There are several new games in the app store this month. The mobile games developer Nekki has finally released their vision of hand-held soccer for smartphones. There’s a new 2D fighting game and a spaceship design game. Check out the descriptions and videos covering these games. There are links to the app stores as well. 11X11: Football Manager (iOS, Android) This is a soccer game for smartphones developed by Nekki. You can create a team by buying players, and you can make them better by training them to use tactics that win games. You can play against opponents from around the world in online tournaments. Your home city can be renovated with new stadiums, training grounds, club shops, offices, restaurants, and hotels. Here’s a list of more features: Single player and multi-player modes Real-world opponents and virtual opponents No wait time for matches; start a match instantly 11X11 transfer market consisting of the best players Watch matches in real time and manage team tactics Tactical substitutions Join football unions PvP…
This is an original post from New Games in the App Store – December 2016 (part 2) at App Review Central by Vasanth Simon
New Games in the App Store – December 2016 (part 2)
We made it! 2016 wraps up for the podcast with this one last episode with Joshua Vergara, Joe Hindy, Jonathan Feist and David Imel. Loosely talking about the latest in Android news, the team discuss their Christmas celebrations, socks, dive into Pho and so much more. We had tons of fun answering your questions from Twitter and Instagram before reminiscing our highlights from the year in the AA Podcast.Happy New Year!The Android Authority Podcast – discussing topics in Android every week.Rough Timecodes: 6:45 – Did you see Joe topless?Links to PodcastRSS FeediTunesStitcherSoundCloudDirect DownloadRelevant LinksAndroid Authority Forums – Podcast discussionBest Android games of 2016!Best Android apps of 2016!Google Play’s best apps and games of 2016Follow our Hosts
Joshua VergaraTwitter | Google+
Joseph HindyTwitter | Google+
Andrew GrushTwitter | Google+
Jonathan FeistTwitter | Google+
Nirave GondhiaTwitter | Google+
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Lanh NguyenTwitter | YouTube
David ImelTwitter | InstagramDecember 2016 giveaways(Stay tuned for January 2017 giveaways)SoundGuys – Powerbeats3 giveawayTabTimes – iPad Pro 9.7 giveawayVRSource – Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch giveawayCharged – DJI Mavic Pro drone giveawayRecorded on December 29th, 2016 – Hosted and produced by Joshua Vergara.“Isn’t Litmas an actual word?”
We’re starting to see the frequency of LG G6 rumors increase, which is often a sign that a phone is close to a reveal. That, of course, would match up to a recent report suggesting that LG may move up the launch of their next flagship to better compete in 2017. While we still have no confirmation of that happening or how early things may go down, other leaks are starting to provide the details we really crave, like what the phone looks like. 
Samsung announced this morning that its CES experience won’t only be about TV sets and smart fridges this year. In fact, UHQ audio will play a big part in Samsung’s 2017 plans, with the company teasing the launch of the H7 wireless speaker with UHQ 32bit audio technology. 
Not only will LG show off a levitating Bluetooth speaker at CES, the Korean electronics giant also has new TONE audio products on the way. The two new TONE options are the TONE Studio and TONE Free, both of which offer their own unique take on the collar audio trend that LG seems to be fully invested in. 
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To end 2016, Verizon is sending out a wave of security patches to most of its flagship phones. The batch of updates are available this week for the HTC 10, Moto Z family, Galaxy Note 4, Note 5, Note Edge, Galaxy S5, S6, S6 Edge, and S6 Edge+.
