This app browses NASA’s repository of thousands of photos from all over the universe and delivers them to your phone or tablet. Not only can you select a particular photo and instantly apply it to your home screen, but the app can automatically update your wallpaper with a new photo every day. For those seeking variety this is a slightly better option than a live wallpaper, as the developer claims that is won’t drain your battery constantly. Users can set the time of day that the wallpaper will update, search the database of previous “APODs” at any time and download them, and a full article entry is included on each photo for scientific information on exactly what you’re seeing.

Astronomy Picture of the Day is free and ad-supported. If you like it and want to get rid of the adds, download the donation version for three bucks. (Seriously, if you like the app, be a good Android citizen and pony up.) If you’d like something a little more fanciful, be sure to check out Maxelus.net’s series of “Galaxy” live wallpapers, all of which are both free and downright awesome.

[via Carrypad, via Reddit]

The idea is actually pretty genius. Google is offering all the Grammy-winning or nominated songs for extremely low prices. So all those popular songs that you’ve been hearing on the radio and saw win a few awards can now be yours on the cheap. If I didn’t already own the Mumford & Sons CD I’d be snagging that entire album for only $3.99 instantly. Great idea Google!

It might not be free but getting some of the biggest songs for $0.59 cents instead of $1.29, and full albums for only $3.99 is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Of course all of these get instantly uploaded into the Google Music cloud and can be accessed from anywhere using Google Music the second you purchase them. On your phone, tablet, PC, laptop and even Google TV all from anywhere. If you’d like physical downloaded copies of said songs remember they can always be downloaded to your device or PC with the new Google Music Manager.

Get some award winning music for cheap and rock out!

Google Music Sale Link

While not quite as dramatic as the holiday music sale back in December, the “For Lovers For Le$$” promotion offers a collection of 81 albums for a reduced price of $6.99 each (in most cases). It’s an eclectic mix that should satisfy fans of every genre, whether you’re trying to woo a certain someone or console yourself over rejection from same. Get your lonely on in whatever way you choose, but if romance is your aim, you gotta go with the classics: albums from Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Etta James, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and The Temptations are all on offer.

Most of the albums have a distinctly amorous theme, though a lot are simply popular collections from the last few years of pop and rock. Like the previous sales, there’s no indication of when Google intends to end the sale, though sometime after next Tuesday is a pretty good bet. As usual, you can purchase the albums from your phone or computer, and listen to them via the web or any Android device.

Google has been updating their social app quite often to make sure it is steady, stable, and quick. Something the Facebook app for Android could use some help with. Looking over the “What’s New” from the image above we can see an entire host of changes with today’s update. Here is the full change log:

–Massive performance improvements across the app
–What’s Hot!
–View who +1′d a post or comment
–Stream posts shortened to fit more per scroll
–Infinite photos feed in ‘From your circles’
–Stream no longer jumps to the top for an automatic refresh

From my initial few minutes with the latest update things do seem to be running swiftly as I flip through pages, posts, and circles. The streams being shortened to fit more per scroll doesn’t appear to have changed too much. It looks like the previews are just slightly smaller. One of the biggest changes and something I’ve been extremely frustrated with is the automatic refresh jumping to the top. What a pain that has been. I’m extremely glad to see they’ve fixed that minor oversight. The update has just landed and is available right now. Check for updates or hit the market link below to enjoy the latest from Google. Don’t forget to circle us at +AndroidCommunity

Market Link

Other little touches surround the well thought-out app: a background service keeps an eye out for incoming calls to your Vonage number, and it integrates with your existing address book to check if you can call other Vonage customers or app users for free. Basic texting is included at no extra charge, much like the recently updated Google Voice. According to the app’s Android Market description, calls to to any number in the US, Canada or Puerto Rico will be free for a limited time… no matter where in the world your call originates.

There are a few restrictions. Calling when connected to a mobile network uses data instead of minutes, so using Vonage to completely replace your cell phone plan could get expensive fast. And the free US and Canada offer is limited to 3000 total minutes a month – though if you’re talking on the phone for 50 hours over 30 days, you’ll probably appreciate the gesture anyway. On that note, one impressive convenience feature is that you can add pre-paid calling credit directly from your Android Market account. Download the Vonage app for free here.

The 1.0.3 version of Steam includes better support for Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich’s native graphical acceleration, which should make for some speed improvements on the applicable devices. Stability enhancements should make it run better on older phones as well, especially 2.1 phones, where store browsing is now enabled. A few UI tweaks like automatic links in chat make for smoother use all around. Based on a few minutes of tinkering with my own Steam account the overall app seems very much improved, and more like the ubiquitous desktop version – kudos, Valve.

