Android Archive

This is no April Fool’s joke – this is damn serious. To celebrate the launch of the Amazon Android Appstore, Amazon is offering one application for free each day. Earlier this week Amazon offered the SwiftKey Keyboard for free — now it’s back to $1.79.

Today Amazon is offering the popular game Fruit Ninja for free. The Fruit Ninja team of ninjas note that they have sold over six million copies of the game worldwide. The game creators describe the game as, “a juicy action game enjoyed by millions of players around the world with squishy, splatty and satisfying fruit carnage! Become the ultimate bringer of sweet, tasty destruction with every slash.”

Amazon is also offering Angry Birds Rio for free — this appears to be a longer running deal but if you want the game, I’d suggest downloading soon because there is no specific end date listed. The game is basically the same as the Crush the Castle except instead of chucking rocks and bombs you chuck birds. The free game is ad-free and contains all 60 levels.

To get the free games, you need to install the Amazon Android Appstore onto your Android device. Here’s an overview of how to install the Appstore.

You can download both Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds Rio from the Amazon Android Appstore homepage or from within the Appstore after you load it onto your Android device.

If you are on an iPhone, sorry this deal isn’t for you. You can purchase both games from the iTunes App Store for $0.99 each.

When I was a youngster, I busted my butt at the supermarket every week. And about once a quarter, I bought the new Nike Air Jordan sneakers. These sneakers were crazy expensive and my mother would yell at me (mainly because people were robbed for their Jordans in NYC) that I shouldn’t spend so much on sneakers. But I remember that even though they were expensive, there was something magical about wearing them. I can’t dunk a ball (though I was good at the three) but walking around Brooklyn in the sneakers just made me feel a bit cooler than if I bought just the basic sneakers.

When people ask me why the iPhone has been so popular, I reply by saying, “it’s the white headphones.” I only owned an iPhone for three weeks when it first launched because there was no AT&T signal in my apartment building in Manhattan. When I returned the iPhone, I went with a Samsung ACE which has Windows 6 Mobile. The phone has been great, it handles email great, phone calls with Sprint have always been rock solid and I like the keyboard. It’s a great utility phone, but it doesn’t have the white headphones.

I’ve taken two flights with Virgin Atlantic in their Upper Class service (I used points back in the day when the points from Delta transferred – it was sweet!). The experience from the second I arrived at JFK and LHR was absolutely amazing. Virgin Mobile has tried to copy the “look” of Virgin Atlantic but I am not sure the experience offered is the same.

I am not an Apple fanboy, but there is no doubt that when you buy an Apple product or visit one of their stores, it’s like slipping your feet into a pair of Air Jordans. I think Apple has realized that making a phone is easy, it’s making an experience that is much harder. These mobile devices are attached at our hips, in a purse, a fanny pack, or a belt clip night and day. And so the experience is so important today with technology. I bought an Apple iPod Touch during the holidays on Amazon and just opening the packaging made me think the device was made for the experience.

Continue reading “My First 24 Hours With Android and Virgin Mobile and Why Apple Currently Has Won The Experience Battle” »

Late last year I wrote about Sprint’s deal where they offered a free LG Optimus S Android phone if you sign up for a two-year contract. Today I am back with what appears to be the best Android deal to-date.

The deal is for a LG Optimus V no-contract Android phone with Virgin Mobile. The deal is available at Target stores nationwide for $129 and you get a bonus $20 Target gift card which you could hypothetically use to buy a $25 Virgin Mobile top-up card. You could also use it to buy a super huge bag of M&Ms – your call. Most stores are already showing zero inventory so you might have to hit a few stores to find one in stock. If you don’t see one on the rack, make sure to ask the employee to check in the back as Target has a tendency to hide product in the back.

The phone retails on the Virgin website for $149 and up until this week, the best deal was $129 at Radio Shack and Best Buy. The LG Optimus V phone comes with Android 2.2 which I hear is the Froyo version. All of the reviews suggest that it’s not a top-of-the-line Android phone but is at the top of the midrange priced devices.
Continue reading “Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V Best Android Deal To-Date” »

For the last two-and-a-half years, I’ve been using a Samsung Ace smartphone. The lovely Windows Mobile device still works great for checking email, making calls, playing solitaire and the occasional web browser session using the Skyfire web browser. It’s interesting to look back at my iPhone vs. Ace comparison from March 2008 and look at how far the iPhone has come since the initial release. Since I am no longer on a contract, I could move to another carrier although I have found Sprint to be very reliable everywhere I’ve traveled.

