Since acquiring the Android operating system, Google has been making steady progress in digital entertainment. The new Google Play is bringing it all together. [Read more…]
Top 6 Must-Have Android Apps for Business Travel
Where Blackberry was once the dominant force in the business world, Android is now the most popular platform for Enterprise users and business travelers. A big reason for that comes down to software. Aside from the fact that Android handsets offer greater diversity of choice in terms of hardware, there’s simply far more software for business travelers on Android. Here are half a dozen apps to make business travel a bit more stress-free. [Read more…]
Path 2 – The Same Path With More Features
How many friends do you have?
I’m not asking about “followers.” I’m not asking about acquaintances. I’m not asking about people you’ve never met before but have a cool profile picture. I’m asking about real friends.
Path is about those relationships. [Read more…]
The Four Best Strategy Games for iPhone
Strategy games have a long and much-loved history, both in digital and non-digital form. The iPhone offers new challenges to game designers, which lets them offer new challenges to customers in return. There are some great strategy games out there for iOS5, and as with so many smartphone games, they’re often both cheaper and more original than computer or console games. We check out four of the best for iPhone here. [Read more…]
How to Save on Texting Fees for Smartphone and iPhones
Cell phone companies are making bank off of the text message packages that people are being required to purchase as a part of their plans. Not only do smartphones need a data plan for internet usage, but they must also add a text plan, if they are avid messengers that is. Most teenagers will definitely fall under this category. All of these messaging, minutes and data costs can add up. So how can you lower your phone bill and still be able to be involved in the “texting” generation? Here are a few options you can use for you Smartphone or iPhone that will help you save money on all of those texting bills:
**As a note before reading any of these, be aware that most will require that you get a second phone number, usually acquired for free through whichever service you choose.**
Google Voice
Google Voice is an excellent service for making any and all phone calls/text messages for free on both Android phones and iPhones. Unfortunately, if you already have a cell phone number, you will have to get a second Google Voice number, as with most of the services below. If you can make it happen, give all your friends and family your Google Voice number. With this number, you will not only be able to send and receive text messages, but all phone calls will be automatically forwarded to your normal cell phone number. All domestic services are free. International services are also available at a low rate.
Skype
Skype, one of the most popular online phone systems, also offers texting services. Unlike Google, they charge a fee of 4.7¢ per message, which is still about half of what a pay-as-you-go phone would charge. With Skype, you can send a message from the computer or a mobile device that has a Skype app. Then you will receive responses in your regular Skype chat window.
Text+ for Apple
Don’t be fooled by the + sign in the name, this texting and phone service is made for Apple. Although, it is very similar in function to Google Voice. You can get a free Text+ number and use it to make and receive phone calls and text messages on any of your apple devices, including the iPod touch. However, if you are using anything but an iPhone, you’ll have to wait until you are within range of a wireless connection to receive any of your messages. A great free option, but dependent on internet reception or having an iPhone.
The biggest challenge to overcome when trying to find a way to lower your phone bill is the issue of balancing two phone numbers. It can be a real pain to change your number and inform all of your acquaintances of the change. However, if you analyze the people with whom you pass the most texts, you might be able to inform them of the change. That way, you can switch over to a free texting service for your Smartphone or iPhone with the people who are using up most of your texts/minutes. This will reduce the number of paid-for texts you receive on your phone and allow you to lower the limit on your text messaging plan or having a lower bill if you are on a pay-per-text plan.
Top image by katerha.
Life is Crime: Location-Based MMO for Android
Hard-boiled Android-toting gamers are in for a treat with Life is Crime, a new, location-based massively multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing game (RPG).
The content and feel of Life is Crime is very similar to Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series, particularly Chinatown Wars (which you can get through that referral link to Amazon for Nintendo DS or Sony PSP). After creating your own character, you are tasked with rising in the ranks of the organized crime world in your city.
Life is Crime is Location-Based
The novelty of Life is Crime is the integration of location-based technology. Using your phone’s GPS, Life is Crime notates your location and loads a map of where you are in real-time. The maps include various shops and businesses nearby where you can participate in various criminal activities.
