Top ten Android apps

As a result of the Android movement, one question we get asked all of the time here at PC Advisor is 'what are the best Android apps?' and to be fair, it's a pretty good question. So in an attempt to give a definitive answer to such a broad question - and to echo the immortal words of Tess Daly and/or Dermot O'Leary - "in no particular order" here is what we currently think are the top ten Android apps available to download. Visit Group test: what's the best Android phone?

Google Translate

Google Translate for Android is a magical little app with which you can communicate in 63 different languages, simply type or dictate what you want to translate and you'll have your translation in seconds…providing you have a web connection. See the full app review here.

Dropbox

Tired of e-mailing pictures and videos to all your different devices? Then it's time to get this free cloud based storage service. Simply copy and paste any file you want to transfer into Dropbox and then let this app do the hard work. Once the upload is completed, you can download a files multiple times from multiple devices. You get 2GB of storage completely free too. See the full Dropbox app review here.

Twitter

No mobile device is complete without everyone's favourite microblogging site. This app has been quality from day one, bringing in all your tweets effortlessly in the backgroundm, with minimal Android fragmentation issues. Get it now!

Angry Birds

With more than two million downloads in the first two days, it's safe to say that the word got out quickly. This game is free for Android users (iOS users have to pay 59p), but comes with a fair amount of advertisements.

Skype

Skype for Android lets you make free VoIP calls and text-chat with your Skype contacts using Wi-Fi or 3G, they've recently thrown-in video chat to the service too. Bit of a no-brainer if you ask us!

Facebook

In the past, the usability of this app has suffered due to the infamous Android fragmentation issues, but since then the extremely popular social network has unleashed a couple of much-needed updates to the app and it now looks like things are running smoothly. See the full app review here.

Kindle

Kindle for Android is a very capable, full-featured and free e-book reader with great extras. Downloading this app will bring millions of ebooks to your finger tips, some of which are completely free to download.

Documents To Go

You can either download the free version that lets you view Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on your mobile device. Or you can chose to pay £9.99 and download the full version that lets you view, edit and create Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint files and high fidelity viewing of your PDF files.

MX Video Player

This is a great Android app that walks all over the video player that comes pre-installed on your device. With the MX Video Player you can unlock a whole host of new codecs/video files for your Android and it won't cost you a penny. Read the full app review here.

Adobe Photoshop Touch (for tablets only)

This app is designed to bring many of Photoshop's most popular features to Android tablets, allowing creative professionals to integrate these tablets into their mobile workflow. Read the full review here.

Don't agree with our top ten Android apps? Let us know why not in the comments section below. Try not to swear at us though, as we will have to remove the comment. 

PC Advisor is now available for Google Android smartphone, with a free download delivering expert news, reviews, tutorials and blogs to Android users via a native app. Download PC Advisor’s Android app today, and let us know what you think.

Article source: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features/google-android/3335280/top-ten-android-apps/

The free update is now available in the Android Market (click to enlarge).

(Credit:
Rdio)

Rdio, the subscription music service, just put out an update to its
Android app, and it's a big one.

On top of offering support for Android Ice Cream Sandwich's new remote control client, the app is more streamlined and highlights Rdio's "rich" social features and extensive music discovery options. The free app is available for both smartphones and
tablets in the Android Market.

According to Rdio, here's what's new:

• Streamlined top-level navigation: All-new home screen design gives one-click access to key features in the app.
• Convenient control: Take advantage of Android Ice Cream Sandwich's new remote control client to manage playback controls on the lock screen, including viewing controls and album art.
• New releases: Be the first to listen to new albums and singles on the day they are released, and access new albums released up to two weeks prior.
• Top charts: Check out recent chart-topping albums.
• Recommendations: Discover more music by exploring fresh album recommendations based on your listening history.
• Enhanced search: In addition to searching for artists, albums, and songs, you can now search for playlists and people.
• Synced collection and playlist views: View only the music you have synced for offline listening, without the need to go into offline mode.
• User profiles: Search, browse, and follow other Rdio users; discover new music by seeing their activity, who they follow, their playlists, and more.
• And features of the previous version including Activity, Collection, Heavy Rotation, Playlists, Listening History, Syncing for offline access, and a variety of settings to control syncing and streaming on Wi-Fi or 3G.

