mobile

Saturday, January 18, 2014

China Operating System sets sights on iOS, Android

hina Operating System, or COS as it's become known, is poised to take on foreign-born operating systems that are gaining control in China.That's the word from China's Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which, along with the Chinese government and company Shanghai Liantong, announced COS on Thursday to customers across the country.China has long taken issue with American-based companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google controlling its software market. Last March, in fact, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that Canonical's Ubuntu Linux would be the official state-endorsed operating system. Now it has a mobile platform all its own to compete with Android and iOS.According to a study published late last year by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Android devices accounted for 59 percent of the Chinese mobile market in the third quarter. Apple's iOS owned 18 percent. It also doesn't help that the major smartphone vendors in China, like the wildly popular Xiaomi, are offering Android handsets.Whether COS will turn the tide remains to be seen. The operating system is based on Linux and is designed for handset makers to do with it what they want. According to the Chinese government, the operating system can run on smartphones, tablets, and set-top boxes. HTC appears to be a major partner on the software, says Engadget, which earlier reported on the move. No announcements have yet been made, however.

Bigger HTC One likely due in late March 2014 new

he follow-up to last year's HTC One is slated to arrive in late March, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Rumored specs for the handset include a display of 5 inches or larger plus a Snapdragon 800 or Snapdragon 805 processor running the show. The flagship device is also said to employ a twin-sensor rear Ultrapixel camera. These sensors should bring better focus, depth of field and overall image quality.

Other possible attributes of the device code-named "M8" are a 3GB RAM, fingerprint reader, and the familiar unibody metal housing. Presumably, the phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat and features the latest version of HTC Sense. In terms of branding, HTC will reportedly stick with the HTC One name for this year's model. Much like Apple has done with the iPod and iPad, HTC may simply refresh the device with newer technologies.As for when we'll finally see the new HTC One announced, Mobile World Congress seems to make the most sense to me. The massive trade show set in Barcelona and taking place in late February would give HTC a few weeks to prep for its new flagship arriva

AT&T released HTC One X+ Android 4.2.2, Sense 5 update

Following the announcement that AT&T had completed technical acceptance testing for the HTC One X+’s Android 4.2.2 software build, the update is now being pushed to handset owners across the country. Android 4.2.2 may not be the latest and greatest version of Android, but HTC’s update for the One X+ is accompanied by Sense 5 and quite a few new features.Once the Android 4.2.2 update is installed on the HTC One X+, users will be treated to new user interface, gallery, video highlights, BlinkFeed and much more. Due to hardware limitations, the HTC One X+ update does not include HTC Zoe, a feature that captures images and video at the same time.AT&T is pushing out the Android 4.2.2 update to the HTC One X+ in waves, but you can always try pinging the update servers manually by going to Settings > AT&T software update > Check for updates > OK. Once you get acquainted with the update and HTC Sense 5, let us know what new features you enjoy the most.

Hello Kitty Tap and Run

don't care who knows it - I think Hello Kitty is the tops.

The design of the character and wider world created by Yuko Shimizu while at Sanrio is the epitome of cute, and Hello Kitty is a global icon for that reason.
So far the Hello Kitty games on iOS have largely been extremely casual affairs, which occasionally take unexpectedly intense turns if you play them for long enough, like I often have.
With Hello Kitty Tap and Run, our titular hero looks to be involved in some sort of auto-running caper, so perhaps the game is going to tap into this ever so slightly more mid-core stratosphere of the marketplace to broaden its appeal.
There's only one way to find out: by playing the game for a week and writing down what I think about it on the pages of PG. I'll start doing that now.
First impressions
Hello Kitty Tap and Run is simple fare. There are two buttons on the screen: 'jump' and 'shoot'.
You'll need to jump over chasms along the path you automatically run along, or you'll lose one of the members of your party. You'll need to shoot any enemies that also happen to get in your way, because if you smash into them you'll take damage.
Each stage scrolls slowly, and while it's a relaxed affair to start off with you still have to tread carefully. Along the way there are trinkets to collect, the purpose of which isn't entirely clear, and once you reach a set metre goal you finish the level.
Outside of the game you can upgrade your character by mixing it with other characters, much as you can with Rage of Bahamut's card sacrifice system. It feels a little odd, and against the innocent appeal of the brand, "using" one kitty to improve the power of another, but perhaps I'm over-thinking it.
So far it's a decent enough distraction, but very basic, and I'm quickly running out of Stamina, meaning that I can't play the game for long periods of time.
How are you getting on with the game? You can tell us and the rest of the PG community about your experiences by leaving a comment in the box below. Click here to learn about our free-to-play review policy.

Eternity Warriors 3

According to the inevitably boastful App Store description for Eternity Warriors 3, it contains "three epic heroes", an "unrivalled combat system", some "huge bosses", and "tons of epic loot".

These claims are accompanied by pictures of a lady in her underwear, a beastly-looking enemy, and a big burly man in plenty of cool armour.Looks and sounds like an action-RPG within a fantasy setting to me, but I won't know for sure until I play it.Fortunately, that's exactly what I'm going to be doing over the next week. I'll also write about what Ithink of the game right here on this website - once right now, again in three days, and finally afterseven days.
First impressions
After choosing between the big hunky Warrior bloke or the mega manly Monk (the sexy elven lady Mage is currently not selectable), you're immediately chucked into what appears to be the game's meat and potatoes: brawling.You have a virtual stick to move, and a standard 'attack' button to deal out death. There's also a special button to execute a longer combo which needs time to cool down, and a 'defend' button that - if pressed at the correct time - allows you to counter incoming attacks.
Smashing through the undead hordes with ease, and splashing no small amount of gore about the field of battle in the process, you also find money, weapons, and armour before exiting the stage, at which point you're awarded a rating based on how well you performed.
You're then plonked in a town and can equip different items before you continue with your adventure. One of the items I now have is the Sword of Attack, and I'm hoping to find the Armour of Protect, Bowl of Eat, and Pen of Write later in the game.There's a social element in these towns too, but I was having repeated issues with network connections throughout my playing time.I'm enjoying Eternity Warriors 3 so far, though, and looking forward to the week ahead with it.
Day 3: Plot point
The last few days of Eternity Warriors 3 have featured more brawling, more item management, and more network errors. I've been continuing my quest through the game's fictional world, which has a name that hasn't proven sufficiently memorable for me to be able to remember it.

The questing, however, has been a lot of gibs-drenched fun, thanks to lots of deeply satisfying combat. The countering system keeps it from being very difficult, but you do still have to be accurate with your timings. Combined with the slow motion effect that accompanies it, defeating a whole area of enemies in this fashion is extremely rewarding.I've also started unlocking new skills for use during fights, and I've been tampering with Fusion: a process whereby you combine a basic piece of equipment with other items to increase its power.I'm getting plenty of swag during missions, and I can also acquire 'offerings' - randomly awarded items given in exchange for tokens that you collect as you play.

There seems to be a bit of a chatty community here, but I haven't engaged with them too much yet. I'm hoping to get involved with them further in the days that follow.
Day 7: Billy
Assumptions can be a terrible thing. I'd assumed that Eternity Warriors 3would feature a strong multiplayer component. I was wrong, and that's a shame.
The only social components are chat and guilds, and the purpose of guilds is seemingly limited to filtering the chat down to just your friends and competing against other guilds to see who can play the longest and spend the most money.
It's odd, because at the end of each stage a timer counts down until the level ends, just as you might see in a raid in a traditional MMO. But there's no way that I could find to team up with a pal and rampage through dungeons.
Some of the bosses (which are extremely tough) look as though they've been designed with multiple attackers in mind - but, again, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Without the sort of multiplayer that one might expect, and which the game seems to be built for, Eternity Warriors 3's appeal is limited. And the server issues I've experienced throughout the week don't cast the remaining features in the best light.Part of the desire to grind through stages for the "tons of epic loot" promised in the App Store description is to show it off to your pals. You can look at the equipment of other players, but doing so means detouring into a sub menu, rather than seeing it in action in a combat scenario.Similarly, the umpteenth run of a dungeon can be livened up if you're goofing around with pals and seeing how combining your forces works, but when you're traipsing down the same set of dank stone stairs alone for the third time in a row to complete a mission it'sdifficult to be too enthusiastic.If you're looking for a solo-only experience, Eternity Warriors 3 is quite good. When the game is working as it should it zips along nicely, and the moment-to-moment combat is thoroughly enjoyable. But if you want something a little deeper, or are simply interested in getting some mates involved, it might be worth skipping.
How are you getting on with the game? You can tell us and the rest of the PG community about your experiences by leaving a comment in the box below. Click here to learn about our free-to-play review policy.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Screenshots reveal Nokia Normandy user interface

