Google Keep, Newstand, and Movies Update! Yelp Gets One as Well! – App Updates
Happy hump day everyone. Time to see what popular apps updated in the past week. It almost was a Google update day, but we only got three of the Google apps updated today. Google Keep is probably my favorite out of the bunch that were updated today. Instagram actually got a tiny one, helping out those Samsung devices. Hopefully you guys are fully updated with those apps you love so much.
App Updates
Google Keep update
Google Play Movies update
Google Newsstand update
Instagram update
Yelp update
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Amazon’s Fire TV Looks A Lot Like the Rumored Apple TV Update
Earlier today Amazon launched its Fire TV media streaming box, entering a market that features fierce competition from Roku and its streaming boxes, Google’s Chromecast and the Apple TV. To help set it apart from its competitors, Amazon included an app store, strong gaming support and much more for its box, which are features that have been heavily rumored for Apple’s next generation streaming box.
While gaming on a media streaming box is nothing new, as Roku has allowed users to play games like Angry Birds on its devices, Amazon has gone through great lengths, including purchasing Killer Instinct game developer Double Helix and reaching out to third-party publishers like EA, Disney, Ubisoft and Minecraft creator Mojang, to bring 133 high quality games to the Fire TV, with more arriving in the future. In addition, they’ve launched a $39 Xbox-like controller to make it easier for users to play advanced games on the box.
Apple has long been rumored to be including gaming support on the next version of the Apple TV with support for gaming controllers. More recently, Apple and third-party hardware manufacturers have began shipping iOS 7 game controllers for iPhones, but they’ve been poorly received due to build quality issues and high price tags.
To power these high quality games, Amazon has outfitted its Fire TV with a quad-core processor, which Amazon says boasts 3 times the power of Apple TV, a dedicated graphics engine and 2 GB of RAM, which is four times the amount in the Apple TV.
While its unclear what specs the new Apple TV could sport, it’s likely it gets a significant improvement over the currently used A5 chip to the much more powerful A7 chip, which is used in the iPad Air and would allow developers to easily port over their best-selling iPad and iPhone games and vice versa.
Other rumored changes for the new Apple TV include a brand new interface that blends TV listings with apps and video from the web rather than a the current setup of a grid of app icons. Amazon’s Fire TV does something similar according to a hands-on report by The Verge, displaying various movies and TV shows next to apps and games when the device is turned on.
In addition, Apple has been rumored to want to include some sort of Siri-like voice control to allow users to easily navigate through the interface without a remote control. While Roku already had voice control on their media streaming box, Amazon has included voice control “that just works” on its Fire TV remote control, allowing users to bypass typing for voice searches.
However, the largest difference between the new Apple TV and Fire TV could be content. While Amazon says its streaming device is “open” and has an app store, Apple has been long rumored to also include an App Store to allow for a greater variety and quicker access to more “channels” than ever before. While that would put the two boxes at parity, Apple has also been rumored to be discussing a possible partnership with Comcast for a streaming TV service on the new Apple TV, allowing users to switch between live TV via Comcast, a Hulu-like on-demand video service and third-party apps like HBO Go, YouTube and Netflix.
Apple has been rumored to be launching their new Apple TV as early as April.
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Blizzard takes a stab at mobile gaming, brings its free card game to the iPad
Blizzard hasn’t really had a presence in mobile gaming… not unless you think the Battle.net Authenticator is rip-roaring entertainment, anyway. However, the developer is giving the category an honest try today by releasing Hearthstone for the iPad. Much like on the desktop, the free-to-play card game lets you fight both real and virtual opponents as you build up a collection of Warcraft-themed minions and spells. Decks sync between devices, so you won’t have to start from scratch. The title is currently available on the App Store in Australia, Canada and New Zealand; more countries are coming soon, and those using Android, iPhones and Windows tablets can also expect to play in the near future. The iPad app isn’t likely to replicate the off-the-charts success of Blizzard’s PC titles, but the company has to start somewhere. And besides, we’ve seen the problems that some major game producers have faced after downplaying the importance of phones and tablets — Blizzard may be wise to cover its bases.
Via: AppAdvice
Google infuses Play Newsstand, Movies & TV and Keep apps for Android with new features
While Microsoft was busy announcing its updated mobile platform (among other things) today, Google spent its time pushing updates for its Play Newsstand, Movies & TV and Keep apps for Android. Newsstand’s update, in particular, makes it easier to discover more things to read. New tabs on the “Read now” menu provide instant access to sections like business, entertainment and sports, while the My News and My Magazines pages have been combined to form a 2-in-1 destination called My Library.
The Play Movies & TV app, on the other hand, now has a navigation bar that bundles Settings and Help & Feedback within a slide-out window, as well as a Google account switcher on top. Android Central also noticed that you can now slide a finger on the screen to rewind or go forward either continuously (if you don’t lift your finger till you get to the part you want) or in 10-second intervals. Finally, Google’s Keep note-taking app can now return image-only entries when you do a search, since it finally parse text written on photos like Evernote does. It also has a new Trash view that gives you access to deleted entries for up to seven days (after which, they’re gone forever), and it now automatically moves checked entries to the bottom of lists. These updates should hit your Android phones and tablets soon enough, if they haven’t yet.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Google
Via: Android Central (1), (2)
Source: Google Play Newsstand, Google Play Movies & TV, Google+, Google Keep
New Kinect for Windows arrives this summer
Amid the volley of announcements from Microsoft’s Build conference, is word that the new Kinect for Windows has a near-future release time-frame for both the hardware and its SDK. The desktop version of Microsoft’s do-all sensor will be available to the public this summer, as will its development framework. Perhaps more importantly, once they’re done, developers can publish their creations to the Windows Store; meaning, there’ll probably be more Kinect applications for Windows in one place than ever before. As Redmond tells it, this self-publishing will happen “later this summer.” Next summer (notice a theme here?), Microsoft is adding support for one of gaming’s most pervasive dev toolkits to Kinect for Windows: the Unity engine — tools developers already know the strengths and weaknesses of, which should bolster the app selection even further. Given that the Xbox One will see Unity support this year, this could mean that cross-platform apps and games are a distinct possibility. Or, maybe we’ll get a cool new bank account manager instead.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source: Kinect for Windows Blog
Twitter now shows emoji characters on the web
There’s a good chance that some of your smartphone-toting friends use emoji to express themselves on Twitter — wouldn’t it be nice to see those icons while you’re surfing the web? As of today, you can. Twitter has updated its web client to display emoji, giving you all the colorful characters that you’d expect while browsing mobile apps (and some desktop apps, too). The update won’t make it any easier to decipher the meaning of an emoji-laden tweet, but you’ll have at least some semblance of what’s going on.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Twitter Support
Windows apps can run on Xbox, but only the ones Microsoft approves of
When Microsoft announced earlier today that universal Windows apps could run on the Xbox One, it seemed pretty…self-explanatory. A developer could easily port any Windows or Windows Phone app over to the Xbox for you to use on your TV. Right? Not exactly. Here at Build, we had the chance to sit down with Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president in the Developer Platform and Evangelism group, who gave us a little more insight into how this universal app thing is going to work on Xbox.
Basically, the Xbox will still very much be a curated platform (more so than Windows or Windows Phone), with the Xbox team deciding if something even makes it onto the console. What’s more, Microsoft still gets the last word on whether an app will be locked behind an Xbox Live Gold subscription. All told, then, it’s not like we’re suddenly going to see a glut of Windows apps repackaged for Xbox. To quote Guggenheimer: “Terry Myerson [EVP of Operating Systems] showed Xbox because technically you can do it.” Indeed, Myerson’s presentation today was mainly about developing apps for PCs, tablets and phones. So it’s there where you should expect to see that universal app selection.
Intel’s efficient 14nm processors to arrive on both enthusiast and entry systems
At IDF Shenzhen today, Intel briefly announced the 14nm successor to its budget 22nm Bay Trail processors. Dubbed Braswell, this new SoC architecture is mainly aimed at the likes of affordable Chrome and Android devices. It will also complement the higher-end Broadwell announced last September (and pictured after the break), though there’s no word on availability for these two 14nm, 64-bit lines — last we heard was that Broadwell’s production had been delayed, with shipment still on track for the second half of this year. That said, SVP Hermann Eul did show off a tiny cube system that was powered by a Broadwell Core i7, to remind us that this awesome chip can enable a full-fledged fanless system.
Plex for Android is on sale from Amazon for $0.99
If you missed the last time that Plex for Android was on sale for 50% off, you’re in luck, as Amazon is offering the streaming app for an even better deal this time. Plex for Android is on sale for just $0.99, which is a crazy good deal if you’re a big Plex user and haven’t yet added your Android device to your streaming ecosystem.
Plex has been the go-to streaming service for some time now and the fact that the Android app is able to stream to Chromecast as well, now available to everyone, makes it even sweeter for people with that device in their repertoire.
If you’re interested in making use of this deal, be sure to hit the download link below, but of course be warned that you have to download the app through Amazon’s own AppStore.
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Go For Gold: gold-plated HTC One M8 to be available in the Middle East
Many of you will recognise the above device as the 24-carat gold HTC One that was released last year to commemorate the MOBO 18 awards, and shortly after that, HTC launched a slightly-less expensive (and gaudy) gold HTC One for general consumption. It’s reception was definitely mixed, however all signs pointed to HTC aiming to capitalize on the attention the gold iPhone 5S garnered in mid 2013. Well, HTC has decided to do the same again in 2014 with their new flagship, announcing that there will be a gold-plated HTC One M8 for sale.
This gold-plated HTC One M8 will be launching alongside its Glacial Silver, Gunmetal Grey, and Amber Gold brethren in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on April 4th, the official launch date for the device in the Middle East region. Pricing and availability for the gold-plated version hasn’t yet been specifically divulged, but it’s certain to cost a pretty penny. The Middle East has a reputation for lapping up gold versions of phones which is probably why phone manufacturers are continuing to release them.
Would you get a gold-plated HTC One M8? Let us know what you think about this gold smartphone epidemic in the comments.
Source: TechView.me via Phone Arena
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