software

There's somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 applications in the Android Market. And every day we get e-mail after e-mail asking "What's the best app for this?" and "What's the best app for that?" Truth be told, there's nobody better to answer those questions than all you guys and gals out there.

And so this week, we put it to you: What's the best podcatcher application out there? Head on over

Looks like T-Mobile is starting to push out a minor update to both the Motorola Cliq and the Samsung Behold 2. Motorola had previously confirmed that an update would be coming to the Cliq this week, so it's not the biggest of surprises but it's always nice to have companies follow on their word. The Cliq update started to roll out yesterday, February 18th, so check your system update to see if you...

It's not Android 2.1 but it's something, right? According to Moto's twitter account, the Motorola CLIQ is going to receive a software update this week. The update will improve the CLIQ's battery life, touchscreen, and GPS. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's likely the same update that got accidentally pushed out to a few CLIQ users a...

Flash has been reported to come and is still expected to come to Android but the bigger news might be Adobe announcing that they're going to bring Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) to Android. AIR will allow developers to develop one AIR-based application and be able to reach every platform. There'll be no need to tweak an app for each OS because the app would run in the AIR...

BGR is hearing that the Motorola Cliq will receive an update to Android 2.1 in March. Yep, you'll be able to enjoy the beauty of Android 2.1 next month! This follows the news that the Droid will be

Like we said before, it's going to take some time before Fennec aka Firefox Mobile actually gets on Android. But at least it looks like porting Fennec over to Android is progressing rather nicely--they actually got their first page load. According to the developer:

Mouse events sort of work, toplevel windows sort of work, keyboard doesn't...

We've seen this ourselves and have been receiving e-mails about occasional issues with the Google Nexus One's on-screen keyboard. In my experience, I've had occasional problems with the wrong key being activated -- I'd tap "a" and get the shift button, etc. And it apparently is more than just fumble fingers, as there's a massive thread going on in

The Barnes & Noble Nook just received a software update that brings the firmware version up to 1.1.  Basically, reboot your Nook to get the download to start or you can manually install it. Since the Nook has already been rooted, it's a little surprising that 1.1 didn't break...

Google just announced that they've updated the Android SDK to 2.0.1 and will update all Android 2.0 devices (just the DROID for now) to Android 2.0.1 by the end of the year. It's a minor update in both name and form and has been expected for quite some time now. The 2.0.1 update will supposedly fix bugs and other glorious things, which is always a good thing. Supposedly, the...

If you have a HTC Hero, and have been insanely jealous about Android 2.0 not being available for said HTC Hero, and can't wait for HTC to update said HTC Hero with said Android 2.0, fear not, you can get Android 2.1 on your HTC Hero today. Yeah, who needs Android 2.0 when you can get 2.1, right?

The good folks of xda-developers (who else!) have leaked the Android 2.1 ROM and anyone...

We're getting reports that the Motorola CLIQ is receiving an OTA software update as we speak. It's still stuck on Android 1.5 (not 1.6, 2.0, or 2.1) but it looks to solve a lot of problems that have plagued CLIQ owners. The firmware fix will address battery life, improve touchscreen response, improve bluetooth pairing, and much more. The whole update weighs in at 8 MB so if you get the update, you should probably do it.

Check your System Update on...

Hey HTC Hero users, maybe you won't be left in the dust after all. A HTC Hero has been caught in the wild running Android 2.1--yeah, you read that right, not Android 1.6, not Android 2.0--but Android 2.1!

Android 2.1 is expected to be a minor update to the major update which was Android 2.0 'Eclair'. Android 2.0 is currently only available on the Motorola DROID--their are still devices stuck on either Android 1.5 or 1.6. It definitely makes more sense for HTC...

Good news guys! Fring is now available on Android Market. For those unfamiliar with Fring, Fring for Android enables free VoIP calls over Fring, Skype, MSN, and Google Talk. Basically Fring allows you to use your 3G, GPRS, or Wi-Fi connection to make phone calls, no minutes necessary. On top of that, Fring even allows you to chat with your friends using the popular messaging platforms. You can now think of Fring as your one stop shop for all your messaging needs.

If your Verizon DROID or DROID Eris has been acting up lately, fear not, it looks like Verizon is well aware of all the DROID and DROID Eris' bugs and problems and will address them in an OTA (over-the-air) update on December 11th. Internal documents suggest that a slew of fixes are coming, both hardware and software related. Our eyes have narrowed in on the DROID's "camera auto-focus sometimes never autofocusing issue" and we're hoping the firmware fix will...

One of the things that make Android really special is the growing Android Market and the great developer community. Here's the latest on Android app news & the Android Developer Challenge 2!

