Android Community |
- Merry Christmas from Android Community!
- A few apps to get you started with your new smartphone
- Happy Holidays: Here’s some top apps for your new Android tablet
- Sonic Jump Game Review
| Merry Christmas from Android Community! Posted: 25 Dec 2012 10:02 AM PST We hope this morning you find yourself surrounded with friends and family, loads of gifts, and of course boxes with neat little ribbons and bows on top. It’s Christmas! From all of us here at Android Community to all of our dearest loyal readers, Merry Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Hanukkah! And anything else you’re celebrating this wonderful day.
If you’re one of those Christmas and birthday on the same week people (like my brother) enjoy getting the same amount of gifts that count as birthday presents too — you earned it. As mentioned yesterday, the entire Android Community crew will be taking a break from the world of smartphones, tablets, and Android today to focus on our friends and family for the holidays. If you just got a new tablet for x-mas check out these tablet apps, as well as a nice selection of apps for a new smartphone. Sadly I’m already doing tech support duty, so be warned when you give your old paps a shiny new smartphone with more features than his car. We’ll be back at it tomorrow morning as usual, accelerating into New Years eve, and the new year to see what Android and Google brings our way. We have tons to look forward to in the next few months here at Android Community, especially early next year. As you all know we have CES 2013 in early January where we’ll be seeing copious amounts of quad-core 1080p HD smartphones, tablets, and more. Android will continue to grow and expand as the most dominate mobile OS in the world, and we’ll be here each and every step of the way. Make a few Skype or Google+ hangout calls to friends and family, and enjoy the rest of the holidays. We've had a pretty amazing year, and we'd like to thank you – the readers, the manufacturers, the PR teams, and the advertisers – for helping make it all possible. Thanks, and Merry Christmas! |
| A few apps to get you started with your new smartphone Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:43 AM PST Coming up with a top 5, or even a top 10 list of apps is sort of difficult these days. But not because it is hard to find 5 or 10 apps to recommend, but because there are so many worth recommending. That being the case, we decided to recommend some apps that will get the new smartphone user started. After all, it is the holiday season and we suspect more than a few people will be getting a new Android smartphone. So without any further adieu, here are the apps that I install first when getting a new device. These are also the apps that I almost always have installed. Lookout: This is a security and antivirus app and while I appreciate that it scans apps that I install, I primarily use Lookout for the find my phone feature — you know, just in case it gets lost of stolen. With Lookout you can remotely track your device as well as remotely lock and wipe your device. This app just gives me some peace of mind. Evernote: What can I say here, Evernote serves as my digital brain. I could easily write thousands of words about my love of this service. Evernote is free to use, available on multiple platforms and allows me to easily capture text notes, image notes and audio notes. If you are often taking notes or needing to jot things down to remember, Evernote is a good solution, especially if you like the ability to also grab those notes from a regular computer. Runkeeper: A big part of my mobile use comes with this app. I am an avid runner and like using Runkeeper on my smartphone. Runkeeper is an easy to use app that has been more than reliable for me. And similar to Evernote, all of my runs are also stored online so I can access and view them from my smartphone as well as on the computer. I have been using Runkeeper for years, across multiple devices and have logged thousands of miles. In fact, I only have one complaint and that is so minor and specific to my use case, it is not even worth mentioning. Facebook, Falcon Pro for Twitter and Untappd: A big part of smartphone use these days is social and given that, how can we not mention Facebook and Twitter. For Facebook I always use the official app. For Twitter I like the official app, however I have been rocking Falcon Pro lately given it seems to have a bit more feature wise. One of the Falcon Pro features is being able to see image previews while browsing the timeline. And sure, I like and use Google+, but rounding out my top 3 social apps is Untappd, one that beer lovers will likely enjoy. Pixlr Express: In buying a smartphone, one of my must have features is a good camera. I take at least a few pictures each and every day and love to edit and share them. Filters, such as in Instagram and the Flickr app are nice, but I like to be able to dive a bit deeper with other tasks such as cropping. The Pixlr Express app is free, easy to use and with lots of features. Slacker, Audible, DoggCatcher: Aside from running, my most common use is audio listening. I almost always have headphones plugged in and am listening to something. In my case I use Slacker, the $9.99 per month pro account because it gives me mobile caching as well as on-demand listening. And while I hate to keep recommending paid services, Audible is fantastic. It helps keep me entertained while getting in some long runs and doing chores around the house. Finally, while Audible is great, I only get one book per month with them and I supplement that with podcast listening. For the podcast listening, I have used DoggCatcher for years. I love the app and given it has been so reliable for me over the years, I cannot recommend it enough. Netflix, Hulu Plus: Video is one set of apps that I always have installed, but often do not use. I am a Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriber and these are my go to apps. They also work nicely when on hour, or hour plus car rides as they can help keep the kids entertained in the back seat. We think most will know what both of these services offer, movie and television streaming. In fact, we think the only real limiting factor here is whether you want to spend $8 for one, or subscribe to both and end up paying $16 per month. Flipboard, Instapaper: Rounding out my must have apps is reading. Flipboard, what can you say — it does what it should and it does it well. If you want to read news in a magazine like set-up, you cannot go wrong with Flipboard. Personally I use it on my Galaxy S III and my Nexus 7. And given I spend all day working on the web, I often find stories I want to read, but don’t have time to read at that very moment. This is where Instapaper comes in, it generally serves as an end-of-day reading list. And as you may have noticed, one category of apps that were left off were games. I do play some Android games, but more often than not play on my Nexus 7. I more often than not have no games installed on my smartphone. But if I were, two that I have been playing lately include Pudding Monsters and Dead Trigger. |
| Happy Holidays: Here’s some top apps for your new Android tablet Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:34 AM PST Many of you this morning will be waking up to friends and family, warm fireplaces, hot chocolate or coffee, and tons of presents under the Christmas tree. Today’s Christmas around these parts (or something similar) and for those that were lucky enough to get some Android toys for the holidays, we have you covered. Today we’ll be sharing some top apps for your new Android tablet, as well as another post for your new Android smartphone.
