Month: July 2013

Tiny Thief, the next game from Rovio is coming July 11th

Angry Birds creator Rovio is teasing its next release, Tiny Thief, made by Barcelona developer 5 Ants. It’s a puzzle game that looks really cute. Set in a medieval times, it features 30 levels of stealth based puzzles, and promises 50 characters you can meet.

The teaser trailer looks great, but doesn’t reveal anything about how you’ll control the game, but we can see how the levels might work, with some quite complex and fun looking puzzles that set off chains of events in each environment.


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Tiny Thief will be released for iOS and Android on July 11th.

Polaroid’s Polamatic photo app comes to Android

Two months after Polamatic debuted on iOS, Polaroid’s photo app finally lands on Android. To reward the wait, Polaroid has included a bunch of new filters and frames, bringing the total to 20 filters and 36 frames. That’s an increase of 12 for each over the iOS version.

In a market dominated by Instagram and other photo filtering apps, Polamatic needs a killer feature to differentiate itself. One unique feature of the app is the ability to add captions with 24 different font styles.

After you’ve finished taking your Polamatic photo, there are a bunch of easy sharing features for major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and ironically, Instagram.

The launch isn’t without problems as many users are complaining about the inability to rotate images and performance issues.

Polamatic is available only as a a paid app for $1.99 and is able to run on devices with Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) and higher.

[Source: Google Play | Download: Android]

iOS 7 beta is the most popular ever

The iOS 7 beta has been installed much more than last year’s iOS 6 beta, according to mobile publishers Onswipe. Apple say iOS 7 is the biggest revolution in iOS since it was launched in 2007, so maybe it’s no surprise that this is the most popular beta ever, as developers scramble to test and ready their apps for the launch.

By July 1st, iOS 7 represented 0.46% of traffic to Onswipe, only two weeks after the beta was released. Adpotion of the iOS 6 beta only resulted in 0.25% traffic. The iOS 7 visits from iPhones were much more common than iPad visits, but the tablet version of the beta was released a week later.

For developers looking to install the iOS 7 beta: it supports iPhone 4, 4S, and 5, 5th generation iPod touch, and iPad 2, iPad with Retina display, and iPad mini.

[Source: TechCrunch]

Stickers finally come to Facebook on the web

Facebook stickers have been launched on the web version of the social network. Originally launched for Facebook mobile apps in April, stickers give you another way of expressing yourself in Facebook chat.

Just like the mobile apps, you get a basic range of four sticker categories to start with, and can go to a sticker store where there are lots more collections you can install and use. You access stickers by clicking the emoticon button. Unlike emoticons, stickers cannot be used as part of a sentence.

Stickers are the latest example of a trend Facebook has lifted from another social app – in this case LINE. Until today, the only way to use Facebook stickers from your browser was to install the facemoji extension for Chrome or Firefox. That extension is now pretty irrelevant.

Stickers are clearly a new business line for Facebook, as they open the possibility for premium sticker packs, and sponsored collections (you can already download Despicable Me 2 stickers).

Stickers are also available in the Facebook Messenger apps, so you can use them however you access Facebook.

Ubisoft hacked, user names and passwords compromised

Gamers with an Ubisoft account will see an email in their inboxes today about a massive security breach. The French company announced that user names and passwords have been compromised. Ubisoft accounts do not store any credit/debit card records so that information is safe. However, it’s a good idea to change your passwords if you use the same password with your banking institutions.

Over the past year, internet companies have been taking steps to make hacking attempts more difficult with two-factor authentication. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter all have this system in place, which requires two forms of identification before you can log in. Unfortunately Ubisoft had no two-factor authentication system in place to prevent this wide-spread breach.

The information released by Ubisoft lacks details about the extent of the hack. There’s no exact number of accounts that were hacked but users should err on the side of caution and change passwords anyway.

[Source: Ubisoft]

Spotify for iOS updated with Discover feature, new logo and more.

Spotify‘s Discover was launched on the web in May, and with the release of 0.7.1 for iOS, you can now use it on your mobile or tablet. The update also brings a new Now Playing view, which includes an ‘Up Next’ queue on iPhones. You can now edit playlists from your iPhone, and there’s also a new logo.

It’s great to have Discover arrive on iOS, as finding new music on Spotify has never been that easy. Having a feed of recommendations based on what you’re listening to, plus more news about your favorite artists is a welcome addition.

Here’s the full list of improvements in Spotify 0.7.1:

  • New: Ever find yourself wondering what to play on Spotify? Introducing the new Discover experience on iPhone. (Coming soon to everyone.)
  • New: A shiny, new Now Playing view, featuring the ‘Up Next’ queue on iPhone. (Again, rolling out to everyone soon.)
  • New: Say hello to our new logo.
  • New: You can now edit your playlists on your iPhone.
  • Improved: We’ve changed the order of the iPhone search tabs. Now it’s Artists, Albums, Tracks. (iPhone/iPod only.)
  • Improved: We’ve moved the … context menu button in the Playlist and Album views to the top right of the screen. It’s better there. (iPhone/iPod only.)
  • Fixed: Ford integration now works correctly when your iPhone/iPod is set to a language other than English.
  • Fixed: In your playlist folders, “All Tracks” will now show you the actual number of tracks.
  • Fixed: The unread messages in your inbox will now update correctly.

[Source: iTunes]

Track your WhatsApp usage with WhatStat

Are you addicted to WhatsApp? Ever wonder just how many messages you send? There’s an app for that, of course. WhatStat for Android provides tons of information about your WhatApp habits from the number of messages sent do the percentage of conversations you’ve started with your friends.

The interface of WhatStat is simple and resembles the Google Analytics app. There are charts showing how many message you’ve sent from a specified amount of time. There’s a clock icon up at the top where you can define the period of time to analyze. There’s also a visual breakdown of which contacts you’ve had the most chats with. The app is ad supported but you can pay $0.99 to get rid of them.

With WhatsApp reaching a record 27 billion messages sent daily, wouldn’t you like to know how much you contribute to that number? Try WhatStat for yourself at the download link below.

[Source: Google Play | Download: Android]

Chromium-based Opera 15 out for PC and Mac now

Back in May of this year, Opera released its experimental Opera Next browser, which signaled a monumental change. For the first time, Opera would be using the WebKit rendering engine instead of its Presto engine. Today, Opera Next has finally come out of beta and has dropped the “Next.” The browser will simply be known as Opera 15.

Opera 15 is actually based off of Chromium so it’s actually using Google’s “Blink” engine, which is a streamlined version of WebKit. The browser hasn’t changed much from what we saw with the Opera Next beta. Users can look forward to a Chrome-line interface as well as the new “Discover” feature, which lets you read the news in a magazine style layout.

Opera has always been known for saving bandwidth and the “Off-Road mode” makes a return. If you have a slow connection or have a limited bandwidth cap, Off-Road is a great tool for helping you keep data use under control.

Since Opera 15 is now Chromium based, you can expect performance on par with Google Chrome, which is a very good thing. Still, Opera’s features may not be enough to sway the Chrome and Google loyalists.


[Source: Opera | Download: PC, Mac]

Immersion: an MIT project that lets you spy on yourself

Immersion is a project from MIT researchers that uses your email metadata to give you maps of the relationships you have with people. The metadata can group your relationships by areas, like money, or college or family.

To use Immersion, you simply enter your Gmail address and password. Immersion then scans all the From, To, Cc and Timestamp fields of your emails to create an image of your personal network. You can delete your data from Immersion whenever you want – the group are very clear this is an experiment and are not interested in holding on to people’s data.

The point of Immersion is to show you how much can be learned from metadata. Companies like Google and Facebook have huge amounts of metadata on their users, and Immersion gives you an idea of the power and knowledge this gives them.

Currently Immersion’s servers are down – but you can give them your email address to be told when they are up and running again.

[Source: NPR/Boston Globe]

Mortal Kombat 9 coming to PC on July 3rd

The excellent 2011 fighting game Mortal Kombat 9 will be released on Steam July 3rd. Ed Boon, the co-creator of the violent series tweeted that he expects MK 9 to be released this Wednesday July 3rd.

The game has also been listed on some stores, but so far a pre-order page has not appeared on Steam itself. Mortal Kombat 9 is an excellent fighting game. Like Street Fighter IV, it uses 3D characters and backgrounds, but keeps the action on a 2D plane. While 3D fighting games like Tekken have been really successful, gamers and reviewers were happy to see a return to Mortal Kombat’s 2D gaming roots. It also re-tells the story of the first three games.

Like its console counterparts, Mortal Kombat 9 on PC will have single and multiplayer modes, 1vs 1 matches, and tag team modes, plus all the gruesome fatalities that made the series infamous.

[Source: Twitter]