Motorola gets snowed in, delays Moto G shipments due to winter storm
Winter storm Dion has been wreaking icy havoc across the US for a few days, but now it’s hitting technophiles where it hurts: phone shipments. Customers who pre-ordered the Moto G have been receiving emails from Motorola, explaining that bad weather has stalled operations at the company’s Fort Worth facility. Long story short, Moto G deliveries are going to be to be delayed, and there’s no firm date on when the devices will ship out. The email posted on Android Central does mention a December 17th shipping date, but the website reports that it varies from person to person. Whatever date they get, buyers will receive their orders the next day, thanks to Motorola spreading goodwill (and softening the blow) by shipping out all units overnight for free.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: Android Central
Booq Galaxy S4 Complete Protection Kit review
You may not have heard of Booq, a company mostly known for making laptop sleeves and cases, but they’re venturing into the smartphone world with “Complete Protection Kits” for various devices. I had the chance to use their Complete Protection Kit for the Galaxy S4, which includes a hard shell case, a tempered glass screen protector, and two adhesive home button covers. There are some major pros and cons to the kit overall, so let’s start with the good news.
The tempered glass screen protector is absolutely fantastic. I had no issues applying it, and managed to do so without any air bubbles. One of my biggest pet peeves with normal screen protectors is that they usually just look cheaply applied because of the air bubbles. The tempered glass screen protector included in the Complete Protection Kit takes care of this, and gives the Galaxy S4 a classy, simple layer of screen protection. It’s very easy to clean, and is quite smudge-resistant. Obviously the tempered glass gives a strong level of scratch protection as well, which is always a plus.
The home button covers were somewhere between great and useless for me. I understand their purpose (to compensate for the raised edges of the screen protector around the home button), but the practicality just wasn’t there. Booq gives users two adhesive home button covers with the Complete Protection Kit, but I found them to be more frustrating than useful.
For starters, it’s nearly impossible to peel off the adhesive paper without getting fingerprints on the underside of the button covers. And since they’re transparent, my home button was more or less a permanent fingerprint showcase. In addition, the button covers themselves are ridiculously hard to apply correctly. After multiple attempts that resulted in countless instances of crooked home button covers, I just gave up and removed them.
While the screen protector is great, the Booq Complete Protection Kit does have a major downside: the case. Included in the kit is a slim, hardshell plastic case that’s offered in either black or clear (I received the clear variant). The back of the case is slightly frosted, although still mostly transparent. It snaps on fairly easily, and keeps a minimal profile. I don’t doubt that the case itself offers a fair level of drop protection, but there’s a major downfall to its design.
Buttons, buttons, buttons
The button cutouts on the Booq case are just downright bad. For some reason, the power and volume cutouts are incredibly thin, and the raised plastic edges surely don’t help. I found myself repeatedly attempting to press the power button to lock my Galaxy S4, only to find that my index finger or thumb just wouldn’t fit into the cutout. The volume buttons are just as irritating, which makes me wonder why the case was designed this way.
Along with the cutouts, the edges of the case are actually somewhat sharp. When swiping on the screen, my finger hit the edges quite a few times, which is not helpful to the overall experience.
In the end, the Booq Complete Protection Kit for the Galaxy S4 has its strong and weak points. The tempered glass screen protector is great, but the hardshell case leaves a lot to be desired. I probably wouldn’t recommend the case to anyone, but the screen protector gets a strong thumbs-up. Still, that case might be a deal-breaker for some users.
You can pick up the Complete Protection Kit directly from Booq for $34.95. Justifying that purchase might be hard for some users, given that the hardshell case isn’t the best. With that being said, tempered glass screen protectors aren’t exactly the cheapest of accessories, so that price might be worth it just for the screen protector.
The post Booq Galaxy S4 Complete Protection Kit review appeared first on AndroidGuys.
‘LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga’ Arrives in U.S. App Store [iOS Blog]
Warner Bros. Entertainment and TT Games’ LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, a part of the popular LEGO series of video games, has arrived in the App Store.
The game is a combination of two games released in 2005 and 2006 called LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and is credited with not only revitalizing the LEGO brand, but also kicking off the successful LEGO video game series.
LEGO Star Wars is a 3D platforming game that involves light puzzles in levels that re-tell the stories of all six Star Wars films, allowing players to play as characters such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader and over 100 others.
While the game doesn’t include iOS game controller support, it does, like the other LEGO games, allow users to use either the “classic” or “touch” control scheme.
36 STORY MODE LEVELS + BONUS CONTENT
From the Trade Federation’s “negotiations” with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace to the space battle above Endor in Return of the Jedi, play the most memorable and exhilarating scenes from your favorite episodes. Also unlock special bonus content featuring Bounty Hunter missions, a special Challenge Mode, Arcade Levels, and more!
OVER 120 CHARACTERS
Play as your favorite Jedi Knight or Sith Lord! There are over 120 playable characters to unlock, including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo, and Boba Fett.
FORCE POWERS
Which side of the Force will you use? Both dark and light side characters have their own unique Force abilities. Will you use a Force Throw to defeat the Jedi or choose your Lightsaber and Force Push to take down the evil Empire?
LEGO STYLE GAMEPLAY
Smash objects into LEGO bricks and switch characters on the fly as you play through different story levels. Create your own Star Wars character mash-ups like Han Windu and Lando Amidala!
DYNAMIC CONTROL STYLES
Switch between “Classic” and “Touch Screen” controls to find the play-style that suits you best
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga is available in the App Store for free. Episode 1 is a free download, but Episode II to Episode VI are in-app purchases. [Direct Link]
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Google brings flight, hotel and restaurant reservations to Maps for iOS
If you fancy yourself a jetsetter, fine-diner, or, er, traveling salesman and happen to use an iDevice, Google has some good news for you. The latest update to Maps on iOS brings some of Google Now’s functionality into the company’s navigation app. Search for your restaurant, departing airport or hotel, and the application will auto-populate with your plans — so long as the confirmations were sent to your linked Gmail account. Sure, it’s similar to what the outfit added to Maps’ desktop version earlier this year (pictured above), but since when was feature parity a bad thing?
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: iTunes
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas available on iOS right now, Android and Windows Phone next week
If you’ve been jonesing to spend some HD quality-time with Carl Johnson on your iDevice, the wait is over. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is available from iTunes right this moment for $7, and is compatible with most recent iOS gizmos. If you want to roll with Officer Tenpenny on a different mobile platform, Rockstar Games tells us that the promised Android and Windows Phone versions hit next week. Just remember: What happens in Las Venturas, stays in Las Venturas.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Mobile
Source: iTunes
Twitter looks back at 2013, 140 characters at a time
500 million tweets a day and 230 million users: Twitter’s job of neatly summarizing the year is probably getting tougher each time. For 2013, the social network’s displayed what happened and when in month-by-month summaries of both the major events and hashtags of the moment. It also has specialized synopses for sports, news, entertainment and showcase. The latter is curated highlights from Twitter’s selected publishing partners, so it’s pretty classy fare. If you already can’t remember what’s gone down since January, hit up the source, or watch Twitter’s summary after the break, which pulls together Royal babies, typhoons, red pandas and well, the launch of its own six-second video sharing service, into a single-minute highlight reel.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Twitter
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Hits the U.S. App Store [iOS Blog]
Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is now available for download in the App Store, after being announced back in late November. First introduced back in 2004 for the PlayStation 2, GTA: San Andreas was the third 3-D game in the series.
GTA: San Andreas is an open-world game that encompasses the fictional areas of Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas, and the areas in between (which have been based on areas in San Francisco, Nevada, and Los Angeles). The game includes remastered graphics with enhanced shadows, a larger draw distance, and a richer color palette, along with enhanced character and car models.
Like other Rockstar games released for iOS, GTA: San Andreas has been redesigned to incorporate touch controls and it also includes support for iOS 7 game controllers.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas features:
– Remastered, high-resolution graphics built specifically for mobile including lighting enhancements, an enriched color palette and improved character models.– Enhanced for the iPhone 5 series and iPad 4th Gen and above with dynamic detailed shadows and real-time environmental reflections.
– Physical controller support for all Made-for-iOS controllers.
– Cloud save support for playing across all your iOS devices for Rockstar Social Club Members.
– Dual analog stick controls for full camera and movement control.
– Three different control schemes and customizable controls with contextual options to display buttons only when you need them.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas can be downloaded from the App Store for $6.99. [Direct Link]
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South Korean court rules against Samsung, won’t ban iPhone and iPad
The latest development in Apple and Samsung’s patent battle is a new court ruling in the latter’s home country, and it’s going against Samsung. The Washington Post and Reuters report that in a case covering three Samsung patents, and Apple products including the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5 and iPad 2 Judge Shim Woo-yong ruled against a sales ban and threw out Samsung’s request for damages. The Post reports the patents cover things like multitasking, message notifications and how a device can display multiple messages from the same sender. This follows a ruling from late last year in the same court, where Apple was found in violation and ordered to pay Samsung $35,000 in damages, while Samsung was ordered to pay about $24,000 for its own patent overstepping. Samsung is of course considering an appeal of this latest ruling, ensuring that these two deep-pocketed tech giants will keep tying up courts around the world for the foreseeable future.
Filed under: Mobile, Apple, Samsung
Source: Reuters, The Washington Post
Halfbrick Studios’ New Game, Colossatron, Launches On Android December 19th
Halfbrick Studios should be a familiar name to most of you Android gamers; the Australian developer was behind the massive mobile hit Fruit Ninja and has been teasing their latest game, Colossatron, since we first heard of it at EB Expo in Sydney. Today, Halfbrick have announced that Colossatron will be released on Android and iOS on December 19th and has made a new teaser trailer to accompany it. Check it out:
In the game, you will take control of Colossatron, a giant robot snake as you reap havoc upon the city of Metronia.The game will feature a campaign as you try to flatten the peaceful city which will include various boss fights as well.
From the progression screenshots that Halfbrick have been circulating, the art style of the game is extremely impressive and it looks like it will be a great romp come the 19th of December. No word about how much it’s going to cost, but like Fruit Ninja, we’d expect there to be a free version with ads and a paid ad-free version.
Are you interested in picking up Colossatron when it comes out in a week’s time? Let us know what you think about the game.
Source: Halfbrick Blog
[Download] Google Search 3.1.24 that Sees Slight Changes to Homescreen Icons
Google continues to update their apps this week, and now we have Google Search reaching version 3.1.24. Nothing huge was changed in this version, mainly just changes to the icons on your homescreen. If you have a tablet, the persistent search bar would overlap your homescreen icons, but that is all fixed now. They also tweaked the settings icon when adding widgets or icons to your homescreen to fit the KitKat look. Other than that, I’m sure we have the traditional bug fixes and performance enhancements.
Android Police did what they do best, and did an apk teardown and found that some of the code suggest that Google Now will work better on pin-pointing apps or contacts you are requesting it to bring up. Always nice when Google Now gets improved, so if you haven’t received the update through the Play Store yet, hit the link below to grab the apk. Let us know how it runs.
Source: Android Police
AIVAnet 