April, 2013 - Softonic English

Hands on with new Twitter for Android

Twitter updated its apps for Android, iOS, and mobile web today. For Android, it adopted the Holo theme and Roboto typography for devices running Android 4.0 and above. Bringing the Holo theme into Twitter for Android improves the user experience while adding quicker interactions with tweets and the various tabs for Mentions, Discover, and Me by focusing on swiping between tabs instead of tapping on them directly.

The update also allows links from other apps to be opened directly from Twitter meaning you don’t have to assign permissions for different apps like YouTube or Instagram. But even with these improvements, Twitter has changed the user experience for power users who have multiple accounts. The app also has changed some interaction points, causing unwanted actions. More on this later.

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Twitter expands Card content and updates its mobile, web apps

Twitter released an update to its Cards last night, expanding the types of content that can be shown on the web. The preview cards allow expanded tweets to show snippets of an article with a thumbnail. The updated Card previews will show more information, even for products. Retailers can now highlight the price, location, and rating of an item. There is still support for photo galleries and app store links.

In addition to expanding Card content, Twitter has updated its mobile web version reflect the change. The most notable upgrade is for Android, which saw a complete redesign which follows Google’s “Holo” design standards. Android users can now swipe from left to right to access the Connect, Discover, and Profile tabs. Tweets utilize space better, taking up the entire width of the screen. The font of the app has also changed to use Android’s custom “Roboto” font. Tapping and holding a tweet will also pull up options to reply, retweet, favorite, and share.

Twitter for Android also plays nicely with other apps installed on your phone. Tapping on a link from Foursquare or Path will open up content in that app. If the user doesn’t have it installed, they can be taken to the Google Play store to download the app.

These updates will be rolling out over “the next several days” so be patient if you haven’t received an update.

Source: Twitter

Facebook Home rumor roundup

Facebook will be holding a press conference at 10AM PT tomorrow. There have been many rumors the last week about what Facebook is going to announce. Many believe that Facebook will release a Facebook-branded phone and 9to5Google has just leaked some interface shots of the new phone. It seems that the rumors are all pointing toward the same thing: Facebook is going to announce a phone with tight Facebook integration in the form of a home screen replacement, like Nova Launcher or GO Launcher EX.

While skins from phone manufacturers are nothing new, it’s interesting to see that Facebook will be creating its own skin with a hardware partner. The rumored device will be manufactured by HTC, which makes the Sense UI for its phone. It’s curious whether HTC will modify Sense in conjunction with the Facebook Home home screen replacement or if it’ll be running vanilla Android with Facebook as the only skin (which can be run on any Android device). From the screenshot below, it appears to be the latter.

But why Facebook is doing this remains a mystery. Facebook already has apps for all the major mobile platform so what’s the advantage of creating a specific experience on a single Android device? HTC and Facebook have already tried making a Facebook phone with the HTC ChaCha, which failed miserably so what’s going to make it succeed this time?

Perhaps Facebook is hedging its bets on its strong messaging platform, Facebook Messenger, to provide free messaging and calling for Android and iOS users. Still, this seems like a very weak argument for a Facebook specific phone since there are apps for both platforms that perform the same functions. This will surely make carriers nervous, which Facebook and HTC will need to subsidize the device unless they’re selling it unlocked and off contract.

We’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s event to find out.

Source and image credit: 9to5Google

New iOS version of HotSpot Shield released, adds iPad support

HotSpot Shield VPN for iOS received a major update today, optimizing the app for iPad and adding useful new features. The popular VPN (virtual private network) application allows you to browse the internet securely, save data and access web sites and apps that are blocked outside of certain countries, such as Netflix, Hulu or Pandora.

Once enabled, HotSpot Shield VPN lets you protect your identity when using the internet on your iOS device by encrypting all traffic, allowing you to communicate privately. HotSpot Shield compresses all the data sent through the connection so your connection devours less data – the developer claims savings can be up to 50%.

What’s new in HotSpot Shield VPN 2.0

The new version of HotSpot Shield boasts a tablet-friendly user interface for iPad users, which makes it very easy to set up and start using the VPN client.

HotSpot Shield VPN 2.0 now allows you to choose the country of the IP location, between USA, UK and Japan. This means that no matter where you are you can browse content normally restricted to users in that country.

Other changes in the new version of HotSpot Shield for iOS include iCloud support, improved malware protection and the ability to check your data savings and protection status more easily.

If you’re a student it’s well worth considering installing HotSpot Shield on your iOS device. The developer, AnchorFree, is offering a free annual subscription of the service to students in the US and UK. In conjunction with this, it’s offering scholarship awards for colleges and universities as part of a scheme called the ‘College Privacy Challenge’.

Patch 1.3 for Crysis 3 released

Crytek’s Crysis 3 gets its third patch today, with Patch 1.3. It’s an update for all platforms, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox.