If the information is available, the game will load the real-life names of the restaurants, bars, or businesses in your map. While some might oppose the similarities with reality, integrating this level of detail into the game creates an unprecedented link between your life in the real world and your activities in the game. In the Freudian sense, it’s uncanny.
Because of this connection with your location, the game evolves as you move in real life. The locations and activities available when you are playing at home will be different than the ones when you are at the office or a local coffee shop.
Life is Crime Uses Location for Multiplayer Interaction
Life is Crime is not the only massively multiplayer online (MMO) game by a long shot. It is, however, the first game that I’ve seen that handles multiplayer interaction depending upon each gamers location.
As more people start playing Life is Crime in your area, there is more competition among the various locations in your city with leaderboards and player-versus-player fighting. In Life is Crime, you aren’t playing against random people anywhere in the world; you are playing with and against people in your city or neighborhood, interacting with the same real-world locations.
Life is Crime is a free download through the Google Android Market. Start your criminal career today.
For more information, see the listing in the Android Market and the official Life is Crime site.
| If you are interested in making your own Android apps, you can get started quickly with Android Apps for Absolute Beginners through my referral link. Even if you don’t have any experience programming or making apps, this book will get you started in this growing market. Click here to get it on Amazon. |   |
Future Changes for Google’s Android App Inventor
Users of Google’s Android App Inventor were greeted today with an email from Google outlining immediate and future changes to the service.
In addition to an immediate change to the URL, Google states that by the end of the year it will no longer be supporting the service.
While your projects are safe for now, App Inventor users will need to retrieve any data that they want to save before the end of the year when MIT’s Google-funded Center for Mobile Learning will take the reins.
In case you accidentally discarded the email, here it is:
Dear App Inventor User,
As a result of the recent changes to Google Labs and App Inventor, effective immediately, the URL for App Inventor will change from appinventor.googlelabs.com to appinventorbeta.com. This URL change WILL NOT have an impact on your projects stored in App Inventor. All data that you see in your appinventor.googlelabs.com account, as well as documentation and email forums will be available at appinventorbeta.com.
As we announced on the App Inventor Announcement Forum, Google will end support for App Inventor and open source the code base at the end of this year. Additionally, in order to ensure the future success of App Inventor, Google has funded the establishment of a Center for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab, where MIT will be actively engaged in studying and extending App Inventor. This transition will happen at the end of 2011. At that time you will need to download your data from appinventorbeta.com in order to continue working with it in the open source instance of App Inventor. In the coming months we will send you detailed instructions on how to download your data.
Please visit the App Inventor user forums to get future updates on App Inventor.
The App Inventor Team
© 2011 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043
You have received this mandatory service announcement email to update you about important changes to your App Inventor account.
Top image by JD Hancock
| If you are interested in making your own Android apps, you can get started quickly with Android Apps for Absolute Beginners through my referral link. Even if you don’t have any experience programming or making apps, this book will get you started in this growing market. Click here to get it on Amazon. | |
Android App Review: Safari! HD
| Article first published as Android App Review: Safari! HD on Blogcritics. |
Safari! HD
There are three different game modes in Safari! HD. In “Time Attack” mode, the goal is to get as many points as you can before your time runs out. “Survivor” mode operates with basically the same concept, but you can add additional time to the clock by getting more points. The “Endless” mode lets you play for as long as you like, as the title says, without end. The only way to stop the “Endless” mode is to voluntarily quit or to play until your battery dies.
In and of itself, Safari! HD is fairly entertaining. However, in addition to the game proper is the meta game–that is, the game outside the game, or in other words, the achievement system. Safari! HD participates with the mobile gaming community OpenFeint, which, if you are not familiar with it, has an achievement system similar to Xbox Live Achievements or PlayStation Trophies. As an achievement junkie, I have spent most of my time with Safari! HD hunting those achievements.
In addition to its partnership with OpenFeint, Grasslandgames, the developers of Safari! HD, have been wise to make multiple versions of the game. As you may know, Android runs on many different types of devices, some with a larger screen than others.To accommodate for the possible variations in players’ experience, there are two versions: Safari! HD, for phones with larger screens like the HTC EVO
For just over a buck
