Joshua is a music education major at Texas State University who jumped on the Android Central train in April 2011. Since joining, he's been moved to Apps Editor and spends a good chunk of time checking out some great (and not so great) apps to write about. Born and bred in the capital of the Lone Star State, Joshua maintains that, yes, everything is bigger in Texas.
He's been following Android since before the G1, but finally got into the handset game with a Hero and is currently rocking a EVO 3D Galaxy Nexus. When not writing, you can usually find him doing copious amounts of band director homework.
Oh, Toshiba Thrive, where do you fit in this sea of tablets? Having succeeded where the Folio 100 fell short, there are still the doubters and the skeptics, brushing off your bulk as the ultimate design faux pas. Fortunately, there's more to the Thrive than it's bigger backside, and a lot of it is worth mentioning. In the world of ultrathin and uberlight tablets, the Thrive dares to...
YouTube link for mobile viewing I think most of you would agree gaming on Android has improved, but there's not quite as many heavy-hitters as we'd like. That's why I'm so excited to introduce you to a new game in the Market -- Roboto. Simply put, Roboto is out-of-this-world awesome. You play a hoverboarding robot on a quest to find his lady love after she takes a spontaneous trip into...
For all of the money and time saving tips and tricks that Android gives us, every service deserves it's 15 minutes of fame. Yes, there's LivingSocial and Yelp, and even things like our dear friend GasBuddy, right now, the moment belongs to Groupon.And for good reason, too. Besides the services that Groupon offers to us, like sweet coupons for all sorts of stuff (food comes to mind),...
Like many of you out there, I believe in the Gospel of Root. The first thing I did when I picked up my EVO 4G was root it and stick CyanogenMod on it. My phone was fast, utterly Senseless, and if I needed it, available to tether in a pinch. Because of that, apps like EasyTether seemed like a waste.Then I picked up an EVO 3D. Root went away, but I still had internet. No big deal. Then I ...
YouTube link for mobile viewing When I was a little kid, man, was I ever glued to my Game Boy Color. Two AA batteries and a copy of Pokémon kept me entertained for hours years on end, so when emulators came to Android, I was excited. Then those emulators got pulled and disappeared and I was sad for myself, but when I saw that new emulators were afoot, I had to pull the trigger and see...
Chances are, most of you have heard of (and probably used) Yelp. Whether it's been their initial online presence, their myriad phone apps, or just a friend raving about it, Yelp is the top dog in finding delicious eateries on-the-go. Opening up the Android app, you'll notice six large, friendly looking icons to choose from. Nearby, Check-Ins, About Me, Bookmarks, Monocle, and Deals. A...
On a lot of the content I push out, whether it be a screenshot or a video, if my lockscreen makes itself known, there's usually a comment or two asking what lockscreen I'm using or what I set up and how, so folks can reproduce the same thing on their phone. I've decided to write a handy little guide for anyone hoping to do the same, and finally put the questions to rest.It's rather...
If any of you are as gung-ho about saving money as I am, I'm sure you've heard about dealnews. Their slogan is "Where every day is Black Friday" and as such, they 're constantly trying to give you the biggest and best discounts on anything they can find. Fortunately, for the bargain hunters on-the-go, they've just unveiled their latest offering, the dealnews Android app.The dealnews app...
YouTube link for mobile viewingEvery so often a game comes around that makes you stop, take pause, and admire it's design. As the hardware we're using continues to improve, I think we'll be seeing more of that, but until we do, there is Kona's Crate.Kona's Crate is a game about delivering stuff. What stuff, you ask? A crate, undoubtedly! It's not just any crate, however. It's filled...
The video up there says it all. Wiz Kid Jr. is a fast-paced, puzzle-based game that challenges not only your finger dexterity but also your forethought and ability to adapt on-the-fly. The idea is classic: anything of the same color can be destroyed or removed if there's three or more of them together. In this case, they're totems, and they give you mana. The mana doesn't give you...
DocumentsToGo is the stalwart champion of on-the-go file editing. It's been around for a number of years and on a number of handsets and operating systems, be it RIM's BlackBerry or Palm's Palm OS, and as of the inception of our operating system, Android.DocumentsToGo has a very clean, metallic interface that's easy on the eyes. From the main menu, everything is clearly laid out in...
WidgetLocker Lockscreen is a lockscreen replacement that gives you much more freedom over not only how your lockscreen looks, but how it functions. The premise is simple: Open up the lockscreen to having widgets and shortcuts of your choosing, and give you the ability to make any slider a shortcut to any app or process. The result is a pretty cool experience that really tightens up the...
In case you can't tell, I really, really like saving money on gas. I've talked about GasBuddy on more than one occasion, and the almost natural complement to that would be FuelLog. FuelLog is a thorough, straightforward app that tracks your average gas mileage as well as cost over time.At it's core, FuelLog is all about tracking your fill-ups and giving you feedback on your miles-per-...
As long as I'm on a kick with live wallpapers, I figured I should show you guys one of the biggest and best, Earth Live Wallpaper. And trust me, I know what you're thinking. "Live wallpaper, again?" Trust me, you'll like it.Earth Live Wallpaper is a pretty stock live wallpaper. You've got our beautiful blue home planet set against a backdrop of stars, and there's even the moon orbiting...
Google's latest app is a slick one, but will it be a home run? Google+ (pronounced "Google Plus") is still pretty fresh on the scene. It's barely a week old as of this writing, actually, and still in a relatively closed beta process. But it's definitely been a trial by fire. We've read about it, we've talked about it, and shoot, the app has even gotten it's first second update in...
We've all been there: You played Angry Birds for too long or manually refreshed your Gmail inbox incessantly. Before you knew it, your battery was in the red. Unfortunately, this app won't help that, but for everyone else who uses their phone in moderate-to-heavy amounts without needing to always be on it, I'd suggest Juice Defender Ultimate.Juice Defender Ultimate is actually a paid...
If you're not one for aesthetics or Apple-like gloss but still find yourself needing to edit documents from your Android device, OfficeSuite Pro might be the app for you.OfficeSuite Pro tries to stand against the stalwarts of mobile document editing, Quickoffice Pro and DocumentsToGo, and while it offers the same basic abilities of editing and creating files, it otherwise borders on...
If any of you out there are anything like me, there might be, from time to time, an occasion where you could just make your phone do things all automatic-like. If you don't feel like shelling out $10 for Locale or getting a programming degree to work Tasker, where are you to turn?It pleases me to no end to introduce you to Impel, a relative newcomer to the event manager scene that aims...
X Construction is a titular, physics-based game focused around building a safe enough bridge for a train to pass over it without plunging to its doom. It's entertaining, challenging, and definitely tongue-in-cheek, which makes it definitely worth your time.The object is straightforward: build construct a bridge stable enough to ferry your train across the chasm beneath it without your...
If there's always been one stock app I've heard people gripe about, it's the gallery. QuickPic aims to be your total gallery replacement, eschewing some of the eye candy Android's gallery offers and giving you heaping bundles of functionality in its stead.Instead of the slick, floating stack of pictures the normally gallery gives you, you're granted a static list. No cool effects, no...