An important success metric for any app is engagement: a measure of how frequently and how long people play your game. Amazon GameCircle is designed to help developers increase engagement through player Achievements, Leaderboards, and saved game syncing across multiple devices. Once you integrate GameCircle, players can seamlessly play games and interact with other gamers across mobile devices.

Now GameCircle social APIs offer new ways for you to improve player engagement by making it easier for players to connect with new friends.  Using a simple API you can now pull GameCircle friends data into your game for players who use Amazon devices. Players using Amazon devices are able to create a profile for themselves, including a nickname and profile image, and can add other GameCircle players to their friends list. You can access this data and display it in your own games or use it to leverage custom social interaction features.

Make It Easy for Players to Find Friends

Players with friends play longer, but not all players have real-life friends playing your game right now.  The GameCircle Friends API helps you solve that problem by enabling you to show your customers a list of suggested friends. By integrating a ‘Find Friends on GameCircle’ button into your game, players can easily click-through to their GameCircle Friends page to discover new friends who are also playing your game and add those suggested friends in just two clicks. GameCircle Friends doesn’t require players to grant your app permission or sign-in to access friends, so players can find and add new friends quickly and get back to playing your game sooner.

Add GameCircle Friends to Your Game

Add GameCircle Friends to your game today to increase player engagement.  Getting started is easy:

• Click here to register for your free Amazon Developer account.
• Download the Amazon Mobile SDK.
• Learn more about Amazon GameCircle.
• Learn more about GameCircle Friends.

Developers have been using Amazon to store data in the cloud for some time, using the highly reliable and scalable Amazon Web Services like S3 to provide durable object storage and retrieval. Amazon Cloud Drive offers that same convenience to consumers, and millions use it to securely access their digital content from their desktop and mobile devices. Now you can build on that functionality and connect users to their Cloud Drive content from within your own apps. Enhance your photo editing app, for example, by allowing users to browse photos they have already stored in the cloud.

A New REST API

Today Amazon Cloud Drive announced the launch of its public API platform, which provides a RESTful interface for upload, download, manipulation, and organization of data in the cloud. You can use this API to integrate these services in your app and offer added flexibility to your users. Your app can provide direct access to their Cloud Drive storage and the content they keep there, as well as use it to preserve game settings, preferences, and other application state on their behalf.

For example, let’s say you have a note-taking app that stores its data locally. Using the new Cloud Drive API, you could allow users to enable synchronization with their personal storage in the cloud. Saving notes to their Cloud Drive would make the data accessible to your customers wherever they run your app—without requiring you to set up and manage servers, storage, or load balancers.

In addition to the convenience of this direct connection to their Cloud Drive from your app, customers also benefit from the reliability and safety of the underlying AWS platform on which Cloud Drive is constructed.

Less to Build, Faster to Market

When you connect your users to their own Cloud Drive storage, you can preserve and protect their app data without having to build an online data management system of your own. Cloud Drive is built to be robust and to scale transparently, so you never have to worry about availability or performance. The Cloud Drive API doesn’t impose any restrictions on file type, so your app can work with all kinds of content.

Many app developers have already integrated support for Cloud Drive into their mobile products. You can see some of these on the newly launched Cloud Drive App Gallery page. They include photo print services, content creation and editing apps, and content aggregation apps.

You can also hear first-hand what it’s like to integrate with Cloud Drive. Listen to Jason Toy, CEO of Filepicker, discuss the process and how it added value for their customers.

Integration Is Easy

Check out the Cloud Drive API Documentation for details on how to add Cloud Drive to your mobile apps. There is also a third-party SDK provided by Temboo to get you up and running fast.

-peter (@peterdotgames

Less than seven months ago, Amazon introduced Amazon Fire TV, and it quickly became the best-selling streaming media box on Amazon. Today, Amazon is bringing the same experience customers love about Amazon Fire TV—ease of use, great performance, and vast selection—to a smaller and even more affordable device.

Introducing Fire TV Stick, a tiny stick that connects to the HDMI port on your HDTV for instant access to movies, TV shows, music, photos, apps, and games. Fire TV Stick is just $39 and is available for pre-order starting today at www.amazon.com/fire-tv-stick and will ship November 19.

As a thank you to Prime members, Fire TV Stick is available for two days only for just $19 on Amazon.com. Customers who are new to Prime can sign up for a free trial and also receive this special price. Eligible customers get a free 30-day trial of Netflix and Amazon Prime when they purchase Fire TV Stick.

The Most Powerful Streaming Media Stick

The Amazon Fire TV Stick has serious hardware specifications. Included inside of its streamlined thin case are a dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, dual-band, dual-antenna (MIMO) Wi-Fi, support for 1080p HD video and immersive audio with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. At its core, the Fire TV Stick is simple to set up and easy to use, just plug it into a HDMI port on your HDTV and you're ready to run apps and casual games like Monsters University, Ski Safari, and Flappy Birds Family in minutes. The Fire TV stick even comes with its own dedicated remote and of course you can also connect the optional Amazon Fire Game Controller.

