Thursday, April 21, 2011

Temple Run (Android's Game)




Temple Run is an endless action video game developed by the Washington, D.C.-based Imangi Studios. The game revolves around several curious explorers attempting to steal an idol from a temple and being chased by "demonic monkeys". The player controls the explorers with a few simple touchscreen gestures and device tilting and aims to run as far as possible without being "eaten", therefore the namesake of the game, "Temple Run." It is currently available for iOS systems, including the iPhone and the iPad, and the Android platform. Originally the game was only released for iOS, but in March 2012 an Android version was released after a month of delayed release.
In the iTunes Store, it was included in the top 50 most-downloaded apps in December 2011, and eventually became the number one free iOS app. It has also reached the position of the top grossing iOS app. When Temple Run was released to Android, it was downloaded more than 1 million times in under 3 days, a stunning record. The game itself was formerly 99 cents, but now it is a freemium application, and instead relies on players purchasing in-game coins with real life money. For the Android version, it was always freemium.
Gameplay
Temple Run centers around a group of wandering explorers, where one of the characters, whom the player controls, steals an idol from an ancient temple. The players control the characters moments after they have stolen the idol. Immediately upon acquiring the idol, the player is pursued by a group of malignant demonic monkeys who chase the player out of the temple, thus initiating a "temple run." The characters controllable by the player are
• Guy Dangerous (default explorer)
• Scarlett Fox, a female explorer
• Barry Bones, a cop
• Karma Lee, a Far East explorer
• Montana Smith, a cowboy
• Francisco Montoya, a conquistador
• Zack Wonder, a football player

The different characters have no differences in their "abilities" except of their cosmetic appearance, except most of the men, the women, and Montoya have their own grunts and sounds.

There is no finish line nor are there levels; the object of the game is to run as far as possible by avoiding obstacles that require the player to either jump (slide finger forward), duck (slide finger backwards), or turn (slide finger to the right or left) in a precise manner. While all of this is happening, the player will continue to be pursued by the monkeys. While playing, the player can tilt their device either to the left or the right to collect coins. These coins are primarily in the shape of yellow diamonds, but according to their point value, they can also be red or blue (a 2-point coin and a 3-point coin, respectively). As well as the coins, players also encounter sporadic bonus items during their run.

Powerups
The coins the player collects in the game can be spent in the game's "store." At the store, the player is able to purchase upgrades to the various bonuses found throughout the run, as well as perks, unlockable characters, and wallpapers. The bonuses, when fully upgraded, are
• Mega Coin (worth 150 coins)
• Coin Magnet (multiplies coin value by 3)
• Invisibility (lasts 30 seconds)
• Boost (for 750 meters)
• Some 2-point coins begin at 1000 meters
• Some 3-point coins begin at 2000 meters

Objectives
The object is to survive, while also getting the most points and coins possible. The longer a player survives, the more points their acquire. However, a player's score can only be used to unlock objectives. Their score is determined by their distance, plus five times the number of coins collected, plus 600 times the ordinal number of the total number of coins divisible by 100. These three values are then added and multiplied. The value of the multiplier is 10 more than the number of objectives unlocked. The formula is s = (m)(d+5c+t); "S" being number of points; "m" number of objectives unlocked + 10; "d" being distance; "c" being number of coins; "t" being the coin multiplier of 600 times the whole number remaining of c/100.

Development
Husband-and-wife team Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova, along with artist Kiril Tchangov, created Temple Run. Originally, the game cost 99 cents, but was soon released as a freemium app, which quintupled revenue with in game coin purchasing. Both Shepherd and Luckyanova developed the gameplay, while Tchangov created the graphics.
Originally, the game was only available for the App Store, but it was later released on Google Play, the successor to Android Market. On January 12, 2012, Imangi Studios announced on the Temple Run Facebook page that the game would be released to the Android platform in February 2012, saying "We're so excited to announce this and appreciate all of our fans' support across both platforms!". The game was released for the Android platform on March 27, 2012.

Popularity
The game has been available on the App Store from August 2011 on, and since then, its popularity has soared. Many imitators have made fake games such as "Temple Guns" and "Temple Jump". to the point that it has made Imangi Studios more popular than Zynga Games. The popularity of Temple Run prompted Imangi Studios to create an initially unplanned Android version. After Temple Run was released on Android, it was downloaded 1 million times in under 3 days.

