Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Android and Me

Android and Me

Nexus 7 and Galaxy Note 10.1 commercials debut online

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 12:46 PM PDT

Nexus 7 commercial

Commercials for Google’s Nexus 7 and Samsung’s 10.1-inch Galaxy Note have appeared online in the last day. And as you might have already guessed, both take different approaches on how to convince you to buy their tablet.

The commercial for the still unreleased Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is aimed squarely at the business crowd. Boasting the tablet’s 10.1-inch “multi” screen for multitasking and special properties of the S Pen, Samsung uses their Note 10.1 commercial to take us through the afternoon of a hot-shot businessman and how the Note fits into his life.

I imagine this will be just one of many commercials for the Note 10.1 once the tablet is made available. Hopefully future ads will target a broader audience. For now, Samsung is going after a very clear demographic:

The commercial for the Nexus 7 has a much more human feel than the Note 10.1 commercial, clearly intended to tug at the heart strings of families across the web.

Featuring a father and son camping with the Nexus 7, the commercial shows a family using the tablet to enhance their bonding experience. Reading books, watching a movie, playing checkers, looking up wild animals; the Nexus 7 can do it all (and without a constant data connection?).

Whether or not this commercial will make its way to television remains to be seen, but I have a good feeling it will.

Now that you’ve seen both commercials, which one do you like best?

Dead Trigger’s price change due to “unbelievably high” piracy rates

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 12:24 PM PDT

dead-trigger-promo-630

Madfinger’s decision to move their popular zombie shooter game Dead Trigger from $0.99 to free was met with both cheers and jeers. Anyone looking to download the game for free from Google Play couldn’t have been more happy. Those who had already purchased the game felt like they had been cheated, which Madfinger could certainly sympathize with.

According to a Facebook post from Dead Trigger’s developers Madfinger Games, the main reason Dead Trigger went from $0.99 to free was due to “unbelievably high” piracy rates on Android devices:

Regarding price drop. HERE is our statement. The main reason: piracy rate on Android devices, that was unbelievably high. At first we intend to make this game available for as many people as possible - that's why it was for as little as buck. - It was much less than 8$ for SHADOWGUN but on the other hand we didn't dare to provide it for free, since we hadn't got XP with free-to-play format so far. - However, even for one buck, the piracy rate is soooo giant, that we finally decided to provide DEAD TRIGGER for free. Anyway - DEAD TRIGGER is not FREEMIUM, it always was and still remains FREE-TO-PLAY, that means, all players are able to play it without IAP! We stand up for this statement, because all members of our team are playing (and enjoying) DEAD TRIGGER without IAP.Madfinger GamesDevelopers of Dead Trigger

As unfortunate as this is for Madfinger, it’s even worse for Android as a whole.

When big name game developers like Madfinger go as far as completely giving up on charging money for a game because piracy rates are so out of control on Android, it’s going to cause a stir. Developers aren’t going to hear about Madfinger’s piracy troubles and decide to release high-quality games for free. They’ll either pump games full of ads (on top of offering in-app purchases) or ditch Android for iOS.

Side loading apps on Android devices certainly has its advantages. But the time has come for Google to implement some sort of free or low cost verification process for certain types of apps if they want developers to remain interested in their platform. Let’s hope this whole mess gets sorted out before the impact really starts to show.

In the meantime, go enjoy Dead Trigger for free. It’ll only take one level to really appreciate the work Madfinger put into the game.

DEAD TRIGGER MADFINGER Games PLAY QR POWERED BY APPAWARE

Amazon planning for tablet market domination?

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 06:08 AM PDT

amazon-devices

There’s a report out of Reuters this morning that Amazon is working on not one or two tablets, but a whopping six tablet SKUs coming fairly soon according to Staples’ President of U.S. Retail Demos Parneros. This could go one of two different ways. It could amount to an entire refresh of the overall Kindle lineup, with one or two of Amazon’s current models being scrapped for a 10″ Kindle aimed squarely at Apple’s iPad. Amazon currently offers six Kindle SKUs.

Alternatively, Amazon could be gearing up for a downsizing of the number of e-ink offerings they have, but offering customers choice of storage options on both the Kindle Fire 7″ and 10″ tablet models it sees as the future of Kindle. Two storage choices for each of those tablets plus a refresh to the Kindle with keyboard and Kindle Touch would amount to the 6 new SKUs Staples is readying.

Regardless, we’re pretty confident Amazon is working on a 10″ Kindle Fire, and likely is also tackling a refresh of the popular Kindle Fire 7″ unit. Amazon will likely continue to sell these new tablets at cost, making up revenues in sales of ebooks, movies, and music, arenas in which Amazon sees significantly high profits. The Kindle tablets would likely retain Amazon’s Kindle UI overlay, prominently featuring ways to consume Amazon’s content front and center in the tablet experience.

This all lines up with what we learned over a year ago, namely that Amazon intends to bring a family of devices to the market as mobile becomes more and more prominent. Of course, competition in that arena is getting more fierce, with Google’s Nexus 7 and the oft-rumored iPad mini competing in the 7″ tablet arena, and the perennial market-leading iPad and a rumored Nexus 10 fighting for customers on the 10″ battlefield.

Are you interested in a Kindle Tablet, or are you more looking forward to whatever comes next out of the Nexus program?

Samsung Galaxy S III clears the 10 million mark in just under two months

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 05:49 AM PDT

samsung-galaxy-s-iii

Given the massive number of pre-orders and constantly shifting U.S. release dates attributed to overwhelming demand it comes as no surprise that the Samsung Galaxy S III has managed to eclipse 10 million devices sold in just two months, fully three months faster than its predecessor.

The president of Samsung’s mobile communication division, Shin Jong-Kyun, confirmed that more than 10 million Galaxy S IIIs had been sold, but did not give an exact number or specify whether this was devices sold to consumers or retailers. Regardless it’s safe to say that the launch has been a rousing success. It’s also worth noting that the Olympics are starting next week and the Galaxy S III is due to get a lot of face time throughout which should lead to another sales boost worldwide.

As you can tell from our review of the Verizon variant we were pretty much blown away by every aspect of the device so it’s not shocking to see it doing so well with consumers.

For those of you that count yourselves among the 10 million that have picked up a Galaxy S III thus far what do you think of the device after having a little time with it now? And not to leave anyone out, if you haven’t picked up a Galaxy S III are you still thinking about it or is it missing something that you are holding out for?
Posted by at 8:01 AM

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