Reaction to the update has been mostly very positive, though a few folks are complaining that the updated app isn't working on their devices (that's one of the hazards of having so many different Android smartphone models out there).

Rdio, which competes with Spotify and other music subscription services, offers limited streaming for free on computers, but its premium plans range from $4.99 to $9.99 per user (see below).

Pricing plans for Rdio (click to enlarge).

(Credit:
Rdio)

Article source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-57371955-251/rdio-redesigns-android-app/

Yes, that's shipments as opposed to sales: it's anyone's guess how many of those devices remain on shelves and in warehouses. Even so, more Android tablets are emerging, with some – Amazon's Kindle Fire in the US and Samsung's Galaxy Tabs elsewhere in the world – building some momentum.

One of the key selling points for Apple's iPad is the more-than 140,000 native apps available for the device. Android devices have a way to go to catch up in terms of overall quantity, but the number of quality apps for Android tablets has been improving steadily.

Hence this roundup, following our separate rundown of the 50 best iPad apps in September 2011. Shortly after that was published, we began gathering suggestions for inclusion in an Android follow-up, and have spent the months since then drawing up our own longlist of possibles.

Some caveats. First, this is aimed more at people unboxing an Android tablet for the first time, so some of the suggestions may seem obvious to experienced owners. Second, any selection of this kind will be tinged by the personal preferences of the writer.

In both cases, your criticisms and alternative suggestions are welcomed in the comments section. We have also opted against restricting the list to apps optimised for Honeycomb-only software, given the existence of a number of tablets running earlier versions of Android.

A third caveat: Android being what it is, we can't guarantee that all 50 apps will be available or run well on all the devices out there, particularly at the cheaper end of the market.

Proceed with caution, but please do report back on your experiences with specific devices. On with the show...

News360 is a news aggregation app for Android tablets

SOCIAL MEDIA / WEB

FEEDLY free. Looking for an Android alternative to Flipboard? Feedly is worth a look, promising a personalised magazine pulling in stories from Google Reader, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and other services.

FIREFOX free. Now optimised for tablets as well as smartphones, Firefox offers a useful alternative to the default Android browser, including the ability to sync bookmarks and history with the desktop version.

IM+ PRO £2.99. This catch-all messaging app combines Skype, Facebook Chat and a host of instant messaging services into one, with the option to ping text, photos and voice notes to contacts.

NEWS360 FOR TABLETS free. Another news aggregator, News360 gets content from more than 10,000 news sites, promising to learn from your social and RSS accounts what you like to read about, in order to filter accordingly.

TABLIFIED MARKET HD £0.94. If this article is a starting point for discovering new Android tablet apps, Tablified Market should be your next port of call. It's a discovery app that promises to 'find Tablified apps so you don't have to'. A good database with regular updates.

TAPTU – DJ YOUR NEWS free. Another social news-reading app, this, which accesses stories from sites using their RSS feeds. At its most useful when you dive into its tools to "remix" different feeds into single streams about whatever topic you like.

TWEETCOMB free. Keen Twitter users should appreciate TweetComb, which is a Twitter client focused on tablets running the Android Honeycomb software. It makes good use of the larger screens, and its notifications can be tweaked to your preferences.

The BBC updated its Android news app for larger devices

CULTURE

BBC NEWS free. The Beeb's official news app was updated with an Android-focused edition in January 2012, with a choice of landscape and portrait modes, swipe-based navigation through stories, and – later in the year – a live stream of the BBC News channel itself.

CNN APP FOR ANDROID TABLET free. News network CNN's Android app is a very polished way to get the latest stories, including text and video reports. Its tablet-optimised design stands out, while its iReport feature aims to get users filing their own stories.

COMICS free. ComiXology's combined comics store and reader app boasts of being the only one offering titles from both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. A wide catalogue of titles is available to buy in-app, while the reader's "Guided View" technology works well for finding your way through cells.

