First, the number of devices. OpenSignalMaps claims to have seen 3,997 devices that have installed and run OpenSignalMaps (their analytics being the source for all this info), with the Galaxy S II and its variants being the most popular. In fact, Samsung models ranked up there with HTC devices as the most used among Android devices. Because custom ROMs can rename the variable that tracks the device name (android.build.MODEL), OpenSignalMaps claims that the number of devices may be even fewer, as 1363 devices only showed up once in their database, although some they tracked were legitimate devices.

599 brands were recorded, with 40% of the market using Samsung, way ahead of the competition, with HTC being second. They also show that Gingerbread is still the most popular OS, with 55.4% of devices using it compared to 8.5% using Ice Cream Sandwich. This is down from last year’s 65.4%.

Note that all this data should not necessarily be taken as a scientifically valid survey – while the sample size is very large and there likely is some statistical validity to these numbers, because the source is inherently biased – users who installed OpenSignalMaps, not a random sample of all Android users – they may not represent the Android population at large.

While this shows how complex Android fragmentation is, OpenSignalMaps warns that it is not necessarily a thing to bemoan. For their purposes, it gives them the ability to map data about carriers in many countries on many networks. They also remind people that this is partially the triumph of Android: an operating system that is running on many, many variants of hardware, powerful enough to run on the latest and greatest hardware in the top markets, yet flexible enough to run on low-end hardware in developing markets (data was tracked from 195 countries), and it’s customizable enough to run on many different network types, so users can ultimately have a choice of what they want from their phone. Android fragmentation may be tricky for developers, but there’s a reason why it has gotten to this point.

OpenSignalMaps Shares Their User Data, Visualizing the Vast Array of Android Devices is a post from: Android Rundown

Forgetting about this a moment, Ink is a very well done app and nearly makes up for not including more icons by doing a typical icon border around the rest. This is really nothing more than a stylized and inked square that holds each app icon.
Luckily the background adds a great touch, and assuming the home dock stays with the usual assortment of apps that are included, the look is fantastic. These white inked icons pop out of the black brush swath behind them. The wallpaper is a off-white rice paper with a inky, hand drawn black and white image of a dandelion blowing in the wind with seeds flying away in the breeze. Even though that description does not seem like it would appeal to the more manly among us, the stark contrast and excellent artistic handiwork really stand out. The whole theme has a kind of oriental vibe to it, and this extends to the app drawer wallpaper which unfolds like a piece of parchment with a decidedly Asian design down the sides.

Seeing as this theme comes straight from the GO Launcher developers, I am tempted to hold it at a higher standard, especially pertaining to the lack of sufficient icons. With all the resources available there should have been more effort put into this theme that has so much potential, but seems to be mired in neglect. But, if my complaints seem trivial, I recommend picking up Ink on the Play Store because the entire styling is something to be praised.

Theme Thursday: Ink is a post from: Android Rundown

Beacons are designed to be both a permanent resident and something mobile. For example, by keeping a beacon in the car, texting can be automatically disabled from the moment the driver gets inside. Placing a tōd on a young one ensures that the moment they should happen to wander away out of a specified zone the parents will be instantly alerted. The possibilities are endless, and with a promised simple and intuitive app layout, designing custom commands and responses should be a snap. Imagine ending the headache of waiting up for a teenager by simply placing a tōd inside the front door; ensuring that their nighttime arrival is noted for later discussion.

The uses for tōd extend well beyond just personal and family use. Like most apps, social integration is a big goal, and the plan is to have vendors and stores offer promotional deals that are discovered whenever a tōd user walks into their shop. The KickStarter page offers a list of great uses for tōd including reminding a child to do their chores when they arrive home from school, finding a car in a parking lot, automatic social networking check-ins, and even delivering reminders if someone has a gift card to the store they are entering.

As of writing this, tōd has 17 days left and it’s very close to its goal. So, for anyone finding these possibilities exciting be sure to give tōd a look and possibly help push it all the way over the finish line.

KickStarter Spotlight: tōd is a post from: Android Rundown

However, when the patent war starts to directly affect consumers, then it must be reported, and US customers are getting their first taste of the drawbacks of the war: the HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE are currently being held in US Customs while they investigate whether the devices violate US patents.

