Heads up, mobile gamers. Tiny Thief, the latest title backed by Angry Birds maker Rovio, is out now for iOS and Android devices.

Developed by the Barcelona-based studio 5 Ants, Tiny Thief is the second game released under the new Rovio Stars third-party publishing initiative. Set in medieval times, the game is described as 'an atmospheric, beautiful stealth based adventure featuring point-and-click style gameplay, off-beat humor, mind-bending puzzles, and memorable characters.'

Players assume the role of the Tiny Thief, a blond hooded hero who must use his kleptomaniac ways to outsmart opponents across six 'epic quests' and save a princess and kingdom in danger. Along the way, players will square off against enemies like the Dark Knight, rogue pirates, dragons, evil sheriffs, and even a giant robot.

'The game throws some seriously mind-boggling puzzles at you, with tons of surprising interactive gameplay elements along the way,' according to the App Store description.

The release comes after Rovio back in May announced plans to boost its game lineup with selections from third-party developers. The effort, dubbed Rovio Stars, is the Finnish game maker's first foray into publishing games that were not developed in-house.

The first Rovio Stars game Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage launched in early June for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. That game has not yet landed on Android.

Meanwhile, Angry Birds fans continue to wait it out for Rovio's new top-secret addition to the franchise. Without revealing too much (or anything at all, really), the gaming company last month teased its 'most thrilling and action-packed game yet!'

In the meantime, gamers can pick up Tiny Thief in the App Store or Google Play for $2.99. For more, check out the video below.

Our story so far: Last September, Apple decided to dump the Google Maps app that had been on the iPhone for years. Apple replaced it with its own Maps app - software with so many problems that Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook, apologized and even recommended that people use other apps until Apple could fix its own one.

In December - incredibly quickly - Google responded by introducing its own Maps app for iPhone. It's a spectacular app, among the best apps ever written. It's fast, beautiful and so good at guessing what you mean when you start typing a destination, it's almost mind reading. You can read the details here.

Today, that delightful news gets even better. Not only has Google improved Google Maps for iPhone, it's also brought that same free app to three machines that never had it: the iPad, Android phones and Android tablets. (The Android versions are available for download today; it requires the Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean version of Android - recent versions, in other words. The iOS versions will be available shortly.)

For Androidians, the biggest news is the design of the app itself. It's modeled on the iPhone app, the one that's simple and fast and elegant. It's also uncluttered by the morass of menus that have always plagued the existing Maps app for Android.

But for practitioners of all religions - tablet, phone, iOS, Android - the other news is the new features that today's new version brings. They include:

* Greater speed. All app versions are faster than before.

* Better place information. Half the time, you don't even need navigation instructions; you just use Google Maps as the world's smartest Yellow Pages, to find a nearby restaurant, movie theater, drugstore or whatever.

The details for found places now include a one-line description ('Chinese restaurant famous for dim sum'); a five-star rating system (including a decimal - '4.3,' for example - because, let's face it, almost everything these days winds up with a four-star rating); the ability to upload your own photos of a place; and a more complete integration of the Zagat guides, which Google bought.

* Greater emphasis on exploration. Google Maps has always excelled at getting you to a known destination. But Google now wants the app to help you choose a restaurant, bar, store, recreation center or hotel, at least in major United States and European cities.

If you tap in the Search box without typing anything, new, photographic buttons appear: Eat, Drink, Shop, Play, Sleep. Each opens lists of corresponding facilities, sorted by criteria like Local Favorites, Popular with Tourists and so on. (Google says that these recommendations are never paid placement.)

* Traffic incidents and auto-rerouting. At last: Google Maps shows more than colored lines indicating current traffic speeds on major roads. Now it also displays tiny icons that represent accidents and construction. Tap one to read the details: 'Right lane blocked on 680,' for example. (In case you were wondering, the information on traffic incidents doesn't come from Waze, the traffic-incident app that Google recently bought. That data has yet to be incorporated into Maps.)

Better yet: Maps now looks ahead for traffic jams on your route, and interrupts your drive with a dialog box that offers to route you around it (if the new path would be quicker, of course). On its own.

* Offline maps. This feature is something of an Easter egg. It's undocumented, a feature inserted by Google engineers simply because they wanted it. You can access it only if you know the secret. But wow, is it worth it.

