Showing posts with label android app. Show all posts
Showing posts with label android app. Show all posts
3 free Marvel Games For Android
Best games
Tony Stark spends his fair share of time rocketing through the sky and blasting his foes in the Iron Man movies, and those activities form the cornerstone of the Iron Man 3 game. You’ll fly through a variety of environments, scooping up power-ups and currency, dodging hazards, and shooting down villains. The rewards you earn can advance and unlock over a dozen new Iron Man suits with different capabilities and special attacks.
The game defaults to tilt controls when first installed, which can be cumbersome if you’re playing in a public place, so switch to full touch controls from the options if that makes you more comfortable. Regardless of which control style you choose, the game is a stiff challenge. Luckily, many of the regularly rotating side missions add up your total performance over many runs, so even if you’re crashing and burning a lot, you’ll still finish tasks that give you packs of credits you can spend on improving your Iron Man suits.
Puzzle Quest has been around in various incarnations on mobile devices for quite a while. Its fusion of match three gameplay and RPG-style character progression proved to be two tastes that go great together. This incarnation of the game lets you collect a wide array of Marvel heroes, and use their unique powers at the right time to achieve victory. For example, you’ll likely fall in love with Black Widow’s stun effect very early, as it buys you valuable rounds free from the constant pressure of enemy attacks.
Marvel Puzzle Quest will have you fighting everything from street thugs to arch villains, and the little bits of over the top story surrounding each mission provide a nice touch of narrative around your matches. To defend yourself from enemy attacks, you’ll have to shatter certain gems that have countdowns on them before they reach zero. It’s really rewarding to think a few moves ahead and position a gem to score a great combo or bonus turn.
Why feature two endless runners on the same list? Because Spider-Man Unlimited and Iron Man 3 feel totally different! For starters, Spider-Man sports a kid friendly, cartoonish feel that fits Peter Parker’s wise-cracking attitude. It also focuses on missions with a defined end, such as beating a villain or grabbing several of a certain item, with the endless mode set aside for leveling up outside of the story. Play well, and you’ll unlock a wide variety of playable alternate dimension Spider-Man characters, like the Japanese-inspired Mangaverse Spider-Man.
Where Spider-Man Unlimited really shines is in the wide variety of obstacles you’ll have to navigate to succeed. Swipes on the touch screen navigate many objects, but you’ll also tilt your device for wall-crawling, hold and release for web-swinging, and tap rapidly to unleash a string of furious punches and kicks on villains. The regular changes of pace will surely keep you on your toes and engaged.
Iron Man 3
The Endless Runner Takes Flight.Tony Stark spends his fair share of time rocketing through the sky and blasting his foes in the Iron Man movies, and those activities form the cornerstone of the Iron Man 3 game. You’ll fly through a variety of environments, scooping up power-ups and currency, dodging hazards, and shooting down villains. The rewards you earn can advance and unlock over a dozen new Iron Man suits with different capabilities and special attacks.
The game defaults to tilt controls when first installed, which can be cumbersome if you’re playing in a public place, so switch to full touch controls from the options if that makes you more comfortable. Regardless of which control style you choose, the game is a stiff challenge. Luckily, many of the regularly rotating side missions add up your total performance over many runs, so even if you’re crashing and burning a lot, you’ll still finish tasks that give you packs of credits you can spend on improving your Iron Man suits.
Marvel Puzzle Quest
Powered Up Match-Three Puzzles.Puzzle Quest has been around in various incarnations on mobile devices for quite a while. Its fusion of match three gameplay and RPG-style character progression proved to be two tastes that go great together. This incarnation of the game lets you collect a wide array of Marvel heroes, and use their unique powers at the right time to achieve victory. For example, you’ll likely fall in love with Black Widow’s stun effect very early, as it buys you valuable rounds free from the constant pressure of enemy attacks.
