Upon seeing these days’s Amazon Free App of the day, I was instantly taken back to time exactly where taxes, mortgages and working a hard 40 hours per week meant playing til the sun went down.  Frogger, an instant classic given that the day it was written has made its way to the Android platform in style.  The Atari classic can be snatched up as today’s featured free of charge Amazon app.  This is not a mock up of the original application, it is the actual deal manufactured by Konami.  The game and play is virtually identical to the original.  And just as the original, you will have to dodge speeding vehicles and trucks, hop on logs and turtle backs, all to reach the riverbank with out becoming road splat.  There are slide controls accessible for fluid movement in addition to being able to just tap, no require for joysticks in this day and age.  Carry the female frogs to safety and earn bonus points as you eat flies on your way there.  And unlike the original, the developers added a “Phantom Phroggie” mode.

An intriguing twist in this version is Phantom Mode, which guides you during the game by showing the route you took in your finest game. In regular mode, you can post your high scores on the internet and see who the best guns are with OpenFeint. Pleased hopping!

So, what are you waiting for?  Did we mention it’s no cost?  If you’re not at present rocking Amazon’s App Shop, you can grab the download here by entering your e-mail address or phone number in the upper right hand corner for a download link.  Be sure to have the “unknown sources” box checked off under Settings—&gtApplications on your Android device.  Hit the break for a few screen shots for reminiscing.   Read More…

Speedy Appear at Today’s Totally free Amazon App: Frogger

Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Shortly after the announcement of Android 2.3 supporting NFC on the Google Nexus S, we begin seeing NFC enabled apps popping up in the Android Market. Taglet is one of them, a Japanese language app, that reads NFC tags and can share that same information. This app gets around Gingerbread’s read-only limitation, and lets the user associate data in an online database. When the tag is read, it accesses the data stored online and sends it back down to the user.

The second is called EnableTable, an English langauage app from the US, which lets restaurants send out discount vouchers and coupons to its clients and customers when they pay their bill, thus encouraging repeat business.

NFC Development kits are starting to become available as well, encouraging development of NFC apps, which will no doubt start to become more mainstream the more Android devices start updating to Gingerbread and up. Merchant360 subsidiary Mobifyer has introduced a development kit for NFC this week.

Merchant360 CEO Steve McRae said the following;

We are in the business of increasing the adoption and acceptance of NFC so with the release of this mainstream phone we developed some reference applications and since we supply mobile contactless tags to companies like MoneyCell and applications for companies like Bling Nation we decided to release this as a solution allowing any Android developer to get engaged with NFC technology and increase adoption

Check out 2 videos for the apps above utilizing NFC technology below.

NFC apps start to appear for Android devices on Gingerbread

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It seems that a couple photos taken with the recently leaked Galaxy S have emerged, and they reveal that the phone appears to only be sporting a 5MP camera. This is a bit disappointing for a next generation device, especially when older devices like the Droid Incredible feature 8MP cameras. The evidence comes from the photo information, which reveals the following:

It’s possible this is a hoax, but given the fact that pictures of the device have already leaked, this would be somewhat of a silly hoax at this point. Continue reading after the break to see the other two photos.

Read More…

These three photos appear to be the first seen taken with the Nexus S

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Microtransactions aren’t anything new to the PC/360/PS3 market or even the iPhone, but for the Android options were rather limited. Well today Sibblingz anounced that they will be bringing the first Microtransaction system to Android in their Facebook integrated app: Happy Island.

Microtransactions can be something great or something terrible depending on how well it’s implemented, giving away a free game and then charging a small amount for level packs is often the preferred way to go on mobile devices, rather than the less preferred way of charging $4-$5 for extra protection for a virtual horse. Happy Island looks to follow the usual Facebook method of charging you $2-$4 for virtual goods so you can beat your friends, which might not be in my taste but judging by how well the billion dollar company Zenga is doing there’s going to be some people who are super in to this.

