How to submit an app for review

So you want to have an app reviewed by Android Central? Great! 'Cause we love reviewing apps. But as you can imagine, there are a lot of apps out there, and only so many hours in the day. Here are a few suggestions to make sure your app gets noticed.

1. Include your contact information. At the very least, an e-mail address.
2. Skip the wind-up. What's the name of your app, and what does it do? We appreciate brevity.
3. Include a link to your app. If it's in the Android Market, include the Market link.
4. Screen shots are a plus. And first impressions are everything. Make sure they're good.
5. And if you're showing us a demo video, make sure it's not of the same app on an iPhone. We'll reject those on principle, ya know?

Got all that? Great! We look forward to checking out your app. Here's a link to our contact form.

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BBC's global iPlayer app adds AirPlay streaming, should just be on Apple TV

British expats and international fans of BBC television alike can now stream some Gavin & Stacey to their televisions (past season 1 anyway, which is on Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video), as long as they're properly equipped. The global iPlayer app for iPad has been updated with AirPlay streaming (those in the UK however, have no such luck so far) so once users update to iOS 5 and buy an Apple TV box, they're in business. Of course, this would all be much simpler if iPlayer were just available on the Apple TV itself (without XBMC or other hacks), but no one asked us, did they?

BBC's global iPlayer app adds AirPlay streaming, should just be on Apple TV originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Missing Remote, @BBCiPlayerGLBL (Twitter)  |  The Digital Lifestyle, iTunes  | Email this | Comments

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Save your tabs and Panorama tab groups in Firefox 4

When Firefox 4's tab grouping tool, Panorama, had its keyboard shortcut changed to the finger-breaking combo of Ctrl+Shift+E, we thought Panorama would get dropped before FF4's final release -- but, thankfully, it made the cut!

If you've used Firefox 4 and Panorama, you might have noticed that Mozilla's new browser doesn't always save your tab groupings when you close the browser -- a bit of a pain, if you spend a long time setting up the perfect groups! This is tied into the removal of the 'Save and Quit' dialog box -- and enabling Panorama tab group saving is just a matter of re-enabling the Save and Quit dialog.

Open a new tab and head to about:config. Click through the warning and type 'quit' into the filter box. Double click browser.showQuitWarning to change its value to true (see image after the break). That's it -- now you'll have the option of saving your tabs, and thus tab groups, when you close Firefox.

For more tech tips, visit our tips index.

Continue reading Save your tabs and Panorama tab groups in Firefox 4

Save your tabs and Panorama tab groups in Firefox 4 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iris, Espier Launcher, My Car Salon and More [Video]

Iris: Iris, which was amazingly completed in 8 hours by Android dev Narayan Babu and his team at Dexetra, is a heckuva more conversational. It understands the questions you ask by voice and then spits out answers back at you. It's not always accurate (neither is Siri) but it's only in alpha and has a pretty good sense of humor about itself. You can have a general conversation with Iris or ask her questions about science, history, culture and more.

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Android Theme Review: Arctic Green

Ed. note: This theme requires use of the Theme Chooser.

With the temperature rapidly dropping round these parts, I figured a new theme to match the cold would work out real nice. I've been absolutely wowed by these Sonny Sekhon themes lately, so I settled on the appropriately-named Arctic Green to set the mood for the impending cold.

I know what you're probably thinking. Arctic Green? Shouldn't something arctic be blue? Or white? Maybe, but if you liken it to say, that spearmint green color/flavor toothpaste comes in, the idea settles in a bit quicker.

In typical Sonny Sekhon style, Arctic Green takes your status bar icons and turns them a cool green. The remaining battery is still inside the little battery icon by default, which is typical if you've used one of his themes before.

The pulldown notification bar uses the same widget icons as all of his other themes, but, in a change of pace, the text isn't the same color as the main theme. Your carrier name and 'no notifications' alert are in silver, and notifications are a dark silverish grey with black text. It's not the easiest thing to read and if I had my druthers, the notification text color would be something lighter so it's more easily read, but that's just me.

The notification pulldown is still transparent, accented with a faux-metal bar at the bottom, complete with a stylish, rectanglular cutout in the middle.

The dialer has a transparent background, but the accent color is the same dark grey we saw previously, not the green for which the theme was named. Icons are themed in the same vein: a dark, metallic grey, not a bright, toothpastey green.

There is an icon theme pack that turns your icons bright green, so I'm a little confused why that isn't baked right into this theme from the start.

As a matter of fact, outside of the notification bar and some widgets, Arctic Green defaults to the dark greys over bright green. Toast notifications are dark, but the highlight color  and check boxes are green. It's a little strange seeing fragmentation (or is it legacy?) within a theme, but that's why there's an icon pack, I reckon.

Arctic Green is $1.02 in the Android Market.

We've got more pictures and download links after the break.

