Thick Buttons (new software keyboard) Released on the Market

Time for another app suggestion post

Here are all the apps I am currently running on my phone, courtesy of the WONDERFUL app "AppBrain". If you click on the app it will take you to a description. Hopefully this will give you some nifty ideas.

Matth3w's Android apps on AppBrain

Three new games out for the Droid in the Market:

1. iDemolished



2. WWII: D-Day 3D FPS



3. Age of Conquest Beta

New App: Porn Video Player

I know what you are thinking. Not only is it Sunday, a holy day for some, but seriously...have I run out of things to talk about that I am reviewing a porn app for the Droid?

The answer is yes to both. It was a slow news day, so not much else to talk about, and yes it is a holy day for some. But I decided that many Droid users probably use their Droid to watch porn (honestly I prefer to WiFi tether and use my laptop, but I digress) and so I might as well review an app that I saw under the Applications > Just In on the Market. If this offends you, don't read on...but the porn industry generates billions of dollars a year and some people might be interested in this app.

If you don't like porn, check out the other blog post from today: TAT Home, because if porn doesn't give you a boner or get you wet, that certainly will.

So anyhow, I see this app on the Market and it has 5 stars, so I decided to look at it. Essentially what it is, is an app portal to popular porn video sites like PornHub etc so you don't need Flash like on their website.

Honestly I found it to work very well. That's really all it is to the review because all it really is, is a portal to those type of sites, so if you like those sites, you will like the app so long as you have a good enough internet connection to stream the video. The app installs as PV Player so it's not blaringly obvious what you have on the phone...and it's free.

The only bug I found was that it was difficult to close the program. There was no menu>quit option and I couldn't hit the back key enough times to close it. The trick was to simply hold in the back key.

Anyhow, happy porning. All you pimply faced, horny teenagers can shake my hand later. Actually, don't shake my hand. Just thank me.

New Home Replacement for the Droid, TAT Home...coming soon?

At least I hope so. I've been watching and keeping an eye on the release of this amazing home replacement for the Droid for several weeks now, and so now it's time to share this amazing piece of future Android goodness with the few loyal readers that I have :)

If you haven't seen this yet, be prepared to go from six to midnight if you're a geeky guy and turn into Niagara Falls if you're a geeky girl....



You can join up on their website to be notified of future updates and releases...

Gesture Navigation

The widget fan gives you a stunning overview of all widget panes and lets you know in a glance if anything has happened across your widgets. Thanks to the ingenious gesture-powered design, you can instantly jump to any pane, including the application launcher, with the flick of a thumb. In a matter of days your muscle memory will know where widgets are placed and navigation will be completely seamless.


3D and TAT Cascades effects

TAT Widgets can be 3D, take multi-sensory input, smoothly transition between compact and full screen modes, be TAT Cascades for Androidsurrounded by particles, have physics in them or between them - pretty much anything you can think of, really. This all thanks to the fact that TAT Home is powered by TAT Cascades, the world´s leading UI engine for mobiles.

Smooth transition between Compact and Full

The compact mode shows conditions and temperature right now as well as the rest of the day and night. When expanding the widget you get a longer forecast that is represented as bars,Smooth transition between Compact and Full which is easier to glance at than digits.

The interactive Alarm clock widget lets you set an alarm by tapping on the clock and dragging the indicator to the desired time.

Android widgets are supported too

We don´t want you to miss anything. TAT Home comes with a widget compositing engine that seamlessly blends in standard Android widgets. We are also keeping a close eye on upcoming widget standards for inclusion in TAT Home the minute they gain market traction.

Vacuum: The Global Competition

Keep your eyes peeled for this upcoming game on the Market...sources on Phandroid say that starting March 15th the developer is going to start offering cash prizes! So practice often when it comes out...so at least you can get some money for your Droid addiction :)

I'll keep you guys updated when I see it come out.

