Amazon vs. Google Play: Which Store Offers the Most Content?

Number of Apps: 50,000 (Amazon Appstore), 600,000 (Google Play)

Number of Songs: 20 million (Amazon Appstore), Millions (Google Play)

Number of Movies: 100,000 (Amazon Appstore), Thousands (Google Play)

Number of Books: 850,000 (Amazon Appstore), 4 million (Google Play)

Searching for some of the most popular Android games, we found what we were looking for (“Angry Birds Space,” “Dead Space,” “Fruit Ninja” and “Triple Town”) on both Amazon’s Appstore and Google Play.

We had equal success (for the most part) when searching for the latest movies. Both the Amazon Instant Video Store and Google Play featured “The Hunger Games,” “Snow White and the Huntsman” and “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.” Inexplicably, however, Google Play didn’t carry the summer’s biggest box office-busting blockbuster, “The Avengers.”

Unfortunately, Google Play falls far behind the curve in its selection of older movies and television shows. When we searched for obscure 80's fantasy flick “Legend,” the closest title Google Play found was “Halo Legends,” a series of sci-fi shorts inspired by the video game of the same name. The service even drew a blank when we searched for classics like “Terminator 2,” “Aliens” and “The Longest Day.” Amazon’s video store, on the other hand, had all four movies ready to download.

Likewise, venerable sci-fi shows like “The X-Files” and “Twin Peaks” can be found on Amazon, but are missing from Google Play’s catalog. Even immensely popular series like “Friends” (and cult classics like “Arrested Development”) are absent on Google Play.

While Google Play may boast a selection of songs in the millions, it will be hard pressed to compete with Amazon’s robust store. When we searched for some of the most popular heavy metal bands from the 70's and 80's — including Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin — Amazon featured nearly a complete catalog for each band while Google Play offered merely cover albums.

 We found Google Play’s selection of magazines somewhat shallow as well. While you can subscribe to “PC Gamer” through both Google Play and Amazon, only the Appstore features digital subscriptions to popular magazines like “Martha Stewart Living” and “Time Magazine.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, less mainstream publications like “Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine” can only be found on Amazon.

Clearly, Google has a lot of catching up to do — and many licenses to acquire — before Google Play can truly compete with Amazon’s offerings. In the meantime, if content is your most important consideration when purchasing a tablet, go with the Kindle Fire.

From Laptopmagazine. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center Here

MojoMotor: Easy-to-Use Website Content Management System

Here is a problem both website designers and owners share: Once a website is created, who has to update its content over time? And how should they do it? The traditional solution for this problem is a CMS, or content management system, such as WordPress (aimed mainly at blogs) or Weebly. MojoMotor is one such content management system, but it prides itself on "doing less" and providing a lightweight interface both for developers and content editors.

MojoMotor's installation interface is stylish, but requires familiarity with database configuration settings.For a content editor, MojoMotor can't be much simpler to use: There is no administrative backend to log in to, or a complex workflow with multiple page states and drafts. You do need to log in so that MojoMotor knows you're allowed to edit, but once that's done, the only special bit of interface you see is a toolbar on top of the screen. The rest of your browser window contains your website just like everyone sees it, but with one important difference: You can edit the text and images.

MojoMotor features an easy WYSIWYG editor for website text.While you're viewing the website in MojoMotor's administration interface, certain parts of the page (such as its main content area, usually) are marked as editable and highlighted in color. To edit, just click anywhere in the highlighted area, and it morphs into a WYSIWYG editor with a simple toolbar for formatting text, creating links, and uploading images. You don't need to know HTML, Markdown, or any other special syntax. You do need to make sure that any images you upload are in the correct size for the website.

The default theme provided with MojoMotor looks a bit like a basic WordPress installation.MojoMotor is easy to use for designers, too. To design a website in MojoMotor, you don't have to know PHP: MojoMotor websites are created as static HTML files with special MojoMotor tags that the system uses to make certain areas user editable. This makes MojoMotor an ideal tool for front-end designers who can create great layouts, HTML, and CSS, but don't know the first thing about back-end coding and working with PHP.