Speedpropertybuyers It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.In 2016, mobile technology hit new heights and Android was at the center of it all. But you can’t have progress without missteps, and 2016 was marked by an assortment of bad ideas, questionable business decisions, and some truly embarrassing blunders.See also:2016 in review: 10 defining moments in the world of Android3 days agoTime to talk about the 2016 moments tech companies would like us to forget. Let’s get to it!When Samsung set its reputation on fire
In the “So Big, Non-Nerds Know About It” category, Samsung somehow managed to turn its best shot to finally outshine Apple into a hugely embarrassing, massively expensive, still-not-fully-explained disaster of a phone launch.Years from now, people (normal people, not us tech freaks) will still be talking about that time Samsung phones kept catching fire. At Samsung HQ, news of burning cars and cancelled flights will trigger PTSD attacks forever, or at least until a new generation of fresh-eyed execs takes over with no memory of that dreadful day in 2016 when DJ Koh had to recall the Galaxy Note 7.The Blunder of the Year award definitely goes to Samsung. Hell, everything else on this list combined was not as bad as the Note 7 fiasco. It was just that embarrassing.When Blu got caught red handed
In the “We Didn’t Know, We Swear!” category, several Blu smartphones were found to be secretly sending user data to servers in China every 72 hours. That included text messages, call logs, and contacts. Yep, we’re talking about manufacturer installed malware here, the last thing you’d want on the cheap phone you bought for your mom or your kid.To its credit, Blu came clean pretty fast and updated the six models in question – a total of 120,000 units – to remove the spyware. The manufacturer assigned the blame to a Chinese partner, but let’s face it, this is the kind of story that proliferates the belief that Android is insecure. And that’s not good.When Google tried messaging, again
In the “We Only Wanted Proper SMS Integration” category, Google tried for the umpteenth time to deliver a communication service that people would, you know, actually want to use. In fact, it was two services this time, Allo and Duo. Both were hyped at Google I/O, but by the time they were released this fall, it was obvious that they were not ready to take on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage.Allo in particular was a disappointment, as it lacked key features like full SMS support or a web client. Assistant, its one standout feature, was not enough to make people install and use yet another messaging service.Perhaps in 2017 Google will turn Allo into a true WhatsApp or iMessage competitor. Or maybe not. Who knows.When LG introduced us to its weird Friends
In the “Hey, At Least They Tried Something New” category, LG really wanted to impress us with its new flagship, the G5. It pulled all stops: metallic construction, user-replaceable battery, a fancy wide-angle camera … and modules – several weird, expensive, unpractical modules some marketing genius decided to call “Friends.”As it turned out, the world just didn’t want to meet LG’s Friends. The idea was a dud and the LG G5 went down with it. To be fair, we have to commend LG for showing the real courage of betting its flagship on a wild idea.When Cyanogen put a bullet through its own head
Cyanogen In the “Too Cocky For Their Own Good” category, Cyanogen Inc. squandered any trace of goodwill it had left after the infamous 2015 comments of its then-CEO Kirt McMaster. Far from putting a bullet through Google’s head (sorry, Kirt, we just can’t let it go), Cyanogen alienated its partners, fired staff, and abandoned a once-promising business idea in favor of… we don’t know exactly what.As of December 2016, Cyanogen OS is dead, CyanogenMod is dead, and Cyanogen Inc. is probably looking for someone to put it out of its misery. The silver lining? Lineage OS will – hopefully – carry on the great legacy of CyanogenMod.When LG phones got their loopy reputation
In the “We’re Still Looking Into It” category, LG completely failed to give a good explanation of what’s going with its phones. Starting with the LG G4, and throughout 2016, numerous reports emerged about LG devices going through sudden, unfixable bootloops. We’re talking about flagships here, the phone you would expect to be rock solid.LG only admitted issues with the LG G4. But scores of user reports about the G5, V10, Nexus 5X, and even the new V20 paint a different picture. Even if it’s all in our head, LG’s lack of transparency here was a big mistake.When Apple showed #courage
In the “Well, That Backfired!” category, Apple exposed itself to ridicule when it boasted about the “courage” it took to remove the 3.5 mm audio jack from the iPhone 7. Snarky Twitter users had a field day, as #DongleLife became a trending hashtag.Apple tried to paint its actions as some sort of righteous gesture it made in the benefit of customers. But the actual benefits of abandoning the ubiquitous audio jack are questionable, at best. And thanks to Apple’s massive influence on the industry, the #DongleLife could creep deep into Android territory in 2017.When someone asked for $7.5 billion to sell a $4 phone
In the “Stranger Than Fiction” category, an Indian company called Ringing Bells (the name alone should’ve rung the alarm) announced an Android smartphone that would retail for just Rs. 251 or about four bucks. The “$4 phone,” as the Ringing Bells Freedom 251 came to be known, was simply put, too cheap to be true. “Prototypes” of the device that were shown to the press were off-the-shelf phones that had their manufacturer logos hidden with correction fluid.The shady Ringing Bells collected tens of millions of registrations, but ultimately failed to deliver on any of its promises. It’s not clear what the plan was (Ponzi scheme? publicity stunt?), but the $4 phone saga hit a ridiculous tone when Ringing Bells sent a letter to the Indian government asking for no less than $7.5 billion in order to put a Freedom 251 in the hands of every Indian.As of December 2016, Ringing Bells is close to shutting down.A few dishonorable mentions: Google shut down the beloved Nexus line; Yahoo got hacked, hard; Facebook turned into a shameless Snapchat copycat; Pebble disappointed backers when it sold itself to Fitbit; Microsoft’s AI-powered chatbot went haywire; and Lenovo made a mess out of Motorola.What’s the biggest mistake mobile tech companies made this year?