Source : Temple Run

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Friday, April 15, 2011

Applications



Applications are usually developed in the Java language using the Android Software Development Kit, but other development tools are available, including a Native Development Kit for applications or extensions in C or C++, Google App Inventor, a visual environment for novice programmers and various cross platform mobile web applications frameworks.
Applications can be acquired by end-users either through a store such as Google Play or the Amazon Appstore, or by downloading and installing the application's APK file from a third-party site.


Google Play
Google Play is an online software store developed by Google for Android devices. An application program ("app") called "Play Store" is preinstalled on most Android devices and allows users to browse and download apps published by third-party developers, hosted on Google Play. As of October 2011, there were more than 500,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from the Play Store as of December 2011 exceeded 10 billion. The operating system itself is installed on 130 million total devices.
Only devices that comply with Google's compatibility requirements are allowed to preinstall and access the Play Store. The app filters the list of available applications to those that are compatible with the user's device, and developers may restrict their applications to particular carriers or countries for business reasons.
Google has participated in the Play Store by offering many free applications themselves, including Google Voice, Google Goggles, Gesture Search, Google Translate, Google Shopper, Listen and My Tracks. In August 2010, Google launched "Voice Actions for Android", which allows users to search, write messages, and initiate calls by voice.

Security
Android applications run in a sandbox, an isolated area of the operating system that does not have access to the rest of the system's resources, unless access permissions are granted by the user when the application is installed. Before installing an application, the Play Store displays all required permissions. A game may need to enable vibration, for example, but should not need to read messages or access the phonebook. After reviewing these permissions, the user can decide whether to install the application. The sandboxing and permissions system weakens the impact of vulnerabilities and bugs in applications, but developer confusion and limited documentation has resulted in applications routinely requesting unnecessary permissions, reducing its effectiveness. The complexity of inter-application communication implies Android has a large attack surface.
Several security firms have released antivirus software for Android devices, in particular, AVG Technologies, Avast!, F-Secure, Kaspersky, McAfee and Symantec. This software is ineffective as sandboxing also applies to such applications, limiting their ability to scan the deeper system for threats.

Privacy
Android smartphones have the ability to report the location of Wi-Fi access points, encountered as phone users move around, to build databases containing the physical locations of hundreds of millions of such access points. These databases form electronic maps to locate smartphones, allowing them to run apps like Foursquare, Latitude, Places, and to deliver location-based ads.
Third party monitoring software such as TaintDroid, an academic research-funded project, can, in some cases, detect when personal information is being sent from applications to remote servers.
In March 2012 it was revealed that Android Apps can copy photos without explicit user permission, Google responded they "originally designed the Android photos file system similar to those of other computing platforms like Windows and Mac OS.  we're taking another look at this and considering adding a permission for apps to access images. We've always had policies in place to remove any apps [on Google Play] that improperly access your data."

Android software development is the process by which new applications are created for the Android operating system. Applications are usually developed in the Java programming language using the Android Software Development Kit, but other development tools are available. As of April 2011 more than 200,000 applications have been developed for Android, with over 3 billion downloads. The Android platform has also grown to become a favorite among mobile developers. A June 2011 research indicated that over 67% of mobile developers used the platform, at the time of publication.
The Android Developer Challenge was a competition for the most innovative application for Android. Google offered prizes totaling 10 million US dollars, distributed between ADC I and ADC II. ADC I accepted submissions from 2 January to 14 April 2008. The 50 most promising entries, announced on 12 May 2008, each received a $25,000 award to further development.  It ended in early September with the announcement of ten teams that received $275,000 each, and ten teams that received $100,000 each. ADC II was announced on 27 May 2009. The first round of the ADC II closed on 6 October 2009. The first-round winners of ADC II comprising the top 200 applications were announced on 5 November 2009. Voting for the second round also opened on the same day and ended on November 25. Google announced the top winners of ADC II on November 30, with SweetDreams, What the Doodle!? and WaveSecure being nominated the overall winners of the challenge.


Source : Android's Applications

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Sunday, April 3, 2011

Android's Version

The version history of the Android operating system began with the release of the Android beta in November 2007. The first commercial version, Android 1.0, was released in September 2008. Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, and has seen a number of updates to its base operating system since its original release. These updates typically fix bugs and add new features. Since April 2009, each Android version has been developed under a codename based on a dessert or sweet treat. These versions have been released in alphabetical order: Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo (frozen yogurt), Gingerbread, Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich. The pre-release versions of Android were dubbed Astro and Bender, but these names could not ultimately be used for trademark reasons. The most recent update to the Android OS was Ice Cream Sandwich v4.0.4, which was released in March 2012.

