Android Authority |
- Samsung Galaxy S3 International Giveaway #2 – Get another shot at winning the S3!
- Best retro and classic games for Android
- Asus Android-Windows 8 tablet coming at Computex 2012?
- Galaxy S3 news in Canada: pre-orders start today, the phone will be released on June 20 for $150 on contract [Update]
- Verizon is now rolling out OTA update to Android 4.0.4 for Galaxy Nexus
- Galaxy S3 released in Australia, available with all major carriers
- T-Mobile HTC One S update now postponed to June 4 and beyond
- A look inside Foxconn, a major industry manufacturer [Video]
- Best Android apps for guitarists and guitar players
- ChromeOS tablet not planned, Android and Chrome to converge in the future: Google VP
| Samsung Galaxy S3 International Giveaway #2 – Get another shot at winning the S3! Posted: 31 May 2012 09:00 PM PDT
You asked for it and we listened. We decided to pony up the $800+ and give everyone another chance to win a brand new Samsung Galaxy S3. Last month’s Galaxy S3 international giveaway was a massive success, and the lucky winner, Brian Codder from the US, won himself a brand new Samsung Galaxy S3. Congrats, Brian! At Android Authority, we’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on the new Galaxy S3 and we’ve posted some videos on our YouTube channel that you might enjoy. Check’em out! Samsung Galaxy S3 ReviewSamsung Galaxy S3 vs Galaxy NoteContest DetailsEntering our new international giveaway is as easy a few clicks. All we ask is that you give us some social love and spread the good word! You can earn up to 10 entry tickets into the giveaway, by completing the different tasks listed below. Please guys and gals, no funny business – one entry per person, we will verify entries and only ship to the name entered in the contest. Here are the ways you can get entry tickets to the new Samsung Galaxy S3 international giveaway! Good luck, everyone!
This article, Samsung Galaxy S3 International Giveaway #2 – Get another shot at winning the S3! , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Best retro and classic games for Android Posted: 31 May 2012 09:00 PM PDT
Can you still recall the 2D games that people played back in the 90′s? Can you still remember Pacman, Bomberman, or the old-school Snake game on the first Nokia phones? There’s nothing more memorable than those games. They were part of our childhood and it’s great to relive the memories by playing some of those games again on your modern Android device. We searched the Google Play Store to give you the best retro and classic games for your Android device. Read on to check out our list of these old school games. Disclaimer : This list is subjective and is based on the opinion of the author. This list only includes games on the Google Play Store and may not include one of your favorite retro or classic games. PAC-MAN Championship Ed. Demo Who could ever forget the dot-munching yellow guy called PAC-MAN? This game lives on in the Android era in the form of PAC-MAN Championship Ed. Demo. It hasn’t really changed; you can still play by eating all the dots without being caught by those ghosts. While the rules of the game have never changed, it now comes with slick new graphics. This also means you get to experience scrolling mazes and longer ghost-chompin’ combos. The better you play the game, the faster it gets! Relive the thrill of playing this game for free! TETRIS free There could be nothing more famous than the Tetris game; even today’s generation is lured to this addictive puzzle game. Tetris is easy yet challenging, which is precisely the reason why millions of people love this game, easily making it an all-time blockbuster. Even the old guys can still play this game because it’s still really entertaining despite the emergence of millions of new games. TETRIS free will bring those Tetris days back but with touch screen controls instead of the old school game controls. You get to track your scores and you get to rediscover the classic Tetris tune every level break as well. Try it — it won’t cost you a thing. Snake ’97 Here’s another classic game that you should have played back in the old days. Snake was the in thing when the first Nokia phones first entered the market. This game made me sneak away with my parent’s phone, hiding into some corner just to beat the top score. Snake ’97 lets you revive that serpent that feeds on dots. Everything is still the same (except from the fact that you are playing it on touchscreens) — the old school Nokia key pad controls, the game sounds, and even the levels and mazes. You can’t cheat with the high score because you cannot reset it just as it was in the original snake game. Play this game again, and transport yourself back to 1997. It’s also free from the Google Play Store. Bubble Pop Bubble Pop is another old-school game that most people can surely remember. It’s not as complicated as most games, but it’s one of the games that people play when they want to kill some time, such as short work breaks. There are a lot of variations in this game, but this one is still played with the classic rule of selecting 2 or more