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Amazon Appstore for Android hands-on review: Android Market is in trouble

Sebastian Anthony — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:04:00 EST

Earlier today Amazon released its long-awaited Appstore for Android. Fundamentally it's very similar to Google's first-party Android Market or the third-party AppBrain, but it has a few Amazonian differences that could set it apart from the competition very quickly.

First and foremost, Amazon is promising to give away one paid app for free every day. Today it's Angry Birds Rio, and it only retails for 99 cents, but that doesn't really matter: people love free stuff. People will download stuff simply because it's free, even if they don't want it! The best bit (or worst bit) is that developers still get 20% of the usual retail price, which will be paid out of Amazon's pockets.

The next defining feature is Amazon Appstore exclusives. Angry Birds Rio, CoD:MW:Force Recon and other apps will be available only from Amazon. As we know from the console wars, exclusive titles aren't always a good thing, but who cares? Amazon simply wants unique selling points, and exclusive titles are definitely that.

It's not all good, though. We ran in to some rather serious bugs while playing around with the Amazon Appstore for Android app, and then there's the matter of having to enable installation from Unknown Sources before it will even install...

Gallery: Amazon Appstore for Android

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Amazon Appstore for Android hands-on review: Android Market is in trouble originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corel releases VideoStudio Pro X4, we go hands on (video)

Erez Zukerman — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:30:00 EST

Corel seems to be on a roll lately; after releasing WinZip System Utilities just last week, this morning the company announced VideoStudio Pro X4.

VideoStudio Pro is aimed at home users and small business professionals who want to create professional-looking videos, but without the hassle, steep learning curve and price of Adobe Premiere Pro and the likes.

This new version introduces several features:

Stop motion animation: You can now capture still frames using a webcam, camcorder or DSLR and use them to produce an animation. Tools such as "onion skin view" let you compare the previous image in the sequence with the current one and make the animation as smooth as possible.
Processor optimization: Corel says the app is optimized for Intel's new Sandy Bridge systems, and have shown us some graphs with very impressive numbers. We've been unable to test this particular point, but if you have a recent-generation Intel or AMD Fusion system, VideoStudio performance should be blazing. Even on our older test system performance was quite impressive.
Customizable workspace: You can drag the video preview window to your secondary monitor (if you have one) and tweak just about any other element in the window layout. Once done, you can save your ideal workspace in one of three slots.
Share-to-Web: VideoStudio Pro X4 hooks directly into YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Flickr, so you don't even have to launch a browser to upload your final product. Edit, produce and share from within the app itself.
Smart Package: Video projects typically consist of many files; Smart Package lets you bundle all video assets for a given project into one ZIP file which you can password-protect and keep in a safe place once you're done editing.

I've had a chance to play around with a pre-release version for a few days, and have put it through its paces editing a short video for my day job. Overall, I've been impressed with how easy it was to create pro-looking results. If you do any sort of video editing but are leery of the investment other apps require (both in dollars and effort), VideoStudio Pro is well worth checking out. To see a bit of the interface itself and what the app can do, watch the video after the jump.

Note: We'll be running a give-away of ten VideoStudio Pro X4 licenses later today, each worth $100 USD. Keep your eyes peeled for the giveaway post!

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Corel releases VideoStudio Pro X4, we go hands on (video) originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IMDb Android app update brings major redesign, trailers, global showtimes, and more

Matthew Rogers — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST

The official IMDb app for Android just got a big update, and it does not disappoint. Along with a complete design-overhaul, the app has been stuffed full of IMDb goodness to the point that it's now more enjoyable to use than the actual website itself.

The redesign is very sleek. They've basically taken the original palette and layout, expanded it all, and turned up the sexy. As nice as it looks though, the biggest thing I noticed was that everything about the app is blazingly fast. It's so fast that it's a bit off-putting, because using IMDb.com has always felt to me like an exercise in extreme patience.