You can download the app for free in the Android Market for just about any Android phone or tablet. Of course, your choices in Steam access are significantly curtailed after dozens of third-party Steam apps disappeared from the Market without notice. Valve still hasn’t commented on the removal, but a few have come back under different names: the unofficial ”Steam for Android” app that we previously covered is now “Vapor for Android ” (nice), and can be downloaded in the Market for free once again. This solidifies the idea that Valve objected to other Steam apps on copyright grounds.

The idea is simple enough: create a social network for the fashion conscious, wherein they can snap photos from their phones, upload them and “like” or comment on the results. The brilliant bit comes in the combination of the ubiquitous tags and StyleTag’s unique categorization system. Sure, you can look at the firehose feed in the main wall view of all the entries or just the most popular ones, but if you’re in the mood to find jeans or evening wear, or even items from a particular brand or designer, search by tag. You can save favorite tags or feeds to follow them Twitter-style, or just chat with other registered users.

As a method for casually browsing the latest in fashion, the app is an impressive accomplishment – I wish more mainstream software could look this good. Admittedly, the userbase skews overwhelmingly female at the moment; guys won’t find many tips or items of interest. As far as clothing goes, anyway.  (Ahem.) Top users are turning in some impressive entries both for clothing and photography, though some is certainly taken with the aid of more than just a smartphone.

There are a few holdovers from the iOS app design, like portrait-only orientation and a persistent back button. But over all it’s a beautiful app with a surprising amount of depth, for those with the inclination to peruse its digital aisles. You can download it now in the Android Market – fair warning, it doesn’t seem to like Android tablets at the moment.

For a little perspective, remember that Thorsten Heins is the same man who claimed that “All Android phones are the same“, probably while carrying a RIM BlackBerry [generic title] [four-digit number] in his pocket. A week later RIM started literally giving away PlayBooks to any Android developer who ported their apps to the floundering tablet platform, using RIM’s supplied tools to bootstrap and Android environment onto their proprietary software. It might have something to do with the fact that BlackBerry App World has only 60,ooo apps as opposed to Android’s 300,000+, and a tiny fraction of those are made for the PlayBook. RIM claims 6 million app downloads every day. Since we know that at least one billion apps were downloaded from the Android Market in a six-week period from December to January, we can estimate that around 23 million apps are being downloaded from the Market every day.

But fear not, gentle reader: RIM will not go quietly into that good night. They’ve committed to remaining true to their own software and platform, and are in no way, shape or form considering switching to Android. Despite building a tablet that seems tailor-made for running Android apps, and doing a little too much protesting. No RIM, keep BlackBerry on your antiquated hardware and rapidly declining software instead of bringing your business acumen to a vibrant new platform – it’s worked so well for the likes of Palm and Nokia, after all.

[via The Verge]

Until now, that is: generous XDA member  “nathanpc” (Nathan Campos) built an app specifically for rooted users to quickly and easily alter their build properties file. The build.prop editor is now in its 1.0 release, and while it’s a simple little app, it makes a common advanced process blessedly easier. Just install the app, grant it root permissions via the Superuser pop-up, and you can instantly modify any entry in the build.prop file to your liking. Both the property name (which in most cases, you won’t want to change) and the property key can be modified for each entry, and new properties can be added. Reboot to apply your changes.

Modder beware: messing with your build.prop file in the wrong way can give your Android phone or tablet some serious headaches. While the Editor generously includes a backup and restore function, it’s probably best to make your own backup as well before making any serious changes. With that warning out of the way, head on over to the Android Market to read Nathan’s warnings too, then download the app for free.

All you really need to know is it will search and help you discover all things Android applications. Although they do support that other main competitor too — although WP7 seems to be missing. The new Apps portal went live this week giving users access to Android and iOS applications in an easy to use and navigate page. Complete with results, reviews, ratings, and even a gallery of large previews and more.

Users can browse Yahoo’s suggested apps or search and filter their results by operating system, price, and category to make things simple. The new portal only directs users to the actual Android Market so we don’t really have anything new here, just basically a page that will forward you to the already available market. However, they do add Yahoo reviews in with market reviews to give users a better selection to read from and help decide. Give it a try from the link below and let us know if it’s useful, or pointless.

Yahoo Apps

[via Android Central]

To celebrate the end of the season and Super Bowl Sunday EA has dropped the price down from the usual $4.99 to just $0.99 cents for the weekend. If you’re not sure if you should get this game and have been holding out, now would be a good time. Being officially licensed by the NFL you have full stats, player names, numbers and more. It is as accurate and realistic as it gets. Having all of that on a small mobile game really is quite impressive and it’s one of my favorite games.

