Ematic hopes you will spend your $79 on their Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, the eGlide

A cheap tablet you say? Yeah. Here's is another. Ematic has just announced their release of the eGlide, their all new 7 inch Ice Cream Sandwich tablet that is destined for Walmart. Powering this tablet is a 1Ghz processor with 512MB of RAM, which isn't terrible, but also far from the best we have seen. Internally you will have access to 4GB of storage for your favorite applications, games and more, and they are also offering 5GB free in the cloud for other stuff to be stored as well. That not enough for you? Well, the device is additionally equipped with a micro-SD card slot, so expand up to 32GB if that is what your heart desires.  The eGlide comes pre-loaded with a voice recorder, Office Suite application for your document needs, and Kobo ebook reader as well. 

Coming in at the $79 price point, it does seem like you get a decent amount for your money here, and if you are in the market for a cheap Android tablet, maybe for the kids or just to travel with, this may be an excellent choice for you.

Buy: Walmart

Ambiance brings their collection of soothing sounds to Android

For some folks sounds have a huge impact on many aspects of their life. Listening to rain while they sleep, thunderstorms while they work, crackling fire while reading a book. It adds a level of comfort to have the environment around them enhanced by sound. Ambiance has been a leader of the environment enhancement space on other platforms and now they've released their app for Android powered devices. As you'd expect, the full set of features has made the transition as well:

• Choose from thousands of sounds... competitors only give you a handful to choose from.


• Download only the sounds you want to save space on your device.


• Wake up gently to any sound fading in.


• Fill your screen with HD images that fit each sound perfectly.


• Create custom sound mixes to further customize your Ambiance.


• Save favorites and make custom playlists.

Ambiance has over 2500 sounds in their catalog and constantly adding more to the mix daily. Personally, I love the sound of rain and thunderstorms while I sleep and having the ability to create a mix of that is worth the buy in cost of $2.99 for the app. Sadly though, Ambiance has not made a free demo version available via either the Google Play Store or the Amazon App Store so you're on your own determining if the app is worth that much. Either way, the download link is below for you all.

read more

Scalado shares their vision of the mobile imaging industry beyond 2012

Scalado, developers behind the magical Rewind and Remove camera apps, just shared a video that shows their vision for the future of mobile imaging. I think you will agree it’s pretty rad. Would you like to have this in your mobile device?

A lucky few getting their AT&T HTC One X today, check out that camera!

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

A number of folks who pre-ordered the AT&T HTC One X are getting their phones delivered today, and while perusing the forums I came across a thread for camera pictures. I've been playing with the camera on the One S for a few days now, and AC member Pauley (who was kind enough to share some of his shots) and I have come to the same conclusion -- the new HTC camera is amazing. It's one thing to read about it in a review, but forums threads like Pauley's really drive the point home. Take a minute, and have a look.

Photos taken with my AT&T One X

Path adds camera lenses to their Android app bringing it more in line with their iOS offering

When Path first launched on Android it was, for the most part, on par with that of its iOS version. However, there were some small things left out and then one really big item that you may or may not have noticed, depending on your device history. Lenses otherwise known as filters, were not present in the Android version at launch despite having been available on iOS for quite some time.

That all changes today though, the now updated version of Path brings lenses to Android with a selection of seven in total to choose from -- Pro, Ansel, Instant, Diana, Lomo, Country and Lake. The updated version is available now in the Google Play Store of which, you can find the link to after the break. Go on then, what are you waiting for? Start checking them out.

Source: Path

Sprint is done with WiMAX devices, shows us their LTE map for 2014

Sprint is gearing up to release their first 4G LTE device as soon as next month, so it’s no surprise to find out today that the carrier is done releasing new 4G WiMAX devices. Sue Marek of Fierce Wireless reports that Bob Azzi, SVP of networks at Sprint, said “While the company experienced success with its WiMAX handsets, including the HTC Evo, Sprint will not launch any additional WiMAX devices.”

The upgrade to 4G LTE is part of Sprint’s multi-billion overall network strategy, also known as Network Vision. Sprint plans to finish building it’s LTE network by the end of 2013, but we think the buildout could even be extended til 2014.

“Within the first half of 2012, Sprint customers should experience first-hand the wide-reaching improvements we have made in terms of boosting voice and data quality,” said Bob Azzi, Sprint. “With advanced smartphones and sophisticated wireless modems, our customers are using more and more mobile data, and one of our top priorities is to provide the best technology possible to improve our customers’ experience.”

We don’t have an exact launch date, but Sprint already announced the first major markets to receive LTE coverage. Sometime during the first half of 2012, Sprint customers will see 4G LTE and improved 3G coverage in:

DallasAtlantaHoustonSan Antonio

Coverage will then expand to 10 markets by the end of June, but specific cities have not been named.

Today tech reporter Sascha Segan tweeted a picture of Sprint’s LTE coverage map for 2014. Areas in green represent LTE coverage while areas in blue will be covered by roaming agreements with other carriers.

