Flipboard for Android app has leaked, here’s how to get the APK now

News

  • May 9, 2012 at 12:02 pm

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Flipboard for Android running on an HTC One X and the Galaxy Nexus

With Instagram on their belts, Android users are slowly, but surely, getting up to speed with their iOS counterparts. Now another iOS exclusive, Flipboard, was demoed running on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S III.

The app, which pulls together news, your Facebook feed and tweets and presents them in a magazine-style layout, was supposed to be a Galaxy S III exclusive. So the rest of the Android crowd would otherwise have to wait. Well, leave it to the endearing Android developers to leave no wall ubroken. The app has been ripped from a Galaxy S III and the APK file has been posted on xda-developers for all Android users to enjoy.

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Instagram is out now for Android

News

  • April 3, 2012 at 12:31 pm

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Instagram for Android app

Instagram has been an incredibly popular app for iOS devices and while it has created a number of clones on Android the social photo application has now officially made the platform a home. The Instagram team had recently promised that an Android app was coming and true to their word the app is now available for download on Google Play (a.k.a. Android Market).

Visually the application is a direct port from the iOS version. The team didn’t make much of an effort in adopting Android’s design philosophy and the iOS-style buttons feel a bit out of place. Nevertheless, we took the app for a spin and it performs admirably on a Galaxy Nexus (see our full review here) running Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, the app is fluid and stable.
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Google reaches for the cloud: Android Market, Google Music and Google Books become Google Play

News

  • March 6, 2012 at 2:32 pm

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Google Play

Google just made a big play of its content and cloud efforts, pun intended. The search giant is bringing all its mobile content offerings into one umbrella, titled Google Play, this includes music, books, videos and of course Android apps. Starting today the Android Market, Google Music and Google Books all become Google Play and are accessible through play.google.com on any browser. For now this is just a name change as the individual services will continue to look as before.

Over the next few days Google will also be updating the standard Android apps on phones and tablets running Android 2.2+. The Android Market app will become Google Play Store, and respectively you’ll get Google Play Music, Google Play Movies and Google Play Books apps, depending on availability of the services where you live.
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Google Docs for Android update brings real-time collaborative editing and rich text

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  • February 22, 2012 at 3:00 pm

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Google Docs Android app

Google has just announced a new version of its Google Docs for Android app, that won’t just let you edit documents on the go, but will also allow you to co-edit them in realtime with other users.

Google is mirroring the same desktop experience on Android mobile devices, so provided you have an active data connection on your smartphone or tablet, you’ll be able to see live updates in documents as others type or their computers or mobile devices and you can easily join in or invite others to collaborate on your own documents.
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Google Goggles app can now recognize amongst 45,000 types of banknotes

News

  • February 19, 2012 at 12:06 pm

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Google Goggles app currency recognition

Google’s Goggles app is striving to become a Swiss army knife for globetrotters. Using your device’s camera and an active data connection, Goggles can recognize landmarks and famous artworks and more recently it can even translate text on the fly.

The always-active Google development team has been adding even more capabilities to Goggles and it has just enabled the app to recognize between more than 45,000 types of currency from over 300 countries. Currently the app is limited to banknotes, and as usual you just take a picture of the note and it will come back with the type, amount and links to further information.
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Google announces Chrome for Android beta browser

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  • February 7, 2012 at 1:11 pm

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Chrome bate for Android

Google has just announced a mobile version of its Chrome browser. You will need a device running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to get the beta app. It does not replace the default Android browser but rather co-lives with it. We will be posting more info as we test the new browser.
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All black ‘inverted’ Google Apps for Android 4.0 make you cool, can save you battery

News

  • January 29, 2012 at 9:43 am

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Inverted all black Google apps

Feeling like black is your thing? A themer, going by the name travp624, has posted all black versions of a number of stock Google applications. The inverted apps have a requirement that you should be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and have been tested on version 4.0.3 and up. The available inverted apps are: Google+, Gmail, Email, Market Google Talk, Contacts, Calendar, Google Voice, Google Music and MMS. They will sure look cool on an all-black device like the Galaxy Nexus.
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Google Search for Android 2.2, 2.3 and 3.x now faster with a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich

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  • January 12, 2012 at 3:51 am

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Google Search app for Android update 1.3.3
Search is an integral part of Android, Google is search first and foremost after all. The search giant is now pushing an update for the Google Search app to Android 2.2, 2.3 and 3.x devices, which should bring some of the functionality, performance and looks adopted in the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich version.

Google is claiming that you will notice how faster and smoother this new version is. New features include a simplified user interface, search results are now grouped by type, there are country-specific search results, while you can now remove search history items.
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How to: easily install Google Wallet on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus LTE with an APK file

Guides

  • December 18, 2011 at 3:30 am

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Google Wallet

Verizon’s version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was finally released last friday missing one key feature, the ability to make payments using NFC and Google Wallet. Over the weekend, a number of methods came in to go around this, and install Google Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus LTE, which involved some level of hackery. Today, you can install Google Wallet on your Verizon Galaxy Nexus without having to root your device or resort to any hackery.