This feature memorizes the map data for whatever area is displayed on your screen right now (up to a whole city in size). That way, you can use Google Maps even when you're overseas and don't want to turn on data roaming (because that's insanely expensive), or when you're in an area where there's no cell reception. It's very handy.

To capture a map snapshot like this, tap in the Search box. Use the speech-recognition button and say, 'OK Maps.' (It's a riff on the command 'OK Glass' that prepares Google Glass, the company's 'smart headband,' for voice commands.)

A message quietly lets you know you've successfully stored the displayed area.

*Nice tablet layouts. On a tablet, Maps really shines. The app smartly reformats itself to take best advantage of whatever screen shape you have: two or three columns of place listings, for example, and luxuriously displayed photos and reviews for each business.

This new, improved Maps app works identically on both major flavors of phone and tablet. You know what? I don't care how much you distrust Google and its motives. This is crazy good software, some of the best work Google has ever done.

Summary: My new Android phone makes my old iPhone feel like a dinosaur. I did not root my phone. Every app you see here is a standard product, available from the Google Play store. This is what you can do right out of the box.

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A few weeks ago, I told you about my plans to ditch my old iPhone 4S and get a brand-new Samsung S4 Android phone. Well, a few days later, I did just that.

Since then, I've been playing around with the new phone and I came to a rather surprising realization: it makes my old iPhone feel like a dinosaur. We have a bunch of Nexus 7 tablets floating around the house and I use mine almost every day. But a phone is a far more personal device and, as a result, the desire to make it truly fit with a lifestyle is strong.

I knew the S4 had a lot more features than the iPhone. But until I started playing with it, the scope of the advancement of the device over even the iPhone 5 wasn't immediately apparent. This gallery should rectify that.

Before you dive in, I have a few things to say. First, I'm well aware of the state of handheld technology from the 1990s. Back then, we were in the early PalmPilot days, and there weren't smartphones. That's not the point. I know the iPhone seemed advanced five or seven years ago, but using it now, holding it next to the new Android phone, it feels so dated. It seems older than just the last decade. It seems like something from before the turn of the century.

The second thing I want to say is that I did not root my phone. Every app you see here is a standard product, available from the Google Play store. This is what you can do right out of the box.

Well, without further ado, let's explore the 25 things my new Android phone does that makes my iPhone feel like it comes from the 1990s.

Remember that new version of Google Maps for Android that Google previewed back at I/O in May? It's here! The new app began rolling out to Android devices this morning, bringing with it a new interface (including one built just for tablets) and a handful of new features. The iOS build, meanwhile, should be updated in just a few days - and it'll bring proper Google Maps support back to the iPad, to boot.

Alas, the interface revamp means a few old features had to get the chop.

Google says the update should be 'gradually rolling out to Android 4.0.3+ users over the next few weeks'.

If you've been running the Maps app that Google released for iOS back in December (three months after Apple ditched Google Maps in favor of their own, not-at-all-ready-for-prime-time app), the new Android interface probably looks pretty familiar. The core of the interface, that big ol' fullscreen map view, is almost identical on both platforms now. The menus which once dropped down now slide out from a drawer on the side, instead.

Interfaces aside, this new Android release has a few tricks that its iPhone counterpart doesn't have (quite yet):

Don't be sweatin' too hard over the lack of realtime traffic rerouting and all that other stuff on your platform, though, iOS users; from what I gleaned during the meeting, it sounds like the iOS version of the update - complete with proper iPad support - is just waiting for Apple's oh-so-crucial greenlight. Once it's released, the Android and iOS builds of Maps should be a near feature-by-feature match for the first time in ages.

As mentioned, though, there's a catch or two. Dumping the old interface and bringing in a whole new one meant a few features got the boot, if only temporarily. The 'Make Available Offline' button (which, as labeled, let you save maps for offline use) has been pulled. According to Graf, it just wasn't quite ready. On the upside, I learned a little easter egg that kinda-sorta brings it back - more on that in a post later today. (Update: here's the trick)

Google Maps has also dropped support for Latitude, the service that lets you share your location with friends and stalk them accordingly (with permission, of course). Instead, location sharing is getting integrated into Google Plus. The move is part of a wider closure of Latitude that will see Google moving out of check-ins and real-time location tracking, as well as offering these to developers via a set of APIs. More on the Latitude closure here.