Behind the scenes, MojoMotor works by using special tags.MojoMotor is not a one-size-fits-all solution: It is clearly aimed at small websites containing just a handful of pages. The system doesn't even include a built-in blogging engine, but third-party website MojoAddons offers a plug-in, MojoBlog, that lets users create a blog within their MojoMotor installation. Fortunately, MojoMotor makes it very easy to migrate your project to ExpressionEngine, a CMS from the same vendor that can easily support large-scale websites.

Because MojoMotor focuses on a specific use case and doesn't try to please everyone, it succeeds in creating a truly simple way to develop and maintain small personal and business websites. Its reasonable price tag and extensibility add to its allure, as well.

--Erez Zukerman

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

QR Code Killer? Touchcode Opens Content By Tapping Paper to Screen

These days, QR Codes, those barcodes you can scan to launch a website or unlock exclusive content are everywhere from magazine pages to prepaid coffee cards. However, reading a QR code requires activating a camera app on a phone or tablet, turning your device around, shooting a picture, and then waiting for the appropriate app to interpret the code. A new technology promises to change all that, allowing you to unlock exclusive content in apps or web pages by simply touching printed materials like business cards or packages  to your screen.

Dubbed Touchcode, the new technology works by embedding  a thin layer of capacitive material in printed items like business cards, tickets, magazine pages, or product packaging. When you hold the paper to a capacitive touch screen, it acts like a set of invisible fingers tapping out a complex code that’s interpreted by a Touchcode-enabled app or website. Though the app should run on any multitouch-enabled, capacitive screen, it works best with panels that support at least 5-points of touch input. Like QR codes, Touchcodes can be used for launching web pages, enabling coupon codes, event ticketing, or even mobile payments. 

The brainchild of German startup Printechnologics, Touchcode is intended to be both cost effective and easy-to-implement. Printing houses can license the technology and easily add the inexpensive Touchcode layer to their production processes at a projected cost of less than a penny per unit printed.

To read the codes on a device, users will need to launch an app or site that’s capable or reading Touchcode. Rather than creating a universal Touchcode app, Printechnologics has an SDK that companies can use to build the functionality into their own apps on Android, iOS, or web apps with more platforms like Windows Phone 7 coming.

By building the Touchcode reader into their own applications, companies focus the spotlight on their own products rather than the technology behind them. As a user, you may not see the “Touchcode” name or branding on objects that use it. However, this also means that users will need to take the additional step of installing a new app or visiting a new web page for every Touchcode they encounter. The same reader app can scan any QR code in the world.  

Touchcode has already been deployed successfully in Europe where a German magazine called Iconist included a removable business card in a recent issue, which when touched to the screen in its iPad app, downloads a free digital edition. In Israel, PMI released a series of iSupergoal soccer trading cards which enable users to add players to their fantasy teams by simply rubbing the cards against a phone or tablet screen while a special app is running.

In the U.S., a number of companies are planning to release Touchcode-enabled products in the near future. However, when we met with a Printechnologics rep, the only non-embargoed English-language example he could show was a business card from 3M that launches special holiday content when touched to a tablet’s screen while the device is visiting a page of that company’s website. Using the card he gave us, we were able to use the 3M card on our own iPad.

Though we don’t expect Touchcode to replace QR codes or related technologies like RFID and NFC, it has a world of potential. Imagine visiting the supermarket, and holding your phone screen against the label of a pasta box to get recipes and a shopping list of related ingredients. Picture a magazine where you launch related videos for each story by holding your phone against a box on the page. Envision yourself getting a coupon card in the mail and touching it to your phone to enable a discount. By allowing users to read codes through the screen rather than the camera, all of these tasks feel more natural and intuitive. 

From Laptopmagazine. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center Here