News - 811/945 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Dec

How To: Customize Your WidgetLocker Lockscreen

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Development, News

Many people who use custom themes or launchers are familiar with WidgetLocker. What many people don't realize, though, is that customizing WidgetLocker itself is a fairly straightforward task. Better still, there are plenty of existing customizations available, meaning that you have to do little more than shove your modified .PNG files into the APK.

_{Before / After}

Dalton Gore - better known as @colormeandroid - is responsible for gathering the individual mods and creating the guide. While the guide is a little too light on details for newbies, it does provide the luxury of choices - he provides instructions for 5 methods:

How to apply the images:

Personally I recommend using APKManager!

Dec

Firefox 4 Beta For Android Gets Updated, Finally Enters The Market

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

Mozilla's been pretty good about keeping the mobile version of its ever-popular Firefox browser up to date (both with the current beta and with the old Fennec Alpha), and it looks like they have every intention to continue that trend. Just today, the third beta of Firefox 4 went live in the Android Market, bringing a number of minor additions along with it:

Several UI modifications
Easier discovery of add-ons
The ability to save websites as PDFs so you can read them later
Support for complex scripts (i.e. Arabic and Persian) on devices with the appropriate fonts
The ability to copy and paste to and from the URL bar
A simplified setup process for Firefox Sync - less typing is necessary
Bug fixes

Additionally, this is the first release of Firefox for Android that's available in the Android Market, indicating that we are now one step closer to the final, non-beta release of the app.

Dec

OTA Update Fixes Bugs, Brings Latest Version Of Maps To Samsung Nexus S

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Gingerbread 2.3, Google, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), Samsung

The Nexus S may have just been released, and it may be running the latest version of Android - but Samsung and Google aren't holding back on software updates. Instead, the two have teamed up to release the first OTA update for the device, which contains "important bug fixes" as well as the latest version of Google Maps. Don't feel like waiting for the update to hit your device? The file is already available to download from Google's servers, so after this, you can simply flash it as you would any other ZIP file:

After the file is downloaded, rename it to "update.zip".

Dec

Five New OpenFeint-Enabled Titles Launch Today, Six Existing Games Receive Updates With Feint Compatibility

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Games, News

OpenFeint, a social gaming network for Android and iOS users, already comes included with 158 Android games - not too shabby. However, it's about to get even better - five titles completely new to Android are launching today:

Additionally, the following six games have just been updated with OpenFeint compatibility:

Dec

"Android Data" Trademark Withdrawn From Erich Specht, Google Free To Continue Calling Android "Android"

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Google, News

If you were worried that Google would no longer be able to call its mobile operating system "Android," fear not.

From 1998 to 2002, a gentleman by the name of Erich Specht ran a company called "Android Data." Android Data went bankrupt in 2002, and Erich hasn't used the name since. However, when he heard of Google's use of the "Android" name, he put together a website to "prove" that Google had infringed on his trademark. Shortly after, he sued Google, Android Inc., and the Open Handset Alliance for infringing on the name for $94 million.

Luckily for us Android enthusiasts, the judge in charge of the case wasn't convinced and consequently threw both the lawsuit and Erich's original trademark out the window, stating that the latter could result in confusion with Google's trademark and that Erich had used his mark "as a sword" against Google.

Dec

Android Market Updates Continue With New Application And Game Categories

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Android OS, Applications, Apps/Games, Games, News

Continuing with the numerous Android Market updates, Google just refreshed the categories that users can use to filter and browse Market apps and games. The changes are now live on both the backend Developer Console and the live Market.

