Frogger by Konami – Free Amazon Appstore App 10/26/11

Name: Frogger by Konami
Description:
For those of you of a certain age–remember video arcades? the Atari 2600?–this is an absolutely must-have app. Newbies will love it too, especially kids. It’s not just any classic video game of yesteryear–it’s FROGGER.

Blast from the Past
If you played video games in the early 1980s, you remember Frogger. Along with Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, this was one of the biggest early successes in the industry. Anybody could play Frogger–all you had to do was guide the green amphibian across the street and over the logs and turtles to his slot on the other side of the river. Simple, but totally addicting.

The Original and Best
Don’t be fooled by imitations–this is the real thing, published by the original manufacturer, Konami. You get the same look and feel, and moving your frog is smooth as silk with the slide controls. If you have trouble with sliding, you have the option of moving by tapping the screen. No more stiff joysticks to worry about!

Why? To Get to the Other Side
A frog’s world is full of danger. Speeding cars and trucks clog the four-lane freeway you must cross just to get to the riverbank–be careful you don’t end up with tire tracks on your back. You have to be equally quick and adept on the river, because the logs move fast and if you go off the edge of the screen, it’s curtains. Try to carry the cute female frogs to safety and eat the flies for bonus points, but watch out for crocodiles or you’ll become lunch yourself!

Phantom Phroggie
An interesting twist in this version is Phantom Mode, which guides you during the game by showing the route you took in your best game. In regular mode, you can post your high scores online and see who the top guns are with OpenFeint. Happy hopping!

AllSport GPS PRO – Free Amazon Appstore App of the Day 8/25/11

Name: AllSport GPS PRO
Description:
Make Your Workouts Count
Reach your fitness goals faster with AllSport GPS PRO. Track your workouts, including runs, walks, bike rides and other sports on a map. View 25 heart-pounding stats as you sweat: time, speed, calories, distance. Privately store and analyze training sessions on AllSport GPS’s website. Find places to train and share your weight loss workouts with our fitness community and on Facebook.

Your Android Coach
AllSport GPS PRO uses the GPS in your Android phone. No cell or data signals are required to see where, how far, how fast, or how many calories you burned. Use it as a personal coach to train for 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon races. Keep track of your charity workouts such as Susan G. Komen walking and running events and MS 150 rides.

You can track bicycle rides, runs, walks, skiing, and other workouts. AllSport GPS PRO works for single sport or multi-sport athletes training for a triathlon. Use AllSport GPS as a personal coach and weight loss trainer to build muscles, burn fat, and watch your calorie counter graphs grow. Record lap times and create interval programs.

Get the Lay of the Land
AllSport GPS allows you to plan future workout routes using free web-based map tools, including turn-by-turn cycling directions that avoid highways. Preload free offline topographical maps, aerial photos, and road maps on your SD card so you can view maps in remote areas on mountain bike rides, trail runs, road bike routes, etc. Check five-day weather reports, including today’s temperature, heat index, humidity, and wind speed. View elevation and speed profiles.

View your progress and exact location on street, aerial, and topographical maps. Collect 25 on-the-go stats (time, speed, distance, pace) and boost your heart rate. Shoot video and photos, and collect memories as you go. You can also save videos to your YouTube account.

Workout with the World
Share workouts and cardio training sessions on AllSport GPS’s website, Facebook, and Twitter. Access editor-approved rides by Bicycling magazine and shared community trips. Race against your previous workouts, friends, or other community members to improve your personal records. With AllSport GPS PRO, all you need is a desire to achieve your physical best.

