Alexis Valerio

Senior PR Manager

[Editor's note: This interview was originally posted on March 13th 2013 as part of our MWC13 coverage]

We met a lot of kind people back at the MWC, but we’d like to highlight Peter’s interview with Alexis, who’s able to win anyone over thanks to her charm and beauty. In addition, she works for and believes in NARR8, perhaps the most interesting project seen all over MWC.

AppsZoom: First off, what’s NARR8? In a time of nonsense gaming and timewasters, how did you get started a project about reading comics and how does it feel to reach the top of the lists?

Alexis Valerio: NARR8 is a free app and digital publisher of motion comics, nonfiction series and interactive novels in a range of genres. Founded in October 2011 by veteran game developer and artist Alexander Vaschenko, NARR8 spawned from Vaschenko’s love for comics and the idea of bringing them to life with fluid animation, interactive features and original music and content. After receiving funding from IMI.VC, Vaschenko launched NARR8 in November 2012 to rave reviews. Since our launch, we have hired a combined total of 130 employees in both our Moscow and San Francisco offices, host 400k + users and acquired the #1 spot in the Top Free Apps store! We are overwhelmed and excited by this accomplishment and look forward to many, many more!

AZ: With NARR8 stories come for free and are original, how is so?

AV: We at NARR8 believe that stories are more than just words on a page. Our focus is to create an entirely new and engaging experience, and to do so, we have ten in-house studios that create content that is original, creative and ongoing (content is updated weekly). Plans are being considered for future monetization; however NARR8 will always remain free to download.

AZ: Your stories cover a wide array of genres, including furry, sci-fi and fantasy. What more we’ll be able to read?

AV: Currently, NARR8 hosts stories and series from genres including: sci-fi, fantasy, furry, horror and history and life sciences. These genres will continue as long as our readers show interest in them. Our interest is to deliver something for everyone, with plans to release five brand new series soon touching on genres such as non-fiction series, possible romance series, life and leisure content and “edutainment” stories – which combine education and entertainment, turning the learning process into a fun, interactive experience.

AZ: What about the future? Is there any secret plan we should know?

AV: We will soon be launching an iOS update with ramification fetters that allow the reader to collect NARR8‘s (tokens) to unlock features, stories and more. We are also planning to team up with third party publisher, but are keeping our lips sealed – for now.

AZ: A lot of AppsZoom users understand English even when it isn’t their mother tongue, but we’re sure they would like to know if stories are going to be translated into other languages.

AV: Definitely! Russian and English versions are currently available for download on iOS and Android 4.0+ platforms, as well as Google Play. In mid-to-late March we will be launching in Portuguese, Spanish and Korean, with many more languages already in the works for 2013.

AZ: Let me insist in a key point: you have dared to launch an app based on reading the comics you create. We have to say that is, to say the least, unexpected.

AV: NARR8 is more than just an app. Everyone here is an avid enthusiast of comics, reading and gaming and believes in our mission of creating quality art. We’re not a company that sticks to the trend, NARR8 strives toward originality and innovation, and is dedicated to delivering one-of-a-kind content that will create a community for fans like ourselves – who want to be a part of something collaborative, creative and fresh.

Interview by Peter Warrior, AppsZoom

]]> http://blog.appszoom.com/2013/05/17/interview-with-narr8-at-mwc13/feed/ 0 http://blog.appszoom.com/2013/05/17/preview-joy-pets-a-game-that-helps-real-rescued-pets/ http://blog.appszoom.com/2013/05/17/preview-joy-pets-a-game-that-helps-real-rescued-pets/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 10:05:23 +0000 Emmanuel Lund http://blog.appszoom.com/?p=5362 We love when apps meet good causes. That doesn’t happen very often though. However, SoJo Studios is one of those developers committed to make the world a better place by binding entertainment and social causes. Play for Good is its motto, and this time they are coming up with Joy Pets a  game that enables players to help real rescued pets when they play. Expected release: early in the summer 2013.

Joy Pets is a virtual pet caring game that helps real animals in local animal shelters nearby. Player must look after a virtual pet performing basic stuff like feed him, clean him, play games with him and, after all, making the most to guarantee his welfare. On condition that the game will be graphically acceptable, these features justifies already launching the game.

However, they keystone in Joy Pets lies on its social purpose: when you adopt your virtual pet you’ll also “adopt” a real animal located at a nearby shelter (can be selected from the app). That adoption will turn into a narrow relationship through Joy Pets. Thus, the more “Joy” (in-app currency) you earn playing with your virtual pet, the more real support you provide to your “adopted-puppy” ( in-app purchase system is expected too). Likewise, if the pet you support is finally adopted by a family, you can choose another real animal near you to keep contributing to the cause. In a few words: the more you play, the more you help animals.  That simple premise can be carried out thanks to Sojo Studios partnership with The Animal Rescue Site (a part of GreaterGood.org) and The Petfinder Foundation.

