Archive for the ‘Android’ Category
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
From the outset, a smartphone photo manipulation app is a fantastic idea. Thanks to the turtleneck mafia, awful-and-noisy-built-in-camera photography has become something far bigger than most of us expected — who could’ve predicted that the iPhone would become the most popular camera on Flickr in under two years? But now, ladies and gentlemen, it ‘s the turn of the Android. With dozens of new Android handsets emerging every month, and with the Android market share creeping ahead of the iPhone, it’s now time to talk about Android photography.
There’s a bit of a problem, though: most photo manipulation software for Android phones smells worse than a Titan’s loincloth. Mashable has a list of them, but they’re all plagued with inadequacies and bugs; some are slow and some simply don’t work on newer phones!
Enter Photoshop Express for Android. From Adobe you’d expect nothing short of a photo editing miracle app, but alas that isn’t the case. Photoshop Express is certainly useful – and it is a very polished, professional app that’s free of bugs — but I just wish it did a bit more. I wish it wasn’t so annoyingly devoid of obvious, easy-to-implement features.From the outset, Photoshop Express is very smart. You’re welcomed with a pretty, blue Adobe splash screen, and then you’re shown all of the photos currently on your phone. You can start editing right away, or choose a photo to upload.
You also have the option of viewing your online photos (those stored at Photoshop.com), but here’s my first gripe: you can’t download photos to your phone! I wanted to edit one of my Photoshop.com photos, but the app simply won’t let me. I have no idea why Adobe has locked it down in this way — perhaps to provide a ‘new feature!!1′ for the next release? (Also, look at the Phone/Online tabs in the image above — notice how the ‘depressed’ look indicates which tab you’re on. I don’t like it!)
Back to editing, then. Either select a photo already on your phone, or push the hardware camera button to take a new photo. This is the screen you’ll see:
Beneath those four headings there are a variety of functions. Here’s a complete list (don’t worry, there aren’t many): crop, straighten, rotate, flip, exposure, saturation, tint, black & white, contrast, brightness, soft focus, effects, and borders. Most of these are self-explanatory, and they all do the same thing as their desktop software equivalent. The ‘effects’ are nice, providing you with a bunch of pre-programmed filters that’ll make your mundane on-the-way-to-work photos less boring.
There’s a couple of handy undo/redo buttons at the bottom — and no, you can’t make those two annoying bars disappear while you edit the photo. The only way to see the final result is to save the image (thus losing your undo/redo history… awesome!)
Finally, the app has the ability to upload your edited photos to Photoshop.com, Facebook and TwitPic. You can also set it to ‘auto upload’ your photos, which is a rather cool way of keeping your phone synchronized with your Interwebs.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Android | No Comments »
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
Want to install Froyo Android OS on the iPhone 2G and 3G with just a click? Developer Sergio Mcfly has just revealed that he is working on a Windows version of iPhoDroid, which is expected to be released by next week.
Here’s what Mcfly has to say:
iPhoDroid hits the chance for Microsoft users to get a taste of the desirable Android Project. And on my schedule it’s for next week. It will be in 1SHOT; 99% to be, at least from my head calculator. So, tell your friend because I need to get this intention more strong than never. Windows platform always was my main target, believe me. And now that time just arrived.
But it will take some time, before you can actually grab this, so stay coming for updates.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted in Android, I-Phone | No Comments »
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
Android-powered cell phones may be powerful devices, but devices like the Motorola Droid X and Samsung Vibrant don’t have endless battery life. In fact, many owners would be happy to make it through a single day, hoping that a nightly recharge is sufficient.
Sadly, it sometimes isn’t. A number of factors have conspired to reduce gadget endurance over the past several years. Thinner designs with less room for the battery, larger screens, faster processors, software that runs in the background, and power-hungry GPS chips all share responsibility. The move to 3G and 4G networks has also taken its toll. Our battery life test results drop significantly—sometimes more than half—when we’re testing an AT&T or T-Mobile phone in 3G mode instead of 2G alone.