Gem Spinner – Free Amazon App of the Day 8/24/11

Name: Gem Spinner Description: Spin Those Gems, Round and Round In Gem Spinner, you swap, spin, and slide the gems until you match three in a row. Finagle these beautiful gems to earn points against the clock with each three-way match. Fun to play and aesthetically pleasant, Gem Spinner is a challenging game with an animated, colorful, and well-crafted interface. Please note that Gem Spinner is not optimized for tablets. Drop and Drag Matching Gem Spinner isn’t your ordinary match-three game. In this unique variation, the gems are arranged inside shapes of different sizes. As you clear away gems, the shapes drop into the cleared area, much like Tetris blocks. gem spinner Swap adjacent gems to match three in a row. Double tap a gem to spin its shape 180 degrees. Match all the gems in a piece to clear the piece from the board. Drag shapes to empty board spaces to create more match opportunities. Match enough gems to complete the level goal and then continue to swap, spin, and drag to try to clear the entire board. Practice Makes Perfect Gem Spinner has two game modes. In Practice Mode, hone your gem spinning skills with no time limits. You can practice on six different boards under no pressure. When you’re ready to start spinning for real, try to beat Level One (“The Boxer”) with a time limit. As you ascend through the levels, you get less time to finish the boards, and the goals get tougher. Master the Gems Gem Spinner features a narrated and animated tutorial, so you’ll quickly understand how the game works. Conquer 35 levels that get increasingly difficult. You can also play the boards at various levels of difficulty. Track your score, and compare your skills with others all over the world. Just don’t make yourself too dizzy spinning those gems!

Another Cool Android Market Update

Alright folks. It appears that Google has been at it again and released another update for Android Market.

A few features that are noteworthy are that you can use Googles new + feature to rate apps and games, and it now has the capability to set a pin number to be able to purchase an app (anyone with kids with appreciate this!)

DOWNLOADALT DOWNLOAD  

Remember that you will need to go into “Settings” – “Applications” and check the box for non-market installations.  The plus to this is that you don’t need to have a rooted phone to make this work!

Earthquakes All Over The USA?

It appears as though the world has started to shake all around us.  First there was a 5.3 magnitude in Colorado, then today the east coast got a shake up with a 5.9 with the epicenter in Virginia.  Where I am is sort of in between the 2, and I didn’t feel a thing here… (It may help that as a robot I can hover over the ground, though…)
So in honor of these natural disasters I present you with a cool earthquake app (and a few bonuses below).

Name:Earthquakes in USA Description: Visualize the location and magnitude of earthquakes happening across the USA, Canada, and Mexico with this informative geology app. Define points of interest and watch readings and data flow onto your phone as quakes happen nearby. Sort quakes by magnitude and date to access quick statistics about seismic activity in North America. Share your findings with others by either copying quake data to the clipboard and pasting it somewhere, or using integrated social networks like Facebook and Google Buzz.
-Visualize the location and magnitude of earthquakes happening across the USA, Canada, and Mexico with this informative geology app
-Define points of interest and watch readings and data flow onto your phone as quakes happen nearby
-Share your findings with others via social networking (Facebook, Google Buzz, and others)


Bonus Apps:

Name:End of TIme? Description: On Dec. 21, 2012, Maya’s “Long Count” calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era. Some people think this marks the end of time. The Bible says, in so many words, that nobody knows when the end will come. Is this the last day? Get this app and keep track of the Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds that are left.

Name:Bible from YouVersion.com Description: #1 Android Bible app. The Bible from YouVersion.com – 100% FREE. Get the #1 rated and ranked Bible App for FREE. We want to make it easy for you to read and share God’s Word. 50+ free translations and dozens of reading plans to help you read the Bible and track your progress.

Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone:

xScope Browser for Web and File – Free on Amazon’s Appstore Today (8/23/11)

Name: xScope Browser for Web and File
Description:
Tired of your bare-bones stock Android browser? Looking for something that meshes the best of home browsing with the best of mobile browsing? Meet xScope Browser for Web and File. It’s a jack-of-all-trades that offers a blazing fast Web browser loaded with extensive media downloading, content sharing, and customization features, including Flash support. Hotkeys, long press and swipe selections, and zoom options abound. You also get a fully realized file explorer with the ability to e-mail and zip files to round it all out.

