If you grew up in the 1990s, you’ll remember Sonic the Hedgehog as one of the more popular console game characters. If you’ve been longing for games you played in your youth, then here’s yet another reason to be happy you’re using Android. Sega has just released Sonic the Hedgehog on Google Play. We get to play Sonic at 60 FPS with widescreen support and re-mastered audio. Plus, we get to play Sonic’s friends, Tails and Knuckles, too.

Previously available on iOS devices, Sonic spins his way into Android smartphones and tablets, where you can play the re-mastered classic, plus a few new features. First, the game has been optimized for mobile devices, which means you get to enjoy Sonic in full screen and up to 60 FPS smoothness. The soundtrack has likewise been re-mastered, and it’s a big improvement over the 16-bit audio of the original version.

Additionally, you can play new characters: Sonic’s friends Tails and Knuckles. These new characters let you explore Sonic’s world in a whole new way by using their unique abilities (flying, gliding and climbing around the levels). You will need to unlock them first with gameplay, though. Experienced players can also increase the challenge level with the new Time Attack Mode.

Sega made sure players will enjoy the title by adding in a few extras, which make Sonic the Hedgehog all the more enjoyable in our connected world. In particular, the mobile app features achievements and a leaderboard to encourage players to become more competitive — a feature that console games of the 20th century did not have.

Miss your Sega Genesis controller? Fret not, as Sonic the Hedgehog offers support for Power A Moga, Nyko, XBOX, and all HID controllers. The game costs $2.99 on the Google Play Store. An iOS version is also available, although Sega is yet to release the free update with new playable characters to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users.

Check out the promo video from Google Play.

Mobile and travel go really well together, considering that location-based tools on your mobile device are way better than paper maps and printed tour guideboks. When Google’s Niantic Labs released Field Trip for the US and the UK, the app received acclaim for enabling users to find interesting places nearby through the phone’s location-awareness features.

Field Trip “speaks” to you and gives you suggestions about interesting places nearby. You can then give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to teach the app which kinds of places interest you.

The limitation, of course, was that Field Trip only worked within the US and the UK. This made the app great for use on local trips and for tourists within the country, but not for the rest of the world. With Niantic Labs’ latest update, you can now literally “go on a Field Trip anywhere” as the app update says, as the Android app release now supports 80 countries and 30 languages.

Going beyond support for additional locations, Field Trip also makes it easier to spot interesting places from your current vicinity, with automatic translation of foreign-language cards, done through the Google Translate engine. This makes Field Trip all the more useful when traveling to unknown places.

This update is an Android exclusive for now, but the Field Trip update for iOS is coming soon. Early reviews say that Field Trip can be hit-or-miss, and some major cities around the world are not getting the adequate coverage they deserve, but with more data and with more usage, the app will likely improve.

If you’re fond of getting alerted of any interesting things while on the go, such as landmarks, restaurants, historical places and events, shopping discounts, art, or other recreation, then Field Trip would be an excellent addition to your smartphone.

(Image credit: Biometrics / Shutterstock)

The rise of mobile devices and persistent connectivity, as well as apps and cloud services, has put us all at potential risk when it comes to online security. Simply put, it’s no longer as basic as using strong passwords and strong encryption on websites and services. According to a recent effort by Google in making its systems more secure, the company is looking into implementing smartphone tagging, life-long tokens, and requiring two-step verification on its services.

This is part of Google’s revolving five-year roadmap for security. The last time Google made an effort to map out its big-picture security plan was in 2008, and it’s now high time to do a revamp. During that time, Google planned an implemented two-step verification, which required both a password and a key before granting access to a user’s account — originally sent as a six-digit code via SMS.

This has only been optional, though, and Google wants to ”rollout a change to our login system in which we will be much more aggressive.” What happened since 2008? A lot, apparently.

Google cites a few things that have pushed the company to become more aggressive in its security stance. First, in 2008, smartphones were not yet as popular as they are today. Eric Sachs, group product manager for identity at Google, says that they did not see it coming. “Five years ago, this level of smartphone adoption was not predicted.” And so with the popularity of smartphones today, Google will weave in security and authentication with mobile devices, as well as back-end improvements.

High friction, but only at the start

According to Sachs, Google does not have qualms with increasing the so-called friction in logging in, if only to improve security. “We don’t mind making it painful for users to sign into their device if they only have to do it once.” The key here is that you only have to be inconvenienced once — such as by keying in both your password and a key, like one sent to your mobile phone via SMS or generated by an authenticator app. The next points of access or login should be token-based. Other apps and services should never have to ask for your credentials again, for as long as you have access to your mobile device.

Instead, Google’s proposed login methods would involve your mobile device of choice — your Android smartphone for instance. In place of keying in your password to access a third-party service, for example, you can simply approve your web login by approving it from an alert on your smartphone.

As alternatives, Google proposes using technologies like NFC to “bootstrap” logins. For example, you can login to a service by tapping your smartphone onto an NFC terminal on your notebook computer or other device. Of course, this assumes both devices support the technology, and Google actually envisions such a login method for Chromebooks. But because the company does not have control over other manufacturers’ hardware, Google is still going to look for acceptable standards that can work across different devices and platforms. The same goes for third-party applications, as not all developers and services use OpenID and OAuth.

Google knows you

Going beyond unlocking and authentication, though, Google’s plan for security is much more sophisticated. An added factor would be determining behavioral patterns and raising flags when usage deviates from these patterns. “We are beginning to experiment with apps on the phone that display notifications about risky behavior on an account.” For instance, you might usually access web apps and services from a certain location or during a certain time of the day. If you suddenly access it from another place (another country?) and at a strange time, then Google might ask you to approve the action on your mobile device before proceeding.

Google’s planned authentication schemes will enable you to approve or reject sign-ins from your mobile device, without the need to manually key in passwords.

Apart from these systems, Google also espouses smarter hardware that will improve security and the platform for accessing apps and services. The company notes that systems like biometrics will be a good addition, although there are still issues with fingerprint or facial recognition, among others.

What Google says is difficult at this point is account recovery. “Account Recovery is our achilles heel,” says the white paper. Google says it should be easy enough for the real user to access, but still difficult for malicious hackers to crack. “Bad guys will try to hijack accounts through account recovery systems, but this poses hard challenges since the recovery systems have to help the real owner who has truly lost access to those other factors,” Sachs writes.

Another big concern is that security risks have grown because malicious hackers have found better ways to monetize hijacked accounts. As such, they are willing to go through lengths to get into these accounts.

Google is confident about the results of its earlier 2008 five-year security plan, and is hopeful that its 2013 plan will also result in better security for both end-users and developers. You can check out the draft report, PUBLIC DRAFT: Stronger Consumer Authentication – 5 year report, from the source links below. Google has also prepared a slide deck for a simpler presentation.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is rumored to be launching the $130 Xiaomi Red Rice this October — their biggest-screened and cheapest device yet.

Xiaomi made waves in China (and beyond) for its Apple-like cult following and its tight integration of services in its MIUI-based handsets. It helps that the price is very competitive, at about $320 to $370 for its flagship handsets, which have premium features comparable to flagships from other brands. This time, Xiaomi is rumored to have an even bigger smartphone up its sleeve, the Xiaomi Red Rice.

Xiaomi’s Red Rice is aimed at the budget market, with a price set at 799 yuan (about $130), which is cheaper than the recently-announced budget-friendly Xiaomi Mi2A. The Red Rice will also be the company’s biggest handset so far, in terms of screen size, at 4.7 inches diagonal.

Here are the Xiaomi Red Rice specs, as cited by Chinese technology site IT168:

• Dual-core processor running at 1.2 GHz, claimed to be a Leadercore LC1810
• 4.7 inch 720p display (1280×720 pixels)
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage (no word whether it will support microSD)
• 8 megapixel main camera
• 2 megapixel front camera
• 2,000 mAh battery
• MIUI v5

A popular feature in emerging markets, the Red Rice will also come with dual-SIM with dual-standby support. The smartphone will support both TD-SCDMA and GSM networks, which means it will support high-speed data from China Mobile. The choice of processors might be for cost considerations, although the phone was earlier rumored to come with a quad-core Mediatek MT6589 SoC.

The Red Rice is supposedly set for release this October, in time for the launch of the upcoming Mi3. While there’s no word whether Xiaomi will officially launch in the U.S. and similar markets anytime in the future, the brand is experimenting with Taiwan and Hong Kong releases.

