Among those of us old enough to have played first-generation game consoles, few will have tried a Vectrex; we typically clung to the familiar Atari 2600 or rebelled with the still very mainstream Intellivision. Thanks to Rantmedia Games’ new Vectrex Regeneration for iOS, though, we can generate some what-if nostalgia. The app emulates the tall, vector-based system down to its idiosyncratic noises and color overlays, and those with the foresight to own an iCade controller get an extra dose of authenticity. Anyone with at least an iPad 2 or an iPhone 4 can try the freemium title with a free copy of Minestorm to experiment; if they’re fully inclined to drive down memory lane, a $7 Mega Pack will unlock 17-plus original games as well as newer indie releases. Vectrex Regeneration won’t make our parents have second thoughts about their holiday gift choices circa 1982, but it’s cheap enough to provide a valuable (and potentially fun) history lesson.
Though the app GoMusic is certainly not the first to bring Google Music‘s cloud of tunes to the iOS platform, we’re certain that it’s currently the best solution on the market. This lovely little app takes what you’ve got on Android as well as the mobile web and slaps it on over to iOS where neither Apple nor Google have dared yet to venture. It’s not that they can’t, it’s just that, well, Google Music is made to be an Android music service – but what do you know? It works here on the iPhone as well!
You’ll find that without one of a very few apps currently on the iTunes Appstore, you’ll be relegated to the mobile web if you want to use the Google Play cloud of tunes. If you purchase a song via Google Play, you can easily play that song in the cloud or download it to your device for offline play if you’re working with Android, right? With GoMusic, that’s just as simple here on iOS.
GoMusic offers a simple user interface as well as a single rather snappy-looking search screen that, even if you’ve only got a couple Google Music songs of your own, looks fabulous with its moving map of album covers from all across the beat spectrum. From that start screen you can also search both tunes on your device and tunes in the cloud at will. Then it comes time to explore your library of music with a collection of entrance points.
You can see your artists, albums, a giant list of all songs, playlists made on-the-fly and by you, Last Added music, Thumbs Up favorites, and all of this able to be seen either in Cloud mode or Device mode. This will come in extremely handy when you’re seeking to reserve the amount of data you use on the fly – this along with the ability to keep all of your music on the device for offline listening.
Always up in the right-hand corner is a Play button that leads you back to what’s currently playing, and the app cleverly utilizes the entirety of your iPhone 5 display (this slightly larger-than-iPhone 4S display, that is) with a re-sizing album cover image. Tap once on the cover and you’ve got a full-size (left to right) album cover, tap again and you’ve got the ability to see which number you’re at in the playlist or album, replay, shuffle, and thumbs up and down buttons.
Have a peek at the app on the iTunes Appstore and let us know what you think – and don’t forget to suggest any other Google Music alternatives for iOS as well!
In the smartphone universe you’re going to have some sorting to do starting with the carrier your gift receiver is working with. More than likely you’re a parent or a significant other if you’re purchasing a smartphone on-contract for that special someone, this meaning you’ve got a fair understanding of which carrier they’ll be working with. After that, it’s all about finding the best device for them based on their specific wants and needs.
The first and probably most obvious place your mind should be wandering to is the iPhone. With this Apple hero device landing on three major carriers with the launch of the iPhone 5, it’s almost a given at this point in our western society that a person wouldn’t mind receiving an iPhone as a gift. If your special someone is out of the iPhone universe specifically for one reason or another, you’ll want to head down one of two paths: Android or Windows Phone.
With Windows Phone 8 came the launch and relative re-birth of Nokia in an extremely vibrant and fun-loving wave of devices that hit most major carriers in the USA. The biggest and the best of these devices is the Nokia Lumia 920 which is exclusive to AT&T at the moment. After that you’ve got the Nokia Lumia 822 from Verizon, the Nokia Lumia 820 from T-Mobile, and more than likely one or two more additions to the Lumia line before the end of the year. Another heavy contender in this space is the HTC Windows Phone 8X carried by AT&T as well as Verizon and T-Mobile.