Click here to learn more about the Fire TV Stick.

Android Developers Can Easily Tap into New Segment

Now is the perfect time for Android developers to get into the growing streaming device segment with their existing Android app or create something entirely new, designed specifically for the Fire TV Stick. In addition to media-centric apps, casual games that feature local multi-player options are also becoming very popular on these types of devices.  

Android developers will find that developing for Fire TV Stick is familiar, and optimizing their apps for the new controllers and TV display will not require learning a new language or new frameworks. Fire TV Stick runs Fire OS, which is based on Android. This means that it is easy to bring an Android APK to Amazon devices, including Fire TV Stick. Amazon Fire TV Stick offers Android apps a potentially new set of customers to engage with – all through the same Amazon Appstore.

Click here to download the Fire TV SDK and learn more.

Millions of Customers: Fire Devices, Android Devices, and Blackberry

The Amazon Appstore has never been available on a broader selection of devices and platforms.  Fire TV Stick is the newest addition to the Fire device family that includes recently released Fire tablets, Fire phone and Fire TV.  The Appstore is preloaded on all Fire devices, so when a developer submits their app to the Appstore they have the opportunity to reach customers no matter where they are and what device they’re using.

The Amazon Appstore for Android is also pre-loaded on millions of Android devices and hundreds of thousands of Android customers have already downloaded the Appstore on their own. We recently announced that the Amazon Appstore is preloaded on BlackBerry 10 devices throughout the world, giving developers access to even more customers. Plus, the latest Amazon shopping app fully integrates apps and games into the shopping experience enjoyed by millions of customers. So when customers are searching for products in the Amazon shopping app, they’ll also discover relevant apps and games that they may also enjoy.

Take Advantage of the Holiday Season Sales Spike

Fire TV Stick is launching just in time for the holiday shopping season. Amazon device activations historically surge during this period. According to Flurry Analytics, Christmas sees the highest number of device activations for Amazon—24 times the number for a typical December day in 2013, a bigger bump than other major tablet and smartphone manufacturers—so now is the time to develop a new app or bring your existing Android or web app to Fire tablets, Fire TV, Fire phone and Fire TV Stick.

Click here to submit your Android app or game.

Now is the Time to Submit Your App for Fire TV Stick

Reach new customers and expand your reach to the living room with Fire TV Stick.  Submit your app now to make sure it’s available when Fire TV Stick launches November 19^th.

Additional Resources:

• Purchase Fire TV Stick
• Get a Free Amazon Developer account
• Download the Fire TV SDK
• Submit your app or game to the Amazon Appstore

In the London are area? We'll be at two events later this month in your area. Meet 1:1 with developer evangelists, get answers to your technical questions, participate in the Appstore Port-a-Thon, get a demo of Fire TV, and learn how to port your desktop and mobile games to the living room.

Amazon Developer Day: Bringing Apps to the Living Room

Fire TV will be available in the UK this Thursday, and the Appstore team is hosting a free developer day at our London office on October 29^th centered around bringing apps to the living room.

The Amazon Appstore Developer Day is designed to give you the essential tips, tricks and tools to distribute your app to Amazon customers. At the end of the afternoon, you will be able to publish your Android app directly to the Amazon Appstore.  At the event, our technical representatives will be on hand to provide support, answer your questions, and help you troubleshoot any issues.  We’ll have extra devices on-hand for you to use for testing.

Plus, we'll be giving away 2 tickets to Droidcon London and a Fire TV!

When: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 from 12:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Where: Amazon UK Offices at 60 Holborn Viaduct, London

Learn more and register: https://amazonappstoreuk.eventbrite.com

Droidcon London: Come Publish Your App

On October 30^th and 31^st, you can catch the team at Droidcon London.

Stop by our booth and experience the Fire Phone, Fire TV and Kindle Fire. Bring your APK and publish your app on the Amazon Appstore in as little as two hours! An Amazon evangelist will be on hand to help check compatibility and answer any questions about publishing your Android app on the Amazon Appstore. It’s easy and usually no changes are necessary because 75% of the apps we’ve checked just work! Each developer will be entered to win an Amazon device upon submission.

You can also hear our evangelist Paul Cutsinger talk about Responsive Game Design and Bringing Desktop and Mobile Games to the Living Room or try your hands on the Fire TV at the Droidcon Gaming Zone.

If you haven’t registered for Droidcon, use promo code AMAZON-DROIDCON-2014 and get 25% off.

Player engagement is the key to success for most mobile games, and Amazon GameCircle is designed to help developers increase engagement through player Achievements, Leaderboards, and saved game syncing across multiple devices.

Game developers using the Corona Labs SDK can now integrate GameCircle into their Android games using the Corona plugin. The Corona SDK enables developers to build mobile apps and games for multiple platforms including Amazon Fire, Android, and iOS devices. Developers program in Lua and call the Corona SDK, which is built on a C++/OpenGL platform to optimize for graphic applications.

