Plunder Pirates crosses the Seven Seas to Android after 7 million downloads on iOS
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The strategy genre on mobile has been booming of late thanks to perennial favourites like Clash of Clans. So it’s no surprise to see newcomers entering the ring each week, but this latest entry looks like it could be a winner. Plunder Pirates, published by Rovio’s publishing label, Rovio Stars, is making the journey onto Android after a very successful six months on the iOS platform – 7 million downloads successful – and if the trailer is anything to go by, Plunder Pirates looks like a high-quality pillaging affair. Check out the trailer below:
Like all games in this genre, in Plunder Pirates, you’ll be building up your little corner of the world with as many defenses as possible so that while you’re away, people can’t steal from you, or at the very least, can’t steal as much from you. And also common in this genre, and by virtue of the game being available for free, there will probably be a whole host of content that you can buy for real world money that will aid you in your quest to be the best on the Seven Seas. Plunder Pirates is available now on Google Play so hit the link below if it takes yar fancy.
What do you think about Plunder Pirates? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The post Plunder Pirates crosses the Seven Seas to Android after 7 million downloads on iOS appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Uber co-founder’s new app wants to be your personal shopper
Shopping these days is easy peasy. You can either buy online if you want to stay in your pajamas or go to a store if you need a sales rep’s help. One startup believes it can combine both experiences, though, through a fledgling concierge service called the Operator. The service has been (quietly) in development for the past two years, a brainchild of Uber co-founder Garrett Camp and former Zynga executive Robin Chan, who serves as its CEO. The app’s homepage clearly states what it can do with the tag line “Looking for something? Make a request and we’ll find it for you.” And based on what the startup showed TechCrunch, that’s exactly how the service works. You fire up the app and send out a text through it detailing the item you’re looking for.
Your request will then be sent to an “Operator” aka a sales rep, who will, in turn, send you a description and pictures of a product that matches your description. If you click “I’ll take it,” the system will use your credit card on file to make the purchase. The execs told TechCrunch that the Operators in charge of finding the right items are either employees of the retailers themselves or people trained to know brands’ inventories inside and out.
With how easy it is to buy goods from big e-commerce websites like Amazon and to look up items on Google first before making an informed purchase, one has to wonder what kind of plan the startup has to drum up interest for the service when it launches. We could see it being really useful to extremely busy (or lazy) folks who don’t have time to research their own purchases, though, or to those in desperate need of a gift at the last minute. At the moment, the app is still in private beta, but you can sign up to participate if you want to give it a shot.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Operator
Pentax’s top DSLR uses image stabilization to reduce noise
Given the moribund DSLR market, Ricoh wasn’t about to mess around with the follow-up to its popular Pentax flagship, the K-3. Sure enough, the K-3 II retains the weather-proof body, fast 8.3 fps shooting speed and high-quality 24.4-megapixel APS-C-sized sensor of the last model, while getting some enticing new tweaks. First and foremost is the so-called Pixel Shift feature which uses in-body shake reduction to sample pixels four times, significantly reducing noise at low-light levels. While the feature only works for static subjects, it should be ideal for astrophotography and other applications.
The revised in-camera shake reduction also improves stabilization to 4.3 stops. The K3-II has a new, built-in GPS receiver that can record shooting location, camera orientation and other features. Together with acceleration sensors and the in-body stabilization, it can sync the CMOS sensor to the movement of celestial bodies with its “Astrotracer” function, another boon for star shooters. Unfortunately, the GPS mechanism replaces the built-in pop-up flash, which may disappoint casual users.
Other new features on the K-3 II include new algorithms for its 27-point autofocus system and automatic horizon correction, but, WiFi still isn’t built-in and has to be done through a FLU card. The price is perhaps the best feature of all: at $1,099, it’s $200 less than the last model and $700 cheaper than Canon’s 7D Mark II, for instance. It’ll arrive in the US next month.
Filed under: Cameras
Via: Engadget Japan (translated)
Source: Ricoh
Apple Watch Pre-Orders Now Shipping for April 24 Delivery
During the night, Apple quietly began notifying some Apple Watch pre-order customers with updates on their order status, now confirming their packages were indeed shipping out to them, many with a confirmed delivery date for tomorrow’s launch.
With the Apple Store’s order status finally updated in tandem with a few early notifications customers have received from services like UPS, Apple Watch pre-order customers with a confirmed shipping status can now track their package through Apple’s online store. Though yesterday’s UPS notifications sent out to some customers focused mostly on areas in the south, this morning’s official update from Apple unsurprisingly appears to blanket the entire country. There is no word on international confirmations yet, however.
Today’s update comes after a week of slight confusion for most Apple Watch pre-order customers, with credit and debit card charges occurring on Monday and a handful of order status changes soon thereafter, but with most customers still left in the dark for the rest of the week despite early-morning pre-orders. This morning’s news should come as a breath of relief for most customers who got in early on April 10, and Apple still promises that dispatch dates beyond 4/24 – 5/8 could be coming in earlier than expected, as well.
LG Watch Urbane coming to Google Store soon
The Watch Urbane, G Watch R’s swanky-looking brother, is finally hitting stores, two months after its official unveiling.