Oh, the irony.

I'm fairly sure every Google 'product update!' post is actually a veiled 'we're closing things down!' post. http://t.co/TL2DAaSUP2

- Tom Scott (@tomscott) July 10, 2013

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After appearing in the Play store last night, the Google Maps update for Android that was previewed at I/O in May has been unveiled in full. The redesigned maps experience, which we first saw on the iPhone last December, works on both phones and tablets. It follows the same Google design aesthetic that has taken the rest of the company by storm - with information cards, cleaner fonts, and radically fewer buttons and menus. In lieu of difficult-to-understand icons and buttons, the map view simply has a search box, a button to center your view on your location, and a tiny menu button. When you search, information pops up and you can swipe left and right between info cards or alternate routes.

On tablets, the interface is slightly different but just as clean; it more closely matches the look and feel of the Google Maps desktop beta that was released at I/O. Instead of a single swipeable information card at bottom, the tablet gives you a grid of cards more appropriate for the larger screen size. Both versions benefit from the cleaner layout, with the previous version's little-used and ill-conceived menus and options excised in favor of in-map information or information that only appears when you search. They also utilize the new, cleaner map layout that debuted on the desktop version, with easier to read road and location names that intelligently appear when you zoom around.

Zagat reviews are still included alongside user reviews, but Google has standardized its ratings on a five point scale instead of a 30 point scale. Google says that Waze, which the company purchased last month, is not yet integrated in this version. The Zagat information has been expanded to provide local 'guides' broken down into five categories: eat, drink, shop, play, and sleep. Google is also beginning to use more of the information it can collect from its users. 'Local favorites,' for example, show highly-rated places from users who have set their home location in that city, while 'Tourist favorites' show the same for people who Google knows are traveling.

Google also says it has improved navigation, presenting alternate routes when you initially search in a easier-to-read format. Traffic incidents will be displayed, so you can see what is causing the snags on your route. Finally, the company claims that it can redirect you when you're in transit if something on your route goes awry.

The new interface does have some slight differences next to December's iPhone update - the menu button has been moved to the lefthand side to better fit with the Android standard of presenting menu options in a lefthand drawer. Unfortunately, on phones that button is still as tiny and hard to hit as it was before, but on tablets its a larger target placed next to the search box.

The other problem with the redesign is that Google (mostly) removed the option to save offline maps - a feature that was only a year old to begin with. Power users still have a way to cache maps locally, however. Daniel Graf, director for Google Maps, tells us that the company's engineers were just as unhappy with the loss of the feature as we were, so they built an Easter egg. When you type in 'OK maps' (or 'okay maps') into the search box, it will save a cached version of the visible map area locally. It's not as convenient or manageable as proper offline maps, but at least it's an option - assuming you remember it's there. If you were using Latitude as a 'Find my Friends' service, that has also been removed. Google will instead be promoting Google+ location sharing.

While Google says that versions for both the iPad and iPhone are coming 'soon,' the company wouldn't be drawn on whether they had been submitted to Apple for approval. The Android version should be available today in the Google Play store, but it will only work on Android 4.0 and up. It's a much-needed refresh for the design of one of Android's core apps, and hopefully a sign that the rest of Android will be headed in this new, Google Now-esque direction.

By Todd R. Weiss | Posted 2013-07-10 Email Print

Now available for Android, an updated and improved Google Maps app will also soon be available for Apple iPhone and iPad users, according to Google.

Google is continuing to build on the continuing evolution of its mobile Google Maps app with the release of a new version aimed first at Android smartphone and tablet users. 'The new Google Maps for mobile builds on the design we released for iPhone last December and improves on it with a few useful search and navigation features,' wrote Daniel Graf, the director of Google Maps, in a July 10 post on the Google Official Blog. The updated new version is 'the first dedicated app for Android tablets and iPads,' which provides 'a new mapping experience that makes exploring the world and getting to the places that matter to you a lot faster and easier,' wrote Graf. The new Android version is gradually rolling out globally in the Google Play store and an iPhone and iPad version will be available soon in Apple's App Store, he wrote. The new app will run on Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean versions of the operating system. The Apple version will support iOS 6+ when available.

Among the new features of the new app is an 'explore' option that allows users to visually browse and discover new places without typing. Instead, users can tap the search box, and they'll be shown pop-up 'cards' that display nearby places to eat, drink, sleep and shop, wrote Graf. Also included are enhanced navigational capabilities that can help users navigate around traffic. 'You can now see reports of problems on the road that you can tap to see incident details,' he wrote. 'While on the road, Google Maps will also alert you if a better route becomes available and reroute you to your destination faster. This feature is available only on Android and is coming soon to iOS.'

Android tablet users will find that the newly redesigned Maps app works better on their devices because it is now specifically designed to render images and information in a tablet format, wrote Graf. Also unveiled in the refreshed Maps app is a new 5.0 star rating system that gives users ratings on restaurants, bars, cafes and other destinations, wrote Graf. 'For an expert's opinion, the Zagat badge of excellence and curated lists are integrated into search results so you can quickly spot the very best places. From 'Best Restaurants to meet for a drink in NYC' to 'Best Restaurants in the Mission' in San Francisco, Zagat's there to help you uncover the local gems.' Reviews from friends and acquaintances are also available through the app. Another new feature is the availability of mobile offers and discounts from national brands like Macy's, Michael's and Toys 'R' Us, that are presented and labeled on the user's map screen, wrote Graf. As part of the changes, two older Maps features, Latitude and check-ins, are missing from the new app and will be dropped from old versions of the app as of Aug. 9, he wrote. 'We understand some of you still want to see your friends and family on a map, which is why we've added location sharing and check-ins to Google+ for Android (coming soon to iOS).'

On-the-fly translation of Web pages is a fixture in Chrome for PCs, but now it's in the Android version, too. Also arriving: SPDY-augmented data compression.

(Credit: Google)

Google, always trying to break down language barriers as part of its mission to make the world's information accessible, has added on-the-fly, automatic Web page translation to its Chrome browser for Android devices.

Chrome 28 for Android, released Wednesday, has the translation feature built in, said Chrome team member Jason Kersey in a blog post. The feature has been built into Chrome for personal computers for years.

Also new in Chrome 28 for Android, according to Kersey and another Chrome team member, Dan Alcantara:

* An optimized user interface for right-to-left (RTL) languages including Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew.

* Full-screen support on tablets, which lets Web apps -- in particular games and video -- take over the entire screen.

* Support for Google's experimental data compression service that lets fast Google servers read a Web page, optimize it for mobile devices, then transmit it faster to a mobile device using Google's SPDY network technology. The service only works with unencrypted Web pages.

(Credit: Google)

With what can only be described as some very very useful leaks, we're all set with our bingo cards for Nokia to announce the latest Lumia handset in the next twenty four hours - expect a Windows Phone with a 41 megapixel camera, significant memory, multi-core processors, and a comfortably large screen. And my mind, once more, turning to the question of Nokia and Android.

What if the Finnish company walked out on to the world's tech stage with an Android powered smartphone?

It's a sentiment that is often discussed, and Nokia's decision on February 11th 2011 to go with Windows Phone as their next smartphone OS, instead of Android, will be one that will continue to be analysed in tech circles.

If we look at the situation today, I find it very hard to argue that Nokia should drop Windows Phone and run with Android. It would be poor value in the short term, it would be a difficult sell in the medium term, and I don't think it would allow Nokia to have any long term future that would not involve being bought out by a rival - even if it was just for their patent portfolio.

I would have a huge issue around the software that Nokia would need to differentiate their mythical Android smartphone from others on the market. Nokia's software on Windows Phone makes a huge difference - such as free streaming music, mapping and navigation software (with turn by turn directions), improved camera and image processing, and augmented reality layers of local information - and any Android powered handset that would need to be identified as Nokia would require a similar suite of apps.

Creating these apps and services would take time. If they were to suddenly arrive fully formed and ready to go, I suspect the shareholders would want to know why those engineers weren't focused on the Windows Phone platform, which CEO Stephen Elop has proclaimed as the only platform for Nokia at the moment.

