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Say yes to Yes Chef! so you can play with your food

"Don't play with your food!" This may be something you constantly heard from your parents when you were at that age when everything just fascinated you, including the food they set in front of you at every meal. But now that you're (supposedly) an adult, a new Android game will let you do just that. From the creators of the highly-addictive Fruit Ninja, now comes Yes Chef!, a game that would like to be as pervasive as well.



Yes Chef! is a match 3 puzzle game where you must help a young, aspiring chef named Cherry who wants to be the best one in the world. She is searching around the world for the best recipes she can find and add to her menu. But don't worry, you're not required to learn all these recipes and make them. What you just need to do is match three kinds of ingredients as you serve customers' orders, bake cakes and get high scores to "become a true cooking legend."


The game has over 100 levels and you will receive power-ups and special "powers" to help you achieve your goals. You can switch and match the ingredients and meals that include vegetables, seafood and even desserts. There are timed challenges, special games and other ways of playing the game in case you get bored with just doing the three of a kind swiping. And if you're feeling a bit competitive, then you can challenge your Facebook friends and get additional points as a reward.




Of course you don't expect complicated storylines or state-of-the-art gameplay and graphics with these type of games. But if you do like the simplicity of it and want to keep yourself hungry or craving for food while playing, you can get Yes Chef! for free from the Google Play Store. There are some in-app purchases available so remember to disable this if someone else will be playing the game on your smartphone or tablet.


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Sony SmartWatch 3 lands at Verizon in Oct

The wearables market is growing rapidly with new products seemingly launching all the time. The next new smartwatch product to land at Verizon will be the SmartWatch 3 from Sony, and the device is set to land at the carrier this month.



The Sony SmartWatch 3 has a 1.63-inch 320 x 320 pixel display and is designed to connect to any Android smartphone running KitKat. Sony made the watch weatherproof with an IP68 rating. That should mean it will survive getting wet in the shower.


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Inside the device is a digital compass, gyroscope, and a GPS chip. On the app front, the SmartWatch 3 will have Google now and access to Android Wear apps right out of the box. One of the features of the new wearable is that the smartwatch hardware is inside a small black puck that can be put into different bands for wear.


That means you can pick the color to suit your mood. We talked about the Sony SmartWatch 3 last month. Check out the video below to learn more about the wearable. Pricing and an exact date the smartwatch will land at Verizon is unknown.




SOURCE: SlashGear



Android L 64-bit emulator finally out, only for Intel x86

From Google I/O 2014, we were treated to a preview of Android next OS releases, now known popularly as Android L. Android head honcho Sundar Pichai also made it clear that Android 5.0 (or is it Android Lollipop?) will be optimized for 64-bit apps, but as launch date nears (we hope) – there have been few updates regarding Android L 64-bit capability. Thankfully, we have one right now – as Android Dev has announced the availability of an Android L 64-bit emulator for Intel x86 architecture.



This emulator image is specifically for app testing, as developers begin to take advantage of specific features that 64-bit processing can give. Those include increased addressable memory space, a larger number of registers, and new instruction sets for their apps.


Android Dev also announced that apps coded in Java will be able to automatically access these new benefits, while those built with Android NDK will have to make specific changes – namely, the have to compile for 64-bit architectures by including “x86_64” in the build target, or use the catch all code “APP_ABI=all64” in their Application.mk.


This is all good, as developers can now start testing their apps for 64-bit. But we need to address the obvious white elephant here – where is the emulator for ARMv8? This emulator release is specifically for Intel Atom/Bay Trail processors, and not ARM. NVIDIA’s 64-bit Tegra K1 may just be around the corner, and Qualcomm is already pushing their 64-bit capable processors, so Android Dev needs to put out for ARM architectures soon.


SOURCE: Android Developers



New Oppo N3 leaked pics, event set for October 29

Oppo is a smartphone maker that is big in China and became better known elsewhere when it tied up with CyanogenMod with the original Oppo N1 smartphone. With that tie-up, Oppo became the first phone maker to ship a device offering CyanogenMod right out of the box. The Oppo N1 is aging now and its time for Oppo to offer up a new device, and the firm has been teasing that unveil. Oppo is set to have an event on October 29 where the N3 will be unveiled.