App suggestions

Well, here you go....all of my apps. Proving to you just how little of a life I really have :)

Let me know what you also use, and what you like better, or some app suggestions for me maybe :)

- 10001 Cocktails (for making drinks)
- Actioncomplete (to do lists)
- AdFree (for rooted phones, disables all ads from webpages, etc)
- Aloqa (uses GPS to see what stuff such as ATM, gas stations, movies, restaurants, take out food, etc are near you)
- App aware (see what apps people are installing)
- App Organizer (allows you to tag apps and create "folders" that you can see on my desktop, like Entertainment, etc)
- Autostarts (for rooted users only, choose what apps start up with the phone)
- Barcode Scanner (scan barcodes and search for deals on the net, better than ShopSavvy IMO)
- Bettercut (custom icons, icon text, etc)
- BettrFlickr (upload straight to your Flickr account)
- ChompSMS (allows you to customize your SMS)
- Dictionary
- Documents to Go Full (open any document, XLS, PDF, etc)
- drocap2 (screen shots of your phone, must be rooted)
- EbayPktAuctions (basically MyEbay in an app)
- Fandango
- FeedR (app for reading RSS feeds, comes with a widget as well)
- Flight Director (game that allows you to direct flights onto real runways using Google Earth images)
- FlightTrack Pro (tracks your flight status and pulls from TripIt app)
- Gentle Alarm (best alarm app I've seen)
- Homerun Battle 3d
- iheartradio (listen to streaming audio from Clearchannel radio stations all over the country)
- LiveScores (updates sports scores every 30 seconds)
- Mabillo Ringtones (best app for getting free ringtones)
- Mobile Package Tracker (get UPS package updates, etc)
- More Icons Widget (make more space on your home screens by putting 4 icons in the place of one)
- Multi-touch (pinch zoom) Browser from the Milestone
- MyLock (eliminates the unlock screen when not on a call, must press the power button to unlock the phone)
- News/Weather Widget
- QuickProfiles
- PhoneMyPC (view, monitor, control your PC via your phone)
- PicSayPro (edit photos for hue, saturation, etc)
- Pure Calendar Widget
- RoboDefense (the most addicting game I have ever played on a phone)
- Root Explorer (file manager for rooted users)
- Rooted Droid using Beautiful Beast 2.1 ROM
- Scan2PDF Mobile (scan in documents with the camera and turn them into a PDF for easy mailing)
- setCPU (must be rooted, allows you to over and underclock the phone)
- Shapewriter (change the way you type!)
- Shazam (identifies music for you by the lyrics on the radio)
- SNESoid (SNES emulator)
- Titanium Backup
- Terminal Emulator
- Touiteur (Best damn Twitter app)
- Trap (a game like the old Jezzball from Windows 3.1)
- TripIt (forward trip itineraries to plans@tripit.com and it adds everything for you into your phone)
- Unit converter (convert things like inches to mm, etc)
- USAA app (access your account, pay bills, use your camera to scan and deposit checks, etc)
- Webshare (simple way to use WiFi to xfer files)
- WikiMobile
- Wireless Tether (turn your phone into a wifi hotspot)
- Yelp (reviews on business, entertainment, etc)

Change the way you type

Personally, I am a huge fan of the physical keyboard. Even though I have big, fat thumbs, I can type close to. 50wpm with the Droid keyboard.

That being said, there are two really awesome alternatives to the soft keyboard. Developed by the same people that developed T9 years ago, these apps allow you to never lift your finger from the keyboard to type. The first, one that I prefer, is Shapewriter. I like it for two reasons: first, it is available on the market for free to end users and the developer is easy to contact. The second is it auto capitalizes your first words.

The second option is a little smarter with recognition but is only available with a leaked beta apk file that needs to be manually installed (see my next post to see how to install apk files). It's called Swype, and it's being developed only to sell to OEM companies like HTC to include on future phones, so that means no updates.

Here is a link to a review and download location of Swype:.

In either case you need to go into your menu > keyboard and language settings and enable the new keyboard.

Stay tuned with instructions on how to install apk files.

AppAware

This app is amazing! It allows you to Tweet what apps you have installed and uninstalled for your Droid and see others' app installs/uninstalls to give you app ideas!

How on Earth have I been missing out on this app for so long! Go check it out, it's free on the Market!

Discover New Android Applications With AppAware
By Frank McPherson on Feb 22, 2010 08:14 PM

One of the knocks against the Android Market is that it is difficult to discover new applications. The Market lists Featured Applications on the top page, but beyond that you have to start drilling down through a list of application categories to see a list of the top paid and top free applications. AppAware is a program that lists the Android applications that have been installed in the last several minutes, and shows the top applications installed in the last hour, day, and week.

