Malware has been a fast growing concern with Android devices as of late. You can uncover tons of “antivirus” apps in the Android Market and simply traveling into Finest Buy you’ll find all kinds of more than priced software aimed specifically at naive Android users. Make no qualms about it, I hate malware. There are so a lot of misconceptions with regards to viruses, spyware and malware on Android. So, in an effort to further educate our readers, I am happy to bring to you this handy infograph from BullGuard with some easy methods of keeping your device clean, clear and under control. (May have to click the image twice for full view)

I’m positive this is typical sense to most of our readers but I can’t tell you how numerous people I’ve run into that haven’t had the slightest concept on what malware is, or how to contract it. It’s either that or they’re so paranoid with viruses on their Android device, they believe an individual hacked into their telephone and is using their all their data (true story). Did you guys discover anything new? If not, perhaps you can show this to some of your n00b pals/family members and aid educate them.

[By way of ReadWriteWeb]

Android Phone Fans

The newest development in Samsung and Apple’s ongoing dispute saw the Galaxy Tab 10.1 blocked from sale in many parts of Europe, but the small victory won’t see the maker of the iPad resting on its laurels. In the extremely same complaint filed in Germany against Samsung, Apple references the Motorola XOOM and its desire to have the competing tablet examined by the identical court. A separate complaint filed over the XOOM is mentioned, although it is unclear if Apple aims to deploy the very same tactics they have utilized against Samsung by seeking a preliminary injunction and blocking sales of Motorola’s tablet. Up to this point, Motorola has remained reasonably immune to ongoing infringement disputes thanks to a vast portfolio of mobile patents.

[via EuroDroid]

Android Telephone Fans

If you fancy your self a music aficionado but the current crop of music players for Android just aren’t doin’ it for ya, a new challenger has entered the ring. UberMusic was just released nowadays onto the Android Market place and comes to you from the creative force behind Launcher Pro, Federico Carnales. Certainly, Mr. Carnales knows a little one thing about customizing and this is where UberMusic receives arguably, its biggest feature: themes. Yup, it’s probable to get 3rd party skins from the Marketplace that will allow you to completely transform the whole UI of UberMusic, even adding custom themed widgets and an “uber” nice live wallpaper. So if you have often been into the appear of say, the Zune music player (guilty!), you can finally have your cake and eat it too.

UberMusic is accessible proper now in the Android Market place for $ 3.50 and if you’re one of “those kinds” that doesn’t like paying for their apps or merely can’t because of your region, Mr. Carnales mentioned right now via Twitter that a totally free version of the app could be in the works.

[Via Engadget and Twitter]

Android Phone Fans

TouchType Drops SwiftKey X Beta into Android Market originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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• SwiftKey Testing New Keyboard with Personalization Features
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AndroidGuys

Next up in the list of announcements from Mobile World Congress is LG’s Optimus 3D. This is the phone that LG has been testing us with the most, and as the first foray into the 3D world for Android phones, could have a huge effect on the market…if it succeeds, expect more 3D phones. If it doesn’t perform well, there’s a good chance we won’t see another attempt for a while. Only time will tell how this plays out, but we’re certainly eager to see the end result. Personally, I wanna see it in person, but I’m not sure it’ll be more than a novelty. Still, with a dual-core 1GHz CPU, a 4.3-inch touchscreen, 8GB RAM, and high-def recording in 2D or 3D, it’s a solid phone, regardless of how the 3D aspect plays out. Full press release after the break.

Read More…

LG Officially Takes Android into the Third Dimension with Optimus 3D

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Lookout dub rolling Escalades and high class airliner planes cause it looks like buses are going to be the new mode of transportation to have integrated screens in their headrests.  And not just any screen, but an Android tablet screen!  That’s right, buses in India are now sporting 7″ touch screens that run their own customized Android interface that allows users to login and do the normal things you would do on an Android tablet, such as view maps, watch video, listen to music, or log into your bank account (although I highly discourage the latter).  What’s nice is that it’s a free service, and I’ll give you 1 guess how it’s all possible…  by serving your advertising!