However, that’s not the only way you can help them. There’s an ongoing IndieGoGo campaign powered by this partnership oriented to everyone, but specially for those people who can’t wait to donate to this lovely cause. Donors will get special gifts and bonus gold to spend in game according to the amount contributed.

SoJo Studios is doing a great innovation job here, seeking (and actually providing) ways to bring together entertainment, collaboration and social good and shaping it on accessible products. Big up them!

Twitter for Google Glass allows you to share photos to Twitter and also receive notifications from users you want to stay in touch: the hashtag used is: #throughglass and will be included in the tweet. On the other hand, Facebook for Google Glass is also pretty easy to use: you just need to visit your MyGlass page, click on the Facebook card, allow access and finally add your desired public as sharing contact (Only Me, Friends and Public).

As for the games, Icebreaker is one of the first games to be available for Glass. For installing any apps, visit the official page.

Source | The Next Web

Bittersweet. That’s the feeling that the sixth annual Google I/O conference seems to be evoking in the public after its first day. It doesn’t mean that Google didn’t introduce good new features, apps and products yesterday. Actually, it did, and we are about to explain of all them to you in a summarized way. However, most of these features were quite anticipated due to the prior published leaks, and lack of surprise is always a little disappointing. In addition, two of the most awaited novelties, Android 4.3 (or 5.0) and new Nexus range, weren’t even mentioned. Neither Motorola X Phone or Nexus 4 white version. Sundar Pichai, Head of Google’s Android, announced it a few days ago in an interview published at Wired.com:

This year Google I/O is going to be different. It’s not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system. Both on Android and Chrome, we’re going to focus this I/O on all of the kind of things we’re doing for developers, so that they can write better things”.

That’s fair warning.

Impressive Android OS growth

Android is already the most used mobile OS in the world, with an impressive growth of 1.5M new activations everyday and a total amount of 900M.e 48 billion apps have already been downloaded from Google Play. Those are dizzying numbers that, still, aren’t enough for Google which is eager to bring its services far beyond the Western markets. Pichai, in the introductory keynote even said “ Considering the population of the world a 7 billion approx., Google has a long way to go to Android world domination”. To infinity and beyond.

Hangouts

After a lot of speculation about a new messenger service powered by Google which was supposed to be called Babel, Mountain View has come up with Hangouts for Android, iOS and Chrome, an app that brings all Google’s messenger services together. Thanks to Hangouts, Google finally jumps into cross-platform instant messaging  market, where the struggle for the domination is already being fierce.  Hangouts, actually is an evolution of GTalk (you must update GTalk app in your mobile device to get Hangouts) that also includes interesting features already provided by G+ Messenger, like group videocalls and push notifications.

Google Music All Access

Actually, it seems that Google wants to catch up with all that markets where it was at a disadvantage. One of them is, of course, its streaming music service: Google Music. Until yesterday, Google Music allowed to upload your own music and to download paid albums/songs from Google Play. In other words, it lacked of a subscription model, keystone of its competitor’s success. All Access subscription is aimed to end up with that gap. Besides classic album purchasing mode, subscribers can now access all Google Music streaming catalog, make streaming stations and create playlist in the cloud by $10 a month. There’s a 30-day trial now and a $7.99 promo subscription for those who sign up before June 30.

Google Play Games 

We’ve been talking about this new service for a few days now thanks to a leak from our colleagues at AndroidPolice . Yesterday, Google officially presented Google Play Games, its own gaming platform where users can store scores and achievements on online leaderboards, join multiplayer games and manage installed video games. Google Play Games is initially coming to Android and Chrome but soon will be available for iOS. That’s a clear move against the successful Apple’s Game Center. More than 20 games are already available, mostly by important developers like Gameloft and Glu Mobile.

Google+ and Google Maps: New interface and features

Google+ is still far from being the most used social network. Google doesn’t give up on it though, since they know the importance of a social platform on its whole ecosystem. Thus, they keep adding new features and redesigning it. If you have visited your G+ account today, you’ve noticed it already. A whole new design that puts the focus on the visuals and makes navigation easier to users. In fact, there’s a new way to upload, edit and manage photos. Deep layouts, auto-hashtags, analysis tools and even an enhanced auto cross-platform sign-in.  New features that provide a better user experience.

Apple is making leaps with its mapping service and Google is somehow feeling its throne threatened. Since attack is the best form of defense, Google has also launched a new version of Google Maps, totally revamped, with a more intuitive navigation through maps, more accurate recommendations, new rating system and easy access to reviews from friends. In addition, the recommendation engine has been enhanced in order to guarantee that the app learns properly from the users: the more you use the app, the better recommendations you get. There’ll be both a desktop version (click here to preview it shortly) and an Android/iOS version which is expected for the summer.

