Android Authority |
- Flash-based hit Catch The Candy lands on Android
- BLU announces new Tegra 3-powered Quattro line of phones
- Free PlayStation Mobile games all month long for HTC Sense 4+ users
- Android web share falls, Apple rises, and what that really means
- The popular Game Stick kickstarter comes to an end with $647,658 pledged
- Google submits a proposal to end EC antitrust inquiry
| Flash-based hit Catch The Candy lands on Android Posted: 02 Feb 2013 08:24 PM PST
A few days ago, I showed you a great new game that has players fling righteous spheres against the invading cubes. Today I give you a more relaxed physics-based puzzler: Catch the Candy. What started as a popular online Flash game is now a new fantastic time-waster for your Android device. The game features a lovable creature that has an undeniable sweet tooth, whose tail acts like a grappling hook that the player can use to get that ever elusive candy. There are 58 levels, each boasting unique dynamics so as to introduce multiple gameplay, all throughout different worlds. Forty achievements are waiting to be unlocked, not to mention hidden Easter eggs lying around to be discovered. Finally, the graphics and music have a charming touch to them that both young'uns and adults will find absolutely adorable. Developer HeroCraft, which brought us other fantastic games such as Majesty: Fantasy Kingdom Sim, Farm Frenzy, and Treasures of Montezuma 2, happens to sell Catch the Candy at a discounted price to mark its launch on Android. If you have at least a Froyo device and 28mb of free space, grab the game now while it still costs less than a buck! Related Posts |
| BLU announces new Tegra 3-powered Quattro line of phones Posted: 02 Feb 2013 03:53 PM PST
We’ve previously mentioned some of the low off-contract prices that BLU has sold its Android phones for, but that was for fairly low-end hardware. With its new Quattro line of devices, is significantly upping the hardware ante. The BLU Quattro line consists of three Nvidia Tegra 3-powered quad-band GSM phones, with the Quattro 4.5 representing the lower end of the three. For $249.99 off-contract, it packs a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage and, as the name implies, and a 4.5-inch display. For $50 dollars more, the $299.99 BLU Quattro 5.7 HD keeps the same exact specs while significantly increasing the screen size and upping the resolution to 1280 x 800. The top of the line in the Quattro range is the BLU Quattro 4.5 HD. While it takes a hit in screen size, the pixel density gets a major bump up to 326 ppi and the screen is now protected by Gorilla Glass. Internal storage is quadrupled to 16 GB, and the camera is upgraded as well. The Quattro 4.5 HD will sell for $349.99. While none of these phones have us drooling the way certain upcoming phones do, it’s pretty hard to beat the price, especially considering that we’re talking off-contract here. Anybody interested? MIAMI, Feb. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — BLU Products, one of the fastest growing mobile phone manufacturers in the world, announced the new Quattro Series of smartphone devices, all powered by the NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 1.5 GHz quad-core processor with a fifth battery saver core. The Quattro Series will deliver flagship smartphone performance with console-quality gaming, amazing graphics, speedy applications and fast multitasking. Quattro Series devices will run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with a planned upgrade to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Connectivity for all Quattro Series devices will include quad-band GSM and penta-band 21Mbps HSPA+, including 1700MHz AWS for the US, as the company tries to capitalize on the increased demand for high performance unlocked smartphones in the US. Quattro 4.5 HD The Quattro 4.5 HD features a stunning aluminum and glass unibody resulting in an exceptional build quality and luxurious design. Photos and videos come to life with spectacular clarity and rich, natural color on the vivid Advanced Super View 4.5-inch HD 326ppi display, resulting in unparalleled viewing angles and contrast ratio, all protected with marvelously curved scratch resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass. Additionally, the Quattro 4.5 HD delivers excellent image capture quality even in adverse conditions such as low light, no light with an 8 megapixel camera featuring an f/2.4 large aperture lens, plus HD video recording up to 1080p, along with 16GB internal memory and 1GB RAM. The Quattro 4.5 HD will be available the first week of February at $349.99 retail unlocked through various websites in the US. Quattro 4.5 The Quattro 4.5 features the most affordable price point in the industry today for flagship quad-core smartphone performance. The Quattro 4.5 includes a 4.5-inch qHD display, 5.0 megapixel autofocus camera, HD video recording up to 1080p, along with 4GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB with an external memory card, and 1GB RAM. The Quattro 4.5 will be available the first week of February at $249.99 retail unlocked through various websites in the US. Quattro 5.7 HD The Quattro 5.7 HD combines the functionality of a tablet with smartphone portability, highlighted by the captivating 5.7 inch, 1280 x 720 HD display, an 8 megapixel camera, plus HD video recording up to 1080p, along with 4GB internal memory, expandable to 32GB with external memory card, and 1GB RAM. The Quattro 5.7 HD will be available at the end of March at $299.99 retail unlocked through various websites in the US. Related Posts |
| Free PlayStation Mobile games all month long for HTC Sense 4+ users Posted: 02 Feb 2013 01:23 PM PST
While there’s no shortage of free games available for Android devices, more is always better, right? Thanks to HTC and Playstation Mobile for Android, owners of select HTC phones will be offered a free game a week until the end of February. HTC says you simply need to be running a device with Sense 4+, but certain models are mysteriously left out. While I was able to download the Playstation Mobile app on an HTC Droid DNA, when I tried to run the app, I was met with the helpful message "an error has occured." Granted, the Droid DNA is not on the list of supported HTC devices. At the time of this writing, these only supported HTC devices are those listed below.