Corona's GameCircle plugin implements nearly all of the GameCircle APIs, including submitting the local player's scores & achievement progress, displaying GameCircle overlays, getting achievement and leaderboard data and using Whispersync for Games to synchronize game progress across multiple devices. GameCircle Friends data is available through filtered leaderboards.

Here are some links to help you get started:

• Corona SDK  and GameCircle  (Amazon Page)
• Full plugin documentation
• Corona GameCircle forum
• Corona GameCircle plugin sample code

Learn more about GameCircle with the following links:

• GameCircle landing page
• What’s New with GameCircle
•  Integrate GameCircle

@PaulCutsinger

It started with a 90 second test to see if your Android app is ready to launch in the Amazon Appstore.

Then there was added support for Fire phone and screenshots from the actual device.

Now, you can get the results from your device testing even if you don’t have a developer account. So, grab your APK and get test results in 90 seconds.

Test your apps for Fire Tablets, Fire Phone and Appstore for Android in just a few minutes. 75% of existing apps and games we've tested require no changes before going live. You can find out whether your app has any of the common issues that can block publication on the Amazon Appstore. Our App Testing Service also gives you access to additional test results that show you how your app looks and performs on live devices. Start the test here.

@PaulCutsinger

Today’s mobile developer must engage customers with app experiences that run across an array of devices and platforms yet remain responsive and powerful.  The AWS Mobile SDK can help bring the power of the cloud to your apps while enabling you to build high quality mobile apps quickly and easily across multiple platforms including iOS, Android and Fire OS.  

The AWS Mobile SDK provides access to AWS Mobile services, mobile-optimized connectors to popular AWS data and storage services, and easy access to a broad array of other AWS services.  Libraries, code samples, and documentation for iOS, Android, and Fire OS are all included so you can start building right away!

The second version of the SDK is now generally available after wrapping up a thorough Developer Preview. A lot of developer feedback was received during this preview and has been incorporated into this new update.  Jeff Barr via the Amazon Web Services Blog explains…

Version 2 of the AWS Mobile SDK has been available in Developer Preview since early July (See my blog post, New AWS Mobile Services to learn more). During the Developer Preview, many developers used the AWS Mobile SDK in their apps and provided us with a lot of really good feedback.

Today we are wrapping up the Developer Preview and making the AWS Mobile SDK Generally Available. You can download it here and get started with the AWS Mobile Services.

We responded to the feedback that we received during the developer preview and made a number of improvements to the SDK. You can find the details in the release notes section ( iOS, Android). Here are some of the more significant improvements:

1. The method count in the AWS Mobile SDK for Android has been reduced by 40% to 13K. This will reduce the size of the final APK and keeps you clear of Android's limit on the number of methods.
2. The SDK supports offline sync using Amazon Cognito. The SDK queues requests made when the device is offline. The requests (pending sync operations) are executed when internet connectivity is available. Details can be found here.
3. The AWS Mobile SDK for iOS now includes support for pre-signed Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) URLs. You can use these URLS to perform background transfers using the NSURLSession class.

To get started today with AWS Mobile Services check out the following resources:

• AWS Mobile Services
• AWS Mobile SDK
• AWS Mobile Blog
• AWS Mobile SDK Getting Started Guide for iOS
• AWS Mobile SDK Getting Started Guide for Android
• AWS on GitHub
• Community Forums

-Dave (@TheDaveDev)

The Amazon Appstore is now preloaded on BlackBerry 10.3 devices starting with BlackBerry Passport.  Starting today, hundreds of thousands of apps and games will now be available to Blackberry customers through the Amazon Appstore. 

A FREE high-quality paid app is also available through the Free App of the Day program, which gives customers one free paid app each day.  At Amazon, we are always committed to making it easy for our customers to easily find the apps and products they want and ensure they’re satisfied with their overall customer experience. Now we’re excited to extend that same commitment to the BlackBerry community. BlackBerry customers will have the opportunity to discover apps that are relevant to them based on personalized recommendations and download these apps with confidence using Amazon’s trusted payment options.

On the developer side, we’re focused on creating the best platform for developers to build, monetize and distribute their apps.  Our developer ecosystem starts with the Amazon Web Services platform for developers’ infrastructure needs.  We’ve got programs like Appstore Developer Select that provide advertising and merchandising benefits to developers so they can get their app discovered. And with services like In-App Purchasing, Mobile Associates, Mobile Ads and our virtual currency Amazon Coins, developers can find all new ways to make more money. Click here to learn more.

Getting Your App on BlackBerry Devices

Publishing your app on BlackBerry devices via the Amazon Appstore is easy.  If you’re an existing Amazon Appstore developer, you’ve previously chosen to distribute your app or game on “Non-Amazon Devices” and your app is compatible with BlackBerry Passport, you don’t have to do anything - your app is already available on BlackBerry Passport devices. 

If you’re an existing BlackBerry developer but new to the Amazon Appstore, click here to register for a free developer account and submit your app today.