As for Android, you’ve got a fierce battle going on between lines and heroes, with four titans making up the entirety of our selections for best-of-the-moment. The most recent big-name drop has been the Google Nexus 4, one of two of LG’s recent beast releases. LG also brings on the Optimus G with AT&T 4G LTE, a slightly more high-powered version of the hardware brought on in the Nexus 4, both of them working with one of the most powerful processors on the market, the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro. This Google hero phone is sold as a 2-year-contract-holding T-Mobile Nexus 4 and as a no-contract Nexus 4 sold online via the Google Play store – they’re both exactly the same device, just different prices based on data plan acceptance.
HTC came out swinging this year and didn’t let up all the way through to Fall with the HTC DROID DNA with Verizon 4G LTE, the current record holder for highest-definition-display on a smartphone. It’s backed up by the whole HTC One crew, leading off with the brand new HTC One X+ for AT&T, a a much more high-powered version of the original with a fantastic NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor in it – hot stuff! The original version is still out there as the HTC One X (without the +), exclusive to AT&T here in the USA. Next in line is the slightly smaller HTC One S carried by T-Mobile in the USA – this device has been upgraded to a much more awesome casing quite recently – a hot pick! The HTC One V is also floating around out there for those of you looking specifically for the HTC branding but not wanting to drop a ton of bills – though the One S is free at times, depending on when you’re shopping – good luck!
Motorola was purchased by Google earlier this year and since they’ve had that extra bump of influence, they’ve made some fantastic handsets that retain their hardcore hardware build and bust out with a newly refined user interface on the inside. The Motorola DROID RAZR M has one of the smallest bezels on the market, making it appear to be just a wickedly bright display sitting in the palm of your hand. The M’s bigger brother DROID RAZR HD sticks with the greatness that was the original DROID RAZR and boosts the processing power as well as the density of the display. The DROID RAZR MAXX HD crowns the collection with all that good stuff plus a massive, gigantic, beastly battery (and it’s still rather thin!)
Then there’s Samsung. If the person you’re buying a gift for doesn’t want an iPhone, chances are they’ll be entirely stoked to get either a Samsung Galaxy S III or a Samsung Galaxy Note II. The big difference is in the ultra massiveness of the Galaxy Note II, that and it’s build-in S-Pen for writing on the screen. The Samsung family of devices creates a friendly software and hardware compatibility ecosystem the lines of which you’ll only otherwise find at Apple – and that’s saying a lot. The Samsung Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II are available on most if not all of the major carriers in the USA and abroad – have a peek at the Galaxy S III here on Verizon as well as AT&T and T-Mobile. The Galaxy Note II we’ve also got several reviews of, hitting on the T-Mobile version and the Verizon version – and keep note that we’ll be taking another look at the Verizon version likely by the time this post is published to see how lovely its data speeds are – otherwise the differences between each of these devices on each carrier is relegated to the carrier-pushed apps and the costs inflicted upon your person. Also the Verizon version of the Note II has a massive beast of a Verizon logo on the front button – it’s fierce!
Another rather odd contender that will certainly surprise your gift-getter is the Nokia 808 PureView running Symbian – that’s not Android, it’s not iOS, and it’s not Windows Phone. This device also has a 41-megapixel camera – truly the most intense camera phone in the history of the world.
I’ve seen some unusual gadgets over the years, but the iKazoo might be one of the most offbeat, yet intriguing devices I’ve seen in a while.
Designed by ogaco, the iKazoo is first and foremost a wireless controller which can be used for playing music with your iOS or Android device. It’s got a lip sensor, a full chromatic keyboard and even a flute built into it. But the device aspires to be much more than a virtual wind instrument, as it can not only detect touch and breath, but movement. This opens the controller up to other sorts of interactions, such as using it as a paintbrush, on-screen navigation or for controlling games.
When used for gaming, it can be used as a sort of joystick, or also as a unique control method for games that involve balancing objects, or spinning a wheel. Its makers envision a plethora of other uses ranging from a motion control for golf and tennis games to a personal fitness tracker to a voice recorder and even as a karaoke machine.