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Daily Tip: How to protect your iPhone or iPad with a Passcode Lock

New to iOS, worried about the security of your iPhone or iPad, and wondering how to set a Passcode Lock for better protection? While the current version may not be perfect, it provides a number of real advantages over just leaving your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad unlocked. It's also easy to set up. here's how:

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Classic Shell now makes Internet Explorer 9 look like IE8

If you used Windows XP for a long time (who didn't?), one of the biggest changes when moving to Windows 7 or Vista was the massively-altered Explorer. While the new Explorer introduces some useful new features, it also removed just as many -- which is where Classic Shell comes in!

We've covered Classic Shell before, but here's the crib note: Classic Shell restores almost every Windows XP-era Explorer feature. The best change, in our opinion, is the reemergence of the 'up' arrow, meaning you now navigate without using the Windows Vista/7 'breadcrumbs' address bar. The status bar yet again shows the total size of your selection, and -- praise be! -- the diabolical Windows 7 Copy File 'copy and replace?' dialog has been replaced with a Windows XP lookalike (image after the break).

New to the most recent version of Classic Shell is the ability to make IE9 look like IE8. With Classic Shell the title bar yet again has a caption, so you can see the full title of Web pages. The current security zone and loading progress indicator have been put back into the status bar, too. If you enable 'Show tabs on a separate row,' it's almost like using IE8.

Finally, Classic Shell replaces the omnipotent Windows 7 Start Menu with the age-old 'classic' Windows 2000/XP-style Start Menu. Classic Shell makes the Start Menu skinable, too, if you're into the kind of thing.

As awesome as it sounds, we've only touched on a small section of Classic Shell's feature set. Check the Classic Shell site for a complete list. There's a few more images of Classic Shell in action after the break.

Download Classic Shell for Windows

Continue reading Classic Shell now makes Internet Explorer 9 look like IE8

Classic Shell now makes Internet Explorer 9 look like IE8 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Crunch: Ride The Lion Edition

Smart Design: Fanless Heatsink Spins Itself Concrete Speakers Look Good, Yet I Question Their Fidelity The Five Best Things About OS X Lion Watch The Final Space Shuttle Mission Here (Maybe) CrunchGear Is Headed To TechCrunch/Gadgets

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Gadget Lab Podcast: Ice Cream Sandwich, Nokia and Apple Updates

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On this week’s Gadget Lab podcast, the crew talks shop about Google’s recent Android updates, a new Nokia phone and, of course, the obligatory week in Apple news and rumors.
First up, staff writer Mike Isaac and product reviews editor Michael Calore kick off the show with tasty news about Ice Cream Sandwich, the [...]

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Skype 5.3 for Windows released, improves mobile video call quality

Version 5.3 of Skype for Windows has just been released, with the main emphasis of the new release being improved call quality, and the quality of video received by mobile Skype users. Presumably one party of the video call must be using Skype for Windows 5.3, though.

Beyond improved call quality, not much has changed. You can now see your friends' presence icons when contact cards are collapsed, and the topic editing button is now always visible on the conversation header. For a complete list of changes, hit up the Skype Garage blog.

Download Skype 5.3 for Windows

Skype 5.3 for Windows released, improves mobile video call quality originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corel releases VideoStudio Pro X4, we go hands on (video)

Corel seems to be on a roll lately; after releasing WinZip System Utilities just last week, this morning the company announced VideoStudio Pro X4.

VideoStudio Pro is aimed at home users and small business professionals who want to create professional-looking videos, but without the hassle, steep learning curve and price of Adobe Premiere Pro and the likes.

This new version introduces several features:

• Stop motion animation: You can now capture still frames using a webcam, camcorder or DSLR and use them to produce an animation. Tools such as "onion skin view" let you compare the previous image in the sequence with the current one and make the animation as smooth as possible.
• Processor optimization: Corel says the app is optimized for Intel's new Sandy Bridge systems, and have shown us some graphs with very impressive numbers. We've been unable to test this particular point, but if you have a recent-generation Intel or AMD Fusion system, VideoStudio performance should be blazing. Even on our older test system performance was quite impressive.
• Customizable workspace: You can drag the video preview window to your secondary monitor (if you have one) and tweak just about any other element in the window layout. Once done, you can save your ideal workspace in one of three slots.
• Share-to-Web: VideoStudio Pro X4 hooks directly into YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Flickr, so you don't even have to launch a browser to upload your final product. Edit, produce and share from within the app itself.
• Smart Package: Video projects typically consist of many files; Smart Package lets you bundle all video assets for a given project into one ZIP file which you can password-protect and keep in a safe place once you're done editing.

I've had a chance to play around with a pre-release version for a few days, and have put it through its paces editing a short video for my day job. Overall, I've been impressed with how easy it was to create pro-looking results. If you do any sort of video editing but are leery of the investment other apps require (both in dollars and effort), VideoStudio Pro is well worth checking out. To see a bit of the interface itself and what the app can do, watch the video after the jump.