GOOGLE BOOKS free. Google Books is a tablet window to Google's cloud-based e-books service, where you can shop for e-books to read across multiple devices, or choose from a wide selection of free titles.

GOOGLE READER free. The existence of apps like Taptu and News360 is sometimes used as an argument for RSS being old hat – even though they rely on the technology to pull in content. If you're more old-school in your RSS habits though, Google Reader is very good.

IMDB MOVIES TV free. The world's biggest database of film and TV information is really impressive on Android tablets, enabling you to browse the database and watch trailers. There's a US focus, but it's still useful.

KINDLE free. A firm favourite on iPad as an alternative to Apple's own iBooks, the Kindle app is also a must-have on Android tablets. Buy from Amazon's e-store and then read the e-books on your slate, syncing with any other devices you use too.

NETFLIX free. Netflix launched in the UK in January 2012, meaning that its impressive tablet apps now have an audience on this side of the Atlantic too. Browse its catalogue of films and TV shows, then watch them on the device.

THE CAT IN THE HAT £1.90. The Dr. Seuss classic has been turned into a faithful book-app that looks as good on tablets as on smartphones. The illustrations are familiar, while there's voice narration and zooming words to aid young readers.

TUNEIN RADIO PRO £0.61. The TuneIn Radio app has been a huge success on various platforms, and while it doesn't make major use of tablet bells'n'whistles, we'd still recommend it for Android slate owners. Find radio stations from around the world and, well, tune in.

ZINIO free. An increasing number of magazines are launching bespoke apps for iPad, if not Android tablets. One good way to plug the gap is Zinio, which sells digital replicas of a large range of mags from its in-app store.

Grand Theft Auto III's controls work well on tablets

GAMES

ANGRY BIRDS free. Okay, somewhat obvious. But amid all the big-number milestones and commercial spin-offs, it's easy to forget that at its core, Angry Birds is a very, very good game. It's just as suited to tablets as smartphones too.

BACKBREAKER THD £3.09. The Super Bowl may be over for another year, but NaturalMotion's casual gridiron game is fun all year round, as you dodge and spin past hordes of defenders. This version showcases the Nvidia Tegra processors inside some Android tabs.

BLOOD GLORY (NR) free. Glu Mobile's take on the Infinity Blade beat 'em up is notable for two reasons: first it's on Android, unlike its inspiration. And second, it's a freemium title, so you don't have to pay to initially play it.

DUNGEON DEFENDERS SECOND WAVE free. This is another game that'll show off the graphical grunt of your (high-end) Android tablet. The gameplay is a mixture of action-RPG and tower defence, as you set your defences then run around swinging at attackers as they pile in.

GRAND THEFT AUTO III £2.99. 10 years after it was first released for consoles, GTA III returns for tablets (and smartphones). It has dated wonderfully, with its mix of crime and, well, more crime still feeling fresh. What's more, it has survived the transition to touchscreen tablets, with well thought-out controls.

MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION £4.29. Tablets lend themselves to relaxed usage while loafing about on a sofa. The perfect game for this scenario is Minecraft, as you wander a blocky landscape digging, building and admiring the views.

ONLIVE free. Streaming games service OnLive turns your Android tablet into a fully-fledged games console, complete with (if you buy it) a joypad peripheral. Assuming your Wi-Fi connection is up to the task, this is technically impressive, with an increasing catalogue of games to have fun with.

OSMOS HD £3.18. Currently part of the excellent Humble Bundle for Android, Osmos is a trippy puzzle game that involves absorbing glowing "motes", complete with an atmospheric electronica soundtrack.

SHADOWGUN £3.49. First-person shooter Shadowgun is a visual feast, as you battle an army of cyborgs and droids inside "maniacal genius" Dr. Edgar Simon's mountain base. It's shooting to become the mobile and tablet world's Halo, and on this evidence, that's not a crazy ambition.

SLEEPY JACK £1.99. 3D shooter Sleepy Jack runs as a universal game across Android tablets and smartphones, and is addictive enough that you'll want to play it on both. 40 beautiful worlds to fly through provide plenty of depth.

