10 Billion Apps promo, day 3: ADW, Tetris, and Homerun Battle for 10¢ [UPDATE]

Day three of Google’s app extravaganza is upon us, and there’s some premium apps with massive discounts that you’ll definitely want to pick up. As a celebratory promotion for the Android Market hitting the 10 billion download mark, Google is partnering with top developers to price ten apps at ten cents/pence each day for ten days. ADWLauncher EX leads the pack on Friday following an Ice Cream Sandwich-style update.

Also on offer are gaming titles Tetris, Toki Tori, Homerun Battle 3D, Reckless Getaway (a sort of Need For Speed version of Reckless Racing), Can Knockdown 2, and Space Physics. Other apps on offer are the Blue Skies Donation live wallpaper and Kids Learn to Read, following the kid-friendly Berenstain Bears app from yesterday. All are on sale right now, though the banner on the Market home page hasn’t been updated yet.
If you’re even mildly interested in any of these paid apps, be sure to pick them up now -they’ll only be at this special price until tomorrow morning in the US. At the time of writing you can still get yesterday’s discounted apps at the $.10 price, but that won’t last for long. In related news, Phandroid reports that bumped sales from the 10 Billion Apps promotion have made Beautiful Widgets the very first paid Android app to hit a million downloads. That’s less than .0001% of all the downloads made in the Market as of today.
Update: Here they are. Get after it, bargain hunters.

Read more »

Facebook App overhaul brings faster performance, better UI, ICS support and more

Today Facebook will be pushing a much needed update for their Android application. It is currently not available yet but should hit the Android Market sometime today according to the official Facebook Blog. They are calling it a faster Facebook for Android and it has tons of new features, improvements to the UI, faster performance, and that all important support for ICS (since the menu button has been missing for Nexi users). Check out these renders on the Galaxy Nexus and the full details below.

Apparently this update is all about speed, something that has been needing some attention for some time in the world of Android and Facebook. The UI has some awesome changes and the screenshots above only show us a small glance. A huge part of Facebook is photos and that part of the application has received a huge overhaul too. Photos and albums are said to be around two times faster than their current app. With photo sharing, comment viewing, and caption editing all seeing major improvements.
Messages and notifications have now been moved to the top of the display. Respond to friends and more all without leaving the current page you are on. Having notifications on the top as well as the menu button up there as well should make things easy, simple, visible, and extremely fast for users. A lot of these changes are similar to the desktop version and it’s nice to finally see Facebook making some huge improvements for Android. It is not available yet but should be pushed to the market later tonight for download. I’ll be hanging out at Google+ personally.
Facebook Market Link
[via Facebook Blog]

Read more »

Google+ update: Snazzy new icon, +1 photos, higher resolution photo support and more

Our new favorite social site Google+ just received a huge update today from our friends at Mountain View. Google is pushing the update now and with it comes tons of improvements and changes. We even have a snazzy new icon for G+ and the Messenger too. That isn’t all as they’ve added tons of new feature and stability improvements and all the details are available below.

Especially now with all the higher resolution support coming with Android 4.0 ICS today Google+ added support for adding higher resolution photos — we can also +1 said pictures. They’ve also enabled +1 for comments instead of entire posts too, something I’ve been waiting for although I’d also love a -1 for comments at the same time. That would be perfect. Here is a full list of the new features for the mobile app:
— Search
— +1 photos
— +1 comments
— High resolution photo upload support
— See if someone’s online and currently typing in Messenger conversations
— Start Messenger conversations by just entering a phone number
— Links to posts or profiles can now open inside of the app
— Instant Upload supports videos again
— Several stability improvements and bug fixes
Gone is the black Google+ app icon and instead Google’s opted to go with an all red icon for both the main app and the messenger (huddle, group) or whatever they are calling the chat function these days. Another big feature is links inside posts will now open inside the app instead of exiting. Sadly it appears notifications still seem to struggle and while they’ve been improving the app steadily I’d still love a stable notification system for Google+. The new version is available now so head down to the source link below and enjoy it.
Google+ Market Link

Read more »

New Android app lets you add Facebook friends via NFC

Remember Bump, that app that allowed you to swap contacts with a quick nudge of both party’s phones? The one that everyone forgot about in a week or so? Well there’s a new app in the Android Market that’s brought the same functionality to Facebook, with an NFC-enabled twist for the new generation of Android smartphones. Simply titled “Add Friend“, the app connects to your Facebook account and adds someone when a similarly-equipped phone is activated.

