20th - GAMEBOY + ANDROID = GAMEBOID

Growing up in the early 2000s, Ive always played gameboy games. Recently, I found an amazing app on the Android market called Gameboid. Gameboid is a GBA emulator, meaning that it can play all GBA games-for free. When I found this app I was overjoyed! I would finally be able to play Pokemon games again! And the best part is, I wouldnt have to carry another clunky device. This app makes android phones into gaming machines. It basically adds the entire GBA game library to the Android app store, except that theyre free. Although getting the GBA roms is illegal, it doesnt change the fact that they are widely available. By any means, I do not condone pirating since the roms can also be aquired legally by ripping it straight from cartridges that you own.

Once I downloaded it, I realized that it wasn't as amazing as I expected. This is not a fault of the app itself, but because of my own personal taste. The app creates a virtual gamepad with 4 virtual buttons and a directional pad. Although this works for many people, I simply cant enjoy my games without actually pressing the buttons. This doesnt apply to games made natively for the phone however. Its just that the games I play on Gameboid, Ive already played before in a totally different platform. Its very hard to get used to. Especially in games like Street Fighter Alpha 3, where button inputs are very crucial.

Overall, if someone is willing to put in the time and effort into getting used to the controls, Gameboid is an amazing app. This is a steal for such a cheap price!

19th - Music Glitches on Droid X

So a few days ago I had upgraded my Droid to 2.2 Froyo. This new firmware was supposed to greatly increase the speed of almost everything on the phone. However, it had a very annoying side effect.

After listening to music using PowerAMP for the last few days, I decided to check what the difference between the default music player and PowerAMP was. This was a bad idea. I was listening to a song for a while, and when I tried changing the song, the phone seemed extremely slow. So slow that almost nothing could be done on it. After a minute or so, the droid would completely freeze up and nothing would work anymore. I found that the only way to fix this is by removing the battery and then reinserting it. I thought that I had broken my droid or something, but then I found out that it was a glitch that occurs on droid x's thats been updated to 2.2.

In terms of the results of my experiment, PowerAMP was clearly better, although the default music app was no slouch! I just hope that firmware 2.3 (Gingerbread) fixes these issues by the time it comes out.

18th - Nexus S and Gingerbread

Earlier this year, Google released a phone called the Nexus One. This phone was supposed to be the "iPhone Killer" but ended up being taken off the markets a few months after release. This failure was due to google's weird online only sales methods. However, now Google is back, with a new phone, named Nexus S. One of the biggest things about this phone is that it is supposedly equipped with the new version of Android: 2.3 (Gingerbread) A preview of this new phone just appeared online a little less than an hour ago on CNET.

LINK: http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20025101-251.html

One of the biggest flaws I noticed about this phone is that even though it is such a new phone (not even released yet!) it is still not compatible with 4G. Considering that 4G has been out for so long ( even though its not widely spread) the sole existence of it makes 4G compatibility a must  have for any new phone, especially one that is High-End like the Nexus S. What do you guys think? Is the lack of 4G capability going to make a big difference? or do you think that it doesn't matter.

17th - A New Look

So a few days ago I said I was going to start posting stuff on android apps, so I decided I should update the layout of the blog too! I know it's a bit simple but what do you guys think?

One thing I noticed about android apps is that they are not covered nearly as much as iPhone apps are, which makes me want to cover them even more! The internet is littered with so many articles, videos, photos and blogs about iPhone apps, but when it comes to Android there seems to be an extreme shortage. IGN.com, a site dedicated to bringing entertainment news started to post some things like Android app of the day but they did not stay consistent. I think that this sort of neglect is what makes more people think that the android app store is useless. If android apps and app store was marketed better, maybe this situation wouldn't have occured. One of the most interesting things I noticed is that many of the apps found on the iPhone app store can also be found on Android. One of such apps is Fruit Ninja (a game review I posted earlier.) It works just as well on the droid as it did on the iPod touch. Of course, both app stores have many of their own exclusive apps (with the iPhone having more) but seriously, who really uses EVERY single app? Both platforms offer apps that would perform any basic function that most people would perform often, such as check weather, social networking, news etc. What do you guys think?