Gmail: Send money as attachments

Google Wallet has been finally integrated into Gmail and pretty soon users will be able to send money attached in e-mails like they attach photos and files. That’s aimed to be an important boost to Google Wallet, which’s been a low-adopted service for users so far. Cash sent via Google Wallet (and any account connected to it) is fee-free, even if the recipient doesn’t have a Gmail address. However, if you pay using your credit/debit card there’ll be a 2.9% transaction fee. In the upcoming  months, only over-18-years-old U.S. users will be able to enjoy these new features. There’s no more details concerning its international release. However, it won’t be available on Gmail mobile app so far, just through Google Wallet mobile website.

Galaxy S4, special Google Edition

Despite no Motorola X Phone or new/revamped Nexus were presented yesterday, we’ve got some good hardware-related news. A special Google edition of the outstanding Samsung Galaxy S4 is about to roll out. This version drops Samsung’s TouchWiz interface to come with stock Android OS and unlocked bootloader. Since this special edition ‘wears’ same stock Android OS than the Nexus range, they will be updated at the same time. In other words, unlike original Samsung Galaxy S4, this Google Edition won’t have to wait to get the latest Android OS version. Galaxy S4 Google Edition will be available starting June 26 at $649 from the Google Play Store.

 Android Studio

Finally, developers’ time. Overall, Google I/O is developers-oriented conference, right? Good news for them: Google announced a new Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Android called Android Studio. It includes multiple layout tool for smartphones and tablets, a real-time simulator to preview any changes in the code, an enhanced developer console, a translation app and some tools to help developers generate more revenue from their apps (analytics, tracking, ads impact, etc.). Hugo Barra, VP of Android Product Management, stated “this is just a tease of all the new features in Android studio”. We guess they’ll be unveiled in the next two days. Developers are in luck.

It has become a rule of Google I/O Conference to spend the first day keynoting and announcing new stuff  that mostly meets the interest of the general public while leaving the other days to deepen on developers-oriented new features. Anyway, there are still two days of Google I/O Conference 2013 left. We’ll be posting updates on anything relevant. Keep tuned.

Source: TechCrunch & TheVerge

Phrase Friends

for iOS: http://bit.ly/YyZpaZ
for Android: http://bit.ly/YpbIEz

Sticky Linky

for Android: http://bit.ly/16twMyJ

Hamlet

for Android: http://bit.ly/10l7Ipg

Free Billy

for iOS: http://bit.ly/10l7RZK
for Android: http://bit.ly/13d4Vfk

Number Island

for Android: http://bit.ly/12tiybC

Super Mushrooms

for iOS: http://bit.ly/18F154B

Mayday, Emergency Landing

for iOS: http://bit.ly/10HlFzF

for Android: http://bit.ly/14gLVPs

Announcing the move at the company’s developer conference Blackberry Live 2013, software vice president Andrew Bocking said: “the time is definitely right for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile service. BBM has always been one of the most engaging services for BlackBerry customers, enabling them to easily connect while maintaining a valued level of personal privacy. We’re excited to offer iOS and Android users the possibility to join the BBM community.”

Chief executive Thorsten Heins called the move “a statement of confidence”. BlackBerry says that BBM has more than 60 million monthly active users, with more than 51 million using BBM for an average of 90 minutes per day. Its customers collectively send and receive more than 10bn messages daily, with almost half read within 20 second of being received, it said.

Move to make messaging app available on rival platforms will lead to clash with “over the top” WhatsApp, Wechat and Viber. BBM is now one of the smallest cross-platform apps, with WhatsApp claiming more than 200 million active users, and WeChat around 190 million. On Apple’s iOS, it will put it up against the company’s own iMessage app – though that does not work across different platforms.

]]> http://blog.appszoom.com/2013/05/15/blackberry-messenger-announced-for-android-and-ios/feed/ 0 http://blog.appszoom.com/2013/05/14/preview-death-tour-international-release-tomorrow-may-15/ http://blog.appszoom.com/2013/05/14/preview-death-tour-international-release-tomorrow-may-15/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 14:50:54 +0000 Emmanuel Lund http://blog.appszoom.com/?p=5401

Last week we posted a preview about the anticipated Android version of the classic racing action game Carmageddon. Fans of this genre, inspired by the 1975 cult classic movie Death Race 2000 (Twisted Metal, Burnout and Driver series are some good examples of it), are in luck since a new title is about to hit Google Play internationally. In fact, Death Tour has been available on Google Play Russia for a few days now, with a download regional restriction. Death Tour has got a warm welcome by the Russian public and we can state, after trying it out, that it is perfectly ready to hit Android devices from all around the world.