So it’s come to this. Digital, vicarious spooning through smartphones. As an extension of the social world, the image of two smartphones smothered against each other is hard to beat – and judging by the app’s featured picture on the Android Market, that’s exactly what the developer had in mind. Still, to each his (or her) own. The usage case seems a little limited, though; you’ll need two high-end Android phones, each equipped with the free app and connected to your Facebook account, three separate conditions that are hard to combine at the moment.
The success of these types of apps will largely depend upon Near Field Communication’s adoption worldwide, and it isn’t looking good outside of Asia. The payment options of NFC are complicated by cross-company deals and alliances, at least one of which is probably keeping Google Wallet off of the Galaxy Nexus for the time being. But with Android Beam, Ice Cream Sandwich users should at least become more comfortable with the idea of “bumping” information across devices.
Say, why don’t we just go back to IR ports? It worked great on my old Palm M105.
[via Engadget]

Read more »

Early List of Today’s 10 Cent/10 Pence Apps Revealed

It’s the second day of Google’s 10 day blowout of applications and games for dirt cheap. If you haven’t heard, the Android market recently hit 10 billion downloads and Google’s celebrating by offering different premium apps every day for 10 cents or 10 pence, depending on where you live. Some great apps and games were featured yesterday and today’s crop of apps are already starting to show. The known list so far:

Beautiful Widgets
Fruit Ninja
Reckless Racing
Star Chart
Read It Later Pro
Christmas HD
AirSync by doubleTwist
Flick Golf!

A lot of these are worth a look and for $.10 it definitely couldn’t hurt. These are only 8 apps, though, and considering we saw 10 to start yesterday (those are still on sale, by the way) we wouldn’t be surprised to see two more pop up today.
Google hasn’t added these to the 10 Billion Promo category under the banner yet so be on the lookout to see what other apps they end up adding. Get started with the links above. [via EuroDroid]

Read more »

ADWLauncher EX gets an Ice Cream flavored update, 10 Billion App discount

There’s a lot of aftermarket Android launchers out there, but very few can claim to have the kind of following that ADWLauncher EX enjoys. A rock-solid foundation, tons of customization options and a robust theme engine makes it one of the most popular launchers on the Market. Of course, with Ice Cream Sandwich‘s enhanced launcher a lot of the current offerings are looking long in the tooth. To that end, developer Anderweb has released a new version, with a ton of new features to bring it up to date.

Most dramatic is a new dock bar system that apes ICS’ “pinned” apps at the bottom of the screen. Most launchers including ADW have had some variation on this feature before, but new placement and visual options make ADW’s feel fresh. Folders have been given an ICS-flavored upgrade, with more visual settings to tweak. Other small visual and under-the-hood changes are present, including support for hardware acceleration on some devices. Notably it now plays nice with tablets running Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, allowing for easier integration with the bottom action bar.
But don’t run out and purchase ADW Launcher EX just yet, if you haven’t already: the developer has announced that he’s participating in Google’s 10 Billion Apps promotion, and the full version will be just 10 cents/pence some time in the upcoming week. So if you can wait to try out the new features, you’ll save yourself a coffee’s worth of cash. Download it in the Market – but not right away!

Read more »

Grand Theft Auto III Anniversary Edition crashes into Android December 15th

Great news for all you gamers out there — Grand Theft Auto III 10 Year Anniversary Edition will be available on Android starting December 15th. I’m extremely excited about that and will be playing this on my Transformer Prime that is for sure. We first reported that GTAIII was coming to Android back in October and today can happily report it will be available next week. Who’s excited?