ANOMALY WARZONE EARTH HD £2.49. A simple twist on the tower defence genre makes Anomaly Warzone Earth instantly stand out from the herd: you play the attackers rather than the defenders. A deep campaign mode and attractive visuals makes it even more of a treat.

WORLD OF GOO £2.99. Just as much of a joy on Android as it is on iPad, World of Goo gets you dragging and stretching virtual goo-balls into objects to get you through puzzle-packed levels. Wonderfully tactile, and challenging without ever making you throw your tablet through the window. A good thing, really.

Catch takes your documents and notes to the cloud

PRODUCTIVITY / TOOLS

CATCH free. Early Honeycomb tablet owners were buzzing about this cloud app, and justifiably so. Not a million miles away from Evernote, it's about scribbling notes, recording voice memos and taking photos, then storing them in the cloud – with a Streams feature particularly useful for collaborative work.

DROPBOX free. An increasingly essential service no matter what device you own, Dropbox gathers your photos, documents and videos – among other files – for access on the go. As on other platforms, the interface is clean and efficient, for speedy use.

EVERNOTE free. As with Catch and Dropbox, Evernote's strength comes when you use it across several devices, not just one tablet. Sync text notes, lists, voice memos and photos across them all, with sharing features built in too.

FILE MANAGER HD free. Another app from the early days of Honeycomb, which offers a simple-yet-slick way to manage files on your tablet, browing by lists or grids. One of those apps that might not be sexy on the surface, but which will be used regularly.

GOOGLE DOCS free. Another of Google's own apps, this, which aims to provide a neat native way to access Google Docs – including offline – on Android tablets. Again, simplicity and speed is the focus, to make it quick to edit and share documents.

HD WIDGETS £1.29. Widgets are one of the ways Android obviously differs from iOS, and HD Widgets offers a bunch of examples, from clocks to weather reports. Tablet tweakers will love it.

MINDJET FOR ANDROID free. If Evernote and Catch are more about notes, Mindjet is more about richer brainstorming sessions, making good use of the large tablet screen to organise your thoughts and make them understandable for future reference.

QUICKOFFICE PRO HD £12.97. If you're not ready to move into Google's cloud, what about this app for creating, editing and sharing Microsoft Office documents? Support for documents, spreadsheets and presentations makes it flexible, and it also plays nice with Evernote and Catch.

SKITCH free. Evernote's second app in this list is more for fun, letting you scribble on photos and images to annotate them. It's very easy to use, and while doodling rude things on friends' mugshots is the obvious use, there are work applications too.

SLIDEIT KEYBOARD £3.79. Android tab owners are spoiled for choice when it comes to alternative on-screen keyboards, so we've chosen two of the best here. SlideIT delivers on its promise of speedier typing with finger-tracing rather than tapping.

SPLASHTOP REMOTE DESKTOP HD £4.56. Remote access used to be a corporate thing, but nowadays even consumers are keen on the idea of accessing their main PC or Mac from their tablet. Well, some consumers. SplashTop Remote is one of the best known ways to do it, and one of the friendliest too.

STICKY NOTES HD TABLET WIDGET £1.22. You could argue that shoehorning virtual sticky notes onto a digital device is pure nostalgia. You might have a case. Even so, Sticky Notes HD does it well, stacking the virtual Post-Its neatly so you don't lose your reminders.

SWIFTKEY TABLET X KEYBOARD £3.49. The second soft-keyboard app in this roundup comes from SwiftKey, with its clever prediction algorithm to guess what word you might be typing next. Cleverer still is the way it can learn your most common words by tying into Facebook, Twitter and Gmail.

Adobe's Photoshop Touch app brings powerful image-editing to Android

LIFESTYLE / SCIENCE

ADOBE COLLAGE £6.99. At a time when social media startup Pinterest is gathering a head of steam, Adobe's Collage app looks onto a good thing. It's about making moodboards with a mixture of photos, scribbles and text, importing several file-types and content from Google and Flickr.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TOUCH £6.99. Another Adobe app here, but one that'll be more familiar to veterans. It's a touchscreen-optimised reboot of the Photoshop editing software, with some powerful features if you know what you're doing, and syncing back to the desktop version if necessary.

