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Sonic the Hedgehog spins his way to Android devices, Tails and Knuckles also playable
01 day
by J
If you grew up in the 1990s, you’ll remember Sonic the Hedgehog as one of the more popular console game characters. If you’ve been longing for games you played in your youth, then here’s yet another reason to be happy you’re using Android. Sega has just released Sonic the Hedgehog on Google Play. We get to play Sonic at 60 FPS with widescreen support and re-mastered audio. Plus, we get to play Sonic’s friends, Tails and Knuckles, too.
Previously available on iOS devices, Sonic spins his way into Android smartphones and tablets, where you can play the re-mastered classic, plus a few new features. First, the game has been optimized for mobile devices, which means you get to enjoy Sonic in full screen and up to 60 FPS smoothness. The soundtrack has likewise been re-mastered, and it’s a big improvement over the 16-bit
Additionally, you can play new characters, Sonic’s friends Tails and Knuckles. These new characters let you explore Sonic’s world in a whole new way by using their unique abilities (flying, gliding and climbing around the levels). You will need to unlock them first with gameplay, though. Experienced players can also increase the challenge level with the new Time Attack Mode.
Sega made sure players will enjoy the title by adding in a few extras, which make Sonic the Hedgehog all the more enjoyable in our connected world. In particular, the mobile app features achievements and a leaderboard to encourage players to become more competitive — a feature that console games of the 20th century did not have.
Miss your Sega Genesis controller? Fret not, as Sonic the Hedgehog offers support for Power A Moga, Nyko, XBOX, and all HID controllers. The game costs .99 on the Google Play Store. An iOS version is also available, although Sega is yet to release the free update with new playable characters to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users.
Check out the promo video from Google Play.
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Hangouts/Babel doesn’t include SMS support (yet?), Android 4.3 also mentioned in rumor update
015 days
by J
A report detailing Google’s rumored Babel messaging app that would be launched in the near future has been updated to include more information about the service, but also about other Google products, Android 4.3-included.
The same The Verge forum poster that revealed yesterday that Babel will in fact be called Hangout, revealing some of its features, has updated that post with more information.
After previously revealing that the app would offer a unified messaging solution to Android users, feature an app icon “similar to the messenger icon” and offer a Holo UI, the tipster returned with more information.
According to him, Babel will be called Hangouts (as in plural; as in Google+ Hangouts) not Hangout as previously reported. Not that the final name of the app will be that important, will it?
What’s more interesting is that Hangouts apparently lacks SMS/MMS sync, or at least the feature is “not there on the app that’s being dogfooded.” Moreover, the same Ryan Socio suggested that the final version may lack SMS support at first, when answering to a comment on his updated news:
The fact that it’s about 10 days away from launch doesn’t make the situation feel anymore promising.
Socio also added that Google Now would get “location-based reminders” and Gmail’s would be “Holofied” in a “UI overhaul.”
In addition to dishing out all these details on future products, Socio briefly mentioned Android 4.3 in his updated post, basically confirming this particular Android version that has been already spotted in server logs, and may be already the object of meetings between certain companies involved with Android:
I may not be able to get much info about 4.3, my sources are not taking part in the internal beta program.
While he isn’t apparently in the loop with Android 4.3 news, hardware information may be available next week. In the past, he apparently provided accurate information about Google’s latest hardware announcements (LG Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10) so he could very well be right about Google’s plans for Google I/O 2013.
That said, we’ll remind you that we don’t have anything official from Google at this time on either Hangouts/Hangout/Babel, Google Now, Gmail or Android 4.3, so we’ll have to take everything with a grain of salt until things become clearer. Google I/O is just 10 days away, an event that we’ll thoroughly cover for you.
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Samsung confirms that it is also working on a smart watch to rival the rumored iWatch
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It should come as no real surprise to be honest that Samsung has let it be known that it is currently working on a smart watch and has been for some time now. The news comes from Bloomberg who spoke with Samsung’s executive vice president Lee Young Hee.
“We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile business, said during an interview in Seoul. “We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”
That was all Lee Young Hee would say about the smart watch and he wouldn’t give any more details on what functions the smart watch could perform or how much it would cost. It’s obviously very early days and maybe Samsung are just reacting to the recent rumors over Apple’s possible iWatch.
We heard recently that Apple already has a team of over 100 designers working on the mystical iWatch device and again Bloomberg insist that it may arrive as soon as this year. Whatever happens, it looks like the next few years will see more wearable technology arriving to grab our attention. The choice appears to be between a smart device on your wrist or one on your glasses.
Which do you prefer?
Source: Bloomberg
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Samsung confirms that it is also working on a smart watch to rival the rumored iWatch
Tags: arrive-as-soon, attention, definitely-one, executive-vice, mobile-business, perform-or-how, samsung, smart, smart-watch, young
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Google spring cleans Reader out of existence, also trashcans some CalDav, Snapseed for Mac
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As part of their “spring cleaning” effort, Google today announced the cancellation of several services, including Google Reader, CalDAV API access (unless you’re white listed), Snapseed for Windows and OS X, Search API for Shopping, and more. The trashcannings were announced by Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of technical infrastructure on the Google blog:
We’re living in a new kind of computing environment. Everyone has a device, sometimes multiple devices. It’s been a long time since we have had this rate of change—it probably hasn’t happened since the birth of personal computing 40 years ago. To make the most of these opportunities, we need to focus—otherwise we spread ourselves too thin and lack impact. So today we’re announcing some more closures, bringing the total to 70 features or services closed since our spring cleaning began in 2011.
This, of course, has caused wide-spread anger in geek circles, and a more nuanced reaction among the mainstream: “Um, what’s Google Reader?” “Dunno, ask a geek!” “You ask them!” “Fine, I’ll @{somecelebrity} on TwitterBook for it!”
