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Saturday, April 13, 2013

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Nvidia Demos Kepler Mobile Chip, Closest Yet To PC-Level Graphics
NYPD uses Android as a tool of its trade
Featured Android Game Review: Ice Rage [Sports]
ASUS Qube to finally launch on April 23
Zeptolab teases upcoming Cut the Rope: Time Travel [Video]
Toshiba AT10-A could be the first tablet with the NVIDIA Tegra 4
Xbox SmartGlass Comes to Android Tablets
Germany’s Federal Patent Court Rules in Apple’s Favor and Invalidates Samsung Wireless Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs)
TalkAndroid Daily Dose for April 11, 2013

Nvidia Demos Kepler Mobile Chip, Closest Yet To PC-Level Graphics

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 09:38 AM PDT

Nvidia

Nvidia has lead the Android gaming space with its line of Tegra processors, and today showed off its next-generation Kepler Mobile chip. Chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang said the company has been working hard to bring its high-end Kepler desktop graphics chips to mobile. Nvidia engineers have managed to not only shrink the size of the Kepler chip, but reduce power consumption to just hundreds of milliwatts. In fact, Kepler Mobile is capable of running high-end PC games such as Battlefield 3. From Huang:

"We want to get multiple years ahead of the competition. It was worth the sacrifice."

Kelper Mobile is a big leap forward for mobile gaming, and will allow smartphone or tablet owners to get a more similar experience compared to today’s desktops. Nvidia did a demo of the new chip, first showing what the latest iPad can do. You can watch the video below.

Source: GamesBeat

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NYPD uses Android as a tool of its trade

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 09:26 AM PDT

It’s always nice to see progress. The New York Police Department has started issuing Android smart phones to their officers. As part of a pilot program that started quietly last summer with 400 officers, the hope is by having a smartphone with instant access to data, it will help the officers in the field. For now, the phones only have a data connection and don’t allow for calls or texts, however– that is not an issue because the officers now have a tremendous amount of access to central data. Cops now have information at their fingertips, which greatly helps improve the job they can do. Just look at this example:

Officer Tom Donaldson typed in the building's street address and, with a few taps of the screen, an astounding array of information bloomed in his palm.

The officers suddenly had access to the names of every resident with an open warrant, arrest record or previous police summons; each apartment with a prior domestic incident report; all residents with orders of protection against them; registered gun owners; and the arrest photographs of every parolee in the building. The officers could even find every video surveillance camera, whether mounted at the corner deli or on housing property, that was directed at the building.

"You can see that in this one 14-story building there are thousands and thousands of records," Officer Donaldson said

That one quote says it all my friends: the officers are loving the new technology as well. It is a great improvement over the standard in car computer they have relied on for so long. The computers can get spotty internet service throughout the city and they would have to log into multiple sites to get the same amount of information as the App on the smartphone.

Source: New York Times

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Featured Android Game Review: Ice Rage [Sports]

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 08:17 AM PDT

If you like hockey, but don’t want something too complicated, then I have a good one for you. It’s called Ice Rage and it was developed by Mountain Sheep and HeroCraft. It’s been available for iOS for over a year, and it finally made its way to Android. It’s a cross between the 1984 hit game Hat Trick, air hockey, and pong. It’s basically one-on-one with goalies.

You can play either single player or against a friend. For single player, you can choose from quick match, tournament, or deathmatch. In multiplayer, you can play either a quick match or a death match, but gameplay is one device. There isn’t a WiFi option so you will want to make sure you’re using something on the larger side like a Galaxy Note or any tablet. Quick match is pretty self explanatory. It’s one game to see who wins or loses. In tournament mode, you play a series of fast games to see how many you can win. In this mode, you will rack up points that will enable you to upgrade your player as far as speed, power, and technique. For deathmatch, there isn’t a tutorial so I’m not 100% sure how it works. You have to beat three different opponents. Each player has a meter that represents how much strength is left and you win when your opponent’s meter is depleted. You can knock your opponent’s meter down by either scoring or knocking them over (checking). Scoring seems to affect the meter more, but you could essentially defeat a player by scoring less goals. There is no time limit, and you must defeat all three opponents. The problem is that each opponent gets to start with a full strength meter, but yours won’t reset.

Starting a game is pretty straightforward. For starters, you need to select your character. There are 17 to choose from and 3 to unlock for 99-cents. You will find some guest “celebrities” like Jester the villian from Minigore 2 and Enviro-Bear. The unlockables are Antero, Skar, and Santa Claus. After you have decided on your character, then it’s a matter of selecting what type of game you want to play, select the difficulty level, and what type of controls. There are three levels of difficulty. Easy has slow gameplay with auto goalies, Medium is fast gameplay with auto goalies, and Hard if the fastest gameplay with manual goalies. You also have an option to play with one button or two. In the two button configuration, you will control your player with your left thumb on the virtual pad at the bottom left corner. The bottom right corner has your shoot/check button. If you select the one button configuration, you will only get the shoot/check button and your player will move automatically. I know this seems strange, but it’s actually not that bad since utilizing a virtual pad isn’t always easy. This game would probably be pretty cool on something like the ARCHOS GamePad since you can automap the buttons.

Now it’s a matter of getting on the ice to see how many goals you can score. You always play the red team and go from left to right. In quick match, the games are 1:45, and in tournament mode they are only 45 seconds. Either move your player manually or let him move automatically (depending on your choice), and press the shoot button to score. You can also press the same button to check your opponent to knock them over and steal the puck. Sometimes when a player shoots, the puck ricochets to the other side and can sometimes score in the opposite goal. This is where it reminds of air hockey. I found Ice Rage to be easy to play, but found it a little difficult to control my player when using manual controls. Both easy and medium are quick to master, but the hard level is difficult because you have to control your goalie as well.