Google is known for scuttling services that are no longer deemed to be beneficial or profitable. But with trends and statistical analysis going against legacy Google apps and social, will more recent efforts like Android and Google+ still be here a few years down the road?

Google is a company known for experimentation. After all, with all that resource and talent, you can expect Google to take the adventurous route in launching new services left and right. Take for instance apps that came from Google Labs, which is the source of a handful of apps and features we take for granted as mainstream products today.

But it’s not all rosy for these products and projects. Google does cancel apps and products that are no longer deemed in line with its overall business strategy. Take Google Reader, for instance. Even with millions of active users, Google decided to close down the service by July this year. And according to statistical analytics, there are a few factors common among services that Google discontinues, and it is likewise for services and apps that Google decides to keep.

The analysis on Gwern.net is a bit lengthy, although it takes into consideration various data points and factors, such as the use of FLOSS, and whether the app is related to social media. Here are a few findings. In gist, for a Google product to survive, it has to have the following criteria:

1. Not be an acquisition
2. Not be free, libre or open source software (FLOSS)
3. Be directly making money
4. Not be related to social networking
5. Have lots of Google hits relative to lifetime
6. Have been launched early in Google’s lifetime

In all, Google has a shutdown rate of 35 percent.

The analysis actually made a listing of risk factors for popular Google services, which includes both a five-year survival rate based on these criteria, weighted with the author’s own personal prediction. Notably, Project Glass only has a 37 percent five-year survival rate. However, the risk factor was a low 0.10, which means Glass is one of the Google products likely to go beyond five years.

Strong apps include Search, News, Books and AdWords, among others.

Now taking into consideration our original question: will Android last five more years? Consider that Android does not fall under criteria #1, #2, #3 and #6 (possibly even #4 since social networking remains to be a popular application on mobile devices), does this mean that Android has a low survival rate?

Not necessarily. As the author posits, Android is one of those products that are big enough that “Google losing interest would not be fatal.”

How about apps like Google+, then? The social network only falls under #1. Consider also that earlier attempts at social networking, like Google Wave, failed. It seems that Plus has now become a catch-all for all of social-related services, and “anything to do with social will now either be merged into Google+.”

So no worry here, folks. Our favorite Android and Google+ are safe, at least for the foreseeable future.

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. Is that how it goes?

Android and iOS platforms differ in terms of popular apps in both free and paid categories. While Android users prefer utilities and communication apps, iOS users are quite fond of games.

Apps are the lifeline of mobile platforms today, and with Android and iOS being the biggest ecosystems, it can only be reasonable to analyze trends through the apps that users are downloading. For April 2013, we see some interesting insights from analytics firm Distimo.

In gist, there is quite some disparity between the apps that Android users download as opposed to our iOS using counterparts. For one, mobile games are the dominant download on both the free and paid top lists on iOS. Android users, meanwhile, prefer to download utilities and communication or social tools.

Top 5 free iOS apps

1. Candy Crush Saga
2. Sonic Dash
3. YouTube
4. Injustice: Gods Among Us
5. Dentist Office

Top 5 free Android apps

1. Facebook
2. WhatsApp Messenger
3. Skype
4. Facebook Messenger
5. Instagram

Four out of five of the top free iOS apps are games, while none of the top five Android apps are. However, it seems Android users are more social than is commonly thought, with the top apps being either social networking tools (Facebook, Instagram) or messengers (Skype, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger).

Top 5 paid iOS apps

1. WhatsApp
2. Temple Run: Oz
3. Minecraft Pocket Edition
4. Cut the Rope: Time Travel
5. Pou

Top 5 paid Android apps

1. Swiftkey Keyboard
2. Titanium Backup Pro
3. Minecraft Pocket Edition
4. Poweramp Full Version
5. Nova Launcher Prime

As with the trend for free apps, we also see a similar trend in paid apps for both platforms, with games dominating iOS, only topped by WhatsApp (the Android variant is subscription based after the first year, but an outright purchase on iOS). Meanwhile, utilities dominate Android, with four out of five being apps that are commonly used to customize or tweak the system.