Cupcake Review
Whilst we aren’t any closer to knowing an exact update time frame, IntoMobile.com have managed to uncover some information on the kind of new functionality we can expect to see from future ‘over the air’ Android updates.
Here’s a rundown of what is currently being worked on:
  • New Local Setting Page – Gives you option to pick different locales and pick different text inputs.
  • New Option to view running and third party applications – An option to view running and third party applications from the normal application list. Does not provide a way to terminate them.
  • New windows opening/closing animation effect – a new popping effect when windows are opened/closed.
  • New default notepad – a very simple and ugly default notepad.
  • New Global Time application – not sure if it will be provided by T-Mobile but it’s just a rotating Earth and I couldn’t get it to do anything else.
  • New Spare Parts Application – Once again not sure if the official version will have this, but it provides a number of extra settings such as setting windows animation and transition animation speed, font size, end button behavior and etc. It also has a “display rotation” option which supposedly should allow auto-rotate base on orientation across the entire os, but it is not currently working.
  • New Virtual Keyboard (as seen on video -ed.)- The virtual keyboard will pop up on every edit box. I didn’t feel any haptic feedback but I am thinking that it’s just not there on the example keyboard. Because the phone does not auto-rotate (an option exists but it doesn’t work), it’s very hard to type on it. The sample keyboard also does not provide auto-corrections.
  • Slightly better looking buttons with more shadow.

Donut Review
In addition to a raft of minor fixes, Donut offers a new speech synthesis tool, new GPS-enabled features, an enhanced search routine, a rebuilt Android Market and many other adjustments. The 57MB update that arrived on a myTouch 3G took just a few minutes to download with a fast data connection and just a few minutes to install, including a restart of the phone.
Android's location-based features have been enhanced and the GPS settings now include a "Share with Google" option which lets you enable location-based enhancements with Google searches, maps and other applications. Touching and holding your finger on a location in Google Maps, for example, enables Street View, which provides an interactive ground level image of the location.
As you enter a search phrase into the Google search window on the home screen, location-based suggestions appear even before you hit the search button. For example, while entering the word "staples" a listing for a nearby Staples office supply store across the street appeared. From there I could have mapped the location, asked for more details or added it to my contacts.
The home screen search function has also been expanded to look into more places. Within the settings menus, you can control whether Google searches your browser's bookmarks and search history, your contacts, the installed apps and your music collection.
Google Maps on Android 1.6 also offers mass transit directions for many major cities. For example, if you're standing at Madison Square Garden at 8th Avenue and West 33rd Street in Manhattan, and need to get to the Empire State Building on West 34th Street and 5th Avenue, Google Maps will not only tell you that you can use the M34 bus for the trip, but will also list the scheduled times of the next few buses. It also worked when tested with a late night bus trip from downtown Milwaukee to Miller Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, even going as far to note that there was a detour in effect at the time.
If you've enabled GPS, the Android web browser shows you your location at the main page and can use this data to return local results when performing a Google search. For example, searching for "library" resulted in a listing of the closest libraries to my location in addition to the other results that would normally be generated in a search for that word.
Android apps can now talk back thanks to a new Pico speech synthesis engine. You'll need to install the Speech Synthesis Data Installer, a free download from Android Market which includes support for English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Once installed, speech-enabled apps will be able to talk back in choice of accents.
Android Market itself has been revamped with a brighter look and now lacks the sometimes hard to maneuver scrolling icons on the top. Instead using the icons, featured Android applications now appear in a list as you start Android Market. From there you can browse or search for what you need. While most Android applications will work with the Donut revision, some software publishers have already pushed out Donut compatible updates for their applications.
The camera and video camera applications have been merged into a single screen with a toggle switch at the bottom even though separate icons for each utility remain on the home screen. The camera's shutter button has been relocated from the upper right corner of the screen (landscape mode) to a more comfortable position at the lower right.
New to Android is CDMA support, as well as support for four types of VPN connections. Also, a new battery screen lists which apps and hardware components are using what percentage of your phone's power.
The update doesn't seem to have an effect on the phone's response time. Android's developers claim that the camera application launches 39% faster and responds 28% faster in completing consecutive shots.

