Now, that is an accusation that we certainly cannot level at SlideME’s Mobentoo Marketplace for Android – earlier known as the SlideMe Application Manager (or SAM, as in Uncle), as also seen in the screenshot (sorry, fellas, it was the only screengrab we found on the site). It has been around for a while (since 2008, we are told by the website) and there are more than four hundred apps to play around, some paid and quite a few free ones too. The classification might strike people as quirky – there is a social responsibility category but no social networks, alas – and the app list under each category might take some time to load, but at the end of the day, the number of apps out there compensates for such eccentricities.
There are quite a few apps in common with the Android Market – Opera Mini (4.2 alas, not the 5.0 beta that we are thirsting for) is a prime instance – but again, we are not really complaining as the apps out there seem to get updated reasonably regularly and there is a decent app search option. We are already experimenting with a few onscreen keypads that we snaffled without lightening our purses and are also checking the claims of a browser (again, free) that claims to be faster than the default one on our HTC Hero. Mind you, we still wish we could see the progress of the process of downloading apps in the notification bar, just as we can on Android Marketplace apps. But ah, no one is perfect.
We think it is worth a download. Just head to http://m.slideme.org to grab it and feel free to contradict us if you disagree.
Whatever Android lacks, it is certainly not apps, or even the places where we scuttle off to find them – app stores. Apart from Google’s Android Market (which is the official app store for Android), there are a number of other players who try to peddle some wares for your Android device. Handango has an app store for Android and OnlyAndroid is another app distributor for all things Android. The problem with these two worthies, however, was that they did not really seem to offer too much bang for our bucks (and more importantly, for free!).Now, that is an accusation that we certainly cannot level at SlideME’s Mobentoo Marketplace for Android – earlier known as the SlideMe Application Manager (or SAM, as in Uncle), as also seen in the screenshot (sorry, fellas, it was the only screengrab we found on the site). It has been around for a while (since 2008, we are told by the website) and there are more than four hundred apps to play around, some paid and quite a few free ones too. The classification might strike people as quirky – there is a social responsibility category but no social networks, alas – and the app list under each category might take some time to load, but at the end of the day, the number of apps out there compensates for such eccentricities.There are quite a few apps in common with the Android Market – Opera Mini (4.2 alas, not the 5.0 beta that we are thirsting for) is a prime instance – but again, we are not really complaining as the apps out there seem to get updated reasonably regularly and there is a decent app search option. We are already experimenting with a few onscreen keypads that we snaffled without lightening our purses and are also checking the claims of a browser (again, free) that claims to be faster than the default one on our HTC Hero. Mind you, we still wish we could see the progress of the process of downloading apps in the notification bar, just as we can on Android Marketplace apps. But ah, no one is perfect.We think it is worth a download. Just head to http://m.slideme.org to grab it and feel free to contradict us if you disagree.1 November 2009 in Applications by Aman Kapoor
