Posts tagged android

Temple Run on Kindle Fire : Game Review

2
1 month ago
by Ashwin in ,

The popular game for iOS : Temple Run is now available on Android Platform. The game is one of the most popular iOS app. In the iTunes store, it has been in the top 50 most-downloaded apps in December 2011. Many Android owners like me were eagerly waiting for it’s release for their devices and some (including me) even tried crappy bad copies. Since I am from India and I can’t access Amazon App Store (I don’t know if this game is available there yet) and I can’t download from Google Play store  either (unrooted Kindle), I had to side-load the game .APK file. The game is free and I am writing this mini review after playing it for 3 hours non-stop. Yes! It’s that addictive.

Screenshots :

My Kindle Fire running Temple Run.

Temple Run (Screenshots taken from AndroidPolice).

Gameplay :

Basically all you have to do in this game is to make your character run, jump, slide and turn to evade obstacles and collect coins to unlock achievements, power-ups, utilities, characters and wallpapers (Wallpapers are not available on Android Version yet!). The story is simple: You’ve stolen an ancient artifact from a temple. Crazy Demon monkeys are chasing you and you have to run as far as you can. There are no levels or no checkpoints.

On my Fire the game looks beautiful (for it’s size and price). This is a fun game to play on a Tablet or on any supported device for that matter! It takes a lot of juice though. Just playing it for 3 hours brought my Fire’s battery charge level to 57% from 92%.

I think I’m going to keep this game around for sometime. There is only so much one can play Angry Birds you know Smile with tongue out

Reviews from Community :

The game’s getting great reviews from Android users despite few glitches in the game.

Reviews on Google Play Store (at the time of this writing).

Reddit Thread : http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/rffyu/temple_run_is_out/

Issues :

Since the launch of the game yesterday various users are experiencing different issues with the game. Major one being that it’s not coming up in search results when you search it in Google Play Store. Frequent crashes and lag is another problem. Even in my Kindle Fire it crashes whenever I tap “Run Again” after loosing a run and it seems I’m not the only one who has this issue Thumbs down. On some devices including SGSII-i9100G and RAZR-MAXX it doesn’t even work!

Verdict:

Since the game is just in version 1.0 and is just launched yesterday I hope the glitches will be solved soon enough. This is a good game which can provide casual gamers hours of fun. My Own Rating : 4.6/5. So go, download and play! Open-mouthed smile

Kindle Fire in India

2
1 month ago
by Ashwin in ,

Back to blogging after long time. Hopefully I will be more regular now.

In January (3 months ago) I bought a kindle Fire. It’s an astounding device and for it’s price it’s worth every penny! 

See the specifications yourself:

Hardware

    Processor:

        Dual core, 1000 MHz, TI OMAP4

    System memory:

        512 MB RAM

    Built-in storage:

        8000 MB

Multimedia

    Speakers:

        Stereo speakers

Internet browsing

    Browser:

            Yes

        Supports:

            HTML

Connectivity

    Wi-Fi:

            802.11 b, g, n

    USB:

            USB 2.0

        Connector:

            microUSB

        Computer sync, OTA sync

Display

    Physical size:

        7.00 inches

    Resolution:

        1024 x 600 pixels

    Pixel density:

        170 ppi

    Technology:

        IPS LCD

    Touchscreen:

            Capacitive, Multi-touch

    Features:

        Scratch-resistant glass

Design

    Device type:

        Tablet

    OS:

        Android (2.3)

    Form factor:

        Candybar

    Dimensions:

        7.48 x 4.72 x 0.45 (190 x 120 x 11.4 mm)

    Weight:

        14.57 oz (413 g

I would suggest buying a Kindle Fire if you need a Tablet but don’t want to splurge 20K+ rupees. It costs around 13,800/- in India from ebay. Compared to other similarly priced tablets in India like Reliance 3GTab and iBall Slide, Kindle Fire is a much better alternative. There are many reviews out there just to prove that so I’m not going to write an essay praising it.One more things:  Do not compare it with an iPad. iPad has it’s own class. Kindle Fire is an eBook Reader which is also an excellent android tablet.

How to Order Kindle Fire in India?

Officially Kindle Fire is not yet available in India (and chances are it won’t be in near future). You can still purchase it through ebay and such e-commerce websites which imports it from USA. The delivery can take up-to 15 days though so you’d need to be patient. eBay.in has some pretty good deals for a brand new Kindle-Fire. And yes I also bought it from eBay.in.

How to Register Kindle Fire in India? :

Ok. It’s arrived but before you can do anything with it you will have to Register it with Amazon. Do not worry. Indian users can still register it (though using Amazon Premium service is not possible for now), all you need is a free Amazon.com account. Head to Amazon.com, Sign-up and click the link in confirmation email… yada yada yada, you know the drill. Enter the Amazon UserID and Password in Kindle Fire. Your Kindle Fire needs to be connected to a WiFi hotspot/access point. When I received my Kindle Fire, I did not have access to an WiFi Access point. If you are stuck in similar situation, don’t panic. All you need is to configure your laptop (or a Desktop with a WiFi dongle) to act as a WiFi hotspot. I used a simple application- “Connectify” for this purpose. It works on Windows7 and is free for personal use. Once you enter your UserID and Password and click Register Button it will take a few minutes to Register itself with your profile. Voila! It is done! Now you can go ahead and use it’s basic features (which is just – The Oxford English Dictionary which comes with it, the User-Manuel, and the Amazon Silk Browser). 

How to install 3rd party applications in Kindle Fire?

