Raj Agrawal

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‘Tegra Zone’ For Nvidia Tegra Mobile Games Is Now Available

March 2, 2011 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

Free App Ties into Google Android Market, Provides Quick Access to Richest Games for Tegra-powered Super Phones and Tablets.

NVIDIA announced today that the Tegra Zone™ app is now live on the Android Market, providing a one-stop destination for consumers seeking the richest games for their super phone or tablet powered by the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 mobile super chip.

The free app delivers a curated selection of Tegra processor-optimized games, as well as professional game reviews, high-res screenshots, HD video trailers, gameplay videos and behind-the-scenes featurettes. Sale and delivery of users’ selected games are completed using Google’s Android Market.

Games on Tegra Zone apps are especially enhanced for Tegra 2 super chip-powered devices, and are more realistic and interactive.  Among those selected as launch titles are Dungeon Defenders: First Wave Deluxe HD, the first game available for Android that’s built on Unreal Engine 3; Samurai II: Vengeance; and Galaxy on Fire 2 THD. A complete list is provided below.

Introduced over the past several months in a variety of super phones and tablets, the Tegra 2 super chip is finding a growing market, particularly among those interested in console-quality gaming on their mobile device. It is built with the world’s first mobile dual-core CPU – which unleashes the best Web experience, with up two-times faster browsing and support for full Adobe® Flash® Player hardware GPU acceleration, plus unprecedented multitasking capabilities. It also includes an NVIDIA GeForce® GPU – which provides stunningly rich visual experiences and console-quality gaming.

Vendetta Online screen shot
A screen capture from the game ‘Vendetta Online’

NVIDIA has worked closely with game developers to enhance games for the Tegra 2 super chip, bringing such features as:

  • More realism: Increased geometry detail, higher resolution textures and complex shaders, lighting, and shadows.
  • More interactivity: Larger number of characters on screen and more instances of independent animations
  • Extra challenging: Advanced artificial intelligence processing , complex world and player management
  • Improved game play: More levels to tackle and more equipment for gaming characters to use
  • Better game play and an enhanced shopping experience

Tegra Zone Highlights:

The first Tegra super chip-enhanced games include:

  • Samurai II: Vengeance, by MADFINGER Games:  A hack-and-slash action game with stylized manga graphics and quick, bloody gameplay. On par with console 3D brawlers, Samurai II: Vengeance takes advantage of the raw processing power of Tegra 2 with four times more texture resolution on characters, increased geometry for more realism, and completely redesigned knockdown moves.
  • Dungeon Defenders: First Wave Deluxe HD, by Trendy Entertainment: Combines the depth of strategic gaming with the satisfying action of RPG character building, in a beautifully stylized cartoon fantasy setting. The Tegra-enhanced version includes dynamic lighting schemes and advanced post-processing effects, as well as the same number of maps and game play levels on PC and Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) versions. Due to the graphics capabilities of the Tegra 2 processor, players can join in multiplayer, cross-platform games across super phones, tablets, PCs and the PS3.
  • Galaxy on Fire 2 THD, by Fishlabs: Epic sci-fi adventure with spectacular action, compelling story and a free gameplay unparalleled in depth and complexity, available for the first time on Android. The Tegra super chip-enhanced version renders the action at a consistently smooth frame rate, and includes more detailed spaceships with much higher quality textures.
  • Backbreaker THD, by Natural Motion:  An intense, arcade football experience that looks even better and is more interactive when enhanced on a Tegra 2 processor. This version features high-quality textures on the characters, field and stadium and more rendered content, such as real-time action replay on the “Jumbotron” scoreboard. Also look for realistic shadow effects and dynamic lighting effects such as lens flares.
  • Fruit Ninja THD, by Halfbrick Studios: A juicy action game with squishy, splatty and satisfying fruit carnage. The Tegra 2 super chip-enhanced version is the definitive version of the best-selling game and adds special graphic detail and effects, including smoother edges on the fruit models, more geometry and realistic shading and lighting.
  • Vendetta Online, by Guild Software: 3D space combat, massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that permits thousands of players to interact as the pilots of spaceships in a vast universe, available for the first time on a mobile device. The Tegra super chip -enhanced version is the first cross-platform space MMO and allows gamers to play against PC players and other mobile players in the same universe.
  • Monster Madness, by SouthPeak Games: A top-down action/shooting game where players fight off the monster invasion in four-player melee action.  This game takes advantage of NVIDIA PhysX® technology for realistic in-game physics effects. The Tegra processor-enhanced version is graphically identical to the console version in every way.
  • Hardwood Solitaire IV, by Silver Creek Entertainment: A beautiful rendition of 10 classic solitaire games. Ported from the PC and Xbox 360 versions, the Tegra 2 super chip version incorporates real-time lighting and shadows in their game environments and adds new 1080p high-resolution textures for the card faces and backs.

Filed Under: Consumer Technology Tagged With: Android, nvidia

Sync And Control Android Phones From Your Computer [Android]

March 2, 2011 by Raj Agrawal 1 Comment

— AndroidPC project has been withdrawn by its author. Hence, this article is no longer valid —

AndroidPC v.2.0 is one of the best mobile managing suits available for Android phones, enabling the users to quickly connect their Android phones with the computer, regardless of the operating system, whether it be linux, mac or windows. The user can easily send and receive SMS, calls, get desktop notifications for incoming calls and messages, sync contacts and messages with the computer.

I’ve been hunting for a mobile managing suite since the day I bought an Android powered HTC Wildfire. Mobile managing suits really help to make things more convenient to control your cell phones without having the need to physically touch them. I recently discovered this tiny app called ‘AndroidPC’ that performs much more than it’s size. It allows the users to connect and take control of Android phones with a computer bearing a Mac, Linux or Windows operating system. It is compatible literally with any operating system.

android green
Android!

In order to use AndroidPC, you need to install AndroidPC app on the phone and a provided Java App on your computer.

  • Make sure you have a Java Runtime Environment install on your computer, or else get it from Java’s website:
  • With that, get AndroidPC for your phone from the Android market or with the QR code:
qrcode androidpc
Scan this QR Code
  • At last, you need a working Wi Fi connection (I know that sucks, but for now this the only connectivity path the app supports) and follow the steps from this link: Installation – How To

To summarize, here are some key facts about AndroidPC,

The Goodness –

  • Runs on all operating system platforms
  • Low on system resources
  • Small size
  • Receive and make a phone call from PC
  • Send and receive files on Android phones
  • Manage contact information and messages
  • Reply to messages from PC without the need of touching the phone
  • View your phone’s information
  • Missed call list

What sucks –

  • With the version 2.0, you can only use the suite with a working Wi Fi connection, the author is working on adding the USB support in the upcoming versions.
  • No support for Bluetooth

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: Android, linux, mac, windows

Google Goggles For Android Phones, Hot Or Not?

December 11, 2009 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

Now photos can be used to search the internet

google goggles
Screenshot

Definitely hot! Google has yet again introduced a great application that allows users to find all available information from your Android powered mobile phone, just with click of a photo. You can click a picture of your favorite book, a restaurant, street and immediately get all the relevant information about it through Google Goggles! The app is intended to cover all tangible objects. Since, it’s a new app and is still being worked upon, there is much to expect from this product in future. Watch this short video from Google, demonstrating how Google Google works:

Google has a very, very far vision of it’s intentions and it seems like Google is willing to capture every thing 😀

Filed Under: Consumer Technology Tagged With: Android, google

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