Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Linkedin For Android



LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) is a professional social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 9 February 2012, LinkedIn reports more than 150 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech and Polish. Quantcast reports LinkedIn has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally. In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors, up 63 percent from a year earlier and surpassing MySpace. LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol "LNKD".
LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner, previously a Yahoo! Inc. executive. The company was founded by Reid Hoffman and founding team members from PayPal and Socialnet.com (Allen Blue, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Lee Hower, Konstantin Guericke, Stephen Beitzel, David Eves, Ian McNish, Yan Pujante, and Chris Saccheri).
Founder Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn, is now Chairman of the Board. Bhushan Kasvekar is Vice President of Products. LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in Omaha, Chicago, New York, London and Dublin. It is funded by Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006. Through January 2011, the company had received a total of $103 million of investment.
In 2003, Sequoia Capital led the Series A investment in the company. In June 2008, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and other venture capital firms purchased a 5% stake in the company for $53 million, giving the company a post-money valuation of approximately $1 billion.
In 2010, LinkedIn opened a European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, received a $20 million investment from Tiger Global Management LLC at a valuation of approximately $2 billion, and announced its first acquisition, Mspoke, and improved its 1% premium subscription ratio.
In October 2010 Silicon Valley Insider ranked the company No. 10 on its Top 100 List of most valuable start ups. As of December 2010, the company was valued at $1.575 billion in private markets.
It was reported that LinkedIn earned $154.6 million dollars in advertising revenue alone in 2011. This number was actually higher than that of Twitter who earned $139.5 million dollars respectively.
In early January 2012, LinkedIn announced it would be expanding their offices into the Financial District of San Francisco. LinkedIn expects to move into their 57,120 square foot office space sometime in the Spring of 2012.
LinkedIn’s fourth-quarter earnings have recently soared. LinkedIn’s shares rose 9.5% to $83.68 in premarket trading. The increase in value is due to its increase in success in the social media world.
On February 24, 2012, LinkedIn announced it's acquisition of the start-up Rapportive, which created a browser plug-in that takes contact information from social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and places them into Google's Gmail. LinkedIn has not stated yet how they will use the Rapportive's technology and talent.
In early May, LinkedIn announced it's 2012 Q1 numbers were up 101% to $188.5 million compared to $93.9 million in Q1 of 2011. Revenue for Q2 has been estimated to be between $210 to $215 million.
On May 3, 2012, LinkedIn announced it had acquired SlideShare, deemed "the YouTube of slide shows" for $119 million. It was stated that the purchase was done to give LinkedIn members a way to discover people through content. Slideshare attracts 29 million monthly visitors.
One purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people with whom they have some level of relationship, called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. However, if the invitee selects "I don't know" or "Spam", this counts against the inviter. If the inviter gets too many of such responses, the account may be restricted or closed.
This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:
A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual contact.
Users can upload their resume or design their own profile in order to showcase work and community experiences.
It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.
Users can post their own photos and view photos of others to aid in identification.
Users can now follow different companies and can get notification about the new joining and offers available.
Users can save (i.e. bookmark) jobs which they would like to apply for.
The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either a preexisting relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participates in the EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.
The feature LinkedIn Answers, similar to Yahoo! Answers, allows users to ask questions for the community to answer. This feature is free and the main difference from the latter is that questions are potentially more business-oriented, and the identity of the people asking and answering questions is known.
Another LinkedIn feature is LinkedIn Polls. In December 2011, LinkedIn announced that they are rolling out polls to their one million groups.
In mid-2008, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn DirectAds as a form of sponsored advertising.
In October 2008, LinkedIn revealed plans to opening its social network of 30 million professionals globally as a potential sample for business-to-business research. It is testing a potential social-network revenue model-research that to some appears more promising than advertising.
Applications
In October 2008, LinkedIn enabled an "applications platform" that allows other online services to be embedded within a member's profile page. Among the initial applications were an Amazon Reading List that allows LinkedIn members to display books they are reading, a connection to Tripit, and a Six Apart, WordPress and TypePad application that allows members to display their latest blog postings within their LinkedIn profile.
