Field Trip for Android gets updated with over 80 countries, auto-translation

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/field-trip-android-update/

Niantic Labs' Field Trip is a location-discovery app that runs in the background during your aimless wanderings, piping up when you stumble across something notable. Unfortunately, for software designed to help you travel, it'd only made the one journey itself -- to the UK, and no further. Fortunately, the Google-owned company has sent the Android version of the app truly global, helping you find attractions in over 80 countries. Niantic Labs has also jammed in 30 languages and auto-translation, so if you find a restaurant review in an unfamiliar tongue, you won't have to resort to negotiating with the locals.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google

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Source: Google Play

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Google opens its Cloud Platform Compute Engine to all comers, updates App Engine

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/16/google-cloud-platform-compute-engine/

During Google's I/O developer's conference keynote, it actually slipped in quite a bit of, yes, developer news amongst all the noisy consumer launches. One biggie was the announcement that any and all companies looking for computing horsepower can jump on board its formerly-limited Google Compute Engine, part of the Google Cloud Platform. In order to compete with the kingpin of that space, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its Elastic Compute Cloud, Google has bolstered its platform with new features, including shared-core instances for low-intensity chores, advanced routing, large persistent disks up to 10TB in volume size and sub-hour billing to keep costs down. It also updated its App Engine hosting service with PHP runtime, calling it "the most requested feature," and launched Google Cloud Datastore to go up against AWS' cloud storage services. All that will surely help Mountain View gain a bigger slice of the multi-billion dollar cloud infrastructure market, and should open up more space for all those apps.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Google

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Via: Techcrunch

Source: Google Cloud Platform Blog

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ZTE Grand X2 In official with Clover Trail+ Atom, photos at 24 frames per second

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/15/zte-grand-x2-in/

While Intel's Clover Trail+ Atom platform has been slow-moving so far, with only a handful of noteworthy unveilings, it just got a big shot in the arm through the official launch of ZTE's Grand X2 In. The 4.5-inch, 720p Jelly Bean phone is smaller than the Geek we saw not long ago, but it still carries that 2GHz Atom Z2580 inside -- and it's quite the screamer for shutterbugs between its 24 frames per second burst shooting, zero shutter lag and image stabilization. It otherwise sits in the middle of the road like its ancestor, carrying an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1-megapixel front camera, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. We're digging that soft-touch purple finish, though. Europeans should receive the Grand X2 In sometime in the third quarter of the year; there's no word on launches elsewhere, but you can be sure that we're interested in giving this x86 headliner a proper shakedown.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Intel

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Via: MojAndroid.sk (translated)

Source: ZTE

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Recon Instruments reveals Recon Jet, a sports HUD so bright it needs shades (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/15/recon-instruments-reveals-recon-jet/

We know Glass comes with some snap-on shades, which is no doubt great when casually vlogging in the sun. If you're heading down a mountain, though, you're going to need something a little more like Recon Jet. You may know Recon Instruments from its line of technolicious HUD ski goggles, but Jet sees the firm leap into more casual (yet no less useful) eyewear. Inside you'll find a dual-core processor, WiFi, GPS, Ant+, Bluetooth and an HD camera, plus all the sensors you could want (altimeter, thermometer, accelerometer etc). Recon Jet comes with its own open platform (which typically has been based on Android), and will have some existing native apps (video streaming, Facebook integration, etc.) on display at Google I/O this week. Comparison with Mountain View's own product will be inevitable, but we're guessing that Recon hopes you'll leave Glass on your desk, while popping Jet on for the weekend.

Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables

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Google Play game services aims to integrate gaming across Android, iOS and the web, available today

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/15/google-play-game-services/

Google Play game developers and players alike are getting a quartet of game-changing additions today: real-time multiplayer, leaderboards, cloud saves and achievements. And that's not all -- the latter three services will function cross-platform between Android, iOS and the web. The whole initiative is called -- unsurprisingly -- "Google Play Game Services," and it's available today in a smattering of games. Unlike Apple's Game Center application, what Google's offering is backend support for developers rather than a standalone application. Think of it more like OpenFeint than Game Center -- you can sign in using your Google+ login in-game, and that login will track your identity (including leaderboard scores, achievements and saves) across various games and devices.

Any developer launching a game on the Google Play store has access to game services, though Google isn't making it an obligation. "We won't make it a mandatory exercise, or have any certification process around it," Google lead product manager Greg Hartrell told us. "We create fantastic services that allow developers to create these great game experiences, and help promote their discovery, help retain their users and keep them engaged."

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Google

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