Android Authority |
- HTC Vertex HD tablet spotted in benchmark tests, not confirmed yet
- Garnet Red Galaxy S3 available exclusively from AT&T: pre-order and release date official
- Sprint Epic 4G Touch Ice Cream Sandwich update rolls out, U.S. Cellular Galaxy S2 not as lucky
- Nexus 7 shipping / launch set for July 13, unless it isn’t
- Firefox 14: Faster, smarter, safer Web browser for Android
- Best Android apps for personalizing and customizing your phone
- Twitter for Android gets major update
- Samsung opens a stand-alone retail store in Vancouver, a first for North America
- Amazon launches GameCircle for Kindle Fire
- ZTE to unveil the “most advanced gaming smartphone” next week
| HTC Vertex HD tablet spotted in benchmark tests, not confirmed yet Posted: 13 Jul 2012 03:24 AM PDT
Yesterday we heard that an HTC official confirmed to a publication that the company has not abandoned tablet development plans and that its future device will have a unique selling point. At the time, we didn't have any more details about the device and we lacked a name for this future unique project – we wondered whether the new tablet will be part of the Flyer or Jetstream families of HTC tablets or whether it will carry a brand new name. Today we have a new report that sheds more light on this HTC product. Apparently we're looking at the HTC Vertex HD, a tablet that has already shown up in benchmark tests. According to Slashgear, the new tablet will sport a 10.1-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution, 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, a 2-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel shooter, Bluetooth 4.0 and Beats Audio support. The device is running Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich right now, although that may change by the time it hits stores. Speaking about availability details, we don't have any launch dates or pricing for this new Android device, so we'll have to wait for HTC and its carrier partners to officially unveil it, or leak more details about it. What's clear so far is that the device doesn't appear to be necessarily an iPad contender, but it's neither an affordable 7-inch device meant to take on the Google Nexus 7. Could the Vertex be a budget 10-inch tablet? Anyone interested in a new HTC tablet? This article, HTC Vertex HD tablet spotted in benchmark tests, not confirmed yet , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Garnet Red Galaxy S3 available exclusively from AT&T: pre-order and release date official Posted: 13 Jul 2012 02:54 AM PDT
Six U.S. carriers are already selling the Samsung Galaxy S3, or plan to start selling it soon, including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and C Spire, but all of them offer the device in the same two colors Pebble Blue and Marble White. If these colors are too boring for your taste then you should know that AT&T will have an exclusive color in stock soon, and that's Garnet Red. AT&T has officially confirmed the Garnet Red Galaxy S3 version on its company blog, and the mobile operator has shared availability details with the crowds. The phone will be available for pre-order starting with July 15, while in-store purchases will begin on July 29. The Garnet Red Galaxy S3 version will offer the same specs and features as any other American Galaxy S3 model: 4.8-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display with 1280 x 720 resolution, 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB RAM, 4G LTE support and Android Ice Cream Sandwich under the hood. Since the carrier only sells the 16GB version of the Galaxy S3, we'd assume the Garnet Red will also be available only with 16GB of memory on board. The handset will retail for $199.99 when purchased with a new two-year contract, just like its blue and white brethren. This article, Garnet Red Galaxy S3 available exclusively from AT&T: pre-order and release date official , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Sprint Epic 4G Touch Ice Cream Sandwich update rolls out, U.S. Cellular Galaxy S2 not as lucky Posted: 13 Jul 2012 02:33 AM PDT
A few days ago we told you that Sprint was getting ready to roll out the highly anticipated Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for its Galaxy S2 version – more commonly known as the Epic 4G Touch – and it looks like the update is already available. Better late than never, right, Sprint subscribers? The update is available as an over-the-air (OTA) download, so you should have no problem installing Android 4.0.4 on your Epic 4G Touch device. Sprint already posted the complete changelog for the Epic 4G Touch Android 4.0.4 update (hit the source link below) and revealed that starting July 15, "for a limited time only," the carrier will offer a "Buy One, Get One Free" deal on Epic 4G Touch purchases. We'll remind you though that the carrier also sells the newest Galaxy S model, which you should definitely check out if you're buying a new Android