In November 2010, LinkedIn allowed businesses to list products and services on company profile pages; it also permitted LinkedIn members to "recommend" products and services and write reviews.
Mobile
A mobile version of the site was launched in February 2008, which gives access to a reduced feature set over a mobile phone. The mobile service is available in six languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.
In January 2011, LinkedIn acquired CardMunch, a mobile app maker that scans business cards and converts into contacts. LinkedIn plans to integrate this functionality into their services in the near future. In August 2011, LinkedIn revamped its mobile applications on the iPhone, Android and HTML5. Mobile page views of the application have increased roughly 400% year over year according to CEO Jeff Weiner.

You are reading this article and you can find this article on https://androids-zone.blogspot.com/2012/05/linkedin-for-android.html, You may spread Expand or copy-paste it if this article is very beneficial to your friends, but do not forget to put a Link as the Source.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Winamp for Android



Winamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features. Winamp was developed by American programmer Justin Frankel and Russian programmer Dmitry Boldyrev, and its popularity grew quickly, along with the developing trend of MP3 file sharing.
Playback formats
Winamp supports music playback using MP3, MIDI, MOD, MPEG-1 audio layers 1 and 2, AAC, M4A, FLAC, WAV and WMA. Winamp was one of the first common music players on Windows to support playback of Ogg Vorbis by default. It supports gapless playback for MP3 and AAC, and ReplayGain for volume leveling across tracks. CD support includes playing and import music from audio CDs, optionally with CD-Text, and burning music to CDs. The standard version limits maximum burn speed and datarate; the "Pro" version removes these limitations.
Winamp supports playback of Windows Media Video and Nullsoft Streaming Video. For MPEG Video, AVI and other unsupported video types, Winamp uses Microsoft's DirectShow API for playback, allowing playback of most of the video formats supported by Windows Media Player. 5.1 Surround sound is supported where formats and decoders allow.
Media Library
At installation, Winamp scans the user's system for media files to add to the Media Library database. It supports full Unicode filenames and Unicode metadata for media files. In the Media Library user interface pane, under Local Media, several selectors (Audio, Video, date and frequency) permit display of subsets of media files with greater detail.
Adding album art and track tags
Get Album Art permits retrieval of cover art, and confirmation before adding the image to the database. Autotagging analyzes a track's audio using the Gracenote service and retrieves the song's ID2 and ID3 metadata.
Podcatcher
Winamp can also be used as an RSS media feeds aggregator capable of displaying articles, downloading or playing that same content as streaming media. SHOUTcast Wire provides a directory and RSS subscription system for podcasts.
Media player device support
Winamp has extendable support for portable media players and Mass Storage Compliant devices, Microsoft PlaysForSure and ActiveSync, and syncs unprotected music to the iPod.
Media Monitor
Winamp Media Monitor allows web-based browsing and bookmarking music blog websites and automatically offering for streaming or downloading all MP3 files there. The Media Monitor is preloaded with music blog URLs.
Winamp Remote
Winamp Remote allows remote playback (streaming) of unprotected media files on the user's PC via the Internet. Remote adjusts bitrate based on available bandwidth, and can be controlled by web interface, Wii, PS3, Xbox and mobile phones.
Plug-ins
See also: Plug-in (computing)
In February 1998, Winamp was rewritten as a "general purpose audio player" with a plug-in architecture. This feature was received well by reviewers. Development was early, diverse, and rapid: 66 plugins were published by November 1998. The Winamp software development kit (SDK) allows software developers to create seven different types of plug-ins.
Input: decodes specific file formats.
Output: sends data to specific devices or files.
Visualization: provides sound activated graphics.
DSP/Effect: manipulates audio for special effects.
General Purpose plug-ins add convenience or UI features(Media Library, alarm clock, or pause when logged out).
Media Library plug-ins add functions to the Media Library plug-in.
Portables plug-ins support portable media players.
Plug-in development support increased Winamp's flexibility for, for example, a plethora of specialized plug-ins for game console music files such as NSF, USF, GBS, GSF, SID, VGM, SPC, PSF and PSF2.
Skins
Winamp running on S7Reflex skin.
