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Amazon launches its own game studio, goes social with Living Classics on Facebook
Amazon is committing itself to gaming much more seriously than providing a storefront: it just launched its own game development house. The simply titled Amazon Game Studios is starting out gently by producing a Facebook hidden object game, Living Classics, that lets the socially inclined dig around through scenes from well-known literature -- what else would you expect from the Kindle's creator? While the free, me-too game isn't going to give Microsoft or Sony any frights just yet, the company has the ambition of making "innovative, fun and well-crafted" titles. Amazon is actively recruiting more help for the studio as we write, so we'd expect more grandiose work before too long.
Verizon adds Office 365 to Small Business Essentials, gives small businesses more mobile productivity tools
Fresh off unveiling Office 365's cloud app model last month, Microsoft has teamed up with Verizon to add the productivity suite to Big Red's Small Business Essentials service. Similar to the Governmental version of Office 365, small businesses can gain access to Office web apps, SharePoint website design tools, Exchange email and calendar service, plus Lync messaging. Best part is, it's just six bucks a month per user, and most all enterprise customers are taken care of: the tools are available on Android, BlackBerry, iOS and Windows Phone. Want to know more? PR awaits after the break.
Mavizon Mavia tracker reaches pre-order at last, makes best friends of cars and iPhones
Remember Mavizon's plans for its Mavia car tracking device (formerly the AutoBot) from almost two years ago? The company promised availability sometime in 2012, and we're here in earnest with the car companion ready for pre-order. The business model has changed significantly since 2010, however. It's a cheaper $169 up front for the Bluetooth cellular OBD-II peripheral -- $99 for the first hundred through the gates, or $299 for a two-pack -- but the full tracking service will cost $5 a month, or $49 every year. Those who do make the leap can get a look at their car's vital signs as well as set up geofenced notifications, track long-term performance and receive impromptu driving directions to a friend's coffee shop check-in. The first batch of Mavia units should arrive within several weeks, we're told, and should have both browser- as well as iPhone-based apps waiting in the wings.
US Census Bureau posts its first API, allows smartphone apps for the stat-obsessed
As much as the US Census Bureau has worked to embrace the digital space, its sea of data has been largely locked away from developers not keen on doing much of the heavy lifting. As of late last week, however, there's now a public app programming interface (API) for quickly putting all of that knowledge to work. Both mobile and web apps can hook into either the complete 2010 census or the 2006-2010 American Community Survey, bringing in basic demographics as well as more complicated subjects such as commuting habits and education. The Bureau sees the API leading to not just a more informed public, but to smarter government as well -- imagine a state government that knows the income levels by county through a custom smartphone app. Budding statistics hounds can request a key for API use right away, but if you'd rather just see what public access will mean in practice, you can check out an app gallery at the second source link below.
Vizify offers free infographics all about you, makes you feel like a big shot
Infographics. The stuff of high turnover websites and news channels, right? Well, yes, but now you can bring the same white space and pastel shades to your own internet footprint, courtesy of free infographic web app Vizify. It's still in its trial period for now, which means you'll have to wait for an entry code to tap into the breezy visualization generator, but we managed to plug in as many social networks as we could to see how it all works. The service is definitely centered around those that are very connected to the internet. Vizify will draw information from Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn and also connect through work-based websites you add yourself. It will then populate a clickable front page with circles including images, quotes and links to your profile elsewhere. The service, which is geared at recruitment, crafts a convenient short link to offer up on resumes or job emails. Edit options include a choice of color palettes, and the ability to tweak the layout of the information circles [seen above] and the larger pages that follow it, bringing either more career-centric (or interesting) content to the forefront. Sign up for an access code at the source to give it a try for yourself, or take a stalker-esque trip down an Engadget editor's social network tracks at the second link below.
