May 8, 2012

Notifications, as they currently exist, are just simple lines of text that play across the top of the status bar when they come in, and make a sound when the screen is off, with no visual notification at all, like on iOS. Pops is trying to do something quite different with the way notifications appear on Android, and taking visual notifications to a new level.

When a user’s screen is off, a video with sound plays, and the notification text appears below the screen. The video is mainly just there to serve as an immediate visual cue that a certain type of notification has appeared. The notification text below the screen isn’t just there for posterity, it can also serve as a quick reply box. For example, a Twitter reply that comes in can be replied to without ever unlocking the phone.

While some services like Skype, SMS, and Google+ work out of the box for receiving notifications as long as they are already configured through their apps, Twitter, Gmail, and Facebook require separate logins through Pops for their notifications to work. Twitter notifications allow for replies to be sent directly from the video screen, but there’s no character limit; going over causes the reply to not be sent by Twitter, though.

There are a variety of free pre-made videos for users to choose from, largely comprising short animated clips that play. Users can also use their own pictures and videos to make their own videos. While the app is currently free, it seems as if monetization opportunities abound: selling new videos, or even through sponsored ones. A user could find out that they’ve got a new text message through a video of Katniss from The Hunger Games shooting an arrow. It makes too much sense.

Pops is currently available from Google Play, and appears to be compatible only with phones, not tablets, as it is incompatible with the Motorola Xoom.

May 7, 2012

Samsung’s presentation of the Galaxy S III (I’m using the Roman numeral only because it reads a lot nicer than the Galaxy S3) was painful to watch. In the literal sense, the livestream was janky and stuttery, and it made me physically ill to keep watching. I wasn’t alone – our own Jeff Scott thought he had ingested too much caffeine. Well, we as if there’s such a thing, but that wasn’t the excuse. It just was part of how Samsung doesn’t get how to do a product launch, especially compared to the company they idolize: Apple.

The word that kept sticking out to me was “customers” – Samsung on one hand was trying to pitch their phone as a more natural, and more human experience, yet they kept saying how it would be good for their “customers.” The word customer conjures up the idea of money exchanging hands, and that the people who use this phone are those who spend money on it. It was rather confusing terminology, and seemed to belie Samsung’s true purpose with the phone.

Compare this with Apple product announcements. They are similar, but Apple does a much better job at making sure that they stay on message – that this thing they are revealing can do so much for people. Not just living, breathing sacks of money. Sure, they talk about price, but it’s about so much more than that.

It felt like Samsung was attempting a pale imitation of an actual Apple keynote – the joke being that Samsung has been accused of copying Apple. The announcement was meant to feel human, but it felt like robotic corporate-speak. The stilted marketing buzzwords used when talking about being a corporate partner of the Olympics in London fell extremely flat because it didn’t feel genuine, or even useful to the announcement. Just the words “corporate partner” threw up red flags, as they should. Again, it indicates money exchanging hands, not a genuine human experience that Samsung wants to push, seemingly.

The other problem with mimicking an Apple announcement is that Samsung took it a bit too much to heart: oh, you have voice recognition? Yeah, Apple announced that back in October. You can stream videos and mirror your screen to your TV with a special box? Yeah, you’ve been able to do that for like a year now too with Apple products.

The phone design itself doesn’t seem to impress – Samsung talked about it being inspired by pebbles and nature, but there’s just something off about it. Perhaps it’s the lack of symmetry, possibly demanded by legal issues as Android Police points out. Or maybe Samsung just tried to swing for a home run, and have missed so far. Maybe customers will decide that this thing is actually really nice-looking, and we’re all just freaking out.

It’s a shame that Samsung can’t do an exciting product announcement. They’re the one company out there with the scruples to actually pull it off. They have the kind of clout to get people to pay attention, to watch a livestream of their product announcements. It’s too bad that they’re aiming for second rate Apple imitations across the board.