Skins are bitmap files which alter the aesthetic design of the Winamp graphical user interface (GUI) and can add functionality, with scripting. Winamp published documentation on skin creation in 1998 with the release of Winamp 2, and invited Winamp users to publish skins on Winamp.com. As of 2000 there were nearly 3000 Winamp skins available. The ability to use skins contributed to Winamp's popularity early in MP3 development. With the increasing number of available skins, genres or categories of skins developed, such as "Stereo", "Anime", and "Ugly". Online communities of skin designers such as 1001Skins.com and Skinz.org have contributed thousands of designs; also at GnomeArt. Designers see skins as an opportunity to be creative: nontraditional examples have included Klingon, iPod, and Etch-a-sketch designs.
The Winamp skin format is the most popular, the most commonly adopted by other media player software, and is usable across platforms. One example is the XMMS player for Linux and Unix systems, which can use unmodified Winamp 2 skin files.
Winamp 5 supports two types of skins — "classic" skins designed to Winamp 2 specifications (static collections of bitmap images), and more flexible, freeform "modern" skins per the Winamp 3 specification. Modern skins support true alpha channel transparency, scripting control, a docked toolbar, and other innovations to the user interface.
Initial releases
Winamp was first released in 1997, when Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev, formerly students at the University of Utah, integrated their Windows user interface with the Advanced Multimedia Products "AMP (MP3 Technology)" MP3 file playback engine. The minimalist WinAMP 0.20a was released as freeware on 21 April 1997. Its windowless menubar-only interface showed only play (open), stop, pause, and unpause functions. A file specified on the command line or dropped onto its icon would be played. MP3 decoding was performed by the AMP decoding engine developed by Advanced Multimedia Products co-founder Tomislav Uzelac, which was free for non-commercial use.
WinAMP 0.92 was released as a freeware in May 1997. Within the standard Windows frame and menubar, it had the beginnings of the "classic" Winamp GUI: dark gray rectangle with silver 3D-effect transport buttons, a red/green volume slider, time displayed in a green LED font, with trackname, MP3 bitrate and "mixrate" in green. There was no position bar, and a blank space where the spectrum analyzer and waveform analyzer would later appear. Multiple files on the command line or dropped onto its icon were enqueued in the playlist.

You are reading this article and you can find this article on https://androids-zone.blogspot.com/2012/05/winamp-for-android.html, You may spread Expand or copy-paste it if this article is very beneficial to your friends, but do not forget to put a Link as the Source.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Fruit Ninja



Fruit Ninja (known as Fruit Ninja HD on the iPad and Fruit Ninja THD for Nvidia Tegra 2-based Android devices) is a video game developed by Halfbrick Studios in Brisbane, Australia. It was released April 21, 2010 for iPod Touch and iPhone devices, July 12, 2010 for the iPad, September 17, 2010 for Android OS devices. It was released for Windows Phone on December 22, 2010. Also, in March 2011, versions for Samsung's Bada and Nokia's Symbian began to be distributed on their respective official application channels. Just prior to E3 2011 Fruit Ninja Kinect was released for the Xbox 360 on August 10, 2011 and utilizes the Kinect peripheral. In the game the player must slice fruit that is thrown into the air by swiping the device's touch screen with their finger or in the case of the Xbox 360 version, the player's arms and hands. It features multiple gameplay modes, leaderboards and multiplayer. An arcade version called Fruit Ninja FX also exists.
The game was well received by critics and consumers alike; as of September 2010 sales have exceeded three million downloads, with the total reaching four million in December 2010. Total sales across all platforms totaled over 20 million in March 2011. Reviewers felt that the low cost of the game combined with addictive gameplay yielded an excellent value. They further lauded the support and updates provided by Halfbrick, who brought online multiplayer, achievements and leaderboards to the game. Some critics felt the game's difficulty curve was uneven.