On September 9^th, Amazon announced the updated Amazon App for Android – the primary Amazon shopping app enjoyed by millions of customers. The new Amazon App for Android phones provides an award-winning mobile shopping experience on hundreds of millions of physical goods and now enables customers to discover and purchase all of Amazon’s digital catalog - including Amazon Appstore apps and games – from one app. It’s never been easier for Amazon Appstore developers to reach new customers.

Reach Millions Of Customers on More Devices

Millions of customers already enjoy the benefits of Amazon Prime membership. The new Amazon App for Android combines the fast and easy mobile shopping experience customers have come to know and love with access to unlimited streaming of tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes from Prime Instant Video.  Now, your apps and games are directly integrated into that experience, and you have a new channel to reach customers. Current Amazon Appstore developers don’t have to do anything; your app is already included in the new Amazon App for Android.

Want your App included in the Amazon App for Android catalog?  Click here to register as an Appstore developer.

Make More Money with the Amazon Appstore

The Amazon Appstore has never been available on a broader range of devices and platforms.  It’s no wonder 65% of the surveyed developers also say that the Total Revenue achieved on the Kindle Fire is similar to, or even better than, what they experience with other major platforms.

The Amazon Appstore is integrated into Fire tablets, Fire TV and Fire phone devices. Earlier this month, we announced that Fire TV and Fire phone are now available in the UK and Germany. Back in August, we announced the expansion of the Amazon Appstore to 41 new countries, including Egypt, Indonesia, Singapore and Turkey. So publishing your Android app on Amazon means you reach customers from around the world.

The Amazon Appstore is not just available on Amazon devices. This announcement further expands the distribution of Appstore apps and games on Android devices.  And coming this fall, the Amazon Appstore will be preloaded on BlackBerry 10 devices globally, giving you access to more customers with Amazon.

How Do Developers Make Their App Available?

Most Amazon Appstore developers don’t have to do anything; as long as you clicked the box for “compatibility with non-Amazon devices” on the Developer Portal, your app is generally already included in the new Amazon App for Android. Developers who have a check within their app to see if their app was installed on the device by the Amazon Appstore will need to modify their code to include a less specific check to see if their app was installed by Amazon. Want your app included in the Amazon App for Android catalog?  Click here to register as an Appstore developer – it’s free.

Now Is the Time to Submit Your App

Submit your app today to get your app or game included in the new Amazon App for Android.  Most apps just work with no additional development required.

Click here to register for a free developer account.  Click here to test your app and get feedback within 90 seconds.

- Dave (@TheDaveDev)

Amazon today introduced Fire OS 4 “Sangria,” the next generation of software and services that powers Amazon’s Fire devices, including three all-new Fire tablets introduced today. The Fire HD 6, Fire HD 7, and Fire HDX 8.9 tablets all give customers the power to watch, work, and play.  Aggressively priced, they are highly affordable and will appeal to a whole new customer segment by introducing a smaller, lighter 6” HD tablet form factor.

This release introduces hundreds of new upgrades and platform enhancements, including:

All-new Fire OS 4 “Sangria”

Fire OS 4 “Sangria” starts with Android and adds a customer-friendly user interface, unlimited cloud storage of Amazon content and photos taken on your Fire device, latest productivity apps, and enhanced platform integrations to seamlessly access the best selection of digital content—more than 33 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, and Android apps and games.

Unmatched Entertainment Ecosystem

Fire OS 4 integrates our newest services including Prime Music, ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction), and Kindle Unlimited. Second Screen headphone integration lets you watch Amazon Instant Video on a compatible big screen TV with headphones plugged into your tablet so you can enjoy the movie in enhanced Dolby Digital sound.

Built for Gaming

Fire tablets are built for the best in gaming with tilt, turn, and multi-touch controls. Customers get a new paid app for free everyday, and enjoy great discounts on popular games and apps. Plus, use Amazon Coins to purchase and save on apps, games, and in-app items. New Fire tablet owners in the US get 500 Amazon Coins—a $5 value.

Content in the Cloud

Every Fire tablet includes free unlimited storage in Amazon Cloud Drive for photos taken on the device, plus 5GB of storage for photos and files added to Cloud Drive from other devices.

Starting at $99, Fire tablets feature quad-core processors that more than double the speed and quadruple the graphics performance of previous models. Your apps launch faster and your customers enjoy a smoother and richer experience with better overall performance than ever before. Stunning HD displays and Dolby Audio make your apps and games shine.

Fire OS 4 is available on the new Fire tablets, with some features coming to the 3^rd generation Kindle Fire HDX and Kindle Fire HD (released in 2013) as part of free, over-the-air Fire OS updates starting later this year.

Learn more about the new Fire tablet hardware and the software improvements announced today.

Fire OS’ Content-Forward UI Makes Your App More Discoverable

Fire OS 4 and the new Fire tablets are designed to provide fast and easy access to favorite books, songs, videos, and games. By deeply integrating software, content, and the Cloud, we build on Fire OS’s content-forward user interface to deliver innovative services that are available only from Amazon.