The full press release follows:

Social Gaming Engine, Sibblingz, Focuses on Making Money on Mobile
Happy Island becomes world’s first freemium social game with Micro-Transactions across Facebook, iOS and Android

Burlingame, Calif.- Oct 20, 2010- Sibblingz is announcing today that after bringing the hit social game, Happy Island, from PC to the iPhone, iPad and Android, they’ve now launched in app purchases for the title. Once only available for purchase, the game is now downloadable free of charge and utilizes the same microtransactions on all three platforms. Happy Island uses Facebook, iOS, and Android, with the payment mechanisms Facebook credits, iTunes, and Google checkout respectively.

Launched in May, Sibblingz is a social gaming company that aims to give developers the ability to build a game that works across all Facebook and mobile devices using the exact same user data and social context by leveraging Facebook Connect. This includes functionality on Facebook, Android, iPods, iTouches, iPads and websites.

Sibblingz is focusing on monetizing mobile game companions to popular social titles on Facebook. CrowdStar’s Happy Island, which pulls in about 7 million MAU on Facebook, now has microtransactions on iOS using in app purchases, and micro transactions on Android Google checkout is coming later this week.

“Taking Happy Island from Facebook to the mobile world as a freemium product is a definitive step in making Sibblingz a complete trans-platform social gaming solution,” says Ben Savage, Founder of Sibblingz. “Now that the mobile game features premium virtual goods with micro transactions, it will give users a complete social gaming experience: play and spend anytime, anywhere.”

With virtual goods capabilities on Sibblingz, Happy Island users will be able to access the in-game store and acquire bazaars, beach bungalows, and bakeries from their mobile devices. Earlier mobile Happy Island users were charged for the app. With this latest version, they pay noting for the app but have access to virtual goods.

“We hope the success of Happy Island’s jump to the freemium model on mobile will set an example for other developers and brands interested in taking their game cross-platform,“ says Peter Relan, Executive Chairman of Sibblingz. “Sibblingz is pioneering the way to a world where your social game goes with you from your office to your car to your living room.”

About Sibblingz:
Sibblingz is a YouWeb incubated social games technology firm with offices in Burlingame, California. The company offers the first game engine made for the multi-device world enabling developers to take advantage of the massive growth in PC and mobile social game adoption. The Sibblingz platform gives developers the ability to build a social game that plays across all devices including uninterrupted game play. Games built on Sibblingz, enable consumers to play a specific game and continue the experience across the most popular PC platform such as Facebook as well mobile platforms including Google’s Android and Apple’s iDevices.

View full post on AndroidSPIN | Your No.1 source for Everything Android.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Could Appear on Nokia Phones: Rumor
Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 could be ported onto Nokia phones, according to a new report. That could help both Microsoft and Nokia in their market-share battle against Google Android and the iPhone.

Read more on eWeek

We always love to see different color options for devices and these special edition devices will be exclusively heading to UK retailer Carphone Warehouse. The white HTC Desire and the silver HTC Wildfire will be hitting shelves just in time for the holidays the white Desire looks rather appealing and a much better option to the normal brown/grey scheme. No exact date has been announced for these special edition devices and pricing will remain the same as their plain counterparts.

What colors would you prefer to see your device come in?

View full post on AndroidSPIN | Your No.1 source for Everything Android.

As we saw with the BlackBerry Torch release (and leaked videos before that) Research In Motion has been putting together some rather detailed OS tutorial videos on devices when shipping them to retailers. The following videos are from the upcoming BlackBerry Style (9670) and show off some of the core functionality of the device. You’ll find more after the break folks. Big shout out to Lucky45 for sending them in!

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CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. OS tutorial videos for the BlackBerry Style (9670) appear online [videos]

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If you haven’t heard yet, Verizon is going to be launching the special edition Droid R2-D2 on Thursday, September 30th.  Similar to the R2-D2 phone, which is the Droid 2 with a neat paint job, the docking station looks the same as the normal Droid 2 dock.