It has a range of bug fixes, and anti-cheat measures on PC. One interesting point is the ‘reduction of bandwidth usage‘. In a Q&A session, a Crysis 3 developer explained that reducing bandwidth usage should improve latency issues. Latency issues cause slowdowns in gameplay, which can make the game unfair and frustrating.

Read on for a full list of fixes.

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Will iOS 7 be delayed?

Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive now leads development of Human Interface at Cupertino, and there are rumors that the changes he is bringing in for iOS 7 are big enough that its development is behind schedule.

Jony Ive is responsible for the clean industrial design of most Apple products, but until now he has not been in charge of how its software looks.

The Daring Fireball blog suggests that engineers from Mac OS X have been moved across to help push iOS 7 development along, which suggests both may be released later than expected.

Both Mac OS X and iOS have featured a lot of ‘skeuomorphic‘ design up until now. Skeuomorphic design means something is made to look like a material or object it is not. The iBooks app is an example of this, with its wood-effect bookshelf.

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VLC for Windows 8 screenshots revealed

VLC media player for Windows 8 is being developed as a Kickstarter project by VideoLAN, and yesterday the team shared some screenshots showing the progress they are making on the app.

You can see the start screen, video playback, and the menu showing your video and music library. The app has a clear ‘Windows User Experience’ look to it, and even VLC’s traffic cone logo has gone two-dimensional.

VideoLAN founder Jean-Baptiste Kempf told us that despite many problems in bringing VLC to the new Windows 8 interface, so far he believes the app will have all the features of the normal Windows version.

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Google Now spotted in Chrome Canary channel for Windows

The Next Web has unearthed more evidence that Google’s Android assistant is coming to its browser soon. Source code for the latest Chromium build for Windows (in Google’s Canary channel) shows that the backbone for Now has been integrated into the browser. Google Now still doesn’t work in the browser as it won’t resolve Google Now server, URL but it shows that Now’s browser release is imminent.

The newest Chromium version in the Canary channel shows richer notifications that could act as a heads-up display for Google Now’s card-like notifications. There are also options to manage notification permissions, much like you would see on the Android OS.

Previously, Google Now code was found in the Chrome beta and in Chrome OS and this latest update means the company is working quickly to adapt Now to different platforms. Eric Schmidt implied that the Google Now app for iOS was stuck in the App Store approval process but Apple has since denied that claim. It makes sense that Google is bringing Now to other platforms as it serves as a gateway for users to use other Google services. Siri is very much in beta and only exists on devices running iOS. There was speculation that Siri would come to Mac OS X Mountain Lion but that never happened.

Source and image credit: The Next Web

‘Windows Blue’ will allegedly be called Windows 8.1

There was speculation last week that the upcoming version of Windows would be called Windows Blue. Now more information has emerged that shows the next version of Windows will simply be called Windows 8.1. The update for Windows RT will be called Windows RT 8.1. This makes sense as it follows the naming convention of Windows Phone, which has seen versions 7, 7.5, 7.8, and 8.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley spoke with an anonymous Microsoft source that told her the official name will be Windows 8.1. This update will most likely be a very incremental update, improving touch features and the interface. While minor updates, it shows that Microsoft is moving to a much quicker update cycle to bring improvements to its desktop/tablet operating system.

Well maybe that’s not an April Fools’ joke i.imgur.com/LI9QRKo.png

— Roman L. (@AngelWZR) April 2, 2013

More evidence popped up this morning when Roman L. (@AngelWZR) tweeted out a screenshot of an experimental build of Windows Blue with “Windows 8.1 Pro” displayed prominently as the version number in the system info window.

Details are still sparse and Microsoft has not commented officially about the name for the next version of Windows. What we do know is that the next version of Windows will most likely still be included under the “Windows 8” brand.

Source: ZDNet

GDC 2013: Free-to-play MOBAs [video]

Just about every game we saw at GDC 2013 was using the free-to-play monetization model, including two multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games we saw. MOBAs are a sub-genre of the real-time strategy genre where you play with a group of players in an arena style map.

The first MOBA we saw at GDC was Dragons and Titans. The most interesting about Dragons and Titans is that its developer, Wyrmbyte, is partnering with social gaming giant, Zynga. The game will be tightly integrated with Facebook to provide a social MOBA experience. While MOBAs are known for serious competition and long battles, Wyrmbyte is filling the need for a shorter, more casual MOBA.

Since Dragons and Titans will be free-to-play and social, many may assume that it won’t offer as challenging or in-depth gameplay as other MOBA but that’s actually not the case. Dragons and Titans is very well though out and has enough content to keep players coming back for more. Currently there are 17 different dragons and 16 special weapons to choose from. Each dragon has special abilities that will require players to adapt different strategies. One interesting thing that Wyrmbyte did was to remove the item shop that MOBAs are known for. Instead, players will have a skill tree with different abilities that they can purchase. Spells can be unlocked with more experience points.

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