Fire OS is designed from the ground up to make it as easy and fast as possible for customers to access their favorite apps and content. The home screen Carousel and media libraries are automatically personalized to put your apps front and center in the app grid, providing easy, one-click access.

This means customers use your apps more, leading to more sessions, deeper engagement, and more opportunity to generate revenue. We expect these and many other features will make the new Fire tablets even more popular than their predecessors, further expanding the reach for your apps and games.

Reach a Global Audience for the Holidays

This year’s Fire tablets will be available to customers worldwide in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, and Australia. The Amazon Appstore is also available on Android devices in 236 countries to give your apps even more reach. According to an Amazon-sponsored IDC survey, 76% of developers say that Fire helps them connect with new customer segments that may be difficult to find on other platforms.

Fire tablets expand that reach even further, and with perfect timing. The holiday season is almost here, and Amazon devices have historically surged during this period. According to Flurry Analytics, Christmas Day sees a particularly large number of device activations—24 times the typical number for any other day in 2013, for example—so now is the time to develop a new app or bring your existing Android or web app to Fire tablets, Fire TV, or Fire phone.

Most Android Apps Just Work with Fire OS 4

Fire tablets run Fire OS, which is based on Android 4.4 (KitKat) and offers complete support for API Level 19. This means that it is incredibly easy to bring your Android APK to Amazon devices. Most Android apps we’ve tested work on Fire tablets without modification, so you can publish your apps to the Amazon Appstore with little or no effort and expand your potential audience by millions.

Use the App Testing Service to check the compatibility of your existing Android app in as little as 90 seconds. It will identify potential issues and explain how to resolve them, and then make submitting your app a breeze.

Appstore Monetization Similar to (or Better) than Other Platforms

An IDC survey we commissioned found that developers make as much money per user (often more) when they sell their apps and games on Fire tablets, as compared to any other mobile platform. Playtika, for example, creator of highly immersive social games like Bingo Blitz, saw its highest average revenue per paying user (ARPU) on Fire tablets—70% higher than Android and 15% higher than iOS. Similarly, Crittermap saw superior results using the Amazon Mobile Ads API. Creators of BackCountry Navigator PRO, they earned higher eCPM than on other ad networks.

Fire tablets also support Amazon Mobile Ads, a cross-platform service to display banner, interstitial, and rich media ads inside your apps. You are paid for ad impressions, not just ad click-through events. Use it to monetize app sessions across Fire tablets, Fire phone, and all Android and iOS devices.

Amazon Mobile Ads is just one of many APIs available in Amazon’s Mobile App SDK, which also provides support for In-App Purchasing, A/B Testing, Maps, Login with Amazon, and GameCircle Achievements, Leaderboards, and Whispersync for Games. Build with our Mobile App SDK to get these services up and running quickly, and then use them to engage new customers, understand and improve their experience with your app, and increase revenue.

Learn more about Amazon’s monetization APIs on our website, where you will find Quick Start Guides and sample code to help you integrate them into your apps quickly.   

Your Apps & Games: Now Available on More Devices

The Amazon Appstore has never been available on a broader range of devices and platforms. It’s no wonder 65% of the surveyed developers also say that the Total Revenue achieved on the Kindle Fire is similar to, or even better than, what they experience with other major platforms.

The Amazon Appstore is preloaded on Kindle Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Fire phone devices.  And recently, we announced that Fire TV is available in the UK and Germany. Amazon Fire TV makes it easy for users to stream movies, TV shows, and music as well as download apps and play games right on the HDTVs they already own.

Back in April, we announced the expansion of the Amazon Appstore to 41 new countries, including Egypt, Indonesia, Singapore, and Turkey. Publishing your Android app on Amazon means you can reach customers from around the world, including those in countries that were previously inaccessible.

The Amazon Appstore is not just available on Amazon devices; hundreds of thousands of customers have already downloaded the Amazon Appstore for Android. This announcement expands the distribution of Amazon Appstore apps and games on Android devices. And coming this fall, the Amazon Appstore will be preloaded on BlackBerry 10 devices, giving you access to another new global customer segment.

Now Is the Time to Submit Your Apps

Download our Mobile App SDK today to get started developing for Fire OS and Amazon’s entire device family. You can even test your existing Android apps with our App Testing Service to see how they will actually work on Fire tablets and Fire phone. As the Amazon ecosystem grows, so does your potential audience.

-peter (@peterdotgames)

AWS re:Invent is sold out!  This is going to be the biggest AWS re:Invent yet. This year’s conference will feature three tracks of content to help mobile app and game developers build apps, engage customers and monetize more effectively. 