However, it seems the top-grossing apps for both platforms are dominated by freemium games, with 9 out of 10 top apps in the iOS and Android lists being games (the only exception is LINE on Android). Interestingly enough, the top-earning apps got their money from localized markets, such as Korea’s Kakao Talk, and Japan’s LINE.

These trends are based on global data gathered by Distimo through the month of April. Are Android users more serious, after all?

Image credit: Couple using smartphones / Shutterstock

Viber has recently launched version 3.0 of its Android and iOS applications, promising a fresh user experience on Android and a new desktop client for cross-device messaging, calling and even video calls.

Viber today launched its latest release, which promises an overhauled experience for Android users. In an interview with Android Authority, Viber CEO Talmon Marco said the Android app has been reworked from ground up to conform to user interface standards set for the platform.

“We started development on Viber in 2010. At that time, there were no design guidelines for Android,” Marco said, stressing that the Android interface until now closely echoed Viber for the iPhone. However “what’s good for back then is no longer good now.” As such, the team has revamped the user experience and “completely renovated Viber on Android. It’s a brand new app, and it’s something we consider to be beautiful, amazing, gorgeous.”

The 3.0 update also resolves the security vulnerability reported late last month. While that vulnerability has already been patched, this update ensures that the flaw — which lets a third party access your device by sending a certain combination of messages — is no longer a problem.

Viber on desktop

The key update for this release is the launch of a new desktop application for Windows and OS X. With the new application, Viber promises a seamless messaging and calling experience across smartphones and desktop or notebook computers. Marco highlights how a user can seamlessly switch from one’s smartphone to the desktop with the tap of a “call transfer” button, and vice versa. The call does not get cut off.

In a similar vein, messaging is also smart and seamless. At the first instance, Viber rings all of your devices. But once you start chatting on one device, the others will be muted, so you don’t get incessant alerts on all devices.

Additionally, messages are synced across devices, which gives several benefits. First, whichever message or thread you delete on one device will also be deleted on others, thereby reducing redundancy and the need to do maintenance on several devices (Marco says Viber supports up to 50 desktop clients). Secondly, messages you read on one device will not remain unread on another device, which is usually a big gripe for users who have their IM and VoIP client on different devices.

Improved quality

Apart from the new client launch, Viber has reworked its VoIP engine for better-quality voice calls. Marco shared that Viber calls work well even with speeds as low as 8 Kbps — yes, that’s Kilobits per second. And as you go higher in speed, the voice quality improves even further. Voice calls also work seamlessly while switching from one type of connection to another. As such, Viber calls can hop from cellular to WiFi connectivity without skipping a beat. As a Viber review puts it, simplicity and straightforwardness are among the main benefits of Viber, as compared to competitors like Skype or Fring.

An added benefit of the desktop client is video calling, with Viber now supporting video calls across Windows and OS X clients. A client for Linux is also in the works. Video calling is not yet supported for the mobile client, but the team is working on adding this functionality.

Mobile-centric experience

But even with the launch of a desktop client, Marco says Viber remains mobile-centric. In fact, you can only sign up with the service from a smartphone. This ensures that you already have a populated contact list, which consists of other users in your phonebook who are already on Viber. In contrast, other VoIP clients let you start out with an empty contact list that you have to manually populate. Once you have an account set from your mobile device and number, you can then sign in from the desktop client.

Viber is a free download from Google Play and the iTunes App Store. The desktop client can be downloaded from Viber’s website: Viber for Mac and Viber for Windows. If you’re worried you won’t have anyone to talk to, consider that Viber has already grown to 200 million users — up from the 140 million the service had as of end 2012. Viber is reportedly growing 400,000 users per day, and the introduction of video calling and desktop apps is likely to help increase the app’s popularity even further.

How smart can this wristwatch be?

We asked before why everyone was making a smartwatch, and whether you even want a smartwatch in the first place. Well, analysts say 1.2 million smartwatches will be sold this year, and this technology probably plays well with other wearable tech that has been in fashion lately, such as Google Glass.