bubbles to pop. On the other hand, this one already supports multiple game rules and more bubble colors. It’s also more exciting to play with the color blind mode where you have a harder time to distinguish bubble colors. You also get to see global high scores via Scoreloop integration. Go ahead and pop those bubbles one more time. It’s also free to download. [Arkanoid] Smash Brick When I played this game back when I was in grade school, I didn’t really remember the name and all that I could recall was that it really was a challenging game. If you have played this game like I did, then [Arkanoid] Smash Brick will let you relive those brick-smashing memories. The game is still the same; you launch the ball and move the platform to hit the ball every time it falls back until all the bricks above are destroyed. Duck Hunter Do you remember the classic Duck Hunt game? Shooting all those flying ducks was fun. Unfortunately, the original game has no app for Android, but Duck Hunter is played just like that old-school game. You just have to shoot all those flying zombie ducks by tapping them as they appear on the screen. You should be quick because one duck that escapes means a deduction on your life. Hunt those ducks again by downloading this free game. Classic Pong Were you one of those guys who got frustrated because they can’t defeat the computer in the Pong game? Well, vengeance is yours because you can play that game again with Classic Pong. The game has minimalist graphics to bring back the memories of the old days. And, what’s great is that you can play this game with your friend (if you still can’t beat the computer). You can download it free from the Google Play Store. Touhou Bomberman If you have played all those games mentioned above then you might also have played Bomberman. That game was tough but it was worth it when you reach the higher levels. Touhou Bomberman is the closest Android game to that classic. You can choose your characters and there are several modes to play. It’s slightly different, though, because the characters have special weapons that you can use when your status in the game has increased, but using those weapons can decrease your status. So, it has a twist to make the game more exciting, but it’s still about dropping some explosive bombs. It’s also free. 3D Invaders Beta – 3D Game Do you remember the game where 8-bit aliens invade the earth and all that’s in their way is a tiny space ship? It’s also on Android and it’s in 3D. In 3D Invaders Beta – 3D Game, you still defend the planet but in a different way. You have to move your ship using tilt control and shoot at those nasty aliens by tapping the screen. Easy as that, you get to enjoy that classic game but in a 3-dimensional experience. It’s also free for you to download. Radiant Free Another variation to that alien invasion game is Radiant Free. Just like on those classic alien shooting games, you have to shoot all those aliens and collect power ups and weapons along the way. You have to defeat hordes of aliens and face an alien boss for every level. If you upgrade to the full version of the app, you get to enjoy more features like 100 game levels, 6 upgradable weapons, 12 special power ups, and more. Relive the classic alien games through this app. It’s really great to relive those childhood games once in a while. There are actually more classic and retro games for Android that we were not able to include in this list. Let us know of those games by leaving us a comment. This article, Best retro and classic games for Android , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Asus Android-Windows 8 tablet coming at Computex 2012? Posted: 31 May 2012 12:23 PM PDT
With a few days to go until Computex 2012 kicks off, Asus has decided to put up a few short teaser videos that include various hints at certain features that upcoming Asus devices could offer. But more importantly, some of these videos suggest that the Android device maker may announce a dual-booting Android-Windows 8 device next week. The first video – which we have already shared with you – is entitled "The Incredible Transformations" and teases a tablet that will come with a keyboard, will pack certain cloud-related powers and that will be unveiled in Taiwan. That "Transformation" part of the title suggests that we could be looking at the next-gen Transformer model teased in the video. By itself, the 43-second teaser video is not that exciting, since we already knew Asus can produce some interesting Android tablets. But Asus released two more teaser videos, shorter than the first one, to make sure tablet fans are paying attention. The second teaser, entitled "All-in-One is No Longer In One” is a 16-second spot that clearly shows two distinct logos in water drops – see the image above. We're looking at the Windows 8 and Android logos, each one present in its own drop of water. That clearly suggests that at least one of Asus' future tablets will be able to run Android and Windows 8, a combination that plenty of tablet users would enjoy. The third teaser, called "When Two Sides Unite," a 17-second clip, also indicates that