First of all, the website. AndroidZoom is the home of a group of editors commited themselves to try out thousands of apps from Google Play and write reviews about them so you can have an idea about whether the app is worthy or not. Besides the more of 2500 reviews so far we have on our back, the website also includes a tool that recommends you applications and games based both on your previous viewings and a lot of boring formulae. Just browse AZ for a while and then come back to the home and let yourself amaze by the results. We are in constant touch with renowned developers to put our paws on their apps the sooner the better, so there’s a pretty good chance you read a review on an app in AZ before anywhere else.

In addition, in case you hadn’t realized it, it’s also possible for users and editors to create their own lists. These lists can be about anything you want: your favorite application, a wishlist, your least favorite games, the best cooking apps, the best browsers, the most innovative puzzle games… the possibilities are endless and you can share them and invite other users to create their own.

We also have our Facebook page, where we do our best to provide you with new and unique content every day. From cartoon caption contests where you provide the dialogues to weekly questions regarding your tastes; we’re always looking forward to hearing your opinions about your favorite games so we can keep improving. If you browse through it, you can also find the links to our blog entries and videoreviews on Youtube, everything is connected.

Our Twitter account lets you know of the latest discoveries of the applications reviewed in the website. Likewise, it also provides links to content from the other platforms, that is, the blog and Facebook page. Retweeting interesting news is also one of our priorities, as we try to keep you up-to-date with everything that is going on in the Android universe.

Even though you might not know it, we’re also in Google+ and we have not one but two active accounts. First of all, Androidzoom, which provides you with news and information about technology and then there is Peter Warrior’s profile, where he makes comments about Android reviews every now and then; be sure to add them to your circles!

Pinterest has achieved quite a success recently and we’re also part of them since its very beginning. We created an album for the Mobile World Congress 2012 -you can still visit it if you didn’t have the chance to view the pictures- and we try to repin and upload pictures related to the green bot and other Android stuff. Have you seen it?

Our blog website has more than 250 posts. The topics vary and the types of articles are also pretty different from what you could expect. We write opinion entries about several topics regarding technology and its impact in our daily lives. Moreover, we tend to recommend many applications that fall into one particular category like children apps, browsers, animals, bubbles and practically any topic that you can think of.

To conclude, don’t miss our Youtube page. Right now, we have a long list of video reviews of the most popular games and applications, but don’t forget to click on the Subscribe button, as we have plenty of surprises prepared for the future.

A few days ago an Androidzoom user posted in our Facebook page if we knew some Android apps for people with autism spectrum disorders. We’ve to admit that until that moment we hadn’t reviewed any autism-friendly Android app. However, it sparked our curiosity not just about apps related to behavior disorders but apps that help people with special needs to make easier their daily routine. This is just the first post of a series of committed Android apps.

One of the reasons Android user are more proud of is that feeling of being part of a community made up by both developers and users. In a community, individual peculiarities coexist with shared common features. Thus, in a community there are also individuals and groups with special needs.  People with autism spectrum disorders are in there. Since they’re also  a natural part of the community, they must have a voice in it.

Although it should be said that it remains a lot of work to do yet, some developers are approaching the issue. There’s a respectable list of autism-friendly Android apps. This is one of the most complete list we’ve found. There you can find apps with different purpose: language learning, social behaviour, therapy, schedulers,… Most of these apps have been developed for kids, since special learning applications are recommended for children with the autism spectrum. Actually, childhood is the most important period for learning not just for them but for everyone.

We wanted to zoom in this post three autism-friendly Android apps

Emotions and feelings – Autism (Touch Autism)

This app has been specially developed for kids in the autism spectrum, although it can be also used by other kids since it’s a learning app for all audiences. Well, this is a mix of game and e-tale. There are two basic game modes: “Story” which follow a day in a kid life through emotions and feelings. Instead of the story mode, you can also choose “emotions and feelings” mode which like a carousel of faces with different emotions and what can cause it. Finally, you can choose “Read to me” or “Read myself” with improves reading and listening skills of your kid.
This learning app is set in a kids-friendly interface with hand-drawn cartoons graphics. Language used to describe situations is simple and understandable. In a nutshell, a simple and useful app for helping your kids to learn emotions and feelings. We recommend you to check out other Touch Autism (developer) apps. We’re pretty sure you’ll find interesting stuff.