May 4, 2012

Toy Studio’s new word game Word Off is a game with two hooks: one, it’s designed to have the feel of more of a strategy game with direct conflict, and it’s designed to be multiplatform.

Players alternate turns on a board, forming words from letters in their territory or in unoccupied tiles. The goal is to try and get as many points from formed words, or to conquer the opponent’s base tile. Maches are formed from adjacent hexagonal tiles, with no overlapping. Players can spend their coins on boosts that can be used to grant special advantages, but they are limited to 3 per games.

The game is perfectly multiplatform, with it being developed in HTML5. All versions of the game are the same, and can actually all easily use the same account to log in, whether it be via Facebook or via proprietary account. I’ve played games using the same account on iOS, Android, and web browser.

The game does seem a bit ludicrous with its in-app purchases: coins cost quite a bit, at $4.99 for 40 coins. New board layouts cost upwards of 90 coins. While coins are earned after each game, it still might take a few games in order to even unlock one new board; this is excluding any boost usage as well. Players looking to pick this up long-term should not expect to get a free ride for very long.

The drawback of the HTML5 interface is that with Word Off, it’s not particularly designed to fill the screen. It appears to be designed for the 960×640 resolution of the iPhone Retina Display, and it is displayed centered on every other display. This means on tablets that there is plenty of black space around the game board.

The games are fairly short; I haven’t seen a base conquered yet, and it seems like either a terribly bad stroke of luck combined with skillful play from one player is the only way that it would happen. The option for longer games would allow for some interesting strategies to come in to play.

Word Off has its issues, but the technological achievement is fairly impressive. It’s definitely worth checking out for at least that aspect alone, as they absolutely nailed it. Some other tweaks to pacing and pricing could help smooth out the bumps in the road with the game.

May 4, 2012

On May 3rd in London, Samsung finally revealed their latest phone: the Galaxy S III.

Samsung has gone with a 4.8″ super AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass, at a 720p resolution. Unlike the Galaxy Nexus, the phone doesn’t use on-screen buttons, with physical buttons below the screen. The processor is a 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos, with 1 GB of RAM. Samsung has taken a step forward with the battery, providing a 2100 mAh battery by default. The phone will come in cobalt blue and white at launch.

The phone should lend more ammo to the “Samsung is ripping off the iPhone” crowd, and with good merit. The design, especially the international variant with The S-Voice feature is almost identical to Siri on the iPhone. They’ve boldly gone and implemented the “tap status bar to scroll to the top” feature from iOS in to TouchWiz. As well, they’ve introduced their own variant on AirPlay Mirroring and the Apple TV with AllShare Cast and the compatible dongle; this will allow for the display and media to be streamed to either a compatible TV or TV with AllShare.

However, the software and hardware have some standout features as well. The 8 megapixel rear camera will have zero shutter lag, along with a burst shot mode where the best photo of the burst can be saved. The front camera will boast a 1.9 megapixel resolution, and will be used for more than just video calls and self-shots. The device can use it to tell if the user is still looking at the phone, so it will not go to sleep, even if the user hasn’t touched it. The phone will also respond to the user’s voice and to specific commands, even when the phone is locked. While texting someone, users can hold the phone up to their ear and automatically call the person they’re texting. As well, Samsung is expanding on ICS’ Beam NFC technology, claiming to send files between phones at 5 MB per second, making it easy to share music and videos.

While there’s still a lot to find out about the phone’s launch plans, Europe will start getting the phone by the end of the month, and the US should get the phone this summer. Will it continue Samsung’s run of success in the Android market? Time will tell.

May 3, 2012

PlayUp has launched their app for following live sporting events and socializing with other fans on Android.

The app has an international flavor to it, as it covers leagues from all across the globe. Baseball fan and want to see what’s happening in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball? This app has live scores available from that league. The app will show updates and offer live chat with other fans of the Japanese league. As well, there’s live scores for international soccer leagues (including Turkey’s Süper Lig), cricket, Australian rules football, rugby, hockey, American football, and basketball, which is currently in the playoffs in the US. Live events are given display priority.