Inside the stick-like iKazoo is a sophisticated set of circuits including an Ardiuno compatible microcontroller, Bluetooth wireless networking, optical, shock and motion sensors, as well as a microphone, multitouch sensor, RGB LEDs and even a headphone jack. It sounds sort of like a Wii Remote on steroids.
While the promotional video for the iKazoo is a bit silly at times (gotta love the part with the guy looking through the microscope,) I can really see potential here. A wireless controller with so much functionality along with an Open Source development platform could be a dream for hackers and tinkerers, much like the Wii-mote and Kinect have been. At this point it appears that the iKazoo is in the prototype stages, but the company is already registering interest for preorders for the strange little gadget.
We’ve been wondering how much the first full month of iPhone 5 sales would skew US market share in October. The answer is… not much, if you ask ComScore. Android kept growing to 53.6 percent of American smartphones on the back of the Droid RAZR M, Galaxy Note II and other devices, but the iPhone’s market share just managed to remain steady at the same 34.3 percent as in September. Apple could mostly be glad that it wasn’t in the position of its older rivals: the BlackBerry dipped below 8 percent share, while the wait for a Windows Phone 8 turnaround may have triggered a sharp drop in Microsoft’s stake to 3.2 percent.
There was a symbolic (if anticipated) changing of the guard for the wider American market, however. After months of closing in, Apple just barely edged out LG to become the second-largest cellphone maker of any kind on the US stage at 17.8 percent. A familiar scenario elsewhere kept Samsung once again on top at 26.3 percent, while Motorola and HTC remained on a downward slide. We’ll be keeping a close eye on how the November results alter the status quo — between Windows Phone, LG’s Optimus G and a cavalcade of multi-device launches, there’s been potential for more than one tidal shift in the mobile world in the past few weeks.
There’s no arguing that the mobile market is here for the duration and that it’s Android and Apple’s iOS that are dominating the field – this three-month-average comScore report shows that much clearly. What’s not quite as clear is how two major manufacturers – Apple and Samsung – are swallowing up the market while LG, Motorola, and HTC (the other top three manufacturers in the market today) are dropping down. Oddly enough, it’s not more than a point difference between months that’ve changed this month other than Apple – they being the only manufacturer to gain more than a single point of the % of mobile subscribers.
The charts this month show Samsung up top with an absolutely dominating 26.3% of the OEM market share, that being part of this study that’s a 3 month average ending in October 2012. The chart you’re seeing compares to a 3-month average ending in July of 2012, the point changes being compared therein. Also of note is the fact that this study is done on US Mobile Subscribers working not just with smartphones, but feature phones as well, and all of them 13 years of age or older. Not that there’s a gigantic amount of 8 year old smartphone users out there, but still – keep that in mind.
The Samsung share here went up between periods just under 1 percentage point at 0.7 while Apple went up 1.5 points. Apple’s share here sits at 17.8% and it’s quite likely that their percentage went up largely because of the launch of the iPhone 5, but it’s not entirely clear if those questioned were asked if they’d actually had their iPhone in-hand when asked – that could have a small but significant effect on the outcome of this test because of the amount of people that ordered the iPhone 5 at launch and had a brief waiting period in the three months this study takes place in (if they didn’t have an iPhone before now, that is).
Meanwhile the LG, Motorola, and HTC shares have been going down, with LG in the lead for loss as well as market share at 17.6% after a loss of -0.8 points. Motorola’s share this period sits at11% and HTC exists at the end of the list with 6%. Not included due to what we must assume is extremely low numbers is Nokia and RIM with BlackBerry.
Interestingly it does seem that RIM does exist in a low bot not nearly so insignificant place in the Top Smartphone Platforms list with 9.5% of the market to their name. Apple and Google (with Android) sit up top with a total 87.9% of the market to themselves, with 53.6% of the market belonging to Google and 34.3% of the market belonging to Apple. Meanwhile Microsoft is in 4th place with a tiny 3.2% of the market and Symbian (believe it or not) still exists on the list with a fabulous 0.6% of the market.
