Tag Archives: Feature

Rovio’s New ‘Accounts’ Feature Finally Lets Users Save Game Progress Across Devices and Platforms

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4c5a0 rovio entertainment logo 150 Rovio’s New ‘Accounts’ Feature Finally Lets Users Save Game Progress Across Devices and Platforms

PICK UP YOUR GAME WHERE YOU LEFT OFF – ACROSS DEVICES!

5455e Rovio Rovio’s New ‘Accounts’ Feature Finally Lets Users Save Game Progress Across Devices and Platforms

Rovio blog:

Rovio Account lets you store your game progress and continue playing on another device.

Some of you may have noticed a new feature in your Rovio games called Rovio Account. Our fans have been asking for a way to play their game on different phones or tablets without losing their progress when changing the device. This is exactly what Rovio Account lets you do!

Rovio Account is currently available in The Croods game globally, and in the classic Angry Birds game on iOS in Finland and Poland. We will gradually introduce Rovio Account into more areas in the future and also add new features. Check out our FAQs if you have more questions!

Apple’s Game Center feature includes a way for developers to let users sync their progress in a game across devices. Unfortunately, however, the feature doesn’t always work well – and it doesn’t account for platforms other than Apple’s iOS. Rovio has a great answer with their new Rovio Accounts feature – a single sign-in that can sync your game progress across all devices and platforms!

Great job, Rovio. I hope to see other developers picking up on this – this is one of the strongest dampers against gaming on portable devices. Here’s to hoping Rovio has started the stone rolling in encouraging developers to address this.

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iOS 7 to Feature Major Redesign: “Very, Very Flat,” and Focused on Simplicity

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72089 ios 7 thumb iOS 7 to Feature Major Redesign: “Very, Very Flat,” and Focused on Simplicity

Following a report sharing supposed details of OS X 10.9, 9to5Mac has also posted some major new details about iOS 7. According to the report, iOS 7 will feature a major interface redesign, and will take on a new “flatter” user interface, as well as an even simpler design compared to previous versions of iOS.

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9to5Mac:

According to multiple people who have either seen or have been briefed on the upcoming iOS 7, the operating system sports a redesigned user-interface that will be attractive to new iOS users, but potentially unsettling for those who are long-accustomed to the platform… 

The new interface is said to be “very, very flat,” according to one source. Another person said that the interface loses all signs of gloss, shine, and skeuomorphism seen across current and past versions of iOS. Another source framed the new OS as having a level of “flatness” approaching recent releases of Microsoft’s Windows Phone “Metro” UI.

The report is anything but surprising – when Jony Ive was given control over Apple’s Human Interface teams for iOS and OS X in the corporate reshuffle that saw Scott Forstall ousted from Apple, many suspected that future versions of iOS and OS X would drop many of the skeumorphic design elements that Forstall was fond of in favor of Jony Ive’s preference for cleaner, flatter industrial designs.

While the report notes that the changes might be unsettling to long-time users of iOS, they also speculate that new users of iOS will find the changes rather attractive. Among the design changes will a series of new “at a glance” panels for system settings, which will reportedly be similar in design and function to the current iOS Notification Center.

The changes will also include a new icon set for Apple’s native iOS apps, and redesigned toolbars and taskbars. They also revealed that the update is going by the codename “Innsbruck’, after an Austrian city famous for skiing.

The report also makes a few notes about Apple’s WWDC 2013 logo, and how it hints on the likely changes to iOS 7, as well as pointing out that the changes reflect much of Apple’s recent increased focus on simplicity. It will be interesting to see what the finished product looks like. iOS 7 is expected to be unveiled at the WWDC keynote on June 10th.

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Galaxy S4 Active: Rugged Release With Waterproof Feature

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Samsung’s Galaxy S4 will be having a tougher and rugged version to be called Galaxy S4 Active. The smartphone will be both dustproof and waterproof but it could also be shatterproof if rumors are true regarding the replacement of its glass with plastic screens as what the company did with Galaxy Note II. Samsung will endeavour to maintain the sleek design in its best effort by utilizing nano waterproof coating on the rugged version.