Looking forward, the upcoming 4G LTE devices coming to Sprint that we know about include:

At this point most Sprint customers are kind of stuck in the middle. The best Android phones on Sprint are all WiMAX, but that will slowly be phased out this year. New subscribers will be encouraged to get a phone with LTE, but Sprint’s coverage will be sparse until next year.

If you are in the market for a new Sprint phone, let us know what you plan to do.

NCAA Tournament Android apps - Basketball apps at their best

The greatest sports playoff system -- college basketball's NCAA Tournament -- is upon us. The games have always been played at odd times, particulalrly those in the first couple of rounds. And since so many of us will be stuck at work, it's a must to have great mobile apps to keep you up-to-date on how your bracket is stacking up or how your favorite team is performing.

We've put together a collection of some of the best Android apps to help you out during March Madness. There are a lot out there, especially scoreboard apps, but these are the few that we feel rise above the rest. Enjoy! By the way, if you don't notice from the screenshots, I'm a Syracuse fan, so go Orange! Feel free to sing out in the comments which team you're rooting for.

The Guardian launch their own Google TV application in beta

Despite not being available yet in the UK, British newspaper The Guardian have gone ahead and developed a Google TV application currently in beta. Naturally it will only be available in the US on Google TV, but as it is accessed through the browser at gtv.guardiannews.com, desktop users can also take a peek. 

Seems that The Guardian chose Google TV first because Chrome allows them to build an app quickly, and release new versions frequently. It seems the aim is to use the platform to develop a stable build, then port it to other Smart TV platforms, with an emphasis then on the UK platforms.

The UI looks pretty good, and there is a good range of content on offer in both written and video format. The Guardian are keen for people to test this out, and are listening to feedback to aid them in further development.

Source: The Guardian 

Two person development team made six figures in their first six months on Android

Pretty awesome right? I haven’t even told you the amazing part yet, they are stopping development for Android.

You might have caught wind of this story elsewhere with some kind of doom and gloom spin about how it is impossible to ever make money on Android and that developers should flee from the sinking ship sooner rather than later. You’ll be surprised to find that even the developer that wrote the blog post that caused this whirlwind of ridiculous coverage doesn’t think that is true. I reached out to them after reading far too many posts from people that seemed to have skipped what was actually said in favor of the story that they felt like writing.

The developer in question is Mika Mobile, a two person development team that spent about two and half years making games on iOS before porting a couple of their titles to Android.

They launched their first game, Zombieville USA, on iOS in February of 2009. This was about 6 months after the launch of the App Store and at the time there were approximately 20,000 apps available for the then current iPhone 3G. The game was polished and offered stylized visuals that surpassed a lot of what was out there at the time and as a result was prominently featured in the App Store. In the second month it was available in the App Store they saw 150,000 downloads of the free and $2 version. While I couldn’t get an exact split they did indicate that the majority were paid so ballpark estimate they made approximately $140,000 from it that month.

Fast forward to today and they have a total of four paid apps in the App Store and profits are basically steady at a similar level to what they were seeing two and half years ago, albeit from four apps rather than just one. So yes if you are doing the math at home that means that this two person development team is taking in over $1.5 million a year from the App Store. If you are under the impression that is a normal small developer experience in the App Store, then I have some lovely ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.

This tremendous and not likely to be reproduced success in the App Store is the real reason they are leaving Android development and it has nothing to do with difficulties in developing for Android. To infer otherwise is ignoring everything that Mika Mobile had to say in their blog including the fact that they spent only 20% of their time on the Android side of things and yet were producing what most people would consider a healthy living from it.

In the 9 months since they first launched their two Android games, Zombieville USA and Battleheart are both in the 50,000-100,000 downloads range and while again I couldn’t get an exact figure from them that places their earnings from the Play Store at a minimum of $140,000 and possibly quite a bit higher. This was without any major marketing efforts that I could find relying simply on word of mouth, although Battleheart did appear as a featured tablet app in the Market in mid-June. It’s likely that with a concerted marketing effort they would have done even better, but again they are a two person team with a finite amount of time.

Returning briefly to what took up the majority of that 20% of their time dedicated to Android development, it was not related to fragmentation as some have asserted. The two activities that required the most time were the initial porting process (not shocking) and simple customer service (download and payment problems). The latter seemed to be a particular thorn in their side and of course is made all the more exasperating by the fact that those are in fact areas in Google’s control and not really something a developer should be dealing with at all. It’s hardly the first time I’ve heard that complaint from a developer and it is a subject worthy of discussion on its own at some point.

Were it not for the sheer volume of inaccurate coverage this story got I would have left it alone as I would hope that most people would reasonably conclude that trying to make broad generalizations regarding the Play Store, or the App Store for that matter, based on the experiences of one developer isn’t practical.

The real takeaways from this story is that if you are a two person team making around 2 million a year on iOS then by all means go ahead and stick with iOS and more power to you. If on the other hand you are a new developer or you have the resources to develop for multiple platforms then by all means take a look at Android as there’s plenty of money to be made.