LG announced earlier that the Watch Urbane will be landing in South Korea this week at an unspecified price, with customers in twelve other countries to get the option to buy it from this month through Google Store (formerly the hardware section of the Play Store). LG said that details about availability and price will be released when the phone actually goes on sale, though we expect a higher price tag than the $300 the G Watch R goes for.
The Watch Urbane shares with the G Watch R the 1.3-inch OLED display, Snapdragon 400 processor, 4GB of storage and 410 mAh battery. The differences are largely cosmetic, with the Urbane sporting a more sophisticated, less aggressive design that should appeal to more users.
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The Watch Urbane will be the first smartwatch to get Android Wear 5.1, announced on Monday, which brings Wi-Fi support, always-on apps, and interface changes. The Urbane will ship with 5.1 out of the box.
Will you be getting the Watch Urbane when it becomes available?
OnePlus celebrates its 1st birthday with giveaway and 50% discount on accessories
Recently, OnePlus announced that you can now buy the OnePlus One handset without needing to worry about its frustrating invite system. And today, as a way of celebrating its 1st birthday, we have news that OnePlus have discounted their accessories by 50% for today only. The OnePlus One will also be discounted by one (1!) unit of your local currency in a symbolic gesture. Finally, you can also win some prizes by entering the #NeverSettle Party, in which your can win T-shirts or even a OnePlus One handset and power bank bundle.
The sale means you can get 50% off the standard retail price of OnePlus accessories globally. So no matter where you live, you can take advantage of this offer and save yourself some dough. The accessories range from earphones, wall chargers and phone covers to screen protectors and data cables. You can browse the range of accessories on sale here. You can also enter the #NeverSettle Party giveaway here. Good luck!
Click here to view the embedded video.
Source: OnePlus
Come comment on this article: OnePlus celebrates its 1st birthday with giveaway and 50% discount on accessories
How to check Project Fi coverage in your area
By now you’ve probably heard an awful lot about Google’s announcement about providing a new network called Project Fi. The network piggybacks off of Sprint’s and T-Mobile‘s networks and supports making calls and texts over a WiFi connection when an LTE signal isn’t detected. If you’re considering your options as to whether to ditch your current provider and join Project Fi, you might want to check the signal coverage map first to see if you’re covered.
All you have to do is visit the Project Fi web page, type in your zip code and the map will show what sort of network coverage you can expect. Besides the mobile network coverage, Project Fi subscribers will also be able to use Google’s estimated 1 million WiFi hotspots situated around the country.
Source: Project Fi
Come comment on this article: How to check Project Fi coverage in your area
House passes cybersecurity bill allowing companies to share your data
If you wanted to explain the dilemma of privacy versus security to a curious relative, the Protecting Cyber Networks Act would be a good place to start. The bill has just been passed by the House of representatives (voting 307-116 in favor), and is designed to prevent future cyber attacks by allowing corporations to share information with each other and the government. Civil liberties groups claim the bill tramples on the privacy of the customers, and opens the door for agencies like the NSA to access their data (not that it needs much help, it seems).
A letter signed by over 50 privacy groups concedes that the bill is “less pernicious” than other recent similar legislation, but notes that under the PCNA, data shared through the government could be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, creating a “new secret cyber-intelligence coordinating body.” Naturally, the government doesn’t see it this way, and with high profile attacks on Sony and Target (among others) still in recent memory, it’s likely corporations are eager for the senate to pass the bill too.
The issue appears to be the bill’s lack of specificity. The PCNA would allow for data to flow between corporations via a government intermediary. Crucially, there are provisions that would allow the government to use these data outside of cyber threats. The civil liberties groups criticize the bill for allowing any data to also be used with the Espionage Act, making it ripe for abuse for things such as surveillance of journalists and their sources. While all this is going on, there’s still the very real threat of more large scale attacks on corporations that could expose this very same data to anyone on the internet. The bill is still being finalized as it awaits approval from the Senate.
Via: Wired
Source: EFF
Motorola starts rolling out Android 5.1 Lollipop for Moto X (2013) in Brazil
Brazilian users of the Motorola Moto X (first generation) have a reason to rejoice as their devices have begun to receive Android 5.1 Lollipop update.
Since the 2013 edition of the Motorola’s flagship phone is powered by Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset, Android updates require more tweaking than on newer processors. That is the reason why the Moto X 2013 is usually the last phone in the Motorola family to get Android updates – like we saw during Android 5.0 Lollipop rollout.
Although the update is likely to hit the rest of the markets soon, there is no word any exact dates. One of the reasons for the limited release in Brazil could be due to the relatively smaller user base in the country which will make it easier for Motorola for fix any potential issues after the update.