ACCUWEATHER FOR HONEYCOMB free. Whether sunshine, rain or the kind of snow that brings Britain's infrastructure to a halt (i.e. two inches), AccuWeather offers a tablet-friendly window on the weather around the world.

GOOGLE SKY MAP free. It's currently being cut loose – sorry, open sourced – by Google, but its in-house Sky Map app remains a joy. Hold your tablet in the air at night, and get an instant guide to what all those stars are called. A handy search mode is good for planet-spotting too.

GOOGLE EARTH free. Zooming around the planet is as fun a tablet experience on Android as on iPad, with 3D buildings and some nifty tweaks for larger-screened devices.

OPENTABLE free. Restaurant reservations service OpenTable does a very good job of finding nearby eateries, plotting them on a map, and helping you decide whether they're worth booking.

SKETCHBOOK PRO free. Autodesk's painting and drawing app has been tuned for Honeycomb-toting tablets, helping you sketch on-screen. Professionals may get most out of it, but the app is fun and rewarding even for less artistic Android owners.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/feb/06/50-best-android-tablet-apps?newsfeed=true

These 'pay-what-you-want' compilations of hit indie games have been selling like scorching baked goods over the past year, raising cash for both the developers and charities, too (a percentage of each sale goes to the likes of Child's Play Charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation).

January saw the latest bundle launch with an exciting mobile twist: for the first time, this pack of games is also available for phones.

Alongside mercifully DRM-free PC or Mac versions, you can pick up the Android incarnations of acclaimed iOS titles Anomaly Warzone Earth, Edge, and Osmos. Plus, you'll receive a copy of the peerless World of Goo if you pay more than the average price for your bundle.

It's a surprising, yet warmly welcomed, move that shows just what a dominant force Android gaming is becoming among the indie community, at least. So, in tribute (and because, helpfully, they hit the Android Market last month), we'll take a gander at the pick of the Humble crop within January's Top ten best Android games round-up.

As always, if we've missed off your New Year favourite, give it a shout out in the comments below.

Edge Extended
By Mobigame - buy on Android

If I had to name the game that made me think smartphone gaming was going to take over my life, it wouldn't be Angry Birds - no, that honour goes to Edge.

Something of a curio when it launched on iOS - a situation both helped and hindered by constantly being removed and restored on the App Store due to litigation from resident industry annoyance Tim Langdell - Mobigame's title quickly developed a cult following.

Now, this semi-sequel, packed with bonus levels and updated graphics, should bring an even bigger Android audience to the isometric platformer. The deceptively simple concept - you need to carefully roll a cube around increasingly complex maps (filled with switches, portals, and gems to collect) - paired with the stripped-down neon aesthetic means it's easy to get sucked into the right-angled world.

It plays beautifully, with a real sense of peril as you desperately try not to topple into the void. The lure of beating your rubbish first level completion time means Edge Extended is likely to remain a permanent fixture on your Android.

Anomaly Warzone Earth HD
By 11 bit studios - buy on Android

It's not often we dole out Platinum Awards to games, but some just outright deserve that perfect 10. Anomaly Warzone Earth is one of those games, and the incredible critical reception it was afforded on iOS last year was enough to make even the most devoted 'droid devotee turn into a green-eyed robot monster.

An ultra-smart spin on the well-worn tower defence template, the game turns Fieldrunners HD and its ilk on their heads by making you the invading force. This leaves you desperately trying to snake past a merciless barrage of machine guns, missile launchers, and plasma cannons.

Keeping your units alive and achieving objectives are never easy under constant fire, so plotting a safe route and picking up as many bonuses as possible (like invaluable field repairs) along the way is the key to survival in the hostile yet beautifully rendered war-torn landscapes.

Osmos HD
By Hemisphere Games - buy on Android

Although it first landed on the iPad back in 2010, Osmos HD is one of those timeless titles that still impresses nearly two years on. The chilled, almost meditative, visuals and sound design are the real standout features of a physics-puzzler that's best enjoyed on a large-screen phone or tablet.

