Android and Me

Team Android Choice Awards finalists announced!

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 10:16 AM PST

In an epic quest to find the hottest Android app around, we present to you our list of ten finalists who will bravely take the stage in a rapid-fire competition to fight for the title of Team Android Choice Award – Best Android App SXSW 2011. Some of these apps are brand new, some are names you know and love, some have major changes planned- but they all want a spot on your home screen.

The Team Android Choice Awards are sponsored by Appolicious, who showed up in the final hour to really help make this contest happen. The show starts at 7:30pm, with each developer getting just two minutes to pitch their app to a packed house of elite Android nerds. When everyone is done, we’re going to take a live vote to name a winner. We’re also going to have a physical trophy complete with a gold Android on top making for an award ceremony you won’t want to miss.

Without further ado, we present the finalists:

Gowalla

Gowalla is an easy way to share places you go with friends. You can use the app to discover real-life eateries, coffeehouses, shops, landmarks, museums and more. Share your experiences through Gowalla with friends on Facebook and Twitter, then stamp your passport to earn rewards.

Gowalla Gowalla MARKET QR

Foodspotting

Foodspotting is a visual guide to good food and where to find it. Instead of reviewing restaurants, you can find and share where to find your favorite dishes using photos. When you're out and about and hungry, you don't want to read long, snarky reviews. You just want to see what's good nearby. By showing you photos of nearby foods and keeping our rating system simple (If you love it, nom it!), Foodspotting aims to make decision-making easier.

Foodspotting Foodspotting MARKET QR

Hashable

Hashable helps you track and share all the great people you are meeting with and introducing. Every time you make a connection with someone – like breakfast, drinks, a meeting, or just bumping into friends on the street – you can record that interaction either privately or publicly in your Hashable profile and then (optionally) share it with your friends on Twitter.

Hashable Hashable MARKET QR

Skifta

Control and play your media whenever and however you want with Skifta. Skifta for Android is a DLNA Certified(R) software app that lets you play your digital music, photos and videos on connected devices anywhere – no wires, no downloading. Control digital media on your phone, from the Internet, or remotely from home, and stream it over WiFi to your TV, PS3 or stereo.

Skifta Qualcomm Services Labs, Inc. MARKET QR

*Spark

*Spark brings you everything you want in one place. It can be used as a home screen replacement or on its own as a killer app. *Spark offers a better way to connect to Twitter & Facebook, access news, entertainment, weather and Groupon deals.

*Spark HipLogic Inc. MARKET QR

ooVoo

ooVoo can make a multi-party video call with up to 6 people and offers the freedom to connect with your friends and family both from your desktop and on the go with your mobile phone. Chat mobile to mobile, mobile to desktop or mobile to web!

ooVoo Mobile ooVoo MARKET QR

FaceCash

FaceCash is a payment system that turns your phone into a digital wallet. It’s just like a plastic payment card–except that you don’t have to carry the extra plastic. Instead of using your written signature to verify purchases, merchants use FaceCash to verify that your real face matches a digital image.

FaceCash Think Computer Corporation MARKET QR

Feedly

The core of the feedly experience are the “what’s new” and the “cover page”: they help you satisfy your appetite for learning and enjoying the web by delivering, in one place, the best content from your favorite websites and services. Feedly has yet to be released on the Android Market.

Lightbox Photos

Lightbox is working on fixing two problems: Most Android apps suck when compared to their iPhone counterparts, and most mobile apps become totally unusable when you have a slow or non-existent network (e.g. when on the subway). Lightbox Photos will bring a new level of polish to the Android platform for photo sharing and takes advantages of the ability to run background services on Android to sync data so it can work while disconnected from the network. Lightbox has yet to be released in the Android Market.

PTPT

The first beta version of PTPT for Android launched at MWC 2011 and is being called the first dedicated user interface for tablets. PTPT is a user interface paradigm and application framework to converge, manage and use digital assets productively, offering value to each link of the value chain. PTPT has yet to be released on the Android Market.

Join us Sunday, March 13

I’d imagine you guys know the details by know, but if you’re new here, I’ll recap. We’re having a huge party on March 13 during SXSWi at Lustre Pearl on Rainy St at 7PM with Appolicious, Samsung, HTC, Netshelter, and NVIDIA. That sum it up?

If you want some more details, you can check the original party announcement post, the official Team Android at SXSW page, or the Eventbrite page.

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LG Optimus 2X coming stateside later this month as the T-Mobile G2x

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 09:37 AM PST

We have known since late last year that the LG Optimus 2X was launching in the US, but TmoNews has finally delivered the proof we were all waiting for. The unofficial T-Mobile blog just posted an internal document they received which reveals the device will be branded as the G2x with Google by LG.

Our sources have said the T-Mobile G2x is nearly ready to go and it will be announced later this month at CTIA in Orlando. The device will ship with Android 2.2, but we hear an update to Android 2.3 is already in testing and will be available “within weeks” of the big launch.

We have also learned that the T-Mobile G2x will be a 4G device, but we have yet to find out which speeds it will support (14.4 or 21 Mbps).

It is interesting to see T-Mobile use the “G” branding on the Optimus 2X since they have normally reserved it for HTC phones with physical keyboards. However, T-Mobile is branding the LG Optimus Pad as the G-Slate, so I guess they want to stick with the G’s.

The G2x is also being labeled “With Google”, but we have been unable to confirm which skin will come loaded on the device. T-Mobile’s previous offerings in the series (G1 and G2) had stock Android, but it is likely the G2x will come with LG’s custom user interface.

Overall this looks like another excellent Android phone to add to T-Mobile’s growing smartphone lineup. Our recent round of benchmarks show the G2x will offer industry leading performance and LG expects to upgrade all their Optimus phones so you can be sure it will be getting Gingerbread (Android 2.3).

If you are on T-Mobile and looking to move up to a dual-core phone, keep your eyes on the LG G2x.