AndroidGuys

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• APPTEASERS: 15 Android apps and games you should know about (March 28)
• Samsung Galaxy S4 wireless charging accessories leaked
• 20 of the most head-scratching moments in the history of Android
• Samsung to launch a 8-inch FULL HD AMOLED tablet at IFA?
• Google’s Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge: Don’t start nothin’, there won’t be nothin’
• AT&T:Samsung Galaxy S4 pre-orders begin April 16, priced at $250

APPTEASERS: 15 Android apps and games you should know about (March 28) Posted: 28 Mar 2013 12:34 PM PDT APPTEASERS is a collection of apps and games that are new to Android, recently updated, discounted, etc. Whatever the case, we think they’re worth exploring and are willing to bet that many of you would enjoy a few of them. We understand that we won’t get every single app that crosses our path but we hope to filter things a bit and pass them along to you, dear reader. What you’ll find below is a quick plug for apps and games, often using the developer’s own words to describe the title. Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Google+ as we showcase a different app each day. Duck Retro Hunt Duck Retro Hunt has a same fun and easy gameplay: see a duck, point and shoot. Augmented Reality permits you to play using the real world as your scenery with the virtual content seamlessly blended with it. On the other hand, gyroscopes will provide the most natural and precise form of interaction. Finally, if you prefer the classical way, touch controls will suit your game playing style. FREE Weather Travel Fashion (WTF) Get a personal weather stylist on your Android device with Weather Travel Fashion (WTF) by Siveron. Based on local weather conditions, WTF presents chic and stylish outfit suggestions from outerwear to shoes. The travel section includes a 3-day forecast and a “must-haves” packing list with weather appropriate items. WTF is ideal for style seeking men and women, frequent travelers, and anybody who has a hard time figuring out what to wear every morning. FREE Jobs Search – Jobs – Careers The first resume wizard for Android is here, brought to you by Proven, the job-search app that makes it easy to search and apply for jobs quickly while on the go. And now, with the resume wizard, users can build resumes from scratch directly within the app and submit them to job postings on Indeed.com and Craigslist.com. FREE Fynch for Twitter Fynch enhances your Twitter experience by automatically analyzing your timeline for interesting patterns of activity. It is intended to be a tool that decomposes your timeline into smaller sets of tweets that are easier to consume. Fynch is great for identifying extremely high rates of activity, trending topic mentions, and the tweets of less active users in your following list. FREE ROM Toolbox Pro ROM Toolbox combines all the great root apps into one monster app with a beautiful and easy to use interface. ROM Toolbox has every tool you need to make your Android device fast and customized to your liking. Save 85% by getting ROM Toolbox instead of spending $30 or more on other apps. This app requires root permission. $4.99 Demolition Master This is the original mix of colorful puzzle game with elements of arcade that has gained hearts of more than 4 million people all over the world on the iOS! The main task of the game is to blow up the unwanted buildings with minimal number of tries. Dramatic explosions, curious locations worldwide together with charming music, adrenaline, and hunger for victory are among the feeling that the Demolition Master will create for you. FREE Notifier Widget for Facebook Widget that notifies and displays your unread Facebook notifications. In addition to comments, photos or events (among other types of notification), also get messages, friend requests and birthday reminders. With a full set of filters, you will get only the notifications you care about. FREE Privacy Star Text & Call Block Unlimited reverse number lookups, call & text blocking, spam, telemarketing, & debt collector reporting- all in one easy to use app! PrivacyStar allows you to reverse lookup unlimited unknown phone numbers directly from your smartphone! Lookup unknown business, 1-800, residential, or cell phone numbers and, if available, PrivacyStar will return the name and location of the caller.  You can also block any number from calling or texting your phone with PrivacyStar's unlimited call & text blocking feature! Includes 7-day trial. FREE Plumber Land Plumber Land is a free addictive puzzle game. Your goal is to turn the different colored pipes in the right direction and connect them together to form a complete pipeline. When you create a pipe, one of your lovely dragons will finally be able to drink. Plumber Land features a totally new game play, lovely dragons and hundreds of entertaining levels. FREE Get the Nut Squirrely has lost his lifetime collection of acorns in an unfortunate geyser accident and now he needs your help! Roll the animals around and get Squirrely to the Acorn, but beware! Not all animals are fluffy as they appear to be. Start from your home forest, and continue through the harsh weather of the snow, the scary swamp and the vast wild west! FREE Shift It A contemplative and thoughtful shape shifting puzzle game with the perfect combination of eye-candy visuals and serene sounds. Radiant multicolored tiles rests on an infinite loop; aim of the game is to group same colored blocks together by simply dragging your finger across the screen. FREE Farm Up Farming simulator set in the 1930s – the time of crisis in the agricultural state of Cloverland. The game is now available for free download on the Amazon Appstore. It tells a story of a young woman achieving success in farming and becoming popular. The game starts when Jennifer, the main protagonist, makes a decision to buy a farm. Times are difficult, but she is ready to work meticulously hard to achieve success. Players’ mission is to cleverly manage their skills to build the best agriculture business in the country. FREE (Amazon) NoteLedge Old plain note-taking is boring, try multimedia note-taking! NoteLedge is a versatile note-taking application that simultaneously supports handwriting, typing, sketching, inserting photos, audio and video recording. It is an ideal tool for you to record your life by keeping a diary, jotting down ideas, taking notes, composing travel journals, scheduling weekly plans…and anything you could think of. FREE Strategy & Tactics: WWII Relive the greatest battles of WWII in this grand strategy masterpiece. Take command of the Axis to conquer Europe – then command the armies of the USSR and Allies to retake it. In Strategy & Tactics: World War II, you battle impressive AI enemies in three campaigns with a classic turn-based battle system and serried ranks of historically-accurate troops. Fight your way through eighteen missions with an exсiting storyline and charismatic characters across Europe, Asia and Africa, research new technologies to improve your troops and build industry, and lead your armies to victory. $4.99 My Log Home iLWP Enjoy the amazing and soothing atmosphere of My Log Home 3D interactive live wallpaper of log cabin situated in wild nature with the view of the mountains. It’s made with an exceptionally high standard, while paying close attention to detail as well as being one of the most realistic HD graphics on the market. Also, its full of interactive features like the gyroscope, automatic weather, 360° seamless view and much more. You can even warm up by the cozy fireplace, watch the beautiful sunset from the window, switch on the TV console or just relax and paint in front of the easel. $2.49 (Sample one for free) The post APPTEASERS: 15 Android apps and games you should know about (March 28) appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Samsung Galaxy S4 wireless charging accessories leaked Posted: 28 Mar 2013 12:18 PM PDT Samsung Galaxy S4 is the new addition to the amazing line up of Android smartphones, and no doubt its a powerful contender, and guess what else will make it even more appealing? If you are thinking about wireless charging, then your guess is right. As you can see the screenshot above, this is probably the wireless charger for the Samsung Galaxy S4. It will come with a wireless charging back cover, and the dock. Change the cover, connect the dock, and you will be good to go. It’s the same thing, like we saw in the Nexus 4 wireless charger, but we hope Samsung would be able to match the price of the Nexus 4 charger as well, which is just $60. We really don’t know when it will be available or how much it will cost, but we really hope it will happen anytime soon. If you are planning to get a Galaxy S4, would you prefer wireless charging? Tell us about it in the comment box below Via: UV The post Samsung Galaxy S4 wireless charging accessories leaked appeared first on AndroidGuys.