In Fruit Ninja, the player slices fruit with a blade controlled via a touch pad. As the fruit is thrown onto the screen, the player swipes their finger across the screen to create a slicing motion, attempting to slice the fruit in half. Extra points are awarded for slicing multiple fruits with one swipe, and players can use additional fingers to make multiple slices simultaneously. Players must slice all fruit; if three fruits are missed, the game ends, but upon reaching scores that are multiples of one hundred (i.e. 100, 200, 300, etc), the player will gain an extra life (unless they have not missed a piece of fruit already). Bombs are occasionally thrown onto the screen, and will also end the game should the player slice them.
A mode known as Zen mode allows players to seek high scores without the hindrance of bombs appearing on the screen. Also available is an Arcade mode in which players have only sixty seconds to achieve a high score. Special bananas are added to the standard fruit which have unique bonuses such as doubling points scored for a limited time, increasing the amount of fruit on the screen, or slowing down the movement of all fruit for a short period of time. In Classic and Arcade mode, special pomegranates are occasionally thrown on screen. In Arcade Mode, it is guaranteed that at the end of each game that a pomegranate will appear. Players can slice these multiple times to get extra points. Similarly, an ultra rare pitaya sometimes appears in Classic and Arcade modes which, if sliced, awards players fifty points.
Multiplayer gameplay is supported on iOS devices through Apple's Game Center application. It allows for competitive gameplay and features leaderboards and achievements. During multiplayer matches the player's blade and fruit are highlighted in blue, while the opponent's are highlighted in red. White outlined fruit are considered neutral and may be claimed by either player. White outlined fruit are worth three points. Players must slice their own fruit while avoiding their opponent's fruit. The iPad version of the game features enhanced graphics and also supports local multiplayer, with the screen being divided in half and each player controlling half of the screen. Players can also share high scores via Open Feint, Twitter and Facebook.
n an interview with GameSpot, Phil Larsen, Chief Marketing Officer at Halfbrick discussed the development of Fruit Ninja. He stated, "we tried a lot of different channels [...] indie games, PSN, XBLA, [...] and we basically did a lot of research about what was happening on iPhone and made a game that worked out pretty well." He then spoke of the company's brainstorming process for new games and said "Fruit Ninja came as part of [that] process, but we identified it as something special [and] decided to fast-track it through." Luke Muscat, Lead Designer for Fruit Ninja stated that he felt the uniqueness of the touch screen platforms and the short development cycle further motivated the Halfbrick to develop the game.
The game was first released on April 21, 2010 for iPod Touch and iPhone devices. It was later released as Fruit Ninja HD on July 12, 2010 for the iPad. On September 17, 2010 Fruit Ninja was ported to Android OS devices. On November 2, 2010 an Arcade mode was announced for Fruit Ninja which adjusted gameplay dynamics. It was released two days later on November 4, 2010. In December 2010 Lite versions of Fruit Ninja and Fruit Ninja HD were released for iOS devices and serve as a demo versions of the game. The game was also released for Windows Phone 7 on December 22, 2010.[4] Phil Larsen stated that due to the quick-release nature of iOS applications that a different marketing strategy is required. "You could have a game rise to the top and fall off in three days. You want to get it up there at the right time and have the right backup plan to sustain it with updates and further press" he said. On January 21, 2011 an update was released for the Android version of the game which added Arcade mode, leaderboards, and an ice blade to the game. There was also launched a Windows port by June 2011. A spin-off edition of the game themed to the Dreamworks animated movie, Puss in Boots was released on various devices.
In March 2011 Halfbrick announced a Facebook port of the game, entitled Fruit Ninja Frenzy. While no release date has been announced, Halfbrick has confirmed the game will be free to play. They described the Facebook port as "60 second gameplay with many powerups, unlockables and achievements". In addition to being a downloadable game on the Xbox Live Marketplace, a token for the game will also be included in the retail box of The Gunstringer, a Kinect title developed by Twisted Pixel Games. On August 24, 2011 downloadable content was released for Fruit Ninja Kinect. Entitled Storm Season the content brings three new Xbox Live achievements and a new visual theme to the game. In mid-2011, an amusement arcade version appeared titled Fruit Ninja FX. In March 2012 HalfBrick announced a partnership with BlueStacks to make Fruit Ninja's Android App available for Microsoft Windows worldwide. The program received over a million downloads in its first 10 days.