We aren’t the only ones getting in on the action here in the US either. The UK version has also seen the same price drop for those not in the US and looking to join in on the fun that us Americans call “football”. The deal is for a limited time only and will most likely raise to full price come Monday so I’d get it while you can. While most devices are supported, including the Transformer Prime on Ice Cream Sandwich sadly the Galaxy Nexus is still not compatible. Hopefully an update will resolve that but in the mean time get it while it’s hot.

Market Link

This isn’t all either. Google already has multiple systems in place, from features and sandboxes built in to prevent these types of problems or information theft, to a system where they can quickly pull the ban hammer out and delete malicious apps from the market — even right off your device if severe enough. I’ve never had a malware problem myself, but some claim it is still an issue for Android.

The new Market Bouncer will work in a few ways. For one it will scan every Android Market application on Google’s cloud services and simulate it running on a device. Then check for malware or suspicious activity. And secondly, the new system will scan each app as they are introduced into the Market upon the approval process. So this will watch and protect us from new apps, and current apps that might get updated or introduce malware or suspicious activity.

Google says this will not affect the submission and approval process and works in just a few seconds — as long as your code and application are clean. What about wrongly flagged apps being removed from the market? That won’t happen either as once an application is flagged Google’s team will manually investigate the application to make sure before wrongly pulling an app or game.

I am really liking this forward thinking and positive approach to malware. What do you guys think? Google ends the security post on a good note and had this to say:

No security approach is foolproof, and added scrutiny can often lead to important improvements. Our systems are getting better at detecting and eliminating malware every day, and we continue to invite the community to work with us to keep Android safe.

Rhapsody allows customers to find and discover millions of new music tracks, not to mention unlimited music streaming to your Android phone or tablet. They are touting the new tablet layout as more touchable, more engaging, and now with loads of content and new paths to music discovery. With large tiles for easy discovery users can find and enjoy music with ease. This new UI apparently works on Android 3.0 Honeycomb and above tablets, and only for 9″ or larger screens. We’ve yet to try it on a 7″ slate but have a feeling it just might work anyways.

That isn’t all either. The latest update is available right now in the Android Market and they’ve even updated a few fixes for the Kindle Fire — so apparently they support smaller screens in some fashion at least. Other updates include fixes to adding tracks to playlists in bulk, enhanced audio focus at song startup, fixed some sign in screen issues and now supports all Samsung device on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread.

If Google Music isn’t your cup of tea or you’d like access to millions of artists and music give Rhapsody a try today. Get the new updated app from the link below and enjoy.

Market Link

While clearly anyone interested already knows it’s the Patriots vs the G-Men from New York. The app will allow you to choose any team you’d like, not just the Super Bowl teams. Although getting your favorite team logo and flag flying on your homescreen will cost you a few dollars, while the Super Bowl part is free.

It works on both phones and tablets, all screen sizes and has full support for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Once you pay for your favorite team there is all sorts of settings and options. From team ringtones, stadium background settings and more. They’ve even updated with a holiday theme and Lucas Oil Stadium options specifically for the Super Bowl.

the developer states it has been officially licensed by the NFL ensuring the app wont get pulled randomly. They even have multiple angles for the helmet and stadium view for those that don’t like the standard options. It looks like a great app and will be an awesome way to show your team spirit this weekend.

My Packers sadly lost and even though it was to the Giants — I’ll still be rooting for the G-Men come Sunday. Who is your team and who do you want to win? I’m saying Giants over the Pats 20-17 for the final score. Sound off in the comments below!

Market Link

The main feature of the Super Bowl XLVI app is a 3D navigation map of the stadium and the surrounding area, helping fans to navigate to parking, find their seat and get back to the hotel afterwards. Also included are nearby restaurants and bars, as well as the time and location of the various official events surrounding the game. The NFL Huddle feature lets you take a peek at the social media buzz, though why you’d want to I cant’s imagine, since anyone interested is either attending in person or watching live.

The app isn’t much good to the hundreds of millions of football fans watching at home, but then, they’ve got other things to occupy their attention. In the incredibly unlikely event that you can’t find a TV tuned to the right channel, Verizon is allowing free viewing of the Super Bowl through their exclusive NFL Mobile app. Samsung fans will want to pay close attention to the important part of the broadcast (the commercials) since the company is planning a big-budget debut of the AT&T Galaxy Note LTE, possibly wrapping up their current anti-Apple campaign.