Autism Speech DiegoSays (GreenBubbleLabs)

This is an app that helps your kids to form phrases: action + object. It works really simple: it contains three buttons at the top that represent three actions (I want, I am, I am going). The kid just has to tap one of them and the tap any object below to form a sentence. For example: “I want food”, “I am going home”. Of course, all the actions and objects contains both, the written word and a thumbnail that describes what it is. When the kid tap both actions or objects, Speech-to-text engine (called Diego), says the word. When linking action + object, Diego will say the full sentence. Thanks to this app, you children will learn how to make sense sentences, to read and to pronounce properly. We’ve only noticed a few catches: interface should be enhanced, it needs more objects and the free version only allows you to form phrases with the action “I want”. And Pro version is too expensive. We hope developers will fix these points.

Behavior Status (Chris L. Bennett)

This app is specially recommended for kids with some behavior disorders like autism, asperger, etc.How does it work? Really simple: use traffic light to track your kid behavior. You can add as many kids as you want (your children, students, kids you’re looking after…). Then, you can start adding behavior status, date and time in order to track it. It will helps you to monitor what specific factors upset your kids and make them having a negative behavior.
Thus, set their behavior as positive, neutral or negative (green, yellow, red). Alternate Status input supports up to 5 colors for a more detailed tracking. You can record nodes throughout the day, e-mail status report or even checking for new blog posts on behaviorstatus.com. Donate version removes ads, allows you to enable specific behavior tracking by child, copy specific behaviors from one child to another, stats and graphing. In summary, a simple app that will help you to collect data enough to set a positive routine for your kid. Recommendable.

In conclusion…

Yes, we agree that these apps and most of the others of the list need to be enhanced in some regards; starting by the price. It uses to happen: when there’s a need, there’s a market niche for some. However, we really appreciate the effort of some other developers of making an Android ecosystem “for everyone”. It shouldn’t be a sect but a real community. These projects help to make it real. We can only encourage them to keep it up.

Emmanuel Lund, writing from the humane-side of the Android community.

This means, are you looking for games as Temple Run but which aren’t Temple Run itself? No need to thank us, here there are three great alternatives to Temple Run. And, even when we haven’t included it, don’t forget that you can always get back Windup Knight, which is as good as Temple Run, but better in some’s opinion.

Let’s see. Year is 2012 and your goal is to escape from a burning building. World as we knew it is going down the drain, but you’re sure that if you achieve to leave that building, leaving the Earth will be much easier. With a little bit of storytelling license, these are the premises of Escape 2012. Gameplay isn’t anything PhD required, just run for your life, jump for your life, slide for your life, pick up power ups for your life and, well, we’re sure you caught it. There’s an armaggedonic trailer, too, in case you want to get into the character.

Gravity Project takes things a step further. We’re in the far future, when gravity can be turned 90 degrees left or rightwards. You still have to slide and jump in this race against the clock, but you can destroy some obstacles -e.g. boxes can be slid through or jumped over- and dodge others. Everything varnished with the frenetic and disheartening gameplay so typical of games of this kind. What may be highlighted is that you advance levels -each single one with its own three star rating- instead of starting a voyage you know beforehand it goes nowhere.

Third in line is Gravity Guy. It sidescrolls from left to right, being more similar to the aforementioned Windup Knight rather than Temple Run. However, its frenzied pace makes it a new whole concept. Oh, and the chance of going multiplayer, which is the newest of newnesses. Up to four players can die at the same time, ups, sorry, up to four players can play at once this mind blowing game. So here you have your options: play Escape 2012 or Gravity Project to give Temple Run a twist, or make a step beside and move onto Gravity Guy. Both paths leave Temple back away.

That’s all, folks. Stay tuned and let us know which games you’d like to discover a few alternatives.

From the bottom of his Android heart, Peter W. wishes there was an end to Temple Run.

There are some game genres that were totally buried under Arcade’s and Old-PC rubbles until smartphones burst the scene. Mobility, touchscreen, social media, online leaderboards (among other factors) are just the breeding ground for the renaissance of genres like adventure, arcade, puzzle or RPGs. Precisely the latter is the one I want to focus on this post.

RPG (Role-Playing video Games) is a genre in which the player controls a character (or a party) and lives as it in a fictional World. RPGs are based on pen-and-paper role games and share with them some basic elements: quests, world exploration, character development, storyline, inventory and items bartering. Some of the best-known classics RPGs are Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. The advent of the Internet made this genre evolved to MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) and provided a deeper “avatar” user-experience and playability. Of course, the growth and success of this genre had no precedent with titles like World of Warcraft, Lineage or FFXI. In fact, lately only MMORPGs are still standing on PCs with a respectable market share while RPGs became relics.

