Get Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit for free on Galaxy S II

I’ll be honest: there’s not a lot of good reasons to open up Samsung’s custom App Store, an included “bloatware” app that’s been showing up on all its devices for months. But there may just be a good reason now: Samsung is giving away copies of EA’s racing game Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, normally $6.99 in the Android Market, for free, nuthin and gratis. According to SammyHub you’ll need a Galaxy S II to take advantage of the deal.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is the latest in a long line of racing games with a twist. You get the normal race and time attack modes, but a Hot Pursuit mode pits street racers against cops on fictional California highways. You can use deployable spike strips, EMP bursts or just slam your opponents into submission to make it to the finish by any means necessary. The console and PC version of the game got rave reviews, though it’s only got 3.5 out of 5 stars on the Android Market.
Apparently the deal is restricted to certain regions, at least at the moment. The game may be available for free on other phones, but a quick look at our Galaxy S II Skyrocket review unit isn’t showing it at the moment. Note that this is a different (and probably better) game that Need For Speed: Shift, which is included on many Android phones by default.

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Dreamcast favorite ChuChu Rocket comes to Android

Ah, the Sega Dreamcast. A little grey box with a lot of memories. One of the very first titles to appear on Sega’s underdog gaming system was ChuChu Rocket, a puzzle game from the makers of Sonic the Hedgehog. iOS gamers have been playing it for over a year, but Sega‘s done the right thing and brought ChuChu Rocket to the Android Market.

If you’ve never heard of ChuChu Rocket – an unfortunately common occurrence among western gamers – it’s a puzzle game in which the player must guide a torrent of squeaking mice through a minefield of cats and other hazards, by re-directing their motion. In terms that current mobile gamers would understand, it’s kind of like the tower defense genre, except that the goal is to get everyone to the end safely. The original game was one of the very first to take advantage of Internet multiplayer on a console, and has since been ported to the Game Boy Advance.
The Android version looks almost identical to the original, but thanks to high-density screens the graphics actually surpass it. The original 500 levels of ChuChu Rocket are faithfully recreated, though unfortunately the multiplayer element seems to be missing. ChuChu Rocket is only Sega’s second Android game, behind the new RPG Fallen Realms earlier this month. We live in hope of a Sonic Generations or Super Monkey Ball port, but for now, you can pick up ChuChu Rocket for just 99 cents in the Android Market.

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QuickOffice Pro updates to version 5, includes Office 2010 support

One of the most popular office suites on Android is getting a major update today, with some considerable new features. QuickOffice Pro and its tablet version QuickOffice Pro HD get updated to version 5, with a slew of improvements we covered earlier. Among the most important is support for Microsoft’s often frustrating Office 2010 standard.

QuickOffice PRo can now view, edit and save Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, including DOCX, XLSX and PPTX files. It can also view (but not edit) PDF documents. The new version also adds a ton of cloud connectivity features, allowing you to access files on Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote, MobileMe and other syncing services, making it a handy tool for the connected office worker on the go. Other interesting additions include ZIP file support, and an updated interface on smartphones and Honeycomb tablets.
QuickOffice is $9.99 for the smartphone version and $14.99 for the tablet version – definitely not cheap, especially when compared to the free Google Docs. But for the expended functionality you receive, it’s not too expensive, and it’s in line with competitors like DocumentsToGo. If you’re not convinced, you can always try free version for seven days. You can download QuickOffice Pro and QuickOfficePro HD in the Android Market now.
[via Android Police]

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Navfree squares off with Google Navigation in the Android Market

These days just about every new Android phone comes equipped with Google Maps Navigation, the free turn-by-turn GPS navigation app that helped put Android on the map. Odds are pretty good that if you bought your phone in the last 8-12 months, it also has a paid carrier navigation app as well. Add one more to your list of navigation options, as Navmii’s iPhone app Navfree has made the jump to the Android Market.

So what makes Navfree different from the navigation apps you’re already using? One word: crowdsourscing. One of the biggest hurdles that GPS navigation has to overcome is the rapid changing of highway and road conditions, due to construction, events or other unforeseeable circumstances. Nothing ruins a good roadtrip like a sudden and unavoidable 10-mile detour. Navfrree aims to solve this problem by taking map corrections from its users. So if the traffic circle on your way to work is out of commission for a few weeks, you can let other Navfree users know, and vice versa.
The interface looks like your basic navigation app, but it’s free, so I won’t complain. It’s nice to see that is comes with maps for Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Latin America, perfect for the next time youi want to go around the world in 80,000 miles. Navfree is available now in the Android Market.