an upcoming Asus tablet will pack two "sides" that will be available on the same device. We're obviously looking at Android and Windows 8, as no other mobile OS combination would make sense. The words “Tai” and “Chi” are present on either side of that piece of paper. Together, “Tai Chi” stands for an Asian martial arts style. We’re certainly interested to see what this unnamed Asus Android-Windows 8 tablet will have to offer, and whether it will be able to become a competitive iPad rival or not. However, since Microsoft will only release Windows 8 – its next-gen desktop and tablet operating system – at some point in fall 2012, we would expect this Asus dual-booting tablet to hit stores at some point by Christmas, so don’t get too excited about purchasing one yet. At the same time, let's not forget that Asus is also working closely with Google on the first Nexus-branded tablet, a device that's expected to be unveiled during Google I/O later this year. The first Nexus tablet will not necessarily be an iPad-killer, as the device is currently rumored to be a mid-ranged device, priced at $150-$250 and ready to take on the Amazon Kindle Fire and its successors. With that in mind, I can't help but wonder which of these two Asus-made tablets would be more popular with the crowds, a dual-booting Android-Windows 8 machine, or a pure Google Nexus device running Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. This article, Asus Android-Windows 8 tablet coming at Computex 2012? , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Posted: 31 May 2012 12:17 PM PDT
After hitting yesterday 28 countries across Europe and the Middle East, the hugely anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3 is finally closing in on its North American release. We have some good news for Canadian tech enthusiasts waiting for the S3, which could be interpreted as good news for Samsung fans in the US. The first piece of Galaxy S3 news to come from the Great White North refers to the phone's pre-orders, which will most likely start today. Rogers Wireless, the biggest mobile carrier in Canada, has put up a special web page with a countdown clock for the S3, which will run out at 12:00 PM EST, when the operator will start taking pre-orders. Here’s the specs on this bad boy: Processor: Did you notice the word, ‘LTE’ in those specs and get excited? That’s only for carriers, Rogers/Bell/TELUS/Virgin because the Wind/Videotron/Mobilicity will have that part of the baesband disabled. Sorry, folks.
Second up, we have even better news from Videotron, a small local carrier from Quebec. On Videotron's official website, there's a sign up page stating that the "new Galaxy is coming June 20th". Update, June 1st:
Finally, Best Buy Canada provides another piece of the puzzle, the pricing of the Galaxy S3 in Canada, so we can now say that we know (almost) all of the important things about Sammy's new flagship. According to BB's site, the S3 will start at $149.99 with a 3-year contract (from Rogers) and will be available for as much as $169.99 (from SaskTel). In between the two carriers, there are Telus and Virgin's offerings, both operators being ready to sell the new Galaxy phone for $159.99.
We have nothing new to report on the Galaxy S3's availability and pricing in the United States, Stay tuned on our website in the next hours or so, because we will most likely be updating this post with confirmations and other details. In the meantime, our Canadian readers are asked to stay calm, get their budgets in order, and prepare for the time of their lives. This article, Galaxy S3 news in Canada: pre-orders start today, the phone will be released on June 20 for $150 on contract [Update] , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Verizon is now rolling out OTA update to Android 4.0.4 for Galaxy Nexus Posted: 31 May 2012 10:17 AM PDT
What was thought as the impossible is finally happening now – it appears Verizon is already sending out the IMM76K update for Galaxy Nexus, which will bring the device to Android 4.0.4. It took a little nudge from Google — as the update file was first uploaded to its server — and some pleas from disgruntled customers. But better late than never, right? As always, any OTA update is usually rolled out in batches and it can be either per region or device number. There have been countless reports of people getting the update though, which started all the way from the early morning. So hopefully today will be your lucky day. We guess we don't have to tell you to keep checking on your phone for the update notification – since you've probably been doing so for the last few days. As for how the update will affect the Galaxy Nexus, we've given a summary of that yesterday. Now here's the complete information straight from Verizon. Email, Messaging & Data
Applications
Device Features