In the Smartphone Platform Market Share list it’s also Apple and Google that are devouring the market bit by bit with Google going up by 1.4 points and Apple heading upward by 0.9 points. Meanwhile RIM took the biggest dive with a loss of 1.7 points and Microsoft and Symbian slipped by 0.4 points and 0.2 points respectively.
Next Issue — the service unofficially billed as the Netflix of digital magazines — has just announced an expansion of its catalog, adding eight additional titles to its tablet-based offering. This recent inclusion of big names brings the company’s impressive library to a total of 80 even, letting iPad users now peruse the likes of New York Magazine, Food & Wine and Men’s Fitness, just to name a few. Pricing for both Unlimited subscription tiers remains unchanged, with $10/mo still netting users access to 73 monthly and bi-weekly titles, while the more premium $15/mo service opens up the entire archive. As of now, these new additions won’t work on Android slates, but the company promises “work is underway” to make them available across the board. Hit up the break to check out the official release.
Details about the still-in-alpha Redbox Instant internet movie service have suddenly become more clear, as GigaOm dug up a link to support pages (apparently now password protected) that show off service prices and even screenshots of the website and apps. As noted there, any of this could change before it rolls out to the public, but they show off an unlimited subscription that goes for $6 per month, with a smaller catalog than what Netflix offers, but with recent flicks like Iron Man 2 and Thor. For $8 ($2 more) per month, customers add credits for four DVD rentals each month (no rollover), while video on-demand access to movies starts at $0.99 and goes up. In a disappointing move for Linux users, it appears Redbox and Verizon have selected Silverlight for the web player just like Netflix, instead of Flash like Amazon’s Instant Video. Currently, Android, iOS, Xbox 360 and Samsung’s Smart TV platform are on deck for apps (check out more screens at the source link) and the page suggests that public launch could come December 17th. Assuming these details hold up, is this enough to pull you away from Netflix / Amazon Prime / Hulu Plus, or maybe add-on another subscription to the pile?
If you’re the early adopting type living in an Apple ecosystem, you probably upgraded to iTunes 11 almost as soon as the bits reached the servers. You might not have noticed that Apple gave its iOS Remote app and Apple TV firmware shots in the arm to match. Of the two, Remote 3.0 is the larger update and brings a simpler UI that also takes advantage of iTunes’ new Up Next feature to add or prune out songs in ongoing playlists on a host computer. iPad owners reap the most rewards — the album view now expands in place to quickly drill down to a specific track. Apple TV viewers aren’t quite so coddled, although they too get Up Next support for iTunes 11 (and iTunes Match) as well as the usual rounds of speed-ups and bug fixes; we imagine a solution to some of the troubles with 5.1 is part of the package. No matter which update fits into your vision of musical harmony, you’ll find details at the source links.
The big 40 has come down for the original tennis game Pong, and the folks at Atari are ringing in the occasion with two big releases. The first is what the company calls “the first-ever official new Pong game on iOS”, this meaning not that Pong has never been on iOS before, but that this is the first real redesign for the next generation – we guess. Either way, it’s free, and the other big release is even more gigantically awesome than you can possibly imagine.
While the free Pong World download is really quite excellent – the fact that it’s a great game in and of itself doesn’t hurt either – it’s the customized portable Xbox 360 system with built-in LCD display that we’re freaking out about. It’s made to resemble a classic Atari console and it works – it really works! This undeniably awesome gem is available only through a contest being run through a selection of partner sites with Atari – so good luck!
We must expect though that if enough interest is generated in this beast of a mod that we’ll see a production model in the future. No matter how much they say a product is limited edition, folks, there’s always a way. Thus was the birth of the game you’re going to download for free today, too. It was part of the Pong Indie Developer Challenge that took place earlier this year – now you see it before you!
Be sure to let us know how you’re enjoying the new Pong World game and tell some excellent stories about your first encounter with the most classic video game of all. As for your humble narrator: we had one at the local sports cards shop back when I was but a youngster – pull-sticks and all. How about you?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
