Rockstar Games recently launched its hotly anticipated installment to the Grand Theft Auto franchise with GTA V, to much success. Now the gaming giant is planning to re-release Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a classic originally released for the PS2, for a handful of major mobile platforms, just as it already has with GTA III and Vice City. The game has been revamped for the platform, and is sure to score big with mobile gamers who enjoyed the console version. While re-releasing classic games for different platforms is nothing new, Rockstar’s commitment to releasing large-environment games for mobile platforms could serve as an example to other game houses to do the same.
Tag: android
Google Launches Newsstand On Android
In a move to consolidate its assets within its platform, Google launched a unified Newsstand to combine subscriptions to newspapers and magazines with content from blogs, RSS feeds, and other sources. Though apps like Flipboard have dominated this space in the past, Google’s model works within the Android ecosystem, and features its now-familiar card view. As well, Google’s machine-learning comes into play, as tagged articles will prompt similar pieces to appear as related reading. Whether readers even want to get any news through newsstand apps is very much up for debate, though, and Google is risking creating something that might fall by the wayside, much like Apple’s iteration of the same concept.
Twitter Updates Mobile App For Trending TV
Twitter gave its mobile iOS and Android apps an overhaul with new search filters to enhance conversations around TV. In the “Discover” tab, Twitter can browse through trending shows by topics and hashtags, as well as trends relating to local content. The shows are organized either by popularity or by which show is airing next. It’s another move to more deeply integrate TV and advertising into the social platform to boost profitability in light of the recent IPO – whether it actually translates into ad spends and ultimately revenue will have to be determined in the near future.
Google’s Android 4.4 Prominently Features Search
Much like the mildly-successful Facebook Home before it, Google Android’s new KitKat operating system prominently features Google Search and Google Plus integration. What used to be the home app is now just the home screen – the home screen is now, again like Facebook, pushing users deeply into the Google ecosystem from the get-go. It’s a bold play from Google, particularly in light of how users balked at Facebook Home’s over-the-top homescreen. As well, in light of continued privacy and spying issues users might be skeptical. At the end of the day, though, it’s Google; consumers have a knack for trusting them, so the brand name might overrule concerns.
Aviate Is The Google Now For Apps
There is no shortage of data and content at your fingertips. In fact, that’s the very problem a slew of companies are solving for, none more than Google. Google Now, for instance, learns from your behaviors and preferences to surface relevant information from itinerary to contacts before you even look for it. It’s a trend known as anticipatory computing and it’s here to stay.
In fact, a new Android app, Aviate plans to create a dynamic homepage for mobile that will surface relevant apps based on your behavior and environment. Entering your local gym for instance, opens your fitness tracker and plugging in your headphones starts your Spotify playlist, and so on. If brands are going to be successful in the future, content and experiences need to anticipate consumer interests in the same manner.
Aereo Comes To Android This Month
Aereo, the online broadcast TV streaming service, will release an android app in two weeks time in the Google Play store. Though the service is traditionally viewed within an Internet browser, or on iOS-mobile websites, Android access or viewing hasn’t ben possible. Though traditional TV has been pushing back against Aereo in the courts, the push to go Android shows that it’s essentially ignoring the suits at the moment. Broadcasters certainly won’t be happy, but they seem to be desperately trying to slow a fast-moving river of broadcasting and streaming applications that users are clamoring for.
Rdio Launches Free iOS and Android Streaming
Rdio has announced that it’s going to make its customized stations free for those using iOS an Android apps today. Formerly called You FM, all of its stations are going to be transferred, for free, onto its apps. Powered by The Echo Nest, the company uses an algorithm to produce music choices that users might like based on past choices, in addition to artists that they like on Facebook and follow on Twitter. Rdio has included radio stations for several years, but didn’t prominently support them. But since their introduction, total plays have increased over 50%, with the ultimate goal being the fusion of functional on-demand experience with great passive, radio-station like listening.
Anfacto Creates Custom Android Environments
Anfacto, a startup in the mobile device management sphere seeks to create single-purpose Android systems for a number of purposes. By removing functionality from the Android platform at the OS level, Anfacto’s systems can head off security holes and unnecessary distractions. Their solution is called FleetOS, and allows customers to select what applications and features can be run on each device, creating custom solutions easily, down to minute details like wallpapers and other graphical resources.
Google Launches Quickoffice
If you thought the only software launch of note this week was the new iOS, think again. Google announced Quickoffice for iOS and Android, which includes 10 GB of Drive space. It brings the native support for Microsoft Office formats to your device, for free. It means that documents, spreadsheets, and presentations no longer need to be converted to the Google Docs format (or, for that matter, over into Keynote for Apple functionality). It also provides for the creation of .zip documents to save space; it’s also available for free right now.
Android Version “KitKat” Launches, Reveals Nestle Partnership
Today in strange partnerships: Google has partnered, in a no-cash-changing-hands deal, with Nestle, worldwide purveyors of the Kit Kat candy bar brand to name its new version of Android “KitKat.” This is the first branded version of the consistently decadently-named mobile OS. With the 50 million Android-branded Kit Kat bars being distributed by Nestle worldwide, Google will gain greater exposure in convenience stores and other impulse-buy displays, while the Kit Kat brand gains greater recognition elsewhere. The mutually beneficial deal is said to have been agreed upon between the two companies within an hour in November. This could signal a shift to even greater integration and innovation of brand ties for Google, making them a thought leader and trendsetter in this fairly new and under-tapped arena.