16th - PowerAMP Music Player - ANDROID -

PowerAMP music player is an interesting app I downloaded tonight. at the cost of $4.99 it is an extremely useful app for audiophiles like myself. Now you may ask, "Why would you pay $5 for a music player when your device comes with one for free?" The answer is just one word: Quality. The sound quality on PowerAMP is AMAZING. To a true music lover, quality is of the utmost importance.
PowerAMP also has a lot of music customization features such as equalizer, equalizer presets, extended volume increase, etc. It also plays music files that the default music player cannot play. I had been using the music app known as Mixzing for a month or so but this app is BRILLIANT. The interface is also extremely slick:

Left - Equalizer, volume control, etc                          Right - Music screen.

PowerAMP has two ways for the user to browse through their collection: "Folder mode" and "Library mode." Folder mode allows the user to look through the phone in a computer-like manner where he or she can actually see the song's folder names, and find songs manually on their device. Library mode is the traditional browsing feature found in most devices or apps (iPhone, iPod touch, other music apps.) The playlist features are also numerous. Not only are all the standard features available, folder playlists and shuffle lists are also possible.

EQ Presets

People spend hundreds of dollars upgrading headphones and other devices for improved audio quality. Sometimes what they don't realize is that improving the quality of the audio source can have significant benefits. The $4.99 I paid to get this type of upgrade in sound quality is more than worth it since getting the same experience through a hardware upgrade would cost MUCH more. 5/5!

15th - Moving forward

Hey everyone! Its been great working on this blog but there are a few major changes that will soon take place. For the last few months, it has been dedicated to iPhone / iPod touch apps. However, I sold my iPod touch a few days ago since I started using my Droid X as my primary music player. I'm thinking of changing this blog to focus more on Android apps since I don't really have a device anymore to do iPhone apps! I think I will continue to work on the blog but the updates will be less frequent. However, to start off Ill post a review of an amazing music player for android devices later tonight!

Well isn't that perfect?!

14th - VIDEO

I was originally going to do a video review on the game "Fruit Ninja" which is a paid app on the app store but my video camera isnt working at the moment so I decided to link to a AppSpy's review on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4uQt-l75bc


AppSpy's review is very similar to what I would have done. Although usually I post written reviews, I feel that video reviews are much more efficient. They are also more useful and give a lot more information than a written review can ever give. Just like they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." One of the best uses for video usage, especially in terms of reviews is that it allows the viewer to actually see the product in use. Whether its electronics, clothes, and of course app reviews, videos can easily describe certain things that would be very hard to describe in words. One of the best examples of this, also found in the review linked above, is the reviewers opinion on the graphics of the game. Different people have different opinions about what "good" graphics for a game is and by seeing the graphics in a video, the viewers themselves can make the judgements. I prefer watching video reviews over reading reviews because it allows me to get much more information in much less time.

I always use video reviews before buying anything, especially games. The site I use is IGN.com (a video game site which posts long, indepth written reviews and also video reviews. I usually opt to watch the video review instead of reading because it allows me to make my own judgments about how the product is. Before making purchases, I never feel safe enough to just read someone's opinion. I need to make my own judgement before forking over my money! What do you guys think? Do you prefer written reviews or video reviews?

13th - Open Pandora's Box

Pandora has existed for a while as an internet radio site-- http://www.pandora.com/ However, it was never very popular until it debuted as an app for the iPhone. Pandora is an app that allows users to listen to and find new music. Other internet radio apps usually allow you no control over the music that you listen to. However, with Pandora, you can create customized radio stations which have songs similar to the artist that you choose. So for instance, if you only feel like listening to songs by /similar to Eminem's, then you can create a station with only those kind of songs. It works very similar to the iTunes' genius feature. However, if you want to mix it up further, you can combine your artist stations for even more variety. Another excellent feature that the Pandora app has is the ability to skip songs. The free version allows you to skip upto 6 songs per hour which is more than enough. However, if you want maximum control over your music, then you can opt for the paid version of the app.The app also shows album arts and artist biographies for those who are interested in such things.

Pandora can be used on both the iPhone and also the iPod touch. However I find that it's functionality is greatly increased in the iPhone. This is because Pandora needs a data connection to be used. For the iPod touch, the only way to aquire this is by having a WiFi connection. However with the iPhone, the data plan allows you to listen to the music anytime, anywhere. However, one of the big drawbacks of this is that Pandora uses up a lot of the iPhone's new 2GB/month data plan. If this is an issue, then the iPhone can still use WiFi to provide the same music experience that an iPod touch would give. For those of you who are looking for a full music experience on your iPhone or iPod touch, this is the app for you!