Google has been hard at work getting their daily deal service, Google Offers, up and running over the previous couple months. For those of you who haven’t heard of daily deals sites (seriously, who hasn’t by now?), these sites offer local goods and services at a steep discount, usually at least 50% off. Google [...]]]>

Google has been hard at work getting their daily deal service, Google Offers, up and running over the previous couple months. For those of you who haven’t heard of daily deals sites (seriously, who hasn’t by now?), these sites offer local goods and services at a steep discount, usually at least 50% off. Google Offers is now available in 42 metro areas and is expanding at a very rapid pace.

Every good Google service needs an Android application, and Google Offers is the latest to join the lengthy list of Google Android apps. Google has released an Offers application on the market that allows you to browse, purchase and redeem deals right from your Android smartphone.

Google has been making a pretty significant push into overhauling its core applications to match the beautiful design of the upcoming Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS update, and Google Offers certainly benefits from this design push. Offers brings the same design aesthetics we’ve seen from the new Google+, Google Docs and Google Reader application updates. In short, Offers is pretty slick looking, and users of Google’s service will certainly be pleased in both the aesthetics and functionality of the new Offers application.

If you haven’t done so already, you may want to head over to the Android Market to download the Google Offers app. If you don’t live in one of the 42 already-live Google Offers markets, fret not; deals will likely be coming your way very soon.

Once you download the application, hop back here and give us your thoughts on the app by leaving a comment below.

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If you haven’t completely moved to Google+, you’ve probably noticed all the changes Facebook has been working on lately. Feelings are mixed about these changes, but most people seem to dislike them. Well, we have one more addition to the repertoire, and this one actually seems to be a bit more exciting.

Facebook has [...]]]>

If you haven’t completely moved to Google+, you’ve probably noticed all the changes Facebook has been working on lately. Feelings are mixed about these changes, but most people seem to dislike them. Well, we have one more addition to the repertoire, and this one actually seems to be a bit more exciting.

Facebook has just announced Timeline. This feature takes all your information since the creation of your Facebook account and organizes it in an attractive timeline. This will allow you and your friends to go back and remember sweet old times with older images and general information. Whether you were studying hard in high school, partying it up in college or getting married in Hawaii, the Timeline will display it all.

There was no mention of Android compatibility on the way. (It is coming to iPhone soon, though). But we can assume Android will be getting Timeline soon enough. It is the most popular smartphone OS, after all. Timeline should be rolling out in the following weeks, so you’ll have to check it out on your computer until then.

Timeline is the most exciting new feature, but the rest seem alright too. Facebook also announced Spotify, Netflix and hulu integration. This means you can share what you’re listening to or watching. More services will be integrated in time. As you can see in the video below, one one feature will be similar to Nike+, allowing you to share where and when you take your daily jog.

We’ve heard many different opinions on this. One of the most popular is that Facebook is no longer as “intuitive” as it used to be. But we’d like to see what our readers think. Let us know how you feel about these changes in the comments section. Do you like Timeline? Do you like the integrations that were added? Would you rather get rid of that side bar (along with all the new changes)?

Google+ has many fun and interesting features. (You can read all about them here.) But the one thing we’re interested in is [...]]]> Completely out of the blue, Google has announced its long-rumored Google+ service. At first look, Google+ shows a lot promise. It might even prove Google does understand (gasp!) social–and even UI/UX–design.

Google+ has many fun and interesting features. (You can read all about them here.) But the one thing we’re interested in is its Android app. The Google+ Android app is not only beautiful and well-designed, but it also has most of the features (and more) that you’ll find in the web version of Google+. This includes:

• Circles–lets you share the right things with the right people.
• Stream–where you can get updates from your circles or see what people are saying about things nearby.
• Instant Upload–automatically uploads videos and photos to your own private album in the cloud, to make sharing a snap.
• Huddle–a super-fast group messaging for everyone in your circles.

Circles, Stream and Huddle. Keep these three words in mind, as they’re sure to become a big part of the Google+ mobile experience. Interestingly, these three Google+ features are a lot like three other Google products; Circles is a much better version of Google Contacts, Stream is what Google Buzz should have been, and Huddle is Google Chat with group conversations. In one fell swoop, Google integrated a bunch of different products under one name. It’s beautiful.

Instant Upload is a particularly interesting feature. I could see myself using it a lot in the future. Basically, you setup Google+ to automatically upload photos and videos from your Android phone to the web. As Google explains, these photos and videos are uploaded to a private folder. So, you won’t need to worry about privacy issues here. We’ve yet to see how far Google will take Google+’s photo capabilities, but one has to wonder how Picasa fits into all this. More importantly, will Google allow unlimited data space in Google+ for our photos and videos? Why would I use Picasa then? We should see these questions answered as Google+ gets closer to public release.

Clearly missing from the Google+ app is the Hangout feature. This is a group video chat service I’m sure the guys at Skype (Microsoft) are watching closely. However, I’m pretty sure Google is already working to bring this feature to the Android app. After all, the thing isn’t even in beta yet. Only a few people even have access to it. If you want to become one of those very lucky people, you can request an invitation here. (Please note: at the time of this posting, Google+ has temporarily exceeded capacity).

That’s our quick summary of the Google+ Android app. You can also check out the videos and pictures below, or read more about it here. What do you guys think? Does Google has a winner with Google+? I certainly think so.

