2.49 per-month. Of course, that's only a good deal if the service offers apps you actually want.

Mobiroo is essentially a third-party app store that has forged deals with various Android developers to include their content.

Mar

[Update: The Widget Is Back] Stitcher Radio App Gets Major 3.0 Update - Complete UI Overhaul, Major Performance Improvements, And More

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Last Updated: March 5th, 2013

Update (3/5/13): The latest update to Stitcher Radio (3.0.1) has added back the much-needed homescreen widget with playback controls.

Popular talk radio app Stitcher received a doozy of an update this morning - it's now sporting a brand-new UI, significant streaming and stability enhancements, and rich notifications on Android 4.1+.

The new version brings Stitcher into line with some of the more modern Android app design paradigms, including the adoption of an action bar, tabs, and a generally more holo UI. You can get the update on the Play Store right now.

Stitcher Radio

QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stitcher.app

Mar

Koush's Open Source Superuser App Goes Live In The Play Store

Posted by Cody Toombs in Applications, Development, News

In an almost superhero-like act, Koushik Dutta (a.k.a. Koush of ROM Manager fame) has pushed his completely rewritten Superuser app to the Play Store just 15 days after first announcing it on Google+. This version introduces several improvements upon the original Superuser. In the last two weeks, the feature list has grown to include fully functioning multi-user support, secure PIN protection, and support for the x86 and ARM architectures. Additionally, the interface has been revitalized with a clean looking Holo theme and a tablet UI.

Koush didn't stop there – he also added a feature to make root-seeking apps more visible.

Mar

gReader Gets A Makeover In The Latest Beta, Brings Holo To Your RSS Feed

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Last Updated: March 4th, 2013

It's no secret that we're big fans of gReader here at AP, and the latest beta makes us love it even more, as it brings a complete UI overhaul to the application. The dev has redesigned the app to follow the Android Design Guidelines, so it's all Holo-ed out. And it looks fantastic.

As you can see, the new interface ditches the dark-ish theme to go with Holo light, which looks great and feels faster and more fluid. The overall layout of the app hasn't changed that much, with most buttons remaining in the same place as they were before.

Mar

Evernote Experiences Security Breach, Resets Passwords As A Precaution

Posted by Cody Toombs in Applications, News

The problem with relying on cloud services is that they are prime targets for hackers. Earlier today, popular note-storing service Evernote acknowledged that it had detected "suspicious activity" on the network. In its blog post, Evernote specified that the intruder(s) had only gained access to account details, including usernames, email addresses, and encrypted passwords. The announcement further clarified that passwords are protected with one-way encryption, a process where a password is first salted and then hashed to make decryption extraordinarily difficult. The company also states that no content (stored notes and pictures) or payment information had been compromised. Aside from email addresses, the wrong-doers failed to get anything particularly valuable.