Milano, Italy – Libero Spagnolini today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of FaceMan 3.2, the critically acclaimed iPhone app that introduces tons of new features, a brand new UI and bring a strong performance boost on iOS 5 devices.

The real fun starts when you use the cool effects that FaceMan is able to render. Based on a streamlined and super easy to use interface, FaceMan sports 24 incredible effects, and pushes the limits of what is possible on a mobile device. FaceMan is sure to provide many hours of fun that you can share with your friends.

FaceMan 3.2 is distilled with a super polished UI to get things done in less taps and more fun, a completely redesigned album with brand settings that lets you customized FaceMan in depth. The app also comes with a great built in album that lets you collect all your coolest effects.

A lot of most wanted feature requests made it in 3.2 and here are a few:
* New UI, with improved navigation controls
* Automatically save to device photo library
* Captures are now saved at native camera resolution
* New sharing feature to Facebook, Twitter
* New help overlay
* Improved performance especially on iOS 5 devices

Customer reviews have been terrific:
“This is by far the best real-time video FX app available.
Why would I lie?
Download it and see for yourself…..
If I’m wrong you can call me a liar….
Ahh yea!!!”

“This is a great & hilarious app . it takes the funniest pictures ever . you wont regret buying it . better then any other FX app out there .”

“This app is awesome! Reminds me of playing with PhotoBooth with my wife at the Apple Store for the first time, but now I can carry it around in my pocket!”

“Love it. Acts like Photo Booth but on your phone. Worth 1.99″

“Wow, this is a killer app – it is better than PhotoBooth for the iPhone, use interface is super simple and nice clean sounds let you know that you pressed the right button (to save to album in app, to save again to camera roll etc) … effects are amazing … the best two buck photoapp I’ve seen and deserves to be shortlisted alongside Hipstamatic as a must have … within seconds I was sending mug shots to my girlfriend via mms … awesome stuff!”

Device Requirements:
* iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 4.2 or later
* 4 MB

Pricing and Availability:
FaceMan 3.2 is priced .99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Photo & Video category.

FaceMan 3.2
Purchase and Download
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App Icon

Located in Milano, Italy, Libero Spagnolini is an independent developer. Whether you want to report a problem, suggest a new feature or just say hello, we want to hear from you! Copyright (C) 2011 Libero Spagnolini. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

MacMegasite

Let’s be honest: the Motorola MOTOACTV doesn’t have a whole lot of applications outside of the sports and fitness world. At least, it didn’t until now: one ambitious Android modder has managed to root the tiny touchscreen watch and install third-party apps, making full access to Android possible. The dream of a Dick Tracy watch is within our  grasp!

After reading through Linux junkie Chris Wade’s guided tour and teardown of Motorola’s wearable device, it’s kind of surprising that no one’s managed this before. The root process should be fairly ordinary to Android modders: start the watch in bootloader mode, flash a new boot image, then run the popular SuperOneClick root method. Apparently the MOTOACTV’s software is similar enough to other phones to be compatible.

Check out the results in action below:

Wade managed to flash CyanogenMod’s Google apps and a custom launcher via ADB, making the watch behave very much like a tiny Android smartphone. A 600Mhz processor and 256Mb of RAM is more than enough to run Gingerbread, if not especially fast. He used the look-alike Honeycomb launcher and a few other obligatory apps like Angry Birds to test out the system, apparently with some really cool results. The device’s 1.6inch screen, Bluetooth-only connectivity and 9.99 price tag still make it a little inconvenient as a secondary Android gadget, but there’s no denying that the results are cool. Check out our hands-on coverage for more info.

For a wearable Android device that’s open from the get-go, be sure to investigate the WIMM One developer watch.

[via Engadget]

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Android Community

Madfinger Games’ Shadowgun, easily one of the best shooters available for Android, has been updated to support Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip.

The Tegra 3-optimized version of Shadowgun features console-quality water, enhanced rag-doll physics, particle effects, enhanced shaders and dynamic textures. These are only possible using Tegra 3′s multi-core capabilities, and they make for a truly immersive and realistic gaming experience.

Check out the promo video of the Tegra 3 version of Shadowgun above. Head to the Android Market to get it – likely for your Transformer Prime.

SmartKeitai

Regularly .99, A Charlie Brown Christmas for Android is free from the Amazon Appstore today (promotion ends 12/24 at 3AM ET). Read on to view the app description, feature list and video promo.

Help Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the entire Peanuts gang as they struggle to find the true meaning of Christmas. Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown, narrates the rebirth of the 1965 animated classic as an interactive storybook complete with original scenes and dialog and digitally remastered illustrations, animation, and music optimized for your Droid smartphone and tablets.

Play Schroeder’s piano, finger paint with the gang, go carolling with the Peanuts choir, and participate in the Spectacular Super-Colossal Neighborhood Christmas Lights and Display Contest to unlock decorations for your very own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! With something to discover on every page, this is one interactive Peanuts adventure you won’t want to miss this holiday season!!

Features:
* Original dialogue from the 1965 animated classic
* Captivating narration by Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown
* Charming soundtrack featuring music and sound effects from the original show
* Decorate your own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree
* Participate in the Lights and Display Contest to unlock rewards
* Educational features such as word and note highlighting to help improve reading and musical skills
* Hear individual words spoken with the tap of a finger
* Touch and drag objects to make them “spring” to life or tilt to watch them slide and move
* Objects that literally pop out of the page to delight you and your family!

SmartKeitai

In this video, we unbox the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy Nexus for Verizon Wireless. The Galaxy Nexus is the first smartphone to be launched running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It sports a 4.65-inch 720p HD Super AMOLED display, 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 processor, 32GB of storage (non-expandable), 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video capture, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, 4G LTE connectivity, and an 1850 mAh battery. It’s a little thicker than the original that launched in Europe just one month ago, but it’s still rather slim at .37″ thick.

You can order it online right now for 9.99 with a new or renewing contract (9.99 outright) from Verizon Wireless. You may also want to visit Amazon Wireless for deals on the device. Check out our unboxing video above to learn more about the Galaxy Nexus and stay tuned for more coverage coming soon.

SmartKeitai

It was on an unnamed battle station, set up by Republic spies, where I fell from grace.

You see, up until that point, I had seen myself as an honorable man. Of course there was chaos and atrocity all around, but this was war, and war can be harsh. But I had a code of honor, and the knowledge that although many judge our Empire harshly, I fought for stability and order.

But the dark side… it was so seductive. It beckoned with the siren lure of shortcuts and the red haze of murder and power. I was strong, though, and could resist, and was even developing a reputation as an honorable Sith, odd though such a combination could be.

It changed when I finally met the nemesis of my master. Although through a hololink, it carried enough weight of what I, my people were fighting against – the sneering superiority of a caste that assumed it knew all the answers, the mocking calm of someone who assumed that only he had the path of honor and justice.

He was on a path I could no longer follow. That I had to prove wrong. That I had to destroy utterly. That I *could*.

I cut down his defenseless minions without a second thought, and my saber turned red, and I leapt into the abyss willingly.

—

Why yes, I am talking about an MMO. And what’s more, describing the point in an MMO where I made a decision to change my character’s progression, counter-intutively from a character building perspective, solely because of events in the game’s story.

During Bioware’s development of SWTOR, they often talked up storytelling as the missing link of MMO gaming, the “fourth pillar” of what makes a compelling game. Now we have an emphatic example of this development philosophy. It may well not be for everyone – even in a game such as World of Warcraft, people rapidly “click through the quest text” to continue with the game. That’s not an option here – you are part of an interactive movie, where the setup for even the most bog-standard kill 10 womprats quest (which are present in full force) is fully voiced and animated. You could conceivably spacebar your way through every conversation cutting short every cut scene, but at this point you are missing, well, the game.

So, yes. SWTOR tells a good story. This is a Bioware game, so this is pretty much a given. How much of a GAME is it?

Well, if you go into SWTOR expecting Star Wars Galaxies II, you are going to be very disappointed. SWTOR comes down very heavily (in fact with a Sith downward saber stab) on the side of game vs. world. There are some nods towards a deeper MMO community (such as social unlocks based on how often you group with others, and a fairly brilliantly handled pre-game guild launch that automatically load balanced guilds amongst servers) but SWTOR is a game. And many similarities to World of Warcraft are wholly intentional – to the point where popular WoW addons-to-game-systems such as gearscore are already baked in. Remember Wowhead? Welcome to Torhead.

If you’re really, really tired of World of Warcraft (and after seven years, a few million people are) then that alone may cause you to recoil. But if you see the World of Warcraft-centric game systems as a grammar used to build SWTOR’s language, it becomes clearer why those choices were made. In fact, in my week or so of play, some of my more “doh” induced boners were in areas where SWTOR veered away from World of Warcraft’s interface. Did you know that when you buy skills from trainers in SWTOR, the skills for your advanced class (another, rare divergence from World of Warcraft) are in a separate tab from the skills for your base class? For seven levels I didn’t!

If I have one criticism of SWTOR at this early point, it’s that for the initial 25 levels it seems to be, for the most part, a single player game played in parallel with many other people. This was fairly obnoxious when, for example, others would ninja-grab world quest objectives. There are instances (called “Flashpoints”), daily quests intended for groups, the aforementioned social rewards for doing them, and of course PvP (including battlegrounds). But up to this point they haven’t really been part of my focus.

You see, I’ve turned to the dark side. And I have a lot of red murder to catch up on.

Broken Toys

If you are one of the lucky few that was able to snag a pre-order for the hotly anticipated ASUS Transformer Prime and that beastly quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor then I have some great news for you. One of the best shooter games available for Android called SHADOWGUN has just been updated with Transformer Prime and Tegra 3 support — making it have by far some truly stunning graphics.

We were lucky enough to get a first-hand look at the pre-production version for Tegra 2 devices and did a few hands-on videos for those looking to see just how impressive the graphics can be on a mobile device. In our timeline below will be plenty about Shadowgun and both of our hands-on video posts.

This is probably one of the best games available for Android in terms of third person shooters and really showcases the ability of the NVIDIA processors and gaming prowess. The Tegra 3 supported version has tons of increased graphics and visuals. With real-time lighting effects, amazing water visuals with reflections and more. I had fun just shooting the water and watch the detailed splashes. This is one of those games that really shows what we can expect with mobile gaming in the future and with 2012 quad-core enabled devices.

Here’s a quick demo from our sister site SlashGear and our very own Chris Burns comparing regular Shadowgun to the Tegra 3 version on the Prime

I know many are still waiting on availability and pre-orders and it looks like ASUS might not have nearly as much stock and supply as they should have. Pre-orders have sold out at Amazon, Best Buy, and almost every other online retailer with some expecting shipments to not go out until late January. If you were able to get one — or found stock in a Best Buy then head to the market link below and try out this Tegra 3 optimized game today.

Market Link — Shadowgun

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Android Community

Emily Hurd chats to Suite101 about her new album Long Lost Ghosts and her song "Help Me To Understand" which featured on the hit TV show NCIS.

Suite101 Articles

Swype has just announced another update for their popular keyboard and users taking part in the BETA can enjoy it right now. The last update was back in November and brought a few awesome new features but this newest update is even better. Swype has now add Dragon Dictation for ultimate voice control and TTS (Text to Speech) since being bought by Nuance. They’ve also added support for over 50 languages and more.

Not only has TTS with Dragon Dictation been integrated but you can now download full support for over 50+ languages all from inside the Swype settings menu right to your device for quick and easy convenience. We have a neat little hands-on video showing you just how awesome those finger ninjas from Swype are now that Dragon is on board so check it out below. Here’s the beta changelog:

— Added Dragon Dictation as voice-to-text provider
— Enabled language downloads for over 50+ languages, accessible through Swype Settings -> Language Downloads
— Advanced Language Modeling to give further improved suggestions when Swyping, based on language context
— (More info coming soon)

The context prediction and language modeling has been given a complete overhaul making it extremely accurate giving an increase of around 40% for accuracy. Now it will learn as you Swype and even display the correct word based on the context of the sentence and more. The video shows this quite clearly with the whole “mosh pit” thing so we’ll leave it at that. Many 3rd party keyboards already have context prediction and have for a long while so it’s good to see Swype ramping up in that department.

The new Swype Beta v3.26.92 is available today over at the Swype Beta Forums and all the details and history of past updates is neatly provided via the links below. Get to swpying and enjoy that Dragon Dictation.

[via Swype]

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Android Community

No, this amazingly sleek phone doesn’t exist – yet. It is a prototype that may never surface for the public’s use, but nevertheless it is sporting an Intel chip and Android OS. Finally, Intel intends to make a comeback in 2012 by incorporating their technology into both tablets and smartphones. Technology Review was able to test out both of the prototypes, and they state we should see them officially within the first half of 2012.

The chip’s are still contained within the “Atom” line but referenced as Medfield. But what does Medfield bring to the table? Apparently, they aren’t trying to beat their competitors with raw power – but with better battery life through lower power consumption. Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem to be dual-core.

From a first glance, or even a second – you would think you’re looking at an iPhone 4S. But Technology Review not only stated that it was lighter – but made of plastic and less metal or glass. I guarantee if a manufacturer released a device of those dimensions and styling, they wouldn’t make it out of the door without an Apple lawyer waiting to meet them. Of course, this design was purely made to attract manufacturers to using their SoC for their products – so they still have a chance to steer clear of a legal battle.

[via Technology Review]

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Android Community