March 2011 Archives

Mar

Updated: Verizon Confirms What It Has Been Saying For A Year: Unlimited Data Is Going Away, Say Hello To Tiers

Posted by David Ruddock in News, Verizon Wireless

While some people were unable to contemplate the possibility that Verizon's all-you-can-eat data plans would be coming to an end, Verizon's CFO Fran Shammo again affirmed the carrier's commitment to move to a tiered system today. When will life start to suck for new or upgrading Verizon customers? This Summer, apparently.

"But David, I already have an unlimited data contract, they have to honor that!" Why yes, they do. Until you want to upgrade to a 4G device, and you have to sign a completely "new" rate plan contract. AT&T is already doing this with the Inspire 4G - if you upgrade from any previous device to the Inspire, AT&T forces you into their limited data plans because your "service" has changed (to "4G").

Mar

LG Optimus Pad (G-Slate) For T-Mobile Apparently Priced At $700

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Optimus Pad / G-Slate

More news has trickled out for the high-end tablet releases we are about to see. This time it appears that the upcoming Optimus Pad/G-Slate from LG will be priced at $699.99 on T-Mobile, according to a pre-order listing on Mobile City.

LG's 8.9" tablet will be the first to incorporate 3D technology, and, like most other new tablets we will be seeing soon, it will have Android 3.0 'Honeycomb' under the hood. No firm release date has been set.

The off-contract price for the 4G-ready tablet is in the same ballpark as the first generation iPad 3G (which obviously weighs heavily in determining costs), but if the same pattern holds as with the Motorola XOOM, we may not see a Wi-Fi-only model at release.

Mar

Amazon Appstore Developer Blog Is Packed With Details, From The Appstore Requirements & Layout To Tips To Help Your App Succeed - Android News, Reviews, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets, Tips, Mods, Videos, Tutorials - Android Police

Is Amazon's Android Market Set To Launch This Month?

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

That Android Market rival that Amazon.com has been preparing may be set to launch soon. If a recent tweet by advertising platform Millennial Media is correct, then it will be going live later this month.

While much is still unknown of the web retail behemoth's answer to the Android Market, their Developers' Blog did recently reveal several tidbits, including:

Your apps are linked to your Amazon account, and any apps you purchase will be pre-installed on Android devices you order from them
The style of the app listings will be consistent with Amazon.com's pages for any other product

Is there currently room for another store for Android apps?

Mar

Unity Android Platform To Let Developers Convert iOS Apps To Android - With One Click

Posted by Will Shanklin in Apps/Games, Dev, News

In a very interesting piece of news today, a new platform has emerged for developers that may let Android get a lot more iPhone apps very quickly. Unity Android aims to make porting an iOS app to Android as easy as clicking a button.

Games will need to be developed under the Unity Engine from the start to enable the simplest conversion, but others have cited the ease with which their previous iOS apps were ported:

"We're amazed of how easy and fast it was to port our latest iOS game Stupid Zombies to Android. It took us less than two days to fully port the game and do some fine tuning."
- Marc Andreoli, Partner at GameResort LLC
"We were very impressed with how simple it was to port our iPhone game Drift Mania Championship to Android.

Mar

Popular Eating App Foodspotting Now Available For Android

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News

Mobile dining apps are a dime a dozen in the Android Market and Apple's App Store, but one of the best and most popular (on iOS) is now bringing its assistance in finding delicious new foods to Android.

Foodspotting does not settle for merely telling you what restaurants are nearby and showing reviews (as with Yelp, Urban Spoon, and roughly 23 billion other apps), they take it a step further and let you recommend and take pictures of specific foods, which are then categorized and shared for others to rate and tip. Both experts' and other users' picks are featured.

Mar

New Honeycomb-Inspired Live Wallpaper Is The Perfect Complement To Clock Widgets, Theme, And Boot Animation

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Mods, News

If you've been dying to imitate the Honeycomb UI on your device, things have certainly been looking up for you lately. First we saw the digital and analog clock widgets hit, and shortly after, Honeybread was released. Then, just a few days ago, the stunning Honeycomb boot animation dropped. Now, XDA members have come through again with a LWP inspired by the stock Honeycomb wallpaper.

Developers nemuro and Xaffron teamed up to create the LWP, and are offering it for free for the time being. The catch: it's essentially in trial form; some features will only work for a limited time.

Mar

ZeptoLab Releases Video Teaser Of Cut The Rope For Android - Coming Soon To The Market Near You

Posted by Will Shanklin in Games, News

While we Android users seldom admit to jealousy of any kind when it comes to iPhones, one of the more popular games for iOS, Cut The Rope, can really turn us green with envy. Back in October, we pined to have an Android version and were given a vague hint from the developer that it would be coming eventually. That day may be finally approaching soon, as it was revealed on developer ZeptoLab's Twitter account today that the incredibly fun game is headed to Android.

The clever puzzler involves cutting ropes, blowing bubbles, and other tasks in order to deliver candy to a cute little monster named Om Nom.

Mar

New Tegra Zone App Makes Finding Tegra 2 Games A Breeze

Posted by Will Shanklin in Adam, Applications, Atrix 4G (Olympus), Games, gTablet (SMB-A1002), Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Optimus 2X (Star, p990), XOOM

With the wave of Tegra 2-powered phones and tablets that is already on its way, there lay a potential of a fragmented Android Market: those apps that require NVIDIA's new dual-core processor, and those that don't. Frustrating time spent searching the Market in vain could have loomed on the horizon. Thankfully, somebody was thinking ahead, as the Tegra 2 search engine Tegra Zone has arrived to help avert such confusion.

Tegra Zone gives you every Tegra 2-specific game in one place, including all the showcasing one would expect (screenshots, HD videos, etc.). While the app will become more and more useful as time passes (and more Tegra apps and devices hit the streets), there is already a burgeoning library in the making, including: Dungeon Defenders, Samurai 2, and a newly optimized version of Fruit Ninja (dubbed Fruit Ninja THD).

Mar

UK Version of Wi-Fi-Only XOOM Now Has A Price

Posted by Will Shanklin in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Rumors, XOOM

Last Updated: March 2nd, 2011

After last week's launch of the 3G (soon to be LTE) Motorola XOOM, many of us began to wonder about that cheaper Wi-Fi-only model that has been promised. We are still (agonizingly) without a confirmed release date, but those sitting on the edges of their seats in anticipation may want to know that the UK version has been priced at £449.99 ($732).

PC World's website announced the arrival and pricing of the much-anticipated slate, also advertising pre-orders (which were not active yet). After word spread of the £449.99 price, however, all references to the cost and pre-orders were pulled.