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8
Sep

Latest Android distribution numbers posted, Lollipop now resides on 21% of all devices


samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-android-lollipop-logo-aa-3

Google has just released an update to the Android distribution numbers, giving us a good look at how many active mobile devices are running each version of Android. Currently, 21 percent of all Android devices are running Android 5.0 Lollipop or higher, which is a 2.9-percent increase over last month’s numbers.

ADN September

As for the other numbers, 39.2 percent of Android devices are running 4.4 KitKat, which is only a .1-percent decrease from last month. Jelly Bean currently resides on 31.8 percent of all devices, down from 33.6 percent from last month. Ice Cream Sandwich has also seen a .4-percent decrease from last month, now sitting at just 3.7 percent. Gingerbread is still holding on at 4.1 percent of all device (down from 4.6 percent in August), and yes, Froyo is still installed on some Android devices as well. It’s only at .2 percent (down from .3 from last month), so we should see it drop off the distribution numbers chart sometime relatively soon. Any Android versions with less than .1 percent distribution are not shown.

It’s certainly great to see Lollipop becoming more widely adopted throughout the Android ecosystem as we near the official launch of Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

8
Sep

ZTE partners with AT&T to create the carrier’s first plug-in mobile hotspot for the car


ZTE Mobley

ZTE has just partnered with AT&T to create the carrier’s first plug-in Wi-Fi mobile hotspot for the car. This new device is called the Mobley, and it will allow up to five mobile devices to connect to the internet using high-speed data from AT&T on the go.

The Mobley connects to your vehicle’s OBD II port and should work with most vehicles made in 1996 and later. Once you plug it in for the first time, you won’t need to fuss with any extra charging cables or additional cords – your vehicle will automatically power the Mobley, giving you quick access to a Wi-Fi connection whenever you need it. And since there’s no need to charge the device, it will automatically turn off when the car is off.

The hotspot will be available from AT&T on Friday, September 11th for free with a new two-year agreement, or for $99.99 without a contract. You can add the Mobley to the Mobile Share Value plan for an additional access charge of $10 per month, or connected with a DataConnect plan with monthly charges of $20 for 1GB or $30 for 3GB.

For more information, head to the link below to learn more about the new ZTE Mobley mobile hotspot for the car.

8
Sep

The Xperia Z5 Premium has 4K: A picture-perfect product , or not?


sony xperia z5 premium aa 15

Have you heard the latest re-invention in the street?
Take me on a journey with the rhythm in my feet
Takes me to the left and it takes me to the right
Posing as a savior if you fall across the night

Blink and You’ll Miss a Revolution by Cut/Copy

While we may never know exactly what major shake-up was being described, Cut/Copy has arguably, years earlier, defined that which Sony brought forth at its IFA 2015 conference last week. Indeed so minute a mention was it given during their press event that if you dared shut your eyes for even a split second, you’d miss it entirely: The Xperia Z5 Premium has a 4K display. Yes, a 4K display. This is big if not positively enormous. In fact, the only thing small about what’s going on here is a diminutive 5.5-inch screen that will house such a pixel perfect panel.

Ahead of IFA, the tech world has been up-in-arms over the possibility of Sony’s “surprise” with many doubting the possibility of such. As it now official, we take a look at Sony’s motivations for going 4K and whether such a jump was really needed.

Why 4K?

In Sony’s defense, we can see at least four reasons why going 4K was the right move for the company. Let’s run through them:

Definite differential

Sony has, for reasons seemingly unknown to the public, opted to avoid including QHD displays on any of its phones. This includes, for reference, the Xperia Z4/Z3+ that was, until recently, a “new” phone having been released only in June. Indeed Sony Mobile Taiwan openly proclaimed the OEM had no plans to offer such a panel for the future. The sole white unicorn in the pasture, the Xperia Z4v, which does make use of QHD, hasn’t even been released yet by Verizon Wireless, and was inevitably a strict demand the carrier placed on condition of selling the device.
sony xperia z5 & z5 compact & Z5 premium aa 11

If Sony simply stepped up to QHD for the Xperia Z5 Premium, it would be seen as simply one of the crowd. No one really cares about quad HD these days, given that it’s become a status-quo for most top-level flagships. The sure-fire way to get people talking, to turn heads, and to make an impact for the immediate future was to announce a product that packs a true punch, and one that has never been seen before on a commercially released smartphone.

