Dungeon Defenders: First Wave brings Unreal Engine to Android this month
Along with Rage HD , Infinity Blade has been one of the titles to really solidify iOS' position as the leader in mobile gaming right now, but that's not to say Android isn't in hot pursuit: besides this Zeus we have on the horizon, Gingerbread improves gaming support on the API level -- and now we're seeing our first Unreal Engine 3-based title make the leap. Dungeon Defenders: First Wave, which just launched on iOS, is coming to Android 2.1 and above on December 23rd bringing with it an online, multiplayer tower defense gaming experience. Of course, one problem these guys have now is that Android hardware is all over the map, so they actually need to publish a long list of minimum requirements -- just like PC titles -- and in this case you need 512MB of RAM, an 800MHz or better SOC with support for OpenGL ES 2.0, and at least 400MB of free storage
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: api, engadget, first-wave, infinityblade, some-occasional, stability, tegra, titles
Apple mysteriously kills jailbreak detection API while hacker boosts iOS security, irony restored
It's no secret that Apple's been keen to monitor the lot of naughty jailbreakers, but it turns out the company has recently shelved iOS 4.0's jailbreak detection API with no explanation given. While this has little effect on the average user, Network World explains that this is bad news for enterprise IT and MDM (mobile device management) vendors, who will now have one fewer channel for checking whether a user's iOS device has been jailbroken and thus become vulnerable to attacks.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: api, charlie, ipodtouch, mdm, memory, miller, randomization, result, security, sektioneins, stefan-esser, technique, windows
Sphero toy ball rolls itself, you control it with your smartphone
Don't have the airspace required for an AR.Drone ? Gearing up for its CES 2011 debut, Sphero is a small, robotic toy ball made by Orbotix, and controlled remotely via Bluetooth and your smartphone's tilt sensor
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: airspace, api, developers, developers-get, orbotix, result, robot, robotics, smartphone
Nokia toys with context-aware smartphone settings switch, Jigsaw provides better context for apps like this
If Intel prognosticated correctly , context is the future of apps -- your device's array of sensors will determine where you are and what you're doing, and clever programs will guess from there. Problems arise, however, when one tries to run those accelerometers, microphones, radio antennas and GPS tracking devices constantly on the battery life of an average smartphone and determine what the raw data means, and that's where a group of Dartmouth researchers (and one Nokia scholar) are trying to stake their claim. They've got a bundle of algorithms called Jigsaw for iPhone and Symbian that claims to be able to continually report what you're up to (whether walking, running, cycling or driving) no matter where you place your device, and only pings the sensors as needed based on how active you are.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: accelerometers, api, battery, coordinates, jigsaw, nokiasituations, s603rdedition, symbian, walking
Android Gingerbread style tweaks revealed by way of new Maps version?
Seems that reaching into the innards of the latest version of Google Maps for Android and changing the API level from 8 ( Froyo ) to 9 ( Gingerbread ) changes the UI a bit, as you can see above. What we know today is on the left, and the right side represents the tweaks that we presume will match up with the changes Google has made systemwide in Gingerbread, a build that we now believe will likely be Android 2.3 at retail.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: api, changelog, dialog, duarte, froyo, google-maps, googlemaps, increment, Job, number-instead, tweaks
RIM announces WebWorks development kit, in-app payments, ad platform, and BBM API
RIM's BlackBerry Developer Conference is going down this week in San Francisco, and as you might expect from a developer-focused event, there are a handful of newsy items that'll affect the development community first and consumers down the road. Here's a roundup of what's what: WebWorks development platform. From what we've heard of this so far, it's basically a quick way for web devs to get into the BlackBerry app game by offering a tightly-integrated platform for HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript code with hooks to native BlackBerry OS functions and a packager for turning them into "real" BlackBerry apps.
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: api, approach, bbm social platform, BlackBerry, conference, css, devcon, development, entry, messages, paypal, receiving
Qik happy to work with FaceTime APIs; anticipates 75 million copies preloaded next year
What's new with Qik , the cross-platform video chat and sharing service that made a splash on Sprint's EVO 4G ? Oh, not much -- just some plans to make sure the app is the most popular client around
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: api, apple, chat, comes-preloaded, compatibility, deals, mobile, nokia, platform, popular-client, result, soon-as-apple, video chat, videochat
Apple now accepting iOS 4 apps, multitasking ahoy
Although we've been running iPhone OS 4 -- now known as iOS 4 -- since it was first announced in April , we actually haven't been able to try out any of the fancy new multitasking features, since no third party apps have been released with support yet. That's all about to change: as of today, Apple is accepting iOS 4 apps, which means we should see quite a few apps that take advantage of multitasking on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 , as well as make use of the 1500 other new APIs in the system when it launches on June 21 . That's definitely good news, but we've got a feeling Apple's unique take on iPhone multitasking will take a few people by surprise, as only certain tasks are allowed in the background -- and apps that need to run persistently, like IRC and IM clients, still won't really work at all
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: api, apple, ios4, iphone, iphoneos4, marco-ament, party, surprise, the-background
Microsoft tweaks Windows Phone Marketplace policies for the better
Previously, the $99 that Windows Phone devs paid annually to get access to the Marketplace covered up to five app submissions -- but Microsoft looks like it's willing to play ball in an effort to drum up more interest in third-party development ahead of Windows Phone 7's release by chucking the five-app cap. Well, sort of -- paid apps will have unlimited submissions, but free apps will still be limited to five per yearly cycle, with additional submissions running $19.99 each.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: api, engadget, entry, marketplace, microsoft, option, phone, publishes-push, result, windowsphonemarketplace, wp7, wraps
BlackBerry push framework now available to all developers
It's been a year or so since RIM announced that push APIs had become available to its Alliance Program members, and now it looks like the rest of us are finally able to get in on the action (at least those of us who are BlackBerry devs). Starting today, access comes in two packages: either BlackBerry Push Essentials (the free version) or BlackBerry Push Plus with a number of tiers that reflect different options and price points
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: alliance, api, black, BlackBerry, blackberry-os, entry, Essentials, good-enough, like-the-rest, researchinmotion, rim, source