In a similar style to cult favourite flOw on the PSP, you control a tiny life form that can only grow and survive by absorbing smaller single-cell organisms floating around it.

You control your glowing cell with an intuitive combination of multi-touch gestures - pinch to zoom, swipe to speed up or slow time, and three-finger taps to call up menus - and learning to manage the inertia of your movement is the key.

While Osmos HD initially appears very relaxing, more 'hardcore' gamers will be pleased to know the difficulty ramps up as you progress. With a single touch from a larger cell spelling instant death, frustration can creep in. The more familiar you get with the controls, however, the longer you'll survive.

Epic Astro Story
By Kairosoft - buy on Android

It was inevitable that once Kairosoft had drained the planet of earthly pastimes (including football management and video game development) for inspiration, it would have no choice but to look to the stars.

While the stat-crunching gameplay of Epic Astro Story may seem comfortably familiar, its intergalactic setting makes it the developer's most exotic experience to date. From colonising planets to vanquishing alien races, this is a vast game that remains accessible thanks to Kairosoft's cuddly byte-shaped visuals and obsessive-compulsive gameplay.

Simply constructing an off-world civilisation would have been enough for many players, but the chance to explore new worlds with a fearless Away Team (Star Trek reference: check) opens up new expansion and combat areas to add infinite appeal to the stock intergalactic micromanagement.

Inertia: Escape Velocity
By Red Fly Studio - buy on Android

If I were able to turn off gravity at will, the chances are I'd soar majestically into the sky and then be skewered by a Ryanair jet. It's a blessing, therefore, that there are games like this to keep me - ahem - grounded.

A clever riff on the physics-platformer formula, Inertia: Escape Velocity lets you turn off your character's "personal gravity" at any point, causing him to drift at a constant speed in his current direction. It's a simple, yet intriguing mechanic, that makes zipping around the space-age environments a constant delight.

The levels are always inventive, with force fields, launchers, attractors, and repulsors all added at various junctures to spice up the levels. While the constant distractions mean Inertia: Escape Velocity loses some focus later on, it's never anything less than a thrilling anti-gravity trip.

Tree Jumper
By WaveCrest Entertainment - buy on Android

While the old adage that 'squirrels are just rats with good PR' rings true here, the nature of the high score-chasing challenge in Tree Jumper makes it an irresistible prospect for fans of the likes of Doodle Jump.

With shiny 3D graphics bringing Tree Jumper's lush timber environments to life, WaveCrest's game does a good job of hooking you into its light but addictive gameplay.

Playing as a - presumably endangered species of - blue squirrel, you're tasked with climbing an everlasting tree in search of nuts. It's not all plain jumping, mind, as you have to watch out for snakes, beehives, and angry birds on the way (the slightest collision causes you to drop all your nuts, you see).

Grinsia
By Kemco Games - buy on Android

Unless you're prepared to dip into the murky world of emulation, finding quality old skool Japanese RPGs to sate your desire for random battles, 2D sprites, and dialogue-heavy cutscenes can prove an endless quest.

Thankfully, veteran developer Kemco Games - which first published on the ancient NES - is steadily releasing titles like Grinsia. It's an unashamedly traditional RPG, packed with overly perky teen warriors, a predictable 'evil descends on a peaceful world' storyline, and turn-based battles that pop up without warning.

There's nothing here that Final Fantasy and Golden Sun fans haven't seen before, yet as a generous nod to the 16-bit role-playing era, it's as welcoming to retro gamers as a warm bath in a cold winter.

Move the Box Pro
By Exponenta - buy on Android

Eloquently described by our reviewer as "single-player chess, if chess had been invented in the '70s by someone with a luggage fetish", Move the Box Pro is tough to market, but harder to put down than a suitcase handcuffed to your wrist.

Move the Box Pro is a match-three puzzler of sorts. To explain: in each level, you're given a specific amount of crates and square boxes which need to be 'moved'. You have to rearrange the boxes into chains of three or more of the same colour by sliding them one move at a time.

