Android in Canada Blog » Android Apps

Dropbox experimental build brings you extra space

Ryan Moore — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:46:30 +0000

I live in the cloud. If you’ve read anything from me, you’ll see that!

Well, one of my least used cloud service options has just provided an experimental build version which now offers auto-uploading of photos and videos (much like all the others now).

To entice you to make use of it they’re offering you some free space. Upload your first photo via this and you’ll get an extra 500mb.

Upload another 500mb of stuff and they’ll throw you another 500mb… every time! (up to a max of 4.5GB). This will even work on their new experimental build of the desktop app.

Auto uploading is a great feature (after all my errors with SD cards and losing some choice pictures), multiple backups are even better… but the best is that it’s FREE.

I’ve put the photo here in the APK folder we have set up. Download it and have at ‘er. I’ve so far only gotten the first +500mb, and trying to work on the next few.

Dropbox experimental build brings you extra space is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Aviary Plugin Now Available

Ryan Moore — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:37:41 +0000

Aviary, a great web editing tool is now available on your Android phone.

This is a great tool if you don’t have it built in (like in ICS). Some apps have already been using the plugin, like my favourite cloud storage MINUS. It’ll upload photos after editing if you like.

Now, keep in mind, this is NOT an app unto itself, but a plugin. To use it you can click on a photo in the gallery and choose to ‘edit’ or ‘send to’.

Everything after that is very similar to what you may have seen already by using Aviary in Minus, etc…

If you don’t have a photo editing piece on your phone, this is one to get.

Market Link

Aviary Plugin Now Available is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Angry Birds Rio updated!

Ryan Moore — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:32:20 +0000

A few days after they officially announced the update… we now can take advantage!

Go get it now and go after that final boss!

Angry Birds Rio updated! is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Facebook for Android Updates to 1.8.2

Tom Gray — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:26:31 +0000

Facebook for Android updated their app today to 1.8.2 and is now available on the Android Market. As usale, they were very unclear about what was fixed and patch, let’s hope they don’t create more problems than they fix which is also what usually happens. One of the more notable enhancements is the “Better memory management” and apparently fixes Photo uploading that had been broken for a bunch of users.

Many reports are floating around that this latest causes the Facebook app to preform much slower than previous builds. Normally there are mixed results and unhappy among happy users, so you be the judge.

If you haven’t found you way over to Google+ yet, you can find Facebook here at the Android Market.

Facebook for Android Updates to 1.8.2 is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Apex Launcher for Galaxy Nexus

Tom Gray — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:42:21 +0000

Looking for new and improved way to enjoy your Galaxy Nexus? Dennisxl has release a new launcher for you to try out.

The Apex launcher is an alterative launcher that you can run on your Galaxy Nexus. It will not replace your current launcher, so you’ll be able to seamlessly switch back and forth between them should you prefer one over the other. Of course this launcher requires an Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 device

The following features are:

Custom number of homescreens and homescreen grid size
Infinite & elastic scrolling (homescreen and drawer)
Transition effects (homescreen and drawer)
Customizable scrolling indicator (homescreen and drawer)
Homescreen gestures (pinch, swipe up/down)
Enable/Disable auto-rotation
Enable/Disable wallpaper scrolling
Show/Hide persistent search bar
Show/Hide notification bar
Show/Hide icon labels (homescreen and drawer)
Lock/Unlock desktop
All/Downloaded/Widgets tabs in drawer
Drawer apps sorting (title, install date, mostly used)
Add widgets from drawer (must install as system app) or system picker
Resize any widget
Backup/Restore settings and data

This launcher runs pretty simular to other alternative launchers already available, but everyone has their own style and taste. Perhaps this one is yours?

Apex Launcher is still in beta stages, but has been well received by its users and testers.

There is No Root Required to install this, but if you want to get all fancy with, there is a root required way of installing this as a system file. Those instructions can be found on XDA link provided below.

If you want to give Apex Launcher a try, you can downlaod it here: ApexLauncher.apk.

If you want to get more info and find the original source, you can hit up the Apex Launcher thread on XDA here.

Apex Launcher for Galaxy Nexus is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Better Looking ICS Icons (Root)

Tom Gray — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:05:38 +0000

Have you ever noticed that some of the stock icons don’t really fit together with the rest of Ice Cream Sandwiches stock them? They seem to clash with the some of the darker menu and theme style.

Thanks to Fatsix, you can have your icons look and feel more uniform to the stock Ice Cream Sandwich theme.

Blue_Graphic Package, Barrowed Themed apps by others, Icons by me, Notification icons by me.
Blacked out Gtalk (Thanks xcape) Notificatoin icon does not work, you need to have your framework-res.apk modified (it’s stupid)
Blacked out Gmail (Thanks b-boy)
Blacked out SMS (Thanks Mastur Mynd)
Blacked out Contacts/Dialer and people (Thanks xcape), I removed the annoying cyan lines in the dialer background.
New Icons for Browser
Includes New glass transparent Gtalk icon. weeeeeeeeeeeeee
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6879136/Blue_Graphic.zip
See thumbnail below for screenshot.

If this is something you’re interested in, you can find these files over at XDA. You can find the Link here.

Better Looking ICS Icons (Root) is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

New Google Docs Now in Black!

Tom Gray — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:00:48 +0000

My friend and partner Ryan Moore posted yesterday about the new updated Google Docs. You can find that article here.

Since then, Rujelus22 has updated and released an inverted black edition of the updated Google Docs. You’ll still get the new following features:

Make any file available offline for view access while not connected.
Manage offline contest, including seeing what’s out of date.
Automatic syncing of offline content while on wifi.
Star and rename files while offline.
Improved reading experience of Google documents while on a tablet.

but all in black and a blue trim. What could be more beautiful?

Best of all, there is no rooting required to use this black version of Google Docs.

You can find this inverted Google Docs, as well as many other ‘inverted’ Google apps by Rujelus22 found here.

Note: This particular apps doesn’t require root access, but some of the other ones do. If you decide to try the flashable files, you will do so at your own risk.

New Google Docs Now in Black! is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Facebook, LinkedIn and HDR Camera update

Ryan Moore — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:21:40 +0000

I just love seeing multiple updates in the market.

Just now I got an update for LinkedIn, Facebook and the HDR Camera apps.

n.b. — sorry for the brief post, just saw this before I’m leaving work and wrote it on my phone.

Facebook, LinkedIn and HDR Camera update is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Google Docs & Chrome to Phone both updated

Ryan Moore — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:59:40 +0000

I just love the smell of updates in the morning.

Well, these really came in more around dinner time, but my time to write wasn’t until today… anyways… There’s updates to be had!

Google Docs

…updates to now allow for offline work. And, the tablet version looks more ‘tablet’y for reading.

Editing is still the s**ts, but it’s getting closer to my dream application!

Chrome 2 Phone

…updates some of it’s UI and a bug fix for a crash. Not much, but all the same – go get the latest.

Google Docs & Chrome to Phone both updated is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

App Review — Evi (Android’s Siri??)

Ryan Moore — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:33:16 +0000

I have a few iFriends out there. And many of them gushed over the 4S and iPad 2 as we all did over the GNexus (sometimes it’s splitting hairs over who’s the bigger fanboys).

Well, when the 4S came out they loved showing off Siri.

I’ll admit I was kind of impressed at first. Despite how I’d always counter with Voice Actions. But it was neat when they could ask Siri questions and she/he might answer, whereas we just had Google results.

Well, recently an app has come about that is similar to Siri… is it Android’s answer?

Welcome Evi

No… no it’s not. But it’s neat.

Like Siri you can ask it questions and it’ll use some nifty background data to find some results for you. And, can even speak it if you like that TTS voice (not me).

But the big problem, like Siri, is not the voice recognition, but the back end data connection. More than half the tries I had with Evi it couldn’t connect. Then again, it’s new, people heard lots about Siri, and that Evi is ‘our Siri’, so it’s probably being overwhelmed.

Anyways, it’s a nifty thing. I’ve tried several queries, like the typical “how much is 1 teaspoon” or I liked my “tell me a joke”.

So it’s good at answering some simple questions, and using some of your phone information try to tailor the answer to you.

It does have it’s funny translation moments. I can expect some new ‘fail blog’ for auto-translates coming soon.

What it can’t do is stuff that the Voice Actions can do (i.e. “text Fred; you’re fired”), which are action based, these are more query based.

But… it’s kinda neat. I liked having it translate an Italian saying the other day during a co-worker get together, much easier that doing a Voice Action query and getting a Google result, or opening up Translate, making sure I had it in Italian -> English, etc…

All in all – go get it. It’s a nice novel little feature, and it’s brand spanking new, so it’ll keep getting better.

Market Link

App Review — Evi (Android’s Siri??) is a post from: Android in Canada Blog