Welcome to the weekly roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Market or were spotted by us in the previous 2 months or so.
This edition focuses only on new tablet apps or ones that added Honeycomb support. Regular apps and games are coming soon.
The amount of tablet-centric apps in the last few weeks has been abysmal, so I decided to skip the tablet roundup a few times.
For Tablets
Minor Lords: Archibald & Remus
Archibald and Remus have been kicked out of their castle and now they need to find a home... although they're not the only ones looking for somewhere to live! The two friends tour the medieval countryside, squatting in any empty castles they find along the way but as darkness falls, enemy lords, evil knights and even wild animals are trying to find somewhere to spend the night too. Help Archibald and Remus defend their new stronghold by building a range of crazy contraptions to take out the enemies, including catapults, towers that shoot rabid badgers and swarms of angry bees. Plus, collect gold to upgrade the defences so you're ready to stop the bosses bashing your gates down. It's the perfect slice of medieval mayhem.
Finger Gravity HD
Designed for tablet:1280 x 800, requires Android: 3.0 or later. Want to prove your talent in hand-brain coordination? Just challenge this game. In a world without gravity, you will bump into various monsters on your way to destination. Use your fingers as the motor engine and steering wheel, and drive as fast as possible to finish the race. Hi, boy, drift like a racing car! Aside from simple and stuning game graphics, a variety of challenging stages, brand new challenge modes and diversified mini games are waiting for you.
facedroid (Tablet Facebook) by Platinum Apps
The best way to access Facebook on your Android tablet. facedroid is an easy, intuitive and fun application designed specifically for Android Honeycomb AND ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0) tablets, taking full advantage of this powerful new operating system and the larger screen sizes AND includes realtime chat.
Traces for HTC Pen Tablets
Start with an existing image on your tablet, or take a picture of a person or a scene. Then by tracing over it before removing the original picture, you end up with a great looking sketch. With "Traces" one can look like the next Picasso! Create astonishing caricatures and artworks that are clearly hand drawn and not computer generated. Save your creation on your tablet or share it with your friends on your social networks, by email, or via Bluetooth. Create avatars for your social networks images, or draw a preview of a remodeling project, or ... The possibilities are endless and only limited by your imagination.
***THIS VERSION ONLY WORKS WITH HTC PEN TABLETS***
Rumpus
The first Music Discovery application designed for the Android Tablet. Find info on every album your favorite band has ever made. Discover who their influences are and who they've influenced. Who's in the band? Watch all your favorite videos. Delve much deeper than you've ever imagined.
Why we built this app:
This app was born from a desire to have a place where one could go to discover new music. For a long time now, we felt the process of finding new music was limited to the cr@ptastic recommendation engines of online music stores or the narrow minded playlist of commercial radio. If I heard something I liked, sure I could Shazam it or go to Soundhound, but If a friend recommended something new, we had to do a deep dive into Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube to get a decent feel. If I wanted to Discovr something new but similar to our tastes, all we had to rely on was the autobot of Pandora. No longer do you have to be the passive listener.. This app gives you the control to find and enjoy the music you like.
MetroFax Mobile HD
MetroFax Mobile HD 3.0 is the free companion for the MetroFax Internet faxing service. Never miss a fax and send faxes wherever you are. You can even fax images from your Android tablet.
MetroFax offers:
- Dedicated local or toll-free fax number
- No activation, minimum usage, or early termination fees
- Plans to meet every budget
- Send faxes from your device or files in the cloud — Box.net, Dropbox, Google Docs and SugarSync supported
- Send a fax optimized image from your Android device camera
- View sent faxes
- Use contact information on your tablet to address faxes
- Forward faxes to another fax number or email address
- Resend a fax
- Fax image preview
- Support for HP ePrint
- Push notifications via Google Cloud to device
SHADOWGUN THD
Android Police coverage: [Update: Now Available In The Market] NVIDIA Posts Gameplay Video For Tegra 3 Edition Of Shadowgun, We Gape In Admiration
Android Police review: Game Review: Shadowgun Is The Most Advanced Shooter On Android To Date, And It's Out Now
The Tegra 3-optimized version of Shadowgun features console-quality water, enhanced rag-doll physics, particle effects, enhanced shaders and dynamic textures. These are only possible using Tegra 3's multi-core capabilities, and they make for a truly immersive and realistic gaming experience.
Google Currents
Android Police coverage: Google Introduces 'Currents' - A New Way To Enjoy Your Favorite Sites On The Go
Did you subscribe to the Android Police Edition on Google Currents?
Google Currents delivers beautiful magazine-like editions to your tablet and smartphone for high speed offline reading. Editions are all free and include:
- Publisher editions - Publishers such as Forbes, Techcrunch, Saveur, Popular Science, Good, 500px, Fast Company and more have produced hundreds of editions including in-depth articles, videos, fine photography, slideshows, live-maps, and social streams.
