Every day we peruse the Android Market looking for the best, worst, interesting, and most unique apps in an effort to sift out a few gems. We call it Apps of the Day. We can’t guarantee that every app featured below is a real winner, but each is worth at least a quick look. It’s all in an effort to help you, our faithful readers, get the most out of your Android handsets. Read on to see what we found today!
Tumblr - Tumblr has completely revamped their Android application, launching today with a new look and several key improvements that should make updating your micro-blog from your smartphone easier than ever. Along with a new user interface catered to the software and hardware of Android devices, users can now manage multiple blogs with a single swipe, more easily share content from their phone, and scour their address book for additional tumblr friends to follow. The update offers an immensely improved experience over the old app. [Market]
Onavo Lite - While it doesn’t quite feature the data-shrinking power of the currently unavailable full version of Onavo’s services, Onavo Lite gives Android users a peek into the data consumption of their applications, allowing control over how apps use data and when they can use it. If an app unexpectedly turns into a data pig, Onavo’s got your back. We’re still waiting for the ability to reduce overall data consumption without reducing a phone’s workload, but for now that feature remains iPhone-only. [Market]
SnaPanda - Dictionary apps are pretty useful when you come across a word you don’t know the meaning of, but the trouble is they aren’t all that intuitive. Enter SnaPanda, a clever take on looking up words that mixes Google Goggles-esque text recognition with a dictionary, allowing you to literally tap a word on a book’s page and find the definition. Focus your phones camera on the area of text containing the word, tap the specific word, and let SnaPanda do the rest. [Market]
Rogers is rolling out their 4G LTE network, and one of the first devices that will test its speeds is the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE. The Galaxy S II LTE will feature several key upgrades over the its non-LTE brother, including an upgraded Xynos CPU pumping out 1.5GHz of dual core power, a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, and built-in NFC technology. The move to a larger screen seems to be consistent with at least one or two versions of the Galaxy S II headed for carriers in the US. Rogers will launch the Galaxy S II LTE in the fall.
Who would have known that discontinuing a product would be just the ticket to spur on stock-clearing sales? Well, HP experienced the phenomenon first hand after announcing they would cease production of hardware related to webOS, dropping the price of platform’s first tablet to just $99. Due to unprecedented demand, HP has decided to produce one final run of TouchPad’s to fulfill the desires of the tablet hungry. While the manufacturer can’t comment on exactly how many more will be produced, it says they will become available in the next few weeks.
We finally have an answer to the biggest question surrounding Sprint’s Samsung Galaxy S II. Is it the Epic Touch 4G or Epic 4G Touch? I kid, I kid. The name is cleared up as part of a training site that has launched ahead of tonight’s official unveiling event, but we also get our first official rundown of how this phone will differ from its international variant. The device will indeed be known as the Epic 4G Touch, differing slightly from the Epic Touch 4G name most have assumed it would carry. The Galaxy S II will see its 4.3-inch screen grow to 4.52-inches of Super AMOLED Plus goodness, while the Exynos processor will retain its 1.2GHz speed.
All of the details on the Epic 4G Touch and the other carrier variants of the Galaxy S II will be known by the end of the night, and Phandroid will be live on the scene bringing you the details as they break.
If you’re looking for a great browsing experience on your Honeycomb tablet, you might need look no further than the upcoming release of Firefox. Taking advantage of the larger, widescreen display of Android 3.0 slates, the mobile browser has been designed to reconfigure its layout depending on orientation. Landscape mode provides tabbed browsing via a menu, while portrait mode produces thumbnail previews of tabs along the side of the screen. You can also look forward to a revamped “awesomebar.”
The new browser is still early in its development so there is no given timeframe for when it could be released. We’ll be waiting anxiously, however, as this browser looks to deliver in ways that its smartphone cousin has managed to fall a bit short.
The Samsung Mesmerize update to Android 2.3 through US Cellular is now available, just a day after the carrier promised the update was still in the pipeline. Full details on what to expect can be found over at the US Cellular site, and include improved power management and the refined Gingerbread interface. This update brings the Mesmerize to Android 2.3.4.
Jag har på sistone haft ett irriterande problem med min Desire Z. Nytagna fotografier och bilder dyker inte upp i mediearkivet. Detsamma gäller även musikfiler, nyligen tillagda skivor försvinner från katalogen. En omstart av telefonen får filerna att dyka upp igen, bara för att försvinna igen vid senare tillfälle. Om något har problemet blivit värre sedan telefonen uppgraderats till Android 2.3.
Det rör sig alltså inte om att filerna försvinner på riktigt, de ligger kvar på minneskortet om man letar i en minneshanterare eller kopplar telefonen på datorn. De syns bara inte i telefonens bildvisare och mediaspelare.
