At the Google I/O conference, the search giant unveiled their Google Play Games, a new gaming service, which will be competing against Apple’s Game Center.

With the new cross-platform service, you will be able to enjoy cloud-synced game progression, in-game achievements, leaderboards, and matchmaking. Some of the developers who have jumped in include Gameloft, Glu, Ironhide Games, and Miniclip. The service is integrated with Google+, so this could be a reason for you to finally start adding people to your circles.

And speaking of the social network, it appears like the old games that you have already been playing on Google+ will be removed on June 30. According to Google, “If you would like to continue playing a particular game, contact the game’s developer to find out if there’s a new destination site for the game“.

If you have made payments to play a game, you will be able to use your unused credits when the game will be migrated to another site, while some games will offer a grace period before shutdown.

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Although Matias Duarte earlier said that Facebook Home is impressive, even he would agree that there’s more work to be done on the app which still has only managed just 2.2 average rating at Google Play. But Facebook seems to have big plans for Home for the future, according to Vice President of Mobile Engineering Cory Ondrejka and Director of Product Adam Mosseri.

There is good news for those who are worried about the disappearance of Docks and Folders in Home. A future update will bring those features into Home’s application launcher. Mosseri says, “We want to ease the transition from your old launcher to the new launcher“. But support for widgets will take more time to arrive. Home users will also get to play with a new Buddy List feature which will allow Chat Head conversations to be started directly from Cover Feed.

Furthermore, they will also introduce the so called “Blues Clues” which will guide users through the application via directions and clues, not unlike the pop ups received by Facebook’s web users.

Other developments for the future include support for Home on more devices including tablets, although they are currently just focussed on improving the app than introducing it on more hardware. And as for an iOS version, Ondrejka says, “If there are hooks available, we’ll take advantage of them—I don’t think we see a way to do something like Cover Feed just yet“.

And you can also look forward to seeing advertisements, after the app is improved a great deal. But they are promising that the ads will go well with the Cover Feed.

So far, Facebook Home has been downloaded almost a million times. They have just released an update that will fix a few bugs, but no hints regarding when the above said features will arrive.

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The post Facebook Home Updates To Bring Big Changes In The Future appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

We have been seeing a lot of good deals from Barnes and Noble recently, and now an even better one. They are currently offering both the Nook HD and the HD+ at discount rates through Mother’s Day on May 12.

You can now get the 8GB Nook HD for $149 and the 16GB version costs $179 (a $50 discount). The 9-inch 16GB HD+ will be yours for $179 (down from $269) and the 32GB model for $209 (drop from $299). The devices are available online at Barnes & Noble bookstores and on Nook.com, and at retailers including Best Buy.

The Nook tablets have suddenly become more appealing with this price drop, and also the slates now support Google Play (so access to more than 700,000 apps and games. That’s a big advantage over the Amazon Kindle Fire devices. At Amazon, the entry-level Kindle Fire has a price tag of $159, the 16GB Fire HD costs $199 and the 32GB 8.9-inch Fire HD tablet is available for $299.

As for other rivals, the Google Nexus 7 starts at $199 and Nexus 10 retails from $399. The Mac maker’s iPad mini starts at $329. Bottom-line, for the hardware, the Nook HD and HD+ are nothing less than a steal at their reduced pricing. What do you think, are you interested?

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The post Barnes & Noble Mother’s Day Offer For Nook HD And HD+ appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Another Friday has arrived, ladies and gents! Time for our fourth edition of “Best Apps of the Week” here at Mobile Magazine. As usual, we take a look at five of the best apps that landed on iOS and Android earlier during the week.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

Best Apps of the Week – Android

Best Apps of the Week – iOS

Summing it all up….

And so ends our fourth ‘episode’ of “Best Apps of the Week”. Did you agree with our picks, or did we live out a vital new app that you feel should have made the cut? Let us and other readers know about them through the comments below!

The post Best Apps of the Week (5/3): A Look at New Apps for iOS and Android appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Friday has arrived once again, and that means another “Best Apps of the Week” roundup here at Mobile Magazine. In our usual fashion, we’ll take a look at five of the best apps that landed for iOS and Android earlier during the week.

So without further ado, let’s dive right in:

Best Apps of the Week – Android

Best Apps of the Week – iOS

Summing it all up….

And so ends our third ‘episode’ of “Best Apps of the Week”. Did you agree with our picks, or did we live out a vital new app that you feel should have made the cut? Let us and other readers know about them through the comments below!

