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:

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:

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:

FRG Deluxe – Free Amazon Appstore App of the Day 8/20/11

Name: FRG Deluxe
Description: Fight off hordes of enemies with an armored robot in this arcade shooter for Android. Unlock different weapons and robot types as you fight your way through 18 challenging levels. Mow down lone enemies with the rapid-fire chaingun, then switch to the shotgun to clear out waves of foes.

Use your skills to stay alive as you complete achievements and challenge yourself across three difficulty levels. Climb your way to the top of the leaderboards with online high score listings!

In FRG Deluxe, players take control of a heavily armed robot on the battlefield fighting off hordes of different enemies. Move and dodge attacks using the touchpad or optical joystick, or touch and drag your robot across the screen to activate boost. Use the Menu button switches between your different unlocked weapons–lock on and fire one of six deadly weapon types to destroy your foes. Gain points by completing different achievements and improving your score, then use them to upgrade your robot with different weapons, armor, and power ratings.

Up to eight players can battle it out in a free-for-all deathmatch. Find online matches with other players in the online games list. Grab your favorite robot and start playing online. With three difficulty settings to choose from, anyone can find a suitable challenge for their skill level. Rack up the points, complete achievements, then compare scores with the rest of the world through OpenFeint’s online leaderboards.

Additional Features:
-Play through both normal mode and survival mode.
-Change three different settings for each robot: armor, speed, and power.
-Learn the basics of gameplay through in-game help documentation.

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

Trip Journal – Amazon Free App of the Day 8/16/11

Name:Trip Journal

Description:

A Multimedia Travelogue
Trip Journal enables you to capture your vacation and travel experiences and share them with your friends and family in real time. Use the application’s built-in GPS and compass to track your route, progress, location, even altitude. Take your travel photos and videos from your mobile using Trip Journal, and record them with your travel notes as you go. Share your travel experiences day-by-day and your completed travelogue using Trip Journal’s built-in links to Facebook, Google Earth, Trip Journal, Picasa, Flickr, Youtube, and Twitter.

Your Navigator and Record-Keeper
Trip Journal functions as your navigator and record keeper, always there to keep you oriented and on course, and to document your progress. You can check you current position at any time by tapping the “Locate on map” icon; both map and satellite views are available. Tap the compass icon not only to confirm the direction you’re moving in, but to see how your trip is progressing. Look at the top of the screen to find the distance you’ve traveled and the time that’s elapsed since the start of your trip, your average speed over the course of the journey, and the minimum and maximum altitudes you’ve reached.

Capture Your Experiences
Record your experiences as you go, through photos, video, and notes. To snap up important moments while they’re happening, choose “Capture media,” and start recording stills and video. These are automatically saved to your trip album. Record thoughts and impressions about your experiences as journal notes on the vintage notepaper template under “Write a note.” Whenever you review or share your trip album, these notes, images, and videos will be included.

Bring Your Readers Along with You
Trip Journal also makes it easy to share your travel experiences. The app includes built-in links to Facebook, Google Earth, Trip Journal, Picasa, Flickr, Youtube, and Twitter that you can use to instantly upload your routes, photos, video, notes, and more. Embed your trip in your blog to bring all of your followers along on your journey. And, when you’ve completed your trip, you have a complete, ready-made Trip Journal album to keep and share, preserving the whole adventure.

• Compiles ready-made, multimedia journal album as you go
• Supports blog updates and embedding
• Supports Android’s Froyo mobile platform.

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