Still, this is a nice addition to your morning commute should you use the bus, and as long as people don’t hack them out of the headrests or hack the system itself, I can see this as a great use of Android in the future for public transportation.  Hit the jump to see some additional video footage of it in action. Read More…

Android tablets built into Indian buses

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Representative Edward Markey sent a letter to the head of the Federal Trade Commission asking him to examine the trade practices of in-app purchases and upgrades, specifically for programs aimed at children.

View full post on Macworld

Google is celebrating Jules Verne’s birthday with a logo that pays homage to the author’s famous 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The doodle, which marks Verne’s 183rd birthday, transforms the usual Google letters into submarine portals looking out at the sea.

The effect was created using the powerful transform tools in CSS 3 to layer together an animated diving sequence using nothing more than standard HTML and a few transparent images. If you’ve got a device with an accelerometer built-in (any iOS device, recent Macbook or Android device), you can even control the doodle just by tilting down to dive or side to side to move forward and back.

If you’re on a desktop or don’t have an accelerometer in your laptop, you can steer the Nautilus with a control stick. While the doodle worked in most browsers, it’s smoothest and fastest in Google Chrome and Firefox 4 beta.

Other Google doodles have used HTML5’s canvas element, along with some CSS 3, to create the bouncing balls experiment and the awesome, playable version of Pac-Man.

See Also:

• Write Your Name in Bouncy Google Balls
• Transform Your Site With CSS 3
• Slick Web Design Gets Easier Thanks to CSS 3’s Transform Tools
• Chrome 9: Faster 3-D Graphics, Instant Search and an App Store

View full post on Webmonkey

It seems the retail giant of the web, Amazon, has this elusive device listed on their site now. What we thought was a Best Buy exclusive, as far as retail goes, clearly only applies to their physical stores. The Amazon site states “The HTC Thunderbolt 4G will be available for purchase starting 2/14″. The ad does not specify whether or not this is a pre-sale or the actual availability for purchase. I’d guess it means you could actually purchase it on February 14th, but with release dates of the 14th and 24th being rumored no one really knows what’s going on, barring Verizon themselves of course.

Source:  BGR

View full post on AndroidSPIN

If you’ve never heard of SayNow…you’re not alone. You may, however, remember that a lot of celebrities went through phases where they would blast a phone number on Twitter, Facebook, a commercial, or at a concert and say “Call me.” When you called that number, it gave you some pre-recorded message. You know you all called one of them, at least once…heck, I did. But this service has now been acquired by Google, and they have made it clear that they intend to incorporate it into Google Voice, although at this point it has not been stated exactly how they intend to do that or what service they will add.

SayNow also provided a service that aimed to make business conference calls easier. This service was apparently created by an intern in about a week, but in our (admittedly brief) searching for information about it, it seems to have been a very solid offering. So perhaps Google wants talent? They didn’t really say.

Regardless, it’s very likely that we’ll be seeing some new additions coming to Google Voice soon, beyond the number porting service that they just announced. We’re eager to see what they come up, so stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted.

Google Acquires SayNow, Plans to Integrate Into Google Voice?

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

What do you get when you put voicemail, phone calls, and text messages into an Android App blender? You get HeyTell for Android, which will turn your smartphone into a Walkie Talkie! With this app, you can send voice messages to other HeyTell users just like you would send a text. It’ll go to their phone and sit just like a voicemail until they decide to listen to it later. Pretty cool app for people who don’t want to be bothered actually having to call someone and get stuck on a longer call than expected. Or even for those who don’t like to text because their thumbs are too big!

The app is Free for regular use, and has some added features available for purchase through the app such as voice effects, broadcast a message to multiple recipients, etc. Setting up your list of friends can be tricky, but once you got them added (usually by email invites), it’s gold.

Give it a try by scanning the QR below or hitting the link.

Android Market Link

HeyTell for Android turns your smartphone into a Walkie Talkie

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

New reports suggest that the next-generation iPad and iPhone will be equipped with near-field communication capabilities enabling you to use your iOS device to make purchases.

View full post on Macworld

A team of engineers at SSTL and the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford want to see if the sophisticated capabilities in today’s mobile phones can function in the most challenging environment of all: space.