20 of the most head-scratching moments in the history of Android Posted: 28 Mar 2013 10:27 AM PDT OK, first things first. You know we love just about every aspect of Android. Be it the ultra-cool hardware, or the ridiculously helpful software, or the simple fact that it is an open source platform. Really, we could spend an entire post gushing over Android all the wonderful things it does, but that’s not why you’re here. You want to see what we deem to be “head-scratching” moments and why, right? We’ve gone back over the last five years and looked at all the things that have helped to make Android what it is today. Some of what you’ll find are hardware designs such as specific phones or tablets. Others, are a little more broad in scope and encompass multiple products or features. Either way, we’re sure to miss one or two things. Lists of this sort always seem to ruffle a few feathers, especially when it comes to things that make us scratch our heads. If you have something that you thing belongs on this list, please leave a comment below and we’ll be sure to check it out. Perhaps there’s enough out there to merit another post like this? Well, we certainly hope not! Here they are, in no particular order: 20 of the most head-scratching moments in the history of Android AT&T lockdown Many of you may not know this, but AT&T previously did not allow its devices to install applications from outside of the Google Play Store. Known at the time as the Android Market, it was the only place deemed safe enough by AT&T’s standards. While this didn’t affect most average users, it angered many a fanboy and put the carrier on the low end of the totem pole for quite some time. Things did change, however, right around the time the Amazon Appstore application was introduced. Kyocera Echo Not the only model listed here to feature a second screen, the Kyocera Echo was a major letdown when it was introduced. Leading up to the big reveal, we had no idea what sort of “magic” Kyocera was promising in their next product. The immediate consensus was that the split screen design with large gaps was bound to fail. Kyocera tried as hard they could to push the APIs and had hopes that developers would rally around the way the dual-screen worked. Alas, the phone never gained traction and Kyocera never returned to this form factor. Motorola loses their flipping mind As the first Android phone on AT&T’s network, the Motorola Backflip was but one of a series of phones with “quirky” form factors. Many of the Motorola phones at the time offered entirely different designs and the first generation of Motoblur. The problem with the phones was that they looked cheap and geared toward a much younger demographic. When contrasted with other handset makers, the Backflip, Flipout, and Flipside were never taken seriously. Too much emphasis on hardware The first few generations of Android devices seemed to have one thing in common: they were more powerful than the iPhone at the time. The problem was, however, that most of the chatter and emphasis on these devices was spent plugging the hardware. Apple was busy telling people what they could do with their iPhone, but Android companies were touting the specs. Why is this so bad? Most people don’t understand the difference between a giga-this or a mega-that. Average folks just want to buy “the phone that does such and such from TV.” Don’t get us wrong, this worked wonders for the Droid line and the subsequent Nexus releases.  Today, however, phone Android announcements largely, and wisely, center around experience. HTC Status Really, a Facebook phone? What’s so special about the HTC Status experience? Oh, you can easily share your thoughts, pictures, and other details on the social network with the press of a button. It’s just too bad that Android has made it incredibly easy to share all this stuff to Facebook and every other social network since day one. Toss in a terrible form factor and tiny chiclet keyboard and you’ve got a doomed device. Garminfone Garmin’s foray into the Android space was a $200 experience that was GPS first and phone second. Sadly, the price and two-year commitment scared off nearly everyone. It didn’t help that the experience looked so much like a GPS device. The other drawback? Android had started baking in turn-by-turn navigation into the platform starting with the 2.0 release. Who wanted to pay for all of this when Google was giving it away for free? You know the answer. HTC’s less than Sensational 2011 Even HTC will tell you that they tried to do too much in 2011. The entire year riddled with devices that ran the gamut of low-end to high, making for a confusing customer experience. The most notorious offender in the “what’s the difference, again?” club was the Sensation. There were no less than four models (Sensation, Sensation 4G, Sensation XE, Sensation XL) to contend with in 2011 and it was not always easy to tell them apart. To be fair, these were spread across different markets. With that said, those who followed Android news somewhat closely at the time could be forgiven if they got mixed up. HTC Beats us over the head Staying with HTC for a moment, it was the integration of Beats Audio that helped to differentiate between the various Sensation models.  