Movie trailers now take center stage, literally, which makes sense since they're one of the big reasons that people like going to IMDb in the first place. The fully revamped app makes trailers, and other media, a priority now with the very first screen you see a springboard for viewing trailers of upcoming and top new movies. The trailers themselves play better than I had anticipated, and like the rest of the app, they load quickly.

Between the design and the new features, including international movie showtimes, the app is extremely functional. I was able to sprint through several movies, TV shows, actors, and news stories in seconds -- which is far more than I can say for trying to load the website in a mobile browser.

Gallery: IMDb for Android - Updated February 2011

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IMDb Android app update brings major redesign, trailers, global showtimes, and more originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter for Android hands on: Voyeur mode and a sleeker interface await you

Matthew Rogers — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:40:00 EST

Twitter's official Android app got a pretty hefty update today, which brought some added features along with a complete makeover. All in all, the update is a positive move for Twitter, since it brings the app into a more current style of design while giving Twitter Search a bit more prominence and functionality.

For one, the app now bears a striking resemblance to Twitter for Mac, which makes it one of the most visually polished apps to be found on Android today (sorry folks, I love Android too, but the apps tend to be a bit on the fugly side). Not only is it a surprisingly good look for the app, but the minimalistic style does tend to make things easier on smaller touchscreens. Tablets may be the future, but most of us use phones when it comes to tweeting on the go, after all.

Aside from the new look, the first thing you may notice is that the app's start page now puts functionality ahead of fluffy animated clouds. It's now a bit more like Twitter.com, in that users don't have to log into the service to use its search functionality (immediately dubbed "voyeur mode").

On that note, Twitter Search has also been revamped, making it much quicker to find what you're looking for on the fly. Depending on what you type, intelligent options are made available to make the search a general one, a username search, a search by proximity to your location, or to simply go directly to the profile of an @name (if what you entered is a term that matches a username).

Gallery: Twitter for Android - Updated (Feb. 2011)

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Twitter for Android hands on: Voyeur mode and a sleeker interface await you originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CorelDRAW tutorial: Trace, vectorize and modify a simple logo (video)

Erez Zukerman — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:30:00 EST

This is the second CorelDRAW tutorial in a series of four. Last week we looked at how to make a Polaroid-like image, and this week I'd like to show you how to vectorize a simple logo. I use the Android logo in the video, but you can do this with pretty much any logo other simple graphic.

There are many reasons why you might like to vectorize an existing logo. Perhaps you need to modify it, integrate it into a larger design, or generate a high-res printout. As you can see in the video, there's not much you can do with the low-res Android logo Google gives you. If your bitmap logo is large enough, you might be able to use CorelDRAW's auto-trace capabilities and simply generate a good vector outline of it. However, since the bitmap I selected was so small (and simple), I opted to use a completely manual tracing method - I just recreated the Android logo using a few simple shapes.

Rather than wax poetic about what the video contains, if you're curious to see the Android logo dissected and recreated in full vector glory, just watch the video after the jump.

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CorelDRAW tutorial: Trace, vectorize and modify a simple logo (video) originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Swype vs. SlideIT: Battle of the Android keyboard swipers

Erez Zukerman — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:20:00 EST

When you've got an itty-bitty touch-screen and need to pound out a quick email, the last thing you're going to want to do is type. I mean, tapping out a text message is fine every now and then, but when you're forced to type more than a couple of lines when you're on the go, sliding is definitely the way to go.

Sliding keyboards utilize the fact that each word, as it is typed, tends to create a unique pattern across the keyboard. So rather than tap-tap-tap, you just touch the screen and drag across the keys you wish to type on. The keyboard then uses the resulting squiggle to figure out what it is you were trying to type.

So far, so good. In theory it sounds great, but in real life things aren't always so silky-smooth. For example, what happens when you need to type a word the keyboard doesn't know, such as a name? Or when there's more than one possible interpretation for the squiggle you just drew?

That's where the differences between different sliding keyboards come into play. In this review I'll be focusing on the two best-known products: Swype and SlideIT. Continue reading after the fold to find out which one is better!