Why are they doing this you might be asking? Shaun Kenyon, the project manager at SSTL, said, “They come now with processors that can go up to 1GHz, and they have loads of flash memory. First of all, we want to see if the phone works up there, and if it does, we want to see if the phone can control a satellite.”

Although the specific phone model to be used hasn’t been announced yet, SSTL wants to use the phone to control a 30cm-long satellite and take pictures of the Earth in the mission later this year. If this works, it could potentially save tons of money and weight for future similar projects in space.

The team chose Android because of its open source software, which means they can tweak it if need be.

“We’re not taking it apart; we’re not gutting it; we’re not taking out the printed circuit boards and re-soldering them into our satellite – we’re flying it as is,” Kenyon explained. ”And, in fact, we’re going to have another camera on the satellite so we can take a picture of the phone because we want to operate the screen and have some good images of that as well.”

All I know is I can’t wait to see pictures of this Android smartphone in space! What device do you think they’ll choose? Let us know in the comments.

British engineers planning to send an Android phone into space

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

I know I have brought a similar variation of this to the site before. With the sales of the Vibrant through the roof since I last post about fonts and with this latest set being nicely bundled into one simple file, I though we should revisit the idea.

Klyentel, from xda-developers is responsible for putting this zip file together and it is greatly appreciated. Take a look at a few of the screen shots.

If you are up for using some of these great fonts, head on over to xda-developers and pick up the ZIP file. Once it is downloaded, unzip it and drop the ‘Files’ folder to you device. Open it up through your file manager application and install which ever fonts you want. Since they are all in APK format, you can easily install and uninstall them as you desire.

These should all easily work on any Galaxy S device as well, as for other devices, not sure. Since they are in the universal APK format, I would assume any android device that supports True Type Flip Fonts should be able to utilize them.

On a side note, this doesn’t not require root to use. For those of you requesting ways to “pretty-up” your device with out root, this is right up your alley.

View full post on AndroidSPIN

Is the above pro-iPhone? Probably. Is the above poignantly fitting given all the recent talk of Samsung denying updates and class action lawsuits? Absolutely. Rip me apart in the comments, but you have to admit the above bit of humor from DesignDare is at times painfully true.

[via DroidLife]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

We just received an e-mail from Google that sums up the changes that have been happening in the Market over the past few weeks. The majority of information has been widely disseminated and discussed in gory length(15 minute refund window), but let’s just get it all out on a single page.

Hello,

We’re writing to inform you about some changes to Android Market that require your attention.

As we mentioned in an email sent last week, we’ve been updating Android Market with several new features that may affect your applications. That update is now complete and the features are now active:

* The purchase refund period is now 15 minutes, and the maximum size for .apk files is now 50MB.

* The details page for every app now displays the app’s "Promotional Graphic" assets at the top.

* Market is now capable of filtering based on screen sizes and densities. NOTE: Filtering based on GL texture compression formats is not active at this time, but will be available in early January 2011.

* Applications are now automatically added to new Live Wallpapers and Widgets categories, as appropriate.

We’ve also activated two new features on the Publisher site:

* The maximum size of the description field for an application is raised to 4000 characters.

* A minimum of two screen shots is now required for all applications. You can supply up to eight screenshots for each application.

Additionally, we’ve recently redesigned the categories on Android Market to better support users and developers. We’ve split some popular categories, renamed others, and added completely new categories. At this time, we recommend that you take a look at the categories and ensure that your applications are assigned to the best categories for them. For details, see the Android Market Help Center:

http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113475

Finally, we wanted to bring to your attention that Android Market now offers a new form of payment for users on the AT&T network — Direct Carrier Billing. This payment option lets Android users on the AT&T network purchase applications more easily.

Thank you once again for your continued support of Android Market.

Regards,
The Android Market Team

[Image Thanks to Talk Android]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Image: Kate Miller

Holy crap, people. I’m in shock. How have I not discovered visualization.org until now? It’s an open playground for data visualization geeks like me.