See, Apple won an exclusion order that blocked importation of HTC Android devices due to a Sense UI feature that popped up a menu when a phone number is tapped for texting or calling that number. Apple owns the patent on it, and right now US Customs is investigating to see if these new devices violate patents. Because the process is confidential – and not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests – we won’t know the results unless or until HTC can sell the phone.

Of course, for the end user, this could wind up a mess if phones are blocked from import, with features removed when they do reach our shores. As well, depending on how HTC reacts to this (because Apple is violating patents themselves), if they try to block iPhones as a revenge move, or if other manufacturers try to pull the same thing, then the potential for mutually assured destruction – severely delayed and/or crippled phone releases – does exist, and that would be a poor outcome for all involved.

Of course, patents on technology have been problematic before – Apple paid a lot of money to resolve a case over a Creative patent on MP3 players’ interfaces in the past decade. So money could exchange hands, and ultimately consumers won’t see the brunt of it, and everything is harmony until someone else comes up with a new innovation that someone else claims violates their patent, and the world will keep on turning. We can only hope that’s the case.

HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE Releases Potentially Delayed by US Customs Due to Patent Issues is a post from: Android Rundown

Dark Legends follows a similar core gameplay style as Pocket Legends and Star Legends: players traverse dungeons either by themselves or with friends, fighting all sorts of supernatural creatures and dark figures. Players control vampires who don’t see the need to cover everything up while they’re fighting. The newest aspect of combat is the ability to charge up attacks and magic for more damage. Magic drains from the same bar as health, which requires blood packs in order to refill. Well, actually, any kind of blood will do, which is why there’s the ability to drain blood from an enemy, which also grants a temporary stat boost.

Dark Legends‘ one negative addition to the game is the energy mechanic, one that essentially incentivizes the player to stop playing the game in order to progress. Each action undertaken requires a certain amount of energy, with some being ‘missions’ that have a quick animation, and then a timer to wait for them to finish. The levels themselves take 3 energy per play.

The problem in particular seems to be the way that it’s shifted multiplayer from an experience where the game can be enjoyed in long sequences with random players, to one that really only reinforces existing relationships, and encourages the joining of a guild. It was fun to go on extended dungeon raids in Star Legends, sticking with the same group for a long period of time. Because progression now is blocked by waiting for missions to complete, this means that random multiplayer is short-term at best. Some missions take an hour to complete, and while platinum can be used to bypass them, they’re still just a hindrance, one whose best solution is to just sit and wait for an arbitrary reason for them to complete. It creates more of a short-term and solo experience, for better or worse.

However, after all of that, Dark Legends is at its heart still a fun game, and rather impressive considering that it’s still free to play. It works out of the box with seamless cross-platform multiplayer. The only problem is that because it shares the core technology with its predecessors, the only differences are the setup and inclusion of vampires. While long-term play will be best enjoyed with the purchase of platinum (vanity items get expensive and some rare items can be obtained by buying some items packs with platinum), it’s definitely still worth taking the free dive in.

Dark Legends Review is a post from: Android Rundown

It takes place from an interesting camera perspective: it’s isometric, but also follows the racers around the track. There are no weapons, though each racer has a supply of nitro boosts that can be replenished by picking up additional boosts on the track. The main attraction of the game is the career mode, where money can be earned toward making that vehicle better. All the turbo boosts!

Mini Motor Racing is a really pretty game. It’s got a great amount of detail, fantastic lighting, and looks great on high-resolution phones and tablets, though some interface elements could look better. There are plenty of tracks to race on. While the game claims 212 races, that includes tracks that are reversed and take place at night, though there’s still a lot of tracks – 30 in total.

In fact, the game does something interesting with the tracks: there’s no set starting point, so each time a race restarts, it might start from a different point. It means that even a course that’s been raced multiple times may still have an alien feeling because of that different starting point, and it may even change the strategy of boosting based on where the finish line is.