handset. The video below should come in handy when upgrading your Epic 4G Touch to Android 4.0.4: U.S. Cellular Galaxy S2 owners are not that lucky. The carrier has scheduled a software update for the device as well, but unfortunately for them it's not Ice Cream Sandwich. Instead, you'll be getting Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread installed on your device, build version FF18. The update brings a few "Google security patches" and other fixes, but you’ll have to manually apply it – full instructions are available at the “Samsung” link below. There are no news at this time on when the U.S. Cellular Galaxy S2 Ice Cream Sandwich will be rolled out. This article, Sprint Epic 4G Touch Ice Cream Sandwich update rolls out, U.S. Cellular Galaxy S2 not as lucky , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Nexus 7 shipping / launch set for July 13, unless it isn’t Posted: 13 Jul 2012 01:47 AM PDT
We continue to report on the Nexus 7 release, since the device is currently the hottest Android device out there, but we can’t produce an actual launch date yet. Google promised at Google I/O a mid-July launch for its Jelly Bean device – its first tablet ever – and has been taking pre-orders ever since announcing the device. We have no idea how many units the company sold thus far, although Google did reveal that pre-order numbers for the first day were “big.” The device is still available for pre-order directly from Google Play, but also from various other third-party retailers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK. So far we've seen various reports indicating that the device will hit stores this week or at some point next week, with July 12 and July 19 being rumored as potential launch dates for the tablet in the U.S. and UK, respectively. But Google did not come out with a release date yet for either market So when is this thing coming out? Google Play ordersThose of you that have pre-ordered the device directly from Google should be, at least in theory, the first ones to get the device. Many of our readers have shared pre-order details with us, but these do not include shipping confirmations as neither of them has received any notices from Google yet.
However, it appears that at least one lucky Nexus 7 buyer is going to get his Android 4.1 tablet later today, at least according to the screenshot above. The email says that UPS should ship the Nexus 7 today, between 2:15 – 6:15. Since xda-developers Forum user bige610 forgot to also blur the tracking number of his package (by the way, we know your name too from that screenshot), anyone can go to UPS and check the delivery status – we did that too and found out that UPS is waiting for the shipment from Google to arrive at its facility before it can update the delivery date. I guess we'll just have to check back in a few hours to see whether the package is shipped.
While we have blurred personal information, the above UPS screenshot did reveal this package is supposed to ship somewhere in Illinois, in case this is a helpful detail to our readers. Should this particular package arrive at its final destination today, then we expect plenty of other Galaxy Nexus buyers to receive their devices today or in the following days. Other retailersYesterday we heard that Office Depot decided to put a hold on Nexus 7 sales and we assumed the order came straight from Google. Now we have more reasons to believe that Google must have stopped sales from third-party retailers because the Search giant did exactly that with a New York-based store. The Verge reports that Adorama had "over 30 units in stock" as of yesterday, but the company can't sell the device just yet:
We're certainly interested to see whether Adorama will start selling the device on Sunday after all, but in case Nexus 7 shipping starts today, we could see other retailers start in-store sales in the following days. The same online publication reports that UK retailer Ebuyer expects to start selling the Nexus 7 on July 19, or next Thursday. We'll be back with more details once we know more, in the mean time, check your email, you may have received shipping details too – in which case let us know whether you're getting the device this week or not. This article, Nexus 7 shipping / launch set for July 13, unless it isn't , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Firefox 14: Faster, smarter, safer Web browser for Android Posted: 13 Jul 2012 12:00 AM PDT