Here are 6 reasons you should check out AWS re:Invent 2014:

Launch Your Own Start-up at AWS re:Invent

In 2013, five start-ups launched at re:Invent in a session emceed by Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, and we’re doing it again this year.  If you’re in stealth mode, you can use re:Invent to launch your AWS-powered mobile app or game to the world.  If you’re already launched, you can announce a new major feature on stage with Amazon CTO Wener Vogels.  The application deadline is 5:00pm PST on September 30^th – apply today.

Deep Technical Content

AWS re:Invent is a learning conference with breakout sessions covering a broad range of topics and technical depth. All sessions will be delivered by subject matter experts, engineers, or expert customers who can share their real world experiences and lessons learned.  Want to get a taste of what to expect?  Check out the 2013 re:Invent recap featuring sessions on mobile game architectures, and coding tips to help you distribute your HTML 5 apps on mobile devices.

Amazon Fire Device Track

Come learn from customers and Amazon experts how to create Fire phone, Fire TV and Kindle Fire apps. We’ll go into depth on how to create applications that react to customer actions with Fire phone’s Dynamic Perspective and Firefly technologies. You’ll also hear how to reach new audiences with Fire TV. Top mobile developers will share their tips on monetizing and you’ll get behind-the-scenes details from the Amazon engineers who build our technologies. You can see a full list of tracks here.

Gaming Track

In this track, you’ll learn how AWS services can enable you to scale your game from 1,000 to 1,000,000 players. We will cover common features such as leaderboards, game analytics, asynchronous gameplay, online multiplayer servers, multi-region deployments, and cloud streaming. Game companies using AWS to power their games will share best practices. Click here to see the full list of tracks.

Mobile & Connected Devices Track

Whether you are a mobile developer, a connected device solution builder, or a business trying to be “Mobile-first”, AWS can help you to build fast and scale more easily. The Mobile & Connnected Devices track will give you a detailed look at services like our cross platform mobile push notification and Amazon Mobile Analytics and improve customer experience across platform. We’ll have examples from companies that have already used AWS to power their mobile apps to share their lessons learned.  Click here to see the full list of tracks.

Hackathon: Help Non-Profits Solve Big Problems

Start your AWS re:Invent experience early.  On Tuesday November 11 from 8:00am until midnight, join developers, AWS engineers and Amazon mobile app experts to hack on big problems in support of a worthy cause.  Bring your team, we’ll provide everything you need to get started. Space is limited – only 200 hackers allowed – so register today to reserve your spot.  We’re doing this 24 hours before the first keynote, so don’t worry – you won’t miss anything!  Click here to learn more.

Sign Up for the Live Stream

Join AWS re:Invent from the comfort of your home or office. We are live streaming our keynotes and selected breakout sessions on November 12 and 13. Watch the keynotes and hear the latest announcements from AWS executives and key customers.

@PaulCutsinger

Today, Amazon announced the availability of Fire phone, Amazon’s first smartphone, in the UK and Germany. Fire phone is currently available in the US and will ship on September 30, 2014 in Germany and the UK. 

Fire is the only smartphone with Dynamic Perspective and Firefly. Dynamic Perspective is an entirely new sensor system that responds to the way a customer holds, views and moves the phone. The Dynamic Perspective SDK gives developers access to algorithms that identify the X, Y and Z coordinates of the head, enabling a whole new class of apps and games. Firefly quickly recognizes things in the real world—web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, movies, music, and millions of products, and lets the user take action in seconds—all with the simple press of the Firefly button. With the Firefly SDK, developers can extend the use of the Firefly button to enable new actions their users can take based on what they identify. For more information on the Fire phone SDKs, click here.

Getting Started

• If you’re ready to get your app on Fire phone now, you can test your app today.
• Learn how to quickly add Dynamic Perspective to your existing Unity games.
• Check out our design best practices for Dynamic Perspective.
• Add Dynamic Perspective to your HTML5 games.

Optimizing Your Apps

Have an Android app already but not sure where to start with Fire phone?  We offer plenty of tips and tricks to get your app quickly up and running on Fire phone.

A great way to get started is by using the app widget in Fire phone’s enhanced carousel, which enables you to expose content from your app directly on the home screen. Our enhanced carousel is not just limited to launching an app anymore. You can create app widgets that display actionable content below your app’s icon on the carousel. This experience makes your application more visible and accessible to your users. Users can immediately jump to any area within your app that you define or get important information they care about without having to open your app directly. Learn more.

Resources

• Order Fire from Amazon in the UK or Germany
• Create a developer account on the Amazon Appstore
• Dynamic Perspective SDK for Fire Phone
• Firefly SDK for Fire Phone
• Setting Up Fire Development Environment
• Getting Started Developing Apps for Fire Phone
• Specifications and Design Guidelines for Fire Phone
• Implementing Foundation Controls for Fire Phone
• Developing for the Home Screen on Fire Phone
• Amazon Apps & Services Blog

Today, Amazon announced the availability of Amazon Fire TV in the UK and Germany. Amazon Fire TV is the best-selling streaming box on Amazon in the US since it launched in April, and makes it easy for users to stream movies, TV shows, and music as well as download apps and play games right on the HDTVs they already own.