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SwiftKey X 2.2 Arrives With More Languages, Multi-Touch Support and New Keyboard Layouts

The beta for the new update to SwiftKey X has been in the hands of VIP for a little while not but it’s finally landed in the Android market as Android 2.2. This is a pretty significant upgrade so you’ll want to grab the new version right away. We’re getting improved accuracy through their new multi-touch framework, new languages to bring their total to 35, including the oft-desired Arabic and Hebrew. There are also new keyboard layouts for Colemak and Dvorak users. Swiftkey X is quickly evolving into the keyboard for everyone with all of these updates and we can’t wait to see what they’ll be cooking up next. Find the upgrade in the Android market.

With the launch of its version 2.2 of SwiftKey X and SwiftKey Tablet X, the company is as close as its ever been to delivering the utopian touchscreen typing experience. A faster, artificially intelligent language engine; the best multi-touch keyboard implementation ever experienced; lashing of UI polish… and that’s without mentioning the incredible boost in language coverage.
This new version of SwiftKey continues to set the standard for phone and tablet communication. It has the most powerful language technology that’s ever been engineered for typing on a touchscreen, coupled with a smooth and polished user interface and an ever-growing suite of great features. Those who haven’t tried SwiftKey yet should be asking why; millions of downloads and one of the world’s highest app rankings are just two reasons the company knows that this technology is here to stay.
SWIFTKEY X and SWIFTKEY TABLET X (v. 2.2 UPDATE)
TOP FEATURES:
Full language localization for major European languages
Typing support extended to 35 languages, including Arabic and Hebrew
New multi-touch framework for faster typing
Prediction/correction boosted by faster, more efficient Fluency engine
Full support for Android 4.0 operating system (Ice Cream Sandwich)
UX enhancements, including better settings menu, alternative character selection and sharing features
LANGUAGES, LANGUAGES, LANGUAGES!
With this release of SwiftKey X and SwiftKey Tablet X v2.2, the company has taken a major leap forward with its language support. For the first time, users who primarily communicate in Spanish, French, Italian and German (and perhaps Portuguese – tbc) will have an end-to-end SwiftKey experience in their native tongue (in addition to English, of course).
SwiftKey also now offers typing support for a grand total of 35 languages, giving speakers of everything from Afrikaans to Ukrainian an unrivaled prediction and correction experience as they type. SwiftKey’s latest supported languages are Arabic and Hebrew, and SwiftKey users are of course able to enable up to three languages at once, for a seamless multilingual communication experience.
Full list of supported languages:
Afrikaans
Arabic
Basque
Bulgarian
Catalan
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English (UK)
English (US)
Finnish
French (CA)
French (FR)
Galician
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Kazakh
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese (BR)
Portuguese (PT)
Romanian
Russian
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish (ES)
Spanish (US)
Swedish
Turkish
Ukrainian
MULTI-TOUCH FOR SPEED FREAKS: SwiftKey redesigned its multi-touch framework to enable the fastest speed typing and accuracy from a touchscreen keyboard yet. Using all the power of our Fluency language inference engine, users can now type at lighting-fast speeds without accuracy and SwiftKey is able to make sense of their multiple, successive key-presses, offering the world’s best personal touchscreen correction experience. We’ve also added the Dvorak and Colemak keyboard layouts for typists who prefer these more efficient options.
A FASTER, MORE EFFICIENT ENGINE: The team of SwiftKey engineers have been hard at work making Fluency, the clever language tech that powers SwiftKey’s corrections and predictions, even faster and more efficient. For the end user, this means SwiftKey will operate faster and use less memory, especially on slower handsets. It’s as if we’ve just doubled the MPG of the SwiftKey engine.
UX POLISH TO MAKE YOU SMILE: SwiftKey version 2.2 is the release that’ll make UX fans smile. The company’s made a range of UX tweaks that improve the overall look and feel of SwiftKey X. This includes the ability to adjust the keyboard key height in both portrait and landscape, an improved implementation of our alternative character selection for users who long-press, and a clear settings menu layout. Other UX improvement highlights include full support for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), an improved menu for sharing SwiftKey with your friends, and a better implementation of the typing heatmap graphic, which shows you how Fluency models your typing accuracy with each key to improve predictions.