The image above (thanks to pockethacks) should have all you Android gamers plenty happy about what is coming soon. We have a few in-game screenshots running on an Android tablet below and the graphics are quite decent. I’d love an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core optimized version of this game, and here one is in the works too. Currently the list of supported devices isn’t huge but it’s mostly higher end dual-core Android devices. Most are Tegra 2 phones then we see a few like the HTC Rezound in there too.
Most likely the game will play just fine with all the dual-core devices on the market although they aren’t all being officially listed as compatible. Tablets are seeing the same treatment although the Transformer, Motorola Xoom, Galaxy Tab’s and a few others all have received the green light. If your device is not on the supported list from Rockstar linked to below don’t worry because chances are it’ll work just fine. I’d be checking the Android Market on December 15th if I were you just in case.
Today Rockstar Games announced it will be available starting December 15th and will run you just $4.99 in the Android Market. I’ll be sure and get some hands-on time for those that might want to see a few reviews before making the purchase so stay tuned.
)

Read more »

Android Market hits 10 billion app downloads, celebrates with 10¢ app sale

There’s a lot of Android phones and tablets out there – pushing 200 million at last official count. That’s a lot of people downloading apps form the Android Market. Today that number may have surpassed 10 billion total app downloads, and to celebrate, Google’s offering a handful of premium apps for just 10¢ (£0.10 in the UK.)

The premium apps on offer are as follows: Soundhound, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, Minecraft Pocket Edition, SwiftKey X, Ecomondo, Great Little War Game, SketchBook Mobile, Fieldrunners HD, Color & Draw for Kids, and Paper Camera. This is no small promotion; many of these apps have hundreds of thousands of paid downloads already, and the discounts start at 90% and go up. There’s no indication of when the sale will end, so if you want any of the apps listed here, download them now.

We haven’t heard anything official on the 10 billion app promotion. The total may not have even been passed yet – it could be that Google’s drumming up excitement to reach the milestone, with a little help from some high-profile Android developers. In any case it’s a sweet deal on some very in-demand apps, so go for it if you haven’t already.

Read more »

Fingerprint Digital releases 5 mobile apps for kids

 Fingerprint Digital makes a learning and entertainment platform for kids has announced the release of 5 mobile app for kids. The company released the first five apps under the “Fingerprint” brand name and will appeal to kids in the 3-8 year old age group. The mobile apps are being developed to work with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Fingerprint Digital has a very impressive team setup from companies like LeapFrog, LucasArts and PlayFirst and they plan to launch the first ever “social learning and play network”.

The “Fingerprint” mobile apps are being launched in connected with the testing of “Mom-Comm” which allows parents to be more engaged with their kids during playing and learning activities. The company has also announced the giveaway of the first $1 million worth of apps they have developed. All the Fingerprint apps include specific sets of features that make it easier for parents to communicate and share with their children. Other features include game play snapshots for parents, recommendation engines for new games available and a rewards system that helps the child stay interested in learning and always wanting to learn more.



The mobile apps cost $2.99 and are available for the giveaway free download at the App Store. Updates and more games will become available for the Mom-Comm network in the next coming months. The five mobile apps developed are listed below.

The Big Kid Life Fire Fighter app is for ages 4-7 and allows kids to use a special backpack to put out “fire monsters” while practicing with numbers, shapes and symbols. The Big Kid Life Vet app is for ages 3-6 and teaches a child about letter, numbers and colors all while they try to find out what is wrong with their pet. The Big Kid Life Fairy Princess app is for ages 4-7 and helps kids develop reading skills as they get through 15 adventures, while creating their own story at the same time. Play Maker is an app for ages 4-8 and helps kids learn math and spelling skills. This app also lets kids create their own “Fingerprint” character. The DoReMi 1-2-3 app is for ages 4-8 and kids are interacting with “moo-sicial” cows, boat rowing pandas and twinkling stars all while learning about musical tones and melodies. This app also helps to increase brain development in kids.