As I said Amazon premium services is not available. So forget about installing apps from Amazon App Store. What we can do is side-load apps on it (putting the .APK files in it) and installing them from Kindle Fire itself. I preferred this as I do not have access to a WiFi hotspot and I am on a very slow gprs/edge wireless connection. We have another situation here though. To install .APK files we need a 3rd Party File Browser for our Kindle and for that we need WiFi. Connectify is still needed so we can use laptop/desktop’s connection to download a File-manager/Browser. I installed ES File-Explorer from SlideMe.org. The process is simple – Start Fire’s Browser, open the URL: http://SlideMe.org and search for ES File-Explorer. Install and Done. To install an app just browse to the location of .APK file in ES-File Explorer and tap the .APK file and tap Install.

How to Put Files on Kindle Fire?

Kindle Fire doesn’t ship with a Data Cable. Don’t fret. It comes cheap. Kindle Fire needs a MicroUSB.female-to-USB.male cable. If you have a modern high-end phone, chances are it’s data cable will work fine with Fire. I bought a Nokia MicroUSB cable from a local shop for Rs. 80/-.

All you need to do is plug cable’s both ends in appropriate ports and your Computer System will detect Fire as an external storage device with label- KINDLE.

Now you can put songs/books/music/WhateverTheHellYouWant on your Kindle Fire.

There is another advanced method where you can just transfer files via a wireless LAN. But we will discuss that in another blog-post.

Tada! You are all set to use Kindle Fire in India.

Where to get .APKs or Android Apps?

Well, one source I already mentioned – SlideMe.org. You can also try GetJar store for Android Applications if you can connect to a WiFi-Hotspot (or using Connectify). You can also root your Kindle-Fire and install Google Play client on Kindle Fire to install applications directly from Google Play app store.

What are the best apps/games for Kindle Fire?

There are hundreds of thousands really! I mostly use – QuickOffice Premium for Android for Document Editing, MX Video Player for watching videos and PowerAMP for listening to music. Angry Birds, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, Where’s My Water, Plants VS Zombies and Samurai II are some of the best games you can enjoy on your Fire.

My Kindle Experience:

Kindle Fire is a device which I absolutely needed. As a media consumption device, it rocks. Reading Books, Magazines and Comics on it is very pleasant. While it doesn’t fit in pocket, it’s much easier to carry than a Laptop. As a tablet there are some major features missing. Lack of a memory-expansion slot is one. It doesn’t have an inbuilt microphone/camera so Skype calling is not possible either. After installing basic apps, 5GBs is all you have for your eBooks and Videos (which works for me actually). But even after it’s various shortcomings, it’s a great Value-For-Money device.

Google android SDK 4.0 and what it means

1
7 months ago
by Ashwin in ,

 

 

android 4.0 sdk what's newandroid new view

 

Google has just announced the release of SDK for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich available straight from the Android Developers site, which you can find by clicking here.

Android 4.0 is a major platform release that adds a variety of new features for users and app developers. Besides all the new features and APIs discussed below, Android 4.0 is an important platform release because it brings the extensive set of APIs and Holographic themes from Android 3.x to smaller screens. As an app developer, you now have a single platform and unified API framework that enables you to develop and publish your application with a single APK that provides an optimized user experience for handsets, tablets, and more, when running the same version of Android—Android 4.0 (API level 14) or greater.
What’s new in Andorid 4.0 and Android-SDK 4.0?
1. Large photos : We can now have larger photos for contacts. Now, when we save a photo into a contact record, the system processes it into both a 96×96 thumbnail (as was the case previously) and a 256×256 “display photo” that’s stored in a new file-based photo store.
2. Contact Usage Feedback : There’s new ContactsContract.DataUsageFeedback APIs here which allow us to help track how often the user uses particular methods of contacting people, such as how often the user uses each phone number or e-mail address, this information than can be used to rank contacts for future suggestions.
3. User Profile : Android now includes a personal profile that represents the device owner, as defined by the ContactsContract.Profile table.
4. Invite Intent : The INVITE_CONTACT intent action allows an app to invoke an action that indicates the user wants to add a contact to a social network. The app receiving the app uses it to invite the specified contact to that social network. Most apps will be on the receiving-end of this operation.

5. Event intent : If all we want to do is add an event to the user’s calendar, we can now use an ACTION_INSERT intent with a “vnd.android.cursor.item/event” MIME type to start an activity in the Calendar app that creates new events. No permissions required.

6. Camera : The Camera class now includes APIs for detecting faces and controlling focus and metering areas which we missed a lot in previous SDKs. Also there’s continuous auto focusing (CAF) for both pictures and videos.

7. Wi-Fi Direct : Android now supports Wi-Fi Direct – WI-FI P2P APIs for peer-to-peer (P2P) connections between Android-powered devices and other device types without a hotspot or Internet connection.

8. Two new emulator skins :
WXGA720 (1280×720, extra-high density, normal screen)
WSVGA (1024×600, medium density, large screen)
9. User Interface and Views : Android 4.0 introduces a variety of new views and other UI components.
     a.) Grid layout
     b.) Texture View
     c.) Switch Widget (to toggle an option between two states)
10. Social API : A shared social provider and API provide a new unified store for contacts, profile data, status updates, and photos. Any app or social network with user permission can contribute raw contacts and make them accessible to other apps and networks. Building on the social API, we can add powerful new interactions that span multiple social networks and contacts sources.
11. Enhancements for Enterprise : For enterprise applications there’s new VPN client API and a new policy for device policy management. We can now remotely disable the camera on a managed device for users working in sensitive environments.
and much more… Read: Android 4.0 Platform Highlights
WHAT IT MEANS?

It is a significant update. Android SDK 4.0 provides a unified platform so it’s much easier now for developers to design quality apps for all form factors – Phones, Tablets and net-books. Of course the apps will be more user friendly to users as well.

I am currently downloading the new SDK on my slow 144kbps connection. Just can’t wait to start development on the updated platform. What about you?

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