download
Latest
Download: HoverChat offers SMS multitasking with Facebook-like 'HoverHeads'
Since Google decided to scrap the SMS app in Android 4.4, developers have scrambled to fill the gap. Apps including Textra, HelloSMS and EvolveSMS have helped raise the bar for SMS apps on the platform, along with HoverChat, an app you might previously have known as Ninja SMS. Like its rivals, HoverChat utilises the traditional list-based inbox, but it's how the app handles incoming messages and notifications that sets it apart from the rest of the competition.
12 million people are already using Office for iPad
Microsoft's version of Office for iPad has apparently been a rousing success. So much so, that the company's taken to Twitter to boast that the productivity suite has topped 12 million downloads. In a week. As the Seattle Times points out, though, Redmond hasn't said how many Office 365 subscriptions (which are required to create and edit documents) have been sold alongside the free, document-view-only downloads. We reached out to Microsoft for clarification, and, well, weren't given much. A spokesperson told us that the company is extremely pleased with the interest that Office has gotten so far, but that it has no additional details to share. So, there's that.
De La Soul can't sell their old music online yet, so they're giving it away for one day only
While internet music services promise limitless shelves full of songs for purchase from iTunes and Amazon or streaming from Spotify, Pandora and the rest, there are a few holes in the catalog. De La Soul's unique brand of hip-hop is among the missing tracks -- even after long holdouts like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles have gone digital -- owing to label and sample clearance issues, but that problem is about to be fixed. The group tells Rolling Stone that its entire catalog will be available for download tomorrow, for 25 hours starting at 11AM ET. According to group member Posdnous, "Its been too long where our fans haven't had access to everything," despite a "trying" journey to wrangle all the clearance details. Serving as a celebration for the 25th anniversary of its debut album 3 Feet High and Rising (and timely promotion for the upcoming EP Preemium Soul on the Rocks and album You're Welcome,), it should help fans fill in the hole left by long-discarded CDs and tapes. The tracks will appear on wearedelasoul.com, set the bookmark and your alarm now for a mid-Valentine's Day present to your ears tomorrow.
TiVo Roamio DVRs can stream or download TV to iPhones, iPads
It's just over two months since the release of the TiVo Roamio Plus and Pro, and the namesake feature is now available. Beginning today, iOS device users can update their TiVo apps and start streaming live or recorded content from TiVo Roamio Plus or Pro DVRs while connected via WiFi. Users can also instead choose to download recorded shows for offline viewing over WiFi (assuming the content provider's copy protection allows it) whether at home or away, and even start watching while it downloads. Android support and streaming via 4G/LTE is on the schedule next year -- on iOS the minimum supported bandwidth needs more tweaking to meet Apple's maximum bitrate for cellular. Slingbox owners have enjoyed no-strings streaming for years, and others like Monsoon have pushed downloads while TV providers like Comcast and Time Warner offer their own apps; but TiVo's setup promises the most streamlined solution this side of the similar Dish Hopper DVRs. TiVo Premiere and standard Roamio owners with a TiVo Stream attached will have to continue to wait a few more weeks before they too can enjoy this new freedom.
HMV finally understands this 'internet' thing, launches UK music store app
Having filed for bankruptcy and successfully avoided closure just a week later, British high street retailer HMV is hoping a new digital storefront will help it keep the wolves from its door. Under the leadership of Hilco, the retail restructuring business that previously picked up Polaroid's brand, the company today launched a new music store for iOS and Android devices. The apps let smartphone owners listen to or buy tracks by scanning images of CD albums and posters, or by tagging audio tracks thanks to Soundhound's music discovery algorithms. Amazon may have helped put HMV out of business, but the big purple retailer has got one up on Amazon's Cloud Player with some of these features. The company doesn't plan to stop there either: it'll soon integrate its store into a revamped website, letting everyone else get a piece of the action.
BBC explains why it took so long to add downloads to iPlayer for Android
Wondering why the BBC brought iPlayer downloads to just 11 Android devices, several months after iOS users got their turn? The broadcaster has just explained itself through a blog post detailing the Android app's testing process. Like Netflix, the BBC had to focus its support on a handful of Android products in order to launch on time; this supports what we've heard from our own sources, who suggest that iPlayer development is normally arduous. To address as much hardware as possible on a tight schedule, the network conducted frequent, iterative tests that guaranteed compatibility relatively quickly. While the end result still leaves a lot of viewers without downloads, the BBC suggests that its testing process introduced the feature sooner than would have otherwise been possible. Whether or not you're happy with the finished product, you can check out the corporation's full methodology at the source link.
