The Amazon App Store now available to 200 countries, including New Zealand

Todays free app of the day happens to be a pretty good one.

Amazon has today expanded the number of countries that its Amazon App Store is available for, now encompassing 200 countries including our very own New Zealand (the complete list can be found in their developer blog here).

If you're wondering why you would even want their App Store in the first place you may be unaware that they feature a different free app everyday, and also some apps and games launch as temporary exclusives to Amazon. I wouldn't recommend using it as your primary source for apps, that should really remain the province of the Play Store, but it's a great way to try some apps on for size before taking the plunge and purchasing them.

Point your phone browser here to get the Amazon App Store.

Official Galaxy S3 extended battery now available

Not a lot thicker

If you're the type of person that plays with their Samsung Galaxy S3 nonstop and then runs out of battery before the end of the day you may be interested in this. Samsung have officially 'released' an extended 3000mAh battery for the Galaxy S3. While I'm unsure of the current availability of the battery, there are several sites offering it up for pre-order, and several accounts on XDA of people being able to purchase it.

Update as of 19 March 2013

This product has now been released and I have purchased one from here on Ebay. Once I receive it you can expect some photos and a review. Let me know if you have any ideas for measuring the performance of a battery. 

Samsung Unpacked 2013: Galaxy SIV Live Blog

...and that's a wrap. We'll have some more coverage later when we've had a chance to properly digest our press materials and sift through our impressions. Stay tuned.


1:01PM
OK, some hard specs in the shot above... Much less of an overwhelming advantage over the competition this year on the hardware front, although if the Octa+POwerVR 544MP can really bring it there is still a strong chance for the S4 to differentiate over the sea of Snapdragon-powered flagships from basically evey other manufacturer.

12:58pm
Seems they're wrapping up, all in all a bit disappointing as announcement shows go - lots of services and features (whose uptake by users in the past hasn't necessarily been stellar). Very little on the hardware itself. Hopefully get some press materials from Samsung now with more concrete details...

12:56pm
The new S-Cover accessory announced. Upgraded flip cover with a display window and ability to answer calls without waking the phone or even opening the cover.

12:55pm
S-Health, taking advantage of all those new sensors - blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring possible with accessories.

12:53pm
Air gestures being discussed in some more detail. Hope they work better in practice than they did on the video from the pre-release S4.

12:52pm
OK, now that looks like a pretty good use for simultaneous capture from front and back cameras - awesome video conferencing from your mobile.

12:51pm
Cool, group play supports multiplayer games. Wonder if they will need to plug into an API for that?

12:49pm
Group play - lets you share music between as many as 8 Galaxy S4 devices without requiring an internet connection. Even lets you assign channels - centre channel, left channel etc - to the individual phones.

12:48pm
More on KNOX, the feature announced at MWC - separate user environments on the phone for work and play.


12:46pm
Samsung hubs now centralised, sporting a magazine interface...

12:45pm
S-Voice features becoming more advanced, now getting more into the personal assistant territory.

12:43pm
Transfer between almost any phone and the S4 to make switching simple, almost any OS they say. Odds on iOS being the missing OS?

12:42pm
S-Voice Drive - a car mode designed for safety whilst driving. Answer calls with your voice, extra large text and icons.

12:41pm
New device: Home Sync. Pairing to the S4 with NFC, will pair with most anything besides. Mirroring to FHD on your TV/external monitor.

12:40pm
Another skit, this time with extra tired humour!

12:39pm
Story Album feature - replete with partnership with Blurb for getting your stories printed.


12:36pm
So, S-Translate is mostly plugged into Samsung apps like S-Chat. Less useful.

12:35
Well, if the S-Translation works that well that is certainly something...

12:34pm
Dear lord, spare us. Another skit?

12:32pm
So we're seeing a lot of stuff about camera software here, but nothing about sensor advancements or improvements on the technological level here. Disappointing so far, such a densely pixel-packed sensor may not leverage the best image quality from those 13mp without some improvement to the sensor...

12:31pm
"Sound and shot", sound bites attached to your images. Sounds, ah, interesting.

12:29pm
Making a big deal of utilising front and back cameras together, for both videos and stills. More fanfare than this deserves?



12:29pm
Ah, wut?!

12:27pm
2600mA removable battery, best in class as the new 1080p panels go.

12:27pm
IR blaster is in toe, awesome! New sensors galore too including IR gesture sensor.