Despite the seemingly extensive list of improvement and bug fixes that the IMM76K update offers, some users are still reporting instances of a “mute call” issue – but hopefully it's an isolated case. In general, most are quite pleased with how the update has improved the performance of their Galaxy Nexus. Are you still anxiously waiting to see the update notification on your Galaxy Nexus? As for those who have received the update, did it meet your expectation? Sound off below, please! This article, Verizon is now rolling out OTA update to Android 4.0.4 for Galaxy Nexus , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Galaxy S3 released in Australia, available with all major carriers Posted: 31 May 2012 09:54 AM PDT
The Samsung Galaxy S3 saga has just ended in Australia, where Samsung's new flagship was unveiled during a Sydney special event and is already up for sale. It all started with an ambiguous official statement three weeks ago, which made us think that Aussie tech users would have to wait for a long time, but, fortunately, that hasn't been the case at all. In fact, we really have to applaud Samsung and admit that, while we expected the S3 to eventually come to Australia, we didn't imagine that things would go so smoothly. Furthermore, we also have to applaud the fact that the S3 was made available from all major Aussie carriers at the same time, allowing the regular user to really pick what's best for them and what suits their needs best. You can already get the S3 from Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, Telstra and Optus and the carriers' offers seem pretty decent, at least at a first glance. The cheapest plans come from Virgin Mobile, who have the S3 paired with the Fair Go Plan 29 and Big Plan 29 at $47 and $49 a month respectively. Both plans are for 24-month carrier agreements, as you would expect, and the second one comes with significantly more data included. The most expensive plan by a mile comes from Telstra, offering the Galaxy S3 for free upfront, but with $129 monthly fees. There are a couple of $99 per month plans from Vodafone as well, but you'll get a nice deal out of these only if you have data and call usage.
All of the plans and deals for the Galaxy S3 in Australia can be checked at this link here, so have a look and choose wisely! As for the phone's pricing without any carrier agreement, that's a bit steep, if you ask me, going for $899. Don't forget that Amazon has the SIM-free version of the S3 available ; it goes for just $779.99! The Samsung Galaxy S3 has only been put up for sale in "Marble White" and with 16 GB of on-board storage, so if you prefer the blue model or the one with 32 GB of internal memory, you should have a little more patience. The "Pebble Blue" variant can be pre-ordered and should start shipping in around 10 days, while the 32 GB version is simply listed as "coming soon" for the time being. You should also know that a 4G LTE version of the S3 has been not been put up for sale just yet, so you'll have to make due with 3G connectivity speeds. Telstra, the only Aussie carrier to support LTE speeds, is reportedly in negotiations with Samsung to launch a speedier version of the 4.8-inch "beast", but the information hasn't been officially confirmed and we also don't know when to expect such an S3 model in Australia. I'm not going to run you through all of the S3's tech specs and features, as I'm almost certain you know them by heart already, but if you need a quick refresher, check out this article right here. Also, if you have trouble deciding to go for Samsung's new phone or pass it, here's a very thorough review to help you make your mind! Are there any Australian tech enthusiasts reading us? Did you get your own Galaxy S3 already? Has there been any trouble with ordering the device? Let us know in the comments section! This article, Galaxy S3 released in Australia, available with all major carriers , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| T-Mobile HTC One S update now postponed to June 4 and beyond Posted: 31 May 2012 09:32 AM PDT
T-Mobile HTC One S owners will be happy to hear that an update supposedly bringing "improved software stability" and resolution to "open issues with the device" is heading their way. Unfortunately, the update, initially scheduled to hit as of the time of this writing, was postponed to a later date. According to TmoNews, official T-Mobile documentation now shows a new roll out date, June 4 through July 7, so there's still some waiting in store. Here's what you can expect from the pending One S update:
To get the OTA (over-the-air) update, you'll have to wait for an update notification or manually check for updates by going to Settings > About phone > Software updates > Check now. Once the update (Android version 4.0.3 / Software version 1.84.531.2.710RD) is ready to be downloaded to your phone, make sure you meet the following requirements:
This article, T-Mobile HTC One S update now postponed to June 4 and beyond , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| A look inside Foxconn, a major industry manufacturer [Video] Posted: 31 May 2012 09:12 AM PDT