Once viewing a game, it’s possible to chat with other fans using the app, and to create private hangouts to chat with just specific people. The app attempts to bring a social experience to a category of app that has generally been used only for one-way checking of information. PlayUp is available now for free from Google Play.

May 3, 2012

The growth of Ice Cream Sadiwch continues to trudge along, slowly but surely. The numbers are at 4.9% for all Android ICS variants. This is likely being spurred on by the Galaxy Nexus and its continued spread; some tablets like the Motorola Xoom are getting the update, though only on their wifi configuration.

However, considering that Android 2.3.x variants make up 63.9% of devices running Android, and even 2.1 Eclair has more users on it than Ice Cream Sandwich, it seems as if something is incredibly wrong with Android updates if an OS released in 2009 is exceeding the latest versions of Android. It’s not just a question of new smartphones launching with ICS, like the HTC One X – when devices like the Galaxy Note that are getting major marketing pushes are still being advertised, and don’t even have Ice Cream Sandwich, there’s definite signs of an issue here.

The sad thing is that this situation is much improved from February, when ICS only made up 1% of Android users.

May 3, 2012

Scorched Monster brings together the kind of arena survival popularized in the modern era by Super Crate Box (and iterated by Muffin Knight on Android) and one of the original games in the genre: the original Mario Bros. from Nintendo. Players control a flamethrower-wielding man, who must go around and scorch monsters, presumably because they are monsters. Hopefully our protagonist understands what Nietzche once said about monsters. The goal of the game is to try and achieve the goal score on each level, rack up high scores, and increase rank with successful playthroughs until the rank of “Scorch Master” is achieved.

It’s actually difficult, if not outright impossible, to be hurt by the enemies themselves, which makes killing them easy, just come in close proximity to them to activate the flamethrower and kill them. It’s something that has to be learned, as my automatic reaction to enemies at first was “I should probably not touch them”, though until I tested whether this was true or not, I avoided bopping enemies on the head. Thankfully, they just get scorched immediately.

The pixel art looks great. The game is colorful and the pixels are crisp – the game is definitely a looker for fans of the retro art style. The game uses virtual controls, but they’re very accurate, I had no issues with them at all. The left and right arrows are spaced well enough apart to where I never had any accidental inputs.

Scorched Monster is set up great for both short sessions and long-term play. Levels take 45 seconds each (though additional time powerups can be collected), and then each level’s score goes toward a total 10 level score. Games can be picked up and resumed at any point. Then, there’s the long-term play, as the goal score in each level increases, because only true Scorch Masters should be given that rank.

The game does get a bit repetitive over time. The level layouts don’t appear to change much, though the backgrounds change. Levels use many of the same tricks, such as spikes that are on ceilings, making them tricky to jump through. The enemy types only really vary in terms of their appearance and score types, they don’t do anything besides walk around.

Scorched Monster is a fun retro-style diversion for Android. The game comes in both ad-supported and paid versions, though it appears as if the ads are only in the menu, not in the game itself. Remember, supporting indie devs is always a good thing! This is a fun game, worth the download.

May 2, 2012

One of the features that Android is missing compared to iOS is AirPlay. While that uses proprietary Apple protocols and occasionally even hardware to get the job done, it does make it easy for users in the Apple ecosystem to beam their content wherever they want.

However, Android users don’t really have an equivalent service to call their own. Apps like DoubleTwist integrate with the AirPlay standard, but still basically require an AirPlay device at the other end.

Zapstreak is hoping to change this. They’re hoping to allow Android users to beam their content to their TVs and other connected media devices through the DLNA standard.

What their SDK aims to let developers do is to let them share photos, audio, and video from an Android device, and beam it to a DLNA client. DLNA is a much more open standard than AirPlay is, utilizing UPnP to help devices, even from different manufacturers and operating systems, communicate in order to share media.

