Lara Croft and Guardian of Light hits the Play Store, is exclusive to Xperia devices for now

Square Enix has finally ported its game – Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light – on to Android. We reported that this game is coming to Android way back in September last year, when it was supposed to arrive in November but it took nearly a year to get released. Meanwhile, the iOS version has been selling since last year and even the PlayBook got it in April.

Like we said back then, this version of the game will be exclusive to the Xperia series of devices for a limited time. Also, not all Xperia devices but just the Xperia S, Xperia ion and the Xperia PLAY. Every other device will simply show up as incompatible on the game page.
For those who are not aware, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a 3D action-adventure game that uses an isometric camera angle like in the RPG games. You control the game’s protagonist Lara Croft through a wide variety of levels as you try to stop Xolotl, the God of Darkness who is out to plunge the world in darkness. With the help of Totec, the Guardian of the Mirror, you have to take the Mirror of Smoke away from Xolotl and defeat him before sunrise.
The game has the exact same level designs as the console and desktop version, except the graphics have obviously been toned down a bit and controls have been added on the screen.
Lara Croft and Guardian of Light is currently available for a limited period discounted price of $1.29 but will soon go back to the full price of $2.99. Unfortunately, the Play Store does not allow you to purchase a game if a supported device is not associated with the account like the App Store, so you can’t buy it now for a lower price and play it later when the game becomes available on more devices.
In other news, the iOS and PlayBook versions are also on sale with the iPhone, iPad and PlayBook version being priced at $0.99, $2.99 and $1.29 respectively.
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Panasonic announces six new LUMIX cameras

Panasonic has unleashed a whole bunch of new camera upon the world, six to be precise, which includes some superzoom cameras, a mirrorless camera and a premium point and shoot.

The first is the LUMIX LZ20 (pictured above), which is a budget superzoom camera. It has a 16 megapixel sensor and a 21x optical zoom on the 25-525mm lens. The LZ20 can also record 720p videos at 30 fps and has a 3-inch, 460k dot display on the back.

Panasonic LUMIX SZ5

The second one is the LUMIX SZ5. This one has Wi-Fi built-in, which can be used to upload images directly from your camera wirelessly to Panasonic’s exclusive cloud service LUMIX CLUB, from where you can transfer images to other social networking sites such as Facebook. You can also use the LUMIX LINK application available for iOS and Android to use your smartphone to remotely control your camera from a distance. The Wi-Fi can also be used to wirelessly connect to your DLNA enabled television. Other than that, the SZ5 has a 14 megapixel CCD sensor, 10x optical zoom, 3-inch 230k dot display and can record 720p videos at 30 fps.

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ60

Next is the DMC-FZ60. It has a 16.1 megapixel sensor and a massive 24x optical zoom. It has an f2.8 aperture that drops down to f5.2 at the highest zoom level. Other than that the camera also has a 10 fps full resolution burst mode, 1080i60 video recording and a 3.0-inch, 460k dot fully articulated display.

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ200

The fourth one is the DMC-FZ200. This one too has a 24x optical zoom but unlike the FZ60 maintains the wide f2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range, which is quite an achievement. This lets you use a faster shutter speed and this capture fast moving objects even from a great distance. The FZ200 also has a high resolution, 1,312k dot electronic viewfinder with 100% field of view, 12.1 megapixel sensor, 1080p60 video recording with stereo zoom microphones, 3.0-inch, 460k dot, fully articulated display and RAW shooting capability.

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G5

The next one is the DMC-G5, which is a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. As the name of the category suggests, the camera allows you to swap lenses just like on a DSLR but unlike a DSLR, there is no moving mirror mechanism and the viewfinder is electronic. The G5 has a 16 megapixel LiveMOS sensor that can record 1080p60 videos. It has a high resolution 1,440k dot electronic viewfinder with approximately 100% field of view, 3.0-inch, 920k dot fully articulated touchscreen and RAW shooting capability.

Panasonic LUMIX LX7

Lastly, we have the LUMIX LX7, which is a premium point and shoot camera. It has an astonishingly wide f1.4-2.3 aperture with a 24-90mm equivalent lens. Behind these is a 10.1 megapixel sensor capable of shooting at 10 fps at full resolution for images and 1080p60 resolution videos in AVCHD format. On the back is a 3.0-inch, 920k dot display. The LX7 also supports RAW shooting.
For more information on each of these cameras, click on the links below.
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Galaxy S gets an Android 4.1 port, makes Samsung devs stare in disbelief

Remember when Samsung said that the I9000 Galaxy S simply doesn’t have enough power to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich? What if we told you that not only is that untrue, but the smartphone can also handle Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The proof was, as usual, delivered by the omnipotent indie devs over at XDA-developers and came in the form of a Jelly Bean-based ROM, which performs flawlessly but for a couple of minor bugs.
All the hardware of the smartphone is also supported with the only two limitations being that you are unable to mount your external SD card when connected to a PC and Google Now, which is hit or miss.
So if you know how to flash a ROM manually on your Galaxy S, there’s no need to feel jealous of your Galaxy Nexus-touting friends. Just kiss your warranty goodbye (if you happen to have any left that is) and follow the source link for the instructions and required files.
While at it, you might want to keep an eye on this thread, which will bring you up to speed with the development of the official CyanogenMod 10 ROM for the Galaxy S. That one still has a few issues, but those will hopefully be resolved in the coming weeks, making it a viable option for your everyday ROM.
A hat tip to Magnumutz for sending this in!
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