Be dazzled by Bejeweled! Get the #1 best-selling gem swapping game and find out why it’s been downloaded nearly 500 MILLION TIMES across all gaming platforms. Match sparkling jewels to make them disappear, while dynamic animations and exciting sounds make winning fun!

Price: $4.99

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Fun and Addictive game

Cons

• The optimized version for DROID/Nexus One sucks badly…
• Recent update removed multi-player

Features:

Bejeweled is the popular gem swapping game on many mobile platforms also available on Android! Brought to you by EA Mobile, makers of Madden football gaming franchise. If you like Bejeweled, also see similar games like Jewellust. Swap adjacent gems to form a vertical column or horizontal row removing them to score points.

Gripe Alert: Bejeweled designed for Android 2+ devices is a really poor release. It doesn’t fill the screen to take advantage of 480×800 screen real estate. Not to mention the recent update stripped multi-player actions… what gives EA Mobile?!? Stay away from buying it at 5 bucks until they make some serious corrections!

Video: Bejeweled

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deDzs40xyBU

Fun Factor & Addictive:

Kill some time with the game, very fun & addictive game.

Graphics:

Features brilliant gems of all shapes and colors.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

This game uses sound; can be lowered or turned off.

iHome Home Replacement App features: easy to use, fast and efficient, provide a whole new experience on Droid perfectly. Support aHome, Open Home & Panda Home’s themes effectively. Support for QVGA, WQVGA400, WQVAG432, HVAG, WVGA800, WVGA854, and support for Android OS 1.5, 1.6 & 2+

Price: Free, $3.99

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Make your Android resemble iPhone home screen
• One home screen replacement app allowing access to hundreds of themes built for aHome, Open Home and Panda Home
• Loaded with features

Features:

iHome Home Replacement App by default sets up for Android phone to look somewhat like the iPhone home screen by aligning your apps on up to 7 extended screens. From the initial screen you can quick launch Search, Browser, Contacts, Settings and Customization options in the dock. You can place apps of your choice in this dock by dragging and dropping them.

Buy the paid version of the app allows for cooler transitions when swiping through screens like; book page turn, 3D screen flips, screen swaps, 3D cube flips (GDE Home Screen Replacement App) and more.

Video: iHome Home Replacement App

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwCJhBfhtJs

Usefulness:

Great for personalizing your phone to your tastes.

Ease of Use:

I’m not a fan of their longpress implementation but it works. Filter through apps alphabetically to quickly locate. Poking around the app and settings is the best way to learn it.

Frequently Used:

If used, every time you tap the Home button.

Interface:

iHome is all about the user interface and how your imagination spawns customization.

Flying Aces is an ATC game, control Aircraft as they come in to land. Addictive and unique gameplay, share your high scores online. Hazards, Bonuses, Achievements and more than 10 different unlockable game modes.

Price: Free, UK£1.99

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Pros

• Fun, challenging and addictive

Cons

• There are only a few airports in the game to play
• Graphics need a little more work, but better than Flight Director

Features:

Flying Aces Android Game is a air traffic control game drawing lines to land the planes successfully avoiding mid-air collisions and obstacles. More similar to the popular iPhone game Flight Control and Android game Flight Director. See how your score matches online with others around the world.

Fun Factor & Addictive:

Albeit lacking in some areas the core principles of the game are very challenging and addictive.

Graphics:

The graphics are way better than Flight Director in an attempt to mock Flight Control; it does a decent job of graphics and could use smoother game play.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

Flying Aces uses touch screen only and does not have background music but has sound effects.

Radiant. Take your stand against the alien horde in a pure arcade/action space shooter. Cut through hundreds of creeps to face giant monsters in unique bossfights. Collect special weapons and power-ups, upgrade your ship and save your homeworld! Relive the classics revamped. Follow us on http://twitter.com/hexage

Price: Free, UK£1.50

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Throwback Space Invaders game with modern twist
• Awesome retro radiant graphics and sound effects with smooth game play
• Fun & addictive game

Features:

Radiant Android Game is an awesome retro arcade game of Space Invaders. Hexage, the makers of Buka and Totemo brought us another fun and addicting game. Their interesting mix of simplicity, themes, narration and engaging sound tracks make their Android games worth buying!

