Amazon's new mobile games showcase Fire phone's head tracking tech

Amazon's new Fire phone features much of the same functionality as its competition, so the company is doing everything it can to showcase the device's head tracking technology.

A while back Amazon began acquiring game development talent to add to its in house studio. We have seen a few titles from Amazon Game Studio, but its clear some of its resources have been in part dedicated to new mobile game's that specifically take advantage of the tracking tech. Basically speaking, you can use "Dynamic Perspective" technology to see hidden areas and secrets as well as for basic navigation in-games, among other things.

The first two out of the gate are Saber's Edge and To-Fu Fury. The latter is a puzzle platformer in the vein of other mobile and indie titles and features a Tofu ninja as its main character. Along with "frenetic" melee combat, the game makes use of a variety of environmental gameplay and puzzles giving players the ability to interact differently to various surfaces."Stick to wooden surfaces, slide down slippery jade, and use metal to ricochet towards your goal… but beware the deadly traps and devious Hoshi bandits!," the game's description reads.

Saber's Edge is a strategic puzzler with a sky pirate theme. It is essentially your typical match 3 game with some RPG elements weaved through it, along with the tracking implementation. The game allows you "to chain attacks, plan your defenses, and defeat your enemies like never before!…become the most renowned Raiders across the entire Seven Skies!" 

Both games are $1.99 and are exclusive to Amazon's Fire phone. To-Fu Fury is available now and Saber's Edge is coming soon.

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In China more users now access the internet with a mobile device than a PC

China has been going through a major internet usage boom over the last little while, due largely to mobile device use. New numbers published by a state supported research group say that for the first time mobile internet usage has surpassed that of laptop and desktop PCs.

Around 83.4% of China's 632 million internet users recorded across June of this year did so via a mobile device, compared to about 80.9% accessing the web via PC. As internet usage as a whole grew around 2.3% since the beginning of 2014, mobile surfing grew 5.4% and usage on PCs dropped between 0.1 and 0.4% over the same time period. 

Internet usage in the country has hit nearly 47% compared to 87% in the US. However, even with nearly half the adoption numbers, China had more than double the entire US population logon during June 2014.

While the numbers are still the other way around in most other places in the world, some suggest the combination of low cost phones and the considerably low average income in China, make mobile devices a much more practical internet solution than pricey PCs. The popularity of mobile internet is also likely parallel with the boom of social networks, online mobile gaming and other on-the-go services in the region.

Image via Shutterstock

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Upcoming Xbox One update to bring new activity feed, 3D Blu Ray, mobile purchases, and more

Microsoft shared the full details of its upcoming Xbox One update in a blog post published last week, revealing a fair amount of new features coming as early as next week. Among them are 3D Blu-ray, activity feed updates, mobile purchases, low battery notification, disabling notifications during video, expanded Friends area on Home, OneGuide in more countries, and last seen time in Friends list.

The activity feed interface is being changed and will now consist of a single column scrolling list that is longer and includes more content. You'll be able to post text to your feed, “like” and comment on feed items, and share game clips and anything else in the feed with friends either publicly or privately. You’ll also receive notifications when anyone likes, comments on, or shares your items.

You'll also see what specific friends have been up to, what they've shared to their activity feed, how long it’s been since a friend has been online and more.

The Home area will now contain an expanded section for friends that shows their current activity, the top trending games they’re playing, and a leader board based on everyone’s Gamerscore. Microsoft says that the feature isn't ready for the entire Xbox One market, so you might not get it as soon as everyone else.

Also new is the ability to play 3D Blu-ray, something that's still not available in Sony's PlayStation 4 but is in the previous-generation PS3.

One of the other major features included in the update is the ability to remotely purchase software from a mobile device (using Xbox SmartGlass or directly on Xbox.com) and have it automatically start downloading on the Xbox One.

In addition, the update will also add a pop up notification to notify low battery as well as the ability to turn off notifications during video. Also, the OneGuide is coming to Brazil, Mexico, Austria, and Ireland.

The update will roll out to all Xbox One consoles next month and beyond, but early access users can expect to get this as early as next week.

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Yahoo acquiring startup Flurry to boost mobile business

In an effort to bolster advertising revenue from smartphones, Yahoo yesterday announced that it is buying mobile analytics and advertising startup Flurry.

"Our acquisition of Flurry will be a meaningful step for the company and reinforces our commitment to building and supporting useful, inspiring and beautiful mobile applications and monetization solutions", said Scott Burke, Yahoo's ad technology chief. Flurry also confirmed the deal in a blog post.

Although financial details of the deal weren't disclosed, reports suggest that the deal could be worth anywhere between $300 million and $1 billion, one of the largest acquisitions by Chief Executive Marissa Mayer.

Founded in 2005, Flurry focuses on optimizing the mobile experience for developers, marketers and consumers through personalized ads and mobile analytics. The service, whose technology is installed on 500,000 apps, gets insights from 1.4 billion devices a month.

Flurry's current list of customers includes Snapchat, the BBC, Zynga, and Skype. The startup has received just over $70 million in venture funding from players like Draper Fisher Jurvetson and First Round Capital, and its last $12.5 million round was in December.

For Yahoo, the move seems logical, as the company has been trying to up its mobile efforts. The web giant currently has more than 450 million monthly users of its mobile apps like Yahoo Weather, Yahoo News Digest, and smartphone versions of its email and Flickr services.

Although the company has started selling ads inside these apps, its mobile revenue is still small. In fact, it is so small that the company still does not break it out, other than to say that the figure is "meaningful".

Google and Facebook currently dominate the market for mobile ads with more than 50 percent and 22 percent share, respectively. On the other hand, Yahoo's share is estimated at well under 1 percent.

The news comes almost a week after Yahoo reported disappointing second-quarter earnings results, with display revenue falling as much as 8 percent from the same period last year.

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