Apple increases size limit for cellular downloads to 100 MB
Coupled with the release of iOS 7, MacRumors tips us off to the fact that Apple has quietly increased the size limit for apps (and other types of media files) users can download via a cellular connection. Now, users can use their cellular connection to download files that are as large as 100 MB. The previous size limit was 50 MB, a threshold that was frustrating given that many individual podcast episodes, for example, often check in at slightly more than 50 MB. Given that countless developers are now intent on rolling out iOS 7-inspired app updates, the timing of the size increase is likely not a coincidence.
iOS 7: Block iOS updates on your office network, avoid first-day upgrade overload
For those businesses or educational institutions with limited bandwidth and lots of iOS devices on their Wi-Fi infrastructure, a blast of iOS 7 updates -- each with its own hefty, lingering download -- could be a bit of a problem. Tomorrow it should be easy to spot the network admin: he or she will be the one with the extra-large coffee and the expression of rage verging on uncontrollable weeping. Over at the Enterprise iOS site, Tekserve's resident uber-geek and CTO Aaron Freimark has a sneaky suggestion for avoiding this sudden impact. Since Apple's update server (mesu.apple.com) has to be reachable in order for iOS devices to see and download the update, the temporary fix is simple: adjust your local DNS servers to redirect or block the update server until the fever passes. Freimark mentions Apple's upcoming Caching Server 2, a component of the OS X Mavericks Server package that will provide local instances of Apple downloads to reduce network load caused by iOS devices and Mac App Store purchases. Unfortunately, in a bit of a cache-22, you can't use the beta of Caching Server 2 to cache the iOS 7 update surge; iOS 6 devices don't see the server.
Hearthstone makes three music tracks available
Blizzard wants to give you an earful -- of Hearthstone, that is. The studio's released a handful of music tracks from the upcoming digital card game, and you can get them for free right the heck now. If the score sounds a little familiar, that's on purpose. Lead Designer Eric Dodds commented on the soundtrack's aim, saying, "Ultimately, we wanted the music to convey three important things -- Warcraft, whimsy, and warmth -- to reflect the lighthearted nature of the game, and to make players feel as though they were sitting in their favorite tavern from Warcraft." The released tracks are Hearthstone Revealed, Bad Reputation, and Tabletop Battles.
Sony starts delivering 4K downloads with Video Unlimited 4K service
Sony's betting big on 4K, with its movie studios shooting movies and television in 4K using its pro cameras. And now, to get that content to all those Ultra HD TVs, the company is rolling out its long-awaited Video Unlimited 4K download service. As of today, there are 70 native 4K movies and shows available -- Sony's aiming to have over 100 by the end of the year -- and users can rent or buy content through the service. Of course, you'll need one of Sony's FMP-X1 media players and an appropriately rezzed Sony screen to actually consume said video. Single show episodes are $3.99, with movie rentals starting at $7.99 for a 24-hour viewing window. Looking to buy? $29.99 gets you any film for good.
Final Fantasy 14 download sales halted to accommodate server overload
If you're looking to buy a downloadable copy of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, your gil isn't going to get you anywhere for the time being. Square Enix announced it's temporarily halted download sales of the resurrected MMO because the game servers are overloaded, causing excessive wait times for those trying to get in. In a Facebook statement, Square Enix once more apologized for the inconvenience and said it's working to get more servers online in "the coming days." Whether you look at it as an "overwhelmingly positive response," to the PS3 and PC MMO, as Square Enix does, or grimly predictable given the struggles endured in the early access weekend - or both - the bottom line is A Realm Reborn is a really busy place right now. Think Gamescom, but cuter and less sweaty. For whatever reason, it seems Square Enix wasn't ready for the numbers it's dealing with. Ahead of A Realm Reborn hopefully becoming readily available to all soon, be sure to check out the launch impressions of our sister site Massively, who said the revamped game "scoops up the MMO genre's good elements and splices them together into one cohesive whole, and it does so while looking gorgeous and playing smoothly. When your MMO's biggest issue is server-related rather than game-related, you're doing fairly well overall."
Engadget's iPhone app has been completely rebuilt, and it's available to download now!