[via android central]

If you’re unfamiliar with Mint, think of it as financial tracking with the training wheels on. Connect it to your bank account, credit cards and investments, and it gives you a quick look at your current debt/net worth, risks and spending habits. You can set up alerts for when balances are running low, or when you go over budget on regular bills, like groceries or cell phone service. Even cash transactions are covered, though you’ll have to enter those manually.

A new feature that’s particularly handy is cached storage. Say you go to that trendy new nightclub on 6th Street that coats the walls in signal-absorbing paint, and you’re suddenly unsure of whether you can cover a round for the house. Your mobile banking app is out of luck thanks to a requirement for an encrypted connection, but Mint can save your information for viewing offline, still protected by your personal password. (Ed: don’t buy a round for the house anywhere on 6th Street.) A search function helps you easily find individual purchases as well.

[via MarketWatch]

It works like this: start up the app and tap settings. Select any coin that happens to be in your pocket or change drawer. The app works with an American penny, nickel, dime or quarter, or a Euro 1, 5, 20, 20 or 50 cent piece. Point your camera towards your table or desk, take a photo, adjust the circle around your coin, and the app will use it as a physical reference to measure the bolt. You can get both the length of the shaft and the head size, in Imperial or Metric.

If you’d like to use the app for free or just need it periodically, there’s a free ad-supported version. If you plan on using it regularly, be a good Android citizen and shell out 99 cents for the ad-free version. There’s no functional difference between the two. The developer plans to add even more options in the future, so keeping it on your phone might be a god idea. Great idea, dev – keep ‘em coming.

[via Reddit]

Developers Pavel M’s and FrIuNs spent most of today trying to get in contact with Google and kick the offending app out of the Market. At the time of writing, the bogus game is gone, presumably thanks to Google’s intervention. The pirate was asking $9.99 for the privilege of playing a free game. The developers reported the offense on their Facebook page, asking supporters to report the app in the Android Market, which almost certainly had an effect on Google’s response.

In the original and still active XDA thread, the legitimate devs ask for donations to help them devote time to the project. I’m sure more than a few die-hard Counter-Strike fans have thrown $10 or more their way, as they should. As great as it is that the situation was resolved relatively quickly, one can’t help but wonder how often this happens without anyone knowing, or with developers who lack the notoriety to generate thousands of flags in the Market quickly enough.

Android Community would like to take this opportunity to remind you that if you pirate applications, it’s because you suck. If you want to play the Counter-Strike Android port you can download it here, and if you enjoy it, throw a few bucks towards the hard-working and generous developers.

[via Droid Gamers]

We all asked and Valve has listened — now if they’d only release HalfLife: 3 everyone would finally be happy. I have a feeling it is coming in 2012 though, just a thought. Just like we mentioned in our original announcement post the app is still under construction and says so in more than a few areas while browsing. I was hoping to see my recently played games but at the moment that button doesn’t respond to my taps.

Not only is the app out of beta for current Steam users, but all those other 3rd party apps are now being pulled from the Android Market — without notice too. While a few remain it is clear that Steam’s official app will be the only one moving forward even though their API is open to developers. If you aren’t a current Steam user just make an account and jump on the beta list and you’ll be up and running in no time over here on Android.

Once again, give me HalfLife: 3 and I’ll never complain again Valve — until I want 4 in 2018.

[via Android Market]

According to Lookout, the Apperhand package is the common code running in al l13 offending apps. Once executed it places a search icon on the Android home screen which links exclusively to partner ad websites. Lookout disagrees with Symantec’s assessment that the relevant apps qualify as “malware”, though they do say that most Android users wouldn’t want the ads running on their phone or tablet. Syamntec is sticking with its classification. The ad network identifies individual phones via IMEI number, pushes ads to the phone (as if they were SMS or email messages) and drops bookmarks into users’ browser apps, but Lookout still does not consider this “malicious” activity.

What we have here is a battle of interpretation. Symantec classifies the apps as malware based both on their observed activities and their capabilities – namely, the possibility that the apps can send personal information through an otherwise necessary Internet connection. Lookout disagrees, asserting that Symantec’s original claims were overblown. While Symantec’s post is certainly self-serving, it doesn’t appear deceitful – they outline the capabilities of the Android.Counterclank API and why users should be worried. However, since not all of the 13 apps originally identified by Symantec have been removed form the Android Market by Google, users can assume that whatever objectionable content is to be found in their code does not constitute “malware” by Google’s definition.

[via eWeek]