Marvel Puzzle Quest will have you fighting everything from street thugs to arch villains, and the little bits of over the top story surrounding each mission provide a nice touch of narrative around your matches. To defend yourself from enemy attacks, you’ll have to shatter certain gems that have countdowns on them before they reach zero. It’s really rewarding to think a few moves ahead and position a gem to score a great combo or bonus turn.
Spider-Man Unlimited
Endless Running. And Crawling. And Swinging.Why feature two endless runners on the same list? Because Spider-Man Unlimited and Iron Man 3 feel totally different! For starters, Spider-Man sports a kid friendly, cartoonish feel that fits Peter Parker’s wise-cracking attitude. It also focuses on missions with a defined end, such as beating a villain or grabbing several of a certain item, with the endless mode set aside for leveling up outside of the story. Play well, and you’ll unlock a wide variety of playable alternate dimension Spider-Man characters, like the Japanese-inspired Mangaverse Spider-Man.
Where Spider-Man Unlimited really shines is in the wide variety of obstacles you’ll have to navigate to succeed. Swipes on the touch screen navigate many objects, but you’ll also tilt your device for wall-crawling, hold and release for web-swinging, and tap rapidly to unleash a string of furious punches and kicks on villains. The regular changes of pace will surely keep you on your toes and engaged.
Best Free Internet Radio App For Android
iHeartRadio
This app is more than just music. Unlike most Internet radio apps, this one is actually like traditional radio and offers various types of content, including talk shows, news, sports, and entertainment. You might think that this widespread focus might weaken the music side of iHeartRadio, but have no fear because it excels there too.
Availability
Only in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. (Though it is possible to circumvent this with an Android VPN.)Selection
Not only does it boast a collection of 18 million songs from 400,000+ artists, it allows you to tune into 800+ live AM/FM radios from all over the country. It’s safe to say that you won’t run out of content for a long time with this app.Interface
iHeartRadio feels fresh, clean, and modern. There’s nothing particularly eye-catching about it, but that’s why it’s so great: it steps out of the way and makes it easy for you to do what you want. Live radios? Custom playlists? Navigating songs? It all makes sense and never feels like an obstacle.Features
The beauty of iHeartRadio is that it’s as close to an all-in-one solution as you’ll ever get as far as Internet radio for Android is concerned. Choose from any number of curated music radio playlists or create your own stations based on your favorite genres, artists, songs. The “For You” feature will even tailor music to your personal tastes.Cost
Free with ads.Pandora
Is there anyone out there who hasn’t yet heard of Pandora? This service is so popular that its name has almost become synonymous with “Internet radio,” at least for music. For live radio streams and non-music radio content, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Pandora pioneered the idea of a dynamic music playlist by way of its Music Genome Project, without which we might still be stuck in the land of MP3s and music player apps. Indeed, this app is as much about discovering new music as it is about playing music that fits your specific tastes.
Availability
Only in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.Selection
While there is a surprising genre diversity in Pandora’s selection, the total size of their music database is quite small, hovering at somewhere around 1 million. It falls way short of its competitors, such as iHeartRadio’s 18 million.To be fair, I’ve found a lot of good music on Pandora that I haven’t encountered anywhere else, but at the end of the day, Pandora’s stations can and will grow repetitive.
Interface
There isn’t much complexity to Pandora’s design, which shines through in its interface. You pick the station you want (or create a new one) and it starts playing. From there, you can skip songs or go back and switch stations. It’s very straightforward, which is a major plus for a mobile music app.Features
While the lack of complexity might’ve been great for its interface, Pandora suffers for being a one-trick pony. Or maybe it doesn’t suffer at all. If the only function you need is the ability to “play songs like this song/artist/genre”, then Pandora is perfect for you. But if you need anything else, Pandora won’t have it.Cost
Free with ads. To remove ads, you can upgrade to Pandora One for $4.99 USD per month. Pandora One is applied per-account rather than per-device, so this carries over onto all devices that you might use to listen to Pandora.TuneIn
TuneIn is the most popular result when searching for “radio” on the Google Play Store and for good reason. Like with iHeartRadio, you can tune into sports, news, talk shows, podcasts, and even live radio streams from around the world. It’s a strong contender in the “all-in-one radio app” category.
