News - 755/941 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

[Update: Rooted? Roll Back To Stock] First Motorola XOOM OTA Update Will Prepare It For The Upcoming Flash 10.2 Release; Rollout Starts Tonight

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Motorola, News, XOOM

As you may know, one of Motorola XOOM's current biggest drawbacks is the absence of Adobe Flash, necessary to view Flash-powered websites and play Flash games. While this feature is widely advertised, Motorola warned us that the tablet would actually ship without Flash support bundled in, but will be updated to include it in a few weeks.

Well, the "in a few weeks" part is almost here, as @Motorola just tweeted that the XOOM's first over-the-air update is slated to start rolling out tonight to get the device fully ready for Flash 10.2. This doesn't mean the Flash Player application will be rolled out - it will likely just show up in the Market when it's ready instead, but it does mean that your XOOM will be ready to have it installed right away.

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

[Deal Alert] Nexus S Only $100 (On Contract) At Best Buy

Posted by Will Shanklin in Deals, News

If you are looking to grab a Nexus S sometime soon, you might want to check out this deal from Best Buy. The retailer has just offered Google's latest flagship phone for $99.99 with a 2-year T-Mobile activation.

The deal on the Gingerbread-running smartphone runs from now until March 23, so you have a couple of weeks to take advantage of it. It looks like you have to be enrolled in Best Buy's Reward Zone program to be eligible and the promo on their website lists the offer as being "in store only." Those interested can head over to Best Buy for details.

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

Market Analyst Rips Honeycomb, Suggests Google Stick To The Web

Posted by Will Shanklin in News

Last Updated: March 14th, 2011

In what is sure to ruffle a few feathers with Android users, a representative of a research company Wednesday sunk his teeth into Google's Android 3.0 'Honeycomb,' saying it is "by the geeks, for the geeks, and of the geeks" (we were confused, as we thought that was a compliment). The analyst left little hope for mass adoption of the new tablet-tailored version of Android.

In his note to investors, Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research said Android 3.0 is doomed to fail next to Apple's iPad 2. He blames Google's background on the web as the culprit for the spanking he expects the OS to take.

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

[Photoshop Fail] Is Orange Trolling Us Or Does Nokia Have An Android Phone?

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, News, Orange

I won't lie: I have no qualms about calling shenanigans on this one, especially considering the recent Nokia/Microsoft alliance. So with that said, let's proceed to examine what is, most likely, the latest entry in the Android Photoshop fail series:

Indeed, it appears that Nokia and Google have overcome their differences and created an almost button-less, Deezer-running Android phone for the masses... or so says Orange. Reality, of course, begs to differ.

Source: PointGPhone (thanks, Adrian)

Mar

Oops - Authorized Verizon Retailer Sends Flyer To Customers Claiming HTC Thunderbolt Is "Now Available"

Posted by Will Shanklin in HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Verizon Wireless

Way to pour salt on your customers' wounds there, ~~Verizon~~ authorized Verizon retailer: pictures have surfaced of a new flyer arriving in customers' homes (obtained by Droid Life) that shows the HTC Thunderbolt with the words "Now Available" beneath it. No, this isn't an unexpected dream come true for Verizon customers, it seems like a flub by an authorized dealer (it's unclear to us which one) that certainly can't help calm the restless natives.

Despite the rhetorical wrangling we heard from a Verizon exec yesterday about being on track with LTE phones, this flyer appears to confirm beyond the shadow of a doubt that Verizon had originally intended for its first LTE smartphone to be available much earlier than that.