OffTopic - 12/13 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Nov

And The Winner Of The T-Shirt Design Contest Is… This Guy.

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Off-Topic

Last Updated: May 4th, 2011

About a month and a half ago, we announced our biggest contest yet - your creativity expressed as an official Android Police t-shirt design in exchange for an Android phone, courtesy of Samsung.

The contest went on for about 3 weeks and the results exceeded my wildest expectations. Countless submissions later, many sleepless nights of doing final edits, emailing back and forth with the authors, and organizing the apparel store, I had narrowed down the submissions to... are you ready for this? 29 final designs - designs that I would be proud to wear every day, showing my Android pride.

I must apologize again for taking this long - we hit a few snags, and learning from this experience, next time, I will make sure to come up with an even more detailed set of rules.

Nov

The Real Reason To Use The 8pen Keyboard [Comic]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Off-Topic

Does everyone remember the new keyboard called 8pen that arrived earlier this month and took the Android community by storm, both negatively and positively? I don't think I've ever witnessed so many widely different opinions about whether a keyboard is completely useless or a work of a genius until 8pen came out. Brian, for example, loves it, and I absolutely despise it.

There is one reason to install and use this rotary keyboard, however, and it is a good one. Even better, it comes in the best kind of comics - the fffffuuuuuuuuuuuuu kind.

Full credit goes to soco_and_lime over at reddit.

Nov

Resistance Is Futile: Android Assimilates Your Gmail Inbox

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in News, Off-Topic

Small bit of news, but useful for those of us firmly entrenched in the Android fan club: Google has released an official Android skin for Gmail. Changes are light - mainly consisting of light gray circuits on a white background, and an infusion of green for highlights.

_{All your Gmails are belong to us.}

To select the theme, open up your Gmail on your PC and head to Settings (top right), then Themes. Then, select the Android theme - should be on the bottom row, third from the right.

I'm using the theme now, and it's surprisingly easy on the eyes - there's a lot less bright green than you'd imagine based on the above screenshot.

Nov

What Is The Best Android Music Player? [Poll]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Editorials, Off-Topic

Last Updated: December 13th, 2010

As the Android platform celebrated its 2nd birthday last month, I thought now would be a good time to take a step back and look at all the music players available on the Market right now. Only a year ago, there were just a couple of worthy contenders, but now we have a choice of more than a dozen very good and popular apps and a few hundred not so popular ones. It's easy to get lost, isn't it?

What I'm looking for is not just a vote for the best app but also your reasoning for why it deserves to be #1.

Oct

Rovio Launches Pre-orders For An Angry Birds Plush Toy Collection [Bonus: Angry Birds Halloween Pics]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Off-Topic

Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds, one of the most successful franchises to hit mobile gaming, is slowly starting to spread into our daily lives outside of our mobile devices. No, I'm not talking about all the Halloween awesomeness that we've been seeing today:

I am talking about the official Angry Birds plush toys that just dropped for pre-order. These furry little things are produced by Commonwealth Toys and come in 5 different versions. They cost $14.99 a pop, measure 8" in size, and will be ready to ship by December, just in time for New Years and Christmas gift giving.

Oct

Android Absolutely Destroys Apple, Microsoft, Palm, And Blackberry In WSJ's "Who Makes The Best Mobile OS" Poll

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Off-Topic

Last week, the Wall Street Journal posted a public poll asking its readers to pick the best mobile operating system maker. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Palm, RIM/Blackberry, and Other were valid options, with Apple leading at about 55% at the time. Noticing this, Android Police along with reddit and other media publications issued a call to action:

The next day, Android and Apple traded places, and the former started leading by a small margin.

Fast forward a week, and I decided to check back with the poll to see how it is doing... I will just leave the following here without any commentary - the results speak for themselves*:

What can I say?!

Oct

Android Community Keeps Growing - Reddit.com’s Android SubReddit Now 20,000 Strong!

Posted by Android Police Team in News, Off-Topic

Dear /r/android,

We couldn't help noticing that as of a few minutes ago, the Andreddit community reached a nice, healthy, round number 20,000. What this means is 20,000 of you clicked the little button from your reddit accounts and are regularly getting Android stories mixed into your front page.

You have helped a lot with our continued growth and have proven yourself as a great source of news, readership, and participation. In fact, some of you even went as far as joining our ranks - Brad Ganley and Brett Gmoser, we're looking at you (the door is always open for more).

Oct

Bug In Angry Birds Lets You Unlock All Locked Worlds

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Games, News, Off-Topic, Tips & Tutorials

Have you ever wanted to peek ahead to those locked worlds in Angry Birds that are unavailable before fully completing the previous ones? A bug (or an Easter egg) in the Android version of the game lets you do just that, a reddit user braaaiins found. I tried it just a few minutes ago with 100% success.

Of course, many would argue that you should be going in order and playing the way Rovio meant for you to play, and I'd agree with them. However, there will always be people who would also find this unlock useful (lost game progress, new phone, angrybirdyism, etc), so I'll just put this here, and you can quietly walk away.

Oct

Coming Soon To CyanogenMod: Drunk Mode

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Development, News, Off-Topic

Remember when a new piece of code hit Gmail Labs called Mail Goggles - the one that made you do a few math problems before emailing somebody at pre-determined time-frames (such as late at night on the weekends)? Today, Brian was browsing the CyanogenMod (CM) Gerrit and noticed a new series of code - similar to Mail Goggles - has been added: Drunk Mode.

As I'm not a developer, I haven't the slightest idea how it works (and Brian is "in drunk mode" himself) - but I'd guess the "professional" in the description provides something of a hint. Also noteworthy: it has yet to be officially approved, although Cyanogen himself seems to be on-board with it, saying "This is hilarious and awesome, and I would take this feature..."

Now if only they could figure out something to prevent beer goggles....

Oct

[Hump Day Lollerskates] Samsung Galaxy Tab Shipping With Porn Button In Romania

Posted by Brad Ganley in Galaxy Tab, News, Off-Topic

In a hilarious display of linguistic differences, the Romanian Samsung Galaxy Tab will ship with an app drawer that looks like this:

If this doesn't make you want a Galaxy Tab, I don't know what will.

In all seriousness, though, the Romanian word for "Start" is "Pornire" and, apparently, gets abbreviated as "Porn" quite regularly. I guess that makes sense, but it's still pretty entertaining in my book. I'm not sure how Samsung is going to feel about it in the long run but,for now, we can get some laughs at the language barrier's expense.

Here's a video of the Romanian Galaxy Tab's porn button in action, if you're interested: