When I first saw ‘Where’s my Water’ appear on the market I rather stupidly overlooked it as I thought it was a game for children (made by Disney). However, after seeing a number of good reviews for the it, I decided to give it a go – to say I’m glad that I did is an understatement!

The basic premise of the game is rather simple, yet may sound strange. You have to get some water to a crocodile to flil up his bath, whilst trying to collect three rubber ducks on the way. The rubber ducks each represent one star in the level, and to three star a level you need to collect all three rubber ducks and fill the bath.

To get the water flowing you cut away at the earth by swiping your finger and creating a path for the water. At first, this is very easy but as the levels progress, different types of liquid are put in to the equation and the level layouts become much more complicated.

It’s quite hard to explain with words just how addictive the game is, as at face value the premise seems rather strange. All I can say is that it is one of the best games available for Android right now and offers great value for money at just $0.99 with 140 levels + bonuses. The game has charming graphics, good sound and has gameplay that will keep you coming back for more, time and time again.

I have not experienced any bugs with the game at all, and the developers seem really proactive with updates. The loading times can seem a little long sometimes, but it is well worth the wait.

There’s not much more I can say about this game apart from go get it! There’s now a free lite version available for download, but I guarantee that within minutes you’ll be going for the paid version. Quite simply, it is one of the best and most addictive games on Android, and I can’t reccomend it highly enough.

4.9/5

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Hello fellow Android users!

As you can tell, the site has been dead for a while now – but fear not, we are back and have some great changes planned. Over the next few weeks we will start to get more reviews again (after all, that’s what we do best). In addition to this we plan to redesign the site and launch an app to keep up with us on the go.

Sorry for the long absense but bare with us – we are back bigger and better than before .

We are also on the lookout for writers, so if anyone wants to contribute with small reviews for the site then leave a comment below and we will get in contact.

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One of the most popular types of Android app is the weather app. Weather apps are becoming more and more accurate, but there is still a good range to choose from. Here are three of the best weather-prediction apps which are currently available within the Android app market.

The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel has become something of a go-to app for many Android users who are after accurate forecasts. It is especially popular with those who frequently visit other cities or areas, and may find it more convenient to have access to basic weather information for a variety of locations, all on one screen. Clicking on a particular location offers more detailed information, as well as a video forecast option, and 10-day predictions.

Rainy Days

This app provides an actively animated rain radar across a Europe, Scandinavia, USA, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, Africa. If you’re keen to know whether you might need to postpone that picnic in favour of a day spent indoors playing online games at sites like http://www.partypoker.fr/, then this app is ideal. You can simply scroll over maps to get visual images of where you might expect to see rainfall each day.

AccuWeather

If you’re after accurate weather information for your local area, then this app certainly offers a number of benefits. The hourly forecasts are also updated each hour, and cover the next 24 hours of weather. Detailed weather reports include humidity percentages, visibility, wind speed, and even times for sunrise/sunset. This is also one of the few weather apps which links directly with social media platforms, allowing you to share weather notifications with friends. There are also a huge range of customisation options, ranging from colour themes to choice of units of measurement displayed.

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Wave launcher is something we have overlooked slightly, their Android Market listing explains it better than we ever could:

“Wave Launcher is the ultimate add-on launcher available for Android! With a single swipe you can launch up to 120(!) of your favorite apps, shortcuts and recently-used apps regardless of which app is currently running. Wave Launcher is accessible anytime, anywhere!”

An interesting proposition so say the least, so how does it work? Well, perhaps not like you might expect. It isn’t a launcher in the sense of LauncherPro or ADW – it is an add on for any launcher. We tested it on the default launcher of the Samsung Galaxy S – Touchwhiz.

Initially you will need to add your apps to the app using the configuration tool. This is really easy to do and works pretty well. There are then many other settings to configure the app exactly as you would like it. The main settings you may want to change are where you need to start the swipe from to bring up the ‘wave’ and how big the area is for initialising the ‘wave’. The default area spans the whole bottom of the screen which works well enough but if the area is too big, then any buttons (especially on the keyboard) at the bottom of the screen will not work because they are covered by the gesture area for Wave launcher. On the flip-side, if it is too small then it becomes hard to Wave launcher to recognise your gesture most of the time.

This is the most frustrating thing about the application – it would be great if the area for gestures would simply shift up with the rest of the screen when the keyboard pops up, but this doesn’t seem to be an option.

The application is really smooth and didn’t cause any crashes whilst testing but the above mentioned problems really stop it from being a ‘must have’ app. There is currently no free version to try, so purchase with caution. Whilst it may not be perfect yet, definitely an app to watch.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
(3.5/5.0)
Price: $1.99
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est version: 1.5
Test device: Samsung Galaxy S

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Finally, the long anticipated Plants Vs Zombies for Android has arrived… shame it is just on the Amazon app store for now. Plants Vs Zombies is a castle defence type game whereby you must build plants (many types with different abilities) to stop the attacking zombies. If a zombie reaches your plant he starts to eat through it until he is stopped.