Actually, players are going to enjoy it to the fullest since it combines classic elements from action racing gameplay and gives also a GTA touch to both storyline and scenery that won’t disappoint anybody. Pragmatix managed to keep the essence of frantic action car battles while adding that mafia-style plot that has made Rockstar Games saga such a successful one. Despite coming up with no hype, Death Tour is aimed to be a well-worthy contribution to the genre.

Players can expect a story-driven single player campaign made up by different episodes and quests as well as many different game modes. Set in stunning 3D graphics, featuring intuitive screenpad controls and, obviously, including a garage to upgrade, sell and buy cars… Action and death matches are guaranteed. Death Tour can be a breath of fresh air to a genre dominated by just a few titles. Are you giving it a chance?

Tomorrow San Francisco’s Moscone Center finally opens its gates to host the biggest event in ‘Googleland’,  Google I/O.  It’s been weeks of rumours and speculation but we can already start spilling the beans of what we will be seeing for three days. The expectations, as usual, are high and, as proof, tickets for the event were sold out in just 48 minutes -and it is not like prices are cheap with amounts that go from 300$ for students to 900$ for the rest of attendees-. So, what is getting the spotlight?

Google Play Games

Like we said yesterday, this is one of Google‘s next big things as it is Mountain View’s attempt to build up a central gaming server where players of Android games can store their leaderboards and achievements and manage their installed games. Plus, they will be able to keep playing the same game on different devices and keeping their personal records via data sync after logging-in with their G+ accounts.

New Android OS

One of the best kept secrets, but whether it is a brand new Android 5.0 or 4.3, it is for sure that Google will introduce the next gen of its successful operating system for mobile devices.

Bable, Babble or Hangouts?

Again, whatever the brand name.  Truth is Google‘s communication products  are undergoing an extreme makeover integrating instant messaging  and videoconference in one single, desktop and mobile app that can be Google‘s breakthrough in that ultracompetitive segment where  Whatsapp and Line are the kings so far.

Google Glass

Attendees and followers via streaming of this Google I/O will have the opportunity to see live app demos for Google Glass or, in other words, they will have a real taste of the true potential of the most advertised Google product  in the last few years. We already know that we can take photos and record Point of View videos apart from reading  and replying messages though voice command.  It sounds very futuristic, but surely this is just the beginning. Especially for those who have $1,500 in their pockets.

Google Maps

The company from Mountain View is relentless against competitors (aka Apple) and keeps upgrading its maps service. This time, they will bring a more optimized view and less space for the additional information. Maybe it isn’t among the most commented highlights of the event but being a basic, life-saving app for both desktops and mobile, a mention is well worth it.

New Nexuses

Hardware and proper devices can be left out and will also have their own piece of cake at Google I/O. Of course, we are talking about the rumoured Nexus 5 smarphone and the upgraded Nexus 7 tablet. According to TechCrunch‘s sources, improvements won’t be massive in the smartphone’s department as they advance, instead a “mid-cycle upgrade” of the current Nexus 4,  with a 32GB boost of  internal memory  and a built-in LTE support. Same goes for the tablet, that will feature a high-res, 1920×1200 display, a more powerful processor (Qualcomm) and a “decent” rear camera.

We’ll be covering all-things Google I/O these days, so don’t forget to check out the AppsZoom blog and also downloading the conference app to be tuned in with the news.

The most important feature detected so far regards data syncing: next generation games will allow to play on a device, save, and keep your score and settings when playing on another device once we log in on it. Although many games already do this via Facebook connect or their own systems, Google wants to provide an alternative to rule them all and bind them in the…well, sure you got it. As everything points that your Play Games account will be the same you have in G+, hence your Gmail, we expect to see multiple future interactions between your games and your calendar or even between games and GVoice or who knows what.

Achivements, which have already become an essential part of gaming, will also have their place. What will OpenFeint or other online leaderboards think about it, or what added services would they be able to offer, remains still unknown. Nobody knows either what measures will Google take to prevent cheating, or if all this sync and cloud storage will open the gates to modding. What seems nearly for sure is that we’ll be able to manage invitations through G+, whether it’ll be as annoying as it was on Facebook or not.

Lastly, with the upcoming of Android 4.3 around the corner (non-officially called Not Key Lime Pie Yet) is still soon to guess how all this all will end and how much Google is involved with gaming and gamers.

Of course, if you are going to assist Google i/o, there’s an app for that.

Images and original info via Android Police.

As for the timing, the program will finish at the end of the month or whenever supplies run out. If you’re interested, you can easily apply here.

Source | Engadget