Your goal is to blast enemy invaders, dodge enemy fire and comets, while scoring the highest score possibly to complete the mission. At various milestones you can purchase weapons upgrades as you rack up points.

Video: Radiant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx-7ays3bYw

Fun Factor & Addictive:

Radiant Android Game is very fun and addictive.

Tips on Playing Radiant:

• The more points you rack up gives you access to weapons upgrades.
• Tap your ship to display available weapons. Tap the weapon to change it.
• Tap your ship twice to pause the game or tap the back button.
• Conversation with the mission commander reveals small hints.

Graphics:

The graphics are retro 8 bit style with a radiant glow about everything.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

The game uses touch screen, trackball or keypad for control. Vibration if obstacles are crashed into and features amazing sound.

Today AndroidTapp.com is proud to announce a feature addition to our website that allows you to search for Android Apps from Google’s Android Market via our website apps.androidtapp.com. Now you can search Google’s complete marketplace from our website in addition to reading more in-depth Android app reviews.

Features:

• Keyword search + category browse for any app currently listed in Android Market
• Web-based profile pages for each app, including price, description, screenshots and recent user feedback
• One-click purchase from any Android handset plus “email to phone” buy links for Web users
• Easy social share actions for any Android app via Twitter, Facebook and email
• “Hottest Apps” rankings based on worldwide Android app mentions on blogs like AndroidTapp.com and Twitter, with results updated several times a day

In addition to our new Market search tool you can find our reviews with partner Android App Market viewers websites like AndroLib, mPlayIt Android Arcade, and AppBrain! With each of our reviews are quick links to AndroLib and AppBrain app listings. In reverse you will find AndroidTapp reviews on the respective websites. Expanding a greater level of Android app discovery before downloading or buying.

This integration is powered by AppStoreHQ, a mobile app discovery platform for iPhone and Android. Give our Android app search a try!

Opera Mini Web Browser for Android. Get a faster, more cost-efficient Web browsing experience. Use our powerful servers to compress data up to 90% before sending it to your phone, so page-loads are lightning-fast. Opera Mini is easy to use and Opera Link lets you synchronize data between your phone and computer. Try Opera Mini today, it is completely free.

Price: Free

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Lightning Fast mobile web browser!
• Full web browsing in mobile experience
• Opera Link for synchronizing bookmarks between desktop and phone
• Tabbed browsing
• Double Tap Zoom

Cons

• Can’t launch YouTube videos from the browser

Features:

Opera Android Web Browser offers faster mobile web experience as they compress assets before sending them to you yielding bandwidth savings… meaning faster page loads. It features a nice start page with 9 quick bookmarks called Speed Dials to easily launch your favorite websites (hopefully you’ll add us on one of those cards ). However I noticed it is not integrated into Androids intent system, therefore when other apps would like to launch a URL in web browser it’s not in the list.

Tabbed browsing is not in the traditional sense of tabs above the webpage yet similar to the native browser via Speed Dial like bookmarks in the footer. Opera Link is an innovative idea that allows you to sync bookmarks and Speed Dials from desktop and phone once you’ve signed in. The download manager allows pausing and resuming as needed.

Video: Opera Mini 5 Beta for Android

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joBaCW8abNE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfnw4VT2tO8

Usefulness:

To be honest I never opened Opera web browser before it hit Android. Which is a large statement coming from someone who’s background is in Web Design & Development. Why haven’t I focused there? Building enterprise web applications tend to dictate that answer. The market share has always been under served. Opera has never reached more than 3% worldwide usage on desktops to be significant enough to support.