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9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 is a full-featured baseball game which is [...]]]> Com2uS is slowly becoming a solid name in Android Sports Gaming. As you may recall, Taylor, Clark and I all thoroughly enjoyed Homerun Battle 3D, and with the 2011 baseball season comes an awesome new baseball game in Com2uS’ repertoire.

9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 is a full-featured baseball game which is the first to feature a license agreement with MLBPA, the major league baseball player’s association. This agreement means that your favorite baseball players are featured in the game via an up-to-date team roster.

Gameplay Options

At the game’s first launch, you will be asked to select your favorite team, which will lead to that team being defaulted when you choose any of the gameplay options.  You can change your “my team” setting at any time in the main menu.

9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 features the following gameplay options:

• Season Mode: Take your favorite team through a 9 full major league seasons to try to make the playoffs and build your team to greatness
• Exhibition Mode: Pick two teams to go head to head in a single exhibition game.
• Home Run Mode: This part of the game is slightly reminiscent of the Homerun Battle 3D game Com2uS released last year, but takes a slightly different spin. Instead of multiple home-run derby modes, the Home Run Mode has you go through as many rounds as you can in an attempt to reach a certain point total to move on to the next round. Each round is played by a new player, which goes through your selected team’s lineup in lineup order.

Gameplay

The actual gameplay itself is ridiculously easy to master. There is a very small amount of on-screen buttons that you can touch to swing, bunt, throw to a base, and advance/return your runners. Not all buttons are on the screen at one time (thank God); instead, only the buttons appropriate to the current situation appear on the screen at any given time.

Pitching is the only real variant from this. You begin with onscreen buttons corresponding to the various pitch types in the pitcher’s repertoire. Once you tap on the button, a baseball appears in the middle of the strike zone, which you can move around to select pitch location. Once you’ve selected a location, a huge-mungeous circle appears in the screen, which gradually gets smaller in size as you further hone in your location. The idea is to tap the screen when the circle is smallest for pinpoint pitch accuracy.

I found that after only a few innings, I had mastered the controls en route to massive victories (hint: you’ll want to turn the difficulty to hard after like the first game).

Overall Thoughts

Pros

• Multiple gameplay modes add to the replay value
• MLBPA license allows you to play as your favorite pros
• Controls are stupid-easy, and are very quick to master
• Made by Com2uS, who has a pretty awesome track record when it comes to making killer Android games

Cons

• AI could be a bit better. Had to turn it up to hard to have the computer even stand a chance.
• Lack of multiplayer mode (more below)
• Ads – not a big deal, but still negative in my opinion

Final Verdict

9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2011 is an incredibly solid baseball gaming experience for Android, and the MLBPA license adds the authentic feel which make this seem like a full-fledged baseball game.

Additionally, the game has significant replay value due to both the inclusion of a full-season mode, as well as the insanely challenging Homerun gameplay mode, in which I could barely manage to get past the 3rd or 4th levels.

With how awesome this game is, you would expect it to come with a pretty hefty pricetag. But that is not the case. Com2uS has gone the ad-supported route, and though I’m sure some of you are squirming in pain at the thought of another ad-supported application, the ads are in no way overbearing, and only really show up between innings, or as pop-ups after the game is concluded.  Your gameplay view WILL NOT be obstructed, I promise (checked on 3 devices now)!

The one thing I really wish this game had is multiplayer mode, similar to what was found in the Homerun Battle 3D application. It’d be pretty awesome to school a friend in a game of baseball.

In closing, if you’re into baseball and gaming, you really ought to check this game out. It is available gratis on the Android market for Android 2.1+ devices.

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With the Fox News app [...]]]> If you are a fan of Fox News, accessing all their shows and content just got a lot easier with the release of their new Android app. Fox News rates as the United States’ most watched cable news channel and their first attempt at Android is a well polished experience.

With the Fox News app users can receive breaking news alerts, read headlines, stream the latest video clips, listen to talk radio, and browse through photo galleries.

In my brief time with the app the most notable feature is the video quality. Each video is crystal clear and they are formatted in a wide-screen resolution to fit perfectly on a WVGA display. Check out the app and let us know how you think it stacks up with the other news services.

Initial set up [...]]]> DoubleTwist has announced today that they have released an Android music player replacement app–offering music, video, podcast, and picture integration with its PC and Mac software. The doubleTwist press release states that their app will bring a seamless end-to-end media experience that will allow users to finally leave their iPods at home.

Initial set up of the PC-based application and syncing files with your Android device will take a while (30-60 minutes or so), so be sure to give yourself plenty of time for that process to work. Once you have synced this information with your phone, all the content you have chosen to sync will now be readily available on your Android device in a convenient all-in-one media powerhouse application.

So how well does the application work, you ask?  The application itself functions much like the stock music player, but features both audio and video playback within the app itself. Video and audio playback worked flawlessly, and the UI is as good if not better than the stock Android music app. DoubleTwist simply gets it, and definitely has the potential to replace the stock music app for many people.

To celebrate the new release, doubleTwist is offering this app for free for a limited time. After the ill-defined limited time expires, the app will set users back a modest $0.99.

So is a free app that offers iTunes like syncing of music, videos, podcasts, and pictures not enough to convince you to download doubleTwist? Well, doubleTwist will soon offer online radio (similar to Pandora/Slacker) AND wireless sync support.

DoubleTwist is certainly setting itself up to be the ultimate multimedia powerhouse for the Android platform. Only time will tell if it truly will become the one multimedia app to rule them all (our…precious?).

Already trying out doubleTwist? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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