chat - 2/2 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

May

[I/O 2011] From The Horse's Mouth: The Situation With Google Talk And Its Support For Voice/Video Chat And Multiple Accounts On Various Devices

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Gingerbread 2.3, Google, News

While roaming around Google I/O and looking for answers to numerous questions you guys posed, I ran into Wei Huang, the tech lead on Google Talk for Android. Yup, the same guy who announced video chat two weeks ago on the Google Mobile blog. Here are some questions I had for Wei, echoing many of you guys:

Is video chat coming to other devices than the Nexus S and if so, when?
It's understandable why the Nexus One has no video chat (although 1-way video chat would still be better than none), but why did it receive no voice chat with the Android 2.3.4 upgrade?

Apr

[Game Time] Chess-Presso Is Social Chess To Make You Feel Dumb On The Go

Posted by Brad Ganley in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, News, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

There are two things I know about chess for sure: I like playing it and I hate playing against computers. Computers are cold, calculating, and just generally smarter than me. They don't make mistakes. They want to take over my planet with their cold, metal claw-hands and laser eyes. If something is going to make me feel stupid, it damn well better be a person. This is why I like Chess-presso. Chess-presso knows that they can delay the eventual mechanical uprising by allowing me to play the game of kings with other flawed, squishy humans.

I really, really enjoy this game.

Mar

Valve Looking Into Expansion Onto Android, According To Gabe Newell

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Games, News

Those of you familiar with PC gaming will no doubt be well aware of Valve Corporation's digital distribution platform Steam. Well, member PoliticalGamer over at the Steampowered User Forum just got back from a trip of a lifetime to Valve HQ in Bellevue, WA, and he brought back some interesting news.

In a discussion with Valve co-founder and frontman Gabe Newell, PoliticalGamer caught wind of Valve's interest in expanding its Steam operations onto both iOS and Android. While he had no direct quote, the paraphrasing below gives us some hope:

he said they were looking into the iOS/Android platform for possible expansions with Steam

It might seem like an obvious move for Valve given the recent explosion in mobile gaming, but it's nice to hear from the man himself that Valve do have their eyes on portable systems.

Mar

Android Will Likely Be Getting A Blackberry Messenger App

Posted by Will Shanklin in Applications, News, Rumors

Last Updated: August 20th, 2012

While most Android users don't likely spend a lot of time thinking about what's going on in RIM's land of Blackberry, it has been revealed that one of the popular smartphones' mainstay features, Blackberry Messenger, will be coming to Android and iOS. The popular chat service known for its speed, conversation threads, and easy PIN contact transfer will most likely arrive later this year.

Up to this point, Blackberry Messenger has been a closed service, only available on Blackberry phones. Some found opening it up to other platforms to be a confusing business decision by RIM, as BBM has been one of the perks that has kept many of their customers from migrating to a rival OS like Android, but RIM will apparently hold back some key features like picture and video transfer only for customers on their phones.