We've heard you, and we agree -- our iPhone app has needed a re-envisioning, and we're thrilled to announce that the fruits of a lot of behind-the-scenes labor can now be seen in the App Store. Engadget's iPhone app has been completely rebuilt from the ground-up, with an all-new design taking center stage. Behind the new visuals, you'll find plenty of new functionality. Here's a quick breakdown on what's new and what has changed: Left and right slide-in rails have replaced the five buttons along the bottom, providing a cleaner view and the ability to slot new tools into those bars The left rail provides scrollable, adjustable navigation, while the right rail houses media such as podcasts and videos Within an article, you'll find one-tap access to comments and sharing options right at the top Within the Share icon, you'll also be able to save an article to Instapaper, Evernote, Pocket or into the app's Read Later section Added the ability to save all of the day's stories for offline reading with a single tap. Font size adjustment slider One-tap access to send Engadget editors a news tip, and to send feedback to our developers Support for Events (including Expand!) and recurring Buyer's Guides Our devs are also working hard right now to implement additional features (yes, beyond just tweaks and fixes) later this year. As for our loyal readers that rely on Android and Windows Phone, be assured that we're overhauling those builds as well in order to elevate our entire stable to a new standard. Our hope is to have those platforms served with a redesigned app before the year's end. Give it a download right here, and be sure to submit any issues to our support staff within the app itself (pull up the right rail -> Send Feedback). We'll be poring over each submission in a bid to make things even better as we go. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
First Impressions of RuneScape 3 from a returning player
Over a decade ago, two brothers working out of their parents' house in Nottingham set themselves the impossible task of building their own graphical multi-user dungeon, a genre that later evolved into the MMOs we know today. RuneScape launched to the public in 2001 as a low-res browser game with only a few hundred players and 2-D sprites for monsters, but several years later it boasted over a million paying monthly subscribers. The 2007 Sunday Times Rich List even estimated the Gower brothers' business empire to be worth over £113,000,000, due almost entirely to RuneScape. The secret behind RuneScape's success is that it's been continually updated throughout its lifetime, not just with regular infusions of new content but also with several major graphical and gameplay overhauls. The game was recently reincarnated as RuneScape 3, which is as far as it gets from the primitive game many of us grew up with. It now boasts a visually improved HTML 5 client with graphics acceleration, orchestral music, some voice-acted quests with cutscenes, and a fully customisable UI. This combines with last year's Evolution of Combat update and over a decade of new quests and zones to produce an MMO with more depth and character than many other AAA titles. In this hands-on opinion piece, I put RuneScape's three major versions side by side and look at how far RuneScape 3 has come since those early days of punching 2-D goblins and mining for fish.
Android 4.3 leaks for the Nexus 4, teases us one last time
Oh, Android 4.3, why must you tease us so? The new version of Jelly Bean's been making cameos all over the place for a couple months now, so it was only a matter of time until we'd see a build available for download. A working TWRP backup of Android 4.3 just popped up on XDA Developers thanks to Google+ user Jeff Williams, who recently purchased a Nexus 4 running the new version of Jelly Bean. Some industrious folks were then able to extract a system dump from Jeff's phone (minus radio and bootloader, according to Android Police) and confirm that the build (JWR66N) is legitimate. Our friend Paul O'Brien over at MoDaCo is currently testing the TWRP backup. We'll keep you updated as we find out more, but one thing's abundantly clear: it won't be long before Android 4.3 becomes official.
Forza 5 has a mandatory day one download [update: 'not the plan']
Update: Speaking with IGN again, Turn 10's Dan Greenwalt altered his previous statement to now say the requirement of a connection to Xbox Live before playing is "not the plan." However, when or if the game requires an internet connection for single-player content is still not clear. We've contacted Microsoft for further clarification. Xbox One launch game Forza Motorsport 5 requires a one-time download before it can be played. Speaking to IGN, Turn 10 Studios head Dan Greenawalt said "required" content including the cloud-based Drivatar system won't be included on disc because of the game's production schedule, but clarified Forza 5 otherwise remains playable offline. "So when you first boot up the game, we're going to ask you to log in," Greenawalt told IGN. "And when you log in you're going to get the Drivatars and you're also going to get a whole bunch of content: tracks and cars. Our production schedule is such that we are putting them in as late as possible and that means making them free as downloadable content on Day One. [But] that is required content to play the game. "We basically have designed the game to work with all that content no matter how late [it's] coming in, in order to make the biggest game possible." Greenawalt added players should be able to play while the download's occurring, similar to how the Xbox One lets users play games mid-download. The news follow's Microsoft's dramatic reversal on the system's online stipulations, which formerly required players to connect online every 24 hours. Greenawalt argued the decision to include a mandatory download will ensure a bigger, better Forza 5 when it hits retail shelves alongside the Xbox One. "We're not making a launch game. We're making Forza 5, at launch," he said.
