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.
I'm a bit of a themaholic. It's not the same as a flashaholic (although I am one of those, too), but it's in the same vein. Up until now, I had to really search for good CM7 themes, but with the discovery of this app, I'm sure my problem is only going to get much, much worse. Theme Chooser Themes is a CM7 theme collector/list that displays not only themes that are in the Market, but...
YouTube link for mobile viewing I get to play a lot of games as I'm looking for the best stuff to show you guys and gals. Most of the time I find pretty good stuff. Occasionally though, I come across something that's kind of a dud. Buddy Rush is one of those games. Buddy Rush is a cross-platform (Android, iOS, and Facebook) action/RPG where you pick a character and complete missions to...
YouTube link for mobile viewing When Minecraft: Pocket Edition was announced as an exclusive for the Xperia Play, block-builders the world round collectively wept. How long would it be before we could all run from Creepers, beat up sheep for their wool, or build giant structures to worship your favorite Android mascot? It might have felt like forever, but Minecraft: Pocket Edition is...
One of my favorite things to do on Android is use the T-Mobile Theme Chooser to change the look of my phone. With a few simple clicks you can alter things like the notification pulldown bar, toast notifications, check boxes, and button colors. Because this is something so powerful (and empowering to the user), I want to clear up any misconceptions anyone had about the Theme Chooser,...
I think once you've got the theming fever, the only prescription is more cowbell theming. Returning back to my initial obsession with monochrome and minimalism, I'd like to present another theme by Sonny Sekhon (the creator of Tangerine): Frost. Frost takes your status bar icons and turns them black. How will black show up on your bar, you might ask? Well, your notification bar is...
It was way back in January when we first reported Musicnotes would be bringing their sheet music viewer over to Android and I'm happy to say that it has finally arrived. Meeting at the intersection of music and tech, the Musicnotes Sheet Music Viewer doesn't promise much, but for what it advertises, it does really well. When you first boot up the app, you're given the option to sign in...
My love affair with theming my CM7 install has taken a turn for the orange, or tangerine, in this case. MellowYellow served me well, but something about orange has just been piquing my interest as of late, so I sped off into the Android Market, looking for something that would suffice. After some unfocused digital sleuthing, I finally came across this excellent theme by Sonny Sekhon:...
For anyone who has ever been involved in playing a musical instrument, you know the importance of tuning, which is why DaTuner is for you. DaTuner is a highly accurate strobe tuner that not only automatically locks onto the pitch you're playing, but also tells you the register you're playing in along with how many cents sharp or flat you are. It's a welcome change from the needle-...
The day has finally come. It has arrived. It's here. (Well, for us -- the rest of you get it soon). Shadowgun, Madfinger Games's excellent looking, console-quality action/shooter is coming to Tegra-powered Android devices. From the moment Shadowgun was announced, I was itching to get my greasy little fingers all over it and shoot whatever it is they're shooting in those trailers. You...
Continuing our journey into the world of CyanogenMod themes, I present to you JAMT - White Gradient. A lighter colored theme, this is for the folks who want something brighter and more eye-catching on their phones. The most striking feature of JAMT - White Gradient is the notification status bar. It's completely rebranded the same bright silver color that is seen throughout the entire...
Sometimes your contact list just gets large. It happened to me and I'm still not quite sure how. You get an email here, exchange some business cards, and boom, before you know it, your contact list is overflowing with people. If you're struggling to keep track of all your contacts and are interested in how you stay in touch with them, Xobni's new Smartr Contacts is the app for you. Upon...
I'm a big fan of themes, especially ones that use the CM7 Theme Chooser. In my search for some nice, monochromatic themes, I've stumbled upon one called JAMT - Flat Black. JAMT Black is more of a notification bar and volume slider theme than anything else. None of the icons get themed, but sliders are now rendered a nice, monochromed grey. In addition, the notification bar gets a few...
Social media is all the rage these days. From Facebook rolling out their new layout, Google+ collecting members at a record rate, or Twitter doing whatever it does, seems like you can't click on a link or sign up for Spotify venture onto any part of the without someone's status, checkin, or tweet smacking you in the digital face. ChannelCaster: Social News looks to further the concept...
Alrighty, members of the Android nation. It's Friday, and that can mean only one thing: Big Android BBQ time in Austin, Texas. If you're making the trek to the great state of Texas (or are lucky enough to live here like me!), you must get this app. What does it do? I'm not sure exactly. It promises free bacon, and I know I'm not the only member of the Android loyal who doesn't want to...
I'm an AOSP man. Sense has gotten good, but I just can't seem to tear myself away from vanilla Android, and more specifically, CyanogenMod. The speed, the themes, and the customization are just a few of the reasons I'm always drawn back into Steve Kondik's world, so the night the EVO 3D alpha went live, I flashed it. If you're curious about the goods, follow me after the break. For...
The smartphone fairy must've been feeling generous today, because she's tossed me a new phone to check out. No, it's not the Motorola Photon 4G. That's on Sprint. No, this phone is the Motorola Electrify, a US Cellular-branded device that's lock, stock, and barrel the Photon, but with a silver bezel. All the good things Phil had to say about the Photon still ring true. It's fast, it...
YouTube link for mobile viewing For those folks interested in the next stage of recovery on your phone, this is one I'd set some time aside to check out. I'm sure by now some of you have switched to TeamWin's custom recovery (called TWRP), and we've sat down with developer agrabren for a sneak peek at the latest iteration of their recovery, called TWRP 2.0. The interview is in two...
YouTube link for mobile viewing Seems like everyone's trying to get into the grassroots, local news movements as of late and Meporter is the latest to enter the fray. The idea behind it makes me think of something like CNN's iReport, but maybe even better because this is truly up-to-the-minute, whereas on something like iReport, you better have a really cute kitten stuck in a tree to...
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I like words. They keep my brain sharp and vocabulary growing. But what good is knowing a bunch of words if you don't know how to spell them? Sure, you could use spell check, but what if you were the spell checker? That's where Spelling Bee comes into play. You can study and you'll be given a word and a definition, and can even have the app...
One of the best parts about CyanogenMod 7 is the powerful theme engine. No flashing zip files or anything is such a relief, plus, the theming and skinning community has delivered a multitude of awesome themes to try out. One of those is MattedBlues, which is made by the same fellow who created the MellowYellow Theme for CM7. MattedBlues was the original theme created by this person (...