Which means these apps aren't ready, so Nokia would have to either launch a handset without them (and good luck selling a bare bones Android handset at a premium in the current market), or announce the plans and wait for the handset's software to be completed before shipping (which would not do Nokia's sales figures any good in the intervening period).

Just a day after releasing Chrome 28 on the desktop, Google announced the release of Chrome 28 for Android, adding Google Translate out-of-the-box and fullscreen support on tablets. You can download the latest version now directly from Google Play.

The biggest addition here is undoubtedly Google Translate support. When you come across a page written in a language that isn't the default one on your phone or tablet, just tap the 'Translate' button:

For those that use Chrome on the desktop, this is the same built-in translation bar you're already used to for quickly skimming a Web page you otherwise wouldn't be able to understand. Now you can use it while you're on the go as well.

Next up is fullscreen support on tablets: as you scroll, the top toolbar disappears so you can see more web page content. The feature was first introduced in Chrome 27 for Android on phones, which have now also gained a '+' in the toolbar for creating tabs.

The full Chrome 28 for Android changelog is as follows:

Checking out the new version of Google Maps and noticing some new features, but also some missing ones? Here's five quick tips to help you navigate the new interface.

After promising that Maps would receive a face lift and some new features at Google I/O, the app is finally delivering the goods. Google Maps v7.0.0 tidies up the interface and brings some shortcuts for the features you use the most.

The new version is rolling out via Google Play to Android devices running 4.0.3 and higher (with an iOS coming sometime in the future). If you haven't received an update yet, sit tight. You do have the option of downloading it from a third-party file hosting service, but this is not recommended.

Now, let's get into the five things you should know how to do in the new Google Maps on Android:

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

Tip 1: When you look up a destination, you can slide the information card up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the call, save, and share buttons (borrows the Google Now card appearance). You'll also see the street view of the location, ratings, and reviews. No more trying to tap on the tiny map pin to open the information page!

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

Tip 2: Tap the silhouette icon at the far right-hand side of the search bar to gain quick access to your map data. This data includes reviews, saved addresses for home and work, nearby offers, saved places, and even recent searches.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

Tip 3: Traffic and satellite layers have been relocated to a general menu. Simply tap on the gray tab along the bottom left-hand side of the app and the menu will slide open, allowing you to enable your desired layers.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

Tip 4: The Local feature has been replaced by Explore. Press the search box at the top and then scroll down the page to find the Explore banner, where you can choose from eat, drink, shop, play, and sleep. There's even a menu with categories so you can find places around you without knowing the business names.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)

Tip 5: If you want to save Google Maps so you can access them while offline, just say or type 'OK Maps' (Google Glass, anyone?) in the search box. You'll see a message that says the onscreen map area has been cached.

You may have noticed that Latitude is nowhere to be found in this version of Google Maps. If you want to see locations of friends, you'll have to open the Google+ app and choose Locations from the left-hand menu.

Have you noticed an important difference or awesome shortcut for the new Google Maps on Android? Share your tip or general thoughts on the new version in the comments!

Back in 2009, the team behind Pearltrees gave me a demo of their titular application. At that point it was web-based only, but they had a vision of bringing their sharing/curation tool to as many people as possible. As with every Web 2.0 demo from 2009, it was very slick, and perhaps a little too polished for my personal tastes, but there were two important ingredients on show.

One was the vision of the team, which is always important in a start-up. The other was how well they seemed to be managing their capital (now standing at 8 million EUR over four rounds of funding) to provide the French based start-up with a long runway to fine-tune that vision and expand carefully out from the browser based client.

A version for the iPad followed in October 2011, and iPhone users joined the fray in July 2012. Now, almost four years after the first open beta versions, the Pearltrees team have released an Android client.

With all your Pearltrees stored in the cloud, the Android app continues to build on the idea of creating strong collaborative communities across the internet, and the addition of the Android platform should bring more people into the ecosystem, where they can collect, share, annotate, and give some order to everything they find on the web that they want to keep track of, all in an easy to understand but powerful user interface that reminds me of a mind map - in this case though it's a mind map of my own internet of interests.

You can download the free Android Pearltrees client from the Google Play Store right now.