 A premium product

The second major reason Sony had to include a 4K display was to literally give the Xperia Z5 Premium a reason to have such a name. Given that all other specs not related to the resolution or screen size are exactly the same as the two “lesser” models, what real selling point could there be for an extra few fractions of an inch? By bumping things to a truly eye-searingly high resolution, the Z5 Premium appears more than worthy of the lofty name.

Forgotten flagships

While Japanese customers may be reeling over the idea of a new Xperia flagship so quickly after the last one released, in other parts of the world the Xperia Z4 was never branded as such, rather it was a mere intermittent update known as the Xperia Z3+. For all these markets, Sony has yet to release a halo product this year and hence the Z5 -all three of them- are filling a great void.

Sony to be taken seriously

It’s no secret that Sony’s smartphone brand isn’t a big seller globally. While the company has, and will continue to have, its fair share of devoted customers, the masses just don’t care. Well, the Japanese do, but for everyone else, Samsung and LG have far more relevancy. There has been a great deal of analysis on this matter, largely boiling down to poor choices regarding carrier exclusivity and downright poorer marketing.
sony xperia z5 premium aa 8
With the golden halo of a 4K display tacked onto a product, Sony is undeniably going to be taken seriously. OEMs around the globe are no doubt still in a state of shellshock. Samsung in particular, which has been touted with having the best displays of any smartphone on the market and has been pushing curved SAMOLED QHD panels, is suddenly not the brightest star in the resolution wars. Neither, for that matter, is LG, who was the first big name OEM to bring QHD to the masses last year with the LG G3.

4K: Are you kidding me?

So it’s done and dusted. Sony has changed the mobile marketplace, as far as display prowess goes. And yet, something feels quite off. In fact, despite the reasons for why it made sense for Sony to jump into the 4K ring, we can also think of a new of reasons why the implementation here seems a bit odd.

A strange strategy

sony xperia z5 aa 5

The Standard Xperia Z5 has but a plain FHD panel. Now let’s clarify for a second here, full HD is actually a fantastic resolution for something hovering around 5 inches. With that said, Sony has created a very peculiar status-quo. The standard Z5 will inevitably cost a lot of money, probably hovering around $700+. Sure it comes with a fancy new camera that can take better pictures and a nice sound system. But so does the Z5 Premium.
In fact, it’s hard to even see why Sony even made the standard Z5 period when the Z4 exists. Instead, it should have released a Z5 Compact and Z5 Premium, much like how it only had the Z3 Tablet Compact last year, no standard sized one. The answer would be simple: customers who wanted the benefits of the Z5 could just select from the two new options, and those who wanted more of a standard affair could go for the Xperia Z4 which, we point out again, is not even three months old.

Performance problems

While it’s too early to make and final judgments about the performance of the Xperia Z5 Premium, let’s consider for a second that the Xperia Z4 has problems. Major problems, and they relate to overheating. So bad was this, that Japan’s largest mobile carrier, NTT docomo, actually placed warning papers in stores to inform customers about the Snapdragon 810.
Sony-Xperia-Z5-family_6
So now, Sony has unveiled a 4K display that will also run on a Snapdragon 810. And it will use the same 3430mAh battery, apparently, that powers the standard Z5. Take this, and now couple it with the most fundamental question possible: can a new version of Qualcomm’s maligned chip effectively support 4K display resolution without any throttling or major heat issues? The phone only has 3GB of RAM: how far will that go? And the battery, it has enough power for two days of use?
Sony wants the world to believe the answer is ‘yes’ to all the above, but something just doesn’t add up. Will the battery life take a hit? Will the product overheat severely? Will the 4K pixel power be reserved for specific media playback functionality, as some have claimed it would? How can this product possibly have the same performance as the smaller variants despite having a larger, more pixel-packed display?

Is 806ppi even tangible?