Fruit Ninja was well received by critics and consumers. The iOS version sold over 200,000 copies in its first month. In its third month over one million units had been sold. It passed two million units sold in September 2010, with the total reaching four million in December 2010. By March 2011 total downloads across all platforms exceeded 20 million. The Windows Phone 7 version was the top application downloaded the week of December 28, 2010. It was also named one of Time magazine's 50 Best iPhone Apps of 2011. The Xbox Live Arcade version moved over 739,000 units in is first calendar year.
Reviewers were mostly unified in the overall fun factor in the game. Levi Buchanan of IGN stated that the game was "fun, fun, fun" and "an instant pleasure". Slide to Play's Chris Reed agreed and felt that the game was perfect for when a consumer has short moments of boredom. He likened this to playing the game while waiting in line for something and stated "it'll slice the time in half." Jim Squires of GameZebo felt the gameplay was simple and addictive. Geoff Gibson of DIYGamer stated that he could see Fruit Ninja "becoming the next “big thing” on the App Store." Several reviewers praised price and Halfbrick's commitment to continual updates to the game. GameZone's James Pikover stated "perhaps the best part is that this game isn’t even complete." He then spoke of the future game modes to be made available and lauded the value-to-price ratio. App Spy's Andrew Nesvadba agreed that Halfbrick's commitment and updates were "nothing short of spectacular." He also praised the game's graphics and said they were "luscious". The reviewer from BuzzFocus praised the game's inexpensive price and said consumers "should really be downloading this app right now."
The game's scoring system and difficulty were received to mixed commentary. Chris Reed of Slide to Play felt that there should have been an option to increase the game's difficulty curve. Andrew Nesvadba of App Spy felt that since the bonus items were random the ability to beat a high score was made more difficult. DIYGamer's Geoff Gibson also shared this sentiment. James Pikover of GameZone, Geoff Gibson of DIYGamer and Levi Buchanan of IGN all praised the game's ability to boast scores to friends and family via Facebook and Twitter.

You are reading this article and you can find this article on https://androids-zone.blogspot.com/2012/05/fruit-ninja.html, You may spread Expand or copy-paste it if this article is very beneficial to your friends, but do not forget to put a Link as the Source.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Angry Bird Season



Angry Birds is a strategy puzzle video game developed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009. Since that time, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, such as those using the Android operating system, among others. The game is also available on HP App Catalog.
In the game, players use a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed on or within various structures, with the intent of destroying all the pigs on the playing field. As players advance through the game, new birds appear, some with special abilities that can be activated by the player. Rovio Mobile has supported Angry Birds with numerous free updates that add additional game content, and the company has also released stand-alone holiday and promotional versions of the game.
Angry Birds has been praised for its successful combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to versions of Angry Birds being created for personal computers and gaming consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters and even long-term plans for a feature film or television series. With a combined 1 billion downloads across all platforms and including both regular and special editions, the game has been called "one of the most mainstream games out right now", "one of the great runaway hits of 2010", and "the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far"
In Angry Birds, the player controls a menagerie of multi-colored birds that are attempting to retrieve eggs that have been taken by a group of green pigs. On each level, the pigs are sheltered by structures made of various materials such as wood, ice and stone, and the objective of the game is to eliminate all the pigs on the level. Using a slingshot, players launch the birds with the intent of either hitting the pigs directly or damaging the structures, causing them to collapse and eliminate the pigs. In various stages of the game, additional objects such as explosive crates and rocks are found in the structures, and may be used in conjunction with the birds to destroy hard-to-reach pigs.
There are several different types of birds used in the game. In the earliest levels, the basic red bird is the only one available. As the player advances through the game, additional types of birds become available. Some birds are effective against particular materials, and some have special abilities that may be activated by the player while the bird is airborne. For example, a yellow bird can increase its speed, a blue bird can separate into three small birds, a black bird explodes, and a white bird can drop explosive eggs. The pigs themselves also appear in different sizes. While small pigs are relatively weak and are easily destroyed either by direct hits or by debris from the damaged structures, larger pigs are able to sustain more damage. In addition, some pigs wear helmets as armor, making them even more resistant to damage; pigs with crowns or moustaches can take the most damage.
