AppBrain
by n3rdg1rl
May 4, 2010 11:00 AM –
Install
Finally it’s possible to install Android apps from a web interface! Browse the app market on www.appbrain.com from a desktop computer and use this app to install and uninstall the apps you selected on that website! Freatures: app recommendations, share apps (eg twitter / facebook).
Price: Free
AppBrain is sooo nice, we had to review it twice
AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:
Now… there are two completely separate, but completely necessary, interfaces to AppBrain. You must use the Internet. You must use your phone. Bear with me. Immediately you say, “The whole point of having a cell phone like my beautiful Droid, Nexus, Eris, etc., is that we no longer need to rely on our computers! Why would I want to encumber myself with a computer?” I get it. I REALLY do. Which is why I had to try out this app. I wanted to bash it. I wanted to say how awful it was having to go back and forth between the two. I’m in a foul mood today and I was going to take it out on AppBrain and really give it to them! Well, I can’t. I like it. I like it even when I didn’t want to. 
Features:
I am a true app lover. That could be part of the reason I write reviews for AndroidTapp. I download at least two or three apps everyday. Granted, 75% of them either never get used and are deleted to make room for something else. (If someone has a 64GB card, I’m all for donations ^_^!) One of the most frustrating things about the Market though is finding something just to try. Sure you can search and see whats new and whats hot and whats featured, but what if you just want something interesting, or something unique. That’s why AppBrain is a great idea.
You go to their website www.appbrain.com, simple Google sign in and come across the Market you so love, just laid out a little differently. Then you download the AppBrain app on your phone and sign in there. You’re ready to start. At this point, on my phone I hit “Sync with AppBrain.” That let me know of any updates I needed and what I already installed (there was actually one that the Market hadn’t notified me of yet) and let the web interface know what apps I already had. There’s a box of recommended apps for me on the webpage. So off to browsing I went. I found some great new apps (some I already know I’m going to be doing reviews on.) All I had to do was click “Install” on the webpage and when I was done hunting for new toys I hit “Sync with AppBrain” on my phone. There appeared all my new apps I wanted. I clicked on “Perform Installs” and this is where the only flaw I saw was.
The Market opened and the first app I wanted appeared. I went through the first install like normal and then my phone and I just kinda stared at each other. Do I click something? Do I hit back? Is it thinking? So I hit back, and lo and behold it worked. Now this is just a little glitch. For some reason my head thought either A) it would somehow force the installs or B) realize when the first one is done and automatically bring up the page for the next. No big deal now that I figured that out, but it would have been nice to know.
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AppBrain Main Screen
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AppBrain Manage Apps
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AppBrain My Recommendations
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AppBrain Web Homepage
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AppBrain Web Apps List
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AppBrain Web Recommendations
Usefulness:
With all of this said, how is this useful to the everyday user? Well, think of going to the library and only being able to see the binding of the books. You couldn’t pull them out. You couldn’t read the back cover or flip through a few pages of the book. All you could do is read the title and the author and possibly the publisher. That’s all the information you had to make a decision. That’s kind of what the Market is like. Now, with AppBrain, I can search through the whole Market with recommendations for me and notifications if I already have something. If I’m unsure about an app I can just flip over to my favorite Android website, AndroidTapp, and read some reviews. Very convenient all Android app reviews are linked to AppBrain and vice-versa so I can go back to AppBrain and click install. Later, while I’m waiting in line somewhere, I can open AppBrain on my phone and install all my new apps to poke.
Ease of Use:
The web interface is very to the point and doesn’t try to push anything at you. It doesn’t take much explaining and very little thinking to use the web interface effectively. The phone app, once its set up, really only consists of two buttons, “Sync with AppBrain” and “Perform Installs.” The only options under Menu are how you want to sort the applications and if you want to include updates. Once you know you have to hit back after every install, the rest is just the standard Market interface.
Frequently Used:
If you love your apps the way we do here at AndroidTapp, you will be using AppBrain constantly. Even if you’re not at a computer, you can use the phone app to look at your recommendations and browse the Market. It really helps you simplify your app addiction… I mean interest.
Interface:
If you can open a webpage on your computer and install apps on your Android device, AppBrain is going to be a piece of cake, once you know to hit back after every install. Yes, I know I’m repeating myself, but it really is irking me that I need to do that…