» Tablets

We want to play bigger!

29/06/2011 — AndroidZoom

When we talked about Android tablets, we realized that size matters, and it’s even more important regarding games for tablets. It isn’t just only that tablets allow us to play more comfortably, but that some games really need to be played on a tablet for its full potential. That’s the case of the following games.

AirAttack HD

A classic game on a new-brand device, AirAttack HD Part 1 is a shoot’em up game, where a lonely and brave airplane fighter must defeat thousands of foes from air, earth and water. Since the enemies, and specially their bullets, are quite small, playing this game on a tablet change the user’s experience. Of course, you can play it on a mobile phone, but if try it on a tablet you will realize the difference: accuracy, awareness and skills will increase noticeably. What’s more, the game has been developed on HD, so the tablets will make the most of it.

AirAttack HD Part 1

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Choice of Romance

Here you are an old concept of game, considered dead for some people, which tablets can bring back to life. We’re talking about “choice adventures”. The purpose of this game is to read a given situation and then choosing what to do next among different choices. By this way, you shape your own story up with alternatives ending. This one tells specifically the story of a young medieval Spanish maiden who can use magic powers. She arrives to the king’s court and gets trapped in a labyrinth of hidden passions and corridor intrigues. If you aren’t fond of these soap-opera plots, that same developer has other games made with the same technique but different settings. Why would this kind of game be perfect for tablets? Easy: because of its screen size. Since one of the main usages for tablets is e-reading, a game based precisely on that feature improves its playability.

Choice of Romance

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Imaginary Range

This is a new genre of entertainment: a hybrid comic and game experience. That’s it, this game mixes the two game genre we’ve introduced above. Gameplay is quite original, you begin reading a comic and when you get to a specific vignette, then a mini-game is launched. You have to complete it to continue reading the comic, otherwise you won’t know the end of the story. Since each page is divided on different small vignettes, playing on a mobile phone can be annoying. For this reason, we regard Imaginary Range as one of those games especially suited to be played on a tablet.

Imaginary Range

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Happy Android games for tablets discovery!

Posted in AZ Week, AndroidZoom, Tablets. No Comments »

Does size really matter? We’re talking about screen sizes!

27/06/2011 — AndroidZoom

The first thing that comes to mind to a recently tablet owner is “what do I do with this?” It’s not only too big to be used as a phone (and surely you’ve already have one) , but also too small to replace your laptop. Anyway, welcome to the Tablet Week in Androidzoom.

The first use you’ll give to your new device is as a reader. Tablets have no reason to be envious of e-readers. As an example, you can download Kindle and feel how your tablet becomes an Amazon Reader with nearly all its features: long tap to look up a word, a hundred of newspapers and a huge online library. If you aren’t too keen on Amazon’s, there are several e-readers out there with the same features.

Kindle

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The other thing you should consider downloading is Google Docs. The idea of working from a tablet may seem odd at the beginning, but you’ll quickly get used to it. In fact, you can get on with a lot of work and prepare briefings, summaries and reviews while you’re on the go.

Google Docs

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Once you’ve become aware of its many possibilities, it’s time to discover apps that boost your daily proficiency. Let’s assume you’re a Twitter fan. Would you like to manage all imaginable Twitter features and use the advantage of having a big screen at the same time?

TWIDROYD for Twitter

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Posted in AZ Week, AndroidZoom, Apps, Tablets. No Comments »

iDisplay turns your Android device into a secondary display

01/03/2011 — AndroidZoom

From time to time appears a new application concept which is destined to evolve the way we work. That is iDisplay case, a very-useful app developed a few months ago (spring 2010) for Mac, iPhone and iPad users, that spreads now to the Android world. For just 4,99$ iDisplay turns your tablets and smartphones into an additional screen for your PC or Mac. In that way, iDisplay is specifically designed to increase user’s productivity by maximizing the viewable area on your main monitor. Ideal for multi-taskers and those who are looking for increasing their efficiency by displaying programs for which more view space is needed. iDisplay includes four mains features:

• Extend the display – spread the desktop over both displays and drag items between the two screens.
• Duplicate displays – view the same desktop on both the monitor and the Android device.
• 100% Android Compatible – works with the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus One, or any other Android tablet or smartphone on the market.
• Works in portrait or landscape device orientations.