Read more »

Paper Zombie Lets You Cut, Shoot and Blow Up Brain Eaters – Now Available In The Market

I know we’re a little past Halloween but cuttin’ up some zombies is good anytime of the year. Paper Zombie is a new to the Android Market and boasts 300,000+ downloads on iOS. Now Android users get a chance to see what the hype is about in this cute and gruesome hack and slash. Gameplay is more or less reminiscent of something like Fruit Ninja where you swipe your screen to decapitate zombies and even have a few added weapons at your disposal like firebombs, chainsaws and shotguns.

I wouldn’t say there’s too much here in terms of depth but Paper Zombie is a great way to kill some time (and zombies) while waiting for your root canal or to keep you from dozing off in class. If you want to see the game in action a video trailer also provided for you down below. You can download Paper Zombie for free right now in the Android Market.

[Market Link]

Read more »

Lookout Mobile Security Releases Carrier IQ Detector – You May Not Like What You Find

Carrier IQ. We all hate it. But not every device has it. Like the clap, sometimes you just want to know if you’re infected. Well, Lookout Mobile Security has heard your cries and has released a tool to diagnose your phone and best of all, it doesn’t require root. Simply called Carrier IQ Detector, this app will let you know if every swipe you make is being watched. Carrier IQ Detector is completely free and although it doesn’t remove Carrier IQ from your device, it can either give you peace of mind or make you even more paranoid. Let’s get some comments going to see who’s infected — you know, with Carrier IQ.
[Market Link]

Read more »

TextOnly Browser for Android

Want to save data costs on your Android-powered device? Then you might want to check out the TextOnly Browser, where the name itself gives the game away (not that there is anything to hide in the first place though). Yes sir, this browser intends to help you reduce your data usage by up to 90% through the displaying of readable content only, doing away with ads,scripts and images. Now how about that? This paves the way for instant reading of articles on websites without having to scan through the page before realizing that only a certain segment is meant for reading, while the rest yield this temptation to click away at ads and promotional links.
Not only that, it will minimize your data usage and maximize your productivity if you are a voracious online reader. Most sites with good RSS feeds will be supported, and over 95% of websites are compatible with the TextOnly Browser. The web version of TextOnly Browser for Android can be found here, so why not give it a go?

Read more »

Discover new music from around the blogosphere with Uberhype for Android

The Hype Machine is an essential site for music enthusiasts looking to discover new sounds. The site aggregates songs shared on a wide variety of music blogs, making them available in one place. While it’s had a slick, official iPhone app for some time, there hasn’t been anything anywhere near as good for Android – until now.
UberHype is an unofficial app that is essentially what The Hype Machine would create if it launched on Android, allowing you to stream new and popular songs being shared on music blogs via a great-looking player interface.
You can log in using your Hype Machine account, giving you access to songs you’ve marked as favorites, and your friends’ favorite songs. Additional features include the ability to open up the blog post that orginally shared the track you’re listening to as you stream it so you can read the story behind the music.
You can also search the music blogosphere for any artist or song you’re interested in hearing. If you like the tracks shared by a particular blog, you can subscribe directly from the app to get future songs sent straight to your feed.
In short, Uberhype is a beautifully executed app, and existing Hype Machine users or not, it should get Android-using music-obsessives more than a little excited. It’s a free download.
➤Uberhype

Read more »

Android app for detecting Carrier IQ launches

If you are one of the Android using masses that worries Carrier IQ is tracking what you do on your smartphone you will want this new app. The app has launched and is called Voodoo Carrier IQ Detector. The app does exactly what the name implies and will run and figure out if your smartphone has the Carrier IQ software running on it.

Apparently right now there are a few caveats to the app, namely it admits in the app that the results are not all that reliable yet. The reason reliability isn’t there is that the app is only just released and apparently only partially finished. The image you see here is taken from a Galaxy Nexus we have in our possession.
Google has said that Carrier IQ isn’t on the Nexus and while the reliability of the app is suspect right now, it shows no indication of the maligned software installed. If you are the developer sort, the source code for this app has been made open source so you can help refine and improve the app.
[via SlashGear]

Read more »

Verizon Visual Voicemail App for Galaxy Nexus hits the Android Market

Well folks, Verizon might finally be making some headway with the Galaxy Nexus rocking those all important 4G LTE speeds. The Galaxy Nexus will come mostly bloatware free and because of that — the Galaxy Nexus will not launch with Verizon’s popular Visual Voicemail application. I personally use Google Voice but to each their own I guess. Today the Verizon VVM application has hit the Android Market being used on none other then the Verizon Galaxy Nexus.

