Dec 23, 2010

Hit titles for Android have been dropping left and right lately and EA Mobile wants to be a part of the action. They recently added two new titles to the Android Market: Need For Speed Shift and The Sims 3. Both titles rank among the top EA games sold this past year, with over 4 million copies sold. Considering their popularity, it only makes sense that EA would choose these titles to drop onto Android. EA has been slow moving when it comes to bringing their games to Android with only 4 total games available in the Android Market. I’m happy to see major game publishers such as EA give Android some love and I hope this recent influx of games for Android continues.

Dec 23, 2010

Dolphin Browsers are one of the most powerful and popular 3rd party browsers available for Android. Dolphin Browsers have a lot of “firsts” when it comes to browsers for Android. They were the first to support multi-touch pinch zoom, the first to feature gesture commands, and the first mobile browser to offer support for add-ons. They work hard to give users as many features as possible without sacrificing speed or integrity. Some exciting announcements have come out of the Dolphin Browser camp this past week, offering Android users even more choices when it comes to browser experience. The first announcement out of the gate was the addition of the Dolphin Browser Mini (Beta) to the Android Market.

Dec 22, 2010

By now everyone should have noticed the nice new shiny Android Market that I told you about last week. It seems they’ve been slowly adding in all those promised new features and today they announced another new feature for AT&T customers: Direct Carrier Billing. If you happen to be an AT&T customer you should now see a “Bill my AT&T account” option when purchasing an app from the Android Market. This new change will give AT&T Android customers an easier and more organized way of keeping track of their “phone” related charges.

Dec 22, 2010

The scrabble-esque phenomenon known as “Words With Friends” may be heading over to Android very soon. “Words With Friends” has been the premier scrabble game on iOS since its inception and almost every iOS user I know plays this game on a daily basis. I was always a little jealous and thus searched for a similar game for my Android device. I have since been rocking “WordWise Pro” and have been happy with it for the most part. Wordfeud for Android is another very popular alternative and has seen much success with Android users. While these are both great games, they aren’t “Words With Friends.”

Dec 16, 2010

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at developing an app but get a headache just thinking about learning code? App inventor for Android is an experimental program that allows non programming folks to visually put together simple apps and specify behaviors through the use of blocks. Simply put, it’s a sort of drag and drop way of creating an app. Now, you aren’t going to be developing any Angry Birds on this thing, but they do give some examples of the capabilities and what can fundamentally be achieved. I’m also pretty sure these apps aren’t compatible with the Android Market at this time so forget those hopes of making thousands of dollars trying to sell your new fart app.

Dec 16, 2010

[Update 12/22: Check out what makes Google Maps 5.0 tick Google Maps 5.0 - Under the Hood]

Anyone who saw Andy Rubin tease the world with his mystery Motorola tab running Honeycomb at D: Dive Into Mobile knew that this day was coming. To show boat some more for the camera, he pulled up an unreleased version of Google Maps which displayed some awesome new features such as vector graphics, which would be replacing the then current tiling system. We were told the rest of the Android world would be getting this updated Google Maps within days and just like that, *poof*, we now have Google Maps 5.0 for Android! While most all Android users will be able to update to version 5.0, users must be running 2.0 and above to take advantage of the new 3D and offline features. Did I just mention features? Yea, this new update has features. Want to hear them?

Dec 16, 2010

[Update 12/22: Howard Stern channel has gone live and is ready for your enjoyment!]

For all you die-hard Howard Stern fans out there in Android world, you guys are going to appreciate this one. Howard recently signed a new 5-year contract with Sirius|XM which this time includes internet streaming and mobile. This is great news for fans and means that anyone with an Android device and a Sirius|XM subscription can now listen to Howard via the Sirius|XM Android app.

Dec 15, 2010

Blue Defense: Second Wave has conquered the planet iOS, and now has set its sights on Android. While the game is a sequel to a 2008 iOS game, you’re missing nothing by jumping into this game (particularly as there’s no story to catch up on). You are protecting a planet, appropriately colored blue. There are red and green enemies that want to destroy your planet, because they’re prejudiced against all things blue. Your weapons are limitless amounts of blue machine gun fire, and a limited-use planet cannon that fires a large blue beam of death in the direction of your enemies, and destroys any enemies within close range of the planet as well.

Dec 14, 2010

It would be safe to say that at some point in our lives we’ve been exposed to the workings of Dr.Seuss. His classic rhythmic children books can be spotted on almost every child’s bookshelf. With numerous screen adaptations, merchandise and even a theme park, it is only fitting that his legacy would continue entertaining children of all ages through newer technologies. That’s exactly how app development company Oceanhouse Media, Inc. feels, and that is why they created their popular Dr.Seuss digital children’s book apps.

Dec 14, 2010

Google promised faster updates for their apps released into the Android Market and they weren’t kidding. It’s been less than three months since the Gmail app for Android went to Market and we already have ourselves (Android 2.2+) another update. The latest Gmail version 2.3.2 brings with it better “Priority Inbox” support plus improved “Compose,” bringing it one step closer to the familiar desktop Gmail that we love. If you have “Priority Inbox” set up on your desktop you will now be able to view all your important messages in the new “Priority Inbox” view. View, archive, delete or mark important/unimportant all from within this view. You can even set up the option for your phone to notify, vibrate, or ring on just your new important mail, making it easier to identify important messages as they come in.

Dec 14, 2010

Think of Solipskier as an endless platformer where you draw the level. You draw the path for your skier, named Solipskier, to ski on, trying to travel through tunnels and gates that increase your score and multiplier. As Solipskier picks up speed, you can draw ramps to send him up in the air, and as you stop drawing paths, Solipskier will do tricks in midair to get you more points. Impeding your progress are barrier gates, areas in which you can’t draw a path through, as well as your own reaction times. You will often be going so fast that you may miss when Solipskier lands, or you may try to draw a ramp, but make it so steep that it just winds up being a wall for him to crash into. Your goal is to survive the often insane pace of the game, while trying to rack up the points.

Dec 13, 2010

Next time you visit the Android Market you may be in for a surprise. According to the Android Developers Blog, the Android Market has received a significant update which will be rolling out within the next couple weeks. You will find a lot of changes in the UI along with changes that affect users and developers alike. I haven’t seen the update first hand but there are a ton of sites hosting hands on videos along with links to download the new market .apk (just do a search) for those who can’t wait. Most of the changes come in the UI but there is also a huge change to the refund policy.