Despite the bugs and troubles the application had in its first versions for Mac (check out this Engadget.com review) it seems that the developers have solved all its execution problems, and right now, iDisplay bursts into Android market as a complete and revolutionary app that turns our Android tablets and cellphones into a 2^nd monitor.

If you have an Android OS 2.1 or later (it does not work with older versions) and you are up to try this new experience remember that you will have to download the free desktop service onto your computer (PC or Mac), which is available here

iDisplay

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Happy application Discovery!

Posted in AndroidZoom, Apps, Reviews, Tablets. No Comments »

“The Other” Android tablets at the 2011 CES

17/01/2011 — AndroidZoom

Some tablets really stood out while others went virtually unnoticed. There were a few that we’re now dreaming about and others that we haven’t even heard of yet. You’ve already seen a lot of the first models recently: the Motorola XOOM, the G-Slate by LG, the Asus (Transformer, Slider and Memo). And the greatest discovery that unites them all: Honeycomb.

But there were a few that, for some reason, we weren’t quite expecting. Here’s the rundown:

Toshiba “Anon”
Why Anon? Because it has no name. What’s its main characteristic? It’s a clone of XOOM and G-Slate but not quite as complete as these- that’s why such a fuss hasn’t been made about it. What do I mean by incomplete? Well, as you’ll see in the video, it has Froyo but that’s temporary; it’ll soon come with Honeycomb. Let’s take a closer look at its characteristics and the video by our friends at Android Police:

•   Nvidia Tegra II Chipset
•   10’1 inch screen with WXGA resolution (1280×800)
•   Full size HDMI and USB ports (no micro or mini)
•   SD card slot (again, no mini or micro) which means storage can be expanded to 64 GB instead of 32.
•   Weight: 770g
•   5 Mp camera at the back and a 2 Mp front-facing camera

Acer Iconia Tab A500

One of the two tablets promised by Acer, so far it’s been introduced with Froyo, but as with the previous tablet, it’ll come with Honeycomb. The proof? The virtual buttons instead of hardware buttons.
It also has a 10.1 inch screen, with USB, microUSB and HDMI ports, and a connection for charger and dock. “On top of” Android, it has the Hacer U15 interface by the manufacturer and of course (as if it were now the standard) Nvidia Tegra 2. Perhaps its most distinguishing feature is its attractive, hard shell and metallic color.

Dell Streak 7

Dell has gone for a seven inch tablet, also with Nvidia Tegra 2. In this case it also has:
•   Gorilla Glass screen
•   Internal 16 GB memory, expandable with microSD (+32GB)
•   5 Mp back camera and 1.3 Mp front-facing camera
•   Manufacturer interface (Stage)
•   Currently with Froyo but has virtual buttons (Honeycomb, perhaps?)
•   Dimensions (in inches): 7.87? x 4.72? x 0.49?

Two more- and even more on the horizon…

On another level, we have the Lenovo IdeaPad U1, a tablet with Android 2.2 and Snapdragon processor @ 1.3 Ghz, that can’t be updated to Honeycomb. Its main feature is that when you plug it into its dock, it becomes a screen for running Windows 7 (which is what the dock-keyboard has). And to make it just that little bit stranger than it already was, it doesn’t have Market, which seems to be the case with a lot of tablets as we mentioned before.

The Vizio Via Tablet is also worth a mention, an almost square tablet with Froyo on the inside, but again, it looks like Honeycomb is on its way (virtual buttons and the apparition of Market). In this case we’re talking about 8 inches and it has a curious little app that turns it into a universal remote control. Here’s a video from CNET to show you more:

The MWC is just around the corner and that means more new features. Ever thought about what Samsung has been up to while everyone’s been busy making tablets and HTC? In a month or so we’ll have the answer.

Happy applications discovery!

[Via elAndroidelibre]