The tricky part is that you have to clear the screen within a very tight move limit, without toppling any of the precariously balanced ones. Plus, there's usually only one specific way to complete each level.

This may put more casual players off Move the Box Pro's fiendish charms, but those looking for a more demanding match-three experience are in for a luggage-tugging treat.

Triple Town
By Spry Fox - buy on Android

Those with addictive personalities should look away now, as Triple Town is one of those games that can take over your gaming life after just a couple of quick goes.

Each time you play, you're presented with a randomly generated 6x6 grid in the middle of a pretty barren forest. The game then steadily gives you grass, bushes, trees, and the odd Wild Card diamond with which to fill up the space.

This isn't Harvest Moon, mind, for the high score-chasing OpenFeint leaderboards encourage you to match rows of items that will then morph into bigger pieces of foliage or buildings - pushing your points up in the process.

Triple Town soon reveals itself to be a surprisingly tactical experience, as creating the longest chains possible is the only way to earn houses or even a mansion. It's near impossible to put down once your scores start shooting up, and we haven't even talked about the bears yet. The bears are great.

Sonic CD
By Sega - buy on Android

Although it's cherished by Sonic devotees, and critically lauded to boot, 19 years ago, almost no one got to actually play Sonic CD.

The console it appeared on - the Mega CD - was an expensive flop back in 1992, and even Sega's blue spiky mascot couldn't save the day that time. Yet, Sonic CD was never forgotten by the true Blue Blur faithful.

The development on this eagerly awaited remake was led by bedroom coder and Sonic obsessive The Taxman, using his own Retro Engine.

With its reliable physical controls, the Xperia Play incarnation is the most refined version available on Android. Looking and playing just how you (might) remember it, the streamlined, multi-layered, and blisteringly fast levels are a nostalgic feast for the eyes, ears, and thumbs.

Article source: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Android/Top+10+Android+charts/feature.asp?c=37460

The topic of which OS crashes the most, iOS or Android, has long been debated, however, crash analytics firm, Crittercism, has now released crash figures, shedding some light on the reality of the situation.

Surprisingly, the figures show that an application is three times more likely to crash on a device running Apple's iOS than on a device running Google's Android, with specific note to Apple's latest iOS 5.0.1 release, which was present on devices for 28.64 per cent of all app crashes.

It's not unreasonable to say that as a new release, the chances of a crash on iOS 5.0.1 were more likely, however, that's still a pretty large piece of the pie and most of the larger slices are also from previous iOS releases.

Typically, this writer would take such figures with a grain of salt, however, as the owner of both brands of product, I can attest to a feeling of skewed perception of crash rates between the two operating systems. When an app crashes on Android, a moderately sized error message appears and the device beeps, offering the user an option to file a crash report, on the other hand, when an app crashes in iOS, it leaves one wondering if they accidentally hit the home button, as it fails both silently and smoothly. For these reasons, for once this writer has decided to place more faith personally in the figures than in collective user claims as far as the debate goes.

It has been suggested that the reason for increased crash rates on iOS, despite Android devices featuring a much wider range of hardware, could be partly attributed to Apple's hardened application approvals system, which makes the process of rolling-out crash fixes a much more lengthy one. Another suggestion is that unlike Java on Android, which runs in a virtual machine, Objective-C present on iOS has increased sensitivity to low-level interactions. That's all well and good but, what do our readers think?

More facts and figures available on forbes.com

Article source: http://hexus.net/mobile/news/apple/34837-apple-ios-apps-crash-three-times-often-android-apps/

Woodhouse’s designs received an enthusiastic reception at a design show during London Design Week last year and he was subsequently contacted by a technology entrepreneur who, with the aid of a hardware engineer, will help bring his design ideas to life in 2012.

Their first collaboration is called ADzero. Constructed from as many sustainable sources as possible, the handset’s body is made out of four year old organically grown bamboo treated for durability. “Bamboo may seem like a strange material to use for a phone, but it’s actually extremely strong and very durable, perfect qualities for this kind of application”, Woodhouse said.