12:25pm
Somewhat disappointing it is a Category 3 LTE device, which means it won't take our new Vodafone 4G network to its maximum speeds.

12:24pm
Dull detail about the colour of the notification bar...

12:24pm
Finger hover actions as leaked are accurate.

12:23pm
Dimensions136mm long, 16.8mm wide, 7.7mm thick. Polycarbonate.

12:22pm
Experiencing issues with live feed - hit refresh/F5 to keep up!

12:21pm
Announcing availability, like last year this will simultaneously launch across many nations and carriers. 3G and 4G in tow, naturally.

12:20pm
The big reveal, design is consistent with what we've already seen


12:18pm
Big focus on software innovation so far.

12:16pm
Seems the leaks are accurate so far - smart pause and the other new TouchWiz features shown briefly.


12:13pm
J K Shin taking the stage to a flourish of orchestral music.

12:12pm
The secret messenger Jeremy s taking the stage, not sure about you guys but I'm not sold on that angle...

12:10pm
They're underway!

12:05pm
...predictably the show it not running to time.


11:59am
The announcer is calling for people to assume their positions for the start of the show...

11:56am
We're here at the venue, last minute set up well underway - back with your shortly with the beginning of the coverage!

The Sony Xperia Z: the mobile camera, reloaded? A brief shootout, Xperia Z Vs Galaxy Note 2 Vs the Nokia Pureview 808

This piece is a heads-up of sorts to let you know that thanks to the good folk at Mobicity, we're fortunate enough to have an Xperia Z in our hot little hands already.

As you might guess a (rapid-) review will be forthcoming, but this time around I'm going to start with something a little different. You see I had some fun yesterday on Twitter trying out the Xperia Z camera, pitting it against the Note 2 camera and the undisputed king of mobile imaging, the Nokia Pureview 808. After looking at the results I thought it was too worthwhile an exercise to leave just to Twitter, and so here it is on the blog too.

Although it's a little bit of a departure, the camera of the Xperia Z is too fundamental a part of its marketing drive to leave to a couple of paragraphs in a rapid-review; it demands more. If you believe Sony's hype surrounding the purported imaging advances offered by its latest and greatest, you'll be expecting a solid improvement over last years shooters, and maybe even a substantial improvement. Sony is betting the bank on the camera being a strong differentiator to favour their 2013 flagship against incumbents like the incoming HTC One and Galaxy S4, so the question of whether its camera can indeed carry the day looms large over the Xperia Zs fate.

Real user review - Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL

Huawei's flagship is a very attractive package with a superb screen

Life as a tech blogger is a succession of increasingly competent devices landing on your doorstep, each in its own way making you acutely aware of your current device's limitations while simultaneously generating a lust to possess the latest and greatest. Or at least, that's how it seems.

AndroidNZ Ed-In-Chief Murray decided that it was time for me to slum it a bit. Not in a homeless person kind of way, but more in the "OMG, does he drive a Suzuki Swift?" sense. The Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL (apparently there was another model named the "D Quad" - very unfortunate when spoken aloud) had turned up for testing and I got the short straw. However, the spec sheet suggests that the Ascend really isn't too far off the pace when compared to the very high end offerings from the likes of Samsung, LG and HTC. And arguably, even Nokia's recent Win8 kit. And even when it misses the bar, it's by only modest margins. Is that even important though? Good question. We shall see…

Dear HTC, please find enclosed your 2012 report card.

The best phone ever made. EVAR.

HTC.

HTC!

Where do I start? Perhaps I shall start by saying I love you. Seriously, I love you. Sadly, these days I am starting to love you in the way that I love cassette tapes; for what you once were to me, not what you represent now.

If that sounds painful HTC, please remember, the truth only hurts if it ought to.

Perhaps that was a little acerbic for a beginning? Allow me take one step back, and lay down some context.

Dear Samsung, please find enclosed your 2012 report card.

So, Samsung, how did you do?

This is the first part of a series of editorials (or at least I hope the other editors will chip in to make this a series?) where we're going to look at how each manufacturer has done this year, and make some suggestions for what their path forward should look like in 2013. The intention of these isn't to make a fanboys dream list of stupidly powerful hardware specs, but to make a reasoned set of recommendations for how we feel they can improve in 2013.

To kick things off we're going to start with Samsung. In terms of what Samsung did right this year you could be brief and say nearly everything, but since when did we ever keep things brief here at AndroidNZ?