Category: featured

10 Best Apps for Android Devices

Last time we talked about the top 8 applications most compatible with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. What about the rest of the Android users? Well, today’s review is concentrating on all kind of Android users. We will discuss 10 most reliable and interesting apps working with Android operating system.

Google Maps

When talking about the Google applications I should mention that Maps is the most popular among them. Despite being free it gives a wide choice of operations including navigation and layers. The application is especially helpful for all of those who have appeared in unknown locations and want to get around. Another option is to find the relevant services nearby if you’re not familiar with your current location or are having hard time in finding addresses of already desirable businesses.

WikiDroid for Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of the most relevant websites if you’re looking for something unknown using your computer. But once in a while you do get the desire to do the same on your smartphone. And what happens? You discover that in contrast to your computer the lookup is not that easy. This application comes to destroy this stereotype. WikiDroid for Wikipedia not only gives you a chance to have an easy lookup but also provides you with all the necessary articles from Wikipedia. It also optimizes the articles for your display and gives you a chance to read them without problems. The application is free.

Where’s My Droid

This application is ideal for all of those Android users who are frequently leaving their devices at home, in office or somewhere else and find it only a few days later. The application has a few options to help you find the handset. The easiest way to find the device is through GPS, of course if it’s enabled. The second option is to have a loud ring with maximum volume or a similarly loud vibration. And the last option is sending a special text message to the handset containing the phrase “Where’s my Droid?”

Evernote

Most of you should be having the earlier version of this application. If no, it’s not a shame. But trust me now it’s the right time to get the application on your Android.  The newest version of the application is ideally integrated with the rest of the applications working on your Android.  The app itself works great for making notes and organizing your time within cloud service. Accordingly, you won’t need to take the memory of your handset. It also gives you a chance to share your notes with your friends. It’s free, but if you plan to get a premium subscription you will need to pay something like $45 annually.

Twitter

You can always get access to Twitter via a third-part application, but it’s not worth it. Why? Most importantly, you are not guaranteed from various bugs. Besides, why should you use a third-party stuff when the official application for Android looks amazingly great? Starting with Twitter’s 2.1.2 version you have a chance to have multiple account access from your device and get any kind of optional push notifications to your device. Interestingly, the application allows the users to search the application and read the site even without Skype access.

ooVoo Video Calls

Android devices coming with VGA front-facing cameras are required to get ooVoo Video Calls application. It allows to have constant video calls without bugs. It’s stable and comes with a list of interesting features. The application supports group video, voice calls and instant messaging (across iOS, OSx, Android and Windows).  In other words, this is an application that allows to communicate with the users of other OS devices, such as iPhone or any WP handset.

Netflix

This application allows to have access to Netflix catalog and watch movies. This feature’s available for all locations where you have 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi connectivity. The application is designed for all Android devices, which are Android 2.2 or higher. The subscription to Netflix service will cost you $7.99, but it’ll give you monthly access to hundreds of movies and TV shows.

Words With Friends Free

This is a Scrubble-like game. So you will get a chance to experience a mobile social game. The game allows to get connected with friends using Android handsets and all kind of other platforms. This makes the game even more interesting as you don’t have to spend your time on looking for Android-handset friends. The application-game is free and you can get access to it straightly from Android Market. It’s one of the most demanded games working with Android, after Angry Birds, which were transported from iOS to Android.

Kindle

Kindle allows to get access to various books, newspapers and magazines without access to e-reader. The application allows Android users to get access to hundreds of thousands of books and to download them. The users will also have access to around 100 newspapers and magazines and all of these combined and categorized. So far Kindle users have come across one problem — it’s rather hard (but not impossible!) to uninstall the application. Anyway I’d stick to this awesome application as it’s of the best reading applications offered for Android devices.

Slacker Radio

This application is designed for all Android users who love music streaming services. Slacker Radio application is the Android version of the same feature available on computers. The application gives access to lyrics implementation, customization options coming with excellent audio quality and well-designed interface. The only thing the application’s missing is the integration with social networks, but still it’s doing it’s job for 100%. The application is free of charge.

These were the most reliable and interesting applications that come with Android OS or can be downloaded for the devices particularly for free. So go ahead and get them!

October 5, 2011 | 0 Comments More

Over 500,000 Android Devices Activated Every Day

During the I/O Event that took place in the beginning of May, Google announced that about 400,000 Android devices were activated daily. Less than two months have passed since that announcement, and now Andy Rubin, Google’s vice president of engineering and the one responsible for the Android platform, says the number of daily activated Android devices has grown to 500,000.

“There are now 500,000 Android devices activated every day, and it’s growing at 4.4% w/w,” reads his recent tweet.

According to IDC, not so long ago Android lost a bit of its market share (for the first time since 2009), but not because it had low sales or something. Just the iPhone4 from Verizon was really popular and had great sales, grabbing a bigger market share. But anyway, Android devices are still selling well, and besides, Android is the most popular platform among developers at the moment – 67 percent of them create apps and software for Google’s OS, and I guess  this fact is unlikely to change in the nearest future.

Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t announce how many iPhone devices are activated every day, so it’s rather difficult to compare Apple and Google. But we know that Apple activated 18.1 million devices in the second quarter of this year (January-March), and about 180 million iPhones during a year (March 2010-March 2011). 180 million/365 days = about 295.890,4. So it seems like less than 300,000 iPhones running iOS are activated by Apple daily.

But remember, it’s not really correct to compare Apple’s iOS with Google’s Android, since Apple sells only one single smartphone based on iOS, and there are many, many manufacturers (Motorola and HTC are perhaps the biggest ones among them) that develop and sell Android-based smartphones.

Source

how many iphones are activated each day
June 29, 2011 | 0 Comments More

Android Device Screen Broken? It Can Be Repaired!

You were saving money for some time to buy a cool SIM-free Android smartphone that costs about $600-700, you were really happy for some time, but then… A terrible thing happens – you accidentally drop it and… the display is broken!

Don’t hurry to say goodbye to your beloved smartphone, since the guys from DirectFix can fix it. And here is a very interesting video proving that:

In this video a guy from DirectFix is taking a broken HTC Thunderbolt apart piece by piece, which is not as easy as it can seem. Anyway, after about 7.5 minutes, the Android smartphone is disassembled, the broken glass is removed from the LCD display, and you can buy a new glass to replace it.

I’m not sure you can – or you should – repeat the same manipulations at home. But if you have all the necessary things, maybe you can try – at your own risk, of course. But remember that putting all the parts of your Android smartphone together when the glass is replaced will be much more difficult than disassembling it! :))

And here are some videos demonstrating the taking apart process of other Android smartphones. Have a look at the disassembled Samsung Galaxy S, the Motorola DROID X and the HTC EVO 4G.

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June 15, 2011 | 0 Comments More

Three iOS5 Features We Wish Android Had

Many new manufacturers and software developers have appeared in the smartphone recently, so Apple with its products is not the leader in this field any more… There are many features in iOS 5 that were kind of copied from Android, but there are also things in Apple’s platform that other platforms, namely Android, don’t have.

Here are three iOS features we wish Android also had.

1. Game Center

When we think about Android games, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Plants vs. Zombies come to our minds at once. So Android has a number of games that are very popular at the moment, and this is good. But… it would be even better if Android had a Game Center like iOS, a Game Center where the players could get acquainted with each other and make friends, learn about new games, unlock achievements and do many other interesting things. Isn’t such a service a dream for all gamers?

2. Launch the Camera from the lock screen

In Apple’s iOS you can launch your smartphone’s camera right from the lock screen. Not that it’s really difficult to unlock the screen and then launch the camera, just… sometimes you need to take a photo quickly, and in such situations the opportunity to launch the Camera app as quickly as possible would be very nice.

By the way, I have to mention that there is a very useful third party lock screen replacement – Widget Locker – that solves this problem.

3. Newsstand app

Apple’s iOS has a great app called Newsstand. It gives you the opportunity to subscribe to your favorite newspapers and magazines and always read the freshest versions of them. Android has many apps that allow you to subscribe for books, magazines or newspaper news, of course, but this very application would be especially useful for those who read news during the day and like being informed.

I guess if Android manages to implement these three features iOS already has, it’ll become really cool. And let’s not forget that Apple is also better with its smartphones’ fragmentation absence and better hardware. If this problem is also solved in Android, it will probably become the best platform in the world.

Source

June 8, 2011 | 0 Comments More

How to : Root T-Mobile G1

You bought the latest and the hottest gadget in the market, the Android powered T-Mobile G1 with high hopes. But, you found that there are many things, some very essential and basic functions like taking screenshot, which you cannot perform? If the answer to the question is “YES”, then you have landed at the right place.

All you need to do, is follow some steps carefully and root your device to reveal the true potential of the great device. But, perform these steps at YOUR OWN RISK, as a slightest mistake could brick your device forever.

You need to have firmware version RC 29 (for the US users) or RC 7 (for the UK users). If you have RC 8 or higher (for the UK users
) or RC 30 or higher (for the US users), you need to downgrade to firmware version RC 7 or RC 29 before proceeding to gain root access. To know how to downgrade your firmware version, click here.

The steps that need to be followed are :

  1. Download recovery.img and Hard SPL to the root of your SD card. Click here to download recovery.img and click here to download Hard SPL.
  2. Restart your device. Then, press Enter twice, and type “telnetd” and press Enter again.
  3. Download and install a Telnet application on your device.
  4. Type the following commands into the application :
  • mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
  • cd sdcard
  • flash_image recovery recovery.img
  • cat recovery.img > /system/recovery.img

Congratulations !! now you have root access on your T-Mobile G1.

July 2, 2009 | 1 Comment More