android_reviews

App Review: NBA GameTime

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:03:06 +0100

If you "Love this game" the wants to keep you fully immersed in it where ever you are. NBA Digital has released an Android app titled GameTime, that keeps users up-to-date with scores, schedules, stats, and standings. Android users can also cue that classic “NBA on NBC” theme music and follow all the action closely with this app.

GameTime offers an amazing design and intuitive interface. The graphics are great, there’s a sound layout, and all the information is organized nicely. The beauty of NBA GameTime is that its visual appeal and smooth operation separate it from other sports apps. However, there are a couple of useful features missing that would have rendered Plusmo Basketball app or Scoreboard completely obsolete. GameTime is quicker than Scoreboard, but lacks an easily accessible refresh button or in-game notification option. It also doesn’t have the news features available in Basketball.

If you simply want to check a schedule or see how many points Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade scored earlier tonight, NBA is a great option. However the absence of two important features its competitors have is a little disappointing given that this is an official product from the source. One would think that the NBA Digital team would have an innovative package that similar apps could not offer given its level of access. I certainly love this game, but I would love this app more if it had some features that we haven’t already seen.

Great Comparison/Reviews of Mobile App Stores

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:26:28 +0100

Gizmodo did a great comparison of all of the Smartphone Mobile App Stores, including the Android Market. Check it out.

Kidd GBC (Gameboy Color) emulator for Android

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:36:31 +0100

Check out this great video review from TeraGadges about Kid GBC emulator for Android. Kidd GBC can be found in the Android Market for $2.00. Of course, if you are familiar with emulators, you will know that the games are not going to be included, those will have to be downloaded from online sources (hint: click here) and then copied over to the SD card on your G1.

App Review: Torrent Droid

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:57:23 +0100

Torrent Droid is a great little app that allows users to easily find torrents for just about any movie, game, cd, etc. Just scan a UPC bar code and the app will search BitTorrent automatically. At least one of the major sites (Pirate Bay, Minonova, Demonoid, etc) should return results, and you can then pick a torrent to send to your PC at home to start downloading.

Check out this video from Androidandme.com

App Review: Google Finance

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:10:55 +0100

Google has announced a new Finance for Android app that is available now in the Android Market. Finance for Android links up with the online Google Finance website, and allows users to view real-time streaming quotes in their portfolio, access fast stock look-ups with search auto-suggestion, and call up “recent quotes” to check figures on-the-go.

Each stock shows detailed quotes, charts and news, and any change you make to your portfolio automatically syncs up with the Google Finance website. The software - which is a free download - is the work of Arun Mathew, Lead engineer, and Nick Fey, User experience designer, who coded it in their Google 20% time, the term given to space outside of core projects that employees at the search giant are encouraged to fill with their own projects.

It’s not all perfect, however. Currently the Finance for Android app is only available to users in the US, and there’s limited market support: NASDAQ and Dow Jones shares are covered, for instance, but not the London Stock Exchange. Hopefully the Google engineers will spend a little more of their 20-percent time tweaking an updated version that addresses those issues.

App Review: CallerID by WhitePages

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:30:05 +0100

CallerID for Android gives you caller information for cellphones and landlines. Its really an amazing app and well worth the $6.99/6 month subscription fee. Check out this video to see all that this app can do.

App Review: Snaptell and Shazam (Phonedog)

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:46:34 +0100

Great video review of Snaptell and Shazam done by John Walton at phonedog.com.

App Review: CoursePro

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:45:08 +0100

I just tried out the demo version of CoursePro and I think its truly a must have for students! CoursePro is an easy to use application for students to keep track of courses, assignments, and grades. You can get CoursePro by opening the Market from your phone. If you are not viewing this page from your phone, you can see the Market here.

With CoursePro, you can keep track of your school assignments using a simple to-do style list that has been specifically designed for students. You can define assignment types—such as quiz, homework, project, or lab—to keep track of your weighted grades the way your teacher does. CoursePro automatically keeps a current report card, so you can see exactly what your grades are at any time. You get a full grades break down by assignment type. CoursePro even allows you to specify which Assignment Types have ‘drops’. It will then automatically drop the lowest graded assignments for that type.

You get lots more information and pictures at their website (CoursePro)

App Review: StreamFurious

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:45:30 +0100

If you’ve ever tried out online streaming music, chances are you've heard of SHOUTcast. For those of you who haven't, it’s an online media streaming service developed by Nullsoft with over 20,000 radio stations. With numerous genres and sub-genres to choose from, users are able to listen to pretty much any kind of music they want using their favorite media application. As people slowly transition away from the desktop and start going mobile, services like SHOUTcast start to lose their appeal. If you don’t have a smartphone with a great web browser and media player, you most likely don’t have many options for streaming music. This is where StreamFurious comes in.

StreamFurious puts SHOUTcast and all of its music channels on your G1 or Android devices. It’s a fairly basic application that doesn’t require much of your handset to run. Not too heavy with graphics, it does exactly what you expect. When you open the app, you get around 40-50 channels to choose from. Among them, you’ll find ESPN, BBC, NPR, and more. The bit rates vary from channel to channel, but there isn't much difference in the quality using my G1. It’s a different story on a PC or with a really good set of headphones. If you pull up a search for different stations or genres, the app opens your web browser and you have access to essentially everything SHOUTcast offers. The cool thing is when you click to listen to a station, it goes back into StreamFurious to play it. As you play a station, you see a running total of bandwidth and how much data is transferring. It indicates how much has streamed, none of the data is stored and you don't even need to have a SD card to use the program.

As Android evolves and ends up on other hardware configurations, I could see this app working well on devices like Touch Revolution’s NIMble. Set something like that next to your bed and stream music over your WiFi connection. Or put it in the kitchen and listen your favorite talk radio while you do the dishes.

According to the guys at StreamFurious, there will be a pro version coming out soon (no details).

App Review: Quickoffice

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:22:57 +0100

For $7.99, QuickOffice is definitely worth it.

It's worth the money just to be able to save .doc, .xls, and .txt files from GMail to the SD card, which it does. I have a few e-mails in my inbox with attachments, which I kept in hopes of saving to the SD card someday. Now I can do just that!

Pros:

Can save .doc, .xls, and .txt to SD card, which could not be done before.
Can view .doc, .xls, and .txt files.
Can edit file names.

Cons:

Can't choose which folder to save to when downloading attachments.
Can't download right to card, rather you have to "view" file first, then save. (not that big of a deal)
Doesn't support .docx or .xlsx. (yet, hopefully this will change soon)
Biggest con: Can't edit the files. (again, hopefully this will change soon with updates)

It appears from the description on their site that Office 2007 support, PowerPoint, and file editing are coming at some point.

Features and stuff (from Quickoffice website):

Access

Access your Word (.doc) and Excel (.xls) files from memory card or from GMail attachments.

View

Simple to use features provide a rich user viewing experience only available with Quickoffice.

Word and Excel Common Features

Open .doc and .xls files from memory card or from Gmail attachments
Easily Zoom in or out
Smooth scrolling throughout the application.
Orientation automatically adjusted based on the sensor

Word Viewer Features

Text wrapped doc display eliminates left-right scrolls
Displays all formatting, bulleted and numbered lists, tables and images
Follows telephone numbers, hyperlinks, and email addresses
Fast first page view to quickly identify document

Excel Viewer Features

Spreadsheets display in familiar Excel UI
Resize column and row
Display cell content with cell and number formatting

Manage

Manage your files from memory card with our easy to use file manager.

Navigate folders
Rename, delete and view file properties
Sort file listings by file name, type, size and date modified