WhatsApp calling feature is here for some users

WhatsApp may be finally close to release their calling feature. It has been rumored for quite a long time now, but it seems that they have started to try the service with a few users.

After receiving the call from a friend, Reddit user pradnesh07 has get the feature enabled on his phone. He supposed that it was a kind of invitation like system, so he started to call his friends to give them the calling option.

However, it's not as straightforward as it seems. Some of his friends get the feature but some others didn't. You need to fulfill some requirements to get the calling feature updated. On one hand, you must have the latest version available of the app, which is in their website and not on the Google Play. It means installing the apk file.

After some tests, pradnesh07 has managed to activate the feature with people from India using a Nexus 5 with Android 5.0 Lollipop. It's not clear yet if it works in other countries or other devices, but it's probably a matter of days before the company announces something officially.

If you have a look at these images, you will see the new tab for the calling service and the design of the new interface.

Just a few days ago WhatsApp announce their support to web browsers, a news expected for a great number of users. Web browser compatibility was offered for some of their competitors, and the same happens with calling features. Hangouts, Viber or Skype has been offering it for quite a long time now, so WhatsApp users will finally be able to use the calling service in a similar way.

If you are interested in VoIP calls, keep an eye on the news because WhatsApp is probably very close to make the international release.

Source: Reddit.

Via: AndroidPolice.

ColocaTris, Tetris in which you choose where to put the pieces

Today we are going to talk about a puzzle game related with the original Tetris but with a entertained turnaround on the viewpoint.

Google Play is packed with versions of Tetris, some more modern than others, more complicated ways and different aesthetic, but all based on the same original idea, place the pieces (called tetrominoes) on a grid by matching complete lines. Now, from the Spanish team of developers Tambourine Studio, creators of Triviados (now called Atriviate), comes ColocaTris to Android.

What you have to do is simple, you spare life of tetris but in ColocaTris they do not fall "from heaven", it is not going moving vertically, but you have them at the bottom and you will be able to place them wherever you want, in the hollow fit us, but in no case will move or they will fall by gravity. Of course, you can not put the pieces you want, that would be too easy, they will appear one at a time, although you have the option to guard one to jump to the next and recall later.

The aim is to complete the number of squares and reach the points that you propose in each of the levels. The levels are dozens and are divided into different worlds (which will expand with each update) whose difficulty is increasing because the scenario is not always rectangular and it will entering other factors such as the time limit to complete the objective or a maximum of allowed moves.

To help complete the games and help you out when you think all is lost the game includes Power-ups or wildcards: put a box where you want, change the piece, to rotate, completing a line to choose or "explode" an area of the board.

Every time you fail a level and do not get the purpose you lose lives, until lose all, also you can use the Gold Ingots to buy more, ask for help from your friends or wait a few minutes and it will regenerate over time. Also, if things get complicated, you can use the Ingots to acquire more Power-ups and movements.

The social aspect is present in ColocaTris, because if you start playing with your Facebook account they will give you 10 Ingots, and for each friend you invite and join to it, you'll be added five more Ingots.

ColocaTris is completely free from Google Play and support from Android 2.3, but if you will, it has in-app purchases to get more Power-ups and resources to progress through the game and unlock new levels and worlds.

Source: El androide libre

Microsoft releases Word, Excel and Powerpoint apps and Outlook preview

Microsoft has officially announced the release of the Office's apps. Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps have been on preview for the last few months, and the company has finally launch their final versions.

As the preview versions, all the office's apps are free to download for android tablets (although they are not available for phones). The only requirement for the apps to run smoothly is 1 GB of RAM and an ARM processor. They officially works fine with Android 4.4 KitKat, although Lollipop is expected to be fine too.

As in the preview versions, some features are disabled in the free app, and you will need an Office 365 subscription to use those premium options. However, all the basic ones are available with the basic free version.

Microsoft described the apps as “unmistakably Office, while optimized for Android tablets”. They have design the Office apps to be used comfortably with touch controls, despite being perfectly compatible with external keyboards.

In addition to these final versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Microsoft has also launched Outlook preview today. The apps are fully compatible with tablets and phones, and you can already download them from the Play Store (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).

Outlook app is designed to handle our overload mails as efficiently as possible. In order to reduce the number of mail in the inbox, the new app presents two different tabs for the incoming messages, Focused and Other. So, the important mails can be found on the focused inbox while the rest are stored on the Other tab.

There are also some customizable swipe gestures for a quicker use. With a single movement we can archive, delete, flag, move mark as read or unread, or schedule the mails to come back to them later. Outlook also include a predictive search for emails, people and files,  and you can view the people that you used to write more often.

The mail works with different accounts, including Office 365, Outlook.com, iCloud, Exchange, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. It's also integrated with the calendar, so the scheduled events are directly accessible from the mail.

There are also a lot of other features available, such as an easy file attachment system, inbox filters, quick searches and the possibility to see recent meetings, communication and files.

As the app is still in preview mode, Microsoft encourage their users to submit feedback about their experience with Outlook as well as their suggestions for improvements.

Outlook is available for free for mobile phones and tablets running iOS and Android OS. You can download Outlook Preview from the App Store and the Google Play respectively.

Heroes of Might and Magic III HD for Android tablets

Some users have great memories of playing in their computers for years to Heroes, the game that is already a legend. Now the time has passed and ways of playing have evolved. Nostalgic are in luck, Heroes of Might and Magic III HD is back, the epic turn-based strategy game is already available for Android tablets.

Finally, the highly anticipated and remastered Heroes of Might and Magic III HD for Android tablets is here. It is the best game in the series and was released 15 years ago, in 1999, for Windows. Since its launch, and due to its success, it has been adapted to other operating systems and consoles, but it was not until today when we can finally enjoy on Android devices.

Heroes of Might and Magic III HD returns to enter in the history of Queen Catherine Ironfist that after the loss of her husband, King Roland Ironfist and her father,  King Nicolas Gryphonheart, must reunite the kingdom of Erathia, buffeted by the dark forces of Nighon and Eeofol. Comeback to the authentic turn-based strategy combat with Heroes of Might and Magic III HD.

To achieve your purposes you will lead a group of powerful heroes and control fearsome troops and fantastic creatures. These heroes must conquer maps and completing objectives, thanks to your wise tactics in using their skills during turn-based combat, and control of space and location on the map.

You should also intelligently manage your resources, mines and cities, and skill heroes points that they will get by winning battles and experience.

In total you can enjoy seven campaign scenarios where you fight with eight different factions. And do not forget to explore the unique environments of fifty skirmish maps. Also, the game now has multiplayer mode to play with friends from the same tablet.

If you're nostalgic or you like classic, Heroes of Might and Magic III HD is available on the Play Store for 9.99 €. Revive the strategy in high definition and feel again Erathia's fate is in your hands.

Heroes of Might and Magic III HD for Android tablets

WhatsApp comes to Computers via web browser, finally

Having Whatsapp on your computer has been one of the options that lots of users has been missed in this instant messaging app from its popularization. Their main rivals give that option so it was expected the most used service on the world, with over 700 million active users per month, implemented this possibility sooner rather than later.

After rumors of recent days and even a controversy by blocking third-party applications, WhatsApp on your computer is already a reality. It comes via web browser and in a rather curious way. If you want to know how to use WhatsApp on your computer, here you have all the information you need.

WhatsApp is already accessible from the web but is not yet a cloud service and remains messaging does not store messages except the backup that occurs as an option in mobile applications.

This operation until now had used third-party programs that promised to use WhatsApp from the computer. And it is precisely the basis that the company used to implement its path to the Desktop. No changes in app philosophy for now.

This WhatsApp for computer connects to your smartphone and replicates the content on their website. Basically we have an alternative browser on the smartphone window, but only that.

The technology used is WebRTC, for now it is only available for Chrome browser, both Desktop and other devices also support it. To use it we have also enabled on an Android smarpthone, Blackberry or Windows Phone service. If you use iPhone, for now it is not a service you can access yet.

So, if you have an Android smartphone, Windows Phone or Blackberry, and open the Chrome browser, here is how you can configure everything to use WhatsApp on PC.

WhatsApp comes to Computers via web browser, finally

Moovit, the Revolution of Public Transport

Moovit is a company founded in 2012 in Israel by Nir Erez, Roy Bick, and Yaron Evron. The app with the same name, has currently over 15 million users. The idea behind Moovit is providing real and accurate information about Public Transport. With this app, you can plan the best route to go from point A to point B.

The strongest point of Moovit is that they use crowdsourced data. It means that the users contribute to provide information about delays, problems in the routes, or even seats availability. So, the app offers not only information regarding train, bus and metro schedules, but also about any information related with the route we are interested in.

The app started with support for a few cities, but currently there are more than 500 cities available from 45 different countries, including Los Ángeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Miami, Nueva York, Londres, Los Ángeles, Roma, París, Sao Paulo, Río de Janeiro, Bogotá, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, México D. F., Sidney, Toronto and Tel Aviv. You can check here the full list of cities supported.

The amount of information available is different depending on the country, but Moovit offers some other features beside the traveling planes:

Live & Local. With this mode you can discover nearby stations or search for some specific lines to see live arrival and departure times.

Transit Assistant. This mode provides step-by-step walking directions.

Service Alerts & Advisories. You will be always up-to-date with real-time schedules and all the notifications regarding possible problems on the routes you usually take.

Comprehensive Station Maps. This mode provides an overview of your local transit maps.

Another interesting feature that Moovit has already started to implement is the possibility to buy ticket transport directly from the app. This feature is very handy specially if we are tourist in a foreign city and have just looked for the best way to travel from one place to another. The, after we check the possibilities, we can just buy the tickets and take the transport. Easy, simple and great.

It's really an interesting and useful app, and this last years they had received several award, such as MTA App Quest 2013 Popular Choice Award, Best App at the Smart Cities Expo World Conference 2013 and one of the top ten Most Promising Sart Ups in Israel by Ernst and Young.

The app is free and it's available for iOS and Android users. You can download it from the App Store and the Google Play respectively.

Crossy Road gets one million dollars in two month

There are games that manage to catch the interest of the player. There are a few games that find a successful balance between free game-play an in-app purchases. SuperCell has successfully launched two of those games: Clash of Clans and Hay Day, and now, Hipster Whale has also find the magical recipe with Crossy Road.

Crossy Road is basically a new version of Frogger, a game where the player control a chicken that tries to cross rivers and highways. The objective is just run as far as possible without getting crushed by any of the multiple dangers, no matter if it's a car driving directly at you, a hungry eagle or just some crazy rapids.

Crossy Road follows a very similar structure, but with a few differences that makes the gameplay more apt for quick sessions. You have just one life, so if you get hit by a car a single time, the game is over. Oh, and you do feel the impact!

The controls are really simple: with a tap, you move forward, and with swiping, you can move to any of the four directions. It's a bit tricky to go perfectly horizontally, but it's not something that you need to do very often... as your objective is just move forward and avoid being hit.

Regarding it's monetary aspect, the game is absolutely free to play. You can get as far as you want without spending a single cent. However, you can get some kind of bonuses for a few bucks. You can pay to get some different characters to play with, some of the with just aesthetic differences and some of them with special abilities, such as a Mad Wizard able to blow up trees. Each character can be acquired for $0.99, but you can also get them by playing in a lottery game.

While you play, you collect coins, and after joining 100 of them, you can unlock a new character. The point is that you can get those coins by playing the game or also by looking at some video adds. These adds are completely optional to watch, but for each video you look at, you will get some gift.

This is the secret hidden below the free-to-play system. You can chose either or not spend any money in the game and you can also chose if you want to see video adds or not. And even if you decided you don't want to watch them or pay for the new characters, you can also get them just by playing the game and earning coins in a more traditional way.

With this strategy, Crossy Road has managed to get more than one million dollars in just two months. If you want to give it a try, you can find it available for iOS and Android devices. It's free to download at the App Store and the Google Play respectively.

Source: TouchArcade.

Flockers, the new game from Team 17

Team 17, the developers of the well-known Worms, has presented a new game: Flockers. It's been 10 years since they launched the first version of Worms, and the game is still a success. However, 10 years is quite a long time, and they have now another game ready. Flockers will try to find a place among the many game available for mobile devices, and it uses Worm's popularity to make us want to give it a try.

Flockers uses some of the characters we all know and love from the classic Worms game. Now we control a flock of sheep that try to escape from the control of their cruel masters: the worms. It's a Lemmings-style puzzle game, where we need to create an escaping route for the sheep that try to go from point A to point B across a deathly dangerous path.

In the very same way that we all have done when playing Lemmings, we should sacrifice a few of them in order to save the flock, avoiding the buzz saws, spikes, swinging cleavers and whatever deathly obstacle the worms have decided to use to block their escape.

We need to plan carefully the route, using all the tools available, but we also need to save all the sheep before the count down of the timer triggers an explosion for the remaining members of the flock.

Flockers has 60 levels organized in increasing difficulty, and 18 types of sheep to look out for (with pirate and robot sheep among many others). With the points we get in each mission, we can get items to customize our flock and unlock more levels.

It is available for Android and iOS for $1,99. The game has in-app purchases, but they are not required to play the game, they just let you get special sheep before you unlock them in a more traditional way (what means, by reaching certain level).