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Evernote Updated In The Android Market – Adds Note Collaboration, Privacy Filters and Separate Widget App

Popular note taking app, Evernote, has been updated in the Android Market today. The most notable additions to the app are it’s sharing tools allowing for users to fine tune exactly who they want to share their notes or notebooks with. You can add specific people to your shares or filter out specific users from seeing your goods. The new and improved sharing feature also allows for others to edit your notes but is only available for premium members (they gotta make their money somehow).

Also new today, is the Evernote Widget which is a separate app for those users who have moved Evernote onto their SD card in an effort to save internal memory — something that’s long been known as a widget killer in the past. Can’t say I’ve jumped on the Evernote wagon but I think it may be time to see what all the hype is about. You can find Evernote and the Evernote Widget for free, right now, in the Android Market.

[Evernote | Evernote Widget]

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Google Music App v4.0 now in Android Market, free streaming for all

Google Music Beta has left the building and will now just be called — take a guess — Google Music. It has left beta but the big news here is it will actually be free for everyone and users can store and stream up to 20,000 high quality 320 kbps audio files with Google Music — completely for free.

The brand new Google Music v4.0 application has just hit the market and is available right now. You can get the update and enjoy all the free streaming offered by Google right now. The music webstore is also available by clicking here or going to market.android.com/music — feel free to try the “Free Song of the Day”. This is very similar to the version leaked a few weeks back, but newer is always better right?
 For now the web market and the application are up and live but the actual music integration into the Android Market on mobile devices hasn’t landed yet. We’ll be sure to update everyone as soon as that hits so you can start buying and enjoying the millions of songs right from your Android devices.
Rock on!
Google Music
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Google Voice update brings prefetch for voicemails, improved notifications, more

Google is on track again this week updating a few of their popular applications for the world of Android. Updating Google Maps last week and today the Google Voice app has just received its latest update in the Android Market. Google has brought a few much needed and requested features. A big one is being able to send to multiple recipients.

Updated to version 0.4.2.38 this afternoon you can now prefetch your voicemail. Meaning they can be listened to even when there is no data coverage or you are in a spotty area. Among a few other new enhancements they’ve added a feature that GVoice has been missing for a long time — the option to send messages to multiple recipients. With today’s update you can now easily and simply send messages to everyone you need at the same time whether its co-workers, family, or whoever. Here are the three main new improvements:
-Prefetch voicemails so they can be listened to even when there is no data coverage
-Allow sending text messages to multiple recipients
-Improved text message notification
If you’ve been considering taking the dive into Google Voice now would be a good time. You get a new number you can use for whatever you’d like and it can send or receive calls and messages for much cheaper than your current plan probably offers. I’m pretty excited to give this multiple messages upgrade a try as I’m sure all of you are. Head down to the Android Market via the link below to get the latest and greatest from Google.
[via Google Voice]

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Sega enters the Android Market with Fallen Realms RPG

It’s a fine day for that considerable crossover between Android enthusiasts and classic gaming fans. Sega, one of the staples of the video game world, has released its very first Android game in cooperation with Papaya Mobile. It isn’t one of these newfangled physics games or tower defense titles, either – Fallen Realms is an old-school turn-based role playing game from its mail helm to its +1 boots. The game is available from the Android Market now.

Fallen Realms is still in beta at the moment, so expect a few hiccups in cross-device support or game mechanics. The standard fantasy world looks like a mix between Japanese and western RPGs, with a turn-based combat engine simplified by touchscreen controls. An in-game tutorial assures that most gamers won’t get lost, even if they’re more used to frustrated avians or hemp slicing.
Sega has adopted the freemium model that’s so popular with these whippersnapper mobile developers: the game is free to play, but you can purchase upgraded equipment for your character. The 21MB download is big for an Android app, but pretty small when compared to a lot of the games coming out these days. Welcome to the future, Sega – now how’s about a Tegra 3 version of Sonic Generations or Bayonetta?
[via DroidGamers]

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Netflix updates with new tablet-friendly UI

Netflix customers using an Android tablet got a surprise late last night, when a new version of the Android app sporting a completely revamped UI showed up in the Market. The new user interface appears to be contingent upon screen resolution, not operating system, so those of you rocking a Froyo or Gingerbread tablet can get in on the action as well. In a few days the new UI will be showing up on the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire.

The layout mimics the one seen on the web version of Netflix, which has graced desktop browsers for the last few months. The sliding, scrolling list of panels allows users to swipe left or right to see more movies or TV shows, an innovation that Netflix says gets twice as many titles on-screen as before. Previously tablet users, no matter what their operating system, used the same list-based interface as everyone else, filling up relatively large screens with lots of wasted white space.
The fact that the interface works on older versions of Android is particularly exciting – CyanogenMod users on their hacked Nook Colors or HP TouchPads will surely appreciate it. As the Fire and Nook Tablet gain popularity this holiday season, expect to see more and more apps take this backwards-compatible approach to take advantage of these reader/tablets older versions of Android. The updated version is available in the Android Market right now.