Ever sweated over how to make the data in your PowerPoint chart more eye-catching? Well, the data visualizations on this site catch eyes, suck them out of their sockets, and send them on a ride they’ll never forget. Get ready for some crazy, unthinkably fresh ways of looking at data. But watch out. Once you cross the event horizon, you can never escape.

The site was launched by Seed Magazine and GE. Anybody can upload their visualizations of any data at all, and they’ve got a couple of contests running. (Anybody want to win three grand by visualizing the relationship between green space and public health?) The site is all socially networked out the wazoo, beautifully designed, under Creative Commons license, and blinged out with the standard open-source information-revolution vibe.

Oh, and they’ve got an editor’s position open. This, friends, is my dream job.

[Read the rest of Kate Miller's post over at GeekMom!]

View full post on GeekDad

style=' float: left; padding: 4px; margin: 0 7px 2px 0;' class="size-medium wp-image-24845 alignleft" title="youtube-stream" src="http://www.appcraver.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/youtube-stream-200x300.jpg" alt="Youtube Stream" width="200" height="300" />

Some apps aim to do one thing well. Others aim to do many things, not quite as well. Then there’s Youtube Stream, an app that does one thing pretty well, and then countless other unexpected things you hadn’t even considered or asked for.

The previous release of title="Youtube Stream on the iTunes App Store" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/youtube-stream/id384383425?mt=8#" target="_blank">Youtube Stream was plagued with bugs and glitches. Thankfully, the latest release fixes all that, and the version tested for review was fast and stable. Now that that’s out of the way, we can look at it for what it is: an app that takes a YouTube search, and then plays the results back-to-back, without pause, just like a television station.(…)
Read the rest of href="http://www.appcraver.com/youtube-stream/">Youtube Stream Turns a Search into a Channel

A lot of the newer Android phones come with the awesome Swype keyboard pre-installed. If you have a Galaxy S phone, for example, you’re very familiar with Sype. If you aren’t familiar with it, it allows you type simply by tapping the first letter of the word you wish to enter and simply dragging your finger over all the letters in the word. Personally, in spite of the physical keyboard on my Epic, I rarely use it due to Swype. The only downside of Swype was that if it did not come pre-installed on your phone, it was only available via a very limited, closed beta test. Until today. Swype announced today that they are opening the beta up to anyone interested in giving it a try.

Keep in mind, this is still a beta application, and may have some issues on your particular phone. But if you have been waiting for this, hit the source link and sign up with an email account that comes to your phone. Note: If Swype DID come pre-installed on your phone, this won’t work at all…but you don’t need it.

Swype Goes Into Open Beta

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Google wanted to see just how durable their newest smartphone is; as well as collect a plethora of data using the sensors that are built into the device.  They decided it was prudent to attach a total of seven Nexi, type S, into a collection of styrofoam coolers taped to a balloon and see what they could get. While Andy wont get his Astronaut wings this round, tomorrow is another day.

As of now they’ve recovered 85.7% of the phones that lifted off into the air. Finders keepers?

[via Engadget]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Q (from us): “One of the things about Android is that it seems a bit clunky? Are we going to see a sea change in a more user friendly OS?”

Andy: “I understand what you are saying. I would characterize Android as an early adopter platform (or for those married to people that are tech enthusiasts). We know the difference between customization and personalization — that was the concept. We wanted to allow people to change things with widgets and menus. We had to make concessions there. Anyone can go to the Android Market now and start personalizing. I think you will start to see more of what you are talking about.”

Last night Andy Rubin spoke at D: Dive Into Mobile.  I’m sure you didn’t miss it.  There was talk of Gingerbread, Nexus S, and of course the preview of the Honeycomb tablet.  Of course that means most, if not all, the focus was on those items.  Yet, the one statement that caught my attention the most was the words in bold above, “I would characterize Android as an early adopter platform (or for those married to people that are tech enthusiasts).”   Is that still true?  Throughout the days of the G1, Jesusfreke, Haykuro, and a lack of code names – sure.  Through the time before the Nexus One, most likely.  But now?

If this is the case, we are still the fringe.  Andy is saying that in many ways Android has not yet hit it’s stride.  There is still a lot of work to be done.  That is true.  But can you really say that it is still an early adopter platform after it has launched in 50 countries and has been built into 172 different models of phone?  I don’t think so.  The problem is the numbers don’t add up, you cannot have the kind of penetration that Android has and still be an early adopter platform, not in the sense of the cell phone market.