Apple removed Safari RSS and Mail RSS last year in OS X Mountain Lion. Clearly, people who use and love RSS are not a growth industry, or even a viable target for either company any more. And that makes sense. RSS is the file-system of news, in a post-file system world. It’s fantastic infrastructure, but the front end needs to evolve beyond traditional reader apps.
That sucks for those of us who loved the sync capabilities Google Reader provided for iOS newsreader apps like Reeder (pictured above), NetNewsWire, etc. Unless something with Google-level capacity steps up to fill the gap, we likely won’t enjoy anything as freely available (in both senses of the word) again. That might also have been part of the problem. Reader was free. It wasn’t a product. There was no commercial bond. We got what we paid for.
I’ll mourn Google Reader, as I mourned Safari RSS, but the writing on the internet could not be clearer — we need to find something else now, right?
(Ally’s going to write up a how-to on exporting Google Reader content, and alternative ways to get RSS, and get your news in general. Keep an eye out for it.)
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Google spring cleans Reader out of existence, also trashcans some CalDav, Snapseed for Mac
Tags: api, internet, mainstream, mountain, reader, search, shopping, since-the-birth, spring-cleaning, windows, writing
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HTC One to sell as TD 101 via China Mobile, LG Optimus Vu 2 Plus also spotted
082 days
by J
Many words have been written on HTC’s mistakes that lead to its current troubles in the mobile business, with one of them being the lack of strong Galaxy-style brand that consumers would grow to love.
So much for creating a strong brand!
HTC decided to invest in such a brand by launching the One series of smartphones last year, although the company was not able to impose its own product names to certain carriers.
Then, just a few days ago, the company launched the HTC One, which is going to be the company’s only One-branded handset this year, a make-or-break kind of project for the Taiwanese Android maker that’s still having a tough time fighting against the competition, especially Samsung.
We were under the impression that HTC will further invest in its One brand and not budge to carrier demands anymore when it comes to changing the name of the product – in the U.S., AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are going to sell it as the HTC One.
But it looks like things aren’t necessarily so, and no, it’s not Verizon that’s going to get its way selling the One as the Droid DNA Plus, as it was recently rumored.
We’re looking at China Mobile this time around, which has announced the HTC One as the HTC TD 101. That’s certainly an ugly name and won’t do HTC much good especially considering that China Mobile is the largest carrier in the world, and therefore plenty of potential buyers will be looking at the TD 101 instead of One in marketing materials.
Furthermore, this particular One version will feature a regular-pixel 8-megapixel shooter, so no UltraPixels for this device. So much for creating a strong HTC One brand!
Availability details for the HTC TD 101 have not been made public yet during China Mobile’s MWC 2013 presentation, although from the looks of that slide we could assume that China Mobile subscribers will get the device at some point in July.
LG Optimus Vu 2 Plus spotted
In addition to the TD 101, China Mobile will have other TD-LTE smartphones in stores this year, like the LG Optimus Vu 2 Plus, a 5-inch handset that will pack a 1.5GHz quad-core “next-generation” processor, a 13-megapixel “advanced” camera and a 2540mAh battery.
The slide above seems to suggest that the Optimus Vu 2 Plus will hit China Mobile in August, but we still need official launch confirmations.
In case you’re interested in more TD-LTE devices, you’ll have to know that in 2013 China Mobile will also sell other TD-LTE devices including the Huawei Ascend D2-TL, the ZTE U9810 and a garden variety of mobile hotspots.
The post HTC One to sell as TD 101 via China Mobile, LG Optimus Vu 2 Plus also spotted appeared first on Android Authority.
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Google Now widget official in Google Search for Android update, new Google Now cards also unveiled
096 days
by J
After having been mistakenly leaked a few days ago, the Google Now widget for home or lock screen is now officially available to Android 4.1+ Jelly Bean devices, as Google has just released an update to its Google Search for Android app.
In addition to the widget, there are several new Google Now cards available to make your Search experience even more enjoyable (see images below,) provided you’re willing to share with Google various details about yourself to make the whole Google Now thing possible.
The new cards include support from various new third parties such as Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes or Zillow. In short, here’s what’s new in Google Now:
For Android 4.1+ (Jelly Bean):
- Google Now widget for home screen or lock screen
- Movie passes from Fandango
- Movies now includes ratings from Rotten Tomatoes
- Real estate listings from Zillow when in the market for a home
- Music button when a song is playing in voice mode (US only)
- Support for US college sports
We have explained more than once why Google is interested in providing a better Search experience to its mobile users, so it makes sense to see Google Now updated again – and the work on the project will continue in the future. But unfortunately for Android fans, this highly personalized search feature is available on Jelly Bean devices only.
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Nexus 4 Android 4.2.2 update available OTA, Galaxy Nexus Yakju also getting it
096 days
by J
The Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update is slowly rolling out to most Nexus devices out there. In fact, if you happen to own a Nexus 4 and/or Galaxy Nexus Yakju model (therefore a GSM international version) you should know that your Android 4.2.2 upgrade is right around the corner.
Nexus 4
You’re looking for build JDQ39 which measures 51MB in size and should be available over-the-air, although it can also be manually installed by grabbing this link right here.
Galaxy Nexus Yakju
Again, you’re looking for build JDQ39, but you have to be coming from Android 4.2.1 build JOP40D to install it on your GSM Galaxy Nexus version. Here’s the download link that you’re looking for. If you have any issues you can always check the xda-developers threads listed below in the Source section for more support.
Have you upgraded to Android 4.2.2 already (here’s a changelog for this new Jelly Bean version)? Did you notice any particular improvements?