Do Everything Faster
Convenient and unique browsing features abound in xScope Browser. Check it out:

Browsing Essentials and More
Flash support for your favorite rich media content
True tabbed browsing; bounce between tasks and websites with ease
Instant Back/Forward navigation
Abundant webpage options include “find in page,” “copy,” and “screenshot” features for text
Visual bookmarks on your homepage bring you to your favorite sites in one touch
Importing for Google and desktop bookmarks (via an HTML file)
Adjustable page zoom scale and page layout
Zoom Three Ways
Pin Zoom, an original idea from xScope Browser, lets you smoothly zoom with only one finger
Pinch-to-zoom using two fingers
Tap zooming with one finger
Hotkeys and Shortcuts
Physical keyboards allow touch screen-free scrolling in landscape mode; volume keys scroll in portrait mode
Three different ways to open a new tab while browsing; hard swipe to rotate between open tabs
Page options icon; share URLs and screenshots on Facebook and Twitter
Download and Share with Ease
Love to save the media you find online? Download and share images, audio (mp3), and documents (pdf, doc, etc.) easily with a long press. xScope Browser also makes downloading and viewing videos (mp4) easier than ever. Long-press the play button on a streaming video and rapidly download popular video sites’ content to watch on the go. And with the built-in file browser, organizing the media you add to your phone’s storage is simple.

Web Browser, or Application Suite?
More than just a Web interface, xScope Browser for Web and File gives you virtually complete control of your Android browsing experience. No more need for hunting through various phone interfaces or a separate file management app to find your media and system files. xScope lets your rename and organize your files with ease right from your browser just like on a home computer, or you can archive (zip) files and e-mail them to others hassle-free.

Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone:

Google Voice, In a nutshell.

This is a tutorial about how to use Google Voice while you are in a nutshell.  No wait. It’s just a simple tutorial about how to use Google Voice.  I always get those confused. So, what is Google Voice, and How do you use it?
Google Voice is a few different things all wrapped up together. It can provide you a voicemail number, or be incorporated into your own number as a replacement for your voicemail. It also can provide you with multi-carrier text messaging. This means that you can send a text message to any cell phone on any carrier, using your Google Voice number.  Sprint even offers full integration now so you can use your Sprint number as your Google Voice number and not have to deal with 2 numbers.
Another big plus to Google Voice is that you can make international calls through it, without hitting your carrier’s bill.  You carrier will just see you call your Google voice number and not the international number, so you can take advantage of the great rates that Google offers.  You can also have calls to you Google Voice number forwarded to multiple places, so you can use one number for multiple phones. 
The web and Android interfaces are both well designed.  Here is the feature list from our friends at Google:
  • One number. Make calls and send text messages from your Google Voice number.
  • Voicemail transcription. Voicemails are automatically transcribed to text so you can read them like email.
  • Free text messages. Send and receive text messages to numbers in the US and Canada for free.
  • Cheap international calls Make low-priced international calls directly from your mobile device.
  • Integration. Google Voice integrates with your device’s native address book or Google Contacts.
  • Custom greetings. Set up different greetings for different callers.
  • So sign up and download it today, it’s free!

    Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone:

    ZDefense – Free Amazon Appstore App of the Day 8/22/11

    Name: ZDefense
    Description:
    Pure Tower Defense
    ZDefense distills the best elements of tower defense games. This game features sharply drawn, geometric shapes on a hexagon grid, recalling the timeless old-school designs of such arcade classics as Tempest and Breakout. This fast-paced game will challenge even the most experienced tower defense fans.

    Tower Defense 101
    For those unfamiliar with the addictive tower defense genre, the game mechanics are fairly simple. You’re provided with cash to build towers of varying designs, strengths, and costs. Eventually your enemies (called “creeps” in this game) will come pouring out and make a beeline toward the exit you’re defending.

    Every time you blast a creep, you gain a little money to build more towers. You can also spend your money upgrading the towers you have. Every time a creep reaches the exit, you take damage. Tower defense games are essentially a juggling act of resource allocation and fast reflexes.

    Stay Calm. Don’t Panic. Keep Firing!
    As creeps keep coming and coming, ZDefense evolves into a frantic maelstrom of destruction. You’ll face 50 waves of enemies in less than five minutes. Defend an exit in the middle of the map from creeps coming in from all directions. You simply can’t use the same strategy for every level; you must change up your tactics for each map.

