Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Trial Xtreme 2 Winter.
Trial Xtreme 2 Winter is priced at $0.99 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.
Trial Xtreme 2 Winter is described as follows:
Satisfy the adrenaline junkie in you by bringing some extreme dirt biking to your Android device. Live vicariously through Trial Xtreme 2 Winter with an ultra-realistic rider and incredibly accurate bike physics.
Trial Xtreme 2 Winter is the sequel to the Trial Xtreme series, updated with 30 new levels. Each level is set in a cold, snowy environment with improved graphics, realistic physics, and an intuitive tilt-control system using your phone's accelerometer.
Gettin' Madcap Crazy
This is an unforgiving environment for rookies. See if you've got the skills to master the rough tracks. Use the responsive tilt-based controls to collect stars while navigating your bike across ramps, exploding barrels, jumbo tires, and other obstacles. Unless you want to eat snow, it's all about balance, skill, and control.
Do Not Try This at Home--Try it on Your Android
These stunts may be ill-advised, but aren't they fun? Incredible graphics bring your rider and game to real life. The ultra-realistic physics actually allows you to feel everything as you flip, jump, bump, and crash your way through the obstacles. Share your dare-devilish tomfoolery with your friends. Max out your score and compete against the world through OpenFeint.
Trial Xtreme 2 Winter has a rating of 4.0 stars in the Android Market and 4.2 stars in the Amazon Appstore.
This is NOT another of Amazon Appstore's FAOTD selections for apps that have been around for a while that haven't really garnered much attention. Instead, this is an already fairly popular app with somewhere between 100,000 - 500,000 installs and over 400 Android Market ratings. "Buy" it while it is free.
Those who are considering "buying" a Free Amazon Appstore app might want to consider what it means to developers.
Amazon.com opened up the Appstore despite a lawsuit by Apple, which has previously trademarked the term "App Store." Microsoft has filed an appeal against that trademark, saying the term is too generic. Amazon.com has responded to the lawsuit in the same manner.
The idea that Amazon.com has a larger version of the Kindle Fire in the works isn't a new one, and neither is the idea that it might ship by mid-2012, but a new analyst report just affirms the earlier rumors.
Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley raised his Kindle Fire sales estimate this week, basing the revision upon an upcoming larger-screened Amazon.com tablet. He wrote, “We are raising our 2012 sales forecasts to 14.9 million from 12.7 million. But we believe there is an upward bias, particularly from the new 7- and 9-inch models, which we expect to launch in mid-2012.”
Bartley said 9-inch, but we'll stick with 8.9-inches for the larger Kindle Fire, since other 8.9-inch tablets have already been shipped. Moreover, though, not only are we going to see a larger screened Kindle Fire by mid-2012, if Bartley is correct, we should see a new 7-inch version as well.
Neither of those releases would be a total surprise; in 2011, it was at first believed that Amazon.com was going to release two versions of the Fire, but it's thought that Amazon.com rushed out the first Kindle Fire, additionally using a design mostly based on the BlackBerry Playbook and manufactured by Quanta.
On the less positive side of things for Amazon.com, Bartley reduced his Kindle e-reader unit estimates at the same time he raised his Kindle Fire estimates. The drop was from 28.6 million down to 24 million.
Bartley did not explain his estimate drop. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist (or market analyst) to assume that the Kindle Fire is probably cannibalizing the sales of Kindle e-readers. That said, for users of the Kindle Fire, it's clear --- whether iPad or Kindle Fire, the Kindle e-reader with e-ink technology is still a much better reading experience.
That said, if you want to avoid spending on more than one device, yet want to use an Amazon.com device to read an Amazon.com e-book, what better tablet than the Kindle Fire?
A newly released free tool, "Do Not Track Plus" (DNT+) promises to go beyond the standard private browsing settings that are available in most browsers in its ability to block websites from tracking you, while at the same time reducing page load times by as much as four times, on some sites.
Released in version 1.0 on Thursday (it had been released in beta form last year, but for Firefox only. That version was downloaded more than a million times, according to developer Abine. The new version is cross-browser and cross-platform and works wtih Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari (sorry Opera fans). It's also cross-platform, running on both Mac OS and Windows.
As a result of its blocking, you'll see some ads blocked --- not all, though. And Abine says that unlike most anti-tracking tools, DNT+ allows users continue to use social-sharing buttons even though the software blocks social tracking.
Once installed, DNT+ allows users to see who is tracking them on each website they visit. It currently blocks 580 different tracking technologies and more than 200 tracking companies. Users can set tracking to be blocked or allowed on a per-site basis.
You can download the app from Abine's website. It uses C|Net's Download.com site, and will redirect to an appropriate version for your browser. Indeed, that's a slight drawback: although it works on four browsers, you have to install an app / plug-in / extension for each one.
The tool will automatically update to block new tracking technologies and companies.
One caveat: if you install the Chrome extension, it will warn you after installation that "due to a Chrome limitation," DNT+ doesn't work as well on Chrome as on other browsers, but that the next release of Chrome (not DNT+, apparently) will remedy that.
AT&T is scoring a lot of hits this week, although we mean that in a negative way. First the carrier was said to be throttling customers with grandfathered unlimited data plans when they crossed 2GB, despite the fact that the company offers a tiered data plan of 3GB for the same monthly fee, and now the company has announced it will be doubling its handset upgrade fee from $18 to $36.
The change is effective Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012. The company has explained the reasons behind the increase as follows:
“Wireless devices today are more sophisticated than ever before. And because of that, the costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased and is reflected in our new upgrade fee. This fee isn’t unique to AT&T and this is the first time we’re changing it in nearly 10 years.”
It's true, the fee isn't unique to AT&T. In the U.S., Sprint also charges $36. T-Mobile charges $18. Verizon, the nation's largest carrier, charges nothing.
While AT&T says the costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased, we'd have to wonder what the heck they're talking about. Swapping a SIM into a new device hasn't gotten harder over the last few years.
All the back-end stuff is automated, so that hasn't changed. If anything, it's gotten easier.
A brief look around the Web shows the reaction to be swift and harsh. Most people have the same thoughts as we do. In other words, they would like AT&T to explain exactly how the costs of upgrading have increased.
In our mind, they have increased this way: they've gone up from $18 to $36. They've gone up because AT&T lost its bid to acquire T-Mobile, and it has to make up the money somehow. And they've gone up because AT&T says they have.
In other words, there's no real basis in reality to explain that the actual costs have gone up.
It's exactly the same sort of reasoning that we believe AT&T is using with regard to throttling at 2GB. They have a 3GB plan that costs exactly the same as the unlimited plan. If there were really concerned about network overload, as they say they are, why are they offering such a plan?
Simple: they want to eliminate the grandfathered unlimited plans.
[We can only hope is that Verizon doesn't follow suit with this attempt to rid themselves of grandfathered unlimited data plans.]
AT&T isn't scoring any points with these moves. Once an LTE-based iPhone is released, you might see a number of customers drop their GSM iPhones and move to Verizon, which has the nation's largest LTE network.
The Motorola Droid 4, the first full QWERTY Android phone with LTE support, has gone on sale. Verizon is selling the device for $199.99 on contract, but Amazon.com has the device for a mere $99.99 (new account) or $149.99 for an upgrade.
The Motorola Droid 4 is the latest iteration of Verizon's flagship Android phone series. It sports a 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 8MP rear-facing (1080p video capability) and 1.3MP front-facing cameras, and a microSD slot for up to 32GB of optional added storage.
We've been using a pre-production Droid 4 for some time, and the QWERTY keyboard --- which the iPhone will never have --- is the best keyboard we've seen on a Droid yet, and that's saying a lot, as the Droid 3's keyboard was superb.
Like the RAZR, which the design of the Droid 4 shares some obvious similarities to, the device has a fixed battery. It's 1785mAH, but it's always nice to be able to swap out batteries. Don't expect a Droid 4 MAXX with a 3300mAH battery or thereabouts, either. It's been revealed that the Droid RAZR MAXX was a fluke, and we should expect MAXX devices like that.
To us, that's the one big negative of the Droid 4. Oh, and we'd love to see it with Ice Cream Sandwich. That, at least, is a done deal: Motorola has said that ICS WILL be coming to the Droid 4. Naturally, they didn't say when, though.
One thing of note: despite this being the first LTE QWERTY smartphone, there wasn't a huge line outside the East San Francisco Bay Area Verizon store we visited. In fact, there were four people there, including us, but we were the only one who wanted a Droid 4.
The Motorola Droid 4, the first full QWERTY Android phone with LTE support, has gone on sale. Verizon is selling the device for $199.99 on contract, but Amazon.com has the device for a mere $99.99 (new account) or $149.99 for an upgrade.