I don’t foresee this trend continuing into the mobile space as they released a solid web browser pretty early on Android, not to mention more than 30 million mobile users on various mobile platforms. However they are competing with the native Web-kit Android web browser (with Pinch-Zoom and Double Tap browsing for Android 2+ devices), Dolphin Browser (with Gesture bookmarks and App Recommendations powered by AndroidTapp.com) and nearly forgotten but still awesome Steel. That said Opera offers users more choice in mobile web browsing.

Ease of Use:

The browser is pretty straight-forward among any mobile web browser, however you’ll notice faster page loads and cool features within the app. A small but useful tidbit I noticed, when you tap the Opera header it zooms the webpage to the top.

Frequently Used:

User dependent. However unusual, you cannot set it as your default mobile web browser.

Interface:

The user experience and interface in Opera are superb. Completely optimized for mobile web browsing.

Protector protects any Android application with password: SMS, Gmail, e-mail, Settings, Photos, Calendar, Notepad, Chat… everything you want! Want to set PIN-code to private messages? Protect your corporate secrets? Show off your phone to others while keeping private data inaccessible? FINALLY on Android!

Price: Free, $0.99

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Protect any Android app with PIN code password!
• Customize which apps are or are not protected
• Customize portions of app features to protect
• No workarounds to beat the protection
• Password Recovery

Features:

Protector Android App really does help protect apps and information on your Android phone by forcing correct entry of a PIN code to open. Don’t want to protect the entire app? Protect a portion of it as well. Awesome!

So my first thought was to thoroughly test this app to see if a savvy Android user could get around this app protection by using Android task management apps like TasKiller or Advanced Task Killer to stop Protector from running then access the information. Nope… stopped short as these apps are protected, therefore requesting a PIN code. You even need a PIN code to open Protector. My final test was to uninstall the app; halted there as the general Settings menu is password protected too!

You can protect any app, not just limited to native Google apps. Also convenient… say you install an app that should be on the protection list  after installing protector like TasKiller, it automatically protects those apps it feels should be in the default protection list.

Update: there was/is password recovery… see details on recovering Protector PIN code password:

What to do if I forgot my password?

Not a problem! You can specify backup email – new password will be sent there on request. Just hold OK button to get the confimation window. Otherwise, please ask me for built-in ’secret’ code that will reset password with 24 hours delay providing order number from Google Checkout to verify your identity.

Anyway, factory reset is required to remove all installed applications and the data (including Protector and all stored gmail data.)

Demo version can be always unlocked with built-in code 00137982399.

Usefulness:

For the security conscious, this app in combination with Mobile Defense are must-haves!

Ease of Use:

Simply install the app and the default settings protect common apps and settings requiring it.

Other Great Use Cases are:

• Allow apps to open like SMS texts and email, however restrict reading or writing to them.
• Have trade secrets or sensitive notes in your task/to-do list apps? Have them protected with Protector.
• Enterprise IT departments can rave at this simple app.

Frequently Used:

If installed it will be in use every time start an app under protection.

CubicMan. Players need control a rolling magic stone to pass through various terrain in order to reach the final destination. The game contains movable bridges, traps, odd-even switches and unidirectional switches. You need to find out a better way to make the stone reach the destination. With 100 levels and 3D, it’s more attractive!

Price: Free, $2.99

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Features:

CubicMan Android Game is a 3D puzzle game. Very similar to Nintaii the goal is to roll & flip the block through the maze and fit the vertical side into the 1×1 radiant cubed hole. Make a wrong move and you will flip your peg off the playing board. Brought to you by mAppn, the same folks behind the popular home screen replacement app aHome. Panning the 3D environment could have better implementation like making use of the trackball of allows panning the background. Unfortunately there are dedicated on-screen controls you have to reveal to pan and zoom.

Fun Factor & Addictive:

CubicMan is very challenging as you progress through various mazes.

Graphics:

Features a cool ancient Egyptian-like theme of a maze world elevated with atop mystic backgrounds.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

Features background music only.

TripIt Travel Organizer puts all your travel plans right on your Android no matter where your travel was booked! Features: Forward travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com to build a trip itinerary, Access all of your travel info from your Android any time with our free app.