NPD forms 9-publisher panel to gather, report digital storefront data
The NPD Group, responsible for compiling and releasing monthly sales data of the gaming industry in North America, is attempting to address a hole in its retail-skewed data: digital point-of-sale information. NPD plans to change its methods to include these digital POS figures, and change them "quickly," Games President David McQuillan tells Games Industry. McQuillan wants to prepare for the new consoles hitting shelves this holiday. "We fully realize that the market needs the same level of information for the digital categories as exists for the physical business today: SKU-level POS," he says. "The progress on that effort up until recently has been slow and frustrating at times, but today I am very happy to share that the pace of progress has changed recently. NPD has formed a leader panel to track digital POS sales of full game and add-on content downloads." The leader panel includes nine "leading games publishers," and it will first focus on full-game downloads and DLC for PC, consoles and mobile devices. The program is in beta now, and NPD is partnering with research company EEDAR to track digital POS numbers worldwide –not only in North America as its current system does. Eventually the digital results will make their way into NPD's monthly reports, but there's no word on when that will happen. "Once we move past the beta or proof of concept phase, subscribers will have access to the full data set, which you would expect of any service," McQuillan says. "The level of information to be shared publicly has not been determined at this time." Since 2010, NPD has tracked downloads of full games and add-on content, subscriptions, mobile games and social games, but it leaves out numbers from digital stores such as Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network in its monthly reports. The importance of these marketplaces continues to grow over the years, and last month the ESA called the NPD reports a "disservice to the truth." In 2011, EA called NPD's data "a misrepresentation of the entire industry."
PSA: Download your Google Reader data by July 15th
Right on schedule, Google's popular Reader site has gone offline. Visitors are now greeted with an apology message of sorts, along with a warning that data will be permanently deleted after 12PM PST on July 15th. In the meantime, you can use Google Takeout to download a copy of your subscription info, including lists you follow, starred items and notes. In fact, now might be an excellent time to snag data from other sites -- you never know when Mountain View will opt to "sunset" your other beloved services, too.
Project X Zone gets 'Ghost' demo on eShop next week
Fanstravaganza Project X Zone already has an "Imperial" demo available for download on the 3DS eShop, but the game's official Nintendo page says there's another demo coming on July 2. The second demo is called "Ghost" and will give players a look at a completely different segment of the game. Project X Zone (pronounced "Project Cross Zone," because Japan) is a turn-based strategy RPG that mashes up characters from Namco Bandai, Capcom, and Sega franchises. The game came out in Japan last year, and just recently arrived here in North America.
Daily iPhone App: SlamBots crashes into some surprisingly deep action
SlamBots is the latest title from Retro Dreamer, a company that's been taking the one game a month idea very seriously this year. This title is based on a game Retro Dreamer put out back in February of this year, which took an endless jumping game and turned it into more of an arena-style beatdown, where you could jump on the heads of various monsters, touching down on the screen to "slam" them. Retro Dreamer took that idea and ran with it, converting it into a robot-style theme and adding a few more progression and monetization elements, and the result is this US$1.99 app in the App Store right now. The result is a very interesting title -- it's casual, but offers up a whole lot of depth if you're looking to go and find it. The basics are clear: You tilt your iPhone back and forth to control your slambot, bouncing off of platforms and enemies and collecting coins as best you can. But as you start to figure out the game's mechanics, there's actually a lot of complexity, and if you can land a few slams in a row, your scores can get sky high. See this players' guide by developer Matt Rix for more -- there's actually a lot of really deep, criss-crossing elements present in this game. Some of you might not be convinced at the price of $1.99, and that's fine: Retro Dreamer says there's a free, ad-supported version on the way soon, and I definitely recommend that one when it appears. But this is a really interesting title, and especially if you've been following Retro Dreamer's path through the App Store. It shows very well how app ideas can evolve forward into something really special.
Daily iPhone App: Guitar! by Smule plays a familiar tune
Smule is the company behind a lot of excellent music apps, and its latest release is called, simply, Guitar! by Smule. Just like much of Smule's other work, the app is designed to let you "play" a guitar via your iPhone, tapping and strumming various notes that run across the screen. That in itself is not all that innovative, but Smule's tie in to its other apps and the company's substantial licensed music library is. With Guitar!, you get access to some really great guitar pop songs, and the team has also connected this app up to the Sing! karaoke app, which means that the singers putting in their voices to match your guitar are just fans playing along as well. That makes this app a little more special than just a standard music game. Still, despite that extra connection, there's not much else to make this one stick out -- you only get two songs for free, and then you'll either need to pay for a few more songs, or earn a whole lot of points to purchase others to play. It's nice that Smule has provided the app for free, and if you like these games they've made, this one is worth a download. But Smule is definitely starting to follow a formula here, successful as it may be so far, rather than inventing something really brand new.
