Dots is a ridiculously fun, simple game that has taken iPhone and iPad owners by storm (and reduced my fingertips down to bleeding little nubs). In fact, the game has been downloaded more than 5 million times and played almost a billion times in less than four months.
Wouldn’t you like to get that on Android and Kindle Fire? Sure you would. Good news! It’s coming to Google Play today. And a new game mode is coming to all devices, including iPhones.
Even without taking into account the unique, astonishing way it wirelessly connects with a smartphone, the Vaavud wind meter is pretty neat little gadget.
It will measure wind speeds up to 25 meters/second (the Vaavud is Danish, hence the metric measurements and strange name), can share recorded data with the world through its free app—and it’s been tested for accuracy in a wind tunnel.
But the real stunner about the Vaavud is that it doesn’t use Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or any other power-draining wireless radio to connect. Instead, it uses magnets.
After Google announced Hangouts at Google I/O back in June, we suspected that Google+ Messenger’s days were numbered — and we were right. In a new Google+ update rolling out now on Android, Google is killing Google+ Messenger for good, while the iOS version will get the chop at a later date.
It had to happen eventually, but now that it has, it feels weird: smartphones are now officially outselling dumb feature phones internationally for the first time ever. And what made it happen? Cheap Android phones.
O2 has today confirmed the price of its 4G price plans ahead of their rollout next Thursday, August 29. The carrier’s SIM-only plans will start from £26 ($40) per month, while those that are tied to a 4G handset start from £32 ($49) per month. All of O2’s 4G plans will also come bundled with free music, sport, and game content.
Facebook is reportedly working on a brand new app that’ll be strictly for celebrities. The app will allow the famous to better interact with fans in the hope that more will be encouraged to use the social network for sharing. It’s currently in testing with a small group of famous people, according to sources familiar with the project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf5-Prx19ZM&feature=player_embedded
Over the last few years we’ve seen Apple’s competition start to really take it to Cupertino in TV ads. Sometimes it seems petty but according to Samsung’s marketing chief, Arno Lenior, the tsunami of ads mocking Apple fans were a huge boon for the company.
In an interview with AdNews, Samsung’s Lenior says that the ads were brilliant because they got Apple fanboys and Samsung fans to bash with one another over which beloved “brand” is better:
Continuing its expansion at roughly the same pace as the known universe, Facebook has just announced that they have acquired Mobile Technologies, the developer of Jibbigo, a universal translator app for Android and iOS.
Brooklyn-based Pyle Audio has been making speakers and other audio paraphernalia for the last 50 years (if you haven’t heard of Pyle, it’s probably because they seem to spend comparatively little time or effort on marketing; just look at their website).
Pyle has a lot going on—home, car and even motorcycyle/bicycle audio are some of the pies the company has its fingers in. The company has also makes a bewildering array of waterproof audio toys, like headphones and Bluetooth speakers. While that’s nothing new, their latest gadget is a little more unusual: The SurfSound-Play is a waterproof phone case equipped with its own mini speaker.
Google Play has made up a lot of ground on the App Store over the past couple months in terms of downloads and revenue, but the latest mobile marketplace report shows that Apple is still king of the castle when it comes to revenue.
Yeah, I said it. Google should — and probably will — sell an Android TV.
No, not a dongle. And I’m not talking about a Google TV of the kind you can buy today in which Google technology puts the “smart” in the smart TV feature.
I’m talking about a full-blown, Android-based, big-screen, high-def TV set.
I’m going to tell you why, but first: Let’s understand why Google sells hardware at all.
Apple’s Passbook feature in iOS hasn’t really taken off as quickly as people thought it would, but that hasn’t prevented Samsung from throwing developers into making its own Passbook clone. We first got our first look at Samsung Wallet back in February at MWC, but the the app is finally ready for primetime and available on Google Play.
The app is only supported on the Galaxy S3, S4, Note 1 and Note 2, and you have to sign-in with one of those silly Samsung accounts, but if you’re already nose deep in S Health, S Beam, Samsung Link and all the other half-baked Samsung apps you’ll feel right at home.
Here are the release notes:
Although it was a great idea, this notion of a cheap Android game console, the Ouya left a lot to be desired at launch. The hardware had some obvious deficiencies, like controller dead spots, but more importantly, the game library at launch was practically non-existent.