The post Best Apps of the Week (4/26): A Look at New Apps for iOS and Android appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It has taken three years, but Swype is finally losing its Beta tag and has hit the Google Play store. The app is available as a free trial version that’ll work for 30 days and a 99c version, and the two builds will eventually be available as a single version sometime in the future.

But are they a bit late? While Swype was busy getting its keyboard pre-installed on Android smartphones, competing apps such as SwiftKey, SlideIT, and TouchPal were going straight to the consumers. And also the gesture typing feature became available with Android 4.2.

But the folks at Swype, which is now a division of Nuance, are not too worried. Aaron Sheedy, Nuance’s VP of Mobile Product says, “Yeah, we might be late. That’s an honest concern. But the adoption of smartphones is still just so huge, and there’s a whole generation of people just coming online. Our language coverage is such that we’ll do really well in the [international] markets; we’ve got [support for] 62 languages, plus a bunch of dialects”. And also, OEMs are still paying licensing fees on every Swype-enabled device.

So far Swype seems to be getting good reviews from users who have installed it (unlike another new app). The free trial version is available here, and here’s the 99c version. If you are going for the paid version you better make it quick as the price is expected to go up in the coming weeks.

So, have you installed it yet? Interested in some swyping and driving?

[Source]

The post Swype Now Available In The Google Play Store appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Facebook Home, which was announced at the beginning of this month, hit Google Play on the 12th of April. Now, after nine days it has surpassed 500k downloads. But it will be interesting to know how many people hang on to it.

That number, although it sounds awesome, is not so big especially when we think about the number of Facebook users around the world. And in comparison, when Instagram was launched on Android it hit over 5 million downloads in just six days. Of course Home is just available on few devices including the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, HTC One X and One X+, and the HTC First. The numbers are expected to increase after Facebook expands compatibility in the future.

As you probably know, Google Play does not show the number of uninstalls. So far reviews about the new app have been mostly bad, with complaints about battery life getting killed faster, constant freezing of the home screen, and questions such as why anyone would be “on Facebook all of the time”? It seems many have already uninstalled it.

We do think that the new app will be a great experience, but for only those who are VERY dedicated to Facebook. Features such as the Chat Heads are very convenient, though the lack of folders and widget support is a bit disappointing.

Of course Facebook will be listening to feedback and reply with updates, but it seems that they should start work ASAP. What do you think about Facebook Home? Did you install it? And are you still using it? We wonder what the guys over at Apple are thinking right now.

The post Facebook Home Installed 500k Times, But How Many Times Has it Been Uninstalled? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

TGIF! The weekend is almost here, and what better way to welcome it then to take a look at some of the best apps that arrived earlier this week to Google Play and the Apple AppStore?

This app list is broken up into Android and iOS categories, though the lists themselves will include both great games to keep you busy this weekend and new entertainment and productivity apps as well. Typically we will try to keep the list to just 5 Android apps and 5 iOS apps.

Alright, with that out of the way, will start first with just a few of the best Android apps that either debuted this week or at least saw a major update:

Best Apps of the Week – Android

The Room

This unique puzzler has done quite well in the iOS world since its release in mid-January. While the app actually arrived on Android through the ‘Humble Bundle’ earlier this month, this week marks the first time the app has been directly avaliable for Android users via the Play Store.

From solid touchscreen controllers to impressive 3D visuals, there is a lot to love when it comes to the Room.

As for the pricing? This game will set you back just $1.99.

Cinemagram

Cinemagram for Android is a new app that goes along with the company’s video sharing service and in many ways is similar to what Twitter is attempting to accomplish with Vine. Unlike Vine, there are also expanded filter use and editing options found in Cinemagram that makes it worth checking out.

At the first least this wiill tie you over until Vine creates an official Android app of its own. Check it out now via Google Play.

Worms 2: Armageddon

Worms 2 has now returned to Android after reclaiming the rights to the property from Electronic Arts. While this isn’t technically a ‘new’ game, this update from Team 17 is extremely polished and runs great on the latest Android devices including my own Nexus 4.

This is certainly a fun one worth trying out, but there is a downside. For a mobile game, its pricing is a little steep at $4.99.

Burner

Back in August of last year, the Burner app arrived for iOS. Now the same app has made its way over to Android. What this does is essentially allow you to create a list of ‘burner’ phone numbers for temporary use.

Whether its for giving out to people calling you via Craigslist, or whatever else you can imagine, the service could certainly come in handy. While the app itself doesn’t cost, the service does. There are various different plans that include a certain amount of numbers and other perks for these ‘burner’ lines. Check it out now Google Play.