Could he mean the core?  Those of us who are always tearing apart every minute detail of the SDK  to find gems like this

Or to port over the Gingerbread keyboard or add the 2.3 Launcher to 2.2 courtesy of Modaco’s @paulobrien.  The general public has chosen to embrace Android and I don’t think that we can still look at it as an early adopter platform any longer.  Maybe we can look at it as driven by the early adopters.  Those who purchase the latest and greatest(?) phone, tablet, TV, or even the connected Refrigerator, but it has moved past that stage for everyone else.   We are still the beta testers.  O.G1 owners, were the Alpha testers.  People who picked up the MyTouch or Hero were the Release Candidate 1 test group.  The Droid was RC2.  When the Nexus One dropped we entered the prolonged Beta phase which continues until the release of Honeycomb.   Perhaps that is what Honeycomb is going to address.

Maybe Honeycomb is going to end up being the first “real” Android platform.  Integration with Google Chrome OS, built-in Google music store, and a Market that just works right for the consumer, developer, and critics as well.  If that’s the case, I’m going to go to this bar in San Jose and drink a beer at the fateful spot where the iPhone 4 was found and drink a beer with my true iPhone killer and a smile.

View full post on AndroidSPIN

Gingerbread, Nexus S, and now Honeycomb powered Motorola Tablet prototype.  What a day.

Here are some of the quotes from the Live blog, taken from both AllThingsDigital and Engadget.

Walt (Mossberg): “The tablet. What version is that?”

Andy Rubin: “This is Honeycomb. And it’ll be out sometime next year.”

Walt: “Is this a version that happens to work on tablets, or is it for tablets?”

Andy: “It’s a bit of both.”

Andy about the tablet and the new Google Maps that will launch in the next few days for Android only – “So here we have Google Maps. It’s not quite out yet. I have it in SF. I just did a search. I can zoom in. As I zoom in you see I have more detail… taking advantage of 3D processing power. This is a NVIDIA processor, a dual core 3D processor.”  He is showing off the 3D tilt view of buildings in Google Maps 5.

There will be video posted later on this evening or tomorrow morning by the D: Dive into Mobile team.  I will add to this post at that point.

sources: Engadget and AllThingsDigital

View full post on AndroidSPIN

The holiday season is a time when we all reflect of the important traditions and beliefs that we hold no matter what our religion or creed. So, as an avid fan of H.P.Lovecraft and in the interests of engaging with our readership who spend their days worshipping the Great Old Ones, I’d like to present five ideas for celebrating a Cthulhu Christmas.

Send a Card: But, as we all know the best cards are those we make ourselves and over at GiggedyGeekMom there is an excellent step-by-step blog post ion how to wish your friends and family a safe holiday season with the Great Cthulhu.

Hang a tree ornament: Last year, ThinkGeek offered us Cthulhu Christmas Decorations, and they are still available this year for those interested in a bit of prehistory on the Christmas Tree or mantelpiece. Perfect for when you invite the local Deep Ones over for a drink.

Sing a Cthulhu Carol: Nothing like a rousing rendition to stir the sanity and hail the names of the Great Old Ones. Bring Yog-Sothoth, the Wendigo or even him, yes the Unspeakable right into you living room or out and about on a neighborly caroling jaunt on Christmas eve. The folks at the HP Lovecraft Historical Society have all the lyrics you need.

Invite a Cthulu Elf into your home: Artist Amy Rawson continues her annual tradition of creating a Christmas Cthulhu. (see 2007, 2008, and 2009). She sells her wares through Rawson’s Etsy store.

Give a Gift (and lose some SAN): Of course, smartphones are all the rage and if something is all the rage then we should expect every good alien creature that dwells somewhere in the Pacific is working hard to control the mind and ways of some unsuspecting human and making sure they are a part of it. This is exactly what the Great Cthulhu has done, and you can purchase a Cthulhu Cellphone holder this year for your dearest loved ones.

View full post on GeekDad