Firefox had been enjoying its share of success in the past few years until Google Chrome came along and took some of the spotlight. But, this doesn't mean that Firefox is down and out as there are still millions of loyal users using the world-famous browser. When it comes to the mobile version, web browsers are not that different from their desktop counterparts. Some of the famous mobile web browsers are Dolphin Browser HD, Chrome for Android, and lot more. Firefox, on the other hand, is still sporting the beta tag and Mozilla hasn't released the official stable version. Despite Firefox's shortcomings, the latest version, Firefox 14, is finally making its way to the Google Play Store. If you have been a fan of the browser’s beta versions, then you might have been enjoying the few added features such as desktop content sync, private browsing, and bookmark management. The good news is that Firefox 14 will be keeping the said features plus including a couple of additional improvements. The latest version of Firefox is laced with enhanced features such as lightning-fast loading times, improved rendering of web pages (including support for HTML5, CSS3, Flash, and JavaScript,) tab management, a sleek user-interface, and a whole lot more. For starters, Firefox for Android has improved a lot since its beta stages. The app loads quite fast and rendering of webpages is done in a breeze, thanks to the folks at Mozilla for trashing the XUL framework all for the sake of developing applications that follow the conventional Android guidelines. On the app's main home screen, you can find the Awesome Screen feature that makes it easier for you to navigate your most visited, bookmarked and recently opened websites. What's even better is that all of your bookmarks, passwords, history, and tabs are automatically synced between your Android mobile phone and your computer. Tabs have been totally remodeled to give you better browsing experience; tabs now support caching of live thumbnails of the currently opened tabs in the background. Among the other goodies that Firefox has to offer are the standard download manager, cache cleaning options, ability to change text size, private browsing, multi-touch zoom gestures, quick bookmarking, automatically zooming in areas, and other settings that are also found in its desktop counterpart. Even if Firefox supports the latest Flash version, the app will still experience frequent update notifications. Moreover, Flash content is still not supported on all tablet devices and even non-ICS Tegra 2 devices. As far as HTML5 content rendering is concerned, Chrome and Dolphin Browser HD are still the best there are. Lastly, some favorite add-ons of many Firefox fans have been completely removed from the system, including the famous Ad-Block feature. The aforementioned features and improvements are definitely a great way to beef up Firefox. However, the app still fails to amaze in some areas such as HTML5 rendering and Flash support. Taking that into consideration, if you happen to be using Google Chrome or Dolphin Browser HD, making the switch won't be a must, at least for now. Yet, despite what appears to be Firefox 14′s technical shortcomings, it packs a very intuitive user interface and all the essential features that the average Jane and John will find easy to use and become familiar with. While it seems to be a step behind the other major Android browsers when it comes to special features and bells and whistles, Firefox 14 comes with features that make it a major contender to the other popular Web browsers for Android. You can check out Firefox 14 by heading to the Google Play Store and trying it out for yourself. This article, Firefox 14: Faster, smarter, safer Web browser for Android , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Best Android apps for personalizing and customizing your phone Posted: 12 Jul 2012 09:00 PM PDT
One of the advantages of owning an Android phone is that it is customizable. You may have the same phone as other people but you may have different launchers, SMS apps, ringtones, and so on. Advanced Android developers tend to customize their phones by making their own custom ROM. They enhance existing software, add some apps, tweak its performance, and provide an edge that stock ROMs fails to offer. But, for a newbie Android phone user, you won’t need to study developer stuff and take note of confusing developer jargon just to customize your Android phone. You can easily customize your phone by installing apps from the Google Play Store. There is a vast selection of apps that allow you to customize your smartphone. Below are some of the best Android apps that allow you to customize and personalize your Android phone. ADW.Launcher Each Android phone has its own skin. You may be using the simple Samsung TouchWiz or the rich and vibrant colors of HTC Sense. If you want to try out a new Android skin on your phone, you can do so by installing launchers such as ADW.Launcher on your mobile phone. This launcher looks like the pure Gingerbread skin. There is also a dock below where you can access your call logs, app drawer, and browser. You can always adjust the number of docks and customize the shortcuts sitting on them. The launcher also includes options that will allow you to customize your home screen. You can hide the notification bar on top to widen your home screen, adjust the columns and rows, adjust scrolling speed, customize screen transition, and much more. Aside from adjusting the home screen, you can also customize your phone’s app drawers. What I liked best is the option to change the background color of your app drawer and adjust its transparency. I also liked the the feature that allows you to scroll the app drawer vertically or horizontally. The launcher can also support landscape orientation. You can use the ADW.Launcher to enjoy the features that you cannot find with your phone’s stock Android skin. To fully customize the launcher, you can also download and install themes. What’s more is that you can enjoy this launcher absolutely free from the Google Play Store. Customize your Android phone’s skin with the ADW.Launcher. Launcher 7
