Reviews - 58/71 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

[Review] Hextacy: Smash These Hexagons, Because You're Still Being Too Productive

Posted by Brad Ganley in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If there's one thing I hate, it's getting too much work done. Sometimes I just need to slow down and utilize my brain power to find patterns and combinations in a series of colored, hexagon shaped tiles - that's why I was so stoked when I found Hextacy. If you, too, suffer from cripplingly high efficiency, I think I can help. Follow me, and I'll show you how you can feel like you have free time, even at the office.

In all seriousness, though, I need a 12 step program to stop playing Hextacy. It's one of those games in which the graphics aren't mind-blowing, the rules are easy, and the gameplay is so simple that you can't help but devote 100% of your waking life to defeating it.

Mar

[Bootscreen Animation Roundup, Part 1] 5 Bootscreens That Will Really Turn Your Phone On

Posted by Brad Ganley in Android OS, Bootscreen Animation Series, Development, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Let's face it: It sucks waiting for your phone to turn on. It takes too long, and you're forced to watch what is essentially a commercial for your carrier and hardware manufacturer. Well, no more! Here are five bootscreen animations that will make rebooting your phone a much celebrate event! Have your friends gather round and watch at the spectacle that is your phone powering on! Gasp at the twists and turns of pretty images on your screen before your device has even turned on!

If you have no idea how to modify your bootscreen, check out our bootscreen primer.

Mar

[Review] My Taptu: Social Media + News + Eye Candy = Success

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you, like me, are constantly checking what's going on in the world of technology, science, world news, entertainment, gaming, music, and a million other things - on top of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, have I got an app for you. Picture, if you will, an Android app that will aggregate all of these news feeds and your social media streams into a cohesive and, quite frankly, sexy interface. You just imagined My Taptu, my new favorite news reader.

My Taptu's interface is really easy to grasp immediately and adding feeds, modifying the existing feeds, adding your Facebook and Twitter, and sharing all of this information just could not be any easier.

Mar

[Review] Texty Brings Texting To Your Computer Because You're Not Texting Enough Already

Posted by Brad Ganley in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

If you're anything like me, you text constantly. There are times, however, that I put my phone down and hop on the computer to do some more in-depth tasks or just enjoy some good, old-fashioned big-screen browsing. When I'm doing that, it's usually a pain to receive a text message, have to dig out my phone, open the messaging app, and use a tiny keyboard to reply, even though I'm sitting at a much larger, easier to use keyboard. Well, that's not a problem anymore - now I've got Texty.

Texty is an app that will forward your text messages directly from your phone to your desktop (specifically, Chrome) using cloud magic and allow you to reply from your computer through your phone's messaging app.

Mar

Motorola XOOM + Android 3.0 Review: Sweet As Honey

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, Reviews, Tablet Reviews, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

The Motorola XOOM: Ever since it was first teased at D: Dive Into Mobile, the Android community hasn't been able to take its eyes off the tablet's dual-core processor, gorgeous 10.1-inch display, and - last but certainly not least - Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system.

Well now the device has officially gone on sale, and I've been ~~testing~~ falling in love with a review unit for the last few days. Typically, I end up hating devices that I adore at first blush, but the XOOM is an entirely different story - the device is far from perfect (where are the tablet apps?), but I have yet to find anything truly upsetting about it.

Mar

[Updated] App Preview: Friday Is Your Very Own Personal Assistant

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Update: We have been notified by the developers of this app that the app does not upload any information. The information is kept on the phone and organised by the app. In the future there are plans to implement a feature that would allow the information to be uploaded to a backup server. However, at present, information collected by Friday is not shared with anyone including the developer.

Each day a smartphone user receives information from a variety of different sources, including phone calls, text messages and emails. Keeping track of it all can be a major headache and more often than not we misplace crucial pieces of information because we are unable to recall when we had received them and/or what we were doing at the time.

Feb

[Hands-On] Chomp: A New Hope For Finding Apps On Android

Posted by Zak Stinson in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews, Videos

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you are reading this post, it's extremely likely that you have an Android device. If you have an Android, it's 100% certain that you want to pluck out your own eyeballs in rage every time you are forced to use the search feature in the Android Market. Even Market alternatives like AppBrain leave a lot to be desired, with sub-optimal search results and a less than beautiful UI. The sad fact that Google, a company that makes most of its revenue from search and ads, can't seem to provide half-decent results is what motivated the folks behind Chomp to get into Android.

Feb

Thumb Keyboard Is An Epic Win For Tablet Typing [Hands-On]

Posted by Will Shanklin in App Reviews, Applications, Galaxy Tab, NOOKcolor (Encore), Reviews, Tips & Tutorials, XOOM

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

If you caught our review of Thumb Keyboard last month, you'll know the gist of this clever keyboard app that aims to make two-thumbed typing a breeze. It's a novel (and potentially very useful) tool for a phone, but with recent updates that have accentuated the tablet layouts, this has now become my keyboard of choice on large tablet screens, and is a potential game-changer in the new slate arena.

On phones, trace keyboards like Swype and SlideIt are extremely hard to beat in the speed department (world texting records seem to be broken on a regular basis with Swype), but on the wider tablet screen, tracing suddenly becomes much less convenient.

Feb

HTC Desire Z: Long-Term Ownership Hardware Review

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Desire Z (Vision), Devices By Manufacturer, G2 (Vision), HTC, Phone Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Take a look at the top tier of Android phones right now and you might notice something. They all kind of look the same. Black front fascia, large touchscreen, minimal waistline. Boring, right? Well that's just the way things are going. Alternatives to the slate way of living are becoming increasingly rare, which puts the HTC Desire Z with its hardware keyboard in an intriguing light. With its metallic accents and suave grey pallet, the Desire Z cuts a different path. So how do I mean rare? If you want a top-level QWERTY Android phone in the USA you have a fairly limited selection to choose from: Sprint has the Samsung Epic 4G, Verizon the Motorola Droid 2 and T-Mobile the HTC G2.

Feb

Lookout Launches Lookout Labs And Its First Android App - The Ingenious "Plan B" [Hands-On Review]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in App Reviews, Applications, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Lookout Labs

Lookout Inc's Lookout Mobile Security app is one of the most popular and trusted security apps on the Market, and while the company is going to continue active development of its flagship product, today it is launching Lookout Labs - a separate Android Market developer account dedicated to "pushing the bounds of mobile apps."

Plan B

Introduction

The first fruit of Lookout Labs' labor is a brilliantly simple yet very useful app called Plan B. Plan B was only made possible recently, after the release of the official Android web Market. The app is designed to be the last resort for finding a lost (or maybe even stolen - more on that later) phone and getting its latest position emailed to the account associated with the Android Market.