Price: Free

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Organize your travel itineraries with tools for additional help
• Receive travel alerts with premium service
• Must have Android app for Travelers

Cons

• Difficult to sign-in using Google Apps account

Features:

TripIt Android App is an extension of the popular travel organization website TripIt.com. If you’re not familiar with TripIt, it’s a great website for travelers that conveniently organizes travel itineraries why adding a social aspect to it sharing recent travels with friends. They offer a premium service that allows you to receive alerts if your flight may be canceled or departure gate changed at the last minute.

The app however is fairly limited yet very useful for how it organizes travel itineraries in an easy to read fashion with icons versus a huge block of ugly text you typically get from your itinerary confirmation emails. Each line item can be drilled down into further detailed to give you a booking details, directions to/from your airport or hotel via Google Maps, estimated hotel check-in/check-out times, and more.

If you have friends using TripIt, you can see their shared travels as well as you can share your travels or not. The shared data consists of sharers’ name, to & from destinations and the miles racked up.

Usefulness:

With all the hoopla that goes along with travel it’s great to have a utility that makes traveling more convenient. At least for me it eliminates fumbling around in my suitcase looking for important travel documents when I can whip out my Android phone.

Ease of Use:

The setup can be quite difficult if you’re trying to sign-in with a Google Apps account. The registration flips between the mobile website and the native app, somewhere in between the authorization token is lost. It took many attempts to register using my Google Apps account.

It’s much more of a breeze if you register for TripIt service directly.

Frequently Used:

Intended for use every time you travel.

Interface:

The user interface and impeccable data organization is what gives this app value.

As many new consumers are buying smart phones with Google’s Android operating system, many are greeted with an overwhelming amount of apps and want to know “what apps they should download“?

Thankfully we offer a premium service to help with that. Research shows that consumers are more influenced to purchase products from: friends/family or trusted recommendations, expert reviews, followed by advertising. This is why we have partnered with mPlayIt’s Android Arcade, a platform for social discovering what Android apps Facebook friends are using. Thus combining the top two impulses in consumer recommendation spending; recommendations and expert opinion.

Today mPlayIt social sharing apps on Facebook for iPhone, Blackberry and Android launches an update to introduce “Gurus” in their “Apptivity Feed”. Gurus are targeted experts; be it users, bloggers or resource websites like ours whom offer highly valued opinions on mobile applications for better discovery. Their Apptivity Feed is a real-time stream of latest activity of recently viewed, rated, commented and Guru Approved apps.

For obvious reasons we were hand selected to represent Android as a Guru. Our colleagues at AndroidGuys.com and AndroidandMe.com top out the list along with IntoMobile and Stuart Dredge. So join us on Facebook to discover some awesome Android apps! Check out our Profile and become a Fan on our new Facebook page!

NewsRob Pro is a RSS/Atom reader that auto syncs with Google Reader. There is also a paid version that is ad-free and unlocks extra features in this version, like Share With Note. Also more features will be added in future releases here: http://bit.ly/nr_pro

Price: Free, €4.99

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Google Reader sync tool
• Read online or download feeds locally to SD Card for offline reading
• Ability to receive Android notifications of new feed content

Features:

NewsRob Android App syncs your Google Reader of RSS feeds with your Android phone. Use the app to conveniently read RSS feeds online or offline, mark read, favorite and categorize various subscribed RSS feeds. Receive Android notifications of new feed content, and cache contents to SD card versus internal memory storage. With the paid version of NewsRob you can add a note to a shared article, or add/view comments.

Video: NewsRob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBXC8qI_VCE

Usefulness:

Great alternative Android app for RSS feeds (even better then mobile version of Google Reader for Android phones).

Ease of Use:

You have to sign into your Google Account to use the app plus subscribe to feeds via Google Reader as NewsRob is a sync and display tool.

Frequently Used:

Really dependent on how often you read your feeds. Potentially used multiple times daily.

Interface:

NewsRob Android App is a mixture of native app and web-based content from your subscribed sources.