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Adobe’s Full Suite of Touch Apps Are Now Available For Android

Alright, so Adobe is giving up on Flash for mobile devices. But let’s not forget, there’s still a great many other things the company is good at. Take their entire suite of touch apps that are finally available for Android. We told you guys about them a few weeks ago and these six apps are special touch versions of their popular (and expensive) desktop applications built specifically for iOS and Android Honeycomb tablets. Here’s what we’re looking at:

Adobe Photoshop Touch: Transform images freely using core Photoshop features in an app custom-built for tablets.

Adobe Proto: Create interactive wireframes and prototypes of websites and mobile apps.

Adobe Ideas: Design virtually anywhere using vectors, layers, and color themes.

Adobe Debut: Present Creative Suite designs anywhere with confidence, convenience, and complete control.

Adobe Collage: Capture ideas and concepts by combining images, drawings, and text into conceptual moodboards.

Adobe Kuler: Create, explore, download, and share color themes that can inspire any design project.

If you would like to check them out, you can find Adobe’s entire line-up of touch applications now available in the Android Market for $10 each.
[Market Link | Adobe]

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YouTube updated to v2.3.4 with Watch later queue and +1 button

Google is running wild this morning and this is a friendly reminder to check YouTube on the Android Market as it was just updated to version 2.3.4 and along with it came a few neat little changes. Nothing extremely huge here but the more the better right. Google has added the +1 button for their ever growing Google+ social network as well as a few other changes.

Looking over the “What’s New” area you’ll see the +1 addition, the Watch Later queue and apparently you can now edit info and upload the video at the same time. Maybe I’m just thinking of the desktop version but I don’t think the edit info while uploading is new but I could be wrong. I’m actually not seeing the +1 button myself on the new YouTube but according to the screenshots from the Android Market it’s there. We’ll see.

While I was hoping for some sort of design or UI change, an update with a few new awesome features is always plenty welcome. I’m excited about the watch later queue myself because I’m always trying to remember what I have or haven’t watched. In case you didn’t notice in my screenshots you should check out sxephil because his show is simply awesome. Head to the market and download the new YouTube, available right now.
YouTube
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PogoPlug Cloud gives Android access to free cloud storage

Niche hardware maker PogoPlug have made a name for themselves delivering reliable and easy access to network attached storage, both on home and local business networks and across the Internet. Their latest creation is in line with a lot of their more web-centric competitors: PogoPlug Cloud. The free service will give anyone 5 gigabytes of free data storage – no PogoPlug hardware purchase needed – and the current Android app will be updated to access the storage natively.

The PogoPlug app has been available for some time, but previously it could only access drives, files and folders physically connected to your home network. Now the app is capable of retrieving up to 5 gigabytes of data, and instantly uploads photos and videos to its sharing service, a la Picasa. Video and music can be streamed from the storage space, and files or folders can be shared with your Google+ contacts. Free users get “only” five gigabytes, but you can expand your data storage for a monthly fee.
The cloud move puts PogoPlug in direct competition with DropBox, which is currently offering only 2GB of data storage to its free members. HTC customers get an expanded 5GB. At the present PogoPlug hasn’t revealed any integration software like Dropbox has, but then, committed users of PogoPlug’s hardware will tell you that its Network-attached storage devices fill that niche perfectly. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the cloud storage space, especially as Google itself pushes its users more and more towards on-demand file access. You can download the updated app now.

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Quickoffice Pro is FREE, Usually $14.99 [Amazon Free App]

Amazon has been quite successful with their “Free App of the Day” concept. In fact, it works so well that Google seems prepared to adopt the idea (Free Song of the Day) for the rumored Google Music Store. Today’s Amazon Free App of the Day will save you $15 bucks and give you access to a mobile office of sorts.

Enjoy: Quickoffice Pro for FREE!

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Report: most free anti-malware apps are almost useless

Malware is a growing problem for Android, both within the Android Market and without. But when it comes to free applications, it looks like users aren’t getting a lot of help. According to a security report from AVTest in Germany, nearly all the free anti-malware apps are almost completely useless, with many failing to detect even a single threat in a test environment. Their results after testing seven popular free apps are below – it looks like users are getting exactly what they pay for.