One of the advantages of owning an Android phone is that it can be customized to the point that you can transform your Android phone into another phone. The Launcher 7 app brings the Windows Phone 7 skin to your Android phone. If you want to try something new on your Android phone, try Launcher 7 from the Google Play Store. Launching the app for the first time will require you to identify an app for a specific tile. You will be required to identify an app for the phone, messages, contacts, browser, video player, app market, and music tiles. Once you have selected the apps, you will be directed to your Windows 7 home screen. The main home screen consists of tiles. Tapping a tile will bring you to the app you have associated with it. To access your app drawer, tap the arrow icon at the upper-right portion of the screen. You can also customize the launcher by going to the settings menu. There you can change the animations, add your personal background, change your status bar into a Windows 7 stock status bar, and much more. You can also swipe the settings menu left and right to view more options. You will also be amazed at the magazine-like interface of the launcher’s settings menu. To fully enjoy this launcher, I suggest downloading the paid version. The free version lets you use the launcher with ads, which you most likely will find annoying. SPB Shell 3D If you like an animated home screen with lots of amazing effects, try the SPB Shell 3D on your Android phone. This launcher features some goodies such as panels, 3D widgets, smart folders, and tons of cool animations. Each home screen page is categorized into panels. Each panel offers apps and widgets according to the function specified for that panel. For instance, the People panel groups your favorite contacts in one convenient place. You can also find the birthday widget in that panel. The weather panel features an animated weather forecast of the day. The launcher features a variety of panels such as news, contacts, picture of the day, deals, calendar, and much more. For grouping apps, the launcher allows you to group your apps inside a folder. The app can also analyze its content and automatically name your folders. You can also arrange the apps inside a folder. Just tap, hold an app, and move it to its designated place. The apps will also move around to make space as you move your apps. The same goes when moving widgets around the home screen. The best part of this launcher is its 3D widgets. Just tap a widget and it will pop out a 3D interactive widget. You can view the different times of the world, a 3D view of the moon, view your messages, view bar graphs, and much more. You can also view your panels on the home screen in 3D by tapping the button at the center of its dock. Use a 3D Android skin with the SPB Shell 3D launcher. GO Launcher EX If you want to give your Android phone a total makeover, download and install the GO Launcher EX app. This launcher allows you to fully customize your Android skin. You can customize the app drawer, home screen transition, set gesture functions, add themes, install customized widgets, and a lot more. At first glance, the launcher reminds me of the MIUI ROM, a popular custom ROM. With all the rectangular and colorful app icons, this launcher almost represents the MIUI ROM. Like the previous launchers we have tackled, GO Launcher EX allows you to customize your Android skin. You can change the home screen dock, change page transition, change the font, add animations, and a lot more. The launcher also supports gesture functions. You can open an app by just double-tapping on the screen or open the menu by swiping the screen upward. You can also customize your homescreen by tapping and holding down on any vacant part of the home screen. You can instantly add widgets, folders, wallpaper, themes, and effects by just tapping on your home screen. I also find it convenient to find the app store integrated within the launcher. You can download and install customized widgets and plug-ins from the launcher. The Go Store also features a lot of stuff that lets you customize your phone. You can install customized locker themes, customized apps, homescreen plug-ins, and a lot more. You can also choose from a variety of themes that will instantly transform