The N3 is the predecessor to the N1, clearly the company decided to skip the N2 designation. The N1 was an interesting smartphone with a big 5.9-inch full HD screen, 13MP camera, and CyanogenMod OS. There have been many rumors about the N3 so far, one of them suggesting that it would have a rotating camera.


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That rotating camera would allow users to have a device with a single snapper that could take normal photos as a back camera and be flipped around to use for selfies as well. Rumors suggest that the N3 will feature a 5.9-inch 1080p screen, Snapdragon 805 processor, and 3GB of RAM.


Whether or not the device will continue to offer CyanogenMod remains to be seen. Considering that was one of the big differentiators for the N1, CyanogenMod on the N3 seems likely. We only have a few weeks before we know for sure what Oppo has in store for us.


SOURCE: SlashGear



Google expands PayPal support for Play Store

This is clearly good news for all of us here who rely on the Google Play Store so much for apps, entertainment, productivity and such – Google has expanded its list of countries where it accepts payments via PayPal. We have been aching for PayPal support for the longest time, and in May this year, it seems that the gods of Google finally heard our cries.



Of course, it wasn’t a top-to-bottom, all countries kind of list – the initial move was to accept PayPal app purchases from 12 countries – namely Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, the US, and the UK. This move, while surprising, was definitely accepted with positive support from the Android community.


Just recently, if you didn’t know, Google added to this list (together with a significant design and aesthetic update) – because really, if you didn’t live in the 12 countries listed above, that would still be a bummer. The added countries are these, for your information: Australia, Greece, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, and Sweden. This brings the list up to 18 countries now.


We hope this momentum will build to the point where we can say that majority of the countries enjoy PayPal purchase support at the Google Play Store, because the convenience is just miles and miles above having to use real plastic credit cards for your purchases.


VIA: Android Police



SwiftKey adds more Indian languages, Diwali theme

Being the second most populous country in the world and having multiple languages, India should have a special place in app developers' hearts. Virtual keyboard SwiftKey has responded to requests from several users and in its latest beta update, they're adding 13 new Indian languages and they've also come up with a special theme to celebrate Diwali, which is India's biggest holiday.



If you're one of those who requested for these additional languages, you need to join the Google Group for SwiftKey Beta for Android, follow the instructions and download the SwiftKey Beta app. Only then can you have the new languages which are: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Nepali and Sinhala. Hindi and Hinglish are already supported in the previous version of the app. The group is also intended to get feedback from users in their goal to make support for India-related features better.


And since Diwali or the festival of lights is just a few weeks away, SwiftKey has also come up with a keyboard theme to celebrate the occasion. The festival, which sometimes runs for weeks is a celebration of light over darkness and is celebrated in India and Indian nationals all over the world, even if they don't practice Hinduism. It's great to see apps like SwiftKey giving support to other languages and cultures as calls for diversity in media and technology continue to grow.


For non-Indian speakers, the beta update for SwiftKey also includes other updates, like changes in the SSL certificate to make SwiftKey Cloud’s Backup & Sync services more robust and changing the popup EULA with links at the bottom of the page. If you're interested to enjoy all these new features, join the Google Group to download the beta version of SwiftKey.


SOURCE: SwiftKey



WSJ says Nexus 6 coming out this month

In case you were wondering – and we know many of you are – the Wall Street Journal has got it on good sources that the whale-sized phone (geddit?) we all are waiting for would indeed be launching this October. We are talking about the new Nexus 6 made by Motorola, of course – more popularly known as “Shamu” or “Free Willy” or whatever whale joke-slash-name you would have for it.



The new phone, which will be bringing with it Google’s Nexus stamp of approval, has been leaked and re-leaked, benchmarked, and photographed to kingdom come – to a point where we don’t even know which is real anymore. But we do know this – it will come with a monster 6-inch screen and some whale-sized specs (sorry, couldn’t help it).


The guys over at SlashGear think that October may be a good time to launch the phone – just a little bit after the iPhone hype (and #bendgate) and a little before the holiday shopping rush. They have precedent for it as well, as the Nexus 5 was launched near Halloween – albeit without the hype and fanfare Shamu will undoubtedly have.


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The WSJ report also confirms the big screen size and that indeed, Motorola will be making it. Of Shamu leaks, there are a lot. But solid official information has been hard to come by, so we rely on WSJ’s cred for this report. There are only 20 odd days left in October, so it can’t be that long a wait anymore.


VIA: SlashGear