There is a large collection of critics who feel that QHD is absolutely overkill on a display measuring under 12-inches, if that. Still, companies around the world have pushed forth the advent of such saturation and used it to market with mucho gusto. For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has a 5.7-inch screen and the LG G4 has a 5.5-inch screen. Both are of QHD resolution. Take a good, hard, headache-having look at them: are the pixels discernible?
sony xperia z5 & z5 compact & Z5 premium aa 2
Now basically double that number but don’t do so with the screen size. Is there actually, truly, a point to this other than for marketing purposes? Will any mainstream customer be able to even notice the Xperia Z5 Premium has such a dense display? And what of the fact it’s still LCD? How will the color tones and saturation compare to Samsung’s SAMOLED panels? There will be a horrible irony at hand if consumers still perceive the “lesser” QHD OLED phones as better when compared to Sony’s 4K offering.

Sony has -arguably- already failed

Think back to the opening of this piece, at the song lyrics. They were used to illustrate the point that Sony glossed over the 4K aspect of the Z5 Premium with the same amount of disinterest as Tim Cook showed to last year’s iPad Mini 3. In fact, going by various live streams of the press event, it was difficult to even understand there was a Z5 Premium given how it, and the Z5 Compact, were basically tossed in as afterthoughts.
Sony’s PR event was based more on a self-conscious attempt to try and tell the world it’s still relevant rather than unveil some truly impressive, unprecedented products. With respect to mobile, Kaz Hirai spent almost the entire time discussing the camera and the audio features, and essentially referred to a single “Xperia Z5”.
sony xperia z5 & z5 compact & Z5 premium aa 11
Companies like Samsung may be over the top at times with their PR excess, but they actually unveil products, not preaching platforms. Even marketing spin doctors like the late Steve Jobs knew the whole point was to sell, and therefore the actual item had to be the center-point of the entire experience. Sony should have, and arguably needed to, systematically introduce the Xperia Z5 and then go into specific details about the abilities, uses, and unique selling points of each.

Wrapping up

It’s truly difficult to understand what to make of Sony’s 4K bombshell. What should have been one of the most jaw-dropping moments in mobile tech history by the company that arguably defined it for so long, was glossed over like so much fluff. Sony wants the world to take it seriously, to buy its products, and to fall in love with it again.
Sure the fantastic new camera on the Z5 is worth mentioning, but it’s one part of the phone. Then again, save for the camera, the Z5 has very, very little to differentiate itself from the Z4/Z3+. With this in mind, all eyes should have been on the Premium and Compact offerings, and fostering a reason for their existence.
What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

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8
Sep

Gameloft and Hasbro joining together to make TRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friends mobile game


GameloftGameloft and Hasbro are partnering on a mobile game called TRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friends. The game will be for smartphones and tablets, and is aimed at providing trivia fun for all ages.

Trivial Pursuit is one of the most popular board games in the world, but is now finally making it’s way to mobile in the form of TRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friends. The game is basically the same as the original Trivial Pursuit, but brings a new social aspect to it.

Some new features of the game are:

  • Duel mode: Challenge your friends or other players to a quiz-off in real-time!

  • Blitz mode: 4 players compete in a test of knowledge and speed

  • Events mode: Take on brand new, specially-themed quizzes every week. Score big to climb the leaderboards and earn exclusive rewards

The game is not out yet, but is coming soon. It will be available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and Windows Phones.

Press Release:

PARIS, September 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ —

Gameloft, a leading digital and social game publisher, and Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) announce the launch of the TRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friendsmobile game. One of the most popular trivia games in the world will be soon available globally on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and Windows Phone. The TRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friends mobile game brings a whole new social dimension to the original game, offering players endless fun with fast-paced gameplay wherever they are. With new relevant content, the TRIVIAL PURSUITmobile game invites everyone to get in on the trivia action.

The TRIVIAL PURSUIT game has been a favorite since the 1980s and the newTRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friends mobile game will let fans enjoy the beloved trivia game with new questions and completely new ways to play! Players will also discover all-new customization options for a fun and social gaming experience on their smartphone or tablet that they can enjoy in short bites.

The TRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friends mobile game includes thousands of new questions and introduces new challenges such as:

  • Duel mode: Challenge your friends or other players to a quiz-off in real-time!
  • Blitz mode: 4 players compete in a test of knowledge and speed
  • Events mode: Take on brand new, specially-themed quizzes every week. Score big to climb the leaderboards and earn exclusive rewards

“The TRIVIAL PURSUIT game is one of the most well-known trivia games the world,” states Gonzague De Vallois, Senior Vice President Publishing at Gameloft. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Hasbro to bring a new mobileoffering with fun social features that allow fans from around the world to play and interact with each other wherever they are.”

“We have seen the popularity of trivia games continue to rise, and are thrilled towork with Gameloft to offer fans a new way to experience the TRIVIAL PURSUIT brand on the platforms they engage with most.” States Mark Blecher, senior vice president of business development and digital gaming at Hasbro.« The TRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friends mobile game offers our fans new and exciting ways to play, bringing friends and family together in town or across the globe with content everyone can enjoy.”

The TRIVIAL PURSUIT & Friends mobile game will be available soon for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and Windows Phone.

About Gameloft: 

A leading digital and social game publisher, Gameloft® has established itself as one of the top innovators in its field since 2000. Gameloft creates games for all digital platforms, including mobile phones, smartphones and tablets (including Apple® iOS, Android® and Windows® devices), set-top boxes and connected TVs. Gameloft operates its own established franchises such as Asphalt®, Order & Chaos, Modern Combat or Dungeon Hunter and also partners with major rights holders including Universal, Illumination Entertainment, Disney®, Marvel®, Hasbro®, Fox Digital Entertainment, Mattel® and Ferrari®.

Gameloft is present on all continents, distributes its games in over 100 countries and employs over 5,200 developers.

Gameloft is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris (Euronext: GFT.PA, Bloomberg: GFT FP, Reuters: GLFT.PA). Gameloft is traded OTC in the US (sponsored Level 1 ADR ticker: GLOFY).

About Hasbro 

Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is a global company committed to Creating the World’s Best Play Experiences, by leveraging its beloved brands, including LITTLEST PET SHOP, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MONOPOLY, MY LITTLE PONY, NERF, PLAY-DOH and TRANSFORMERS, and premier partner brands. From toys and games, television programming, motion pictures, digital gaming and lifestyle licensing, Hasbro fulfills the fundamental need for play and connection with children and families around the world. The Company’s Hasbro Studios and its film label, ALLSPARK PICTURES, create entertainment brand-driven storytelling across mediums, including television, film, digital and more. Through the company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, including philanthropy, Hasbro is helping to build a safe and sustainable world and to positively impact the lives of millions of children and families. Learn more at http://www.hasbro.com, and follow us on Twitter (@Hasbro & @HasbroNews) and Instagram (@Hasbro).

HASGP

Press Contact :
Mandy Paez
Gameloft U.S PR Manager
mandy.paez@gameloft.com
+1-415-852-7209

Source: PR Newswire

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8
Sep

Adblock Browser returns to the Play Store, adds iOS support


Adblock PlusYou may have heard of Adblock Plus, the most popular advertisement blocker extension for Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer. Today, the company is expanding upon that. After being previously taken down, the Adblock Browser has made a return to the Play Store.

The Adblock Browser aims to let users browse with freedom. When designing the browser, the company put a clean experience at the top of their to do list. From initial testing, it can be said that the Adblock browser is one of the cleanest browsers to date. It’s fast, responsive and clean, which makes for a great user experience. However, Adblock focuses mostly on the basics and may not be as advanced or feature rich as some other present day browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and Microsoft’s newly announced Edge browser. But features aren’t everything, it depends what’s best for your personal use. And with Adblock browser you can count on a safe and clean way to search.

For the first time ever, Adblock is available on iOS, so iPhone and iPad users can enjoy the ad free experience. Adblock has a small head start on Apple, which is likely readying a version of Safari with Ad blocking capabilities to be announced tomorrow at its scheduled conference. Google and Mozilla on the other hand incorporated the ad blocking service nearly two years ago. Android users can download Adblock Plus at the link down below.