Gallery: Swype vs. SlideIT

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Swype vs. SlideIT: Battle of the Android keyboard swipers originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CorelDRAW video tutorial: Make a Polaroid-like image in five minutes

Erez Zukerman — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:30:00 EST

When most people hear the words "vector graphics", the first thing that comes to mind is Adobe Illustrator. While Illustrator is a wonderful application, it's certainly not the only game in town: I've been using CorelDRAW for several years now, and I just love it.

I'm not a graphics pro by any stretch of the imagination, but I do need to turn out a few pretty pixels here and there for my day job. If you're just thinking about getting into vector graphics, or if you've tried Illustrator and it proved too daunting, CorelDRAW might be just what you need.

Rather than just talk about CorelDRAW or write a tutorial, I figured it would be best to show it off in a short video. I took an image of my awesome cat, Ivan, and made it into a Polaroid-like snapshot. It took me less than five minutes, without any templates or saved settings. To see how I did it, hit Play after the fold.

By the way, this is the first of four CorelDRAW tutorials to be published in the next few weeks. If you'd like to see specific aspects of CorelDRAW in action, feel free to let me know in the comments!

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CorelDRAW video tutorial: Make a Polaroid-like image in five minutes originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hands-on: Gentle Alarm for Android is a beautiful way to wake up

Erez Zukerman — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:00:00 EST

When I listed Gentle Alarm as one of my top Android apps, I promised a more in-depth review -- and here it is! Here are the key features of the app that's been (successfully!) waking me up every morning for the past several weeks.

Profiles

One of the best concepts in Gentle Alarm is that not all alarms are exactly alike. The Profiles screen lets you set up individual alarm "types". As you can see, each profile has its own complete set of options: You can select whether or not you'd like to have a pre-alarm (more on these later), the duration of the alarm, the initial and final volume, the alarm tone (or MP3 tune), and more.

Gallery: Gentle Alarm for Android

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Hands-on: Gentle Alarm for Android is a beautiful way to wake up originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Camera + 2.0 hands on: iPhone shooter makes a triumphant return to the app store

Jay Hathaway — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:45:00 EST

It's been a long time coming, but TapTapTap's Camera+ -- one of the best camera apps for the iPhone -- is now back in the App Store and updated to version 2.0. The new version loads more quickly, feels snappier, and adds plenty of new features and photo filters. Unfortunately, Camera+ users have to make do without the "volume snap" feature that got the app pulled by Apple earlier this year. Snapping pics with the iPhone's volume button was a unique selling point for Camera+, but Apple doesn't take kindly to any app that reassigns hardware buttons on iOS devices.

So, what's new in Camera+ 2.0? Plenty! Let's start with the filters. You'll notice that the "normal" button that used to be in the center of each filter selection screen has been replaced by an additional filter. Under Color, it's a blue filter called Cyanotype. Retro gets a glowing filter called Tailfins, and Special gains the best new filter of all, Depth of Field. I can't stress how awesome the Depth of Field filter is: it calculates what's in the foreground of your photo, and intelligently blurs the rest. If you're shooting a new Facebook profile photo, this is absolutely the filter you want to use.

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Camera + 2.0 hands on: iPhone shooter makes a triumphant return to the app store originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NetFront Browser for Android: Hands-on

Erez Zukerman — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST

NetFront is a free browser for Android with a few features I haven't seen on any other browser. I took it for a spin, and created a gallery for your viewing pleasure. Now let's look at those features:

Tilt Mode

Reading webpage text on a tiny screen can be pretty irritating. In portrait mode, the characters are tiny -- and in landscape mode not many lines fit on the screen. Most people just make do with pinching-zooming and scrolling, but NetFront tries a different tack: it shows the lines diagonally.

That's right: Why pick just landscape or portrait, if you can read your text at a 45 degree angle? It looks as crazy as it sounds; I didn't edit the image linked - that's how it was on the screen.

While definitely an attention grabber, I wouldn't say this is a useful feature. It was really awkward to use, and I couldn't figure out how to scroll to the part I wanted to display. Still, NetFront does get points for effort here.

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NetFront Browser for Android: Hands-on originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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