Android-Hen

It's pretty common for Android apps to playfully emulate hot new features from the iOS platform, but rarely have the done so as completely as Control Panel. This app apes the iOS 7 Control Panel feature, a swipe up settings toggle and shortcut screen. It even lacks substantial configuration options, thus completing the iOS illusion.

  

You access Control Center with a swipe up gesture, but it's actually just an invisible button at the bottom of the screen – that has the potential to be a bit awkward. The panel has toggles for WiFi, Bluetooth, rotation lock, Airplane Mode, cell data, and various other settings and shortcuts.

 

Control Center even has the same frosted glass look dominant in iOS 7. The swipe up gesture might prove troublesome on devices with on-screen buttons, but you can scoot the active area around a bit. This app is free, so it's worth a look if only for a laugh.

Just two more months, football fans, and your long wait will be over. Many NFL fans use the summer months to prepare their fantasy football teams and leagues, in the gentleman jock's alternative to Dungeons and Dragons. CBS has its own fantasy service (just like ESPN, Yahoo, the NFL itself, and starting in 2014, the official Android Police Fantasy Football Service) that was marked by an impressively awful Android app, lazily ported from the iOS version. CBS has scrapped the older app, listing and all, and thrown up a new version. It's a free download for Android 2.2 and up, though the fantasy service itself is paid.

 

The CBS Sports Fantasy Football app covers all the bases (or as it might be, yards) of the typical fantasy app: it ties into the CBSSports.com servers for access to your personal team and league info, with team roster building and trades. You can even switch between teams in different leagues, say, for your work friends and personal friends. For those who like to make things a little more - ahem - interesting, there's also support for pick'em games and survivor pools, so there's no arguing when you go to cash in. Scores are updated live, and there's live news for drafts, stats, and real-world projections. The user interface and stability appears to be much improved, and even (gasp!) follows Android design guidelines.

 

Humorously, CBS seems to be in denial about the terrible nature of the former app. The new description reads: "Building upon last year’s award-winning app, we’ve re-designed and re-built the app to make it easier for you to use, give you faster access to scoring and make it even more reliable." Which doesn't explain why the new app has a completely new Play Store entry, and the old one has disappeared. Luckily, AppBrain still has the old entry available, including its awful reviews. We'll post a screenshot here to preserve its former 2.6 out of 5 rating, for the education of would-be lazy iPhone port developers everywhere.

Compulsive couldn't be more simple: switch up the blocks, match the colors in sections of four or more, and clear the board, not unlike a slightly elongated version of Bejeweled. Graphics are incredibly basic (Jonny Ive approves) and there are no extras to speak of, but you can try and beat your friends' top scores via an integrated Facebook leaderboard.

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A palette of beautiful colors needs your help to get organized. This quick color matching puzzle game is easy to learn and difficult to put down. Ready to get Compulsive?

  

Twin-stick shooter fans, this may just be your ultimate mobile game. Inferno+ uses the standard control scheme and Tron graphics that seem to have become compulsory since Geometry Wars, but crams more screen-filling enemies and seizure-inducing special effects on screen than any other game we've seen thus far. Upgradeable ships and gameplay-changing special weapons don't hurt either. You need to see the game in motion in the video below to truly appreciate it.

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The spectacular twin-stick action-RPG blasts onto Android! Welcome to Inferno+, the highly-anticipated title from Radiangames, creator of Slydris, Fireball SE, and Ballistic SE. Blast your way through 40 atmospheric levels. Explore the gauntlet of stylish environments, destroy hordes of enemies, and upgrade your ship along the way. With 3 difficulty levels, 20 achievements, and New Game+ mode, you'll be in for hours of enjoyment.

  

  

Infinite Flight is, hands-down, the most painstakingly accurate flight simulator we've seen yet for Android. If spending hours in Microsoft Flight is your idea of a good time, this game might just give you an adequate mobile experience, complete with a surprising amount of planes from the Boeing 747 to the P-38 Lightning. A handful of planes and environments are included for $5, with even more available as in-app purchases.

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Enjoy a fully featured flight simulator in the palm of your hands. Infinite Flight offers the most comprehensive flight simulation experience on mobile devices whether you are a curious novice or an accomplished pilot. Fly a large selection of highly detailed aircrafts in regions across the world - day and night - in many atmospheric condition, and with a wide range of weight configurations. Improve your skills with our advanced camera and replay system, letting you scrutinize every portion of your flight.

  

  

Yahoo! Mail is still the number one provider of email services to the United States, and Yahoo has been steadily updating both the platform at large and the Android app. Yesterday's bump to version 2.6 adds the Dropbox integration shown at the recent developer conference, allowing users to add attachments directly from their cloud storage folders, no upload necessary. Just tap on the paperclip icon and select the Dropbox option. Neat!

 

Yahoo! Mail for Android now supports Business Mail accounts, which is Yahoo's version of Google Apps for Business. That's kind of a big deal if you use your smartphone for unimportant things like answering emails (previously you'd have to use the default Android email client, or a third-party alternative). All the features of the standard app apply to Business users, including (yes!) push email notifications. The UI has been given a bit of extra polish as well: it's now possible to swipe horizontally to advance or retreat through your emails without going "up" to the inbox view.

On top of that, you get the standard stability and performance improvements. The app is compatible with most every Android device, and includes both tablet and smartphone views. Get to it, Yahooligans.

Update #4: The mirror for Android 4.1+ is up.

Update #3 by Artem: We have so far seen at least 6 variations of the APK, with some aimed at API 16 and 17 (Android 4.1+) and some at just API 17 (Android 4.2+). Some of them have mdpi, some hdpi, xhdpi, and xxhdpi resources. There are tons of variants.

What we'll do is provide another mirror for Android 4.1 owners, but you may end up with a version of the APK not optimized for your device (which means it may try to scale lower-quality textures up or high-quality ones down and ultimately either look worse or behave slower than it should).

My advice to you is to uninstall the update in a few days and reinstall the one from the Play Store, which will automatically pull the APK optimized for your device.

Update #2: It appears that only the changelog was pulled, while the update is still rolling out. For those not willing to wait, we've got the .apk (thanks, vwbeetlvr!), though we suspect that this .apk might only work on devices running Android 4.2. See below for screenshots and download mirrors.

Update #1: It looks like the update may have been pulled. We'll keep an eye on the situation and update when more information is available.

Back at I/O, Google unveiled the new Google Maps. The web interface is already live for many, giving users a trim, clean experience with a more vivid color palette and enhanced functionality including new methods of discovery and better visual cues.

Google promised that Android's (long overdue) Maps refresh with the same great features and more would be popping up some time this summer, and it has finally arrived. Earlier this evening, an update began rolling out (in now signature stages) to users of Android 4.0.3 and above.

Let's take a look at some screenshots.

   

  

   

 

   

The update, besides bringing a fresh new design (for both phones and tablets of course), promises the awesome navigation changes we were expecting, including "live traffic updates, incident reports, and dynamic rerouting," meaning if there's a wreck during your commute, Maps can go ahead and route you around the incident.

Of course the new exploration methods and markers are all there as well. Here's the semi-full changelog:

Keep a close eye on your device for the update, or just grab it now from one of the mirrors below.

Android 4.2 only:

Android 4.1+: