Sunday, March 27, 2011

Android Phone Fans

Android Phone Fans

BodyMedia Fit Will Help Sprint Customers Track Their Active Life [Video]

Posted: 27 Mar 2011 11:48 AM PDT

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The folks at BodyMedia introduced me to a new product they’re working on in conjunction with Sprint. It’s called BodyMedia Fit and is a wrist-band that records your vitals, calorie loss and sleeping habits as long as you’re wearing it. At first glance it looks to be a tool for workout buffs to track their workouts and stay in shape, but it’s tailored toward anyone who wants to take on a more active lifestyle and lose a few pounds.

BodyMedia encourages people to wear this “watch” 24 hours a day – whether you’re going for a run or washing the dishes. At the end of each day, BodyMedia will give you a rank to let you know how active you were. A lazy day would net you the moniker of “slouch”, while being a busy-body would get you something a bit more desirable.

The unit communicates with the user’s phone via Bluetooth and will sync all of the information you need to it. From there, the phone will sync to the BodyMedia website where you can also track your day-to-day performance. (You can also update your account without a phone by using a USB cable.) We’re told BodyMedia will be bringing a new 3G version sometime down the line that’ll work on Sprint’s network to sync your data without needing to use Bluetooth.

One of the more interesting aspects of BodyMedia Fit is its sleep monitoring feature. Through some exact science that I wasn’t previously aware of, the firm claims that your quality of sleep can affect your weight loss endeavour. The website itself also has a food log that you can use to keep track of what you eat.

With Sprint, they’ll be introducing the service via Sprint ID, the carrier’s customization initiative that allows users to apply different themes and apps depending on what type of person they are or what they need. I asked if it’d be a part of its own ID pack or a bigger “fitness” pack from Sprint but wasn’t able to get a clear answer. Regardless, it looks cool and I’m sure a lot of people will be excited to try this.

This is only for those who are serious about losing weight and want to track every bit of their calorie loss whether they’re inside of a gym or not. I note this because the cheapest armband package will cost you about $200 before taxes. Steep, right? The technology they use to make all of this possible is advanced stuff, though, so I can understand why the cost of admission is so high. Check out more details at BodyMedia’s website today.

Monster Madness for Android Shows Ease of Porting Titles [Video]

Posted: 27 Mar 2011 09:59 AM PDT

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If you know anything about Android game development, you’d know that porting titles can sometimes be very costly in many ways. It consumes time, money, and other resources that studios could be putting toward creating their newest games. For this very reason, the gaming scene on Android wasn’t the greatest when it first launched.

A lot of time has passed since 2008, though, and the market had a breakout year in 2010. This is due largely in part to the advent of cross-platform game development engines adding support for Android. Some of the most popular iOS titles are now being ported to Android as the engines they use allow them to port their games in a very short amount of time. (Some have done it in as little as two days.)

Southpeak Studios shows us that you can go even further than that with a game that’s using an engine that does not yet have proper Android support. They created the title Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia. The game was originally released for the Xbox 360 and used the Unreal Engine to power its graphics and physics. As we know, Unreal is taking quite a long time to add Android support to their offering.

Even without official support, Southpeak told me they were able to port the title in a little under a month. I wasn’t afforded the full slate of details about how they did it, but the important thing is that they did it. I’m always glad to hear success stories like this because I know it’ll encourage more developers to port their titles knowing that the experience doesn’t have to be expensive and time consuming.

They showed me the game running on a Tegra 2 device – the Motorola Atrix 4G It’s about four years old and wasn’t the most demanding game in terms of graphics for its time, but it still surprised me just how fast they got this thing published for Android. There are tons of games on the Xbox Live marketplace that I can see being good ports for Android and I’m hopeful other studios will follow suit.

The game itself is pretty fun. It can be a bit mindless at times, but there’s a bit of substance to go along with it and things get a lot more fun as you collect more weapons and advance to different areas. You can find the Tegra 2-optimized game in the Android market today for $4.99.
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