Android Atlas

This may be the year of the iPad's debut, but it's also the year that Android devices exploded in availability. To go along with the extra attention that Android's been getting of late, CNET News has ported its month-old iOS app to the Android marketplace. Debuting August 30, the free CNET News app for Android (Android-only download) offers an identical-but-Androidified feature set to its iOS twin.

Included in the Android app are article bookmarking, full-screen reading (except for the CNET logo at the top), mobile-optimized search, a built-in Twitter feed from CNET editors and personalities, font resizing … Read more

Papaya is best known for its mobile social platform dubbed PapayaMobile, which offers a variety of features from gaming to chat to photo sharing. Unlike many others in the space, PapayaMobile recently elected to abandon support for the iPhone OS in favor of focusing all of its efforts on Android apps. The benefit of this is the open-source nature of the Google platform, which means that SDK developers can create their own programs to run in the Papaya interface. This functionality makes the service perfectly suited to its newest offering: Android App of the Day.

Android App of the Day, … Read more

Microsoft's Bing for Android may not technically be the first Microsoft-made app for Android phones (that honor belongs to the rather obscure Microsoft Tag Reader,) but the Bing is its highest-profile app.

Released on Monday, Bing for Android closely resembles Bing for iPhone, with an image of the day marking the backdrop, and a pop-up menu to search by images, movies, maps, news, or what's nearby. There's also an option for directions. A search field sits at the top, next to a voice search button. Bing for Android hides your history, settings, and favorites in the phone'… Read more

Mozilla is one step closer to getting its Firefox browser surfing on Android phones, and on the Nokia N900. On Friday the company issued an alpha version of Fennec, the code name for every instance of "Firefox Mobile" that's still in development stages.

Features-wise, Fennec alpha is very similar to the Fennec prealpha we got a peek at in April, but with the notable exception that Firefox Sync is now baked in. Firefox Sync is an account-based Web service that stores data on your currently open tabs, bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, and form-fills in the cloud, on … Read more

Adobe Systems pushed out updates Wednesday to both its Photoshop Express online photo tool and photo-editing app for Android devices that bring some noteworthy improvements.

The biggest change, besides an increase in overall speed on the Web version of Photoshop Express, is that the site no longer requires users to register in order to use it. Unregistered users can now upload their photo, make edits, then download it without any administrative barriers. Adobe has also separated each tool into its own unit, similar to what it does with the library and develop modules of its Photoshop Lightroom software.

As part … Read more

A licensing system meant to ensure Android applications were properly downloaded has been hacked, and Google is looking into the issue.

Google introduced a new licensing system for the Android Market in late July in response to concerns that it was too easy to obtain Android applications without paying for them or without proper authorization. However, that system itself can be bypassed relatively easily by someone with a little bit of coding knowledge, according to an investigation done by Android Police.

Tim Bray, Google's Android developer evangelist, defended the licensing server in a blog post Tuesday as he acknowledged … Read more

Most of the Earth's surface is covered with water, which we land-lubbers have a difficult time exploring on our own. A new update to Google Earth for Android adds an ocean layer to its application for surveying our planet.

The Ocean layer will be switched on by default. To explore the ocean floor, zoom in to just below the ocean surface and tap the "look around" button to take a closer look at undersea dimensions.

We dove underwater to check out the Monterey Bay Canyon that's situated just off the California coastline. Other fissures and mounds … Read more

I'm a big fan of mapping apps, particularly if they involve airports. Though I've covered them in the past, I didn't find one I really liked until I downloaded Point Inside, which is available free for the iPhone, iPad, and Android handsets running OS 1.6 or above.

As it covers both airports and shopping malls nationwide, Point Inside can be useful for frequent travelers and shopaholics. The maps aren't cribbed from Web sites, but are designed by Point Inside. That's a good thing, since all the maps that I viewed, from San Francisco International Airport … Read more

In an effort to curb the temptation to text while behind the wheel, State Farm Insurance Company is updating its Pocket Agent application for Android with a widget that will do your texting for you, sort of. The On the Move widget is essentially an SMS auto-responder that will intercept incoming text messages and automatically reply with a canned response.

After loading the app, users are able to compose and save their automated responses. Although the widget is primarily designed for use while in a moving vehicle, multiple responses can be saved and used for different situations or moods. For … Read more