Simply go here to download the application APK file. You can do this either directly on your device, or from you computer and then transfer the APK file to your smartphone. Make sure that under ‘Settings’ > ‘Security’ you have ‘Unknown sources’ checked. Now open the APK on your device using a file manager like ASTRO.
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You can now initiate Hangouts video conferencing sessions directly from Google+ for mobile

News

  • December 14, 2011 at 3:25 pm

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Google+ mobile Hangouts video conferencing on a Galaxy Nexus

You already could do video conferencing through Google+ on smartphones, but the Hangouts session had to be initiated from a desktop computer. Google is launching a new version of Google+ for Android in the next few days, which will allow Hangouts sessions to be completely mobile, that is you can initiate a Hangouts video conference directly from your device. You simply touch the little camera button at the top to start a hangout. An updated version of Google+ for iOS devices is also coming soon.
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Facebook for Android brings updated UI, still won’t sync contacts with Galaxy Nexus

News

  • December 11, 2011 at 8:31 am

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Facebook for Android version 1.8

Facebook has updated their Android app, bringing a host of improvements and a new user interface. The new UI brings the Android application in line with what is been offered on iOS and the iPhone. You get an expandable menu on the left, which includes quick-links to your favorites, pages (finally), apps, lists etc. — similar to the functionality offered in the left sidebar on Facebook’s desktop website.

You also get an overlay messages box, so that you can check and respond to messages without having to leave the current page. Facebook is claiming the the new app loads photos and albums faster and so far in testing the app we can confirm that. Nevertheless the entire app continues to feel sluggish and sometimes it takes a number of tries for a page to load.

Some were expecting for the new app to enable contact syncing on the Galaxy Nexus and Android Ice Cream Sandwich (especially since a render of the phone was used in marketing the app as you see above), but as we’ve tested this is not the case — going to ‘Accounts & Sync’ and selecting Facebook does nothing. Google found that Facebook was in violation of their terms of service (TOS) on the way user contact data was handled and had pushed an update on the Nexus S disabling syncing of contacts. The Galaxy Nexus, as Google’s latest lead device, also has this function disabled.
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Google Goggles 1.7 for Android brings continuous mode, other tricks up its sleeve

News

  • December 7, 2011 at 3:46 pm

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Google Goggles in continuous mode

Google has just updated its Goggle Android app to version 1.7. The biggest change in the updated version is a new continuous mode. Instead of having to aim your device’s camera at a product, artwork, landmark etc. and press the shutter button before getting any results, Google Goggles now continuously scans for recognizable objects and populates a timeline with the results. We’ve tried it and it’s really what has been missing from Goggles so far. Images recognized in continuous mode won’t show in your search history and you won’t be able to add contacts or translate text.

Another new feature is article text recognition. You can just scan a written piece of text and get online results referring to that piece. Finally you now get search suggestions from other users, which will hopefully improve results. As usual, check the ‘My Apps’ section on your device to update, or search for Google Goggle to install.
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Adobe Photoshop Touch and five other Touch Apps now available for Android

News

  • November 15, 2011 at 5:03 am

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Adobe Touch Apps

Adobe has just released its Touch Apps suite for Android tablets, made of five creative apps each priced at $9.99 and available on the Android Market. There is an Android 3.1 Honeycomb or higher requirement, while Adobe points out that you’ll need at least a 8.9-inch 1280×800 tablet to get the most out the applications. As the name implies, they are all touch optimized applications, but also integrate with Adobe Creative Cloud. You can open Photoshop or other Adobe desktop application files saved in the cloud, work with them on your tablet and then save them back to the cloud to continue working on a desktop or other device.

King of the pack is of course Adobe Photoshop Touch. You can get your images from social networking sites such as Facebook, use locally saved images or snap live from your tablet’s camera. The app includes layer support, various adjustments and filters, and of course you can share your results back to Facebook.
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The universal translator is one step closer, Google Translate for Android can now do speech-to-speech translations in 14 languages

News

  • October 13, 2011 at 4:53 pm

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Star Trek universal translator - Google Translate

Although it can’t yet translate any alien languages (we’ll have to find some aliens first), Google Translate for Android can now do speech-to-speech translations in 14 languages. That’s right, you can talk to your Android phone, it works in the background and in turn speaks out the translation in the desired language.

The function, called Conversation Mode, had been available in English and Spanish and has now expanded to Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish.

The technology is still in alpha, so performance can be sketchy; at least you can’t unintentionally start an intergalactic war, yet. The accuracy of the translations will improve as more people use the software and provide feedback.
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