ADzero has a unique camera flash called a ‘ring flash’. The ring flash circles the camera’s lens, which ensures even illumination and minimises shadows. The handset runs on Android and weighs approximately two times less than an iPhone.

“The whole experience so far has been incredible and completely unexpected. Completing my final year and working has been challenging, but my course and the project complement each other well and it’s a great start of my career. I can’t wait to see my mobile phone in shops this year,” added Woodhouse.

Woodhouse plans on launching the phone in the UK first and then other markets. The company will target ‘design aware’ retailers and boutiques in the UK.

Check out this video of Woodhouse talking about Adzero.

Article source: http://gearburn.com/2012/02/adzero-the-bamboo-unibody-android-smartphone/comment-page-1/

By David Carnoy on Feb 06, 2012

Startup iOmounts sold out of its first batch of iOstands, which cost US$89.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

For anyone who likes to put the iPad up on a pedestal, here's the accessory for you: The iOstand.

Produced by the folks at iOmounts--we ran into them at CES last month--the iOstand comes in three colors--black, white, or stainless steel. While the product's name implies that it's made for Apple products, it can also be used with other tablets.

The iOstand actually consists of four components: A weighted base, the pedestal with a ball on the end of it, and a powerful magnet (the iOcore) that adheres to the ball. You then stick a metal ring (the iOadapts) on the back of your iPad (we put it on a case) and that ring then adheres to the magnet.

The magnetic setup allows you to easily manipulate the iPad (or an Android tablet) into portrait or landscape mode and tilt it at various angles. That said, the magnet isn't so powerful that your iPad will remain stuck to it no matter what. Tilt it too much, in fact, and it will separate from the magnet and potentially fall (hopefully not far).

This stand can also be used with an iPhone (or any smartphone) and iOmounts also makes a smaller and more affordable iOmini just for smartphones.

It's a fairly nifty accessory, but it doesn't come cheap: The black and white powdercoat models cost US$89, while the stainless steel version goes for US$109. Despite those prices, the company says that "due to overwhelming response" its first batch is sold out.

The next shipment will apparently be available in March.

Via Crave

Article source: http://asia.cnet.com/crave/magnetic-iostand-for-ipad-and-android-tablets-62213311.htm

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Article source: http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8714083739/watch-superbowl-2012-on-ipad-iphone-android-mobile

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Canadian tech giant Research in Motion (RIM) in its bid to woo the app developers is offering them free PlayBook Tablet PCs. The plan is give them the freebie if they adapt their Android apps for RIM’s tablets, which will run these programs after upcoming operating system upgrade,, said the company on its site.

The latest version of operating system Tablet OS 2.0, which allows running applications created for the platform Google Android, was presented in October. The final version of the platform will be released later in February. The new version will have the BlackBerry Runtime for Android apps allowing Android 2.3.3 applications to run on the device.

So as to get a free PlayBook with 16 GB memory, developer needs to modify the Android-application and submit it to host on online store BlackBerry App World until February 13. All the offered programs must meet the requirements adopted in the App World.

The RIM site has all the tools necessary for adapting the Android-programs to run on PlayBook and testing of applications on computer. Android applications need to be repackaged in the “.bar” file format.

RIM Offering Free Playbooks to Android app Developers

PlayBook tablet was launched in early 2011, and during the pre-launch stage it was rumored of having several technical issues. Some of the problems were not solved even after its launch in the market. In fact, PlayBook did not succeed in the market, and in the middle of the year there was unofficial information that RIM is ready to shut-down its production and quit this market. However, the company denied such reports, later presenting the modified operating system PlayBook OS 2.0 and lowering the price of device.

Position of RIM in the mobile device market, once distinguished by its stability, has been weakening under the onslaught of Apple and Android-device manufacturers. The crisis, which the company is experiencing in recent years, has led to change in leadership – in late January, Thorsten Heins was appointed CEO of RIM. He replaced Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who co-served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Article source: http://socialbarrel.com/rim-giving-free-playbooks-to-developers-adapting-android-apps-for-blackberry-runtime/31662/