So, by utilizing properly encoded information, an app integrated with Zapstreak will be able to display media on TVs very easily. For example, a music streaming app will be able to play music to a set of connected speakers if it’s integrated with Zapstreak. Photo apps can share users’ creations on a big screen with the Zapstreak. Video apps, when properly encoded, can be streamed to view on a TV, which may be the most exciting part of the Zapstreak proposition.

In speaking with Stefan Bielau of Fusion Sheep, he says that their goal is to reach connected TVs in particular, with the idea that their service will allow users to beam content without any hardware in between. Of course, any DLNA device is hypothetically usable with the service. This includes the Xbox 360 and PS3, and Stefan Bielau even mentioned an old wifi-enabled radio he was able to use to stream audio from a Zapstreak app.

While Zapstreak are not ready to reveal what will be using their SDK, especially as signups are still occurring. However, their plan, at least in the middle term, is to hopefully integrate some functionality in non-media apps, potentially utilizing Zapstreak to stream live audio to a TV. In its current incarnation, it may be difficult for an Android equivalent AirPlay Mirroring implementation to come through this.

As well, Android and DLNA appear to just be the start of thigns for Zapstreak: the plan is to launch on Windows Phone and iOS in the future, and to even get to a point where they could share to an Apple TV. Signups for the Zapstreak SDK are available from their website.

May 1, 2012

GREE, the Japanese gaming behemoth, has been making their push into the US with a San-Francisco-based studio that has been cranking out original titles. So far, their efforts have focused on iOS primarily with Alien Family and Zombie Jombie, games which aren’t current available on Android. However, GREE’s about to twist turn people’s worlds upside down, with the release of their first Android title: Dino-Life.

This social game has players trying to breed that most elusive of creature, whose skeletons line our museums to this day: the dinosaur. There’s a total of 60 dinosaurs in the game, with the ability to crossbreed their dinosaurs in order to create new ones. With their cavemen characters, players can go on quests in order to help them on their quest of creating new dinosaurs.

The game’s art style is designed to be whimsical, colorful, and friendly, making it perfect for a younger audience. This is their first US-developed Android title, and will be an Android exclusive, at least for a certain period of time. According to Eiji Araki, SVP of Social Games, GREE International, Inc., “GREE is excited about the recent advancements in Google Play and its potential to expand the free-to-play ecosystem on Android. Dino Life is our first Android title and exemplifies our commitment to offer unique gameplay mechanics, great social features and highly-stylized art in each game. This game is another step towards creating an ecosystem of games free from geographic or operating system restrictions and is limited only by the imagination of the gamer and the developer.”

It remains to be seen how the game will perform, but given GREE’s international experience, it may just do well on a platform craving original content. Right now on iOS, GREE US isn’t quite up with Zynga’s ranks – their highest ranking game is at #103 in Top Grossing – but given the initiative that GREE has been putting forth to launch new titles, it’s quite possible Dino-Life – available now from Google Play – could be their next big hit.

Apr 30, 2012

When talking about the competition for mobile operating systems, it seems as if the discussion has focused around iOS versus Android. Sure, Microsoft is tilling around with Windows Phone, and Blackberry’s still making phones, but the two contenders in the ring are definitely iOS and Android.

That may be the status quo at the moment, but does anyone believe that it will be this way forever? Of course not. Technology changes too much for it to stay this way forever. Short of the entirely unexpected happening, there are a few plausible scenarios out there that could reshape the mobile market as we know it.

Maybe Apple refuses to take up larger device sizes, and users begin to flock to Android in droves as they become more useful?

Maybe Google, through diplomacy or by force, shrinks the number of devices on the market, drastically shrinking the number of current issues that the OS has, making it more on par with iOS, and it starts to even overtake iOS in more than just user numbers? What if it’s regarded in the mainstream as a superior product?

Maybe Windows Phone 8 will give Microsoft a real contender. Perhaps by offering the kind of top-down OS integration that Apple has played with, they can fill a need with interoperable phones, tablets, and computers that will spearhead Microsoft’s mobile push.

