Category: Software (Android)

Want Sky Go but can’t install it? We have news

Fragmentation. Android? Can. Open. Worms. Everywhere. Sure, we know that some apps appear on Android and they’ll only work on certain phones. We could get into a big ‘ole discussion about it but hey, it’s Friday and I can smell the beer from here. We’ve heard news that …

The Android Games Console

Take an Android phone or tablet with a powerful Tegra 3 CPU, 1GB of RAM and a HDMI outout. Now, take out the expensive high-resolution capacitive screen, the camera, the Bluetooth, GSM radio kit and battery. You’re left with something which costs a lot less to build. Put …

Help me Robin !

This is Robin, a personal driving assistant which offers help and advice. It’s free and a rather porky 23MB download which is designed to come up with answers while you concentrate on driving. It’s in Beta, so the results might not be perfect just yet, but seemed to …

App Review: CamCard for Android

Ever wanted to look awesome, professional and geeky all in one? CamCard is the app for you! Scan business cards that you’re given and store them directly as new contacts, or share that information with colleagues. In essence it’s a platform that allows the scanning of Business Cards …

Got the SIII and want the Samsung Smart View app?

This might only target a fairly small subset of people, but they’re no less important than anyone else. If you, dear reader, have gone out and bought yourself one of those whizzy Samsung Smart TV’s and then bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII, listen up. On the …

Android phones sending out spam

If you’re using an Android phone it could, according to researchers, be used as part of a botnet. The research, which was performed by Microsoft, shows that Android devices can send mail out through Yahoo! mail servers, spamming people with adverts. The Microsoft blog states that.. All of …

We all love shooting zombies, right?

Madfinger the developer behind great games Samurai Vengeance and Shadowgun have released their latest which is a zombie shooting type game. There is a brief back story to it, but I quickly jumped past that and started shooting zombies. As with all of Madfinger games they are Tegra …

3CX Mobile Device Manager Review

In recent years we’ve seen a shift in the way that mobile devices are used in the workplace. Previously you may have had a Blackberry or Microsoft Pocket PC dropped on your desk. Things were locked down, secure and managed. Now, with the advent of “Bring Your Own …

Endomondo hits 10 million users and celebrates with a sale

If you, like me, are a pure example of a pure athlete, you’ll have probably tried Endomondo. It’s an app which uses GPS to track your exercise and reports how many calories you’ve burned. OK, I’ll be honest, I sit on my backside for most of the day …

Be the Amazing Spider-Man

Spider Man, Spider Man, does whatever a Spider can. Now the movie spin-off-app “The Amazing Spider-Man” is now available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android for just £4.99. You get 25 missions to fight your way through. Spider-Man has to keep the city free of rampaging gangs …

Google Maps (and many other apps) updated. Offline Maps are go!

Check into the Google Play store this morning and you’ll find a whole heap of updates from Google. Apps inluding Chrome, Google Play Books, Google+, Google Earth have been updated and Google Maps now has an “Offline Mode”. What is this? Well, remember years ago when we used …

Calling all app developers – We want YOU!

If you are involved in the development of apps or games then we want to hear from you. Regardless of platform, be it Android, Blackberry, iOS, Symbian or Windows Phone. We’d like you the developers to come to our forums and post details about your products. We can …

Jellybean coming soon as Android 4.1

Just days ahead of Google IO, news of the next version of Android has leaked via an unlikely source: Google’s very own Play Store. Jellybean will officially be Android 4.1 and will apparently be with us soon, according to the listing for the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus. Not much …

MightyText – Like iMessage, but better

What is it ? This app will sync your text messages to other devices and it’ll even connect your texts to web browsers so that you can send and receive texts from the comfort of your own browser. It’s completely connected to your phone number, so there’s no …

Fast Burst Camera (Lite) – Android App Review

It seems it doesn’t take long these days for a new feature built in to the latest and greatest smartphones to be ported or hacked on to other phones. Yesterday, I looked at Smart Stay (Beta) for Android, today I tried Fast Burst Camera (Lite) for Android. Description …

Smart Stay – For any phone!

They say that “Imitation is the highest form of flattery”, based on that, the Galaxy S III should be pretty chuffed at the moment. One clever fellow over at XDA has started work on a beta project for Smart Stay for any phone. If you aren’t aware of …

Some of my music apps

Hands up if you use your smartphone to listen to music. Now, hands up if you use it for other music-related purposes. Of course you do, and why not when Google Play now offers such a wide variety of apps for music lovers? For me personally I’ve been …

Linaro drops a turbo into Android

Long hair. Check. Beard. Check. This guy must be a geek that knows his stuff. I could blind you with science here but the upshot of this video is that the Linaro tweaks will make your Android go faster. Faster is good, m’kay? The people behind CyanogenMod have …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android App – 0800 Wizard

We’ve all seen the adverts that say “call us free on this number now” or “freephone 0800 blah blah blah”. That’s all well and good but from most mobile networks freephone numbers are not free…yet.  In fact they can cost up to 21p per minute. Ofcom recently announced …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android App – ChargeBar

ChargeBar is a neat little line that runs along the top of your screen and shows you how much battery you have left. I originally had something like this back in the day of Windows Mobile. This is slightly more featured and is a clone of the charge …