The controls are a mixed bag. The default method is a steering wheel that must be pointed in the direction the player wants the car to go, and given the twisty tracks, this is better than the Reckless Racing method of having left and right controls, primarily because it gets hard to decipher what turning left or right mean! It’s accurate, but still kind unwieldy to use the wheel controls, and I occasionally hit the software back key on my tablet accidentally with the palm of my hand while playing.

Mini Motor Racing has plenty of fun in it, with plenty of longevity to boast as well. Figure out which direction is which, and prepare to have some fun with this one.

Mini Motor Racing Review is a post from: Android Rundown

Users add their various income sources, any accounts they have (this is all simple user-inputted information, it doesn’t actually try to access bank accounts), followed by various expenses, and large purchase goals. Then, purchases are added and tracked by the app, letting the user know when they go over-budget.

For those that have no clue where to start with their budget, the app can automatically form a budget based on a starting income input. Each category can then be manually adjusted by the user to help figure out what is applicable to them.

CoinKeeper is a free download from Google Play with a free 15-day trial; afterward, the app either costs $0.99 per month to keep using (with free cloud-based backup), $2.99 for 6 months, or $9.99 for lifetime service.

CoinKeeper Tries to Make Budgeting Easy is a post from: Android Rundown

Now, some iOS gamers may think that this sounds like a game called Casey’s Contraptions released for the iPad in 2011, especially with the similar-looking blonde-haired protagonist. They would be quite right, because it is the same game. Rovio has decided to license Casey’s Contraptions, keeping the gameplay and general character design, and turning it into Amazing Alex.

So, what does this mean for Android gamers? Well, it means that the highly-regarded game (89% on Metacritic, and was Apple’s pick for iPad game of the week when it released) will be releasing on Android. The redesigned game is still in development, so there’s no real way to know what’s going to be coming with it. Casey’s Contraptions had the ability to create custom puzzles and share them with other users; will that be making a reappearance? Could that possibly be made crossplatform as well? Will the game be paid, or free to play? What will Rovio be adding to the concept beyond the original release? Those are all still mysteries.

The original game for iPad, which had an iPhone update in testing before it never materialized, has been pulled from the App Store; it’s still there in users’ purchase history if they want to redownload it, though. The developer of the game, Snappy Touch’s Noel Llopis (along with Mystery Coconut who provided the art) commented that “Rovio is a perfect gentleman. Not a Zynga at all.” – showing how the independent development community still seems to regard Rovio with respect, despite Zynga’s many indiscretions. Interestingly, neither will have any connection to the development of Amazing Alex and will stay entirely independent. In fact, Noel Llopis has still been discussing prototyping his own projects while all the stories have come out.

This could be an interesting direction for Rovio to go in if it’s the start of their ‘publishing’ direction. Maybe there are other ideas out there, good game concepts that would be hits if they’re given that dose of Rovio magic? Maybe this is Rovio’s plan long-term: help redevelop ideas that didn’t quite pan out. While the world would love to see a true followup to Angry Birds, a new idea from Rovio, this is a good alternative.

Plus, at least they’re not just stealing it outright like Zynga’s done.

Rovio’s New Game is Amazing Alex. But It’s Not Exactly New. is a post from: Android Rundown

Of course, the idea that Android is not as big of a player in mobile gmaing is a recurring one. I’m just curious in particular, what causes this attitude to persist?

Personally, when discussing the iOS and Android question, I often say that for those who think gaming is an important factor on the mobile device, they need to go iOS. The platform still isn’t entirely optimized for gaming (I would like better save game handling), and the App Store is still a mess, but just in the sheer number of quality releases on a weekly basis, and the undiscovered gems that keep popping up, iOS and the App Store are winning. It’s not just in the battle for money – it’s a battle for attitude.

For this attitude to change, Google is going to have to take steps toward improving gaming on Android. This may mean trying to push new releases in a similar way to Apple; curating content and featuring the best, rotating their features regularly may be a big step toward making this more possible. After all, if Google starts to show that new content exists, then it might just help spur things along.