In February, ABC’s Nightline news visited Foxconn’s Zhengshou plant to expose poor working conditions and low wages. In addition, a reporter from the Chinese website iFeng recently visited the same plant and went on a tour with the Foxconn CEO. The video starts off with Foxconn CEO Terry Gou taking the reporter on a helicopter ride of the Foxconn land. In addition to factories, Foxconn’s 5.6 square kilometers of land are used for living space and “wastelands”. These wastelands are “being reserved for further expansion of the plant”. Unlike ABC’s report found below, this reporter does not seem to be looking for any violations. However, Apple’s famous pursuit of improving conditions at Foxconn only revealed more details instead of creating any improvements. More specifically, interviews with workers have revealed that cramped living conditions, punishment, and lots of overtime are all part of the normal day as a worker at Foxconn. In spite of Apple’s failed attempts, Sacom, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, has joined the fight to improve working conditions. This article, A look inside Foxconn, a major industry manufacturer [Video] , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Best Android apps for guitarists and guitar players Posted: 31 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT
If music has seduced your soul, you’ll have picked up one of the basic but iconic instruments known to humankind — the guitar. With its strings and its wood, you can produce beautiful music. It’s easy to pluck away at the strings and image yourself in a few years’ time, singing to huge crowds or just crooning to a small intimate gathering. Regardless of how big you want to be as a musician, you can’t always be next to your instruments 24/7. We’ve got other obligations too, such as work, school, and family. If you want to take your guitar-playing passion with you wherever you go, we’ve got your back covered. We scoured the Google Play Store to find you some of the best apps for guitarists and guitar players, regardless of how recently you just started playing or how seasoned you are. Tuner – gStrings Free Don’t you just hate it when you find your guitar isn’t quite tuned? If you’ve got the time and the ear for it, you can tweak it to perfection, but if you’re on a tight schedule or you’re just not that good at tuning your instrument, you might benefit from a little extra help. Make sure that you always sound good with Tuner – gStrings Free, a chromatic tuner for your guitar. But, it isn’t just limited to just that. If you’ve got a buddy who needs help in making sure they’re not off key, gStrings can also help musicians with violins and other instruments. gStrings includes orchestra tuning for when you want to redefine tone frequencies, different temperaments such (e.g., just, pythagorean, meantone, comma, and more), a variable nonlinear scale, microphone sensitivity, pitch pipe, and more. Download gStrings for your Android device today and make sure that your guitar is always in tune. Guitar Tuner If you just want a tuner specifically for a guitar, then Guitar Tuner might be your best bet. Just like a pitch pipe for the guitar, Guitar Tuner is the app for the musician on the go. It helps you figure out which notes to tune the strings of your guitar to. The app shows you a graphical guitar on the screen, highlighting the string of your choice so you can easily locate it on your guitar. The app will then play the note for the string, allowing you to get an idea of the sound your guitar should be making. Guitar Tuner may be too simple for some users, as the app doesn’t detect your instrument’s sound, nor does it allow you to work off of any conventional meter or gauge to tune your guitar. If you’d like to develop your hearing and learning how to tune your guitar by ear, Guitar Tuner might be for you. Guitar Tuner is perfect for beginners and seasoned guitar players alike. Mobile Metronome If you’re concerned about having to bring a big bulky metronome with you when you’re on the road or if your friends want an impromptu jam session, make life easier with this app. Mobile Metronome is a simple-to-use, robust, and fully functional metronome that you can bring with you right on your Android device. It gives you fine tempo tuning from 10 to 20 BPM, as well as tap tempo. Mobile Metronome lets you save your presets and load them up when you need them again. Tempo is adjustable for simple, compound, and complex meters. Set the beat tempo by tapping on the plus or minus signs or you can tap the tempo yourself. Adjust the time signatures to the one you want and set the beat subdivision as quarter, eighth, triplet, sixteenth, quintuplet, or sextuplet notes. Mobile Metronome also lets you adjust the metronome’s volume. When you’re ready, tap on Start Metronome. Don’t worry about incoming calls because Mobile Metronome automatically turns off when someone calls you. Just one note of warning: If you own an HTC Wildfire, there may be some compatibility issues with your device. Chordbot Lite Being on the go can make or break a musician. We’re not just talking about living conditions or being able to get a gig. We’re talking about getting inspiration and coming up with songs. You might be on a bus or who knows where when inspiration hits you for a potential hit. Seize the moment with this songwriting tool and electronic accompanist. Chordbot