However, this has started to change. Due to the nature of mobile devices (mobility, touchscreen, free and easy-to-get apps and constant Internet flow) classic-like RPGs are shaking off the dust with interesting titles while MMORPGs on mobile devices don’t completely take off: from my point of view, it will happen when they get full integrated with desktop and browser version. In this post we’re introducing three games of this kind (two RPGs and the last one, a MMORPG). Keep reading!

Battleloot Adventure

This is a turn-based strategy RPG for Android. You embody a bounty hunter looking for fame and fortune in Kameloot, a Kingdom reigned by a greedy King. You’ll have to fulfill lots of quest which shared goal is to free the Kingdom of bandits (and of course, get paid for it). You won’t be able to achieve it alone, so you’ll need to make up a party with others bounty hunters, all of them with special and unique skills. You’re the one who manage the squad. Do it strategically to succeed. Hand-drawn graphics are gorgeus, tapping-like controls intuitive. In summary, it contains all the basic elements that a good RPG should have.

ZENONIA® 4

If we’re reviewing RPGs for Android we cannot leave Zenonia series in the lurch. This is one of the most-downloaded RPGs for Android, and it has hordes of faithful fans that have been following it since its first release. You take control of a crew of heroes (Regret, Chael, Ecne and Lu) whose mission is to eradicate the Evil from Midgard, their motherland. Each heroe belongs to a class (Slayer, Blader, Rander and Druid), so they’ve special and unique skills and weapons. The adventure will be different depending on which one you decide to lead the adventure. It’s set on cute manga-based graphics (HD) and effects are stunning. There’s a screenpad to control the characters, quite intuitive. However, what has really improved the game is the chance to tackle asynchronous online PvP with the new 2-on-2 arena battles. It even allows you to hire other player data as mercenaries. That will help you to achieve quests and beat hordes of enemies. The Execution Room and the classic 1-on-1 remains. Thus, Zenonia’s saga lovers will be delighted. New players will discover a great RPG: no matter if you start the series by this version, you’ll get hooked anyway.

Pocket Legends

Let’s end up with one of the most successful MMORPG for Android: Pocket Legends. First, you have to keep in mind that this game only works online, so you will need data network. It works pretty good over both WiFi and 3G.
Like most of the MMORPG, Pocket Legends is set in a medieval-like magic land, called Alterra. There isn’t a final goal beyond the need to level up by fighting and fulfilling missions. There are 3 kind of characters you can choose among: archer, warrior and mage. Each one has its specific skills and abilities, weaponry and equipment. You’ll need to upgrade it constantly if you want to keep progressing. The progress is based on Experience Points which allows you to level up and improve the skills of your character, by two ways: fighting parties and missions. There are hundreds of missions, increasing complexity, as your character levels up.
Pocket Legends is set in cool 3D graphics with no lag in the most of the Android devices (we’ve tried it in medium-end devices). There’s a screenpad to control the character; don’t worry it’s easy to get the hang of it. The attractive of this kind of games is that you can interact (yes, also chat) with other real players owning both iOS or Android. The only catch: you better have two batteries or play it close to a plug because the game is battery life killer (expectable, since it is constantly making use your mobile Internet connection).

RPG are developed not to be beat at once: they’re more like stop & go games. For this reason, they’ve been traditionally quite successful on mobile video games like Gameboy (Legends of Zelda, Pokémon…). The only catch until now is that not everyone owned a mobile video game, but almost everyone have or will get a smartphone or tablet in the next years. This presage a promising future for RPGs.

Emmanuel Lund got +1 dexterity + 10 HP after writing this post.

Scalado staff works along with big manufacturers, and their tech uses to be already implemented in devices. In this case, Scalado is specialized in device camera software. We had the chance of talking with Fadi Abbas (Co-founder, CMO and General Manager APAC) about not only Scalado itself, but also about some more general topics we thought you could be interested in or, flat truth incoming, we had curiosity about. It might seem he’s a man of few words, but truth is that I was such a meddler instead.

– Tell us about Scalado, so our readers know who you are, though I’m pretty sure that you’ll be well-known soon by our Android users.

Scalado, a Swedish company, have been delivering mobile imaging solutions (camera, album, editing etc.) directly to mobile phone manufactures (OEM, ODM, platform, sensor, operators etc.) for over 12 years with products and technologies integrated/installed/embedded in over 1,2 billion mobile phones to date (500+ million each year right now). The majority of the readers already have Scalado in their devices.