En sökning hos Google visar att jag är långt ifrån ensam om problemet. Buggen verkar finnas i Android snarare än HTCs programvara, och har varit känd i mer än ett halvår utan att åtgärdas. HTC Desire Z och Nexus S verkar vara särskilt hårt drabbade modeller, men även andra modeller har råkat ut för felet.
Det finns dock en app som visserligen inte löser problemet, men gör det betydligt lättare att leva med. Appen heter Rescan Media, och det enda den gör är att se till att mediebiblioteket är uppdaterat med alla de senaste filerna. Det går på mindre än en sekund och programmet stängs automatiskt efteråt. Jag har lagt in en genväg till Rescan Media på min startskärm, om någon fil saknas är det bara att klicka på länken och kolla igen.
En annan lösning som fungerar är att ladda ner andra appar för dessa funktioner. För bildgalleriet rekommenderas Quickpic, för musik Poweramp.
Naturligtvis ska man inte behöva dras med en bugg av det här slaget så länge, men jag tycker ändå att problemet blivit försumbart efter att jag installerat Rescan Media.
iEmu is a new Kickstarter project brought to you by Chris Wade, one of the guys responsible for iOS’s earliest jailbreak exploits back in the day. Chris is hoping to gain enough funding so that he and his team can get an iOS emulator up and running on Android, Linux, Mac and Windows. The iEmu team’s goal is to raise around $20,000 (currently at $5863), which should be just enough to cover a diet of Hotpockets and Top Ramen and a few living expenses for the next 3 months while they slave away at making the impossible possible.
But this entire project is easier said than done. iEmu is attempting to emulate the Samsung A4 chipset (used in the iPhone 4 and 1st gen iPad) by building on top of the open-source QEMU emulator. Apparently, the first step of emulating the CPU has already been accomplished but they still need to emulate support for the GPU, USB controller, Multitouch controller, memory, audio and all those secondary components like Bluetooth, GPS, compass, etc. And even if/once all of this accomplished, there is still the task at getting all the emulated pieces to actually boot. The iEmu team, no doubt, has one heck of an uphill battle ahead of them. (And we all know Apple’s legal team would have something to say about all of this.)
iEmu’s main goal for this Kickstarter project is simply to get “most iPad/iPhone apps” up and running on non-iOS devices like Android. Pretty sweet if they can actually accomplish it. Can you imagine all the the awesome iOS games you could have at your disposal in your hypothetical future? This would change everything. Again.
I remember growing up as a child and not liking Tetris. Not because I wasn’t into puzzle games or because I couldn’t get very far, but because I could never figure out how to clear multiple lines of blocks at the same damn time. It sickens me. I do well enough to survive and conjure up a nice score, but I can’t imagine how awesome it’d be to potentially quadruple that score and get into the Guinness Book of World Records for being good at an old game for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, my nostalgic juice for this game has long run out. Now excuse me while I go back to playing Madden 12. (Oh, and apps of the day is below.)
Tetris – While Tetris is not new to the Android market by ANY stretch of the imagination, we wanted to feature it here today because, well, it’s now free. After EA busted tons of Tetris clones long ago to put the spotlight on their own version, they failed to garner interest with the high price they demanded players pay. Well, it’s free now so no need to worry about opening the pocket book. We only suggest you don’t fall into too deep of a nostalgic trance. [Market]
Epson iPrint – Frustrated that your iOS-owning buddies are able to print from their phone to their wireless-enabled Epson printer? Well they’ve finally brought the application over to Android giving you all of the same functionality you’ll need to print documents and images from your phone. Built-in Dropbox, Box.net and Evernote integration makes the application especially productive and useful for those who are hooked up to “the cloud”. You’ll also be able to scan a photo or document on the scanner and send it to your phone. And if that’s not enough, you can check the printer’s status and ink levels from your phone. I don’t know about you, but I’m wanting an Epson printer all of a sudden. [Market]
With no press release in sight (yet) AT&T’s gone and made the LG Thrill 4G’s launch date official. They’ve asked users to tell them how their worlds will come alive on September 4th. We’ve been waiting quite a long time for this thing (since March, if you haven’t been keeping track) and we’re glad to see they’re finally comfortable to release it. It’s not a bad phone as it has 4.3 inch display, a TI OMAP4 dual-core processor, a 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording and more. And we also can’t forget the very feature it’s famous for – autostereoscopic 3D. Still no price, but Target is rumored to be offering it for just $80 once it does launch. Who’s going to get their hands on this one? [AT&T Twitter]