Flockers has been available in other gaming platforms for some months, and it had collected all sort of reviews. If you like worms and you enjoyed Lemmings, there's a good chance that you have a good time with Flockers.

Source: AndroidPolice.

Dragon Mania Legends for Android, the new game from Gameloft to raise and collect dragons

Due to the nature of smartphones and tablet PCs and their use in dead times, we find that casual games, such as Space Liner or Dragon Mania Legends usually have a good reception on them. So many important companies in the field of games for smartphones and tablet PCs do not neglect their casual catalog. In this article we bring a recent case, a new popular casual game from company Gameloft.

  

Collecting dragons is what Gameloft proposed with Dragon Mania Legends, a casual game in which players will have to rebuild the Dragoland island raising more than 100 species of dragons to become powerful warriors to fight the Vikings.

In Dragon Mania Legends player will have to go creating different habitats to achieve different types of dragons, feed them, pet them, train them and cross them with each other to get stronger species. With the dragons, you will have to fight 3 on 3 battles to explore more than 100 areas of interest, complete missions, defend against enemies to become the Lord of the dragons.

Dragon Mania Legends is a free downloadable game with built that will allow us to buy with real money to typical gems and coins that will serve to avoid wait times and unlock new objects shopping.

Gameloft is an international company dedicated to develop and edit video games for mobile devices. Headquartered in France, with offices around the world. Gameloft is listed on the Paris stock exchange.

Gameloft had 4,000 employees on the payroll at the end of 2007, 50% more than the end of 2006 and had a profit of $ 92 million in 2006 and 140 million in 2007. The company develops games for mobile phones and also to portable consoles like Nintendo DS, PlayStation portable, iPod Touch, Symbian, Android and iPhone.

Source: Xataka

Dynamic Keyboard, keypad that changes size according your needs

Dynamic Keyboard is an innovative keyboard app that brings a different approach: keyboard letters change their size as we write. Available from Google Play.

Since this is one of the applications that we use on our phones, we must properly choose it because otherwise we can take big headaches.

There are a lot of applications with different text entry methods. The best results is given me Swiftkey with Flow mode allows writing by sliding your finger over the letters but other excellent really worth it.

What I bring today is a new keyboard app you really promises. It is Dynamic Keyboard, which has the distinction of using word prediction to modify the size of the keys you need to use. For example, if you press the letter "P", vowels and the letter "R" larger will be shown as they are the keys most likely will press, while the "H", the "T" and all letters is unlikely you type appear smaller.

I think this is a very interesting and innovative approach that can have excellent results.

Dynamic Keyboard also features a lot of topics to choose from 19 different languages (you are more on the way) and compatibility with tablets. There are also a lot of animations that can be turned on / off according to our taste and integration with Google Voice on some devices.

The only downside is that if you want to Dynamic Keyboard self-correcting words it can't, but the app developer Alastair Breeze promises that soon will be incorporated.

In his own words, a keyboard as you type that Changes to aid typing. Smart, fast and accurate. Dynamic Keyboard is the world's first dynamic keyboard. Rather than being obtrusive and ugly like predictive typing, this keyboard aids your current method of typing to increase accuracy without wasting screen space.

For Example : If you press the ‘h’ key, the e,o,u,i and y keys expand as commonly the h key would be followed by these letters. When they grow, they are now more likely to be triggered, and keys like z etc stay small as they are unlikely to be needed.

Features:

Predictive Characters to aid your accuracy and speed change size
Smooth Animations
Full Customization (Pro Only)
Colors or presets to choose from (Pro Only)
Many Shortcuts (eg swipe left = delete last word, double tap space or shift)
Tablet Optimized
Tablet Split Mode (Pro Only)
Battery Optimized
Multiple languages at same time. (Pro Only)
Safe
Easy To Setup
Google Voice Integrated! (Selected 4.0+ only)
Auto-correct (4.0+ only)
HD Fonts

Sony, Philips and Sharp will launch in spring Google's Android TV

This spring, Sony, TP Vision (Philips) and Sharp will launch their first Android TVs. Finally, we have get to know when is coming to market the first Android TV. Google has confirmed that this spring, Sony, Sharp and TP Vision will launch its first models with Android operating system designed especially for TVs, game consoles and set-top boxes.

So far it seems that Sony, Sharp and Philips seems to be the first manufacturers to integrate this bet on Android TV on the 2015 range of TVs to deliver the best customer experience. Android TV users could enjoy movies, series, videos, music, applications and games with an interface especially designed for TVs.

To be out February, it also will sell the console Razer Forge TV (Android TV) at the price of 99.99 euros as an alternative to Google Nexus Player, allowing us to enjoy this on any TV with Android TV.

In the list of partners that are committed to Android TV we see Huawei also considering launching a compatible device, it is for sure a new media center/console.

Sony Corporation is a Japanese electronics company that, among other things produces mobile phones, cameras, televisions, MP3 players, PlayStation and more. Sony really hit the commercial market with the Walkman in the eighties. 

Philips is a Dutch producer of technological devices such as VHS and Video 2000 machines, CD media and Senseo coffee machine. The company is based in Eindhoven. 

Sharp Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. The headquarters are in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan. The Group had about 55,580 employees worldwide in June 2011 and a turnover of 2.455 billion. yen. The company was founded in September 1912 and was named after the founder's first invention Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil one, invented by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1915. Since then it has developed into one of the world's leading electronics companies. Sharp is the world's fifth largest manufacturer of flat screen televisions.

Source: Android

MediaTek MT2601, the new low-power chip for Android Wear devices

MediaTek also attacks the 'wearables' market  with its first  ultra-low power chipset for Android Wear. MediaTek MT2601 has been announce as a new processor specially designed for Android Wear devices, for wearables and cost-efficient.

The chip company presents an ARM Cortex A7 processor of two cores, with ARM Mali-400 GPU and supports qHD screen (more than enough for the actual resolution in the field of wearables). This new MT2601 chip also has support for Bluetooth with MT6630 SoC.

Consumption of this MT2601 has also been controlled to exactly fit the type of energy efficient required by current smartwatches, namely 41.5% have less internal components and energy consumption mobile alternatives.

There seems to Android Wear finished completely off, although it is clear that the wearable devices have become the major workhorse for the future market of consumer electronics. That is why none of the actors want to lose camber, and even hardware manufacturers entrenched positions, as a MediaTek just introduced its new MediaTek MT2601 chipset specifically designed for wearables. 

The processor is already in production and will surely soon begin receiving competition. Currently most Android Wear watches come with a Snapdragon 400, a processor that does not fit exactly what smartwatches seek.We'll see if MediaTek manages to find the key to get wearables below 100 euros and to those who have all the latest Android Wear.

Now it is time to see how this type of processors specifically manufactured for wearables evolves. In a world of smartphones and tablets we have seen a struggle between Qualcomm, MediaTek and NVIDIA, would be interesting to see what come next between those in the smartwatches world. 

MediaTek, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and distributes products as components for wireless communications, optical storage, GPS, HDTV and DVD. The company was founded on May 28 1997 and is headquartered in Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park in Hsinchu City, Taiwan, with subsidiaries engaged in sales and research in mainland China, Singapore, India, Japan, South Korea, EE. UU., Denmark and UK. Currently, the company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Source: Fonearena

Line does not want you to be root

Line, one of the world's most famous instant messaging services is sending messages to those users with rooted smartphones and is showing them that they can't play games included on this application because they could cheat.

As you know, on Hexamob we are big fans of the utilities that we can achieve if we root our Android phones. Through this process we can improve many aspects of our phone as sound, camera or even have applications that extend the experience of Android.

But it seems today it is not well seen. While users have come to appreciate the benefits of doing root, now we discover that there are companies that it does not benefit them at all. This is the case of Line, in the latest update to its application Line Disney Tsum Tsum has included a control that not allow you to play if you're root.

If you have a rooted phone, you can try the application and see. First it will start correctly but when you press the "Play" button an error pop-up message will appear, which says it has detected one or more utilities for cheating. This message, as we have said, only displays for those users who have rooted terminal.

While it is true that in-app payments are an important source of income for many developers, the existence of applications to avoid these payments does not justify the prohibition of something as useful as the root, because being root is not cheating.

Actually, that's not the first that time the Japanese company hampers root users to use its games, since some patches for games previously had the same problem. Line seemed to be getting under this error with rooted devices, returning to this very misguided policy. But there are also good news. You can play Line Pop in rooted device by using the app OTA RootKeeper.

Do not forget that the application Line Corporation has more than 500 million users worldwide. The service was born in Japan after the earthquake of March 2011, which caused a fall of telephony services. Line is an instant messaging application for mobile phones, PC and Mac. In addition to basic messaging, you can send images, videos, audio messages and make calls VoIP. The application is renowned for its unique system of stickers, replacing traditional icons.

Source: XDA-Developers