But there’s much more to poor battery life results than that. Fortunately, there’s plenty you can do to stem the flow of juice from your Android device. Try these tips to extend your handset’s battery life:
Set display brightness to adjust automatically. Turning down the brightness is obvious. But the automatic adjustment setting is less well known. Activating it means the OS will automatically dim its display in darker environments, including seemingly well-lit indoor rooms.
Reduce e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook polling. This is a big one. Even handset manufacturers like Motorola don’t necessary get this. Set your various messaging apps to “manual” and you’ll instantly extend your device’s battery life by a significant amount.
Kill extra tasks. This one is controversial, because Android does its own task management. Each new version of Android has improved automatic task management. But some programs still misbehave, especially social-networking apps that like to poll the Internet frequently. Having a task killer like Advanced Task Killer around can help neutralize unexpected network access and lengthen your battery life.
Turn hardware features off. It’s great that today’s phones have GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, but do you really need all three activated 24 hours per day? Android keeps location-based apps resident in the background. The constant drain on the battery will become noticeable, fast. If you’ve got an HTC EVO 4G, you can turn off 4G mode separately—a good thing, since WiMAX consumes extra power but has yet to blanket the country. On AT&T and T-Mobile phones, you can even turn 3G off when you don’t need speedy Internet access.
Dump unnecessary home screen widgets. Just because they’re sitting on the home screen, seemingly inactive, doesn’t mean they’re not consuming power. That goes for widgets that poll status updates in the background, as well as ones that just sit there but look pretty and animated.
Reduce RSS feed update frequency. Staying current with the news is fine, but why update feeds constantly in the background? Plenty of third-party apps set their defaults to poll at a set period of time. Others may offer a choice, but give no indication to the user that battery life will suffer as a result.
Android Market can help. Power Manager is a powerful Android app that helps you manage many of the settings we discussed in this article. It also can add a few features here and there when necessary, such as the ability to tune the screen timeout while on a call (although the effect of that one can be miniscule). If your Android device lacks a task manager, try the free Advanced Task Manager.
Check the reviews. We conduct battery life tests of every single phone we review. Unsurprisingly, the results vary widely between handsets, even on the same network. When choosing a phone, make sure that real world talk time is sufficient. You can’t go by what the manufacturer says; we’ve seen variances on the order of several hours of usage in both directions.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted in Android | No Comments »
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
New numbers from Gartner Group and IDG report Android phones had 17% of the world wide market in the 2nd quarter of 2010. Last year Android only had 1.2% of sales. That’s a fast rise in market prominence for Google’s Android operating system.
Apple inched up from 13% last year to 14.2% this year.Blackberry declined less than 1% but Nokia’s Symbian did a nose dive from 51% to 41.2%.Android’s success was reported earlier for the United States. The Gartner report extends it to the world.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Android, I-Phone | No Comments »
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
AppBrain
AppBrain is probably the most used resource for Android Apps after Market. It has an Android App which can be installed on the device to browse apps through its interface. Its tabbed interface features makes it very easy to look for Top apps for the day or week. Apps can also be viewed based on their status be it a drop in apps price or recently updated, free, paid, new etc.
It also makes it possible to browse the app market on www.appbrain.com from a desktop computer and use native Android app to install and uninstall apps with a sync!
AndroLib
Androlib was launched roughly a year ago. In July 2009 there was barely 5,000 Applications in the market. Now, it has a database of 103139 Android apps, 3522 screenshots and 146533 screenshots from market, 813 videos & 2191 Android wallpapers at the time of writing. It has some useful & Advanced features like search engine which predicts the application you are looking for, Download estimates of each app which gives you a better idea about the popularity of the app, related apps, also screenshots & videos of apps are available to give you an idea of look & feel of the application.