If you were lucky enough to receive a shiny new Google Nexus 7, Samsung Nexus 10, Or a Transformer tablet rocking a Tegra 3 quad-core processor (or any Android tablet for that matter) we have a nice list below of some of our absolute favorite apps and games. First off you’ll want to check out this list of games for sale, as well as the app called AppSales for everything on sale this holiday season in the Google Play Store. Then enjoy our list below. We hope you all are having an awesome Christmas or holiday season, and hopefully the list of apps below will help you enjoy that 7 or 10 in Android tablet even more. This is just a few (of many, many) apps that us here at Android Community enjoy, or love enough to specifically mention. Also feel free to drop comments in the section below if you want to suggest a few yourself. Riptide GP Dead Trigger Swiftkey 3 ShadowGun and DeadZone ShadowGun link – THD version HD Widgets Now this is just an extremely small window into the ever growing and massive Google Play Store selection of apps and games. You’ll surely want to check out The Amazing SpiderMan for tablets, the new Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for Android, automation apps like Tasker, new browsers like Google Chrome for Android, QuickOffice Pro, Falcon Pro for Twitter, or even the always useful Evernote App. We’ll keep this post short and sweet so you can get back to enjoying your family, as well as these fun new games and apps for your Android tablet. We hope you all enjoy your friends, families, toys, gifts, or anything else this wonderful day. Merry Christmas! |
| Posted: 24 Dec 2012 01:45 PM PST I’ve been a Sonic fan almost as long as I’ve been alive. The original Sonic the Hedgehog was the first game I ever played at the ripe old age of five, and since then, there have been a lot of ups and downs. Thankfully, the series seems to be on the upswing lately, with titles like Sonic Generations, Sonic Colors, and Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed doing surprisingly well with critics and fans alike. Sonic’s latest appearance is in Sonic Jump, a new vertical platformer that launched last week on Android. Does this new title keep Sega‘s string of good Sonic releases going? Do we dare hope?
If you’ve played games like Doodle Jump, you already know the basic premise behind Sonic Jump. You’ll initially control Sonic as he jumps upward toward the end of each level, collecting rings and defeating Badniks (they’re still called Badniks here in 2012, right?) along the way. Once you’ve reached the end of the level, you’ll receive a letter grade based on how fast you made it to the finish and how many hits you took as you were climbing. Sonic is constantly jumping, and this is something you don’t have any control over. What you do have control over is the direction of his jumps. By tilting your device to the left or right, you can control Sonic’s jumps, making sure you line up to hit that spring and launch into a column of rings or land on the right platform. Of course, there are plenty of hazards on the way up, including spikes and platforms that crumble once you land on them. This, as you can imagine, makes it pretty difficult to hold onto the rings you collect, which you’ll want to do since those are used as currency for the in-game store. It’s here that you can buy power-ups to use as you play, similar to the mechanic found in Jetpack Joyride, or unlock new characters to play as including Knuckles and Tails. Each of these different characters have a special ability that’s uniquely their own, so you’ll want to save up your rings and unlock them as soon as you can. More items will become available to purchase as you increase your level – something which is done through completing tasks. Tasks range from fairly easy to down right difficult, so some of them may be waiting to be completed for quite some time. At the end of each zone (which are comprised of various acts), you’ll do battle with Eggman. These boss battles serve to break up the action a bit, as you’re not trying to get to the top of the level as fast as you can. Instead, you’re obviously trying to defeat the boss, and I’m pleased to say that they prove to be pretty fun. I liked them a lot, and they typically came in right when I was getting sick of racing against the clock. There are ton of different acts to work your way through in the story mode – Sega has the number at 48 over on the game’s Google Play listing – but if you want a real challenge, there’s also an endless mode available. I love endless modes, and this one doesn’t disappoint, especially considering that there are leaderboards you can post your scores to. The fact that Sonic Jump has an endless mode gives it a much deeper level of replayability, as you’ll want to keep attempting new personal bests. Overall, the game is a blast to play. There’s a lot of content to play through and unlock, but if you don’t want to collect all the rings on yourself, Sega is of course all too willing to sell you rings for cold hard cash. While playing, I found that the need to purchase rings isn’t really there, as you seem to rack them up quickly so long as you can avoid taking a hit (or, alternatively, get to the safe and stash them away mid-level before taking that heartbreaking hit). My one complaint would have the be that the graphics don’t look as good as they could have on my Atrix HD’s screen. The screenshots Sega put up on Google Play look great, but sadly the game didn’t end up looking quite that good for me. The game still looks nice, but the visuals aren’t as sharp as Sega’s own screenshots would suggest. If you’re a Sonic fan, then I definitely recommend checking out Sonic Jump. Even if you’re just a fan of platformers, this one should keep you busy for quite a while. It does require a payment of $1.99 to get going, but I don’t think that’s bad at all considering the amount of content you get. Sega has promised that it will be updating the game eventually with more free characters too, so you’ll be buying this game knowing that it’s only going to get bigger from here on out. Chalk up another victory for the hedgehog with an attitude, because Sonic Jump definitely doesn’t disappoint as a bite-sized mobile offering. If you’re interested, you can nab it now from the Google Play Store [download link].              |
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