If you’re from this century, you know all too well what it’s like to be walking down the street — texting — and then trip on a curb, or accidentally kick a puppy, or fall down an open manhole. Okay, maybe you aren’t that familar with the actual events, but I’ll bet you’ve feared them before, but not quite enough to put away your phone. Well, the “Transparent Screen“ app for Android has your back and, catering to your lazy fear, will let you look through your device to see all obstacles in your way.

If you like to be on the bleeding edge of sustainability and style, there’s a new mobile phone on the horizon that you might want to know about, a mobile phone that’s made of bamboo. OK, so it still has a screen and like, electronic gizzards –it’s not from Gilligan’s Island or anything– but the casing is made entirely from a single piece of bamboo, grown and cut in such a way as to rival most plastics in strength and durability.

While the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, continues to snake its way through Congress, some citizens are attempting to take their concerns to the companies which support the legislation. For instance, a recent boycott of GoDaddy resulted in a surprising about-face for the company. However, the designers of the Boycott SOPA app for Android want to take it a step further. Using the app, shoppers can quickly weed out products from companies which have thrown their support behind SOPA. 

I’ve always had this sneaking suspicion that there was a Japanese high school manga about everything, and the existence of “Sweet Android High-School” is as good as proof in my book. “Sweet Android High-School” isn’t exactly what it sounds like, but at the same time, it sort of is; it’s a high school manga in which all the characters are personified Android phone vendors. They aren’t actual androids, as far as I can tell, but frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Ever wonder what a composite Android user would look like if you pieced him together from other people based on statistics from the Android-using population at large? Neither have I, but since my Republic Wireless phone (an LG Optimus) arrived yesterday, I am champing at the bit to identify as an Android user, so I find the statistics of this infographic by BlueStacks very interesting, and the picture a nice bonus. Apparently 18% of Android users self-report an “unusually large head,” so I obviously picked the right group to associate with. And ladies, fear not, BlueStacks has a Ms. Android in the pipe as well.

Check it out after the jump.

In a twist very dissimilar from the old “PCs are for games, Macs are for art,” adage, a new study has found that Apple’s mobile phone juggernaut, the iPhone, is primarily used for games, where its competition, Android, is primarily used for apps. This is something Apple has not quite experienced before, and still doesn’t experience in the computer market, as Windows is still seen as the primary PC game platform, whereas Macs are still trying to play catch-up, even with the help of services like Steam that have filled the OS X gaming library.

Ever since Android’s operating system was named Ice Cream Sandwich, many of us can’t help but think Android uses ridiculous naming conventions. This doesn’t only apply to the operating systems, but also to the actual hardware that runs them. It’s not exactly Android’s fault. It’s openness leads to a ton of different phones being able to adopt the software, and each different phone needs a name distinguishing it from all of the others. However, regardless of where the fault lies, the names of the phones that run Android are getting out of control. Yinzcam realized this, and created the Android Phone Name Generator, strictly for our collective amusement.

It seems Android isn’t the only one with silly, silly code names for their mobile operating system versions. Apple has them too; they just don’t throw them around as much as Android does. Maybe it’s a matter of professionalism or maybe its because, I hate to say it, their iOS code names are kind of lame. I’m not going to say there aren’t righteous ones like “Hoodoo” and, well, “Hoodoo,” but “Sugar Bowl” kind of sounds like a rip-off, and “Heavenly”? That’s a little overconfident, don’t you think?

Full list of code names and the iOS versions they rep after the jump.

Google Maps, not content trying to map the entire outside world is now moving in the new, logical, but still mind-blowing direction of mapping indoors. Coming part and parcel with the Google Maps 6.0 for Android devices is the new indoor functionality that will allow users to basically carry around a minimap in their pocket. Intended to help you figure out where the menswear section is, or where you can find the nearest bathroom, or the nearest exit, Google Maps interiors can not only show you the map of the floor your on, but also those directly above and below you and keep track of which one you’re actually on. Just when I thought I was starting to get jaded about this sort of stuff, Google blows me away. We’re living in the future, people.

Rich Jones over at Gun.io recently came across the official Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Heat Safety app on the Android marketplace. This all sounds rather hum-drum, and really, it is. The app is pretty dull, providing some heat safety tips, a heat index converter, and the ability to pull down information from NOAA’s weather database. Apparently, it doesn’t do all of those things, but that’s not too surprising — bad apps aren’t exactly news.

The real surprise came when Jones filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request through Muckrock.com, and discovered that the app — which is not exactly in working order — cost nearly $200,000 to develop.