- Google trending editions - Google Currents uses Google search technology to hourly build a set of editions tracking the five most recent trending stories in categories such as world, entertainment, sports, science, and more. Each story is presented through a fresh edition of articles, videos, and pictures,
- Your favorite blogs and feeds - Instantly, turn your Google Reader subscriptions, or any of your favorite blogs/feeds into a beautiful edition with a magazine feel.
Each edition is available for high speed offline reading, and provides quick-touch sharing. Google Currents self-adapts to differently sized phones and tablets, with your subscriptions synchronized across devices. Google Currents - a reading experience not to be missed.
OnLive
Android Police coverage: OnLive Comes To Android, Delivers High Quality Games To Your Device Any Time, Anywhere
Android Police coverage: OnLive Demoed On HTC Flyer With New Universal Wireless Controller
OnLive cloud gaming is a revolutionary new concept in video games that instantly delivers the latest top-tier high-performance games on demand through the Internet to your Android tablet or phone with the simplicity of streaming video. The Universal OnLive Wireless Controller requires at least Android 3.1 Honeycomb and has been tested with the Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Toshiba Thrive.
- On Demand Gaming No big downloads, no limits on performance. With OnLive, gamers have instant access to console-class games, running on OnLive’s powerful servers in the cloud, and streaming video to your tablet or phone. You can start playing a high-end game within seconds of signing on. Even if you don’t own any games, OnLive provides free demos of nearly all games offered on the service.
- Access Everywhere Play OnLive games anywhere, anytime on almost any OnLive-compatible device, whether tablet, phone, TV or computer. Your games, saves and user profile are always stored in the cloud so you start a game on one device, and continue where you left off on another—even multiplayer gameplay is cross-platform. Build your library without taking up any space on your Android device.
- Unique Game Platform Experiences Watch live games being played worldwide in OnLive’s exclusive massive spectating Arena, find your friends and set up multiplayer matches, or post Brag Clip™ videos of your greatest moments to your OnLive profile or Facebook wall. With OnLive you never have to worry about game updates, backups or the performance capabilities of your local device. Just play games. Instantly.
- Play with Touch or OnLive Wireless Controller Play OnLive’s growing library of touch-compatible games on your Android tablet or phone, or get the Universal OnLive Wireless Controller (check compatibility list above) at www.onlive.com/store for a full hands-on console experience compatible with most OnLive games.
Expedia Hotels - Book a Room
Get a great deal tonight at over 130,000 hotels in 20,000 cities worldwide! Android tablet owners: Expedia Hotels is now optimized for your tablet so you can see all the details of every hotel on one screen and find the right room quickly. Cancelled flight? Road trip? Family getaway? Find a room anywhere in the world and book in 4 taps.
Features:
• Optimized for tablets with a rich, beautiful interface
• Find amazing deals at 130,000 hotels worldwide
• Swipe through gorgeous, hi-res photos of hotels and see lobbies, rooms, pools and more
• See all available hotels in your vicinity using GPS location
• Book a room for tonight or book your stay weeks out
• Filter by price, distance, hotel name, and traveler rating
• Compare multiple hotel details and locations in just one tap
• Localized for 19 languages
• Book securely in just four taps
• Read honest reviews from 4 million travelers
• View amenities and descriptions for every hotel
• Book once with the app, and your info is saved for faster future bookings
TouchPal Keyboard Tablet
TouchPal Keyboard Tablet is specially designed for Android tablets. You can split or resize the keyboard using gestures, or try the new slide input using TouchPal Curve. It also supports the latest Android 4.0 ICS. If you have an Android tablet, TouchPal Keyboard Tablet is a must-have for you. TouchPal is the GSMA Mobile Innovation Award winner.
MoreQuicklyPanel
Check and Toggle status MORE QUICKLY at any time from a notification panel. MoreQuicklyPanel is a toggle widget stays at a notification panel.
Only for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 3.x Honeycomb.
Tablet Remote
Tablet Remote let you control an Android tablet or phone with another Android device. You can send common input like "Back", "Home", "Menu" or "Search" to the tablet, control its volume and brightness and also type words. You can navigate in the other device like a DPad and send special command like "Play", "Next" or "Previous" which is very useful when watching a movie. You can play games that support key input with the gamepad like most Xperia Play compatible games. Oh, your phone doesn't need to be rooted, it's free and there's no ads, please enjoy.
Aldiko Book Reader Premium
Aldiko, one of the top book management/reader apps on Android, now supports tablets.
BBC News
The BCC News UK app now also supports tablets.
Know A Worthy New App? Let Us Know!
If you have an application in mind for the next issue of the roundup, feel free to send us an email and let us know.
Important: there are 2 requirements in order for the app to be considered, listed below.
- the app's launch date has to be no longer than 2 weeks ago
- it has to be original, ground-breaking, well-reviewed, interesting, fun, etc - the cream of the crop
Now, if and only if the above requirements have been satisfied, fire up an email to this address: oh.no.its.the@androidpolice.com.
1 sponsored placement per week is available (your app would be featured at the top and marked as sponsored) - please contact us for details.