The other problem may be users just aren’t as attached to Google Play as they are the App Store. This may be in part due to the way Android is laid out. The App Store is ever-present on a user’s device. They have to visit it and see the featured page often. It can be buried in a folder, but it’s still always there. The Play Store can easily be hidden, and it’s possible to rarely visit the storefront because of the ability to be notified automatically if updates are ready. It’s easy to not wind up looking at the front page of the store for a while.

Google needs to make the Google Play more important to users, and visiting it more. Otherwise, only the big players will be able to succeed on Android, and they’re not the ones that need the help.

The Hills Are Greener: Can Fixing Google Play Make Android a Gaming Platform? is a post from: Android Rundown

Early impressions and the screenshots below are really promising. It looks polished, detailed and deep. Play it for a little while though, and there’s a realization that it plays more like decade old arcade cabinet football – and that’s an era that sports games fans should be glad to leave behind. Players are sluggish to respond and awkward in their movements, the AI is a bit clueless, and it doesn’t really resemble the way real life football matches plays out.

It doesn’t help that touch screen controls are also frustratingly inconsistent. There’s a virtual stick and buttons on the screen, alongside some more advanced touch screen fiddling for player switching and dribbling tricks, making it simultaneously overly simple and unnecessarily complex. The stick itself is often unresponsive, leading to players running the ball off the pitch, rather than turning on the ball as the player intends.

Despite this, the game does manage to occasionally capture the pleasure of the sport. A well-worked move can lead to a memorable goal, but even then it doesn’t feel like football. Sure, it follows the same rules, but the headless-chicken players, unchallenged dribbling, magnetic ball and pinball passing ensures you never get lost in the moment. And that’s not even mentioning the commentary, which occasionally spurts odd lines with all the enthusiasm of a supermarket self service checkout machine.

Worse, it follows the all-too-familiar freemium model. Essentially, while the app is free, unless the player stumps up significant cash (as in, far more than a standard non-freemium app would cost) they’re going to enjoy (or not) a stunted experience. Players can only compete in two consecutive matches before their lazy, overpaid athletes are too tired to carry on, and need an unbranded energy drink to continue. That or the player can wait until they’re recovered – around a day as far as I can tell.

It’s a shame, because there’s a lot of decent ideas around the game itself. As well as a decent number of licenced teams and leagues, both international and domestic, the game has some interesting concepts. You get in game currency for goals and wins, as well as answering football trivia questions correctly. There’s also an innovative scenario mode where players can choose everything from the teams, their form, their line-ups – even the weather – and share them with others to play, allowing enthusiasts to recreate classic matches from history, or upcoming fixtures.

Ultimately these fall flat because the basics aren’t in place, and the search for a decent full mobile football sim continues. The best game apps hook players on the go, and keep them off the console or computer when they’re home: think Cut the Rope or Angry Birds. Despite some nice presentational touches, Real Football 2012 won’t keep any football fans away from big screen Pro Evolution Soccer or FIFA.

Real Football 2012 Review is a post from: Android Rundown

The game itself involves performing flips and collecting to weapons in order to try and collect turbo boosts and take out opponents on the way to get first place. There’s also MoonBux to collect to spend on cosmetic upgrades and new vehicle upgrades. Courses take place on circular planet, with laps going around the whole planet. There’s a gravity booster to pull vehicles back from the ground, and a nitro boost that can be collected by getting big air, performing many flips, and sexiest of all, performing perfect landings.

The difference between the iOS and Android versions is that there’s the ability to buy vehicle upgrades, boosting engine speed and nitro boost for example; as well, there are four additional tracks that can be bought with 5000 MoonBux. It also unlocks the best vehicle of all time: the sausage car. It’s a giant sausage with wheels that races in space. The local multiplayer is gone though. Woe and despair! I never really played it in the iOS version, though.

The game is easy to get into, with tilt controls that work very well, and simple two-finger controls for gravity boosting and using nitro. MoonBux can be bought, but they’re also earnable through in-game feats by collecting them, finishing highly, and completing objectives for a bonus multiplier. Even the harder Pro races feel like they can be done with just a perfect run. The level design is very creative, with levels that have multiple paths, and plenty of opportunities for big air.

The Android port is fantastic, running incredibly smoothly and error-free on an original Galaxy S model phone. If this is what can be expected from future Game a Week Project titles, then there’s plenty to be excited about, as Lunar Racer is kind of fantastic.

Lunar Racer Review is a post from: Android Rundown

Pocket Gems claims that this is their first title designed and built for Android. It incorporates some Android-exclusive features like live wallpapers that tie in to the game. With competitors in the free-to-play and social gaming space like TinyCo reporting success on Android, this may be where the big jump in Android launches occurs: in bigger companies that are willing to experiment with doing Android before going to other platforms like iOS. Tap Dragon Park is available now on Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.

Tap Dragon Park from Pocket Gems Launches Exclusively on Android is a post from: Android Rundown

Those familiar with or running the Nexus-style live wallpaper should feel right at home here with Dark’s linearly sprinting colors. The thin sans-seriffed font adds a great touch of class as does the diagonally striped wallpaper. The screen is segmented vertically into four different labeled sections for the time, SMS, Phone, and Unlock. Obviously, swiping across the latter three will open up their respective applications, but unlike my current locker, Four Key, there is no option to assign custom apps to messaging. This means that no matter what messaging app is defaulted, be it GO SMS, HandScent, or ChompSMS, the only one this theme unlocks is the stock Android, which is honestly disappointing.

That aside, the consistent color coordination is a great touch and the vibrant colors jump out of the dark background displaying missed calls or messages. The large time and date at the top adds a touch of class and overall the whole theme is very elegant looking. For those looking to give their phone a sophisticated look this is really the locker theme to do that. Unfortunately, this theme really becomes more style and less practical for anyone who has ditched Android’s boring SMS app in favor for its more exciting competition.

Theme Thursday: Dark for GO Locker is a post from: Android Rundown

For those who need to send multiple documents a day and need them to be of the highest quality, then ScanBox is probably not a good fit. However, most of us are just looking for a quick way to share that page of notes or a photograph with a friend, in which case ScanBox works great. ScanBox also allows for “scanning” of 3-D objects which is obviously something normal scanners cannot do. No more waiting for a computer to open the scanner software and load the attachment, everything is done instantly with any smartphone. Sending image files is not ideal, I understand. That is why there is a corresponding app, already on the Play Store, called CamScanner which takes those scans and automatically converts them to .PDF form. Also, this app allows for multiple page scanning, advanced image processing, upload to cloud storage, and much more. So ditch that scanner and help David Evans change the way people send documents forever, and like all KickStarter projects, ScanBox cannot become a reality without your help.

KickStarter Spotlight: ScanBox is a post from: Android Rundown

The game starts in a hospital of all places, probably the most likely spot for a zombie outbreak to occur. The goal is survival. The undead attack after breaking down doors. Some of them move pretty quickly so keep an eye out for attacks from all angles. The overhead view of the game makes it easier to spot the oncoming attacks, but the flickering dim lighting makes it a challenge to see every pending attack.

When the game is started, there is a short story explaining the game. Tap the screen to skip the intro story. The menu screen is pretty straight forward. There are creepy zombie chewing sounds for a background noise on the start menu which is very fitting for the game.

The playpen or tutorial is really helpful in getting the hang of how the controls work and how the game is played. Take some time here to get the hang of the game and see how to make money and acquire weapons. Killing the undead is how to make money. Repairing doors to slow down the undead will also make a little money too.

Making money will allow for more and upgraded weapons. The new weapon replaces the one in-hand at the time. There are 2 kinds of money in the game, money and Zbucks. Money is for the purchasing things like opening doors, some weapons and buy access to the next levels. Zbucks are a little different, they are earned when a wave of zombies attacking is survived. More Zbucks can be earned by completing offers such as downloading apps, liking a page on Facebook, or signing up for Netflix.

The game controls are pretty simple. The right virtual stick is to aim and shoot at the same time. The left virtual stick is to move the player around. Shooting is rapid fire so keep an eye on ammo levels.

I kept running out of ammo because of the way the shooting controls work, but that was really the only complaint about the gameplay I could find. Other than that, Dead on Arrival was really fun to play.

Dead On Arrival Review is a post from: Android Rundown