New Call of Duty hits iOS, Ping remakes email, Google Drive gets redesign

AppleInsider

Activision has revealed a new Call of Duty game built for iOS devices, a new app Ping has reimagined certain aspects of email on mobile devices, and the Google Drive app has gotten a redesign bringing it in line with its other iOS apps.

Call of Duty: Strike Team hit the App Store on Thursday, giving iOS gamers a new first- and third-person shooter built from the ground up for the iPad and iPhone. It also features the novel ability to switch between first- and third-person views in order to run and gun or send out orders to a squad.

The game is set in the year 2020, with tensions high between the world's superpowers. Suddenly, the United States is under attack, and the player must lead a Joint Special Operations Team to hunt down those responsible.

The new game is available as a $7 download in the iTunes App Store. It weighs in at 1.31GB, and it requires an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, iPad mini or iPad 2 and up, or fifth-generation iPod running iOS 6.0 or later.

Ping rethinks the email experience on iOS

A new email app is preparing to hit the iTunes App Store in September, aiming to pick up where Mailbox left off in transforming the email experience. Ping will launch on September 18, and it adds a number of features that are particularly novel to email.

Among these is an iMessage/Google Hangouts-like feature where an email exchange can essentially become a chat session between two users. One user can see when the other is typing, and emails appear instantly on one end or the other.

Users can also set notifications for certain contacts, assigning weight of importance to their messages. The app also features an array of novel interface choices and options for users.

Ping will launch on September 8, but interested iOS device owners can reserve a spot at PingApp.com.

Google Drive for iOS gets redesign

The newest version of Google Drive for iOS now sports a redesigned look meant to bring the app in line with the look of Google's other offerings on Apple's platform. Google Drive, after the update, should sport a flatter, brighter aesthetic, one reminiscent not only of the Google+ and Gmail apps, but also the general feel of iOS 7.

The new look allows users to switch between a thumbnail view and a traditional list just by pressing a button. It also groups folders more intuitively, and it makes it easier to copy the link for any particular Drive file. Google also brought search more to the forefront in the app, making it easier to find what one is looking for.

The new version of Google Drive is available as a free download in the App Store. It requires an iPhone, iPad, or iPod running iOS 5.0 or later.

Marvin

It's good that they keep getting exclusive games for the platform but full titles would be nicer than these mobile equivalents:


[VIDEO]


It's so dumbed down there's barely any point in playing. Skip to 5:00, enemies facing away, tap to snap the sight to the enemy and tap for a one shot takedown. The textures are terrible.

The next hardware revision should be powerful enough to move beyond this. Maybe they'll demo the controllers at the September 10th event.

h2p

Thanks for posting the trailer, Marvin.

 

edit: Whoa. I missed that it's 1.31 gigs. Hmm a bit hefty for my little 16gb machine.

gregalexander

I still don't get what Ping does.

Mailbox is brilliant for keeping my inbox uncluttered, and deferring emails that I do need to get to, just not now.... so I don't lose them. I can't see how Ping takes off from that, it doesn't seem to do that at all, in fact it seems a totally different take on what you could do with email.

(Email will have some amazing evolution in the next few years, it'll be interesting)

tallest skil

Originally Posted by GregAlexander 

I still don't get what Ping does.

 

It's a social networking interface for musicians and music lovers to…

Oh.

nikon133

Marvin wrote: »

It's good that they keep getting exclusive games for the platform but full titles would be nicer than these mobile equivalents:


[VIDEO]


It's so dumbed down there's barely any point in playing. Skip to 5:00, enemies facing away, tap to snap the sight to the enemy and tap for a one shot takedown. The textures are terrible.

The next hardware revision should be powerful enough to move beyond this. Maybe they'll demo the controllers at the September 10th event.

I don't think it is hardware related. There are arguably better looking and definitely better playing shooters on bloody PSP.

Lack of controls aside, I'd say it is due to developer/publisher trying to make a game for a few $ and still make a profit out of it.

ascii

Playing an FPS on a tablet is about as much fun as playing turn-based strategy on a console.

pro2type

Google Drive now supports horisontal view, so you can actually read the title of your file. Still missing to put comments to files, and not just internal in sheets and wordfiles.

Marvin

nikon133 wrote: »

I don't think it is hardware related. There are arguably better looking and definitely better playing shooters on bloody PSP.

The Call of Duty version for the Vita does look a bit nicer and gameplay looks more interesting:


[VIDEO]


Gameplay is still the big difference between mobile games and consoles - the physical controls there definitely help but it's the shoulder buttons more than anything. Even with poor graphics, developers managed to bring out much more engaging gameplay scenarios:


[VIDEO]


[VIDEO]


Of course these games were much more expensive but when they're designing the games, I don't understand why they don't see how capping an enemy facing away from you with an auto-aim isn't that interesting or being stuck on a gun turret.

The advantage with better hardware is that they can port over already fully fledged last-gen console titles with almost no modifications. The next iOS devices should be perfectly capable of running GTA 4 for example as the performance of the next top PowerVR GPU (1Tflop) should exceed the Radeon 6630M (480Gflops):


[VIDEO]


The memory will still be tight but it is on the last-gen consoles too.

corvus

Quote:

 The game is set in the year 2020, with tensions high between the world's superpowers. Suddenly, the United States is under attack, and the player must lead a Joint Special Operations Team to hunt down those responsible. 

 

Original.