Back in November we mentioned Ice Cream Sandwich was missing a visual voicemail feature and that is because Google has opened it up for carriers to build their own, exactly as Verizon has done. While we are still waiting for the fancy updates to VVM to hit Google Voice this should hold all you Ice Cream Sandwich users over in the mean time.
Between the leaked pictures and video of Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus yesterday, and this new application hitting the market today we could actually be very close to an announcement and release date from Verizon. Best Buy is claiming it will be available starting December 11th. If that is the case Verizon will probably be announcing the Galaxy Nexus with 4G LTE between now and Monday. Lets sit back and hope that’s the case.
Market Link

Read more »

FIFA 12 launches for Xperia Play and more

EA Mobile has announced that the FIFA 12 mobile game has launched for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play smartphone. We learned that the game was coming to the Xperia Play back in August as an exclusive until February of 2012. When the game was announced as a limited time exclusive for the Xperia Play we didn’t know exactly when it would be coming.

EA’s FIFA franchise is the most popular soccer franchise in the world and Sony Ericsson has scored quite a coup with landing the game as an exclusive throughout the holiday season. The game will let players play as their favorite soccer stars with famous players like Wayne Rooney and Kaka. This game was developed just for Android users.
As it turns out the Play isn’t the only Xperia smartphone that will be able to get the game during the exclusive periods Other Xperia devices can download the title as well including the Xperia arc S, Xperia arc, Xperia ray, Xperia neo, and the Xperia pro smartphones. The new game promises better gameplay, more depth, updated teams, a new replay system, and new stadium designs.

Read more »

Foxit Mobile PDF Reader available in the Android Market

If you’ve been using the Internet for any amount of time at all, you probably know one of its founding principles: Adobe Reader sucks. Many savvy desktop users choose a lightweight alternative for displaying simple PDFs, and Foxit PDF Reader has long been a favorite among them. Now Foxit Software has released an Android port of its popular reader, and you can download it now in the Android Market.

Unlike the desktop version, only a $2.99 paid app is available, but that’s comparable to the other 3rd-party PDF viewers on the Market. The standard zoom and reflow features are present, as well as bookmarks. Foxit seems to be focusing on its reader experience with a set of noted additions: the app will automatically load the last document and page you used, and it can adjust the brightness for its own use, like the Kindle and Nook apps. There’s also a set of annotation tools, including comments, highlights, and a pencil tool.
Can Foxit carve out a space for itself on Android? It’s tough to compete with free, but they’ve got a recognizable brand name, at least in geekier circles. $2.99 is still kind of pricy for a reader that can’t edit documents beyond its own annotations. THat said, early response in the Android Market is positive. Both smartphones and tablets are supported.

Read more »

Dragon Shout Android app is Google Maps for Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a big, big game. You can spend days just wandering around its mountains and tundra, finding villages and dungeons. But crafty gamers soon won’t have to: the Dragon Shout app is an interactive game world map for Android and iOS. It will let players navigate and take notes while they explore Bethesda’s magnum opus.

I’m an admitted Skyrim addict, and since the game’s made an impressive $450 million in worldwide sales across PC and console platforms, odds are pretty good that a few of you are as well. The upcoming app will allow multi-touch navigation a la Google Maps across the parchment-style game world. You can make notews at particular locations – very handy for remembering where you left your pack mule traveling companion. The developer is promising social sharing of maps and entries with other players in a future update.