Play Store Download Link

Source: ABP

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8
Sep

Rdio hits Harman/Kardon and Denon connected speakers, Samsung TVs


If you prefer Rdio’s brand of music streaming, there are some new options for connected speakers and smart TVs that play nice with the service. The audio subscription (including its free tier) is now available on Harman/Kardon and Denon audio gear and Samsung’s line of smart TVs. What’s more, Rdio will soon launch on connected TVs from Hisense and LG as well. These devices join Rdio’s list of in-home tech that already includes the likes of Sonos, Roku, Amazon TV, Chromecast and more. The music app also plays nice with Google Cast, so you can employ it on compatible speaker setups from LG and Sony.

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Tags: audio, denon, harmankardon, music, musicstreaming, rdio, samsung, streaming

8
Sep

What to expect from Apple’s ‘Hey Siri’ iPhone event


Gosh, is it September already? The impending leaf death and the moaning of young’uns going back to school are usually accompanied by shiny new Apple gewgaws to gawk at, and this year is no exception. We’ll be schlepping cross-country to bring you all the news from Apple’s “Hey Siri” event at 10AM Pacific/1PM Eastern on Wednesday, but before we grab our boarding passes and all our cameras, let’s recap what we think the company’s got in store for us.

New iPhones with a familiar twist

Anyone hoping for a massive design overhaul has at least a year to wait — the two new iPhones, the 6s and the 6s Plus, should look just about identical to the models we’ve already got. The only major exterior differences are subtle ones, like a near-imperceptibly thicker waistline, a new rose gold finish and a shift toward the same 7000 Series aluminum used in the Apple Watch Sport. Sorry. Still, that just means we’re getting plenty of under-the-hood improvements. Expect to see some new silicon in the form of a new A9 processor made by Samsung coupled with 2GB of RAM (finally bringing it in line with the iPad Air 2).

We don’t know how fast the A9 is going to be clocked, but snappier performance is table stakes in a game like this and at least one sketchy rumor claims it’s about 20 percent more powerful than last year’s A8. Meanwhile, a tipster on Weibo first posted details of the new iPhones’ 12-megapixel camera back in July, a notion that’s been accepted and expanded on in recent weeks. The camera upgrade also means the new iPhones will be able to shoot 4K video, a feature that’s already found its way into most flagship Android phones. Throw in a screen-based selfie flash and a modestly improved FaceTime camera and you’ve got the photographic situation in a nutshell.

And then, of course, there’s Force Touch. We’ve already gotten a taste of it in the Apple Watch and a slew of updated MacBooks, but the feature is expected to get a little more nuanced when it makes its way to these new iPhones. 9to5Mac reports that the 6s and 6s Plus will be able to pick up three distinct levels of pressure — a tap, a press and a deep press — with a little help from an updated version of Apple’s Taptic Engine. Let’s not mince words: This has the potential to be the biggest change in how we interact with iPhones since the launch of the App Store seven years ago. Reports suggest that Force Touch will be very subtly integrated into the system as a whole, acting as a way to access actions and shortcuts for supported apps. This might not sound like a huge deal, but developers will flock to it and it’s in line with the “get things done faster” philosophy Apple embraced with its Watch.

The iPad finally goes Pro

The first mention of a super-sized “Pro” iPad model started floating around in 2013, and it looks like its time has finally come. If all those rumors hold true, we’ll be looking at a tablet with an enormous 12.9-inch display onstage soon — that’s even larger than the Surface Pro’s spacious screen. While we’re talking Surface similarities, Apple reportedly has a keyboard cover and a Force Touch-sensitive stylus ready to go with this premium slab, although you’ll probably have to buy them separately.

A pro-level version of the iPad will need more than just a big screen to set itself apart from its punier siblings, and that’s where 9to5Mac says the new A9X chip comes into play. It’s said to be a big step forward from the already-powerful A8X chipset in the existing iPad Air 2, but the big question is how much more oomph does it pack than the A9 found in the iPhone 6s. Here’s hoping the answer is “loads.” This thing should also come with a lot of custom iOS 9 enhancements to put that screen to good use; among other things, we’re hearing it can run two full-size iPad apps side by side. Alas, don’t expect to waltz into an Apple Store and buy one the day after the event: Production delays have been part of the iPad Pro narrative for months and the best guesses now have pegged a late fall launch.