Maybe the new Lumia 900 and its marketing campaign along with low 2-year contract price will get people using WP and anticipating the aforementioned WP8.

Maybe developers will get tired of trying to deal with the thousands of Android devices out there, and just abandon the platform, setting it back for a while.

Maybe that rumored Facebook phone, especially if it comes with access to their vast library of apps and games that run on their web platform, will become a key contender.

Maybe Amazon decides to stop forking Android and go with their own OS, and developers start to abandon Android for the possibly more-profitable platform. They could start selling Kindle phones, and suddenly Google might find Android far gone.

Maybe those Google Glasses replace the phone as we know it, as we all walk around in an augmented reality world, and actual phones become a thing of the past.

Maybe the Mayans were right.

It’s hard to picture a world in the near future where iOS and Android aren’t duking it out as the top 2 operating systems, but what were we saying three years ago, when BlackBerry was still strong and the iPhone was popular, and the iPad was still a rumor?

Maybe something unexpected will happen.

Apr 25, 2012

The worst-kept secret in technology, that Google would launch a Dropbox-esque cloud storage service, is finally a reality. Google Drive is coming soon, bringing 5 GB of free storage to users.

On the Android side of things, the Google Docs app has been replaced with Google Drive. As of now, it still has identical features to Google Docs, until the user’s account is approved, so don’t just download the update expecting to get instant access that way. Google’s smarter than that. We’ll have more on Google Drive and how it stacks up to the competition.

Some hysteria over Google Drive has come from concern over the Google terms of service and how it impacts users. Here’s a sampling of it, with the bolded part being the one most frequently referenced in tweets and articles seen about this.

Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

The bolded part is harrowing out of context, but the context of the sentences before and after it are what is truly important. While I am not a lawyer, many of these issues were raised when Dropbox had their kerfuffle over what their TOS gave them the right to do. Essentially, Google – or any service where user data is uploaded to the cloud – needs the right to store and move the data across their servers without needing explicit user permission. By claiming broad rights but narrow permissions as to what they will do with it, this means that they can do actions for the users without need permission for each individual action, optimistically to only benefit the user or through improvements to the service.

The stereotypical fear is that Google could take people’s photos or the things they write and store on Google Drive and then Google could sell them, as if there’s any evidence of them or any cloud storage service doing so on a widespread basis. The more grounded fear is that Google, being a company that makes its money off of data, is now trying to find a way to get its hands on more data from users, and they’re just going to hand it over. Analyzing and using that data to deliver more efficient advertisements may be the ultimate goal of Google here.

The thing about these concerns is that if they are rooted in a fear of Google indexing everything, it seems as if the time to start worrying about that would have been a long time ago, around when they actually started to, well, try and index everything. It’s hardly been a secret goal of theirs. Never mind that this is all really based off of the same terms of service that Google introduced earlier this year. It’s only now popping up because they announced a new service, and apparently the rights of cloud-based storage companies is a hot-button issue.

So I call on readers to respond in the comments: will the TOS keep you from using Google Drive? Do you agree that this is largely hysteria? Or is this a valid issue being raised? Or both?

Apr 25, 2012

500px has launched a version of their app for Android devices. The app is essentially a port of their iPad app, just now on Android. This is a viewer of the 500px service, which serves as a photo sharing repository for high-quality photography. Photos can be viewed by popular images, editor’s choice, those upcoming in popularity, newest uploads, via searching for keywords, and viewing one’s own 500px images by logging in to the app. Photos can be shared directly to Twitter or Facebook from directly in the app. While the app doesn’t let users save photographs directly in the app, opening up the photo in a web browser is available – make sure to respect artists’ copyrights. The app does come with nude photography, which is filtered out by default, but can be re-enabled in the settings of the app.

Unlike the iOS version of the app, this is actually installable on phones, though the interface is clearly optimized for higher-resolution screens. The app is available now for free from Google Play.