Tag / Android

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Qualcomm shows off cool Snapdragon chips by melting butter on smartphones

People love a benchmark, and Qualcomm has invented a new one that appears to favour their series of Snapdragon processors. In a video posted on their YouTube channel, Vidyasagar Rao, a staff engineer at the company, pits an HTC One S with a Snapdragon S4 MSM8260A chip against a Motorola Razr Maxx with a TI OMAP4430 and Samsung Galaxy S II sporting a Samsung Exynos 4 Dual chip in their new Butter benchmark test. It’s quite simple really. Butter melts at 35°C, so whichever phone runs coolest will keep the block of butter intact for the longest. We doubt this will catch on, but you can see the results by watching the video below.

by Henry Hunt

App of the week: Dungeon Hunter 3

Well I never saw this coming – I have chosen an Android app of the week. If you have read some of my earlier articles, you will be as surprised as I am. The reason for this is that my mum got an award-winning Android tablet and, me being me, I had to play with it the second I came home from school and, having been using it for the last few hours I was inspired to do an Android AOTW. So here it is: This weeks Android AOTW it Dungeon Hunter 3.

This is the best android game I have played so far, but admittedly I haven’t played a lot, and I wish that it were available on more platforms. When you start playing the game, you have to chose between four different classes, each one with different strengths and weaknesses. I personally chose the warlord as I always chose the tank class, but you can also chose from the astromancer, trickster and the shaman. Once you choose your class you are then given a quick tutorial, showing you how to both play and upgrade you character. Once completed, you are then free to kill and maim to your hearts contempt.

The gameplay is very detailed, with each kill giving you both money and experience, slowly helping you to buy countless upgrades and items to help your character on their way to becoming invincible, but, for those more inpatient people out there, each level and mission comes with three additional goals that, when completed, give you a large boost to both gold and XP.  The game is easy to get the hang of, with the tutorial teaching you know all you need to know, but having played it for about two hours I can tell that completing it and fully upgrading your character is no mean feat. It will take countless hours of gameplay.

Dungeon Hunter 3, iOS and Android, Free
Download from Google Play or the App Store

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Samsung announces Galaxy event for May 3rd in London

GS3

Samsung has announced an event scheduled to take place on May 3rd in London, where it is widely speculated that the Galaxy S III will make its debut. The official invite, pictured above, states that visitors will be able to meet the new Galaxy, but the question remains as to where this new device will fit into Samsung’s Android lineup. The Galaxy S III is rumoured to come with a quad-core Exynos chipset with integrated support for 4G LTE networks, similar to that found in the refreshed Meizu MX, support for the S Pen that comes with the Galaxy Note range and a 4.65″ Super AMOLED Plus display of 1280 x 720 resolution. The ‘Plus’ denotes that the display would have a standard RGB subpixel arrangement, compared to the Pentile RGBG layout on devices such as Samsung’s own Galaxy Nexus. As with any major event invite, Samsung’s invitation has set the theorists into action, with some suggesting that the blobs of liquid refer to a curvaceous design or display, while the brushed blue surface could be code for a colourful brushed metal finish. Vlad Savov of The Verge even came across a Korean commercial for the Galaxy Note, which you can see below, in which the protagonist excitedly makes an appointment for May 3rd, and the numbers 5 and 3 flash around quite a bit, although this could be just a simple reference to the 5.3″ Super AMOLED display on the device that has pioneered the phablet industry.

What do you expect from the event? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check back on the day to get the news fresh from London.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion

In a post on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that his company has purchased Instagram for $1 billion. Read his post below.

I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

We’re looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we’re going to be able to build together.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Nokia & AT&T unveil their Lumia 900 ad campaign

Nokia‘s Lumia 900 launches this weekend, with both Nokia and AT&T promising their largest ever ad campaign – even bigger than that for the first iPhone. The Smartphone Beta Test ads, starring Chris Parnell of Saturday Night Live fame, state how every smartphone in the last 5 years has been part of an elaborate beta test.

Do you think the campaign will work? Watch the ads and vote in our poll below.

Update: Here is another ad for the phone, but not with Chris Parnell or reference to the Smartphone Beta Test. This one is pure AT&T.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Google wants to make the web more mobile

Google wants to make the web more mobile, and is willing to splash the cash to do so.

Kevin Fitchard's avatarGigaom

Google(s goog) wants to bring more small websites to mobile phones, and to help nudge those sites along it’s willing to foot the bill for a year. Google, with the help of mobile Web optimization startup Duda Mobile, is offering for 12 months free hosting and customization of Web sites for mobile browsers in an effort to make more Internet content mobile-friendly.

Fortune first broke the story Thursday morning, reporting that the initiative as a new service, but according to The Next Web, the offer is really an extension of the Go Mo program Google launched in November. TNW cited a post on Duda Mobile’s blog that has since been removed from its Website:

“Our hope is that by offering both the education AND the service at no cost for one year, we can help businesses make the shift to mobile more quickly, benefiting both their business as well…

View original post 347 more words

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Instagram launches on Android after iOS exclusivity

Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app cum social network, finally launched on Android today. The app, which lets users apply filters to their pictures and share them across a variety of social networks, including within its own community, has proved wildly popular since its launch on iOS, with over 30 million registered users (from myself to Justin Bieber) and Apple naming it as the best iPhone app of 2011. If you have a phone running Android 2.2 or later and you want to see what all the fuss is about, head over to Google Play for the free download (unless you have the new HTC One X), but don’t blame me if you become addicted. I hear it can have that effect on people.

Instagram, Android & iOS, Free
Download from the App Store or Google Play or visit the website

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

April Fools: Toshiba unveils new tablets that inspire individuality

Not content with the wide range of Android tablets on the market today? Toshiba may be able to answer your prayers, with the announcement of tablets in three new form factors. The Oblong, Amore and Rhombus slates will hit the market soon, and the unveil video can be seen below.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Amazon’s Appstore generates more revenue than Google Play according to research from Flurry

Research from Flurry suggests that Amazon’s Appstore, currently US-only, generates more revenue per daily user than Google’s own Play Store, formerly known as the Android Market.

by Ali Wilson

Meet TheO Ball: a foam phone case that encourages physical activity

Some people don’t like putting cases on their phones, but what if they were football shaped? Well, TheO Ball is! It is a football with one exception: you can put your phone in it! So instead of a case that just fits the phone, you can now buy a case that you can actually use to play games. It fits nearly all smartphones including iPhone, Android and Windows Phone devices. In short, if you have a smartphone, you will be able to use TheO.

TheO Ball is designed to hold your phone within its cushioned grasp, allowing you to liter...

It is designed and manufactured by Physical Apps, a company with the aim of making mobile gaming more physical and beneficial to health. TheO Ball has a slot that means your phone is safe and secure, whilst you can still see the screen. The ball itself is made completely of foam and so provides protection for both your smartphone and its surroundings.

TheO Ball

TheO Ball recently won the Popular Science Best Toy of Toy Fair 2012 award and I’m confident that it deserved its title. TheO Ball has some dedicated apps including games like Hot Potato, which is a game where you throw the ball to each other as quickly as possible. You lose if you wait too long before passing it on. I expect there will be many more fun and exciting games to play in the very near future, with the ball launching later this year for around $24.95 (£15.67), with each app costing from $1.99 to $4.99. Sign up for more information at TheO Ball website.