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Blink [Android App of the Day]

Ever since I got my first Android phone I had been wondering if there is a way (outside of hacking the phone) for me to customize the color of the blinking LED notification light depending on the type of notification. Well, as they say, there's an app for that. Blink, released last week, allows you to customize the LED — from a choice of twelve colors — for SMS/MMS, Incoming Call/Missed Call, and Low Battery/Memory. What's more, you can also customize the frequency of the flashing light. The only thing missing is that you can't customize the LED settings for email. However, the team behind this awesome app assures us that the option will be available in a future update. Blink is a...

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SwiftKey: Another Kickass Keyboard for the Android

Remember when I wrote about Swype? Since downloading what has been called "the fastest keyboard for mobile phones" my mobile life has unquestionably changed for the better. And I wasn't the only one; I have since received many comments, emails, and tweets thanking me for writing about Swype. So imagine my surprise to learn that there are some people who hate Swype's gliding input system. One prime example resides right in my household. That's right. My own husband — *gasp* — hates Swype. Now there may be an alternative for people like J. Introducing SwiftKey, which is being touted as one of the best predictive text input methods out on the mobile market. SwiftKey has an uncanny ability to guess what your next word will...

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Google App Inventor: An Android App Creator for Non-Coders

This morning, Google announced the App Inventor, a new tool in Google Labs that lets anyone create an app for Android phones. While Google has been testing App Inventor in classrooms for a year, it is now available for the public via an online form. I personally think that this is a very smart concept. Not only will we see a vast array of specialized apps built by non-developers (and sometimes, a non-techie has better perspective on what what kinds of apps might be useful), but it also has the potential for the general population, especially children, to become more interested in programming and become creators of mobile technology as opposed to just a consumer. In addition, this free and easy method will...

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Mario Live Wallpaper for Android [zOMG!]

Here's another one for my fellow Android fans: a Super Mario Live Wallpaper! If your phone runs Android 2.1 or higher, this FREE download allows you to mimic a non-interactive game right in the background of your phone. The game isn’t pre-recorded, but it’s not playable either; it is created on-the-fly using random level generators and an artificial intelligence that controls Mario. There are three visual themes for the levels — outside, underground and castle — all based on stuff that should be familiar to anyone who has played the old Mario games. The only downside is that the live wallpaper would (unsurprisingly) drain your battery pretty quickly. As such, I imagine that many Android users will download it for the fun factor but...

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Swype for Android

Last week, the ingenius text input system Swype opened its beta for the Android platform — for free — and so I immediately downloaded a copy. image source Swype eliminates the need to tap out individual letters when typing on a touchscreen device. Instead, you glide your finger from letter to letter, forming words without your fingertip ever leaving the screen. It’s so elegant and fast that one Swype user even broke the Guinness World Record for fastest text messaging, a move that was famously documented in a recent Samsung commercial. I've always preferred physical keyboards to their touchscreen counterparts, but after playing around with the Swype input system for a few days I've gotten hooked. I even demonstrated the new system to a few of...

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