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Android's deviant identities
The story of Google's open-source OS and its resulting forked Android versions.
WayForward keeps haunting Til Morning's Light with Amazon
WayForward ain't afraid of no ghost, but that's primarily because it's got Amazon Game Studios backing it up making Til Morning's Light, a new haunted-house game. Built specifically for Amazon's Fire Phone, it follows the flashlight-wielding Erica Page as she wanders around a cursed New England estate solving puzzles and fighting off specters. Think of it as an Are You Afraid of the Dark? teen-friendly spin on Alone in the Dark, but not from the '90s. WayForward is best known for its two-dimensional action games like Shantae and Mighty Switch Force, but Til Morning's Light actually marks a return to the studio's earlier experiment in young adult horror. LIT, an early WiiWare title from the studio, trapped a high school student in haunted classrooms and forced him to use a flashlight to escape. Devious light-based puzzles were the name of the game in LIT. Til Morning's Light, meanwhile, uses Fire Phone's "Dynamic Perspective." WayForward and Amazon say the game will be out "soon." In the meantime, there are actually audio blog entries from lead character Erica available on Audible. [Images: WayForward]
Amazon's first Fire phone update tackles its big interface problems
Generally speaking, Amazon's Fire phone hasn't had the warmest of receptions, and the online retailer is looking to improve things with its first major update for the device. To start with, the flagship smartphone from Amazon is finally capable of multitasking, a feature that's hard to believe could be missing to begin with -- double-pressing on the home button now lets you quickly switch between apps and tasks. In this new version of the handset's Fire OS, Amazon has also introduced App Grid Collections, aka application folders; Carousel Pinning, which lets users pin their favorite apps to the main home screen; and the ability to take Lenticular photos with 11 images rather than only 3, something that should make the optical illusion better on those type of images. Perhaps most importantly, however, this update is said to bring "dozens" of system tweaks which improve the Fire phone's battery life, and we all know how important that is.
Feedback Loop: Amazon's new phone, trust issues with password managers and more!
Do you need a break from watching the World Cup? Good! Because the latest Feedback Loop is right here. Amazon released a new phone this week and we discuss if it meets our expectations; we speculate on what makes password-management apps trustworthy; Kris shares her thoughts on a new startup that aims to disrupt coin machines; we share our favorite browser extensions that protect our most personal data; and we get ridiculously excited about Twitter's support for animated GIFs. You can find all that and more below!
Engadget Daily: Amazon's Fire phone, Adobe's digital sketching hardware and more!
Today, we take a look at Amazon's new handset, the Fire, go hands-on on with the $22,000 Vertu Signature Touch, learn about Amazon's new Firefly feature and review Adobe's set of premium sketching accessories. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
The Fire phone is Amazon's ultimate hardware weapon
Amazon's first phone is finally here. But what makes it such a curious little device isn't all that (lackluster) 3D, head-tracking stuff; it's Firefly, the company's new visual search engine. Amazon may have been born unto the internet as a modest bookseller, but it's now become a services company: There's the Kindle Lending Library for e-books, plus streaming services like Amazon Instant Video and Prime Music. Amazon's also a hardware maker. And this time, the company's made something that lets you text mom and use a powerful image-based search system to shop Amazon.com with one touch. It's the Fire phone, and it feels like the inevitable marriage of Amazon's device and services initiative.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for June 18, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Amazon gets into the cell business with the Fire Phone [Update: Price, pre-orders]
The Fire Phone is Amazon's first foray into the smartphone market, announced today at an event in Seattle. The Fire Phone has a 4.7 inch Gorilla Glass display and an HD resolution screen, as reported by Engadget. It has a 13 megapixel, rear-facing camera with a dedicated camera button, plus unlimited cloud storage for photos. The Fire Phone comes with a rubberized frame, aluminum buttons, a quad-core 2.2GHz processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The Fire Phone has dual stereo speakers and support for virtual Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, plus Amazon's free, 24-hour Mayday customer service program. A new feature for the Fire Phone is Firefly – using the camera, the phone will recognize games, books, DVDs, phone numbers, QR codes, art, CDs, URLs, bar codes and other scannable items. Users will then be able to purchase these items directly from Amazon with the tap of a button. From the sound of it, Amazon's Firefly could be super-effective. The Fire Phone also has a 3D interface with a head-tracking system called Dynamic Perspective, which can be used for games. Update: The Fire Phone is available exclusively through AT&T, the 32GB version for $200 and the 64GB version for $300. Off-contract, the phone is $650 for 32GB or $750 for 64GB, directly through Amazon. Pre-orders start today.
Amazon's Fire phone will come with free, unlimited cloud storage for photos
Amazon just announced the much-anticipated Fire phone, and along with some solid display and camera specs, the handset offers unlimited photo storage via Cloud Drive. In an on-stage comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 5s, the Fire's 13-megapixel rear-facing camera looked pretty capable -- especially with low-light performance -- and Amazon clearly thinks you'll be snapping up plenty of pictures. Free, unlimited photo storage definitely sets Amazon apart from Dropbox, Apple's iCloud and Microsoft's OneDrive, among other services, though Google also offers unlimited storage. Follow our liveblog for more news from the event in Seattle.