your phone’s homescreen. Customize your Android phone without limits with the GO Launcher EX app. Myxer Looking for an app that can help you customize your phone’s ringtones? Look no more for the Myxer app is here to help. This app helps you customize your ringtones by playing a favorite part of your song. Instead of playing the whole song as ringtone, this app can help you select a specific part of a song and use it as your ringtone. The app will use the saved songs on your phone. You will need to select a song that you want to customize. After selecting a song, select a specific part of the song to use as a ringtone. You can either select it manually or select the numbered selections grouped by the app. After customizing your ringtone, tap the Save button and use it as your phone’s ringtone. You can also record your own singing and use it as your personal ringtone. The app allows you to download customized songs from other users. You can also share songs with social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Customize your phone’s ringtones with the Myxer app on your Android phone. Backgrounds HD Wallpapers Who can live without backgrounds on their phone’s home screen? Backgrounds are some of the most important elements for customizing your phone. If your phone is capable of high-definition display, use the Backgrounds HD Wallpapers app to browse wallpapers for your home screen. The app’s main interface consists of three tabs: Popular, Recent, and Categories. Tap Popular to view the most popular HD wallpapers. You can also view the most recent wallpapers in the Recent tab. To search an image within a specific category, you can go to the Category tab and select a specific category. You can select from a wide variety of categories such as nature, pets, colors, shapes, technology, patterns, abstract art, and many more. Aside from downloading wallpapers, you can also use this app to download picture frames. To switch into frames, just tap the button below, in between the left and right buttons. Select a variety of frames and add them to your photos. You can also add your picture with your selected frames directly within the app. Once done, you can save your photo or set it as your phone’s wallpaper. Customize your phone’s background with the Backgrounds HD Wallpapers app. Handcent SMS Your Android phone has a default SMS/MMS application that lets you view, send, and receive messages from your contacts. If you want to fully customize your phone, the Google Play Store also offers a plethora of third-party SMS apps such as the Handcent SMS. Just like your default SMS app, the Handcent SMS will allow you to receive, send, and view your messages. The best part is that you can customize your SMS app the way you like it. This app offers a lot of options that allows you to customize your SMS/MSM app. One of the best features I found is that it allows you to choose your conversation style. You can stick to the default Handcent SMS theme, or make your SMS conversations look like those on an iPhone, Motorola phone, HTC phone, and many more. Handcent SMS includes additional plugins for you to choose from. Install the font plugin and enjoy new font styles on your SMS app. The Handcent Emoji Plugin allows you to use additional emoticons in your messages. You can also use the Contact locator plugin to instantly look for your friends using GPS. The app also allows you to set a message bubble on your home screen. Whenever you receive a message, a message bubble will appear on your home screen. You can compose and send your reply within the message bubble. You can customize and add your personal touch to your message bubble, too. Customize your SMS/MMS experience with the Handcent SMS app. GO SMS Pro
Just like the Handcent SMS app, the GO SMS Pro app lets you customize the SMS/MMS app on your mobile phone. You can change the background, font, animations, and a lot more. The app also includes a variety of themes that will instantly transform your phone’s SMS app. GO SMS Pro comes with plugins that allow you to enjoy extended features. One plugin, for example, that caught my attention is the Theme Maker Plugin. This plugin will allow you to make and design your own themes, making it possible to fully customize your SMS app. Another neat feature is that it features a 3D block effect when scrolling the app’s page left and right. You can view more options, view your contacts, check what apps you have installed, and many more by just scrolling the screen. The app also integrates its own app market so you can instantly install additional features within the app. The GO SMS Pro app also allows you to send free messages with its GO Chat feature. You will need an Internet connection to send free messages to your friends using the same app. The app also supports Facebook chat, allowing you to chat with your Facebook friends within the app. Zedge If you are looking for a customization hub for your Android phone, try using