Eclair Review
Android phone at a more rapid development, and which version you have also further developed. :)
Until in the end on the date December 3, 2009, launched the Android phones with version 2.0 / 2.1. Who then called the version of Eclair.
The definition of Android Eclair is a version of Android, which is version 2.0 / 2.1, which experienced a change from previous versions feature, among other hardware optimizations, improved Google Maps 3.1.2, change the UI with a new browser and support for HTML5, a list of new contacts, flash support for 3.2 MP camera, digital zoom, and Bluetooth 2.1.
To move quickly in the competition next generation devices, Google held a competition to invest with the best mobile applications (killer apps-winning application.)
With the growing and increasingly growing number of Android handsets, the more interested third parties to distribute their applications to the Android OS.
Well-known applications have been transformed into the Android operating system is Shazam, Backgrounds, and WeatherBug.
Android operating system in the Internet site was also considered important to create native Android applications, for example by Facebook and MySpace.

Froyo Review
Android 2.2 is the first version of Android that feels totally complete—it performs like it should and it has most of the features it should. It's not quite at the point my mother could use it without a precarious learning curve, but you can see how it's going to get better. It's safe to say that with Froyo, Android has become something that most people really can use—and love.
Considering again where Android was 6, 12 and 18 months ago, I can believe the promises Google has made: that Android will blow your mind in another 6 months. The future of Android really has never looked brighter.
Android 2.2 'Froyo' Review: It's SweetFastest version of Android yet, in an actually noticeable way
Interface improved in small ways all around
Flash!
Built-in portable hotspot powers (though subject to your carrier's evil whims)
Android 2.2 'Froyo' Review: It's SweetAndroid Market is better in key ways, but needs more work
Android 2.2 'Froyo' Review: It's SweetFlash!
The keyboard still blows
The music and videos situation is pretty sad
The overall complexity of Android remains

Gingerbread Review
Android has evolved more aggressively, more rapidly than any other mobile platform. But now it's reached a point of maturity, and you can see that in Gingerbread: The newness in Android 2.3 is all about refinement. Not new features or functions or just stuff. It's Android where Google's slowed down and taken the time to think about how it looks and feels and responds.
The irony, of course, is that most of the careful design work that's gone into Android 2.3 won't ever be seen by a large portion of Android users. The definitive Android design won't be experienced by people who own phones covered in custom software. There's only a handful of Android phones in the US where you'll be able to get the real Android experience—Nexus One, T-Mobile G2 and the Nexus S—even though it's unquestionably better than anything phone makers are conjuring up themselves these days.

Honeycomb Review
Android 3.0 Honeycomb — the latest release — is special, being used only for tablets and is therefore optimized with even more features and benefits than you would normally find on a regular smartphone running on Froyo or Gingerbread. The Honeycomb project has seen a larger number of changes and revamps to the whole OS than any of its predecessors, with a whole new User Interface never seen before.
But does that mean it’s better? We’re going to take you through a guided tour and review of Android 3.0, more popularly known as Honeycomb.
I spent a considerable amount of time playing with Honeycomb while using the Motorola Xoom (review forthcoming), and I wanted to write separate reviews for each because Honeycomb is so different from 1.x or 2.x that it would be very difficult to cram all of this information into one convenient review. So let’s get started by going over the new layout of Honeycomb. This is, after all, the most visible part of the OS, and the most important as well.

Ice Cream Sandwich Review
"People need Android ... but people didn't love Android," said Matias Duarte, director of the Android OS user experience, explaining why the world's most popular smartphone OS needed a full redesign. Ice Cream Sandwich, now officially labeled Android 4.0, is that overhaul. And people, it's awesome.
Android developers put their heads together to figure out how to improve the operating system, and came up with three directives. "Enchant me. Simplify my life. Make me awesome."
To put it another way, by observing what really works on the iPhone and Windows Phone operating systems, and what wasn't working on Android, Google's mobile development team made massive improvements across the board, and focused on making the experience consistent no matter where you might be in the environment. It's no longer a hodgepodge of unclear commands and clumsy screens.

Source : Android's Version


Cupcake


Donut


Éclair


Froyo (frozen yogurt)


Gingerbread


Honeycomb


Ice Cream Sandwich


NEXT : Coming Soon "Android Jellybean" on quarter of 2012

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