– Where does your name come from?

Scalado (Scalad O) means I do something with courage and high will. Also the word is used in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

- Recently, it seems that there’s a lot of cool stuff coming from Northern Europe. Is that a coincidence?

A reason is the innovative environment, with governments and universities support, in Sweden and the northern countries. People with clever ideas have all chances to succeed realizing their ideas e.g. Spotify, Skype, Minecraft, etc.. Also there is a long tradition of inventing and building big companies such as IKEA, H&M, Ericsson, etc. Scalado is a big innovator and cultivator of the mobile imaging industry since the finding of this term. Our contribution to the imaging industry is already beyond what any digital still camera can do, just look at our latest innovative use cases/apps such as Remove and Rewind.

- Indeed, you’ve just landed on Android with Scalado Album, which got a great 4/5 score being only a picture browser.

It might happen that Album could be part of any other released application from us. It is not possible to find a faster, cleaner and easier album viewing than our Album on any device. People usually change devices e.g. iPhone to Android or vice versa to get the best integrated application on this or that. We are making it easier and cheaper for them to keep their device by installing a better Album than the default one they have on their or on any other device.

- Let’s go back to Scalado’s Rewind and Remove. When will we have them on our Android?

We have gotten overwhelming feedbacks on Rewind and Remove. Rewind lets users take the perfect group shot every time and it’s in fact already shipped in millions of phones with other names but same functionality.

Remove lets users remove everything moving in an image. We are getting a lot of positive feedbacks since we firstly showed it at Mobile World Congress early this year.

As mentioned, Rewind is already into commercially released devices and is coming in new devices as well as Remove. We will let you know if they are coming to an app market close to you (big smile)

- Talking about MWC12 at Barcelona, when we went there, LG was showing awesome Android devices with 3D cameras. Are you into 3D or it’s a passing craze?

3D hasn’t really taken off as it was expected. We have 3D technologies: e.g. our Multi-Angle application which we showed during MWC early this year. It lets users make a 3D version of a face or an object and then display it on a 2d screen by tilting the screen to view the object in different angles.

- It seems that Scalado Vision is your great long term project. If Scalado Vision would be the near future, what may we expect later? What do you dream of?

The future of imaging should go hand in hand with good and simple user experience to get the best possible picture out of the devices. This could be done directly using intelligent cameras, this can be done by enabling intelligent capturing features, post capturing, post enhancements, remove and adjustments, etc…

It is really nice to come home, watch your pictures on your TV screen and easily delete a person in one of your picture by swipe your finger on the screen. Think about coming to a restaurant, watch your picture on the table while eating and share with friends.

- That would be great. Thank you, Mr. Abbas. Any last words for our Android readers?

It is time that all companies working and making money of images (the users images) think about the good experience we want as users. It is a pain maintaining our picture independently on if they are on our phones, PCs, or a social network, etc… We have a user the rights to view, see, re-edit, re-capture and re-share our pictures at any time and from any screen.

Help each other making the decision of having the best imaging applications on your devices by downloading our fantastic applications, because you only deserve the best. Keep it up.

Learn more about Scalado’s Album, thanks to our own review on it. In addition, don’t miss these wonderful videos about Rewind, Remove and Vision.

This interview was conducted by our EiC, Peter, who is a geek smartphonographer.

Our Aussie friends have sent us a friendly request to talk about their game unless we want to be polymorph’d into cube toads. Nah, seriously, CROAK!

Total Arkade Software (aka TAKS) is launching their last game, simultaneously on well, you know, there starting by “i” and Android Market, so we’ll be able to put our paws on really soon. The essence is absolutely awe inspiring: as if there weren’t enough word games around, here’s the last that twists them all. AbraWordAbra mixes word games with some real time arcade action, so any ‘but’ you may have about word games should be banished at once.

In addition, there are four distinctive game modes, so you can always start a new one if you get stuck -that doesn’t mean bored, we hope-  in one. AbraWordAbra promises to bring everything we like most: a little bit of brainy gaming, lightspeed reflexes and, brief drum roll, a plot. There’ll be both lite and paid versions since the very releasing, and we’ll be right here ready to review it and share our opinion with you all.

Meanwhile, here’s the video. Hope you like it, because those guys from the very end of the world have worked exceptionally hard to ensure that it’s absolutely worth.