    ZDefense’s maps generally have 10 to 30 waves of enemies. The full version features five tutorial, ten normal, and eight hard maps. There are five tower types with seven levels each. To make your life more complicated, a special tile called the Space Gate allows creeps to teleport from one gate to another.

    Command the Creeps
    ZDefense comes with a map editor so you can create your own nightmare scenarios to terrify your fellow tower defense fans. The editor comes with full instructions and customizable maps, creeps, towers, and waves. Customize the game mechanics, such as wave wait times, base life, money, and more. You can also take screen captures of your game to record your victories and show off to your friends.

    Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone:

    Txt Msg Away Message – Amazon Appstore Free App of the Day 8/21/11

    Name: Txt Msg Away Message
    Description:
    Let Your Android Device Do the Texting
    Txt Msg Away Message sends auto-reply messages from your Android device. Create a custom message, and this application automatically replies to incoming texts with that message. You no longer have to worry about text messaging while driving, working, sleeping, or watching a movie.

    Custom Features
    Txt Msg Away Message comes with the default message “(Autoreply) Sorry I am not available at this time.” You can create your own list of custom messages. Your auto-reply can be up to 160 characters.

    Txt Msg Away Message includes many useful options. Set up the auto-reply to be sent only to your contacts. Place an icon on your notification bar so you’ll always know if Txt Msg Away Message is active or not. The Away Time option lets you include the time elapsed in your auto-reply. So, if the app has been enabled for an hour, your auto-reply will let your recipient know you’ve been unavailable for an hour. Txt Msg Away Message also sends you an alert every time an auto-reply is sent, and you can choose to turn these alerts off.

    Place a home screen widget to quickly turn the application on and off. You can also set Txt Msg Away Message to ignore any phone numbers that the app has already replied to in the previous five minutes.

    Text When You Want
    Txt Away Msg Message is a great app for when you’re waiting for that important text message, but you’re unable to reply right away. The person texting you will know you’ve received their message and not think they’re being ignored. Use this app when you’re in a meeting, classroom, restaurant, or any place where you just can’t text.

    Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone:

    Wallpapers – Live and Not Live.

    So you may be wondering about all this talk about live wallpapers – what they are and how to install them. Well the install part is a piece of cake, but what do you do with them once they are installed. How do you open them? So you see a cool live wallpaper (like this cool Thunderstorm Live Wallpaper one), but once you install it the “Open” button is greyed out (disabled) and you are not sure where to go from here.

    Let me start out by explaining what a live wallpaper is for all of you out there that are unsure. A live wallpaper is a wallpaper that contains an animation, which may or may not use the sensors and buttons on the device to interact with it. Check out the below youtube video for an example:

    To set a live wallpaper as the wallpaper on your phone, you can’t just run it, although some newer live wallpapers are coming out that have an icon and take you to a direction page, telling you how to install them. What you have to do is go into the wallpaper setting on the phone. On most phones you just have to press the menu button, then choose wallpaper. If you have an HTC phone there is a paintbrush (or plus symbol) to the right side of the main menu, and you can press that too, It will give you a list of places to get an image file from:
    -Gallery – Allows you to pick a picture taken from your camera and set it as a wallpaper (cropped or not).
    -Wallpaper Gallery – Takes you to the list of preloaded (non-live/static) wallpapers.
    -Live Wallpapers – Shows you a list of all the installed Live Wallpapers.

    Once you select the Live Wallpapers menu you can change settings, and customize the wallpaper based on the predefined settings that the particular wallpaper offers. this just means that if the developer didn’t add a setting to change a certian color then the option is not going to be available. you can also preview the wallpaper, and if satisfied save it as your default.

    A couple of things to remember with live wallpapers: They are always running, so they can negatively effect the performance of your phone and the battery life. Also depending on how advanced the live wallpaper is it can take up application storage memory, especially because live wallpapers have to be saved to the phone, and can’t run off the memory card.

    Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone: