Something old something new Technology meets tradition for the Royal Wedding

[Cross-posted from the Europe Developer Blog]

As you may have heard, the UK is gearing up for a very special wedding on April 29, when Prince William and Catherine Middleton will be married in Westminster Abbey in London.

Unlike many previous Royal Weddings, this event will have its own website – and were honoured that St. James’s Palace has chosen to use Google’s computing infrastructure to power the site.

The site, which just went live at www.officialroyalwedding2011.org, is hosted on Google App Engine, which allows developers easily to build and host their web applications on Googles own computing infrastructure. Its a great way to run apps quickly, more securely, and at scale, which makes it ideal for such an important national occasion. The site will be regularly updated by St. James’s Palace in the run up to the wedding day.

This was a great team effort between Accenture, who built the site, the web design agency Reading Room who led on the design and creative work, and the App Engine team.

We hope it proves to be the perfect marriage of tradition and modernity as we approach the big day.

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Googles new look for mobile

When it comes to mobile search, we strive to not only give you the same comprehensiveness and relevance as when searching with Google on your computer, but also a consistent look, feel, and overall user experience. So today, as we roll out a new look for Google Search results on your computer, we are happy to announce similar changes to Google Search results for mobile.

When you go to Google.com in the US on your iPhone or Android-powered device, and enter a search, you can now tap on the button to the left of the search box on the results page to see a new search options menu. Then, selecting any item in the menu will refine your search. For example, if you are looking for recent results for "Mothers day gift", simply tap the "Past week" option.

You may notice that when the menu expands, the search results slide off screen to the right. Note that you can still interact with them and see them in full just by panning to the right. Also, there are some additional menu options, like "News" and "Products". In the weeks to come, we will be supporting more devices and locales, and expanding the number of options available.

Update on 5/7 @ 9:20 am: Note that Palm webOS is now supported as well -- as some of you have noticed.

Posted by Reza Ziaei and Mike Buchanan, Google Mobile Engineering Team

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Dashclock Receives Update And Boasts New Customization Features And Bug Fixes

Dashclock might just be one of the very best widgets to surface for Android 4.2+ devices, and that was before today’s update. Dashclock for those who are unaware is a fantastic little widget that you can place on either your homescreen or lock screen, and add custom plugins that display useful pieces of information like weather, Hangouts, SMS, Battery life, etc. There are already plenty of custom plug ins that one can install and add to the Dashclock base app by Roman Nurik, and the app was already worthy of being an award winner but the update to 1.6 today brings it even further with bux fixes to improve its performance, and even more customization options than before.

While there hasn’t been anything new going on with Dashclock in some time, rest assured that it’s still getting love from the developer. Version 1.6 brings the bux fixes to weather plugins so the information compiles more smoothly and is more reliable, and you should notice that the SMS and Gmail plugins work in a more improved state than before as well. Other than the fixes, there is a small list of changes that took place in this update. You’ll find new visibility and color customization tweaks available to you, so if you’re someone that likes to mess with the color scheme a little this is undoubtedly a welcome new feature for you(Although you do only get the option for white or black, so it doesn’t get too crazy). Color customization isn’t the only aesthetic change though, as new visual design tweaks have been added in as well. Lastly it looks like users of Dashclock will be getting some new options for accessing their settings within Dashclock. This wasn’t terribly hard to do before, but it did need an improvement and we’re all for it if it means easier access.What do you guys/girls out there think about Dashclock? Is anyone currently using it? If so have you done the update and started using the new features? If you haven’t checked out Dashclock yet and you carry a compatible device, you can grab it for free in the Play Store, along with many of the free available plugins. Let us know what you think about Dashclock in the comments and what you would like to see as an available plug in or what you’d like to see changed.

The post Dashclock Receives Update And Boasts New Customization Features And Bug Fixes appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

via AndroidHeadlines.com | http://www.androidheadlines.com/2013/12/dashclock-receives-update-boasts-new-customization-features-bug-fixes.html

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Asphalt 8 Updates with KitKat’s new Immersive Mode Feature

One of the features in Android 4.4 – KitKat, one of my favorites at that, is called immersive mode. Where it allows the app to take over the entire display, hiding the status bar and navigation bar. Now granted, this is really only a big deal on devices that have on-screen navigation buttons like the Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10, and the Moto X. However I still find it to be a awesome feature. Many Google apps already support it, and so do a few third-party apps.

Today, Gameloft updated one of their more popular games to support immersive mode. That would be Asphalt 8. Which is going to give you an even better experience when playing Asphalt 8, not that it wasn’t already a great looking game. Additionally, Gameloft is planning to update many of their other popular titles between now and the end of February. Which include Blitz Brigade, Dungeon Hunter 4, Gangstar 4, GT Racing 2, Heroes of O&C, Order & Chaos, Order & Choas Duels, Six Guns and Total Conquest.

It also wouldn’t be a surprise to see Gameloft add the immersive mode feature to more games down the road. But so far these are the games they have it planned for in the next few weeks. Now obviously, this update doesn’t mean much to you if your device isn’t running Android 4.4 – KitKat already. As this is a KitKat feature. Which mean only a handful of devices will be able to support this update. That includes the Nexus 4, 5, 7, and 10. As well as the Google Play Edition devices such as the HTC One, Galaxy S4, LG G Pad 8.3, Xperia Z Ultra, and the Moto G. But don’t forget the International versions of the HTC One and the Galaxy Note 3 also have KitKat, with the Note 3 just starting to get it in a few countries last week.

How many of you are excited for immersive mode in Asphalt 8 and more games? Let us know in the comments below.

Via: Phone Arena

Source: Google Play

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Sony Patents ‘PlayStation Remix’ Aiming To Add New Challenges To Emulated Classic Games

A new neat feature is doing rounds in gaming circles; we are speaking about the ability of streaming emulated classics to video game consoles from the cloud. This ability is definitely neat, but wouldn’t it be awesome if someone could add new challenges, levels and abilities not present in the originals? This is the idea which has recently been revealed to have been patented by Sony in a recent filing.

In the patent filing, Sony claims that “Finding new ways to play preexisting video games can increase the longevity of older games. Instead of replaying the same level or completing the same missions repeatedly, gamers often desire new challenges when replaying legacy games.” To address this need, game designers have begun to produce mini games, which help to increase the longevity of the legacy games, by giving gamers the option to complete new objectives and overcome new challenges that do not exist in the originals. Also since the mini game is derived from a legacy game, gamers are familiar with the characters and basic components of the game.

This is an exciting opportunity for game designers to ride on the popularity of mini games. Since a mini-game does not begin at any traditional game start points, but may be placed, let’s say, right before a boss fight. This gives designers the option to provide new challenges such as limit the number of lives or they may choose to change existing game parameters etc. This would help make legacy games more challenging and fun.

The idea behind this patent is that instead of packing several packages of game files in one bunch (as is standard today), Sony would stream small segments of the game from their servers using Gaikai’s technology. This would allow creation of new goals within legacy games.

IGameResponsibly had first discovered this patent which was filed some time back in June 2012, simultaneously to Sony’s purchase of streaming game technology company Gaikai. The patent “Suspending State of Cloud-Based Legacy Applications” patent filing describes a means to provide fresh content to pre-existing classic games without the need to rebuild them completely. IGameResponsibly has termed this patent ‘PlayStation Remix’; however we have not been able to find any corroboration of this name in the original patent filing.

Before you get too excited, we would like to let you know that this is merely a patent filing and not all patents come to fruition in the form of a finished product. On our part, we would definitely like to keep our hopes alive, who knows we would finally be able to enjoy Mario with the same zest we had in our childhood. After-all Gaikai could bring PS3 games to Android.

We would like to hear which legacy games you would like to see with the ‘PlayStation Remix’ if it ever comes out. Our comments section is open for you.

The post Sony Patents ‘PlayStation Remix’ Aiming To Add New Challenges To Emulated Classic Games appeared first on AndroidHeadlines.com |.

via AndroidHeadlines.com | http://www.androidheadlines.com/2014/01/sony-patents-playstation-remix-aiming-add-new-challenges-emulated-classic-games.html

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