The Motorola Droid 4 is the latest iteration of Verizon's flagship Android phone series. It sports a 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 8MP rear-facing (1080p video capability) and 1.3MP front-facing cameras, and a microSD slot for up to 32GB of optional added storage.
We've been using a pre-production Droid 4 for some time, and the QWERTY keyboard --- which the iPhone will never have --- is the best keyboard we've seen on a Droid yet, and that's saying a lot, as the Droid 3's keyboard was superb.
Like the RAZR, which the design of the Droid 4 shares some obvious similarities to, the device has a fixed battery. It's 1785mAH, but it's always nice to be able to swap out batteries. Don't expect a Droid 4 MAXX with a 3300mAH battery or thereabouts, either. It's been revealed that the Droid RAZR MAXX was a fluke, and we should expect MAXX devices like that.
To us, that's the one big negative of the Droid 4. Oh, and we'd love to see it with Ice Cream Sandwich. That, at least, is a done deal: Motorola has said that ICS WILL be coming to the Droid 4. Naturally, they didn't say when, though.
One thing of note: despite this being the first LTE QWERTY smartphone, there wasn't a huge line outside the East San Francisco Bay Area Verizon store we visited. In fact, there were four people there, including us, but we were the only one who wanted a Droid 4.
Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Buzzwords.
Buzzwords is priced at $0.99 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.
Buzzwords is described as follows:
Don't Say That Word!
Buzzwords turns the art of description into a fun and hilarious party game. You're trying to get your teammates to guess a specific word. The tough part involves the words you're NOT allowed to use. Each word comes with five "buzzwords" that happen to be the most common clues related to that word. Naturally, you're not permitted to say any of the buzzwords.
For example, for the word "bankruptcy", you can't say the words "debt", "money", "loan," "file", or "broke" to your teammates. Now just try to describe the concept of bankruptcy without these obvious clues.
Move It or Lose It
If you do use any of those forbidden words, you get buzzed and you lose the turn. You'll soon discover it's an absolutely mind-blowing, frustrating, and uproarious challenge to get your teammates to guess your word without those five common clues.
If you simply can't describe the word successfully to your teammates, tap on Skip to go to the next word. But you better hurry up! You have a limited amount of time to get your teammates to guess the correct word.
Customize Your Game
The team that successfully guesses the most words by the final round wins. Play with up to four teams, and set the number of turns each team will take (2, 4, 6, or 8 turns). You can also customize the length of time per turn (30, 60, or 90 seconds), and play with or without the Skip button.
Buzzwords comes with 1,000 word cards, and the option to use Gesture to mark cards during a turn. Choose team colors and create custom team names, and review and modify cards after each turn if needed. For added quiz show realism, install Buzzwords on a second smartphone so you can buzz your opponents if they say a buzzword.
Party Time
If you enjoy party word games such as Taboo, Charades, and Pictionary, Buzzwords should be invited to your next get-together. Match your verbal and vocabulary wits with your friends, and get buzzing.
Buzzwords has a rating of 4.7 stars in the Android Market and 3.8 stars in the Amazon Appstore.
There is also a Lite version of Buzzwords in the Android Market, with a 4.2 star rating.
This is another of Amazon Appstore's FAOTD selections for apps that have been around for a while that haven't really garnered much attention.
Those who are considering "buying" a Free Amazon Appstore app might want to consider what it means to developers.
Amazon.com opened up the Appstore despite a lawsuit by Apple, which has previously trademarked the term "App Store." Microsoft has filed an appeal against that trademark, saying the term is too generic. Amazon.com has responded to the lawsuit in the same manner.
Google is finally ready to unveil its long-rumored, long-awaited, and previously almost launched online storage product. Google Drive, as the Wall Street Journal says it will be called, is a natural extension of Google's Docs service.
According to the WSJ's sources, Drive will allow users to upload documents, images, and videos to Google's servers where they can be accessed from any Web-connected device, as well as easily shared. We'd imagine there will be a Google Drive Android --- and iOS --- app very shortly or even simultaneously with launch.
Drive will fulfill the unfulfilled promise that was GDrive, which nearly launched five years ago, but was instead stillborn. Set to launch in late 2007, it never did, but the multitude of mobile devices and a need to store data online has created room for products like Apple's iCloud and Dropbox, which says that as of October 2011, it had more than 45 million users who saved one billion files every few days.
As you might expect, Google Drive will be added to Google Apps, its suite of online software that the company sells to businesses. In that space, Drive would compete with Box.net, which sells cloud storage to businesses.