What’s so bad about a better audio experience, you ask? Nothing really, we just don’t want to pay a premium price for your better phone only to take the  Beats by Dr. Dre in-ear headphones. Though the practice of bundling headphones didn’t last long, it was ding against the HTC brand. Motorola Droid Bionic false start Nearly a full year would pass from the time Motorola would first introduce the Droid Bionic until it actually arrived on the market. Sure, it went through a number of changes over the course of the year, however there was no way it would stand up to the hype. Factor in Verizon’s decision to drop the Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound, HTC Rhyme, and a handful of others in rapid-fire succession, the Bionic was quickly overlooked. Tablets with contracts Who in the world wants to buy an Android tablet with a two-year service agreement? Nobody. This was one of the biggest problem facing hardware makers in the early days of Android tablets. The problem was compounded in the first generations as there was no Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich optimization. Clunky experiences, high prices, and long term commitment proved to be a perfect storm for these early doomed tablets. Things would get better over time as carriers move to no-contract and shared data options. Samsung Continuum Like the Kyocera Echo, Samsung tried to tell us that a second display would make for a good Android experience. Called the “ticker” it was a simple row of text and links that pulled from news sources, messages,  and social networks. The form factor would not subsequently return and developers never got a chance to write cool or compelling apps or features. Dell’s entire Android portfolio While we cannot fault Dell for trying to climb aboard the Android train, we can fault them for never getting things right. The Streak, Streak 7, Aero, and Venue were all overpriced missteps that mostly forced users to go with AT&T for service. Sadly, Dell would not be around to join the onslaught of 5-inch phone experiences as it killed of Android endeavors. Whispers suggest Dell may be readying somewhat of a return to Android with the Ophelia stick. Samsung Behold II One of Samsung early Android devices, the Behold II was an exercise in UI gone wrong. The gimmick 3D cube interface was awkward to use and did not allow users to customize the apps. The TouchWiz software design felt overly intrusive and was one of reasons fanboys came to loathe anything but stock Android. Priced too high and paired with T-Mobile, we were glad to see this one die. 3D Try as they might, some hardware makers refuse(d) to give up on 3D for smartphones and tablets. Carriers would tell us that it would be these handsets that drive adoption of 3D TVs but we knew better. Whether tied to the display or camera on Android phones, 3D was a fad we hope to see never return. Chief offenders include HTC EVO 3D, LG Optimus 3D, and LG G-Slate. LG Optimus Vu You know what doesn’t feel comfortable in your hand? A 5-inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio, that’s what. Arriving as LG’s take on the Galaxy Note experience, the large and awkward device  (AKA Verizon Intuition) looked like a book and had no sexiness in the design. Sure, it was supposed to feel more natural to those who like to read, but people use their phones for photos, games, and social networking. LG, for whatever reasons,  would opt for the same form factor for the successor. Unconventional naming conventions There’s a few things worse in the Android space than having to break down the difference between different, albeit similarly-named devices. Call it the Droid effect, it has often been difficult in getting the average person to understand what sets one apart from another. On the other side of the coin, it is equally maddening when a company releases the same device across multiple carriers but with varying names. Remember the Samsung Galaxy S? No you don’t. You might, however, recall the Captivate, Vibrant, Fascinate, and Epic 4G – all the same generation. HTC Rhyme Hey, here’s an idea! Let’s create a smartphone experience that is centered around the female demographic. We’ll make it really obvious too… we’ll make it purple and have it include a “charm” that plugs in and dangles out of your purse so you know when you’re getting a call. For good measure, we’ll make it underpowered as compared to other devices on the market and charge females for the bundled accessories instead. Motorola Devour Motorola would follow the release of the Droid with another sliding QWERTY experience for Verizon that ultimately died a quick death. Powered by Android 1.6 when the Droid ran Android 2.0, the Devour felt like a prototype device.  