Searching With Google On Your Mobile? Expect To See Apps In Your Results

Google is working hard to be the best search engine on the go, and today is tweaking their algorithms to include applications in their mobile results. If you use an iPhone or Android device, for certain search terms Google will now offer you an application to download along with your regular search results.

One of the greatest drawbacks for developers and users to the Google market place, all Android AppStores, and the iTunes Appstore presently is the  lack of visibility for apps. Users can't find quality apps that are relevant to them easily.
Curation, up till now was based on apps that are most popular or are those that are curated by the Appstore gatekeepers. This new innovation by Google has the potential to change the face of the smart phone app market. We're very excited about it. Check out the full article to learn more.

Top Ten Handheld Holiday Buys

The Guardian UK's Game Blog has just done a swift run down of the top 10 handheld games you could own this holiday season. The following games were featured in two categories:

DS Titles:

1. Mario and Luigi: Bowser's inside Story (AlphaDream, Nintendo) 

2. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (Level-5, Nintendo)  

3. Scribblenauts (5th Cell, Warner Bros)

4. Nostalgia (Matrix Software/Red Entertainment, Ignition)

5. Space Invaders Extreme 2 (Taito, Square Enix)

PSP Titles:
1. GTA Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar. Also on DS)

2. Beaterator (Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar)

3. Gran Turismo (Polyphony Digital, Sony) 

4. Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny (Project Soul, Namco Bandai)

5. LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule/Sony Cambridge, Sony) 

We personally think that the best gaming release of this season comes from right here at SMERC.That game is one that's found on two "hand held" devices, the iPhone/iPod Touch and any ol' Android phone, and its called Decades. Check out the hyperlink and purchase the best gift of the season yourself.

Hot News On The Android Front

Kind of excited about this news via Gizmodo today. It seems Google has decided to not only assert control over their mobile platform Android (one of our more favorite plaforms to design for *cough* check out a game we made for it*cough*) but finally design a phone that meets their design and functionality expectations from top to bottom. 

So, preview pics of the darn thing? Yes! Right Here:

 

Though there have been rumors of a fully Google-produced phone in the past, there are...well...rumors again. Gizmodo seems to speculate that HTC, being the proprietary manufacturers of all things Android, will design the official Google hand unit. If you ask us, we don't think Google is trying to come out with a definitive handset for the purposes of doing things exactly how they've been done before. The device will likely be a proposition to all 3rd party manufacturers as to how to design Android-based devices from now on and that means that they'll probably try to outsource the job from elsewhere.

Stay tuned for the real answer kids...

Decades Slays, All The Others Just Stand By In Awe

Check out this review of Dungeon and this review of the new lame for dead promo Left 4 Dead if you need to find out about games and apps that are a little behind the times or just plain confusing. Check out THIS ANNOUNCEMENT if you need to find out that one of the brightest, best, most multi-platform games this year just became available for iTunes, Android, PC and Facebook.

We've JUST announced Decades for all four gaming platforms and that makes the game one of our widest releases to date!!!

If you have any sense in you you'll click over to www.decadesthegame.com to find out more and if you're preferential of one platform over another, here are the separate links for access to each one:

On Facebook: apps.facebook.com/decadesgame

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com/webobjects/mzstore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=329690750&mt=8

On Android: www.decadesthegame.com/android

On PC platform: www.decadesthegame.com/playnow 

Decades is brilliant, addicting, and truly truly fun. Enjoy and thank us later!

We're On The Winning Path!

We're pleased to tell you that our newest mobile creation for Android, Decades, has been selected as a Top 20 app in the "Casual Games" category for the Android Developer Challenge. 

 
HOW TO VOTE

The Android Developers Challenge is a user-voted competition where developers from all walks of life submit their finished apps in order to win the title of "best application" in a certain category. So, since we're so close to victory we can taste it, we ask that if you own an Android-based device:

1) You download the ADC2 Challenge app via the Android Market by searching Android Developers Challenge 

2) Or scan the following bar code (your device will instantly recognize ADC2 as the app to download).

Let's get Decades into the top spot! We appreciate all your support ;)

Android Developers Challenge Judging app now in Android Market

The Android Developers Challenge Part Deux is finally in full gear. Google has updated the ADC2 voting application into the market, so Android users can download the app and give their input about entrants in the developers challenge.

Make you download and play Decades! It's the Greatest Game in History.

http://androinica.com/2009/09/24/android-developers-challenge-judging-app-now-in-android-market/

Listen Up Game of the Week

1up.com's "Listen Up" reviewed Decades Android on their 9/11/09 podcast. Co-Host Garnett Lee recommended our new puzzle/trivia game for the Android phone as their mobile Game of the Week!

Listen and subscribe to the Listen Up podcast here, and if you are on T-Mobile, download Decades onto your Android phone!

Stay tuned for news on Decades iPhone and more!

Decades Android is here!

Attention all Android mobile users! "The greatest game in history" is out now on the Android Marketplace! Decades is part action puzzle game, and part trivia game! A cross between Tetris and Wheel of Fortune, the game redefines the match-three and trivia genres by challenging you to match cubes to help you fill in and solve the trivia puzzles!
Decades has over 20 hours of play with dazzling animations, challenging trivia, and addictive game play that uses the touch and keyboard features of the Android phone.

Features:
* Simple controls: touch and swipe falling cubes to rotate and match
* 10 decades-themed levels
* 5 unlockable bonus levels
* 1200 trivia puzzles to solve
* Special powerups and obstacles
* Earn trophies as you play!
* Unlock Hard Mode for super challenging play that will engage even the most veteran game players

Download Decades Lite and try it out, or purchase the Premium version for just $2.99! Check out the game's home page for more info. Decades is coming to your friendly neighborhood iPhone and Facebook page soon!

G1 Android Application Developer

So if you google "g1 android application developer" no companies come up that actually do this. Seems crazy to me that that's the case. So I'd just like to put it out there. SMERC is a G1 Android Application Developer...... how's that SEO marketing for ya?

G1 Game!

We just released our first game on the Android Marketplace! In conjunction with T-Mobile, we created an action game that utilizes Google Maps - fly through six European cities and collect all the google map markers before the timer runs out! If you have a G1 phone, search Android Marketplace for "The G1 Challenge." You can also play the web version of the game here:

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/g1-with-google-phone/