Fresh Nokia Normandy information made the rounds on Twitter thanks to @evleaks. The latest pieces of the puzzle are a couple of screenshots revealing the potential user interface of the phone. With live photos and press renders out and about, the Normandy looks to be a real deal after all.

The screenshots reveal what looks to be homescreen and notification area of the Normandy. The left screenshot is the homescreen, which is reminiscent of the Windows Phone 8 live tiles. At first, we were suspicious if this is Android at all, but the BBM app icon gave it away. The tiles look to be configurable and can either take a third of the screen (three on a row), or two thirds, like the Photo tile on the third row.

The notification area, which is on the right side of the photo, is a cross between standard Android notification area and the app launcher. There are alerts for the alarm clock, calendar, Skype, missed calls, gallery and SMS. In a true Android fashion, some of them are expandable, too, like the calendar, gallery, phone and SMS texts. They also give you quick action shortcuts with contextual menus for each notification.

Below the photo @evleaks states that there are "two ways to interact with Normandy", which could mean that those are the only two screens from the whole Android users are going to get. That's highly unlikely though, as it looks like those are two different views of the same thing - the homescreen with tile and list modes.

You can also see that the Nokia Normandy is going to be available in a dual SIM version, as shown in the status bar.

Top 10 new Android games this week: ROBOCOP, Archangel

Welcome back to Android Gaming Weekly, our weekly recap on new game releases. We still plan to cover upcoming releases and games we’re playing, but this column is dedicated to new games you can install and start playing right now. Check out our top picks and let us know if you have any suggestions for next week in the comments below.

ROBOCOP

Description: In 2028 Detroit when Alex Murphy, a loving husband, father and good cop, is critically injured in the line of duty, the multinational conglomerate OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer.

Final Fantasy VI

Description: FINAL FANTASY VI first debuted in 1994 as the sixth installment in the iconic FINAL FANTASY series. Innovations included the ability to play all the main characters as the game’s protagonist, and to this day, its epic story intertwining each of their fates is still highly rated and wildly popular.

Archangel

Description: The forces of evil are mobilizing in defiance of heavenly rule. As an Archangel your task is not merely to halt their rise – you must inflict a justice so brutal and uncompromising that none will ever again defy the will of Heaven.

TA: Little Red Riding Hood

Description: This is a twist of the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood. This time she will face new dangers in her way through the woods, but be brave and you will succeed. The gameplay mechanics are very simple; just tap anywhere to jump to the next island.

Rube Works: Rube Goldberg Game

Description: The first and only official Rube Goldberg puzzle game. Solve everyday problems in Rube’s trademark elaborate style by creating complex and hilarious machines.

Ferris Mueller’s Day Off

Description: Ferris Mueller’s Day Off — the latest point’n’click game from the creators of Forever Lost — is all about searching for a mule that is off sick. It’s full to the brim with clever puzzles, interesting characters, colourful locations and puns galore.

Magnetized

Description: Magnetized is an abstract physics adventure game, up to 80 levels! Chasing dreams is like walking alone on an endless road, direction is so clear but way too long, trying so hard but no one knows. [sic]

Amoebattle

Description: The fate of our biological future lies in your hands. Lead your group of amoebas against a fast spreading infection that threatens the microscopic world. Built from the ground up for the mobile touchscreen, Amoebattle delivers a highly unique RTS experience for newcomers and veterans alike.

Cat Basket

Description: Catch as many cats as you can in your basket. Help the big cat climb to new heights. Endless cute, crazy fun.

Small Fry

Description: The chase is on! Swim for your life as the tiny fish Finley “Small Fry” Fryer in this thrilling and action-packed ocean adventure. Swim, jump and even float though space to escape from all the perils of the seven seas.