Each level starts with the number, types, and order of birds pre-determined. If all of the pigs are defeated by the time the last bird is used, the level is completed and the next level is unlocked. Points are scored for each pig defeated as well as for damage to, or destruction of, structures, and bonus points are awarded for any unused birds. Upon completing each level, players receive one, two, or three stars, depending on the score received. Players may re-attempt unlocked levels as many times as they wish in order to complete them successfully or to earn additional points or stars.
The initial iOS version of the game included a single episode entitled "Poached Eggs", which contained three themed chapters, each with 21 levels. From time to time, Rovio has released free upgrades that include additional content, such as new levels, new in-game objects and even new birds. As updates have been released, they have been incorporated into the game's full version offered for download from each platform's application store.
The first update, released in February 2010, added a new episode called "Mighty Hoax", containing two new chapters with 21 levels each. Updates released in April 2010 added the "Golden Eggs" feature, which placed hidden golden eggs throughout the game that would unlock bonus content when found, and a new episode called "Danger Above", which initially contained a single chapter of 15 levels. Two later updates added two more chapters to "Danger Above", each with 15 levels. "The Big Setup" episode, released in June 2010, added a new chapter with 15 levels and additional Golden Egg levels. "The Big Setup" was later given two more chapters of 15 levels each.
A fifth episode, called "Ham 'Em High", launched in December 2010, in celebration of the game's first year in the iOS App Store. "Ham 'Em High" contained 15 Wild West-themed levels in a single chapter; updates in February 2011 and March 2011 each added one new 15-level chapter. "Ham 'Em High" also introduced the Mighty Eagle, a new bird that may be used once per hour to clear any uncompleted levels. The Mighty Eagle can also be used in previously completed levels, without the once-per-hour limit, to play a mini-game called "Total Destruction" in which the player attempts to destroy as much of the scenery as possible, both with the standard birds and the Mighty Eagle; achieving 100% destruction earns the player a Mighty Eagle feather for the level.
The Mighty Eagle is offered as a one-time, in-game purchase, and was initially only available for iOS, as its App Store customers have iTunes accounts with pre-linked credit cards. In late 2011, Rovio also added the Mighty Eagle to the Chrome App version of the game. Rovio has begun testing an Android update called the "Bad Piggy Bank" with the Elisa wireless service in Finland and T-Mobile, which allows users to charge in-app purchases, such as the Mighty Eagle, to their mobile phone bills; the service is expected to become available to other Android users in the second quarter of 2011.
The sixth episode, "Mine and Dine", was released on June 16, 2011 with 15 new mining-themed levels and a new Golden Egg. An August 2011 update expanded "Mine and Dine" with two more 15-level chapters.
The seventh update, "Birdday Party", was released on December 11, 2011 to commemorate the second anniversary of the first release of the iOS version into the iTunes App Store. It included 15 new birthday cake-theme levels, as well as updated graphics and the addition of elements from the spin-off games, such as the scoring graphic seen in Angry Birds Rio and the introduction of the orange bird that first appeared in Angry Bird Seasons. The update was later released for Android and Microsoft Windows. The eighth update (as well as another update for Angry Birds Rio) was released initially to the iOS on March 20, 2012 in a lead-up to the release of Angry Birds Space. The new update included an animated tutorial, enhanced gameplay, all new UI graphics, and the first 15 levels of "Surf and Turf," the Angry Birds Facebook-exclusive episode (see below), with another 30 coming soon.

You are reading this article and you can find this article on https://androids-zone.blogspot.com/2012/05/angry-bird-season.html, You may spread Expand or copy-paste it if this article is very beneficial to your friends, but do not forget to put a Link as the Source.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Earth and Legend (Android's 3D RPG Game)



Well, this review has been a long time coming, as it was last year that we ran a preview of the Dvide Arts title. The game has finally arrived and we have been furiously questing through it to give you our verdict on the eagerly anticipated RPG title.