It also didn’t help that it featured the Motoblur experience that dumbed it down to a younger demographic. Strangely, every other Motorola release at Verizon since has carried a Droid prefix. Three years removed, the only memory we have of this phone is the commercial that featured Megan Fox in the bathtub. Sony Xperia X10 mini (pro) Neither this nor its keyboard-toting brethren, the Xperia X10 mini pro would find a home in the United States, though that’s not why we’ve listed this model here.  It doesn’t matter what version of Android you are using, a 2.5-inch (320×240 pixel) display ruins the experience. These two models ran outdated versions of Android and never got with the times.  Sony’s custom touches, which meant well, did not work well on the pint-size screens Bloatware Not so much of a particular moment in Android, this is the one thing we’ve been hating on since the early days. Look, we get that carriers want to load some branded apps and services to create a particular experience. You’re not wrong for that. You are wrong, however, for not giving users an easy way to uninstall the apps, widgets, and features. Along those lines, few things frustrate the average user more than being given apps like Blockbuster or Netflix with unlimited capabilities and then pairing them with limited data plans.  What did we miss? Is there something that has bothered you about Android that did not make the list? Let’s hear about it in the comments! Further, we’d love to hear which of these affected you personally. The post 20 of the most head-scratching moments in the history of Android appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Samsung to launch a 8-inch FULL HD AMOLED tablet at IFA? Posted: 28 Mar 2013 10:01 AM PDT In last few years, Samsung launched a lot of good Android tablets, and it seems they are planning to keep going by launching some new ones at the IFA 2013. According to SAMMobile, Samsung is planning to launch a tablet with an 8-inch FHD AMOLED 1920 x 1200 (FULL HD) display at the mega event later in September, to present it as a challenger to the upcoming successor of Nexus 7 and Apple iPad Mini. We recently heard about Samsung’s 10.1 or 11.6 Full HD display tablet, but now SAMMobile said Samsung delayed it in favor of a tablet with a 2560 x 1600 pixels, so lets wait and see what they are planning to introduce at the IFA. We also heard we will see the Note III, so I guess this year IFA is going to be fun, especially for Samsung fans. Do you think Samsung tablets are good enough to go head to head with Google’s Nexus 7 or Nexus 10? Tell us about your thoughts in the comment box below Source: SAMMobile The post Samsung to launch a 8-inch FULL HD AMOLED tablet at IFA? appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Google’s Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge: Don’t start nothin’, there won’t be nothin’ Posted: 28 Mar 2013 08:13 AM PDT Google today announced that it won’t actively sue any users, developers, or other companies using code with  Google’s patents “unless first attacked.” In other words, Google doesn’t want any trouble but will pursue litigation if need be. Today, we're taking another step towards that goal by announcing the Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge: we pledge not to sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first attacked. A blog post reminds us that Google is committed to “to an open Internet—one that protects real innovation and continues to deliver great products and services.” What’s more, Google is doing their part to help improve “patent quality and reduce excessive litigation” and hopes that others will pick up the cause. It will be interesting to see how, or if, all of this impacts the Android space. Google The post Google’s Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge: Don’t start nothin’, there won’t be nothin’ appeared first on AndroidGuys.

AT&T:Samsung Galaxy S4 pre-orders begin April 16, priced at $250 Posted: 28 Mar 2013 07:59 AM PDT AT&T today announced that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be available for pre-order starting from April 16. Pricing will be $249.99 with a two year service agreement. Presumably, this is the 16GB model; it’s unclear which options AT&T will offer. Continuing our legacy as the first carrier to launch Samsung's Galaxy series, we are excited to announce AT&T customers will be able to begin pre-ordering the Galaxy S4 beginning April 16 for $249.99 with a two-year commitment. We are proud to offer this iconic device and continue to offer our customers the best smartphone line-up, with a variety of devices for every lifestyle and budget. For more information and to pre-order, please visit http://www.att.com/galaxys4. The post AT&T:Samsung Galaxy S4 pre-orders begin April 16, priced at $250 appeared first on AndroidGuys.

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