Here is a table showing the previous and new categories (new categories are in green, modified in yellow):

Previous app categories	New app categories	Previous game categories	New game categories
	Books & Reference	Arcade & Action	Arcade & Action
	Business	Brain & Puzzle	Brain & Puzzle
Comics	Comics	Cards & Casino	Cards & Casino
Communication	Communication	Casual	Casual
	Education		Sports Games
Entertainment	Entertainment
Finance	Finance
Health	*Health & Fitness*
Lifestyle	Lifestyle
Multimedia	*Media & Video*
	Medical
	Music & Audio
News & Weather	*News & Magazines*
	Personalization
	Photography
Productivity	Productivity
Reference
Shopping	Shopping
Social	Social
Sports	Sports
Themes	Themes
Tools	Tools
	Transportation
Travel	*Travel & Local*
Demo
Software Libraries	*Libraries & Demo*
	Weather

A shot of the Developer Console:

Thanks, yuku

Dec

AT&T Will Buy Wireless Spectrum For $1.93 Billion To Expand Its 4G Offerings

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in AT&T, News

AT&T will be purchasing wireless spectrum from Qualcomm, the computer chip manufacturer, for $1.93 billion to provide higher speeds for its 4G network. The spectrum is in the lower 700 MHz frequency band and covers 300 million people in the United States.

The AT&T mobile network has been criticized heavily for some time because of connectivity issues which have caused poor service for its iPhone users. The iPhone uses more data than any feature phone and most smartphones (but not Android phones), so having exclusivity over the phone has put a severe strain on AT&T's network. Customers in heavily populated areas, such as New York City, are known to experience dropped calls and generally slow Internet browsing speeds.

Dec

Gameloft Giving Away Hero Of Sparta For Android For Free Today, December 22nd, 2010 (Reg. $4.99)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Deals, Games, News, Videos

Gameloft, the game publisher with arguably the most advanced Android games, which you, unfortunately, won't find in the Market (I guess they really hate giving Google the 30% fee), announced its latest daily Christmas promotion. On the 22nd day of December, Gameloft is giving away Hero Of Sparta, an RPG with awesome 3D graphics, for absolutely free.

The game's dedicated page lists it at $4.99, but this special url offers the freebie in exchange for your phone number, which Gameloft promises to use exclusively for sending the download link.

While all countries are supported, not all phone models are. Fortunately, Gameloft provides this list of compatible hardware:

HTC Google Nexus One
HTC Desire/Bravo
HTC Incredible
HTC EVO 4G
HTC Desire Z
HTC desire HD
HTC My touch 4G
Motorola Droid
Motorola Droid X
Motorola Droid 2
Motorola Milestone
Motorola Motoroi
Motorola Milestone 2
Motorola Jordan
Samsung Galaxy S
Samsung Vibrant
Samsung Epic 4G
Samsung Fascinate
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

I found it funny that when I read their blog post an hour ago, the game was rated 6/10, and now, only 15-20 votes or so later, it's rated 9/10.

Dec

Fresh ROM v3.5 For EVO 4G Is Out With The Newest OTA, Radio, WiMAX, PRI And Improved Battery Life

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), News, Sprint

It's no secret that my EVO 4G runs a custom ROM called Fresh - it is one of the best EVO ROMs, free of bloatware and full of tweaks that make it fast and efficient, while keeping stability rock solid. The developer, flipz, is very good - he's responsive to Sprint OTA updates and bug reports and usually sorts out any issues in a matter of days.

This article deals with a couple of advanced topics. If you’re unfamiliar with some of the terms, hit up our primers here:

Due to the recent EVO OTA (3.70.651.1), flipz just released the newest version of the ROM, currently 3.5.0.1, also containing the latest HTC kernel, which is said to do wonders to the battery life.

Dec

NexusKang Live Wallpaper App Updated, Now Includes Nexus S Live Wallpaper And Gingerbread Compatibility

Posted by Stephen Tenerowicz in Applications, Apps/Games, Development, News

Earlier today, Kmobs updated the NexusKang live wallpaper app with the Nexus S live wallpaper background, compatibility with Android 2.3, and some bug fixes for good measure. For those unfamiliar with the app, it's pretty damn cool, letting you build customized versions of the standard Nexus live wallpaper found on the Nexus One. Users can choose their own backgrounds and even their own custom colors to fly around the screen. For a custom live wallpaper app, this one is top notch!

If you have any interest in building a custom Nexus live wallpaper, or just want to load the Nexus S live wallpaper on your handset, check the app out by scanning the QR code below or hitting up AppBrain.