For developers, Fire TV can help you increase your customer base by putting your app in the living room, in front of people who enjoy entertainment and may not have seen your apps before. With this expansion to customers in the UK and Germany, you’ll be able to reach even more customers on Fire TV. To promote rich user experiences, Fire TV enables full-featured game controllers, Dolby Digital Plus Certified surround sound and more. Android developers will find that developing for Fire TV is familiar, and optimizing their apps for the new controllers and TV display will not require learning a new language or new frameworks.

Fire TV is currently available in the US and retails for $99. Fire TV will ship on September 25, 2014 in Germany (€99) and October 23, 2014 in the UK (£79).

Here are some resources that we’ve published to help you get started with Amazon Fire TV.

Getting Started with Fire TV

• Amazon Fire TV Overview: Put Your Apps and Games on More Screens: A video overview of Amazon Fire TV and the opportunity that it brings for game developers. (May 29, 2014).
• Tips for Getting Your Android Apps Looking Good on Amazon Fire TV: Looking to get your Amazon App or Game on the new Amazon Fire TV?  We showed you how to get started and covered the top things you will need to know to be successful on TV. This included understanding Amazon Fire TV video outputs, updated Android layouts, TV overscan and colors, navigation, notifications and handling web content (April 17, 2014).
• ADB Debugging: How to Test Your Android APK on Fire TV. We released a video that walks through ADB debugging on Amazon Fire TV (May 29, 2014).

Game Development for Fire TV

• Building Responsive Game Design: Making Games That Scale across Desktop, Mobile and TV: We talked about responsive game design and what you can do to have your game run across multiple platforms and form factors like Tablets, Phones and now Amazon Fire TV (April 30, 2014).
• Building for the next Generation of Gamers with Fire TV: We covered how the Amazon Fire TV now offers you access to an entirely new generation of kids growing up as gamers. While traditional console game development is still out of reach for most, the Fire TV enables developers to target the casual gaming audience right now. It’s also an opportunity to be one of the first TV-based games that kids play (April 22, 2014)
• 10 Tips for Remote and Controller: We shared 10 Tips for adding remote and game controller support to your Amazon Fire TV games. One of the most exciting prospects of publishing your game on Amazon Fire TV is that you can run Android games directly on the TV. If you are already building games for Android, you can use the same codebase you currently have, and make that game playable on Amazon Fire TV (April 10, 2014).

In addition to the resources I’ve included above, be sure to check out these additional resources:

Purchase an Amazon Fire TV in the US, UK or Germany

Amazon Fire TV SDK Frequently Asked Questions

Amazon Fire TV SDK

Device Specifications

Display and Layout

User Interface

Design and User Experience Guidelines

Android Developer Multiple Screen Guidance

Supporting Different Screen Sizes

Supporting Different Densities

Since the launch of Amazon Coins in 2013, customers have already spent hundreds of millions of Amazon Coins, representing real savings for customers and real dollars to developers who still received their full revenue share.

Today, we’re expanding the Amazon Coins program to Japan and Australia.  Now customers in Japan and Australia can use Amazon Coins on apps, games, and in-app items from their Kindle Fire, Android phone or tablet, and on amazon.co.jp and amazon.com.au.  Customers can enjoy apps and games for less by purchasing Amazon Coins, and the more they buy, the greater the discount.

For a limited time, every Kindle Fire owner in Japan and Australia will find 500 Yen/$5.00 AUD worth of free coins deposited into their Amazon Account. And as an additional incentive, customers can also purchase coins in bulk and receive a discount of up to 20% to spend on apps and games in the Amazon Android Appstore (regular discount is 10% off apps and games).

Developers Maintain Their Full Revenue Share

For developers, Amazon Coins gives customers more ways to buy, and more incentives to download and use your apps and games.  While customers can save up to 10% when they pay using Amazon Coins, Amazon Appstore developers continue to earn their standard 70% revenue share.  Customers enjoy real savings, while developers get their full revenue share.

We have already seen developers benefit from customers using their Amazon Coins to buy apps, games and in-app items. For many Indie developers, coins have accounted for the majority of their revenue since the US launch last year. Check out results from Halfbrick, PepiPlay, and textPlus to learn more.

Next Steps

• To download the Amazon Appstore, click here.
• To buy Amazon Coins in Australia click here.  In Japan click here.
• Create a free Amazon Developer Account here
• Test to see if your Android APK will run on Fire OS devices by going to this page, or by dragging and dropping into our tool on the Dev Portal home page here.