The most worthless apps (relatively speaking, anyway) were Creative Apps’ Antivirus Free, GuardX Antivirus, and LabMSF Antivirus beta, all of which failed to detect a single threat on the tested smartphone. BluePoint Antivirus Free, Privateer Lite and Kinetoo Malware scan all fell in at less than 10% detection rates. Only Zoner AntiVirus Free scored even vaguely respectable numbers, detecting just 32% of threats after a manual scan. To reiterate: the best free ant-malware app detected less than a third of the threats after testing. The most popular app, Antivirus Free (one of the 0% results) has been downloaded more than a million times.
The state of anti-malware and anti-virus on Android may be pretty sad, but it’s not that surprising. After all, Android just passed its third birthday, and with almost 200 million users worldwide, it’s a prime target for hackers and thieves. Security will get better as Google and others learn how to plug up the current vulnerabilities. That said, an experienced Android user is far more likely to have personal information stolen via a security vulnerability (like HTC’s Sense issues a while back) than an app download – so long as he or she remembers never to install an apps from an untrustworthy developer or publisher, especially if it’s a non-Market download. For a more in-depth look at the security report, you can download the PDF here.
[via ZDNet]

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Google Maps update brings Live Events to Google Places

Google is at it again today with another quite fancy update to Google Maps. While this might not be as big as 3D buildings or transit navigation in some of the recent updates they do have a cool new feature for those that like to get out and have some fun in the town. Today Google’s update adds a notification to Google Places for live events going on nearby. So your next trip to San Fransisco you can quickly and easily find something fun to do.

Along with the live events we also have a small change where Google has removed the “post to Twitter” option while reviewing places. We aren’t sure what brought about that change, but no more tweeting from Google Places while writing a review. The new live events feature is currently just a BETA and is available now for a few select cities and more should follow shortly.
Currently Google is only offering this new update in New York, San Fransisco, Paris, Zurich, and London to the list of “live events” in the Places page. Users should be able to find events going on based on their location. Should be a great feature for this holiday season as the Christmas events start lighting up the night sky’s. Give this new feature a try and let us know what you think.
[via Android Market]

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Kindle Fire Won’t Run All Android Apps, Amputates APIs

I’m a huge fan of the upcoming Amazon Kindle Fire: priced at ridiculously low $200 (and available for pre-order), it’s sure to be one 2011′s holiday sensations. It’s rare you find an Android device that affordable, and when you do, it’s usually some overseas wannabe tablet they sell in a drug store. The Amazon Kindle, though, is fully featured. Almost.

Amazon has already stated there will be thousands of Android apps available on the Fire through the Amazon App Store and told us that they have been especially approved for the Kindle Fire itself to ensure a great Fire-proof experience. But a recent Robert Scoble comment on G+ shows that the reason all apps won’t be on the Kindle Fire goes well beyond Amazon being picky about quality:

I interviewed one company today that has an awesome Android app (millions of downloads already). They went through and demoed their new thing to me. Made me want to turn in my iPhone and go with the Android, but can’t talk about it until next week. Then they pulled out a Samsung Tablet and said “it works here too.”
That was all great, until I asked them “what about the Amazon Kindle Fire?”
They said “nope, Amazon is keeping our app from running.”
“Huh?”
Turns out that Amazon has turned off many APIs that are available on other Android devices, so many Android apps won’t run on the Amazon Kindle Fire.

This may disturb the hardcore Android fan but I don’t anticipate it will slow sales. It’s Amazon. It’s a Kindle. It’s an Android. And it’s only $200. Now matter what way you slice the pie that’s a pretty darn good offer. Not to mention, I’m sure the masses at the Kindle Fire Forums will be painstakingly assist each other to get the absolute most out of the Fire by any means necessary.
Did you plan on buying the Kindle Fire for yourself or as a gift? Does this affect your decision at all?

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Firefox for Android 9.0 beta build features better optimization for tablets

Mozilla has released a new build of Firefox beta for Android that features an all new experience for tablets. According to blog post by Firefox team, this build comes with a new UI for slates, new action bar and much more.
The beta build also gives web developers new tools to take camera input into their web apps directly from Firefox, and a new HTML5 form validation API.
Firefox 9.0 Beta for Android Features:

• Faster startup times
• Added languages
• New UI for Tablets
• Full-Screen Portrait Browsing
• Tab Optimization: Tabs are shown as thumbnails in the left panel of Firefox Beta (landscape).
• New Action Bar with Quick Access Buttons

Download

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