Availability
Worldwide.Selection
Stream from a choice of 100,000+ real radio stations. Unlike the other radio apps on this list, TuneIn does not have its own library of songs dedicated to streaming music.Interface
Aesthetically speaking, TuneIn is ahead of the trend with its sleek layout that works well on phones and tablets. However, due to the complicated nature of the app itself, not everything is as straightforward as it could be. It may take some time to get used to it.In terms of performance, TuneIn is very hit or miss. The app is intensive on resources and will require a good deal of power from your device in order to run smoothly. On my 2-year-old Galaxy S3, I experienced more choppiness than I would normally tolerate.
Features
TuneIn’s defining feature is its commitment to being “the real radio app”. Its entire design is built around the principle of tuning into live radio stations. Its global presence is the primary reason why it has such a massive userbase (over 50 million monthly active users), which is something that no other app on this list can say.In addition to the 100,000+ real radio stations, TuneIn allows content creators to broadcast their own streams that users can tune into.
Cost
Free with ads. Upgrade to the pro version for $9.99 USD to remove ads and unlock the ability to record what you’re listening to.XiiaLive
This little gem of an app does not receive the attention that it deserves. Perhaps it’s the name that repels potential users (which is pronounced “ZEE-ah”, by the way) but if you just look past that for a moment, you might be pleasantly surprised.
XiiaLive, which is powered by SHOUTcast technology, taps into online radio stations that feature music, talk shows, and more.
Availability
Worldwide.Selection
XiiaLive can only tune into SHOUTcast stations, but there are 50,000+ to choose from so you’re bound to find a few that you’ll like. Many of those stations are music-centric by genre, but others focus instead on talk shows and other content.Interface
The interface is one of the weaker points. The layout is a bit confusing at first and doesn’t get much better over time while the graphics themselves remind me of a modernized look straight from ’90s. Everything feels cramped on my phone, though certainly still usable.Features
By far the most useful feature of XiiaLive is the ability to rewind with a seekbar, a feature that I’ve yet to find on any other Internet radio app. As awesome as this feature might be, it currently only works with certain stations. There’s also a “Scan” feature that you can use to find new stations, much like the scan function of a traditional radio.Plus, what’s great about SHOUTcast is that it allows you to start your own radio station.
Cost
Free with ads. For $3.99 USD, you can upgrade to the pro version which removes ads, allows advanced filtering of stations, increases the rewind time from 5 minutes to 60 minutes, and unlocks the ability to add homescreen shortcuts to specific stations.Songza
Like Pandora, Songza is Internet radio in its most primitive form: the ability to stream music playlists of a particular taste. However, there are a few key differences that separate Songza from Pandora, namely the fact that Songza’s playlists are curated by a team of music experts.
Availability
Only in Canada and the United States.Selection
Songza has access to over 20 million songs that have been carefully split into hundreds of playlists. Each individual playlist may only have a few dozen songs, but if you ever get tired of that particular playlist, you can always switch to another one.I’ve been listening to Songza on a near-daily-basis for over a year and I’ve yet to explore everything it offers.
Interface
The interface for Songza is rather unique, partly due to its underlying design (which is explained in more detail down below). It feels fresh, looks good, and is unlike any other Internet radio app, but rest assured: it’s intuitive enough that you’ll get used to it in just a few minutes.Features
The most notable aspect of Songza is its “Music Concierge” feature, which takes the day of the week, the time of day, and the user’s mood (e.g., “Aggressive”, “Mellow”, or “Seductive”) and presents a selection of fitting playlists.Playlists can also be searched and browsed according to activity (e.g., “Coding” or “Working Out”), genre (e.g., “Easy Listening” or “Showtunes”), or even decade (e.g., “90s Rock”).
Costs
Free. No ads.