Apart from numerous bug fixes, the Android 5.1 update brings some design, UI and notification changes. Also, it brings the new Android Runtime (ART), Smart Lock (trusted devices) feature and a new flashlight option. The entire change log is below.
| Design material | You will notice an immediate visual fully renovated and colored in your device, since fluid animations to new themes, colors and widgets for applications and the system. |
| UI and priorities notifications | In order to alert you to the latest relevant information, the format and the operation of notifications evolved:
|
| New definitions of interruptions and downtime | You can adjust the operation of interruptions, opting to accept all, none or only interrupts with priority.You can customize what is considered an interrupt with priority (reminders, events, calls, SMS / MMS) and to adjust it to receive only specific contacts interruptions. The definition of idle period will allow priority interrupted only during the hours and days that you specify. For example, you can allow interrupts with priority only during the weekends. |
| Recent Applications (Multitasking) | The space redesigned the Overview (formerly Recent) will include both applications as separate activities in these applications. For example, the tabs open in Chrome will also appear here along with recent applications; both your Gmail inbox as a message from scratch email will be presented separately. This enables consistently switch between tasks. |
| Motorcycle | The Moto phone adapts to you and not vice versa. Now the Moto Assist incorporates Motorola, the Motorola smart screen, the Moto Voice (Voice Control) and the Moto Shares. |
| Moto Screen and Screen Environment | While the screen of your phone is off, the screen Moto will continue to submit relevant reports through contextual computing processor of low consumption. Also react intelligently when using the zoom gesture in the Moto Shares. Now, Android Lollipop includes similar functionality, designated Environment screen, which displays notifications such as those already made on the lock screen. If you prefer to try the new functionality screen environment, clear the screen setting in Moto Moto application. Note: Screen Environment does not use the low-power processor from Motorola and activate more of the screen, which can affect battery life. The zoom gesture in the Moto Shares not activate the screen Environment. |
| Moto Assist and Sleep Delay | Moto Assist integrates new functionality Sleep Delay in The Lollipop Android system, in order to control when to not be bothered. The Moto Assist now also use the new settings interruptions, so you can customize exceptions, such as allowing only contact you with people in your contact list star. |
| Flashlight | The Lollipop includes a new flashlight option as part of the Quick settings (slide down with two fingers from the status bar to view). |
| Share your device | You can now set up multiple user accounts on your phone. The guest mode is enabled by default. You can grant privileges calls and sending SMS / MMS to other users from your device or restricting them, according to their preferences via the Settings menu in users. Note that the custom Moto experiences (Moto Assist, Voice Moto, Moto Screen , Moto Shares) and the Motorola Connect intended only to the owner’s account. The Motorola Camera and Gallery applications support multiple user accounts. |
| Select a view / application | Screen Marking allows you to keep an application or a specific screen viewing. For example, you can “tag” a game and your child can not access any other content on your phone. |
| Battery | Now the battery settings panel estimates how much time remains until running out of battery or until it is fully charged. You can also activate a new battery saving mode, which will reduce consumption by limiting the performance of most data in the background operations, in order to increase battery life. |
| Connections smarter internet | With Android Lollipop, your phone will not establish connection to a Wi-Fi hotspot without there being a connection to the internet verified. This feature improves the transition between Wi-Fi connections and mobile, so that the video chat or voice call over IP (VoIP) remain active during this transition. |
| Performance | The phone now uses the new Android Runtime to help optimize application performance. After you upgrade to Lollipop, their applications will undergo a single optimization process. Note that you need more space for optimizing ART |
| Smart Lock (Trusted Devices) |
The Android Lollipop adds native support to enable reliable devices remain unlocked phone (like Moto 360, a headset or Bluetooth car kit, etc.). Smart Lock replaces the previous trusted device capabilities of your Motorola phone. Note that you must re-add the trusted devices after the transition to the Lollipop in the Security settings menu on Smart Lock. |
If you have received the update notification, make sure that your device is at least 50% charged and it is connected to a stable network connection, preferably Wi-Fi. Download the software and install it. Once the software gets installed, your phone will automatically restart and updated.
In case you want to download the update manually, go to Settings> About phone> System update> Download and install. Once the update gets installed, the phone will automatically restart and updated.
Source: Motorola
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Spotted in Iran: A dual-SIM LG G4 in plastic and leather variants
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There’s a lot going on in Iran right now, so it’s probably the last place we expected to get our first real-life photos of the new LG G4, and a dual-SIM LG G4 at that. In a series of photos posted next to tissue and juice boxes for scale, we get a glimpse of both the plastic and leather back covers of the next LG flagship. In particular, you will notice that the plastic version’s pattern is different to the LG G3‘s and that the leather version is looking very much like real, supple leather. You can also see that this is definitely the dual-SIM version by the SIM switching soft key found alongside the other usual Android soft keys. This will come as no surprise as the LG G4 is expected to be available in almost all markets globally.
The LG G4 is due for announcement on April 28th and while its specs aren’t as mouthwatering as they could be, there’s still a whole lot of phone to enjoy. The LG G4 is rumoured to be powered with a Snapdragon 808, with 3GB RAM and a new f1.8, 16MP camera and has significantly upgraded the front camera to 8MP. We’re interested to see if LG has done anything specific with the Android Lollipop running on the LG G4, so we’ll have to wait a few days to find out.
What do you think about the LG G4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Zoomit.ir via Phone Arena
The post Spotted in Iran: A dual-SIM LG G4 in plastic and leather variants appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
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