Note: We'll be running a give-away of ten VideoStudio Pro X4 licenses later today, each worth $100 USD. Keep your eyes peeled for the giveaway post!

Continue reading Corel releases VideoStudio Pro X4, we go hands on (video)

Corel releases VideoStudio Pro X4, we go hands on (video) originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint Nixes Unlimited 4G Data for Tablets, Hotspots

Effective this November, Sprint customers will have to pay for 3G and 4G data use combined, a departure from the company's previous policy of allowing unlimited 4G data while asking customers to pay only for 3G. Even worse, existing unlimited 4G hotspot data customers won't be grandfathered in.

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Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share

We've all thought it, but never dared think it could be true: what if Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL actively monitor our instant messenger chats? What if mentions of 'bomb' and 'underage' are tracked and sent to law enforcement agencies? What if chat providers don't agree with the things we say, or the links we share, and filter or censor the content of our transmitted messages?

Well, it looks like our fears may actually have some basis in reality: Yahoo Messenger strips FilesTube links from instant messages. It doesn't tell either party that a URL has been removed from chat -- it just deletes it. Poof. FilesTube, in case you were wondering, is one of the largest file hosting meta search engines on the Web -- it indexes RapidShare, Megaupload, Mediafire, and many other 'cyberlocker' services.

It's fairly obvious why FilesTube links are being removed -- the Censor General at Yahoo is probably one of those perplexed primates who think all uses of BitTorrent are illegal -- but this situation poses a far more important question: is Yahoo censoring messages on the client side, or the server side. Does the messenger client itself maintain a list of 'blacklisted' words -- and if so, why are we not told that FilesTube links are banned? What other words and terms does Yahoo protect us from?

Continue reading Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share

Yahoo! Messenger now censors the links you share originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint brings real-time captions to phone calls with CapTel

Sprint's offering up another interseting accessibility option on select Android phones with its new Wireless CapTel service. Powered by Raketu, CapTel is real-time captioning for phone calls. You still make a call like normal. You're then connected to CapTel automatically and can listen to the call while reading the transcription in real time. Pretty cool, actually. Check out the video after the break.

Source: Sprint

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Android Theme Review: Arctic Green

Ed. note: This theme requires use of the Theme Chooser.

With the temperature rapidly dropping round these parts, I figured a new theme to match the cold would work out real nice. I've been absolutely wowed by these Sonny Sekhon themes lately, so I settled on the appropriately-named Arctic Green to set the mood for the impending cold.

I know what you're probably thinking. Arctic Green? Shouldn't something arctic be blue? Or white? Maybe, but if you liken it to say, that spearmint green color/flavor toothpaste comes in, the idea settles in a bit quicker.

In typical Sonny Sekhon style, Arctic Green takes your status bar icons and turns them a cool green. The remaining battery is still inside the little battery icon by default, which is typical if you've used one of his themes before.

The pulldown notification bar uses the same widget icons as all of his other themes, but, in a change of pace, the text isn't the same color as the main theme. Your carrier name and 'no notifications' alert are in silver, and notifications are a dark silverish grey with black text. It's not the easiest thing to read and if I had my druthers, the notification text color would be something lighter so it's more easily read, but that's just me.

The notification pulldown is still transparent, accented with a faux-metal bar at the bottom, complete with a stylish, rectanglular cutout in the middle.

The dialer has a transparent background, but the accent color is the same dark grey we saw previously, not the green for which the theme was named. Icons are themed in the same vein: a dark, metallic grey, not a bright, toothpastey green.

There is an icon theme pack that turns your icons bright green, so I'm a little confused why that isn't baked right into this theme from the start.

As a matter of fact, outside of the notification bar and some widgets, Arctic Green defaults to the dark greys over bright green. Toast notifications are dark, but the highlight color  and check boxes are green. It's a little strange seeing fragmentation (or is it legacy?) within a theme, but that's why there's an icon pack, I reckon.

Arctic Green is $1.02 in the Android Market.

We've got more pictures and download links after the break.

read more

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Daily Crunch: Finish Line Edition

Thanko Sells Underwater Video Camera Goggles The Pringle?s Can Antenna Is Now 10 This Wood Bike Looks Like It Came Out Of Minecraft ? In A Good Way Laser Research Company TeraDiode Starting Humble, But Hopes To Make Ray Guns Soon Card-Case Speaker Is A Speaker Like A Card Case

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Will my tablet get Ice Cream Sandwich? Our predictions

Android is more than smartphones.  With the release of the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, Android has moved into the big screen arena, and it's slowly picking up steam.  There are some very nice bits of hardware out there running Android and we all are getting antsy about when the one we're using might see some Ice Cream Sandwich love. 

That's where we come into play.  We are surrounded by phones and tablets, and we're going to use a little bit of insight to make a prediction or two about when we'll be seeing OS updates for them.  Hit the break, and read along.

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