Android Developer Challenge 2: Top 200 Apps Annouced, Round 2 Begins

Google has just announced the Top 200 Android Applications in ADC2 and it's looking like...

Following up on the heels of their boot-up video of the Motorola Droid, BGR has just posted the first screenshots of Android 2.0 'Eclair'. And boy it's a doozy. This obviously isn't the final build of Android 2.0 but we're loving the new features it adds and the optimization (it'...

We’ve already discussed the hardware of the HTC Hero in our previous review and in short, it’s great. The wonderful build quality and high-end design will certainly make it appealing to tons of users, new and long time smartphone users alike. But what makes the HTC Hero truly special is the software, HTC Sense.

We’ve

Do you have an Android Dev Phone 1 or Google Ion laying around somewhere? Well if you do, you're just in luck--you can go and download Android 1.6 Donut and explore the latest Android OS to your liking. If you need a quick refresher, Android 1.6 offers support for CDMA devices, new screen sizes, a new text-to-speech engine and a lot...

One of the greatest things about Android is that any company can tweak, modify, or add to the open-source of Android. We've seen both HTC and Motorola do some really great things with that freedom and we're certain that more companies will dabble in the customization. Case in point: Larva Labs just showed a concept that'll give Android a "Intelligent Home Screen" a la Windows Mobile's Today Screen.

The &...

Google just announced that the Android 1.6 'Donut' SDK is available for download. Android 1.6 introduces a number of new features that'll surely help Android grow bigger, faster, and stronger--specifically Android has now added support for CDMA...

If you're familiar with the HTC Hero (and who isn't?), you should know that the biggest selling point of the device is its custom built UI, HTC Sense. The Sense UI is absolutely beautiful, sleek and sexy, and polished. However, the one thing it wasn't was fast. In fact, most pre-release reviews complained that the lag could...

One feature that has been conspicuously missing in Android since its launch has been a biggie--multi-touch. Multi-touch is the wonderful input method that reads multiple touch inputs at once. It gives for a more 'natural' control of input, instead of zooming in/out by tapping plus/minus signs, you can simply pinch or pull the screen. We...

The new trend for Android phones: custom built UI's. The HTC Hero has the Sense UI built on top of Android, the Sony XPERIA 'Rachael' has a drool-worthy interface, and now Motorola will have 'Blur'.

An official Facebook Android application has been peculiarly missing from Android Market and some have pointed towards Google and Facebook's contentious history as being the reason why. Well, it looks like that's all about to change. Reports are pointing towards an official Facebook Android application to launch possibly as soon as the end of this week. 

What's in store for the official Facebook application? Well, it's going to launch with a limited feature set (when...

We previously reported that two more updates to Android would be released this year. We were wrong. It now looks like Android will get THREE updates. We're fairly certain that Android 2.0 Donut will be one of the updates but not so sure where Eclair and...

MobileCrunch reports that two more updates to Android are slated for this year. One minor, one major. The major update is widely expected to be Android 2.0 Donut which will bring universal search, speech-to-text APIs, handwriting gesture capabilities and more to Android. It's nice to know that Google has Android 2.0 Donut planned for this...

Years ago, Sony used to be one of our favorite electronics companies, they made beautiful, desirable products that seemed to be ahead of the curve. Fast forward to 2009 and Sony products always seem a little misguided, a little needless, and almost always proprietary.

So color us surprised when we heard that Sony was working on an Android-powered Walkman. Has the maker-of-all, master-of-none company finally conceded defeat? Have they...

Before the Android 1.5 Cupcake Update is released to ALL Android Users, we already have word on the new features of Android 2.0 'Donut'. There are some neat new features but nothing especially game changing...yet. What piques our interest and makes incredible sense for a search-based company...

You could make an argument that the two biggest technology stories of 2008 was Android and netbooks. Android is a potential game-changer in both the wireless world and the mobile industry as a whole. Netbooks are an increasingly popular option for those who simply need the bare basics for their computing. So what could the biggest story of 2009 be? Perhaps, Android-Powered Netbooks? Netbooks running Android? We think so!

HP is reportedly...

Sigh. This cat and mouse game between reports on when the Android Cupcake update is coming out and what T-Mobile is "officially" saying just doesn't seem to stop. Just when we thought we were going to get Cupcake and all of its goodiness in April, a T-Mobile spokesman said it was merely an unconfirmed rumor and that there are no plans for an update "as far as I know".

Huh. Back to square one. When will we ever get to use you...

Just a reminder guys! TeleNav GPS Navigator for Android was made available to the public yesterday. You get turn-by-turn directions, 3D maps, millions of POI's, and traffic alerts in a potentially very useful application. We're still testing the software out for our review but in the meantime so far, so good!

[TeleNav]