SlideME
SlideME describes itself as follows:
SlideME’s philosophy is simple: one Application Store can’t reach everyone, everywhere with the applications they want. We provide applications to these niche markets, based on geographic location, payment method or even types of applications that users can’t find in traditional channels. We open up these markets to developers, who can deliver and sell their applications globally.
SlideMe Application Manager(SAM) is an “AppStore” application for Android devices that eases the discovery and download of applications directly to your device.
The still expanding SlideME catalog within SAM has both free & paid applications. Free applications are also available from web & mobile storefronts. You will find it easier though to use SAM from your Android mobile for both ‘free’ and ‘paid’ applications.
SAM supports SlideME’s Storage Locker. This allows you to re-download or upgrade Android applications you have previously purchased in case you lost or reset device.
Keep in mind from the SlideME web site, you can browse the catalog of applications and collaborate as a community member. A place where you can contribute, read/write reviews and comments of applications.
AndroidTapp
Android Tapp is one of the best resource for Android App Reviews, Android App Ratings, Features interviews with mobile application developers, news, support and Showcases. Eliminate the guess-work when downloading Android Apps… know for sure! It also
It features all apps distributed in different categories with full reviews & description. If you want detailed information about any app then this is the place to go. It doesn’t have an Android app though. If it had one then it would be a killer resource for Android apps. I highly recommend to check it out.
AndAppStore
AndAppStore is aimed at serving users of all Android devices (both Google approved and unapproved), and trying to help the Android community by Helping Users get access to Android Applications irrespective of whether their Android device is Google approved or not via either the on-device client or web interface, Helping Developers by providing a site where they can list their applications, without any fees for paid applications, and giving them access to users on both Google approved and unapproved devices, Helping OEMs & Porting Groups to give their users access to applications via royalty-free on-device client which they can include on their devices and in their Android distributions.
AndSpot
Andspot is another alternative app marketplace for Google Android devices. Currently in a private beta phase, developers and users can request to join from Andspot.com.
Developers are offered 80% of the revenue from app sales, as an early promotional offer and therefore developers are encouraged to place their apps into the market without delay.
At present, the features are confidential and available only to those that registered from andspot.com.
Android Arcade
The last of the list is Android Arcade. It is built upon Facebook & have a collection of just 40,000 apps. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy enough. Its greatest power is that it integrates with your Facebook account giving you Personalized app recommendations, see what apps your friends are using, share app collection & reviews, read reviews from experts and friends alike.
There are a few more Android apps marketplace but I am not going to include those in this list because I have only included all big players. Hope you find some good apps from the above mentioned Android App stores.
Did I miss some major player in the android apps department? Do let me know in the comments. Also share what new apps are you using on your Android device.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Posted in Android | No Comments »
Sunday, August 1st, 2010
Logs posted late yesterday show that Google is actively testing Android 2.2. Better known as Froyo (frozen yogurt), the future release is showing up in web logs from those visiting sites. More than one source for Android and Me also claims to know of the testing directly.
What 2.2 will entail hasn’t been discussed by Google, but it should have a number of important additions despite the small version number. Among the steps may included an attempt to reduce Android fragmentation by making it possible to update some OS components without needing entirely new firmware. It should also provide the necessary underpinnings for Flash 10.1.
Many of the less critical changes should still improve performance and could bring new OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics features, free up RAM and solve problems with the accuracy of the touchscreen on phones like the Nexus One. Many features in the Nexus One may actually be hidden until future Android releases come out, Google’s Erick Tseng said at CES.
The most likely release window for Android 2.2 is May 19th, when Google starts its I/O conference. The event in the past has included significant Android news.
Google has been on a relatively aggressive update schedule and has been adding large feature updates even with minor upgrades. The add-ons have been critical to the successes of phones like the Droid but, in the current architecture, has left many Android phones running outdated platforms and being locked out of certain apps. Chief rival Apple is believed to have benefited from taking direct control of both hardware and software by giving every recent device the same features at the same time. The strategy is known to have spurred on the creation of the Nexus One.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Android, Internet | 1 Comment »
