Android Application Weekly 9 Sep 2011

In this episode of the Android Application Weekly we demonstrate some apps that will keep you entertained, help you find great deal, and find an available taxi and campsite. To download these directly to your Android smartphone or tablet just take a picture of the QR-Code using GoogleGoggles or any other QR-Code scanner or click on the app title link to be taken directly to the AndroidMarket.

Cab4Me – A free application



Cab4Me is an easy to use app that makes it simple to find a taxi. While we all know how easy it is to find a taxi in the big cities waving your hand in the suburbs just doesn’t work. With Cab4Me you can locate an available cab service within your proximity. There are icons to show what the capacity of the cabs, busses, and limousines are.



We Camp Here – No lite and $1.99 full version



Although summer is almost at an end many areas are still experiencing great weather giving us an opportunity to get away for the weekend. We Camp Here is a great app for anyone that likes to camp with certain modern amenities. View the available campsites, information, and directions to the campsite of your choice.



LivingSocial – A free application



Everyone loves saving money and LivingSocial will help you find activities or restaurants in your area that are featuring great deals. The service works by purchasing coupons or excursions directly from yourAndroid smartphone. For example spend $15 for a restaurant voucher and spend $30, a savings of 50%.



Doodledroid – No Lite and $0.99 full version



This easy to use drawing app will help anyone create a work of art. Doodledroid makes it easy to draw with advanced pressure and speed intuition that produces a real-world painting experience. Select which colors you want to use, change virtually anything about the drawing tool, erase, share, and save the images.



A Game With Balls – No lite and $0.99 full version



A Game With Balls (AGWB) is a challenging survival game in which you must protect your little cannon from the falling objects. Blast them out of their trajectory by using either one or two fingers to knock them off course.

Leaked Sprint Memo Hints At iPhone 5 In First Half Of October

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The iPhone 5 has the potential to be huge for Sprint, so it's understandable that the carrier wants the phone's launch to go over as successfully as possible. A new leaked memo shows the network placing the first two weeks of October on a no-vacations-allowed blackout list due to "the possibility of a major phone launch"; we can't think of anything Sprint could be talking about besides the arrival of the iPhone 5.

We had already heard a report that Sprint would first get the phone in October, but this new information, if accurate, has the potential to cut that list of possible release dates in half. Frankly, we'd bet on it getting the phone well on the early side of this new range, so it would have sufficient staff on-hand to manage the influx of customers that would immediately follow the launch; there wouldn't be much point in making this kind of restriction if Sprint was planning on starting-up sales on October 14. 

What The Heck Is This Weird-Looking BlackBerry?

A series of images has been floating around today of what's purported to be the BlackBerry 9980, a cousin to the recently-released Bold 9900 and 9930. While there plenty of similarities, some radical design decisions leave us with a smartphone unlike any other BlackBerry we've come across before. Is it a prototype, a counterfeit device, an elaborate case mod, or something else altogether?

Much of the phone's external hardware lines up with that of the 9900, suggesting they're based on the same components. The handset is apparently running BlackBerry OS 7, just like a 9900 should. Similarities aside, the metallic keyboard is utterly un-RIM and looks positively alien. Then there's the replacement of the optical trackpad with this odd crosshair pattern, and the puzzling PROCEEDING stamped up top... it's all just too weird.

If you've got any theories that might explain just what it is we're looking at here, we'd love to hear them.

Samsung Galaxy S II Lands In The US For $100 On-Contract

Don't get that excited; it's not what you think. While we wait for the Galaxy S II to arrive on the big national carriers in the States, a smaller regional network has beaten them all to the punch, and is already offering the smartphone for a hair under $100 on-contract.

Alaska's GCI now has the Galaxy S II available on its 4G HSPA+ network. It had been looking like Sprint would be the first to offer the smartphone in the US, with a planned September 16 launch of the Epic 4G Touch, but not only has GCI won that race, its GS2 is $100 less than what Sprint's will run.

This really has us thinking about all the noise AT&T has been making trying to justify its intended T-Mobile acquisition: how becoming bigger and better would mean more options and better service for its subscribers. GCI just demonstrated how that's a load of bunk, bringing an eagerly-awaited smartphone to its own subscribers faster and cheaper than anyone else. Faced! 

Windows 8 to Support Windows Phone 7 Apps?

Here's a nice rumor started by Nvidia CEO Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang as reported by CNET. He says that Windows 8, Microsoft's next desktop and tablet operating system, will support running Windows Phone 7 applications. I'm not sure if I would believe that it will run un-modified Windows Phone 7 apps since many desktop computers don't have some of the sensors required by certain phone apps. Accelerometers for example won't always be found in Windows 8 PCs. Personally I'm thinking the more likely scenario would be the ability for developers to re-use 95% of the codedesigned for a Windows Phone 7 app in a Windows 8 app using exactly the same development tools. This would likely be a huge advantage to developers wanting to design appsthat work on Windows Phone, Windows Tablets, Windows PCs, and maybe even Xbox.

What do you think? Will Windows 8 support straight up Windows Phone 7 apps or will they require some subtle modifications?