Lite is an app that lets you create and play advanced chord progressions easily on your phone. Whether you’re experimenting with songwriting or using Chordbot as an accompaniment for your guitar, this app is packed with features. It has 60 chord types in all keys and inversions, slash chords, transposition, automatic inversion selection, and an automatic song generator. If you want more features, you can purchase Chordbot’s full version for more than 50 comping styles and MIDI/WAV file export. Download Chordbot Lite for free from the Google Play Store today and songwrite on the go. JamBox Light Chords & Scales Whether you’re right-handed or left-handed, here’s an app that’ll help any guitarist in need. JamBox Light Chords & Scales is a comprehensive chord and scales app. Featuring 22 chord modes, 13 scales, dynamic scale calculation, and limited split bass/slash cords, JamBox may just be your new best friend. It displays and plays current chords in most popular variations and has notes display. Forget a certain chord? Look it up with JamBox and even hear it. The app also supports standard tuning and a left-handed option for left-handed guitarists. JamBox may not have every chord in existence but it’s handy for beginners who are still feeling their way through their guitars. JamBox is free to download from the Google Play Store but is ad-supported. If you’d like to do away with ads and unlock more features, you can purchase JamBox Pro Chords & Scales for a small fee. Ultimate Guitar Tabs Get all the tabs you ever need in one convenient place. Ultimate Guitar Tabs allows you to easily and conveniently view guitar tablatures and bass tablatures. The app boasts unlimited access to the world’s largest database of tabs, Ultimate-Guitar.com, and lets you browse the site’s collection of over 400,000 tabs. Learn or practice your favorite songs whether you’re at home, outdoors, or jamming with your friends. Look up a song with Ultimate Guitar Tabs’ Quick Search by entering the artist name or song title. If you still can’t find the tabs you’re looking for, make use of the Advanced Search Tool so you can specify the tab type, part of the song, difficulty level, tuning, and rating. Once you’ve found tabs that you love, add them to your Favorites so you can make them available for offline browsing. Ultimate Guitar Tabs offers SD card support, so users can store not just the application on their SD card for safekeeping but also the tabs that they want so they can view them offline. If you need more tools, you can purchase Tab Tools and Tab Pro right from within the app. GChord (Guitar Chord Finder) So maybe you’re not a seasoned guitar player yet. Or, maybe you’re still struggling to hold your guitar and position your fingers in the right places. It’s okay, we all start somewhere. Naturally, the only way to become the best is to practice, practice, practice. That is, after you learn to find chords. With GChord (Guitar Chord Finder), you’ll be able to find your chords in no time. It’s especially handy for beginners who are still learning their instrument. Look up a chord and learn where your fingers go. There are four ways of finger placements per chord. You can also easily conduct a reverse search and save your data. If you’re left-handed, don’t worry, because GChord also supports left-handed players. GChord is rather barebones and straightforward, but it’s perfect if you just need help learning all those tricky finger positions. Get GChord today for your Android device; it’s available for free on the Google Play Store. Solo Doesn’t it suck when the urge to play hits you when you’re nowhere near your guitar? You might be commuting, at the office, at school, or on a vacation when your musical mojo’s in full force. Don’t despair because there’s an app to save your day. Solo is an app that lets you play your favorite songs or create some of your own, right from the comfort of your Android device. It’s perfect for when you don’t have your guitar with you and you want to get your rockstar on. If you do happen to have your guitar with you, Solo is great as a reference or an accompaniment. Solo features classical guitar, acoustic guitar, and electric guitars, each boasting an authentic sound. It also sports a chord library with chord diagrams so you can hear and see how each chord is played; you can even create your own chords. Play along with any of the music tracks loaded on your phone and speed your learning process up by getting chord and lyric overlays from the web. Samsung Galaxy Note users will definitely enjoy how the S Pen works with Solo. Purchase it for a small fee today. Virtual Guitar Here’s another app that makes sure you’ve always got a guitar with you. Virtual Guitar is great for both beginners and professional players, boasting a realistic sound especially when you use headphones or external speakers. If you just want to play for yourself and not bother the crowd around you, plug in your headphones and practice a few songs. You’ll just look like you’re playing a game. If you want to jam with your friends, plug in external speakers and let your musical fingers