Then there’s the slightly neglected iPad Mini line, which was hardly touched last time — all it got was a new color and a Touch ID-laden home button. Feh. The scuttlebutt this time ’round suggests Apple’s tiny tab will sport the same specs and sleek design we got in last year’s iPad Air 2. Better late than never, we guess.

The OS-man cometh

New hardware also means new software to power it, and we’ve already got a solid grasp on what’s new in iOS 9. Now all that’s left to wait for is an official release date, which Apple will probably drop toward the end of the event tomorrow. We’ll also likely get a firm launch window for watchOS 2 as well, which brings a handful of new watch faces and support for native Watch apps to your wrist. Does anyone care to make a bet?

Reaching deeper into your living room

The Apple TV is no “hobby” — not anymore. It’s a cheap, easy-to-use Trojan horse that funnels more of Cupertino’s content into our lives and it’s getting a pretty hefty upgrade. On a hardware level, the next-gen Apple TV should be bumped to either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage and get the same A8 brain as the current generation iPhones. That trademark black chassis should shed a few millimeters in the process, but the really neat physical changes might happen on that once-chintzy silver remote. TechCrunch suggests it’ll have embedded Wii-like motion-control sensors, which developers will probably have a field day with as they build apps for display in the platform’s new App Store. And yeah, as you probably guessed, the unholy combination of a motion-sensing controller and an app store means we’re likely to see gaming take on renewed importance onstage tomorrow.

Waggling your remote isn’t the only new way you’ll be able to interact with an Apple TV. In addition to having a touch-sensitive pad wedged into its top quarter, the remote will have a microphone so you can chat up Siri. If reports hold true, you can ask Siri to search for specific actors or titles with your voice — it’ll then scour multiple sources for content that fits the bill. The age of universal search is upon us, and it couldn’t have happened soon enough. After all, pecking out titles like Scrotal Recall with the d-pad on existing Apple TV remotes was always, always a pain in the ass. In a way, the Apple TV is being molded into something more like the NVIDIA Shield TV set-top box; you won’t hear us complaining about that. The thing is, this new version of Apple’s squarish hockey puck isn’t expected to play nice with 4K video content. The move isn’t completely insane — there’s still a dearth of ultra-high-res content out there — but it is a little puzzling considering the new iPhones should be able to record at that resolution just fine.

In the end…

This represents the lion’s share of what Apple will probably talk up in a massive auditorium tomorrow, but there’s always the chance CEO Tim Cook will pull out something completely random. The only way to know for sure is to park it here and join us bright and early(ish) tomorrow — let’s just take it all in together, shall we?

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Mobile, Apple

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Tags: apple, event, ios, ios9, ipad, ipadpro, iphone, iphone6, iphone6plus, iphone6s, iphone6splus, mobilepostcross, preview, whattoexpect

8
Sep

Ubisoft is building a tiny indoor theme park in Malaysia


FRANCE-FUTUROSCOPE-PARK-FEATURE

If you were excited about Nintendo’s deal to put its characters in Universal theme parks, chew on this: the publisher behind games like Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance and the Raving Rabbids games is building it’s own amusement park. No kidding — Ubisoft has partnered with RSG, a Malaysian park developer, to create a 100,000+ square foot indoor facility in Kuala Lumpur featuring Ubisoft-themed rides, attractions and shows.

Believe it or not, this isn’t as unprecedented as you might think. Last year Ubisoft partnered with a France’s Parc du Futuroscope to create a Raving Rabbids ride, and Sega built a similar indoor theme park in Dubai. Don’t expect a Disneyland for video games, though — the proposed park’s footprint is small enough to fit inside a Walmart, Target or Home Depot store. Can a theme park survive on the power of third-party video game franchises alone? We’ll find out in 2020.

[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]

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Tags: amusementpark, assassinscreed, gaming, malaysia, rabbids, themeparks, tomclancy, ubisoft, ubisoftg, videogames

8
Sep

Adblock Browser for Android now officially available in the Google Play Store


Adblock Plus is by far the most popular way to block advertisements on desktop, so it should be no surprise to see the service finally make its way to mobile devices. After being available on Android in open beta form for some time, Eyeo, the developers behind Adblock Plus, have finally brought its Adblock Browser to the Google Play Store for all to download.

