Video: How to play Tegra games without Tegra

Nvidia's Tegra is truly one tricked-out processor that supports some of the latest and greatestAndroid games. But what if you wanted to play next-gen titles on older, non-Tegra hardware?

Of course, buying a new smartphone or tablet would be the best option, but well, times are kind of rough and not everyone can afford to spring for fresh gear.

Fortunately, XDA-Dev members have coded an intermediary OpenGL driver which can be used to play (some) Tegra-specific games on non-Tegra Android devices.

Known as Chainfire3D, the driver sits between your apps and the graphics drivers, and can intercept and/or change commands between the two. It also boasts some built-in functions, and can be further extended with plugins to provide extra functionality.

Obviously, not all Tegra games work on every Android device with Chainfire 3D - and you still have to configure whatever you download correctly after using the "fix market settings" feature. 

But hey, if you don’t want to shell out the cash for a new device and have the time, you just might want to give Chainfire3D a try here.

Note: Chainfire3D is not compatible with Android Honeycomb.

[Via XDA-Devs & Android Police]

Strange Console Lets You Play Android Games On Your TV

Say you really like Angry Birds. Like really. And you want to play it at home on a big screen. How would you go about doing that? Putting your phone in a projector? Dropping your phone in a fish tank to refract the screen? Or getting one of these decidedly odd consoles that run Android natively and include full joysticks and A/V out?

The Evo 2 console has a Samsung processor, “Nvidia graphics,” Wi-Fi, and a joystick remote. Plans are in the works for motion controllers and the device supports optical audio and HDMI. It costs $149 for the dev-kit or you can pre-order this bit of vaporware for $15. Like many famous consoles of yore, however, I think this thing will end up being more a Phantom than an Android-Style XBox.

Product Page

New Android EVO 2 Console Offer Gamers Premium Android Games Free

It’s Your Social Connection, Your Media Storage Device, and Game App Console

Media Advisory

ANNISTON, Ala./May 25, 2011 — Today, the Envizions Computer Entertainment Corporation announced that its new Android-based game console EVO 2 will be available this fall in the U.S. with goals of an international release with availability in certain locations of Europe. EVO 2 earlier adopters can pre-order the system at http://store.envizionsinc.com from the Envizions online store.

The new EVO 2 console will retail for $249 and include an EVO TV remote, EVO game controller and HDMI cable. Specifications include a Samsung 1.2 GHZ processor, DDR2-512MB, and support modified Android 2.2 operating system. The EVO 2 dimensions are 170mm (L) 111mm (W) 30mm (T)

EVO 2 is the first Android gaming console that will offer users real time gaming playlist and social friend connections. Gamers will also have the opportunity to earn points to purchase premium Android games free with EVO tokens. The system will ship equip with game cloud storage and Envizions new Qquip SMS blogging reward service. To ensure that the EVO 2 system surpasses expectations, Envizions plans to add motion 3D sensor capabilities toward the end of fourth quarter in 2011 and developers can start testing the software via website download in two weeks. EVO 2 will incorporate the core software components of Envizions’ beta EVO Smart Console released in 2009.

EVO 2 is an open console and gamers can modify any part of the system. New updates and upgrades will be released periodically after the system launch.

Android developers can get the free EVO hardware SDK today from the Envizions store with a required annual $149 software support fee per unit. Developer fees and royalties are waived for the first 1000 developers.”Game development for EVO 2 is cheaper for developers so they have the opportunity to create games on a platform that will increase their return on investment. Developers can also submit pre-existing Android games”, stated Derrick Samuels the CEO and Founder of Envizions.

And last, the EVO 2 is the first crowd source and social participation console. Envizions will let customers participate in the design roadmap of the console by means of Twitter, FaceBook and the new EVO 2 website. The community can vote on the system’s first launch location and the appearance of the console in terms of color, package design, and product image.

Five best free audio players on Android

Applications that improve your music listening experience.

The stock media player in your Android smartphone offers basic functionality, which is good for a basic music listener but it will never satisfy a music enthusiast. Today smartphone manufacturers are trying to add better and better audio related hardware in their smartphones in order to turn them into perfect all in one devices.

Smartphones offer much more functionality compared to feature phones, and with3G networks spreading across India at a faster pace, data accessibility using smartphones has increased multi fold: 3G networks have given way to extremely fast data transfer speeds for video and audio streaming etc.

In terms of multimedia and entertainment, smartphones are preferred to media players because they offer more functionality than the average media player does, but as mentioned earlier, the stock players on Android are good enough for a basic job. For more fussy listeners there are better apps available from the Android store. Here we have the five best free audio player applications available on Android Market that will definitely amplify your music listening experience:

Double Twist player

Ever wonder how much time an average person spends syncing his playlists and songs on his PC, phone and other devices? Double Twist helps save that time by allowing users to sync their mobile phones or Android devices with the music stored on their computer over the air without any wires.

This application recognizes the audio files on your computer, from among which the user can select the sync list for the device and once the application is started on the smartphone, all data is synced using wireless connections or WiFi. The application also allows Mac users to sync Android devices using iTunes.

TuneWiki

It often happens that we do not understand the lyrics of a song while listening to it, especially when the song is not in our mother tongue. There are also times when we want to quote from a song we like. Here's where TuneWiki comes to the rescue. Apart from being just a media player TuneWiki also displays live lyrics with the song being played.

With lyrics translated in over 40 languages, the TuneWiki player can search for lyrics to over 2.5 million songs. All the user needs is an active internet connection along with an updated song library. Now just go ahead and listen to your tune and sing along with it.

Mort Player

What is the use of putting songs in different folders when your audio player cannot understand the way you have segregated the music and still plays it on the basis of the artist or album? If you are also suffering from the same problem then shift to Mort Player, which remembers folders and displays songs based on their location regardless of the artist tag.

Now there's no need to struggle through the playlist for finding that favourite song, which you forgot and are now unable to locate. Just go to the folder you saved it in and start jamming.

Mood Agent

The Mood Agent application is a smart audio player that identifies different types of music and recommends songs based on the listener's mood. Users do not need to tag music to any particular mood. This the app does automatically. The user does need to choose his mood from among a list of options though.

Users are free to use this application to play selected tracks if they do not want to use the song suggestion feature. First-time users will need to have both patience and an active internet connection as Mood Agent will catalog the music library and will share info with its online servers, which in turn tag the songs for different moods.

btunes

The btunes application is unique due to its simple design, which is based on the iTunes player on iPhone with bigger, easy to access buttons for almost every function.

So if you also love the way this app looks, or want to jazz up your audio player iTunes style, look no further.

Android Napster vs Music by Google

Google’s recently announced Music Beta should be a quick and easy way to stream music on the go when it makes it’s way over to UK Android phones. However, another exciting service has beaten it to the punch – Napster for Android has finally been released in this country. How do the two services match up?

Structure

Napster has turned itself from peer-to-peer music industry-botherer to subscription-based streaming service over the space of a decade or so. It now runs very much like Spotify, and this new Android app allows you to stream unlimited music (from a choice of 13 million tracks) to your mobile in much the same way. You don’t own this music, but you do have the right to play it as many times as you like while your subscription is active.

By contrast, Google Music Beta on your Android will only allow you to stream the music you’ve bought from other sources, and then ‘only’ 20,000 tracks. The idea is to upload your CDs and MP3s to the cloud, which will allow you to then access them from any computer or Android device over Wi-Fi or 3G.

Costs

Music Beta from Google is free to our US cousins at present, but it’s highly unlikely to stay that way. The clue is in the ‘Beta’ tag – in other words Google is using early subscribers (by invitation only) to test the functionality of the application while it tweaks and adds to it. It won’t charge for this mutually beneficial arrangement right now, but by the time the service loses its Beta tag it almost certainly will.

Napster’s more far-reaching functionality sets you back £10 a month, which seems to be just about the going rate for such services (it’s the same as Spotify, for example). There’s a seven day free trial, which lets you try out the full feature-set, and you can even get a taster of streaming music without signing up.

Extras

Napster goes beyond simply offering the music – it also provides recommendations based on editorial advice and billboard charts. It also shows you new releases, and provides Last.fm-style custom radio stations based on genre.

By contrast, Google Music Beta is a bare-bones offering that offers no such recommendations. It’s understandable, though, given that Google doesn’t actually provide the music – it simply hosts it. Still, a little personality and focus wouldn’t go amiss in such a competitive market.

Offline modes

Both services offer a limited offline facility, which helps you out when no internet connection is available. Napster caches the last 100 tracks you played, which makes them available to play regardless of connection.

Google Music Beta also caches your recently played tracks, though it’s unclear how many at this stage. You can also opt to “pin” tracks to your device, which effectively downloads them over a period of time, so that you can keep your favourite tracks and albums to hand at all times.

Music to our ears

Ultimately, the two services are in very different states and are setting out to do slightly different things. Google’s Music Beta is aimed at making the music that you already own more accessible, more mobile and more secure.

Meanwhile Napster offers the established “unlimited music” service, where you can listen to anything you want (within reason – those with less mainstream tastes will doubtless be disappointed from time to time), but you’ll never actually own any of it.

We can see Google eventually adding the kind of music buying and/or subscription functionality that will really cause discord with Napster. Until then, though, the two services appear to be in almost perfect harmony.

Droid X to see Gingerbread (2.4) on May 27

Motorola and Verizon Wireless are expected to deploy Android 2.3 to the Droid X on Friday, May 27. The Gingerbread update is rather sizable at 112MB, but it comes with a host of new features and enhancements including a new download manager app, application grouping, and an updated user interface (see our Samsung Nexus S reviewfor the full Gingerbread features). Additionally, it should be easier to enter numbers and symbols, copy and paste text, and manage contacts.

In addition to the typical stability and general performance tweaks, Verizon has also improved upon the calendar, camera, and e-mail functions. More specifically, the update addresses bugs and missing features on the Exchange Active Sync side of things.

As is the case with many mobile software updates, the Gingerbread rollout will be in waves. Should you find yourself not wanting to wait your turn, you can initiate the update by searching for the update in your Droid X's settings. Verizon has a dedicated page to help walk users through the software update if necessary.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo Review

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo combines excellent functionality and reasonable price to give you an excellent smartphone that will definitely stand out.

The market has been saturated with Android devices, but the Xperia Neo’s 3.7-inch screen enhanced with Mobile Bravia technology and an 8.1-megapixel sensor does manage to break through and shine on its own.

The Xperia Neo’s 3.7-inch screen is capable of resolutions up to 480 x 854 pixels. The LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen comes with Sony’s Mobile Bravia engine, which gives clearer, more saturated colors to your screen. When turned on, the software enhancement definitely shows noticeable improvement in overall image quality. The only problem is its low legibility under sunlight.

The Xperia Neo’s body is round and curvy. The Neo is not that thin, but its not bulky either. There are three physical keys on the front, a lock button, volume rocker and camera shutter key all on the right. The front holds a large VGA front facing camera with proximity and light sensors. At the back is the 8.1-megapixel auto-focus camera equipped with LED flash. Finally, a 3.5mm headset jack sits on top, encircled by lid-protected microUSB and HDMI ports.

The Xperia Neo comes in with the latest version of Android – 2.3 Gingerbread. It is ran by a 2nd generation single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset clocked at 1GHz with Adreno 205 graphics. RAM memory stands at the healthy 512MB.

As with all Sony Ericsson smartphones, the Neo comes with Sony Ericssons proprietary user interface. It changes the lockscreen, the home screen which allows you to pinch to zoom out and get an overview of all the active widgets, neatly arranged to fit the screen, and a transparent main menu panel supporting easy app rearrangement in an alphabetical, most used or recently installed order. The whole UI is spiced up with very smooth animations, which you can opt to turn off from the settings menu.

The stock Android browser supports Adobe Flash and runs fairly smoothly. Pinch-to-zoom and double taps all work flawlessly. The browser also supports text wrapping, so you get a better view of the text when you zoom in.

As for connectivity, the Xperia Neo offers almost everything. It comes with HSPA, supporting down speeds of up to 10.2Mbps, Wi-Fi b/g/n, hotspot functionality, DLNA , GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 and a microSD slot supporting cards of up to 32GB. It’s a global, quad-band GSM device, so you can use it without a problem when you travel abroad.

As for its camera, the 8.1-megapixel camera with LED flash is one of the best camera for a smartphone. Sony’s EXMOR R sensor improves significantly low-light performance. This is one of the main selling point for this phone. In terms of manual settings you have plenty to choose from including focusing and scene settings with only effects like black and white shots and sepia missing.

For video recordings, you have 720p HD capture at 30 frames per second. You can also use the LED flash to illuminate nightly scenes. The 1GHz processor runs videos encoded at up to 720p without a hitch. With the phone’s HDMI cable, you just have to get an HDMI cable to stream that content seamlessly to your HD TV. The 3.7-inch wide screen with punchy colors delivered by the Mobile Bravia engine is a valuable asset when you turn to video playback, but the handset doesn’t support DivX/Xvid codecs out of the box.

The phone’s 1500mAh battery gives users 7 hours of talk time on a 3G network.

Firefox 5.0 Android Beta – 1st Mobile Browser With “Do Not Track” Privacy

New Firefox 5.0 Android Beta enables private browsing with addition of Do Not Track feature. Also increase page load speeds for 3G network connections.

Mozilla has announced the release of Firefox 5.0 Android Beta, and the mobile browser adds a number of features that boost speed and privacy for users.

“Firefox for Android is the first mobile Web browser to offer the Do Not Track privacy feature,” said Mozilla in a blog post. “Mozilla introduced Do Not Track to give users more control over the way their browsing behavior is tracked and used online. It enables users to tell websites if they prefer to opt-out of online behavioral tracking.”

The Do Not Track feature is easy to configure, and prefrences behave in the same fashion as they would if used on a Do Not Track-enabled desktop browser.

“The web on your phone should be the same web as on your desktop, so to provide this consistency we’ve put the exact same Do Not Track feature in both the desktop and mobile versions of Firefox,” it added.

Firefox 5.0 Android Beta also boosts page load speed, particularly on 3G networks.

Grab the latest beta of Firefox for Android and check out the feature for yourself. 

Stay tuned.

Google set to introduce mobile wallet in Android devices

Apart from Android phones, iPhones are also likely to have mobile payment technology embedded in them. Analysts believe that near field communication based mobile payment systems are likely to be the next big thing in commerce.

Google is set to reveal its digital wallet feature in New York on May 26. The digital wallet will allow users to pay for items through their Android phones. According to a Reuters report, the service will initially be available on phones from Sprint Nextel Corp.

The mobile payment system from Google will be powered by Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and will help users reduce dependence on credit cards for shopping. The technology enables mobile phones to transmit data to other devices from a distance of about four inches.

It allows users to pay for retail items by holding their phones close to a specialised reader at the payment counters of stores, theatres and other such commercial outlets.

Google will work with Mastercard and Citigroup to develop the system. The mobile payment system was first conceptualised about 10 years ago, and it is yet to become as commonplace as credit or debit cards are.

According to a Gartner Research Report, mobile payment systems using NFC are likely to reach $245 billion by 2014. As is typical of Google, the database generated by such payments is expected to be shared with retail businesses for generating targeted advertisements.

In India, the financial giant Citigroup had already conducted a field trial of the service way back in 2009 in partnership with Nokia, Mastercard, Vodafone and Vivotech in Bengaluru. Known as Tip and Pay, the pilot programme allowed users to make payments at department stores, restaurants and fast food chains, book stores, food courts and multiplexes.

Google's effort, if successful, has the potential of making its way to India too considering Citigroup's programme. Google in any case has a global footprint so its presence in India is a likely possibility.