fly free. Virtual Guitar also sports a chord library that lets you find all the important chords that you need and multi-touch support for when you need to hold down several strings. The app comes with Solo Mode, which allows you to touch a string on a selected fret to get a sound and try out that tablature you’ve found. It also comes with Chords mode for when you want to play a song and you have its chords with you. For Android devices with smaller screens, users can go to the app’s settings to reduce the number of frets displayed on the screen; choose between 6, 9, and 12. Robotic Guitarist Last but definitely not the least, here’s an app that’s not just a guitar emulator but also a chord guide, a tuner, and a metronome rolled into one convenient package. Robotic Guitarist is everything you need in one app so you don’t have to switch between apps. You don’t have to be a seasoned guitarist to appreciate this app. You can choose a chord without having to learn the finger positions; hit the strings and hear gorgeous sounds recorded from a real instrument. Strum, play arpeggio, or try any desired technique. For those of you who do play the guitar seriously, you’ll definitely enjoy Robotic Guitarist’s multi-touch support. Change your chord selection on the go with the app’s easy interface and check where your fingers go with the app’s finger position diagram. Tune your guitar and keep your tempo with the app’s built-in metronome. Choose between Robotic Guitarist’s acoustic or electric guitar and if you’re starting to get bored, you can choose the sound of pianos, chorus, or flutes and map them to the whole guitar. Take this all in one guitar app with you wherever you go. Download Robotic Guitarist for free from the Google Play Store. Never despair being away from your guitar with these apps. Play on the go on your Android device or keep your stock of chords knowledge sharp with these apps. If your favorite guitar apps didn’t make it to our list, share it with us in a comment below. This article, Best Android apps for guitarists and guitar players , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| ChromeOS tablet not planned, Android and Chrome to converge in the future: Google VP Posted: 31 May 2012 07:48 AM PDT
Google is expected to launch its first ever Nexus-branded tablet at its annual Google I/O developers conference this summer, but the search giant will not create a similar device running the company's desktop operating system, Chrome OS. According to Linus Upson, Google's Vice President of Engineering, the two ecosystems will coexist although they are expected to converge at some point in the future. While introducing the new Samsung Chrome OS machines, Upson told TechRadar:
The same convergence Upson talked about in his interview with the publication is seen from other companies present in the mobile business. The competitionApple's desktop and mobile operating systems, OS X and iOS, while independent ecosystems, already share some features that help users enjoy a seamless experience when moving between Macs and mobile devices. Once OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6 will be launched later this year, Mac, iPhone and iPad users will notice an even further integration of iOS apps into OS X. Similarly, Microsoft will launch Windows 8 later this year, a totally redesigned desktop OS which will have a Metro-based tablet-ready user interface that will bring Windows Phone 7.x devices and future Windows 8 tablets/smartphones closer together. Users that choose to buy smartphones, tablets, and desktops powered by Microsoft's operating systems will enjoy a more unified experience.
Future of ChromeUnlike Mac, and most importantly Windows, Chrome OS is yet to see a widespread adoption from consumers. But that doesn't mean Google is ready to give up the fight in the desktop business and focus solely on Android development. Chrome OS and Chrome are two important browsing-based projects for the company, that could help bring in more ad revenues in the following years, especially as mobile devices and computers running competing operating systems are ready for certain Chrome OS and Chrome features. And let’s not forget that Google’s browser, that’s compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS computers, is among the most popular web browsers in the world, if not the most popular. Even if it arrived later than expected, the Chrome browser is now available on Android handsets, and we could see it soon on competing mobile devices as well. Upson said during the interview that "new phones have got to the point where [Google] can run all of Chrome which wasn't possible before ARM chips got faster and faster." Therefore, bringing the "full Chrome experience" to a variety of devices, seems possible:
Are you excited about the first budget-friendly Google Nexus tablet launching soon, or would you rather see a Chrome OS tablet in the works? This article, ChromeOS tablet not planned, Android and Chrome to converge in the future: Google VP , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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