Hasta La Gadget!

As we all know, the beauty of Android stems from the fact that you get a wide variety of choices when it comes to devices and interface, though the latter can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Luckily, users who are fed up with their bloated Android UI but don’t want to (or can’t) mess around with ROMs now have another easy solution. Joining the handful of Android launchers is SPB’s Shell 3D app, which installs as a replacement (but removable) home screen that comes with some nifty widgets (radio switches, backlight dimmer, weather forecast with a 3D chart, clock with over 60 skins, world time with a 3D globe, etc.) and resizeable folders.

As you can see above, the highlight of the show here is a cool-looking 3D carousel for switching between up to 16 panels, and you can trigger it by either tapping or horizontally dragging the bottom-center button. Whilst in carousel mode, you can also rearrange the panels, change their colors, or flick away excess panels. All of this required no manual reading on our end, so it’s safe to say that this is a pretty intuitive app. Read on to see what the performance is like.

Continue reading App review: SPB Shell 3D for Android

App review: SPB Shell 3D for Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking to save a bit of battery life on your Thunderbolt by dialing down those crazy LTE speeds from time to time? Then you now have a relatively easy way to do so courtesy of the new LTE OnOff app that’s just hit the Android Market. That’s apparently similar to a few other options available, but this one’s free, and it will let you switch from LTE to 3G only with just three taps. Sound good? Hit up the link below to download it straight to your Thunderbolt.

App gives HTC Thunderbolt an LTE on / off switch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apps collecting users’ information without their knowledge may not be anything new, but it’s not everyday we see things rise to the level of Federal Grand Jury investigation. That happened today, however, with Federal prosecutors in New Jersey launching a probe to determine whether smartphone apps have been collecting personal information like an individual’s location without being suitably up front about it. So far only Pandora and one independent developer have come forward and said they’ve received subpoenas, but Pandora says it believes the probe is an industry-wide one, and that it is “not a specific target of the investigation.” As the Wall Street Journal notes, the investigation is also still only in the early stages and may well not result in any actual charges, but it seems to be extending beyond just the app makers themselves. A “person familiar with the matter” has told the Wall Street Journal that both Apple and Google have been asked to provide information on the apps and app makers in question, although neither is commenting on the matter publicly at the moment.

Federal prosecutors investigating Pandora, other smartphone apps over privacy concerns originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The future of the Zune as a standalone media player is still a little in doubt, but its future of being able to send crucially important e-mails and, in return, get a boatload of spam is now fully assured. A free e-mail app has been added to the Zune Marketplace supporting Gmail, Windows Live Mail, and of course good ‘ol POP3 accounts. Unfortunately all we have to gaze upon is that tiny screenshot over on the right, but it certainly looks familiar enough to fit right into the Zune ecosphere without making any waves. Just make sure you don’t go looking for your Steely Dan collection inside the unread folder.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Zune HD finally gets an e-mail application, still waiting on a future originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Apr 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Before we all get in a huff about this, Google has been very eager to point out that the facial recognition app it’s developing will work on a strictly opt-in basis. That means if you don’t want it to scan all of Facebook, Flickr and the rest of Google’s vast hoards of internet knowledge to find you, identify you, and collate your name, phone number and email address into a handy data sheet, it won’t. Okay? So relax now, everything’s fine. Seriously though, Google’s latest research venture sounds like a dashing stride into a minefield of privacy concerns as it aims to use people’s faces to instantly identify them and provide any salient info about them. Project leader Hartmut Neven, whose company Neven Vision was gobbled up by Google in 2006, says the team is being very cautious in how it addresses people’s rather apt apprehension, but he insists there’s actually great value in having a face-recognizing and data-mining app. Great value for the app’s user, perhaps, but we’d rather just stick to business cards, if you ask us.

Update: Google has reached out to clarify that there are no plans to introduce functionality of this sort yet, not without “a strong privacy model in place.” More importantly, however, the linking of facial recognition to personal data is described as “inventions of the reporter” rather than something the company’s actively pursuing.

Google working on a face recognition app that leads to your personal info? (update: Google says ‘no’) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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