Although the news is welcome, the date remains vague. The WSJ said the service could launch in weeks --- or as far out as months. There will be a basic free package, but those who wish to store a large amount of data can pay for additional storage (nothing new there, meaning that it's a scenario many such services use).
Pricing for that extra storage is unknown, but a source familiar with the initiative said that Google aims to price such storage for a smaller fee than Dropbox, which allows people to store as much as 2GB for free, but then charges $10 (50GB) or $20 (100GB) a month for additional storage, and 1TB of team storage for five users at $795 a month.
It's only barely into the second week of February and already the iPad 3 rumors are running full steam ahead. It's because --- assuming Apple sticks to its annual refresh cycle --- the iPad 3 should launch in March.
Rumors have run that Apple might announce the iPad 3 in February, because with Leap Year, Feb. 29 falls on a Wednesday, and Apple loves aligning itself with past history. A Wednesday announcement for an iPad is de rigueur, but it's not going to be Feb. 29.
Instead, sources say that Apple has chosen the first week in March. If it sticks with Wednesday that would mean a March 7 announcement, and most likely the event will be held in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred venue for big announcements like these (at least until its new spaceship-style headquarters is built).
Apple typically sends press and media invitations to these events about a week in advance.
There's no word on a street date for the iPad 3. We'd guess it would be late March, but of course, who really knows, except Apple. It's not even a sure thing that it will be announced in March.
Although Apple likes annual refresh cycles, it missed badly with the iPhone 4S. However, the report, coming from AllThingsD as it is, seems credible because of that. The iPad 2 was introduced in March 2011.
As far as specifications for the iPad 3, we're expecting, and sources are saying, that it will be very similar in form factor to the iPad 2, meaning a 9.7-inch screen, but with a faster processor (though whether or not it is quad-core is still up in the air), an improved GPU, and a 2,048 x 1,536 retina display.
Apple proved in 2011 that specs would not win the tablet race. While the iPad 2 was outspecc'ed by many devices, no Android or other device came close to it sales. The Kindle Fire made a dent, but mostly due to price.
Speaking of price, one more big question: will the iPad 2 continue to be sold as a lower cost device when the iPad 3 launches? We're betting the answer will be yes, though with less storage to better reduce the price.
A group of hackers known as Swagg Security is claims to have breached the security of Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn. With an avatar very similar to that of LulzSec, we can imagine it's an offshoot of that group, and that this hack was part of the AntiSec campaign (against corruption in government and big business)
The group said it had stolen usernames, passwords, and other private information for every employee including Terry Gou, who is the CEO of parent Hon Hai Industries. Those credentials were uploaded to the site where these groups like to dump data and press releases: pastebin. The group also uploaded the data to The Pirate Bay.
Swagg Security said: "The passwords inside these files could allow individuals to make fraudulent orders under big companies like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Intel, and Dell," Swagg Security said on its Pastebin page. Be careful ; )"
As a result of the hack, Foxconn has taken down a Web site (Google's cached version here) which explains the services it provides to its key partners, including Apple, HP, Cisco, and Acer.
Why Foxconn? The answer should be obvious, in light of recent news and reports about the miserable conditions at manufacturing sites in China and other countries. Key among them is Foxconn, one of Apple's key manufacturing partners.
The hacker group exploited an unpatched version of Internet Explorers used by one of Foxconn's employees. It's another example of what happens when someone does not keep their desktop software up to date.
Swagg Security gave fair warning, more or less. It warned its "intended victim" on January 26th to ensure that its Web browsers were up-to-date, although it did not name Foxconn as that victim.
The hack came on Wednesday, the day before global planned protest at Apple stores, where petitions asking Apple to produce "ethical" iPhones would be presented, sporting 250,000 signatures.
Although both Foxconn and Apple have denied that these manufacturing conditions exist, or at least assured the public that, in the case of Apple, it is making improvements is its supply chain, statements in the original New York Times report from both past and present Apple executives seemt o belie those denials.
On the pastebin upload page, Swagg Security said,
"So Foxconn thinks they got 'em some swagger because they work with the Big Boys from Intel, Microsoft, IBM, and Apple? Fool, You don't know what swagger is. They say you got your employees all worked up, committing suicide 'n stuff. They say you hire chinese workers 'cause you think the taiwanese are elite. We got somethin' served up good...real good. Your not gonna' know what hit you by the time you finish this release. Your company gonna' crumble, and you deserve it."
Recent Comments