iTunes U opens up limited accounts to K-12 teachers
During its Q3 2012 earnings conference call, Apple revealed that the quarter was its best yet for educational sales of the Mac and the iPad. To capitalize on this expansion into education, Apple updated iTunes U and now allows K-12 teachers to create private courses for their students. Previously, teachers could add their lectures to Apple's repository, but only if their school or institution was enrolled in the iTunes U program. Now, all K-12 teachers can sign in with their Apple ID and create private courses using the free iTunes Course Manager web app. Public courses, however, still require school or institution enrollment. Teachers can add traditional course material like a syllabus, handouts, and quizzes. They can also add audio and video recordings of their lectures and point to reference material that's available in the iBookstore, App Store and iTunes. The app is solely for disseminating course content and not management as there is no grading or attendance features built into the app. Teacher can send a code or the URL of the course to students, who can enroll in the course and access content via the iTunes U app on the iPad and iPhone. They can read the course material and even take timestamped notes when listening to a lecture. Interested teachers can read more about iTunes U on Apple's website. [Via AllThingsD]
Homescreen.me out of beta, lets you share your most essential apps
Created by iXyr, Homescreen.me is a neat little web app that lets you share your iOS homescreens for the world to see. Once you grab an image of your homescreen (by simultaneously pressing the power and home button), you can upload the image manually to Homescreen.me using a web interface or send it to the service using a unique email address that automatically posts it to your account. The service also lets you add text to each homescreen post so you can explain your chosen layout and describe your apps. There's no commenting and you can't follow other profiles, so right now, it's a one-way conversation from you to the world. You can sign up for a profile at Homescreen.me and let us know what you think in the comments. I like what I see in this early version and look forward to seeing the service expand. [hat tip The Next Web] #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Zoho's Office suite gets Google Drive integration, keeps its freemium status
Zoho's been offering its handy Office suite for quite some time on the web, but now the company's making it even better by integrating its productivity applications with Google's cloudy Drive. Naturally, this includes the full set of internet-based apps, such as Zoho Writer for word processing, Zoho Sheet to take care of spreads and Zoho Show for when you need to knock out some presentations. Best of all, you won't have to shell out any cash on the app trio, and you can grab 'em all from the Chrome Web Store link below.
Facebook App Center goes globetrotting with 7 new countries, blankets all of the English-speaking world
Facebook's App Center is having its passport stamped quite a lot lately. Just days after the HTML5 app portal set foot in the UK, it's making the leap to seven more countries. Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Taiwan and Turkey will all get a crack at using web apps both on the desktop as well as in the Android and iOS native clients. The new group is coming onboard in the next few weeks. In the meantime, countries where English makes a frequent appearance -- Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the US -- now supply the App Center for every single user. To help speed along the virtual customs claims, Facebook is trotting out a translation tool to get developers on the right track. It shouldn't be long before App Center is a mainstay of the entire Facebook world, even though we may end up cursing the company after hour three of a Jetpack Joyride marathon.
BitTorrent Torque alpha puts file seeds on the web, makes desktop apps look stale
Almost without fail, BitTorrent downloads have had to spread through a dedicated client, whether it's on the desktop or a router. Thankfully, BitTorrent Torque has just come in alpha form to liberate the peer download service from its software chains. All that's needed now is a web browser that can parse a JavaScript app. Going the new route gives some freedom to enable sharing that hasn't always been practical: among the tricks in the company's Torque Labs are drag-and-drop sharing, conversion of torrents into traditional downloads and easing the burden on a server for video streaming. The alpha stage leaves Torque with awhile to go before it's ready for the limelight, but experimenters can hit the source link to start tinkering with distributed file sharing today.
Twitter brings search autocomplete to the web, helps find Biebs tweets in record time
Twitter had been hinting at a big search update today, and that's just what it delivered. Instead of the (quite frankly clunky) search results page, a search box at top now provides autocompleting search results that split into keywords and people. The system is smart enough to check for spelling gaffes and related searches, and results can drill down just to followed users rather than the entire social network. Autocompleting has been a mainstay of the Android and iOS apps for some time, but we're glad to hear that web users can now track down their favorite recently graduated teen pop stars faster than ever.
Google Drive for iOS hands-on
It's an exciting time when two worlds collide, especially for iOS users that have an affection for Google services. The head honchos in Mountain View took to the stage at Moscone West today and announced two programs were going to be made available in the App Store by the end of day: Chrome and Drive. The latter pushed out first, so we decided to give the free app a closer look. Head below for some screenshots and our impressions of the service.
Google: Chromebooks now serve web-happy students in over 500 European, US school districts
Whatever you think of the latest round of Chromebooks, school districts have clearly latched on to existing models. Over 500 school districts across Europe and the US are currently deploying the Google-powered laptops for learning the web way. Specialized web app packs and that rare leasing model are already keeping the material relevant and the hardware evergreen, but new certification for US ready-for-college criteria will go a long way towards making sure principals everywhere take a shine to Chrome OS in the future. That still leaves a lot of schools going the more traditional Mac or Windows PC route, with the occasional tablet strategy thrown in; regardless, we're sure Google doesn't mind taking any noticeable chunk of the market in a relatively brief period of time. We'll see if there's more reasons for Mountain View to get excited in a few days.