When I read reviews of Android devices like Louis Gray’s Samsung Epic smartphone, it makes me drool and seriously want to trade-in my Ace. Every month it seems Sprint is pushing me on the HTC Evo Android smartphone with all of their ads and inserts. So far the best pricing I’ve found for the Evo is: Walmart at $149 (no activation fee and there are discount codes floating around) and $99 on Amazon (no activation fee). But when I held the EVO, it felt too large and heavy for my pocket.

A new Android device has launched that appears to be targeted towards the budget sensitive Android crowd. For the next week, Sprint is offering the LG Optimus S device for “free”. I put the free in quotes because you will need to either sign a new 2-year contract or be in your renewal period (I fall into this category) which will also require a 2-year extension. The phone is available in Charcoal and Purple.

As a side note, if you do decide to move to Sprint – do some searching for the “Everything Plus Referral Program” – it’s a program for friends of employees that provides some serious plan discounts.

Engadget has a very detailed review of the LG Optimus S and a video which I’ve embedded below. The device is about the same size as the iPhone 4 but seems smaller and lighter than the EVO. I am frankly not interested in streaming HD contact from my phone to my TV so I am not sure I need the extras that the EVO provides.

I am hoping to play with some of the Android devices on my trip next week to San Francisco and then make a decision on which phone I will buy. Don’t worry, if we meet in SF, I won’t pull out the Ace in public.
Continue reading “Sprint Offers LG Optimus S Android Phone Free w/Contract” »

When I was a teenager, my friends and I would have video game battles where we would head down to the local pizzeria and drop many quarters into the new game to see who was best. Most times the games could only handle one or two players at a time so we would team up to eventually crown a team champion.

I learned this weekend that there’s a new team game hitting the scene which allows owners of Android-powered mobile devices to connect them in a Voltron/Constructicons fashion. Blinkendroid is an Android app that you can install on an Android phone and then connect with other devices to create large installations of the Blinkendroid.

This past weekend, attendees of Androidcamp Stuttgart were able to connect 51 devices together to create a huge Blinkendroid installation. You can see the results in the video below. If you want to get your closest 52 Android users together to beat the Stuttgart group,  here’s the app to install on your device.
Continue reading “Blinkendroid Record Up To 51 Devices” »

One of the interesting conversations I’ve had with a variety of folks over the past few months is whether Android mobile devices have hit the mainstream. I’d suggest that the new lineup of beautiful-looking, sexy HTC devices have pushed Android closer to the mainstream than ever before. Take the new EVO – it’s way sexier than my Windows Mobile Samsung Ace.

There was a big push for Android last weekend that I thought was worth mentioning.  Home shopping channel QVC was promoting their new Android application like it was the special of the day. It seemed like every hour there was a push to get television viewers to install the Android application. It wasn’t a typical “download our mobile app” — rather they specifically referred to Android in the various promotions.

The app actually looks pretty robust – you can watch a live HD stream of QVC on the phone, place an order or search for items. I didn’t realize you could stream live video to an Android device.

I believe one of the reasons why Android is picking up market share is because of the range of carriers unlike the Apple iPhone which is locked to AT&T. In addition, carriers are offering incentives to buy an Android device and I imagine we will see more incentives throughout the balance of 2010.

Swiss blogger and sometimes CN contributor Corsin Camichel noted this morning that Google Maps Navigation is now available in a variety of countries in Europe. The country list includes: France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. Corsin has more plus photos from the Google Maps Navigation on his HTC Desire Android phone.

Last week Bing announced that their Bing Maps with turn-by-turn directions was available on a variety of handsets. I downloaded the application but it took so long to load on my Samsung Ace that I could have easily walked to my desired destination in a shorter amount of time. I can’t really blame Bing…my device has GPS built-in but in 3 years I’ve only been able to get it to work twice.

Let’s hope the navigation is better than what’s shown in Corsin’s test photos from his handset. As you can see below, Google suggests you drive right into the heavy bush and their navigation might involve taking a ferry.