After you start the program you see a list of applications that have been recently installed by AppAware users who are contributing to the stream of information. Application names are displayed in blue, green, and red. Blue applications have more installations than removals, red applications have more removals than installations, and green applications have about the same installations and removals. If you tap the application name, a screen displays showing the details behind the colors, and you also see a button that you can tap to open the application in the Android Market.

If you chose to, you can have AppAware post Twitter notifications about your application activities. You will need to configure AppAware to login to Twitter in order for this to happen, and the feature can be turned off. The application monitors all activity with the Android Market and will tweet those changes even if AppAware is not running, so be sure to turn off this feature if you don't want this activity broadcasted on Twitter. For an example of what is shown on Twitter run a Twitter search on #AppAware.

You should also be aware that your Market activity is also sent to AppAware, which is how it displays on the application's main screen. The information is published on the application's web site and published in an RSS feed. If you do not want to share your activity with AppAware, you can turn off your contributions in the program settings, but doing so means your activity will not count in AppAware's rankings.

On AppAware's home screen you can tap a button to list the Top Applications installed, updated, and removed in the last hour, day, and week. For example, by running the application I have learned that the top installed application this week is DroidBooster, which is a benchmarking application to test improvements of Java optimization by the developer. Not surprisingly, DroidBooster is also the most removed application since it is the type of application you try a few times and then remove.

Some people may not be comfortable with the social networking and information sharing features of AppAware, but fortunately the application provides easy ways for turning the features off. I have found the program provides an interesting way to discover new Android applications, so for now it will remain on my T-Mobile myTouch 3G. However, my Twitter followers will be happy to know that after a brief bit of experimentation I turned off the Twitter notification feature of the application

http://www.mediabistro.com/mobilecontenttoday/android/discover_new_android_applications_with_appaware_152853.asp?c=rss

Earthquake! app in the market

For those of you living in an earthquake prone area or perhaps those just curious after the quakes in Haiti and Chile, Earthquake! on the market shows you earthquakes that have occured in the last 24 hours, and even plots them for you on Google maps...even with alerts. Reportedly the app uses a lot of battery power...but nonetheless, an interesting app to try.

Raging Thunder 2 to be released on the Market at "any time"

This is the sequel to the hot game for the iPhone and Droid from 2008 'Raging Thunder' (obviously). Here are some of the features from the game:

Raging Thunder 2 features:

* Six single player game modes: Career, Arcade, Single Race, Time Attack, Survival, Instant Race
* Online or local, cross-platform multiplayer with pre and post-race chat
* Choose from a fleet of tuner cars with the ability to upgrade wheels, body, wings, and engine
* Multiple upgrade options for each area with visual enhancements
* Ten beautiful, varied and animated track environments with tons of hidden shortcuts
* Stunning, console quality 3D graphics using OpenGL 2.0

Word is that it could show up on the Market at any time, but as of 930pm EST it isn't there yet. For those of you always saying that there aren't any games available for the Droid...bite your tongue! I'm not a racing genre fan but I'll definitely try this out when it comes out.

Hootsuite: Seriously, do we need another %$!#&ing Twitter client?

Apparently there is good money in Twitter apps because I saw my news feed alert me about yet another Twitter application for your Android phone. I think that there just might be more Twitter apps than there are -isms apps and fart soundboards...maybe even more than all the Euro metro stop apps.

MLB At Bat 2010

The MLB At Bat 2010 app has made its way to the Market for Android as of today. I'm not into baseball but this should be good news for fans of steroid users. :)

Calling all Homerun Battle 3d players

YouTube video here.

If you haven't played hrb3d yet, you're missing out. Quite possibly one of the most addicting games on the Droid, you can find it for 4.99 on the market. Think of it as one of those addicting games your co-workers send you to keep you distracted instead of working.

Just to give you an idea of how addicting it is, I hate baseball. I am much more a hockey fan and yet I'm still addicted. If you want to match up online for some competition, add me to your rival list: MJ110607

My mom is in the hospital right now and so I have been logging quite a few hours playing this game during my down time.