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	ysss	2011-03-25 , 16:58
	Posts: 4,384 \| Thanked: 5,524 times \| Joined on Jul 2007 @ ˙ǝɹǝɥʍou	#2591

I think it'll be really interesting when you string together all these gadgets together into a gaming orgy setup:

A powerful tablet as the host, hooked up to a big screen.

Bunch of other tablets (or smartphones) connected to the host via bluetooth or WIFI as the gaming controllers for multiplayer setup.

It'll be perfect for board/card game replacement, where everyone has their private cards/stats on their handheld, a shared area as the tabletop analogue (maybe the host tablet), then a big screen to show the multimedia elements.

Boy, are the current generation of kids gonna be super spoiled >

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	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-03-25 , 17:05
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Originally Posted by ysss

I think it'll be really interesting when you string together all these gadgets together into a gaming orgy setup:

A powerful tablet as the host, hooked up to a big screen.

Bunch of other tablets (or smartphones) connected to the host via bluetooth or WIFI as the gaming controllers for multiplayer setup.

It'll be perfect for board/card game replacement, where everyone has their private cards/stats on their handheld, a shared area as the tabletop analogue (maybe the host tablet), then a big screen to show the multimedia elements.

Boy, are the current generation of kids gonna be super spoiled >

For sure! The main screen could feature running scores and/or cinematic angles complete with camera sweeps and close-ups of the game for players and on-lookers alike (eg. when it's not your turm). This would work well for sports games, racing games, team-fighting games, real-time strategies (eg. Starcraft),or even *gasp* survival horrors (eg. resident evil)!!

I bet it would also open up some interesting play dynamics for puzzle games.

Those whippersnappers! So long as they're off my lawn I'm moderately happy.

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	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-03-25 , 18:28
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#2593

The Amazon Appstore just got a whole lot more enticing..

In a shocking move, Gameloft, long avoider of the Google Market, has decided to stock the Amazon Android Appstore shelves.

http://www.droiddog.com/android-blog...azon-appstore/
http://www.androidguys.com/2011/03/2...ppstore-srsly/

The enticement? DRM.

"The Amazon ecosystem is controlled where we don't find too many pirated version of our games or malware games, so for the consumers, it will be a safer place to come and get applications."

Amazon certainly knows how to cater to developers, and they know how to sell... well... Amazon will beat Google at its own game.

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lemmyslender	2011-03-25 , 19:07
Posts: 968 \| Thanked: 974 times \| Joined on Nov 2008 @ Ohio	#2594

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

Interesting. It's only a matter of time before the App Store is installed as default on different devices. This may be yet another point of differentiation. eg. An Amazon Android tablet vs. a Google one!

What's most interesting about your testimony is that you continue check back from time to time! This is pretty significant as it implies that the store is compelling enough to have you go out of your way to check in.

I forsee Amazon being an incredibly formidable Market competitor. In fact, I see the Amazon Android Appstore surpassing the Google Market.

I guess to clarify a little: My browser logs me into Amazon automatically, plus it's still new. If it ends up being crappy little 99-cent apps all the time, I'll probably lose interest in checking in. If they keep a good mix of interesting/decent apps as their "app of the day", I'll probably keep checking in.

I've spent very little time actually browsing the amazon selection of apps, other than the front page for Angry Birds Rio (still the same angry birds so far), the Texas Hold-em game (yet another card game), Doodle Jump (interesting, we'll see), and Shazam (probably little actual use).

I'm probably an anomaly anyway, but keep it an interesting mix, I'll keep checking and probably see something else I want.

One other question? Will Amazon keep previous versions of purchased apps available for download? For example, I was playing Stupid Zombies on my S7 (2.1). I "had" to re-flash and couldn't find it in the market anymore. The latest update made it for >= 2.2. Fortunately I had a backup, and it is a free app anyway.

I wonder if Amazon (or Google for that matter) has any provision to handle this for purchased apps?

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Beatty	2011-03-25 , 20:24
Posts: 51 \| Thanked: 63 times \| Joined on May 2010	#2595

Originally Posted by lemmyslender

I wonder if Amazon (or Google for that matter) has any provision to handle this for purchased apps?

This is one of my main concerns from my limited Android experience to date.
The tablet I have shipped with a restricted market, but of course the first thing we all do is the "Market fix" to access the whole market. This works well.
Sometimes Google seems to change something and only a subset of apps show in the market and I have to fix it again.
The uncertainty of whether I can ensure continuity of apps on one device (let alone more if I get a phone soon) has stopped me spending any money in the market at all at the moment.
I would be happy to have my concerns allayed and if Amazon are the ones who do that then happy to spend money there

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	danramos	2011-03-25 , 23:31
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Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

I *do* have something against Maemo. Ok, perhaps not the OS, which is quite adequate and shows promise, but the project that develops it. Sure the community is great, but it was given up for dead 3 times now, and it seems to be largely abandoned. Don't get me wrong, I'd probably still be using Maemo if things had gone differently, but alas, they hadn't. I'm very weary of Nokia these days, and they have dropped in ranking from #1 in my eyes, to a notch behind new market competitors. As open goes, give me Ubuntu on a mobile device and I'll gladly embrace it -- at least I have confidence that it will be supported for longer than 1 year before being scrapped.

Actually, I post a LOT of Android stuff (and I've been buying up a bunch of Android stuff too!) but I still use my Maemo device (Nokia N800) on very rare occasion (sorry, but there ARE some things Android still isn't very good at).

If Nokia wanted to offer me a job, I wouldn't want anything to do with them at this point because of their history with customers and engineers (that is, that they don't want to listen to them or to enable them). Nokia would have to really work hard to convince me to want to work with them. That being said, though, I'm not affiliated with Samsung or with Android... but I wouldn't mind it if they wanted to approach me to offer me a job. Just saying--I like what they're doing.

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

The bad thing is, that developers knowing that they can target all Android tablets and the Playbook with a single APK would probably be reluctant to program one specifically for the Playbook. If I were an app developer, I wouldn't. What would be the point?

I see this as being great for the Android eco-system, but bad for RIMs efforts as the playbook becomes more-or-less another Android tablet. Unless they have a strategy to get developers to develop apps specifically for their OS (some cool functionality not available on Android), they may have made things far simpler on themselves by implementing their own port of the Android OS.

Psssst! [loud whisper] Hey! You didn't even mention that Google would be profiting from app sales, and RIM would be getting NOOOOOOOTHING!

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

The PC makers are invading! Welcome the Acer Iconia Android tablet fray

Considering my personal experience with Acer's legendary reputation of building cheap devices that look good but work terribly, overheat and fall apart, I think I'll pass on the Acer Iconia.

It'll be interesting to see whether they can turn their reputation around with this new platform as a way to reboot their productions.

Originally Posted by lemmyslender

Amazon App Store:

I'll be honest, I've perused it a little bit. I do have a couple of thoughts:

1) Unless there is significant price difference between apps in Amazon or Google, I'd probably buy it from Google (no need to check in with a potentially defunct Amazon store when re-installing). And at the cost of most apps, I don't think I'll see a significant cost difference.

2) I've found myself checking daily for the free app, then *purchasing* it. Why? Why not? I don't have to install it right away. I can try it, if I don't like it, uninstall it. If I do like it, it was free .

I have PRECISELY the same experience. I haven't purchased a single thing from Amazon yet, but I did install the free-app-of-the-day Angry Birds Rio and Doodle Jump (which I've long wanted to try out to see if I'd like it--but there was never a free version to try out). If I were to BUY something, though, I think I'd still prefer to seek it out on the Android Market because at least I know that I can back it up and restore it despite its status in the market (I've still kept things the Market pulled like the Z4 root for my Galaxy Tab) which I doubt Amazon would permit to run anymore if there's that DRM layer. As well, I love Google's remote-install from a web page. I love and want that to remain. ESPECIALLY for the marvelous new features it gives me like that PLAN B remote-install-find-your-phone app. You can't do that from the Amazon store right now.