DriveSafe.ly reads your text messages (SMS), emails and caller-id out loud. Eliminate the temptation to reach for your phone by letting DriveSafely read to you and automatically respond for you. Stay connected by listening to your messages without texting while driving in your car. TXT hands-free.

Price: Free

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Listen to text messages, emails and screen caller ID while the app reads them aloud to you
• Auto-respond to the person who text messaged or emailed you with a pre-generated response
• Audible feedback quality is clear and sounds conversational and not robotic
• Safer use of receiving text and email messages while driving
• Available for Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile

Cons

• The email integration has to be setup… not automatic
• In evaluating this app there were a few glitches when answering a call, it continued to speak the caller’s name after answering
• Would be cool if you could reply hands-free. I initially assumed it work similar to Voice Assist. Another cool feature would be to have it automatically activate when driving by tapping into GPS to determine that you’re driving.

Features:

DriveSafe.ly Android App is an innovative way to listen to your SMS text messages, emails and even screen your caller ID hands-free as the app reads then aloud to you. It automatically responds to the person who text messaged or emailed you with a message you generate prior. Similar to how PhonePlus Callback is to phone calls, which text messages or emails a caller if you’re busy on the other line. Provides a safer atmosphere while driving as you don’t have to mess with your phone and drive. Shake to the phone to stop the audio.

The audible voice-over quality is impeccable. The dialect truly sounds conversational with: expression pitches at exclamation or questions and recognizes acronyms like LOL and BRB. Does not sound robotic like Text-To-Speech Library or semi-robotic like Google Maps Navigation.

Video: DriveSafe.ly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWO7T0ap3mM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faQZjLQot4w

Usefulness:

Very useful while driving and helps keep eyes on the road.

Ease of Use:

If used for the text message or caller ID setup the app is straight-forward. However becomes a bit more involved for email integration. The email integration has to be setup, it’s not an automatic setup like text message and  caller ID integration. For each email account you must setup POP3 or IMAP (check our quick guide how to do it).

Frequently Used:

Intended for use every time you drive.

As more drivers equip their vehicles with GPS devices or use navigation enabled smartphones; data suggests most common searches are often used during shopping. TeleNav reveals some interesting data about GPS navigation usage from their users nationwide. According to that study, the top 10 U.S. businesses searched with GPS navigation are as follows:

1. Wal-Mart
2. Starbucks
3. Target
4. Best Buy
5. Bank of America
6. Walgreens
7. Pizza Hut
8. Home Depot
9. McDonald’s
10. Chase bank

I recently wrote a developer spotlight on TeleNav noting their GPS navigation product tends to be most accurate regarding routing among GPS navigation apps for Android. The chart below illustrates or concurs my user experience as my city (Chicago) is fourth on the list for cities most likely to use GPS to reroute around traffic.

Cities Most Likely to Use GPS to Reroute Around Traffic

Recently we announced a small startup called appubator whose focus is to elicit ideas from average folks who do not have the means to bring a mobile applications to market. They take on the complete mobile application lifecycle: development, testing, marketing & promotion, and finally sales. Thus they split revenue share with the idea holder. Connected Development put together industry leading wireless components to help those delving into the mobile industry from concept to completion with outsourced services from custom design, to certification & validation, to manufacturing.

There are many facets to bringing products into the marketplace from a mobile perspective:

The idea was conceived by president Stefan Lindvall, Connected Development was created to address the complexities of the wireless development cycle. “Often, companies trying to gain the advantages of wireless find the learning curve steep and expensive, just to get started,” Lindvall said. “And once they’ve invested in product design, they can be overwhelmed by the certification process. We formed Connected Development to simplify the entire process, eliminate barriers to entry and enable wireless innovation for better business and better living.”

To have a team of experts help avoid pitfalls, offer advice and streamline the process can prove to be invaluable. Connected Development will be attending CTIA Wireless 2010 in Las Vegas March 23-25 where AndroidTapp.com will be covering mobile and Android-related hot topics.

[Via Press Release]