The clear leader this year, and by some margin, is the HTC 10, with an impressive -105.5dB. This result begins to push up against the limits of our testing equipment and offers plenty of headroom for detailed listening at lower playback volumes. Other notable entries include the OnePlus 3T, Google Pixel XL, and the Moto Z Force Droid, which all pull in at just under -100dB, but any benefits from 24-bit files will be impossible to distinguish without the volume cranked all the way up. The Huawei Mate 9 and LG V20 are also quite good and come in at just above CD quality SNR, and should still provide a good representation at lower listening levels. The Xiaomi M5 and Sony Xperia XZ will be disappointing from an audiophile perspective and certainly don’t appear to be worth wasting time playing back 24-bit files on. Although a score around -90dB is still good enough for reasonable sounding playback, it just won’t satisfy those looking for the highest quality option.The ZTE Axon 7 is a clear anomaly in our testing, and a SNR of just -79.6dB is rather poor and well behind the competition. We re-ran the test multiple times and repeatedly saw similar results, so we either have a bit of a dud handset or there’s something really wrong with the way that the audio signal path has been laid out on the motherboard.All of that being said, there’s more to a good sounding representation above and beyond just SNR, and it’s unlikely that casual listeners will be disappointing in the sound available from any of these handsets. To help build up a bigger picture, we’ve also tested the voltage output of the headphone amplifiers. This gives us an idea about how much power we’re able to obtain from each amplifier, but this will vary considerably based on the headphones that you have connected, so it’s more of a rough guide.VoltageOnePlus 3T.829Google Pixel XL.99Huawei Mate 9.347Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.76Sony Xperia XZ.382LG V201.009ZTE Axon 71.21Xiaomi Mi 5.18Lenovo Moto Z Force Droid1.45HTC 101 Based on this data, the Moto Z Force Droid is a standout performer for output power, followed very closely by the ZTE Axon 7. The LG V20, HTC 10, and Google Pixel XL all offer up virtual identical output voltages too, and shouldn’t have too much trouble driving even the lowest impedance headphones with adequate volume.The Sony Xperia XZ, Huawei Mate 9 and Xiaomi Mi 5 seem to offer considerably lower output voltages and may struggle to offer up as much volume as other headsets, and there’s a greater risk of small signals coming closer to the noise floor. That being said, current is an equally important factor when it comes to headphone power.Speaker VolumeAs well as headphone playback, we’ve also testing the loudness of each handset’s speaker to give you a feel for the maximum volume you can achieve while playing back videos and music to friends and family. The test is simple, we stood back exactly 1 meter from the handset’s speaker with our decibel meter and took some measurements.
The top three loudest speakers comprise of the Google Pixel XL at 77.8dB, followed by the ZTE Axon 7 on 76.6dB, and the Xiaomi Mi 5 at 75.6dB. All three of these will provide plenty of volume for playback, even is busy environments. The top three are followed closely by the HTC 10, Moto Z Force Droid, and the Huawei Mate 9, all of which will still provide plenty of volume for most playback scenarios.At less than 70dB, the OnePlus 3T, LG V20, and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge are notable quieter than our leading handsets. Although it’s the Xperia XZ that is notably the worst for playback volume. Remember that decibels are a logarithmic scale, and a 10dB increase doubles the perceived loudness. So the Xperia XZ at just 58.9dB will sound only a quarter as loud as the Pixel XL at this typical listening distance. Or you could view this as the Pixel XL being able to put out four times the volume as the Xperia XZ.ConclusionFor headphone playback, the HTC 10 edges out in front, followed closely by the Moto Z Force Droid, Google Pixel, and OnePlus 3T. HTC’s entry also offers up one of the louder speakers out of the handsets in our test group, making it the best all-rounder. However, it’s the ZTE Axon 7 and Google Pixel which offer the loudest presentation when playing back content through the speakers.Audio enthusiasts have plenty of good options to chose from from this year’s Android flagships, but it’s the HTC 10 and Google Pixel that top our testing. The Xperia XZ is probably a handset to avoid if audio is going to be your primary use.Thanks for reading and be sure to check out the other categories in the Best of Android 2016 series.CreditsTested by: Gary Sims, Andrew Grush, Nirave Gondhia, John Velasco, Joshua Vergara, Lanh Nguyen Series Contributors: Rob Triggs, Edgar Cervantes, Kris Carlon Series Editors: Nirave Gondhia, Bogdan Petrovan, Andrew Grush