Similar to the experience you’d find on a desktop, Adblock Browser for Android lets you browse the Internet more quickly without running into advertisements wherever you go. You’ll be able to whitelist specific websites to ensure they’re not taking a revenue cut, and you can even choose to block all advertisements for every website you visit. This new app claims to be able to load webpages much faster while also saving precious battery life and mobile data.

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Along with a number of other ad-blocking services, Adblock Plus was removed from the Google Play Store in 2013 for breaching the Google Play Developer Program Policies. The company has successfully found a way to re-list the app in the Play Store without getting on Google’s bad side. There are a few notable differences between Adblock’s previous app and this new browser, though. Adblock Browser is a browser replacement, which will block ads from only within the app itself. Adblock Plus (the app that was removed) was interfering with ads in a third-party application, which certainly caused quite a stir at the time.


Adblock-Plus-LogoRelated: Google found a way to bypass Adblock in YouTube13425352

Apple is holding its big press event tomorrow, where the company is expected to explain how iOS 9 users will be able to block advertisements from within Safari on mobile. Adblock’s new browser app coupled with the news that will likely come from tomorrow’s Apple event will not only allow users to block more ads, but will also likely impact the income of online publishers all over the web.

If you’re interested in the new app, head to the Play Store link below.

Download Adblock Browser from the Play Store

8
Sep

Cheats for Minecraft Pocket Edition (app review)


Cheats for Minecraft Pocket Edition isn’t what the title seems to indicate. It isn’t an app that allows cheats in Minecraft PE via the app. Instead, it’s the mobile app for the website minecraftpecheats.com. The web developer used the Mobiloud Wordpress plugin to create his app out of his web page. I wanted to mention that upfront because it’s important to judge this app based on what it is and not on what it seems to be.

Cheats for Minecraft PE overview

As I mentioned this app is simply a repacked version of their website with push notifications.  To me, this is the biggest disappointment. My opinion on mobile apps is that they should offer up a significant feature or improvement over what is available on the mobile site. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The push notifications are the only improvement over the website, but I can get those with my favorite RSS reader.

As I mentioned earlier this is basically minecraftpecheats.com reframed into a mobile app. I feel like the rest of the review is basically a review of the site, but I’ll refer to it in the context of the app.

This is basically a Minecraft PE blog. There are articles that are broken down into categories. These articles showcase maps, seeds, world designs, guides, mods, skins, and news. The app will allow you to filter the articles, based on the aforementioned categories.

Cheats for Minecraft PE setup

Other than installing it from Google Play, there is no other setup required.

Cheats for Minecraft PE app usage

At first I didn’t like the app. I didn’t understand what the app was. I was thinking that the app would enable cheats on Minecraft PE. After all there are a few Minecraft apps that enable mods, so why not?

I soon noticed that the cards were actually articles, so I googled “Cheats for Minecraft PE” and the website popped up. As I’m looking at it, it dawns on me that it’s the same exact thing as the app.

From there I started questioning why the app was even necessary, but I realized that I would have never found the web page if I had never found the app. I imagine that the developer uses the app as a discovery tool.

While there is nothing that I can access on the app that I can’t access on the website, the app does seem to load much quicker than the website. The interface is also easier to use than on the website. However, there are plugins for WordPress that the developer can use to make the website look more like the app.

Minecraft PE Cheats ScreenShots

What we liked:

  • Easy to use interface
  • Fast loading
  • Interesting reads

What could be better:

  • Different functionality than the website

Cheats for Minecraft PE summary

Overall I found that the articles were interesting to read. The app loaded quicker than the web page and there are push notifications, but these are features found in most RSS readers. I believe that the purpose of this app has more to do with providing another avenue to discover minecraftpecheats.com, than to make it easier to read on mobile devices.

Nevertheless, if you are a Minecraft PE fan, then you will probably enjoy using this app. There is a lot of cool information in the app that fans will appreciate.

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