If you find that you don’t have a lot of time for games, Ice Rage might be ideal for you. The games are quick and you can play anytime you have a few minutes. It’s available now in the Play Store and it’s Free. Check out my hands on video below as well as the trailer, and hit one of the download links. As always, let me know what you think.

Features

Music and sound FX from the audio designer of Alan Wake & Max Payne.
Single-device multiplayer for 2 people
Awesome 3D graphics
Tournament mode: Can you defeat the legendary Skar?
Over 2 million players can't be wrong!
The best single-player Hockey game around.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Play Store Download Link

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ASUS Qube to finally launch on April 23

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 07:25 AM PDT

We had a chance to see the ASUS Qube in action back in January at CES, but we have no idea why it wasn’t released yet. We were told that it would be available in February/March for a price of $129. We aren’t sure what the holdup was, but those of you that are waiting for this one will be happy to know that it will be available starting April 23rd for the same price. Unfortunately we don’t know if this is a global release date or if it’s for one region.

The ASUS Qube is a Google TV device that is not only shaped like a cube, but the interface is cube-like. It’s actually a departure from what ASUS has been doing in that they really haven’t change the Android UI all that much as far as their tablets. For whatever reason, they decided to change things up with their first Google TV offering. It also costs a little more than other recent offerings from VIZIO and Hisense. Check out our hands on from CES and let us know if the Qube will be the one that finally gets you onboard with Google TV.

source: gtvsource

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Zeptolab teases upcoming Cut the Rope: Time Travel [Video]

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 06:54 AM PDT

Looks like Zeptolab is readying another installment of Cut the Rope. This latest version will still feature the cute and lovable Om Nom, but it will involve time travel. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 2 years since their last game, Cut the Rope: Experiments, so we are looking forward to it. We don’t have anything else to go on other than the trailer video (after the break), but be rest assured that Cut the Rope: Time Travel will be another hit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Toshiba AT10-A could be the first tablet with the NVIDIA Tegra 4

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 06:36 AM PDT

All of Toshiba’s tablets last year had the NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip so it’s no surprise their next effort will sport the Tegra 4. Two new Toshiba tablets appeared on the WiFi Association and Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The models are AT10-A-A-REGZA and AT15. Not much is known about the AT15, but the AT10 showed up in AnTuTu benchmarks (pictured above) as the AT10LE-A with a whopping score of 28,058. That’s on par with the Galaxy S 4′s Exynos chip. Expect the AT10 to sport a 10-inch display, but we have no idea when Toshiba will release it. I wouldn’t expect to see them before the summer though.

source: Mobile Geeks
via: PhoneArena

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Xbox SmartGlass Comes to Android Tablets

Posted: 11 Apr 2013 10:50 PM PDT

Microsoft has finally released a Tablet version of its ever popular Xbox SmartGlass Android app. The app is compatible with Tablets with screen sizes 7″ and larger, and is available for immediate download on the Google Play Store. Hit the break below for the download link.

As is the case with the Xbox SmartGlass smartphone app, Tablet user’s will be able to:

• Navigate their Xbox 360 with swipe and tap
• Use a phone's keyboard to type to a user’s Xbox 360
• Browse the Internet on an Xbox 360 with full keyboard and zooming
• Play, pause, fast forward, rewind, and stop videos and music on an Xbox 360
• Search the full Xbox catalog of music, video, and games
• Enjoy rich, interactive experiences from select game and entertainment content creators
• Track and compare your achievements with your Xbox friends
• Change up user’s 3D avatars
• Message Xbox friends
• Edit Xbox profiles

The new download is a hefty 18MB, which is well worth it for all of the “numerous design and usability improvements” Microsoft promises in this version. One user noted that the Tablet version will enable the app to stay awake during extended periods of inactivity, eliminating the need to wait for the app to reestablish a connection when brought out of standby mode. A welcome bug fix, especially for those of us that want our information at the ready at a moments notice.

Play Store Download Link

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Germany’s Federal Patent Court Rules in Apple’s Favor and Invalidates Samsung Wireless Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs)

Posted: 11 Apr 2013 10:10 PM PDT

Germany’s Federal Patent Court (GFPC) ruled in favor of Apple Wednesday when it invalidated the German part of Samsung’s European Patent Specification, “turbo encoding/decoding device and method for precessing frame data according to QoS” (EP1005726, including proposed amendments), which Samsung stated was essential for UMTS, the 3G wireless standard.

As is the case in most of these rulings, Samsung has the opportunity to appeal the decision to the German Federal Court of Justice. Samsung has sought injunctions against Apple over this, as well as other numerous SEPs.

In 2012, a Statement of Objections (SOs) was issued by the European Commission which stated “the pursuit of injunction relief against Apple, a willing licensee, was abusive conduct“. This SO was enough to cause Samsung to withdraw all of its European SEP injunctions against Apple, but not enough to keep them from suing for damages/injunction for non-SEPs.

This ruling comes merely one week after the GFPC invalidated an Apple slide-to-unlock patent. Of course, Apple is not taking this ruling lying down, and is also making attempts to appeal it, but more than likely will not be successful if the GFPCs reaction to past appeals are any indication.

Source: Foss Patents

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TalkAndroid Daily Dose for April 11, 2013

Posted: 11 Apr 2013 08:30 PM PDT

With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!!