Google, for one, reportedly has a smartwatch in store for us, and while imaginations were previously fan-sourced, this time we have some actual ideas from Google through a patent filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The “Smart-watch with user interface features” patent application involves a smartwatch with user-interface components on the face and even on the wristband itself, through touchpads on either side of the bezel. Let’s de-construct the smartwatch concept, based on the description:

• The wristband includes a voltage line, which means the band itself may be used as part of the user-interface, possibly accepting gesture or touch controls.
• In fact, the wristband will have touchpads on either side of the bezel, which enables controls outside of the limited face of the smartwatch.
• The may or may not support touch input.
• The wristband will be removable, which means users can interchange (colors or materials, perhaps), which means the touchpad is a modular component that can be removed and changed.

From the wording in the patent claims, Google is not yet defining whether the smartwatch will contain its own standalone operating system, or whether it is designed to work in conjunction with a smartphone. Either way, the smartwatch design will support a wireless transceiver, which can either interface with a smartphone or a wireless access point.

The ambiguous wording is actually encouraging, if you can expect the smartwatch to work not only with a smartphone or tablet, but also with other wearable devices, such as Google Glass.

As a point of disclaimer, this is, of course, still a patent application. As such, we cannot guarantee whether it will a device that will come to production soon. But knowing how Google can be innovative with experimenting with wearable technology, this concept is probably not to far off into the future. Apple, Sony, LG and even Samsung are reportedly working on smartwatch designs. Is this the next trend in wearable tech, alongside Google Glass?

Image credit: Wristwatch / Shutterstock

It’s not over until the fat lady sings. Or so it seems for Apple and Samsung, which have been battling at the courts for patent infringement-related cases. Recall that in August 2012, Apple won its patent infringement case against Samsung and was awarded $1.049 billion in damages. In March this year, Judge Lucy Koh reduced the amount to $598 million, considering two errors used by the jury in determining damages.

In essence, the jury earlier computed damages amounting to the total losses attributed to Samsung’s infringement with its Galaxy S2 line. However, Judge Koh qualified that the only losses that should be counted are those after Apple alerted Samsung to the possible infringement.

This is not yet final, though, as Judge Koh has set a November 12, 2013 trial date for the courts to better determine how much exactly Samsung owes Apple. A few things come to light:

• Judge Koh had re-awarded Apple US$40.5 million for infringement related to the AT&T variant of the Samsung Galaxy S2.
• Samsung requested that the court put the damages trial on hold because the USPTO had put to question the validity of two of Apple’s patents on the table: the ’381 bounce-back patent and the ’915 pinch-to-zoom patent.
• The USPTO’s decision in this regard is not final yet, so Apple can still prevail.

Judge Koh rejected Samsung’s request to set a later date for trial, but decided that Samsung could still request a stay on these damages should a more definitive decision is arrived at, with relation to the two patents in question.

For Samsung, it’s good that the case did not end with the billion-dollar damages. There is still a chance that the fine could be greatly reduced, although it can still skyrocket beyond the original $1.049 billion, depending on how the trial goes.

If you’ve just tuned in to the Apple vs. Samsung patent mess, you can check out our Apple vs. Samsung archives for an idea of the issues involved, the legal decisions, the market reactions and official company statements.

If you’ve just recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S4 and you want to root your device, then you’re in luck — at least if you have the US version and other variants that run the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. XDA Developers’ “drbliss” has published a recent root exploit originally meant for Motorola devices — aptly called “Motochopper” — which also works on the Galaxy S4.

The only limitation is that the exploit works only on Qualcomm Snapdragon 600-powered devices, including those that are co-branded by AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. International variants that run Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa chips will not work with this root exploit.

The process is simple: download the Motochopper archive, have the latest Samsung USB drivers on your machine, and ensure you have USB debugging turned on. Windows users then need to run the supplied run.bat batch file, while OSX and Linux users should run the supplied run.sh Shell script.

A word of caution, though: no custom recoveries or stock images are available for the Galaxy S4 at this point. This means you might have a hard time fixing your device in case you brick or soft-brick it. Also, drbliss warns that OTA updates might remove the ability to regain root access through this exploit (until another one is discovered).

But given that Samsung’s flagship series usually gets the most active development amongst enthusiasts, we think it should only be a matter of time until developers release custom recoveries, custom ROMs and stock ROM images, so tinkerers and tweakers can more easily play with their Galaxy S4.

So while Samsung mobile head J.K. Shin says it should not matter whether your Galaxy S4 runs on a Snapdragon 600 or Exynos 5 Octa chipset, it should make a difference if you’re planning to root your device at this time.