Repulze

If you are looking for a good racing game this weekend, Repulze might be exactly what you are looking for. Technically, this one touched down last Friday but I enjoyed it enough that I figured I’d sneak it on to this week’s list. Think of the game as sort of a mix between Wipeout, F-Zero with a few elements borrowed from kart racers like Mario Kart.

Unfortunately, the game’s weakness is in the fact that it doesn’t offer a multiplayer experience. Still, if you can get past that, it is easily worth the $2.99 it will set you back.

Best Apps of the Week – iOS

Dungeon Hunter 4

Lucky iOS users will be able to grab this one now, while Android users probably wont see the game until sometime next week at earliest. If you are a fan of action and hack n’ slash games on the mobile, you pretty are guaranteed to already know about this series.

Personally I was a huge fan of the first two games, though Dungeon Hunter 3 ruined the experience by turning the paid dungeon crawler into a freemium arena brawler. In Dungeon Hunter 4, the freemium app style isn’t gone – but at least the game has both traditional dungeon crawling and arena battles this time around.

Anyhow, you can now snag this one from the AppStore for both the iPhone and iPad.

Homestyler

From the minds of Autodesk, Homestyler is an excellent iPad-only app that allows you to take a photograph of a room in your home, and from there it will be virtualized so you can change wall colors, insert 3D models of furniture and so much

If you are looking for ideas for better decorating your home – you can’t go wrong here. Best of all, it is free.

Piki

What’s Piki you ask? It is basically a music discovery app. The new app promises “music powered by people, not algorithms”. It additionally promises to help you find and follow your musical soulmates and gives you an easy way to listen to other people’s best song lists.

Unfortunately, the app is currently limited only to those iPhone and iPad users in the United States.

Blue Toad Murder Files: A Touch of Mystery

I first gave the Blue Toad Murder Files a try about a year or two ago now, via my Playstation 3. Not a bad game series if you enjoy murder-mysteries that are fun, engaging and honestly don’t take themselves too seriously.

The game takes place in the village of “Little Riddle” and features 36 puzzles in total. Even better, the game works on both iPhone and iPad and even has AirPlay support so you can play it on the big-screen.

If you want to give this game a go, it is just $2.99 through the AppStore.

Repulze

Yes, we know this one was already covered in the Android list. We also know that it isn’t new to iTunes – at least not completely. While Android users saw the app for the first time last Friday, it has been around on iOS for a while. That said, when Android users got the game for the first time, iOS users also saw a massive update called “Phase 3” which added new weapons and tracks.

For those that don’t know, Repulze is a hovercraft racing game that is somewhat like F-Zero and WipeOut while also taking a few cues from games like Mario Kart.

You can snag this one from the AppStore now for $2.99.

Summing it all up….

Well that’s that. Is it ever app that released this week for Android or iOS? Of course not, but this should certainly help you on your journey to finding a few great new apps or games this weekend.

Any apps debut this week that you feel we should have covered? Let us and other readers know about them through the comments below?

The post Best Apps of the Week: A Look at New Apps for iOS and Android appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It’s no secret that Google is working on unifying it’s chat and message services in to something called Babel, and the Play Store could really do with a spit and shine, so it’s hardly surprising to see leaks appearing online showing both. Starting with Babel, some users are claiming that a message appears when deleting certain messages in Gmail. The message says:

“All conversations have been moved to the Trash. Because one of more are part of a Babel chat, these messages are still available in other Babel chat applications.”

Not only a pretty solid clue that Babel is on the way, but a nice feature too.

As for the Google Play 4.0 redesign, the above screenshot is said to have been briefly seen on the YouTube page of a Google employee. It has since been deleted but as you can see from the image we have here the new version of Play looks to be bringing better search and app discovery to Android.

And as a bonus leak, the screenshot could also has come from an updated 4G LTE verso of the Nexus 4 as evidenced by the notifications bar.

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For those of you out there who have got bored with the current look of the Google Play, soon everything is going to become a bit different. What you see above is a leaked shot of the upcoming Google Play 4.0 and it looks pretty nice.

Although much of the page layout is going to stay the same, you will be greeted to a much cleaner design with new fonts, category section titles, bigger pictures, and beautiful color that will grab your attention. As you will see in the video below, the leaked version is 4.0.16 and it’s unfinished with most of the new pages not even loading. But you will surely get an idea about what’s coming your way.

The new design certainly goes well with the Google apps that are available at the moment. No word on when it will be rolled out to users, but we will keep you updated. In the meantime, check out the video and leave your thoughts below.

Do you like what you see?

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The post Google Play 4.0 Coming Soon (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.