Google+ adds YouTube party app, lets you inflict cat videos on everyone
Someone at Google must like Airtime as much as we do, because it just added a roughly equivalent YouTube party mode to Google+ Hangouts. As long as everyone has the web app running, they can share individual videos or whole playlists that run in sync. Any set of videos is shareable through Google+ or YouTube proper. Voice chat, mercifully, flips to a push-to-talk requirement to prevent friends from talking over your favorite clip. While there's no accounting for taste in what you play, Google can at least promise immediate, worldwide support for your group cat video sessions.
Chrome Web Store adds offline app section, more markets and greater analytics for developers
Just two months ago, Google added badges to its Chrome Web Store to denote whether a specific app offers offline functionality. Now, the company is making it easier for users to specifically root out these apps with a new offline section in the Chrome Web Store. The change won't be immediately apparent to many, as the "Offline Apps" section is nested within the "Collections" portion of the store, but once here, users will find a host of familiar titles such as Angry Birds, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Offline Google Mail, along with selections such as Nitro for task management, NYTimes for news and Space Invaders for those who like to kick it old school. Along with the new collection, Google is also making life a bit sweeter for developers. First, it's announcing the availability of the Chrome Web Store in Turkey, Ukraine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Along with this, devs will find new analytics tools to view the trending performance of their titles throughout the past 90 days. For a bit more insight, feel free to hit up the source link below.
Mozilla Marketplace is live, lets you run web apps like desktop programs
An early version of the Mozilla Marketplace is currently live, offering users with the Firefox 16 Nightly build some 100-plus apps to install, including Evernote, Jolicloud and Springpad. Apps from the store can run on Mac or Windows machines, and it looks like Linux support is here, too. As Liliputing reports, rather than just providing web apps and extensions à la the Chrome Web Store, the Mozilla Marketplace offers apps that act more like desktop programs once installed: they'll show up in your list of installed programs, for instance, and they can be launched from the Windows Start Menu.
Facebook App Center for mobile leaks out on iOS, uses peer pressure to clinch the sale
While Facebook said it would deliver a version of its App Center store for mobile, it was shy on how that would work. An early iOS tester (since confirmed by TechCrunch) apparently didn't want to wait for an official explanation and slipped out a handful of shots: they show a mobile-optimized store that will look familiar to anyone who's picked up an iPhone or an Android phone in the past few years, but with an appropriately social bent. Friends' recommendations come front and center, and are so prominent that they take precedence over the app description; we're wondering if Facebook isn't pressuring us into downloading apps like it's a schoolyard dare. Facebook is still reluctant to say when App Center will hit pint-size proportions for everyone, though the largely complete-looking test version gives us hope for a quicker launch.
Google acquires Quickoffice, expands cloud-based app suite for enterprise
What's a search giant with nigh endless cash reserves to do? Acquire, acquire, acquire -- that's what. In keeping with its recent track record, Google's taken yet another company under its ever expansive wing with the purchase of Quickoffice. The move, no doubt positioned to further the company's reach in enterprise cloud services, should enhance its existing portfolio of GApps and, by logical extension, Docs. It's safe to say that the company just bought itself an existing suit-and-tie user base and a mobile future filled with even more native productivity applications. Check out the source below for Mountain View's official release.
Microsoft posts Windows 8 app porting guide roundup, forgets to include BASIC
Let's say you're a developer eager to convert your apps for Windows 8 as soon as possible. Where do you start? Microsoft Developer Evangelist Jennifer Marsman is very much aware that you might be at a loss, so she has done the rather large favor of rounding up every porting guide the company has to offer in one handy place. Some of these are pure design guides, like a previously spotted iPad-to-Metro layout article, but others dig deep into converting code for the land of home tiles and charms. The focus is on porting from the web and Windows Phone 7, so we wouldn't work up hopes of bringing your high school computer class project to Metro. Still, Marsman is looking for more guides from readers; if you've developed just the technique to convert 10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD" 20 GOTO 10 into a tablet-native Windows 8 app, return the generosity and leave pointers at the source link.
Google Search for iPhone gets the 2.0 remake, full-screen search and swipes aplenty
Google gave its official search app an iPad remake late last year, and now it's smaller iPhone and iPod touch devices getting the new UI's treatment. As of Google Search App 2.0, the smaller iOS devices see a big emphasis on full-screen navigation, with an automatic full-screen mode and a dedicated full-screen photo search making the most of the limited display real estate. You can now swipe back to search results like you could with the iPad, and it's overall much faster in the app to hop between different search types as well as web apps like Calendar or Gmail. There's still something in it for you if you've already been deep into the iPad port's interface, as the tablet and the iPhone alike can now save photos directly to the iOS camera roll. You'll need at least iOS 4.2 to live in Google's non-Android mobile universe, but those that measure up can leap in through the source link.