Amazonコインのサービスを日本とオーストラリアで開始しました。

Amazonコインは2013年にローンチ以来おかげさまで好評を博しており、お客様はお得な価格でアプリを楽しむことができるようになる一方、開発者の方々にはより一層のマネタイズの機会を提供してきました。

本日、Amazonコインのサービスを日本とオーストラリアで開始いたしました。日本とオーストラリアのお客様はamazon.co.jp とamazon.com.auにおいて、Kindle FireタブレットやAndroidスマートフォンやタブレット上でアプリ、ゲーム、アプリ内課金のお支払いにAmazonコインをお使いいただくことでアプリ・ゲームをお得な価格で購入することができます。

サービス開始を記念し、Kindle Fireタブレットシリーズをお持ちのお客様には500円相当のコインがアカウントに無料でプレゼントされます。さらに、期間限定で、Amazonコインのまとめ買いをさらに割引価格で販売しており、Amazonコインを使ったアプリやアプリ内課金アイテムの購入が最大20%お得になります（通常は10%の割引になります）。

開発者様の収益配分は変わりません

Amazonコインはお客様にアプリ・ゲームをよりで多くご購入いただけることで開発者様のアプリビジネスを支援します。お客様は最大10%の割引を受けられる一方で、開発者の皆様はお客様がAmazonコインを使ってお買い求めた場合であっても、これまでどおりアプリの70%の収益配分を得ることができます。

米国やヨーロッパにてAmazonコインのサービスを開始した折に同様のプロモーションを実施いたしましたが、開発者の皆様からは好意的なフィードバックをいただいております。特にインディーズの開発者の方々は昨年の米国ローンチでAmazonコインからの大きな収益がありました。Halfbrick、PepiPlay、textPlusの事例をご覧ください。

Amazonアンドロイドアプリストアの利用方法

• Amazonアンドロイドアプリストアの利用方法はこちらをクリック。
• Amazonコインを日本で購入するにはこちらをクリック。
• Amazonの開発者登録（無料）はこちらをクリック。
• お手元のAndroidアプリのAPKファイルがFire OSで動作するかを確認するにはこちら。開発者向けポータルサイトでドラッグ＆ドロップをするだけです。

GameCircle has provided an Adobe Native Extension (ANE) since its first release, making it possible for mobile developers to create GameCircle-enabled games using Adobe AIR.

That ANE has now been updated to support features and improvements introduced in the latest version of GameCircle, including:

• Expanded coverage for Android, Kindle Fire, Fire TV and Fire phone devices
• The latest version of Whispersync for Games
• Support for UI string localization and other UI improvements
• Social APIs
• Analytics on player achievements
• Consistent Security Profiles and API Keys

Compatible with Flash Professional and Flash Builder 4.7, the GameCircle ANE can be used with the Adobe AIR SDK version 4.0 or higher.

The new GameCircle ANE is bundled in the Amazon Mobile App SDK. For more information, see the GameCircle 2.4 for Adobe Air documentation. 

How to Upgrade

If you’re updating from the GameCircle ANE version 1.0 to 2.4, here’s a brief step by step. See the full documentation for additional help.  

Step 1: Update the ANE File

Replace your local com.amazon.extensions.GameCircle.ane file with the latest version from the Amazon Mobile App SDK.

Step 2: Set the API Key

When building with the extension and targeting Android, you'll need to include a file named api_key.txt in the assets subfolder of your package. The contents of the file should be your project’s API Key. 

Step 3: Change the Application Descriptor

Make sure that you are using the AIR 3.5 SDK or higher (set this in your application descriptor file, application.xml), include the extension in the app descriptor file, and add your GameCircle-specific data to the <android>/<manifestAdditions> element, as appropriate. For a working example, see example-src/app.xml.

Step 4: Update API Calls

Update your code to reflect these changes in the GameCircle API:

• The method create() no longer takes any parameters.
• The method submitAchievement() is now updateAchievementProgress().
• The method loadScores() no longer takes the parameters startRank and scoreCount.
• The GameCircleEvent class now has subclasses specific to each API call.
• The data type of all score-related values has changed from int to number. This includes GameCircleScore scoreValue; SubmitScoreCompleted score, newAllTimeScore, newDailyScore, and newWeeklyScore; GameCirclePercentile score; and LoadLocalPlayerScoreCompleted score.

Step 5: Update Whispersync for Games Event Handling

In version 1 of the AIR extension, when using the Whispersync SharedObject, you handled conflict resolution with the whisperSyncRevert() and whisperSyncSynchronizeProgress() methods. In version 2, progress syncs automatically in the background, and conflict resolution has been simplified. If you‘re working with Whispersync SharedObject, follow the instructions on how to use the SharedObject with Whispersync.

Step 6: Add New API Functionality

The new version includes these new methods:

• showSignIn() displays the GameCircle sign-in page.
• loadLocalPlayer() gets the current player’s GameCircle profile.
• showLeaderboards() displays the GameCircle overlay showing all leaderboards for a game.
• loadAchievement() gets data for a single achievement.
• loadPercentiles() gets percentile ranks for a leaderboard.

For More Information

There has been a lot of interest in an ANE supporting all the latest GameCircle features, and this update makes it that much easier to take advantage of them in games you create with Adobe AIR. See the online documentation for more information about the update, or explore the examples included in the Amazon Mobile SDK.

-peter (@peterdotgames)