Microsoft: on{X} Beta – Automation for Android

Microsoft has released a Beta app for Android. It goes by the name of on{X} (pronounced on – ex). In basic terms, it is an automation app for you phone, that allows you to do things with your phone, depending on location, movement, weather…well, pretty much anything! The more …

3D and Offline coming to Google Maps

Google held an event today to announce new features coming to their Google Maps service, 3D and Offline. The process of saving offline maps was demoed and it looks quite simple. The user selects “Make available offline” from the menu, selects the area needed and it downloads to …

Time-lapse video on Android

Some years ago I filmed this summer sunrise on a Windows Mobile phone. Last weekend, with the sun actually beating down on our garden, I decided to try the same thing on Android. I ended up using Controlled Capture Lite which is, if I’m honest, a bit rough …

A couple of apps I can’t stop playing

Today I wanted to let you know about a site I found whilst browsing around the t’interweb. After navigating around the wilderness for quite some time, I stumbled across AndroidPIT. Their Android blog has an exhaustive news stream covering everything from the newest Ice Cream Sandwich updates to …

Samsung Galaxy SIII Pre-orders Top 9 Million

An interesting facet of the Samsung SIII hype before the official launch of the “New Galaxy” was the use of sheep.  It was said to be an attack on users of the iPhone and how the flock is followed. Well, it seems to have paid off and a …

Galaxy SIII S-Voice returns

The other day you may have grabbed the leaked Galaxy SIII S Voice APK file. Even if you did get it working, the fun stopped shortly after. Luckily a signed APK has now been “created” by the clever souls at XDA Developers and you can download below. Oh, …

Android App Review: ssLauncher

Okay so put aside your political stances guys and gals…this isn’t a far right launcher with Swastickas all over it (get it?…ss….SS??). No, no….this is another launcher replacement for Google’s Android OS. For those who don’t know, a launcher is another name for the software that is used …

Samsung S-Voice for Android Leaked

It looks like the industrious members of XDA have once again gotten their hands on a nice leaked app for us to play with. First it was Flipboard, this time its the S-Voice app from the Galaxy SIII. In case your memory needs refreshing, S-Voice is Samsungs version …

JuiceDefender – A recommendation

About a week ago Terran Brown mailed me to recommend something called JuiceDefender. It’s one of a few apps which claim to extend your battery life so, as I’m usually running low on battery for most of the day, I gave it a try. First, a little insight …

Google Maps Updated, now includes Google Offers

A new version of Google maps has today been released to Google Play. The new version includes the ability to discover nearby Google Offers (US only), indoor walking directions (beta) for Japan and the US and enables the viewing of 360 degree panoramas inside restaurants and stores. The …

Android adverts – How do you deal with them?

I’ve been accused of being an Android fan. To be honest, that might be true, but it wasn’t always this way. When I attended the HTC Hero launch I was a firm Windows Mobile fan and actually walked out of the launch before it had finished. Then HTC …

Find people who share your interests – hicup

So, this is an app that helps you find people who share common interests in your area. It’s not about smut or dating. This simply helps you find people who like the stuff you like. Want to find someone who likes sewing ? This will do that. Want …

New National Rail Enquiries free app

National Rail Enquiries have launched free apps for iOS and Android. The apps allow you to plan a train journey, access real time arrivals and departures, as well “tagging” a train once it has left a station to follow its progress. You can also subscribe to alerts. Both …

Android 4.0 hitting the Sony Tablet S.

Today Sony has come out and announced that they have released the Android 4.0 update for the Sony Tablet S. With this update you get the usual set of ICS updates and optimisations, but Sony also have a special treat for us Tablet S owners too! Sony has …

Do you watch Internet TV?

If you just thought “yes” then you are the sort of person that SPB are after to help them with a survey. I know surveys can be boring and long winded but SPB the makers of SPB TV are obviously looking for ways to improve their current offering …

Minor Update Rolling Out for Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Back in April Samsung pushed out an update to unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus phones that raised the version to 4.0.4. This update only reached some of the handsets it was destined for as it was stopped due to reports of it causing signal loss. It turned out to …

Basket Buddies – Find deals close to you easily

So, you may have heard about HotUKDeals. It’s the site where deals, vouchers and freebies are posted by a huge community of bargain-hunters. Although they’ve had an Android app available for a while, there’s now a new Basket Buddies app for Android and iPhone. Instead of searching for …

Orange Samsung Galaxy SII customers to get Ice Cream Sandwich tomorrow

It looks like the full set is almost complete, Orange have announced via their Orange Helpers Twitter and Facebook accounts that the Android 4.0 update will start rolling out via Kies tomorrow, Friday the 20th of April. This only leaves T-Mobile customers without any official way to leave …

Spotify for Android given a huge makeover

Spotify have announced plans to update their Android App to be more compliant with Googles new design guidelines. The result is a pretty nifty looking holo themed app that’s been built from scratch to fit in better with the rest of Ice Cream Sandwich. The app is still …

US: Google Play Store Has 24/7 Support!!

If you are one of the many that has experienced issues with the Google Play Store such as disappearing apps, apps not downloading or purchases not going through then suffer no longer. It would seem that the Play store in the United States actually has 24 hour, 7 day …