This week’s game is the action-puzzler Cubixx. To get your hands on it, make sure your device is updated to Android 4.1 and head to the Playstation Mobile site. The app isn’t available in the Play Store, so you’ll have to download the apk manually. For the link, see the sources section below. Have you grabbed Cubixx yet? What do you think of it? Related Posts |
| Android web share falls, Apple rises, and what that really means Posted: 02 Feb 2013 11:32 AM PST
Let’s observe the facts. Since November 2012, Android web share has fallen 13% while Apple’s web share as gone up 1%. According to CNNMoney’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt, this trend actually began in October when the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini were released. This sparked skepticism that the shipping numbers that have been going around may be wrong. For those who don’t know, the shipping numbers state that Android outsold iOS this year in both tablets and smartphones. More importantly, that Android now controls tablet market share as well as smartphones. This explains the skepticism that if Android is the king of every market share, then the web share should reflect that too. Since it doesn’t, well, you see where this is going. So what does the increased web share actually mean?The conclusion by some is that Android users simply don’t use their web browsers as much as Apple users do. That, or someone’s numbers are screwy. The problem is discerning which one is true. Since sales numbers seem to pop up out of nowhere, many believe that it’s the sales numbers that are skewed and that iOS is much more popular than Android. These people use this web share data as proof of that. To put it bluntly, the web share information doesn’t mean squat when it comes to hardware sales. It simply shows that Apple fans use their browser way more than Android fans. It’s not a giant leap in logic to make. Consider that for months, the only way to access Google Maps on iOS devices was through the web interface. There are many similar bottlenecks to iOS that make people use their web browser. There is also the chance that Apple users just like their web browsers more often. It’s impossible to correlate hardware sales to web share when dealing with titans like Apple and Android. Trying to use consumer habits to determine hardware sales is like saying people buy more sports cars because studies show sports car owners drive faster. It’s comparing apples to oranges and can lead to conclusions that aren’t always accurate. Next time you see a web share graph, take it for what it’s worth. This one is showing more people on iOS use their web browsers and that’s it. It’s a measure of preference, not of dominance. No one should walk around stating that an operating system is more prevalent due to something like web share. We’d love to hear from our readers on the subject. Do you think web share has any bearing on operating system sales and popularity? Related Posts |
| The popular Game Stick kickstarter comes to an end with $647,658 pledged Posted: 02 Feb 2013 10:14 AM PST
Now the waiting begins. According to their Kickstarter page, the Game Stick crew plans on having these shipped out by April. So if you contributed, you only have a couple of months to go. If you didn’t get to, we can only hope these will be available mass produced soon. This project, along with Ouya, really shows how much people want an Android console. The only question is do people want the classic console paradigm or something that can be unplugged and transported easily. With Ouya and Game Stick, both choices are available. The Ouya is available for pre-order now for shipment in April. Based on that, we should see the Game Stick become available to the general public by March or April on the latest. Will anyone be picking one of these up when they become publicly available? Related Posts |
| Google submits a proposal to end EC antitrust inquiry Posted: 02 Feb 2013 06:47 AM PST
It looks like an end to Google’s long running EU court saga could be right around the corner. According to AllThingsD, the technology giant submitted a proposal, before the end of January deadline, which should settle the investigation. The EU’s antitrust probe began in 2010 after complaints of anti-competitive behavior arose from European businesses, which prompted the European Commission to investigate into how Google was ranking its search results and advertising. Google was facing a fine of up to 10 percent of its total revenue, which would have cost the company around $4 billion, but a settlement could see Google escape the steepest penalties. Google has always denied any wrongdoing in both of their cases concerning anti-competitive business practices, but government regulators are notoriously hard to please. Although neither Google nor the EC has made a commented on the submitted proposal, inside sources have indicated that the settlement looks very similar to the agreement Google made with the FTC not to long ago. Under the FTC’s ruling, websites will be granted the opportunity to opt out of search results and be able to remove content from specialized search pages. The FTC also granted advertisers more control over the availability of ad related information, allowing them to more easily acquire and export relevant data from Google using third party software. However, just because Google has submitted a proposal to settle the dispute doesn’t mean that the EC will accept. If Google failed to make sufficient concessions to address the EC’s concerns then the battle could be draw out even longer, and Google could even face steeper punishments than those handed out by the FTC. Related Posts |
The Android vs iOS battle will continue until one of them is gone. Given that 
After a long and successful run, the Game Stick Kickstarter project has finally come to an end. The company had hoped for around $100,000 in backing to get their concept off the ground. What they got certainly must have surprised them, as they totaled $647,658 in pledges. That’s over 600% more than they were asking for. This despite a number of setbacks, including a 
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