How To Run Android Apps in Chrome on Mac / Linux / Windows
It’s now possible to run Android apps in the Chrome browser — it just takes a little bit of work.
Google has officially brought four Android apps to Chromebooks, so it would seem that it’s only a matter of time before more and more Android apps become officially available on the Chrome browser. If you can’t wait, however, let’s run through a few options for running Android apps in Chrome right now.
Note: We’ll be looking at Chrome on Windows here, but the same processes should work on Macs or Linux devices as well.
There are three download options available for the runtime that depend on your system. To check if you have a 32-bit or 64-bit browser, you can navigate to chrome://chrome in your address bar, or you can click the three line menu button in the upper right and select About Google Chrome at the bottom.
Once you’ve downloaded the correct version (and this may take a while, as it’s a 100MB file), unzip the folder. Then type chrome://extensions into your address bar to view a list of all your current extensions. Here, select the Developer Mode box in the upper right.
Now you’ll want to press Load unpacked extension and select the folder where you unzipped ARChon. Make sure it is enabled, and you’re good to go. You can now choose from one of the three options below, depending on which you find easiest.
.
Once you’ve got the app downloaded and installed, open it up. You’ll be given two options for choosing an app: an installed app, or an APK from your phone’s storage. An APK is the installable file for an app, but you don’t need to worry about that if you just want to use a regular app you already have installed. Select Installed application and choose next.
I chose Pulse as the app I want to try on Chrome. You can then select if you want it to run in phone or tablet mode in Chrome, and if it should be oriented for portrait or landscape. You can also give it access to the files on your PC or enable ADB
if you’re a developer.
Once you hit Finish, the app will be converted into a nearly Chrome-ready ZIP file. You then need to transfer that file over to your computer either by using a USB cable, or by selecting the share button at the end of the process to email it or upload it to your preferred cloud storage service.
When the ZIP file is on your computer, unzip it. You’ll then want to go back into chrome://extensions, select Load unpacked extensions, and select the unzipped folder. Once it’s loaded in, click Launch to access the app.
And there you have it. Using this method, Pulse ran perfectly for me.
But if you don’t have an Android device, the next option might be better for you.
If you have obtained a legitimate APK, this method will work perfectly. Otherwise, move on to option 3.
The process here is simple. Launch Twerk from the Chrome App Launcher or enter chrome://apps into your address bar. Then, locate your APK file in your local file browser and drag it over into the Twerk window.
You can then select several options, like whether to run it in portrait or landscape, and build it by pressing the pink Android at the bottom. Then you’ll choose where to save it.
After that, head back into your Chrome extensions (chrome://extensions in your address bar) and select Load unpacked extension. Find the folder that Twerk created and select it. Your app should now be in Chrome, and you can launch it just like any other Chrome app!
Visit this community-created Google Spreadsheet of apps that have been tested with ARChon. Most of them have a download link at the far right to download the files, but you take your own risk when downloading these. There is no guarantee that they are safe files, so exercise regular caution. You can also try browsing this Chrome APKs subreddit.
Once it is downloaded, unzip it if it’s zipped, go to your Chrome extensions page (chrome://extensions in your address bar), and select Load unpacked extension. Find the unzipped downloaded folder and select it to load it into Chrome. You can now find it at chrome://apps to launch like a regular app!
What is your favorite app that you’ve been able to get running? Do you have any other methods of running Android apps on Chrome that you’d recommend? Let us know in the comments!
Google has officially brought four Android apps to Chromebooks, so it would seem that it’s only a matter of time before more and more Android apps become officially available on the Chrome browser. If you can’t wait, however, let’s run through a few options for running Android apps in Chrome right now.
Note: We’ll be looking at Chrome on Windows here, but the same processes should work on Macs or Linux devices as well.