It may sound like a very odd premise for a game but everything about it is just brilliant. There are many different plants which have different strengths and weaknesses. To buy the plants you need to collect sun which drops from the sky in the day, but also you can build sunflowers to produce more sun in order to buy plants quicker. The balance you need to strike between the amount of sunflowers you buy, and what plants you buy really brings some great strategy in to the game. The game may look slightly shallow on the surface but deep down it is a very solid strategy game which will have you coming back for multiple plays, time and time again. There’s over 50 levels so for the price of just $1.49 it offers great value.

The graphics and sound of Plants Vs Zombies are really great. They have a cartoon style which looks really sleek and polished. The sound is one of the best I’ve heard on an Android game – there is constant background music but it manages to not be too intrusive or annoying like in many other games and is there to help sometimes as it notifies you when a new zombie is coming to attack.

The control system on Plants Vs Zombies works extremely well and even though the game originally started on the PC, it is really suited to the touch screen. Simple click the plants you want and click where you want to place it. To pick up the sun (the games currency) just tap the sun when it drops – really, the controls could not be better, great job there by PopCap.

Overall, Plants Vs Zombies for Android is absolutely brilliant and a must have for any Android gamer. However, there are one or two problems which are quite an annoyance:

• Only available currently on the Amazon app store
• Incompatible with certain devices: Motorola DROID , Devour, Flipside, Samsung Transform, Intercept, HTC Aria, MyTouch 3G, Sony Ericsson X8, Sanyo Zio, Kyocera Echo and LG Ally
• I have experiences some infrequent crashes
• Not tablet optimised

I can’t help but feel that PopCap have screwed the launch of this game slightly – the masses deserve this game, and the masses are using the official Android Market. It has also taken far too long to be released for Android – this game has been on the iPhone for what seems like forever! But don’t let this put you off, it is definitely one of the best games for the Android platform and if you are able to get it then we definitely recommend that you do so!

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
(4.6/5.0)
Download this app:

Test version: 1.0
Test device: Samsung Galaxy S

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As we indicated a few days ago, Gingerbread is now rolling out through Samsungs Kies software. The update has not his all regions yet, but is expected to in the coming week and phone networks should have it customised and released within the next month.

How is everyone finding it? has it been released in your region yet? let us know in the comment section below!

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We’ve had it on good authority that the Galaxy S 2.3.3 official Gingerbread rom will be released by the end of April but it may take until the end of March (or later) for networks to customise their builds. There have been numerous leaks of Gingerbread roms so far but it is still somewhat uncertain as to wether these builds are the official one to be released, or just beta versions. More as we get it!

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So it appears that the Galaxy S will be getting Android 2.3 in March some time according to the rumours. Samsung haven’t officially announced this but a leak of 2.3.2 has appeared today – if you are feeling brave head over to the thread at XDA-Developers and give it a go!

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We’ve just received a press release from Gameloft announcing that they will be producing four new games which will be using the Unreal engine. Their licensing agreement with Epic covers them for multi-platform including Android and iOS. No details are available as to what titles will appear yet but we will keep you updated when we find out more information. Hopefully this will mean some more impressive shooters becoming available for Android in the near future.

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Battery life is always a worry with smart phones. Long gone are the days when you could charge your phone every few days or even once a week – now most smart phones need to be charged every day, and the Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000 is no exception to that.

The Cameron Sino Extended Battery for the Samsung Galaxy S packs 3000mAh which is double that of the stock Galaxy S battery – sounds great right? well, it is but it does come at a price.

There’s no way to pack 3000mAh in to a battery the same size as the original so the battery is literally twice the size of the stock battery, which means you also need a new back case for the phone. The new back case makes the phone around 2cm thick as opposed to being around 1cm thick as standard. Whilst it does somewhat spoil the slender look of the Galaxy S, it still looks great and has a nice matching high gloss black finish as shown in the pictures below.

So, the all important question: how is the battery? well, it’s remarkably good. It genuinely lasts 2 or 3 times longer than the stock battery. This is particularly handy when having a day when you need to use your GPS often or if you are away for a night and don’t want to have to take a charge with you.

Having a bigger back, this does cause some slight issues with the camera. The top right and left of images are slightly darker and lighting isn’t quite as good as less light can reach the lens. This is only a minor complaint as I’m sure like me, most people only use their phone camera very occasionally. The bigger back also means the speaker has to be sunk in to the back case more but testing this resulted in no significant quality or volume loss.

Overall this is a great product and would be a welcomed edition for many Galaxy S users. I personally don’t use it every day but it is extremely handy for times when you know you are going to need that extra battery life. This is much cheaper than the official extended battery pack and is of great quality. A must buy.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
(4.0/5.0)

For device: Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000

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