The app is slated to release in 2-3 weeks, but considering that the developer’s website is basically a Cupertino take on Skyrim, it might be a while before they get around to porting it to Android. Whether you’re sneaking around Riften for the thieves’ guild, fighting valiantly for the Stormcloaks or just killing as many of those flying jerks as you possibly can, an accurate and annotated map will be a welcome companion. Here’s hoping it comes soon. According to the website, it will be free.
[via Game Rant]

Read more »

Futuremark 3DMark App coming soon to Android, brings benchmarks to a new level

Oh man, this is awesome news for enthusiast and gamers alike in the world of Android. We have many benchmark applications such as Quadrant or CF Bench and what not for Android that tests overall performance but today I’ve now learned the best of the best in the benchmark business, FutureMark, will be coming soon to Android phones and tablets early 2012. I’ve used FutureMark 3DMark 06, Vantage and even 11 on my PC for years to test gaming and overall performance and I’m happy to announce this is coming soon for Android.

The Finnish company FutureMark has been making some of the best and most trusted and highly rated benchmark suites for PC enthusiasts since early 1998 and are now moving to add Android to the list. They’ve begun development on what they are calling 3DMark for Android (working title) and aim to have it ready for mass usage come early 2012. With the wide array of smartphones available, and Android tablets taking off while getting powerful quad-core processors the need for a reliable and scalable benchmark service will be needed. They plan to deliver just that.
3DMark for Android features may include:
- Measures gaming performance using rendering, CPU and physics tests.
- Stunning real-time graphics push the OpenGL ES API to the limit.
- Complementary online service to compare results between devices.
- Results will be comparable with 3DMark for Windows 8.
- Currently in development, expected to be released in 2012.
Jukka Mäkinen, CEO of Futuremark had this to say,

In 2012 we will bring 3DMark to the Android platform with a professional grade benchmark that can be trusted by manufacturers, suppliers and vendors to provide the definitive measure of gaming performance on Android while showcasing the very best in real-time graphics and effects.”

Results will be comparable across devices and platforms like Windows 8 and will be viewable right from your smartphone or tablet as well as saved online for viewing later and comparing with others. Just like their current line of benchmarks for PC’s. Another important note here is this will be a private application unlike Vellamo that was designed by Qualcomm that some claim is favorable to their processors.
Not only will FutureMark and 3DMark most likely become the absolute standard for benchmarking in Android, but it will probably make us all forget about Quadrant and the others very quickly if done right. I remember the days of overclocking my NVIDIA eVGA GTX 260 SLI graphics cards as far as humanly possible and running 3DMark to compare with my friends. I can’t wait to do the same on my quad-core Android devices soon. Futuremark will push the graphic limits of our smartphones just as they do on PC. Check out this 3DMark 11 Direct X 11 sample video for an example on their work. I can’t wait to try this level of benchmarking on Android.




[via Benchmark Reviews]

Read more »

AirDroid turns your phone into a LAN-enabled web operating system

There are a lot of ways to control and access your PC or Mac from your Android device, but the ability to go in the other direction has been sadly underrepresented… until now. Android Police made a great find in AirDroid, an app that hosts a local HTTP server on your phone that any web browser. It’s sort of like Motorola’s WebTop interface, without using new hardware. And the things you can do with it, not to mention the interface with which you do them, are amazing.

Essentially, AirDroid turns your phone into a local version of one of those web/cloud operating systems that were all the rage a few years ago. Just start the app, connect to your home WiFi network and log in from a local PC browser. You can access all of the files currently stored on your phone, including a full image viewer and streaming music player. You can access, install, and back up all of the apps on your phone, even the system apps that non-rooted users normally don’t have access to. You have full access to your Android phone’s contacts, call logs and SMS messages. All from a desktop interface that mimics a minimalist Linux distribution.




The best part? It’s all free. If you’re a power user you must check AirDroid out. Sure, you can do some of this with a standard MicroUSB cable, but the way it’s presented and the ease of use is astounding – it’ll make showing off your media, plus sharing apps and files so much easier – I only wish there was a way to display full Android apps across the WiFi connector. It’s nothing less than a major accomplishment for developer Sand Studio, and I can’t wait to see what they do next with this idea. You can download AirDroid from the Android Market right now.

Read more »