Prerequisite: ARChon Custom Runtime
Before getting started, you’ll need to download this Chrome extension. This allows Android apps to work properly on Chrome, but it’s still very much unofficial and unstable, so don’t expect everything to work perfectly.There are three download options available for the runtime that depend on your system. To check if you have a 32-bit or 64-bit browser, you can navigate to chrome://chrome in your address bar, or you can click the three line menu button in the upper right and select About Google Chrome at the bottom.
Once you’ve downloaded the correct version (and this may take a while, as it’s a 100MB file), unzip the folder. Then type chrome://extensions into your address bar to view a list of all your current extensions. Here, select the Developer Mode box in the upper right.
Now you’ll want to press Load unpacked extension and select the folder where you unzipped ARChon. Make sure it is enabled, and you’re good to go. You can now choose from one of the three options below, depending on which you find easiest.
Option 1: APK Conversion in Android App
Your Android apps as they are now on your phone or tablet are not able to run in Chrome. To make this possible, they have to be repackaged to be compatible with ARChon. This would be a pretty complicated task — if it weren’t for this Android app: ARChon Packager.
Once you’ve got the app downloaded and installed, open it up. You’ll be given two options for choosing an app: an installed app, or an APK from your phone’s storage. An APK is the installable file for an app, but you don’t need to worry about that if you just want to use a regular app you already have installed. Select Installed application and choose next.
I chose Pulse as the app I want to try on Chrome. You can then select if you want it to run in phone or tablet mode in Chrome, and if it should be oriented for portrait or landscape. You can also give it access to the files on your PC or enable ADB
if you’re a developer.
Once you hit Finish, the app will be converted into a nearly Chrome-ready ZIP file. You then need to transfer that file over to your computer either by using a USB cable, or by selecting the share button at the end of the process to email it or upload it to your preferred cloud storage service.
When the ZIP file is on your computer, unzip it. You’ll then want to go back into chrome://extensions, select Load unpacked extensions, and select the unzipped folder. Once it’s loaded in, click Launch to access the app.
And there you have it. Using this method, Pulse ran perfectly for me.
But if you don’t have an Android device, the next option might be better for you.
Option 2: APK Conversion in Chrome App
For this option, you’ll need to download Twerk from the Chrome Web Store. You will also need an APK file already, the installable file for an app. APKs are notoriously hard to get hold of because of the high likelihood of malware in so-called “cracked” apps, but there are quite a few legitimate APKs available for download straight from the developers over at the XDA forums.If you have obtained a legitimate APK, this method will work perfectly. Otherwise, move on to option 3.
The process here is simple. Launch Twerk from the Chrome App Launcher or enter chrome://apps into your address bar. Then, locate your APK file in your local file browser and drag it over into the Twerk window.
You can then select several options, like whether to run it in portrait or landscape, and build it by pressing the pink Android at the bottom. Then you’ll choose where to save it.
After that, head back into your Chrome extensions (chrome://extensions in your address bar) and select Load unpacked extension. Find the folder that Twerk created and select it. Your app should now be in Chrome, and you can launch it just like any other Chrome app!
Option 3: Find Converted APK Online
This option is probably the simplest out there because you don’t have to tinker with any of your own apps. For this one, you’re just going to download apps that are already compatible with ARChon — the biggest disadvantage is the limited amount of apps available like this.Visit this community-created Google Spreadsheet of apps that have been tested with ARChon. Most of them have a download link at the far right to download the files, but you take your own risk when downloading these. There is no guarantee that they are safe files, so exercise regular caution. You can also try browsing this Chrome APKs subreddit.
Once it is downloaded, unzip it if it’s zipped, go to your Chrome extensions page (chrome://extensions in your address bar), and select Load unpacked extension. Find the unzipped downloaded folder and select it to load it into Chrome. You can now find it at chrome://apps to launch like a regular app!
What Is Your Favorite Android App On Chrome?
As we bide our time until Google makes this an official feature, this is your best bet for getting tons of Android apps running on your Chrome browser.What is your favorite app that you’ve been able to get running? Do you have any other methods of running Android apps on Chrome that you’d recommend? Let us know in the comments!