the Zedge app on your Android phone. This app lets you find and download wallpapers, live wallpapers, ringtones, notification sounds, and games. What’s best is that you can download all this stuff for free. Just simply launch the app and choose the item that you want to download. If you want to download a wallpaper, just tap on the Wallpaper button and the app will direct you to a list of wallpapers from its database. You can also simplify the list by tapping which categories to include on the list. You can also do the same for live wallpapers, ringtones, notification sounds, and games. You will never run out of good stuff to download from this app. If you find a wallpaper or a ringtone to add on your phone, just tap the arrow button to download and install it. You may even add it to your favorites or share it via Gmail or through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Take note that the app will require an active Internet connection for it to connect to its database. Customize your wallpapers, ringtone, notifications alerts, and games with the Zedge app on your Android phone. Beautiful Widgets We have been talking about wallpapers, launchers, customized ringtones, and SMS apps for customizing your phone. To make the list complete, we should not forget customized widgets on your Android home screen. The Beautiful Widgets app is your personal buddy in customizing your Android widgets. The app comes with a wide variety of widgets — from the simplest widgets of TouchWiz to the animated and colorful widgets of HTC Sense. You will be amazed at how this app transforms your home screen. Each widget can also be customized through themes. The Beautiful Widgets app gives you the power to personalize the content on your widgets. You may want to add the battery level on your widgets or add the weather forecast for the day. What’s more is that you can even enjoy animated weather on your widgets by installing the BW Animation Package. You can even make the weather your live wallpaper with the Beautiful Live Weather addon. Customize your widgets to the next level with the Beautiful Widgets on your Android phone. With these apps, you will never get bored with your Android skin. These apps will offer you lots of customization choices and lets you inject your personal touch into your Android phone. What Android apps are you using to customize and personalize your Android phone? Share them in a comment below. This article, Best Android apps for personalizing and customizing your phone , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Twitter for Android gets major update Posted: 12 Jul 2012 08:40 PM PDT
Twitter has become a social media phenomenon unmatched by any other. The ability to receive updates from friends, your favorite celebrities, and about what happens around the world in just 140 characters is the basis for its immense popularity. Moreover, the availability of the Twitter mobile app across all platforms mean it’s never been easier to stay connected to the Twitter-verse. The official Twitter app for Android has just received a major update. This update, that takes the app to version 3.3, introduces a host of new exciting features alongside the usual tweaks and bug fixes. New features include:
The best feature introduced with the update is the “expanded” tweets. While they are still limited to 140 characters, you can now view images, video, and other media content as a part of the tweet itself. Another great new feature is the addition of push notifications. Now, you’ll always know when a friend, or anyone else you’re following, tweets or re-tweets something. You can further enable these notifications for individual users, instead of everyone you follow. If you haven’t used the Twitter for Android app yet, you can find it on the Google Play Store here. What are your thoughts? What do you think of the new features introduced with this update? If you’ve updated the app and used these features, let us know more about your experience in the comments section below. This article, Twitter for Android gets major update , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Samsung opens a stand-alone retail store in Vancouver, a first for North America Posted: 12 Jul 2012 08:31 PM PDT
Instead of fighting it out with other brands for the most strategic in-store placement in generic retail channels, one way that a company can go to make sure that its products stand out the most is by opening an independent retail store. This is one of the avenues Samsung is exploring to improve its retail presence in North America. After months of hunting, the South Korean company has chosen Vancouver as the location for its first branded store. Located in Burnaby's Metropolis at Metrotown, the store opened its doors for customers for the first time on Wednesday. A throng of Samsung's smartphones, tablets, notebooks, digital cameras, and other consumer products are showcased beautifully inside the 140 square-meter store. There are also designated areas where customers can ask for a one-to-one demonstration. Check out the video below for a preview of the store. Samsung Canada president James Politeski has this to say about the store:
