Author: Anthony Domanico

My parents told me to never talk politics with people you don’t know…or people you do know for that matter. As such, I’m not going to reveal my political tendencies, who my favorite candidate is, or whether I agree or disagree with the current health care reform legislation. What I will do, however, is suggest that no matter whether or not you agree with President Obama’s beliefs or objectives, one of the better things he has brought to the American people is a growing interest in social activism. Love him or hate him, more and more people are becoming more active in making the world a better place (as defined by themselves of course).

Sunlight Labs, an open-source community of developers and designers aimed at opening up government to make it more transparent, accountable, and responsible, released an Android application entitled Congress, which is aimed at getting Android users more involved in government. Currently in version 2.2, Congress allows users to find and call their elected officials using their location and read the latest bills and laws that have gone through or are currently going through the U.S. Congress.

Unlike the real congress, the Congress Android app is intuitive and user-friendly. Everything seems to just work. Sunlight Labs has a team of open-source developers who are constantly evaluating user feedback and are rapidly introducing bugfixes and new features.

The main screen allows you to search for new laws, legislation that has newly been introduced to congress, and even view the results from the latest congressional votes. The legislation pages gives a brief overview of the legislation, significant dates in the bill’s journey to becoming law, who the congressional sponsor was, and a summary of what the bill will actually do.

It also allows you to search for legislators by location, state, zip code, or legislator name.  The legislator page features a profile image of the congressperson, one-click access to calling their office, visiting their website, viewing bills that they have sponsored, and what committees they are currently serving on. It also allows you to view recent news stories and YouTube videos involving the legislator.

Final Verdict: Yes, I’m skipping over the pros and cons mostly because I think this app is absolutely fantastic. If you’re an activist or are simply interested in political issues, you owe it to yourself and, dare I say it, your country, to download this app.

Congress can be found for free on the Android market.

Gallery

Related Posts

• Paypal: Manage your account and send money on the go
• 3banana: Organize your life online and on the go
• Homerun Battle 3D: Touch ‘em all with this homerun derby slugfest
• Remote for iTunes: Better than the original.
• Weather & Toggle Widget: Easily personalize your weather settings

Good news for all you e-book readers out there. Amazon has just announced that and Android version their popular Kindle application will be dropping on the Android market very soon. Kindle for Android will allow users to browse the Kindle store, purchase books directly from the Kindle application, and read directly on their Android device.

Kindle for Android will sync with your Kindle Device, or Kindle for PC app to save the page you last read so you can easily transition between places without having to remember where you had left off. The Kindle app will include the ability to edit text size, add bookmarks, and view created annotations from your Kindle or Kindle from PC. More details can be found on the press release in the source link below.

Expect to see the Kindle for Android app detailed the Google I/O 2010 conference, which begins tomorrow. The final app then should be release shortly thereafter, so hopefully we will be able to download this by the end of the month. We will post a full review shortly after the app is released into the wild.

Paypal is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to pay for things online, offering strict security encryption of your personal data and the convenience of being accepted at most major online retailers. Paypal is also a very good way for organizations or groups to accept donations, or for some employers to pay their employees. It’s also a good way for small/home businesses to accept credit card payments.

Paypal has released an app to help Paypal users view their current Paypal balance, send money from your paypal account, and view your transaction history, all conveniently from your Android phone. The balance tab is overly minimalistic, with a snapshot view of your current account balance.

The history section looks at–obviously– your historical transactions. An added bonus here is that positive transactions (such as money transfers from your bank to your Paypal account) are black in color, whereas money out is in orange lettering. This makes for an easy to read and pleasant viewing experience, and is very helpful for keeping track of your purchases.

Finally, Paypal allows you to send money to anyone, with convenient contact book integration for easy payment to individuals in your contact list. The send money tab also features the ability to…err…send money in many different currencies for added convenience for all of you international types. Users also have the option of attaching a short note to their donation.

The Goods

• Minimalistic UI. Lacks polish but does the job well.
• Convenient access to your Paypal account while on the go.
• Transaction view allows you to figure out what you’ve been spending money on.

The Bads

• Can’t really use this app for online shopping. Tighter integration with the Android platform would be nice, though not essential since you can pay via paypal through many stores via the browser.

Final Verdict: The Official Paypal app is a very good 1.0 release and promises easy management of your Paypal account while on the go. Though somewhat simplistic, it gets the job done and does it pretty well.

Paypal can currently be found for free on the Android Market. It should support all Android platforms, but as usual please let us know if you have trouble accessing the app.

There are a wave of iPhone apps that are being ported to Android in hopes of building on the success the developers have had in Apple’s App Store. One of the more popular of these apps released in recent months is Doodle Jump, a game developed by Lima Sky.

Doodle Jump is a platform game where your bounce your doodler onward and upward from platform to platform to earn as many points as you can. Several bonus items such as propeller hats and jetpacks can be found along the way for an extra boost. You will also encounter bad guys and you must tap on the screen to shoot them with green balls that fly out of your nose, which is equally gross and awesome at the same time.

Where Doodle Jump really stands out for me is the way it makes you feel that this is really something that could be going through a kid/teenager/college student’s mind as they’re sitting through another boring class. The background is set on graph paper, and the Doodler and foes alike are simple sketches that anyone really could have drawn. This game just feels like something I would have doodled while sitting in 9th grade algebra, or even college level calculus for that matter. The graphics, though simple, are just done well and have this way of making the gamer relate to it in some way.

In addition to standard single-player, Doodle Jump also has a multiplayer option where you and up to 7 others take turns trying to get your doodler as high as you can, and the highest score wins. That being said, the multiplayer option can only be done on a single phone, there is no option for online multiplayer.

Before getting your hopes up too much, there are a few significant drawbacks to the game. First, though this game will work on most Android devices, several users are reporting it to be extremely laggy on all but the newest snapdragon-powered devices (Nexus One, Droid Incredible, etc.). I reviewed this game on a Nexus One, and had no issues with lag nor had any problems with gameplay in general, but users with other phones should be wary.

Second, the Android version simply does not have as many features as its iPhone counterpart, and Lima Sky does not seem too intent on updating the app since it is still sitting at version 1.0 a few months after release. iPhone users enjoy features such as additional bonus items and new/different scenes, which would add tremendous value for this game.

Third, and speaking of value, Doodle Jump is listed on the Android Market at $3.99, which is four times the $.99 it’s currently going for on Apple’s App Store. It’s a bit tough to swallow paying four times the amount of money for something that has half the features, especially when there are free and/or cheaper alternatives currently on the Android Market.

Pros

• Addictive gameplay. I sat down for several hours without being able to put this game down.
• Graphics/graphical theme is phenomenal. The student doodle concept really works well for me.
• Bonus items are pretty dang fun and a nice addition to this game.

Cons

• Only works well on the newest devices (Nexus One, Droid Incredible)
• $3.99 price point
• Lacks several features from it’s iPhone counterpart.

Final Verdict: Though this game is very addictive, I simply don’t think this game is worth $3.99 until several features are added and bugs are worked out. Once some of these things are fixed, I would definitely recommend giving this addictive game a try.