Still, if you’re a hardcore Star Wars fan, then this setup is clearly for you. Also, don’t forget Verizon has begun another contest with the Droid series, this time around it’s R2-D2 phones up for grabs. You can find the contest rules HERE.

Anyone planning on getting the R2-D2 when it comes out?

Source: Absolutely Android

View full post on AndroidSPIN | Your No.1 source for Everything Android.

Since the word "monolith" has been making vast amounts of headlines today, we figured we’d toss in our thoughts on the mysterious pillars that have shown up in some AT&T stores recently. AT&T employees have been silent on the matter, some folks are even saying they have been sternly warned to not even joke, nor talk about the possibility of what may be underneath.

Many conclusions have been drawn up as to what it may be. It could be the Android packing Dell Streak, it may also have something to do with the upcoming Windows Phone 7. Some have even gone so far as to say it may be iPhone 4 related but that seems a little off base, since the iPhone 4 has already launched. Of course, this being CrackBerry and all; we’d like to think it’s related to BlackBerry 6 and the upcoming BlackBerry 9800 aka Torch release. How frack’n cool would it be too see a huge Torch underneath there! Either way, time will tell what it is. I just hope it’s something really cool for all the hype it’s received thus far.

Source: Gizmodo

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Mysterious monoliths appear in AT&T stores but what's inside?!?

View full post on CrackBerry.com blogs

For some folks who are making use of the BlackBerry Beta Zone, you can now download a new Research In Motion designed application called Traffic if you are eligible. Pics of the application leaked out shortly after the announcement, as you can see above. Traffic is an app which helps you determine a few things while you are driving. One of them being when exactly you will reach your destination, sharing your location with others and your ETA and it also helps you find things that may be near by. Need to find a restaurant or gas station? Traffic can help. Or if you just simply need a map routed out for you, Traffic can do that as well.

The funny thing about this new application is that well, it’s not really all that new. If you are a person who often sorts through OS files on your PC you may have noticed the files for adding traffic have been there for quite some time. Which, could very well explain the looks of the app. It looks kind of dated and we hope that it will see a slight revamp before its release. For the sake of comparison, Traffic is similar to that of Telenavs OnMyWay application in some ways. What does everyone think? Is Traffic something you would use? More pics available after the jump. You can also read more in the forums, where this was posted.

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CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Traffic – Images of the new RIM built application appear online

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I just saw the two videos embedded below over on The Nokia Blog and wanted to bring them to your attention. These are both short looks at the Symbian^4 operating system interface that will be complete in the 3rd quarter of 2010 with devices appearing in the first half of 2011. I have to say I am personally a bit disappointed in how they look at this time and know it could change somewhat before being complete. If this is what Nokia came out with a year or two ago, then I think it would have been great. However, all the other players are moving forward and Nokia needs to think ahead of them rather than matching user interface elements we already see in Android.

The videos remind me of what I have seen with Samsung’s TouchWIZ user interface that is being made into their own bada operating system as well. It is very Android-widgety looking, which is nice to see, but will be a bit dated in 2011. With Symbian and Maemo MeeGo, along with Series 40, I am starting to wonder if Nokia can be focused enough to not confuse the consumer.

Microsoft actually now has the most interesting user interface where they take the idea that everything is done through applications out of the picture and focus on bringing you information based on people you want to interact with or global tasks (using media). With Windows Phone 7 Series it seems you don’t think of application names, but rather what do you want to do and the UI is very unique and different than anything we see today. The iPhone is a simple user interface, but always having to go back to a home screen and then find an application to launch is a bit tedious and not as user friendly as a user interface can be.

Do these videos show an appealing user interface to you? I like what I see in Maemo 5 on my N900 and don’t think this shows me anything super compelling over what we already see in this device.

View full post on Nokia Experts