With the combined forces of 1920 x 1080, AMOLED and backlit, that’ll produce a full HD feature for the phone. Its quad-core processor and RAM at 2Gb translates to a faster performance, and its camera has been upgraded to 13 megapixels from the original 8 for Galaxy S III.

Galaxy S 4 is already up for grabs this month with pre-orders on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. AT&T being set to deliver on April 30 while the latter two delaying orders due to supply constraints. Verizon has opened the pre-order option Thursday with a delivery date prior to May 30. Samsung Galaxy S 4 has been dubbed as the best Android phone ever because of its more refined and bigger screen at 5 inches.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active will be outed in July which comes after the release of Galaxy-branded 8-incher tablet in June.

IDC: iPhone Worldwide Marketshare Slips, Smartphones Outpace Feature Phones First Time Ever

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4dac7 Official iPhone 5 Thumb 2 IDC: iPhone Worldwide Marketshare Slips, Smartphones Outpace Feature Phones First Time Ever

Market research firm IDC reports that worldwide smartphone shipments beat those of feature phones for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2013. Apple’s iPhone didn’t fare as well, however, as its marketshare dipped to below 20%.

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AppleInsider:

Despite reporting a 6.6 percent year-over-year boost in sales for the first quarter of 2013, Apple’s iPhone growth wasn’t strong enough to fend off competing smartphone makers from gobbling up marketshare, data from the IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows.

On its Q2 2013 earnings call, Apple reported iPhone sales of 37.4 million units, up from 35.1 million in the year prior, translating to a 6.6 percent rate of growth. IDC says the last time Apple reported year-over-year growth in the single digits was the 3rd quarter of 2009.

IDC shows Apple’s Q1 2013 worldwide share of the smartphone market dropping to 17.3%, down from 23% in the same period in 2012. That was good for second place behind rival Samsung. The iPhone maker was the only top five smartphone manufacturer to see it’s share contract in the period.

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When looking at total mobile phone shipments, Apple did a little better, as the iPhone’s share grew a bit, to 8.9%, up from 8.7% in 2012.

Overall smartphone shipments hit 216.2 million units in the first quarter, or 51.6% of the 418.6 million total phones shipped.

iPhone 5S Said to Feature 12-Megapixel Rear Camera, With Improved HDR and Night Shooting

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0c2e4 5S Thumb 3 iPhone 5S Said to Feature 12-Megapixel Rear Camera, With Improved HDR and Night Shooting

While we’ve heard a lot about Apple’s next-gen iPhone, one of the details we haven’t heard much about so far is the device’s camera. A new report from Tinhte.vn (via MacRumors) claims to have details about the camera in the “iPhone 5S,” suggesting that it will feature a 12-megapixel sensor, as well as significantly improved low light and night time shooting.

62912 iPhone 5S iPhone 5S Said to Feature 12-Megapixel Rear Camera, With Improved HDR and Night Shooting

MacRumors points out an interesting tidbit about this particular rumor that could improve its credibility – the claim originates “from a source at Wonderful Saigon Electrics in Binh Duong, which specializes in providing camera modules for the iPhone.” Despite the fact that Tinhte.vn doesn’t have much of a track record, that detail alone makes this rumor far more interesting and worth noting.

It’s hardly surprising that the iPhone 5S would include an improved camera – Apple has typically improved both camera hardware and features with each successive model of the iPhone. Not updating the camera hardware would be more of a shocker. The report follows a previous claim from the very well-sourced Rene Ritchie of iMore that the device could include such a camera sensor. A previous report from iLounge suggested a possible 13-megapixel camera for the device.

Whether or not this information is accurate, or actually does come from Wonderful Saigon Electrics, it’s almost obvious enough to be considered highly likely at any rate – of course, we’ll have to wait and see what Apple unveils to find out for sure!

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