Right now, it looks like the Ouya is a dud: a great idea that just didn’t have a chance because it couldn’t get a push. But you know who might be able to take that same idea and get developers to treat it more seriously? Amazon. And they’re working to do just that.
Today Google refreshed its promoted search results for local business in Google Maps on both Android and iOS. When you search for a business, Google will now show ads for merchants that have paid in a bottom banner. Like Google search on the web, it will be obvious that the listing is a promotion.
Rdio announced this morning that it is launching a new personalized radio station feature to take on Pandora and iTunes Radio. The new radio station feature, dubbed You FM, combines users’ listening history with track voting, Facebook likes, Twitter follows and more to give each user an individualized experience.
Users can tune stations towards familiar or adventurous sounds or pivot it based on your favorite tracks. The new stations feature is available now on the App Store, Google Play and the web.
Here are the other features Rdio added:
Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market increased yet again during the second quarter of 2013, while the iPhone suffered a slight dip, according to the latest figures from IDC. But Research Manager Ramon Llamas is confident that Apple’s smartphone will recapture more users later this year when the Cupertino company launches the iPhone 5S.
YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen have today unveiled MixBit, the new video sharing service that they’ve been teasing us with for several months. It hopes to rival Instagram and Vine with a focus on mixing and editing video. Users can record 16-second clips at a time, and then stitch up to 256 of them together to create an hourlong video.
XMBC is a cross-platform, open source media player that specializes in tons of options and ways of accessing content via local storage and the internet. The latest pre-release version of the Android client has support for Zeroconf, which in turn means the ability to use Apple’s AirPlay protocol on compatible devices. Your Android device becomes an AirPlay receiver for audio and/or video, which is the kind of thing that usually requires a tricky workaround.
AT&T has yet again expanded its super fast LTE network – by activating 4G in 6 new locations, as well as extending LTE coverage in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. The announcement was made today in a series of sequential press releases on the carrier’s website.
Vodafone U.K. has today announced that it will begin rolling out its new 4G network on August 29 — the same day rival O2 will launch its own 4G service. The company will reach 12 major cities across the country initially, with further expansion planned before the end of this year.
That means that by the end of this month, EE will no longer be the U.K.’s only 4G provider.
Apple rejects a lot of iOS apps and games, but Send Me To Heaven has to be the first that was turned away due to the way in which it is played. The aim of the game is to throw your $700 smartphone up into the air as high as you can, but rather unsurprisingly, Apple thinks that this behavior “could result in damage to the user’s device.”
Fortunately, those who enjoy smashing up expensive items can get it on Android instead.
Remember Draw Something? It was this wonderful, flash-in-the-pan game by the utterly charming developer OMGPOP, and had the misfortune of being such a success that it caught the evil overlord attentions of Zynga, who promptly bought the company, killed a game an ex-OMGPOP had privately made for his wife, and then ran the company into the ground, laying off the vast majority of the team.
OMGPOP’s practically dead now, and the only purpose the shell of the company serves is as a cautionary tale not to let Zynga touch anything good or wholesome, ever. There’s still more OMGPOP assets Zynga can kill, though: next up on the chopping block, Zynga plans to behad OMGPOP’s popular gaming portal website.
Google has released an official AdSense app for Android and iOS, allowing AdSense users to keep track of their earnings on the go. You can keep an eye on your latest earnings for the day, see what you earned yesterday, and view your earnings for the month so far — plus lots more.
For a long time after its launch, the iPad was by far the best-selling tablet on the market, and no matter how hard they tried, rival devices didn’t stand a chance of stealing its market share. But that’s all changed, according to the latest figures from IDC.
Android-powered slates saw a staggering 163% increase in the last year, and they’ve now overtaken the iPad and opened up a rather large gap in market share.
Over the weekend, President Obama weighed in on the famous Apple vs. Samsung patent disputes by vetoing an import ban proposed by the International Trade Commission that would have prevented Apple from bringing iOS devices older than the iPhone 4S and iPad 3 into the country.
An avowed fan of Apple’s products, it was the first time a U.S. presidential administration had vetoed a product ban by the ITC since 1987, and seemed to signal that the Obama Administration was not going to penalize an American company like Apple in favor of a foreign company like Samsung.
Financial Markets took notice. Samsung’s market cap is down a billion dollars since the vetoing.