Has it been worth the wait? The answer depends on your point of view. If you loved the previous game, Crusade of Destiny then you will find this to be a stellar experience, as it is essentially a fleshed out take on that game. If you are looking for a good looking, high quality grinding RPG then you will also like this. However, you may well want to steer clear if grinding the same few enemies for hours to increase your experience level sounds like your idea of hell, because you do a lot of grinding in this game.Earth and Legend Android screenshot 1 Earth and Legend Android Review screenshot
There is the usual RPG back-story of a kingdom at war, and you have to choose and customise your character to join the fight. Once done, you enter the first village and the graphics will immediately strike you, as they are very impressive. Incredible detail is lavished on the town sections, with gorgeous textures and smooth gameplay married with some great effects, such as snow and rain which has to be one of the games highlights, even if it essentially an overlay.
You have some basic weapons and armour(more if you get the free gold for ‘liking’ the game on Facebook), and you set off into the wild. Only to be wiped out within seconds of meeting an enemy. All the creatures around the village have a higher level than you, apart from Young Wild Boars. Pick these out without alerting any bigger enemies and your grinding journey begins. Repeatedly killing enemies of the same type until you level up, then killing slightly more dangerous foes, and so on. This is the basic structure of the entire game, and it really is a chore, especially when the combat options are really not much better than they were in the first game.
You have attacks, earned by using skill points from levelling up and these range from a basic sword strike to bows and magic. The problem isn’t the magic or the bows, but rather the fact that you assign your sword strike to a button just as you do a magic spell and that’s it. No dodging, no different swipes or parrying. No rolling to avoid an attack or using different attack heights or anything. You simply keep pressing the attack button while the enemy does the same, with the victor purely decided by stats. You can equip a shield and try to block some attacks but this is clumsily implemented. I really wish the developer had tried a more complex combat system, as it really does feel that, while the graphics and presentation of the new game haved moved on several steps, the combat is still stuck on repeat.
You can use different attacks, but you literally have to change weapon to use each different attack option.
The spells and the bow still work the same as they did in Crusade of Destiny, so you tap an enemy to target and then the ranged weapon is charged and fired, at which point the enemy will charge in and its back to the slashing standoff.
I was really disappointed in the fact that there is no overworld, but just areas joined together. With these graphics, having a big map to explore and dungeons to plunder would have been excellent, but it was not to be.
When you die you are returned to the last place you decided to bind yourself to, with little health, mana and your hunger severly depleted. This can be extremely annoying, as there is no way to increase your health without using expensive potions, as all food does is reduce your hunger. The only way to realistically recharge your health is to wait several long minutes, which isn’t too bad when you respawn in a town but pointless when you reappear in an enemy infested area, and as the main reason you would bind in the wild is to attempt a boss battle the problem is baffling. Standing still for five minutes waiting for a little red bar to recharge is even worse than it sounds.
The hunger mechanic is such a bad idea that I am amazed it made it into the finished game.You have to constantly buy food to survive, making any long trips into the wild even more limiting.
Nevertheless, despite all of these big problems, I enjoyed my time with Earth and Legend. Once you are well equipped and know to plan ahead and stock up, the irritations are reduced somewhat, and there is a great addition in the form of a pet that will follow you around and help out when fighting. Exploring the world and meeting the admittedly limited characters is fun, and the graphics are beautiful enough to help you forgive some sins.
There is an excellent multiplayer co-op mode over Bluetooth, where you and a buddy can explore and fight together. This is great and one of the games saviours. You can go fishing to add some variety, and even explore underwater with a very good swimming mechanic.
The bosses are great, with some clever designs and fiendish attack patterns, and it is always nice to level up and beat previously invincible enemies. If the developer added a proper overworld and some decent combat options with enemies that did more than just charge at you, then this could have been something special. As it is, you have a standard RPG grinder hidden underneath some pretty graphics and great presentation.
Sometimes compelling and sometimes frustrating, Earth and Legend is a game that you will either love or hate.

You are reading this article and you can find this article on https://androids-zone.blogspot.com/2012/05/earth-and-legend-androids-3d-rpg-game.html, You may spread Expand or copy-paste it if this article is very beneficial to your friends, but do not forget to put a Link as the Source.