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

Interesting. It's only a matter of time before the App Store is installed as default on different devices. This may be yet another point of differentiation. eg. An Amazon Android tablet vs. a Google one!

What's most interesting about your testimony is that you continue check back from time to time! This is pretty significant as it implies that the store is compelling enough to have you go out of your way to check in.

I forsee Amazon being an incredibly formidable Market competitor. In fact, I see the Amazon Android Appstore surpassing the Google Market.

Compelling so long as there are freebies? I have to wonder how long THAT will last. Giving away free stuff is fine so long as you're selling SOMETHING in the store. So far, they haven't convinced me to purchase anything even though I'm not entirely unwilling. If they suddenly sold the Netflix streaming app or if they offered or sold an Amazon streaming app and charged for the episode/movie streaming as usual, I might be compelled to purchase to see what the experience is like. If it's a good one, I might start using it more often.

Originally Posted by lemmyslender

I'm probably an anomaly anyway, but keep it an interesting mix, I'll keep checking and probably see something else I want.

I suspect you're not an anomaly--especially since I seem to be doing EXACTLY the same things for exactly the same reasons.

Originally Posted by Capt'n Corrupt

For sure! The main screen could feature running scores and/or cinematic angles complete with camera sweeps and close-ups of the game for players and on-lookers alike (eg. when it's not your turm). This would work well for sports games, racing games, team-fighting games, real-time strategies (eg. Starcraft),or even *gasp* survival horrors (eg. resident evil)!!

I bet it would also open up some interesting play dynamics for puzzle games.

Those whippersnappers! So long as they're off my lawn I'm moderately happy.

Think bigger, guys! Imagine adding AUGMENTED REALITY to those games... the host system could provide the basis for a very accurate playing field that your own handset's display could overlay pieces onto or statistics, etc. Let's also not forget the front-facing camera and opportunity to place YOU in the game's pieces/environment right in front of you and your fellow players.

I.e. Although it's not a game... http://www.wikitude.org/drive

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Last edited by danramos; 2011-03-25 at 23:39.

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	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-03-25 , 23:34
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#2597

@dan,

Epic post, for an epic thread.

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	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-03-25 , 23:36
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#2598

@ Dan again
I really like that idea of augmented reality. It would be AMAZING for a strategy title, or even if you worked in a roleplaying element (a modern D&D -- funny I don't look like a nerd, but I am one at heart). Even a game of chess or a coop or single player strategy game with AugRel would be pretty neat.

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	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-03-25 , 23:39
	Posts: 3,524 \| Thanked: 2,958 times \| Joined on Oct 2007 @ Delta Quadrant	#2599

@ Dan for ol time's sake
Acer may make crap (I can attest to this), though Asus is solid, and they too are entering the market (horrible screens, though). Dell is also in this space, as is Toshiba. Bottom line, the entry-level will get a lot more interesting as Asus and Acer begin to iterate.

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	Capt'n Corrupt	2011-03-25 , 23:52
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@Dan because I can,

I wouldn't underestimate Amazon. They have a long track record of dominating in this type of online selling. Freebies may be a strategy in the beginning to bludgeon their way into the public's mind, but I suspect that they will soon start to have exclusives, and other compelling reasons to check out the store.

Interestingly, it is rumored that Amazon is building an Android tablet. If they can strike the same chord that the Kindle did, they will have a hit on their hands. I fully expect that the Amazon tablet will have the Amazon Store, complete with the kindle book software, and access to Amazon Music/VoD with a *single* method of payment. In the end it will have fantastic positioning and a very integrated consumption oriented experience.

The killer bit? They will advertise it right on the front of Amazon.com just as they do with the kindle, which could turn it into a runaway holiday smasher. Who knows, they may subsidize some of the price based on speculation about their media sell-through, and undercut the competition.