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I'm so glad the fervor surrounding the World Cup has died down, and now we can get ready for some real football. And by "real football," I mean American Football played by orcs, dwarves, elves, and other things that are probably more comfortable in a Tolkien tome. Blood Bowl is an Android port of a PC game based on a series of pen-and-paper RPGs, themselves based on the Warhammer universe. The computer game presents itself as a sports title, but its mechanics are more like a turn-based strategy RPG.
Samsung spent a lot of time at its latest earnings call trying to re-assure investors that its meteoric rise to the top of the Android hardware business wasn't going to end anytime soon. The Wall Street Journal quotes Senior Vice President Kim Hyun-Joon, who mentioned two incoming models in particular: one with a large screen, and one that would be made using "new materials." The former is almost certainly the next iteration of the Galaxy Note, which has been released in the latter half of the year since 2011. The latter sounds like something new.
HTC's Butterfly series is an interesting one. While this particular range of models rarely makes its way outside of Asia, HTC often uses it as a testbed for new technology and features, and some of the highlights of these phones make it into the primary international lines on the next go-round. The latest version of the J Butterfly, which will launch exclusively on Japanese carrier KDDI next month, has some additions to the basic One design that might be worth watching.
The Amazon Appstore is slowly expanding to become a notable addition to the Android landscape, and though the Fire Phone isn't getting much love from reviewers, it's certainly giving Amazon a reason to boost the Appstore's profile. The latest promotion makes 30 paid apps free, over a $100 value. While not all of them are must-haves, more than a few deserve your attention. This time around the focus is more on tools than games, but there should be at least one entry for everyone.
At this point, it's essentially impossible to deny that Android is beating other mobile operating systems with a big market share stick. According to a report issued by Strategy Analytics, phone manufacturers sold a combined 295.2 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter of 2014, 249.6 million of which ran Android. That gives Google's OS a staggering 84.6% of the market share for new devices, up from 80.2% the previous year.
Update: Verizon's specification page has been changed to indicate that the LG G Vista has an "HD" screen. It looks like there was an error in the original spec list. We're going to assume that means that it's a 1280x720 screen.
Update, December 16th: Google Play gift cards are now available in all five countries. Good things come to those who wait.
FreedomPop Adds The Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 LTE With Free Voice And Text Service To Its Hardware Lineup [Update]
FreedomPop Adds The Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 LTE With Free Voice And Text Service To Its Hardware Lineup
Update:
Not everything in the Android world is super-high-end, and if your carrier is building a brand on being cheaper than the other guys, perhaps having a few cheap phones around isn't a bad idea. Say hello to the Samsung Galaxy Avant, the latest addition to T-Mobile's hardware lineup. The internal specs won't blow anyone away, but with an off-contract price of just $216 (or $9 a month for two years on Jump), they don't need to.
As far as we can tell, today's over-the-air update for Fuhu's top-of-the-line DreamTab HD8 is the first time the company has published an Android 4.4 device build. Not that the kid-friendly target demographic is likely to care that their tablets are running the latest and greatest KitKat build, but heck, newer is better, right? According to Nabi's support website, the update is going out to tablets today, and can be initiated with the usual manual check in "Mommy or Daddy mode."
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a pair of graphically-intense puzzlers and a multiplayer party-based combat RPG. Without further ado:
I don't think anyone has ever accused cable companies of having the best aesthetic sensibilities, but DISH Network's former Android streaming app was a particularly good example of how not to do it. It was a lazy port of the iPhone version, and it showed, covering the basic streaming and scheduling with the bare minimum of effort. The new version... well, I'd be lying if I said it was great, but at least it gets a facelift and a proper tablet interface.
I'm planning a trip to India and Ireland next month, and since it'll be only the second time I've left North America, I could use a few directions. Google's various services are fine for that as they are, but the latest addition to Search is a handy one for anyone on the road. If you've booked your hotel online and received a receipt or confirmation in your Gmail inbox, Google will make a note of it.
Alert! Alert! If you use Instagram's Android app, complete strangers could be looking at your photos of appetizers and makeup techniques right now! ...which is kind of the point of Instagram, I suppose. But security researcher Mazin Ahmed discovered that the app uses standard HTTP to transmit photos, cookies, and authentication (including usernames and unique IDs), instead of the encrypted HTTPS protocol. As Mr. Mackie is so fond of saying, that's bad.
The Comic-Con special editions of Andrew Bell's Android figurines are always special, and this year is no exception. These limited-edition Heroes & Villains II figures were available in San Diego last week on the show floor, but now you can pick them up in a 4-piece bundle for yourself. It's priced reasonably at $40, which is the same sticker price you would have paid for four regular figures.
Hey, did you know that John Woo made an Android game? You will by the time you read the Play Store description for Chillingo's latest title, Bloodstroke. The first screenshot is literally the game's logo and a headshot of the well-known Hong Kong movie director and producer, with his name featured twice. You know, just in case you didn't get the message. Exactly how Woo is involved in Bloodstroke isn't mentioned - is he a designer? Producer? Art director? Did he code the entire thing by hand on the set of Windtalkers? We don't know, and it doesn't matter.
Thanks to its "just right" size and low price tag (at least relative to the other members of the Tab Pro family), the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is my pick of the litter. And if you'd like to pick one up for even less, Best Buy is offering a new one for a whopping 0 off of retail. You can get a white or black Tab Pro from the big box retailer in its base 16GB configuration for $279.99. Not bad at all, even when you compare it to Amazon's current price ($330).
You've got to respect the classics. And since the developers (or rights owners) of games like Civilization, Starcraft, and Age of Empires aren't releasing their classics on Android, or they're turning them into twisted versions of the originals, strategy fans need an alternative. Enter ExaGear, an emulator designed to let those fans play at least some of the classic PC strategy games on Android, complete with controls adapted for precision.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
It's never a bad thing when phones get the latest version of Android software, and Motorola seems committed to sending it to their devices sooner rather than later. After the usual Verizon soak test a couple of weeks ago, the updated ROMs are ready and apparently flying out to both the high-end Moto X and Verizon's customized CDMA Moto G. If you don't see the update alert in your notification bar, you should sometime over the next few days.