With the recently released Samsung Galaxy S3 proven to be such a monster hit amongst Canadian customers, the opening of the store in Vancouver couldn't have been timed better. Any Canadian folks planning to pay the Samsung store a visit? Let us know how it went in the comments below. This article, Samsung opens a stand-alone retail store in Vancouver, a first for North America , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| Amazon launches GameCircle for Kindle Fire Posted: 12 Jul 2012 08:23 PM PDT
App development for Android isn’t the easiest thing to do, with multiple devices, OS versions, display sizes, and processors to take into consideration. A good way to pull in the developer crowd is to offer some kind of incentive, most preferable being the possibility of a future payout. That is exactly what Amazon hopes to do with the launch of GameCircle for its Kindle Fire tablet. Similar to Apple’s Game Center, the Amazon GameCircle will introduce in-game features such as achievements and leaderboards, along with an additional sync feature. Here’s a quick round-up:
Of course, to lure game developers, Amazon will make all the APIs accessible, simple, and easy to integrate in their games. According to Paul Ryder, Vice President for Apps, Games, and Services at Amazon, GameCircle will provide developers with the right tools to quickly and easily reach new customers, while also keeping them engaged. This will in turn help developers grow their business as well. Only a handful of developers including Imangi Studios (Temple Run), Spry Fox (Triple Town), and Game Insight (My Country), are a part of the GameCircle beta program. There has been positive feedback all across the board in support of GameCircle, and more game developers are sure to follow. If you’re a game developer and want to sign up to get access to the GameCircle APIs, you can do so here. You can also check out the (short) list of games that currently integrate the GameCircle features here. Moreover, here’s a video introducing GameCircle by Amazon: On a side note, is it just me or does anyone else feel like the “Sync” feature, which lets you continue a game on a new device, is a vague confirmation of an impending announcement of a Kindle Fire 2 and/or an Amazon smartphone? What are your thoughts? Have you played any GameCircle games on your Kindle Fire? What do you think of the new features? As a game developer, is this a huge boost for you? Let us know in the comments section below. This article, Amazon launches GameCircle for Kindle Fire , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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| ZTE to unveil the “most advanced gaming smartphone” next week Posted: 12 Jul 2012 08:14 PM PDT
Chinese device manufacturers are huge back in their home market, but are now looking to make inroads into the international smartphone arena. Unfortunately, brand recognition is a big disadvantage, as very few consumers have heard of these companies, like ZTE, outside of China. ZTE had a very impressive showing at this year’s Mobile World Conference, headlined by the quad-core ZTE Era, alongside a host of other Android 4.0 smartphones and tablets. With the tech world caught up in the craze of the Samsung Galaxy S3, and now the Google Nexus 7, ZTE had almost gone missing from the scene. Until today, that is. According to a tweet by ZTE UK, “one of the most advanced gaming smartphones” is right around the corner. ZTE is set to unveil this secretive device 5 days from now, on July 18. The 140 characters allowed per tweet was used up in expressing the excitement behind the announcement, which means that we have absolutely no details about this device. This, of course, opens up the door to speculation. Is it going to be a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 powered device? The Tegra 3 processor is of course, known for its high gaming performance. But with the HTC One X and a slew of tablets already housing this SoC, such a sweeping declaration might be a little unwarranted. It could also be a device with dedicated gaming controls, looking to take on the Sony Xperia Play. This is obviously only speculation and wishful thinking at this point. We’ll only know anything for certain once the device is announced. I, for one, am very curious to see what ace ZTE might have hidden up its sleeve. What are your thoughts? Are you excited about the “most advanced gaming smartphone” from ZTE? What do you think the features of this device are? Let us know in the comments section below. This article, ZTE to unveil the “most advanced gaming smartphone” next week , was originally published at AndroidAuthority.com - Your Android News Source.
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