Month: November 2013

Instagram for Windows Phone could be released today

Instagram could be coming out for Windows Phone today. The rumor are getting stronger as the link http://instagram.com/download/windows/ redirects you to the Windows Store page that does not exist yet. The existence of a specific URL makes it more than likely that the app is going to be launched imminently.

Instagram for Windows Phone was announced at a Nokia conference a month ago, and said to be released ‘in the coming weeks’, along with Vine, which is already available. Flipboard was also announced, but we’re still waiting for news of its release.

Step by step, Microsoft are getting rid of the stigma that Windows Phone 8 is an operating system with few interesting apps. Gradually developers are feeling encouraged to port their popular apps to Windows Phone.

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Android KitKat Bugfix Update KRT16S rolling out

Android KitKat is being updated, in the form of Bugfix Update KRT16S. It applies only to Nexus devices: Nexus 7 and Nexus 7 2013 (WiFi/mobile), Nexus 4, and Nexus 10. It’s not a major update, and won’t have any major impact on the look or feel of the system. However, if you own one of the listed devices, it’s recommended to carry it out.

To see if the update has rolled out to your device yet, go to Settings, About and then System Updates. You should see the update available here. As Android Police points out, while there is nothing major in the update, it’s probably Google’s response to getting feedback from the millions of users who are now using KitKat.

Android 4.4 ‘KitKat’, the first version of Google’s mobile OS to get an official brand name tie-in, was released to the general public at the end of October. As we said in our review, it represents ‘a true refinement of Google’s mobile operating system,’ further integrating Google services smoothly into the Android experience. It’s also more efficient, with a lower RAM requirement than earlier Android versions.

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[Source: Android Police]

Half-Life remake Black Mesa to be sold through Steam soon

Black Mesa, the fan-made remake of 1998’s Half-Life will be released through Steam soon. It’s an interesting development – this is a fan-made game that Valve, Half-Life’s creators are allowing to be sold commercially through their own service.

First released in 2012, Black Mesa is an impressive game that updates the 1998 game with much better graphics and bigger scale. While the gameplay is virtually unchanged, the soundtrack and graphics are completely new. The development team says Black Mesa will be available to purchase for ‘a relatively low price’, but that they will continue to support the free version.

Making Black Mesa a premium release will apparently give the team full access to Valve’s Source engine, which will give it more freedom to make the game exactly as it likes. The Black Mesa Dev Team also said it ‘could really use the financial help.’ This will also help in the development of the 15th chapter of Black Mesa, Xen, an alien world where the Half-Life protagonist Gordon Freeman is ported on his mission stop the aliens from invading Earth.

You can try the current version of Black Mesa here. It requires Steam and the Source SDK.

Twitter for Android and iOS updated with new search features

The latest update to Twitter for Android and iOS brings new search features to filter content like photos, videos, and news. The interface remains largely unchanged until you perform a search. A new filter button will appear at the top where you can filter by Everything, Photos, Videos, News, and People. The Twitter search engine is more powerful as well, allowing users to search for all tweets, instead of just the most popular.

New Twitter search filters

The new search feature is especially useful when looking for videos like the ones from Twitter’s Vine app.

Download Twitter: Android | iOS

Source: Twitter

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Humble Mobile Bundle 3 debuts Ridiculous Fishing for Android

Developer Vlambeer teased that Ridiculous Fishing for Android would be debuting “sooner than you think.” They fulfilled their promise by debuting the game with the latest Humble Mobile Bundle, a package of games where users can pay what they want, and choose how much money goes towards charity and the developers.

“We wanted Ridiculous Fishing’s original launch to be surprise announcement”

Vlambeer has been very open about its development process and explained why it took them so long to develop and Android version of the game. “Android (and porting in general) is a particularly tough challenge for a game as precise and meaningful to us as Ridiculous Fishing is, but we’re happy to say we finally reached the point where we felt comfortable releasing the game recently & decided to try something we felt would harken [sic] back to our original launch plans,” said Vlambeer in a blog post.

There’s a ton of great Android games included in the Humble Mobile Bundle 3 like Kingdom Rush and SpellTower. The bundle is only available for a limited time so purchase it while you can.

Source: Vlambeer

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Facebook’s chat status feature goes global

Yesterday, Facebook began rolling out a new feature on its website to indicate whether a friend is available to chat on the web or on a mobile device. This feature has been implemented globally. Here’s what it looks like:

Facebook chat feature

By letting users know if their friend is on the web or on mobile, it manages expectations about what type of response you get. For example, if your friend is on mobile, he or she will probably send short messages since typing on mobile isn’t as quick as typing on the web.

This feature brings Facebook chat in line with Google’s Hangouts, which displays which device a user is on using an icon..

Download Facebook Messenger: Android | iOS

Source: TechCrunch

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Twitter removes experimental direct messaging feature

Twitter introduced an experimental feature a month ago that allowed users to directly message someone without first being followed. Now it appears Twitter has quietly removed the feature without explanation about why. The Verge reports some users still have the feature, while it has been disabled for others.

The original use for the feature was to allow corporate accounts to receive messages from their followers without first having to follow them. This makes communication much simpler for businesses. However, opening up direct messages to anyone without mutual following could have resulted in an increase of spam.

Mathew Ingram, senior writer at GigaOm, reached out to Twitter but only received a link to the original blogpost about the experimental feature.

Twitter has been struggling to compete with messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Hangouts since users are not using direct messaging on its service. The company is also rumored to be coming out with its own messaging application.

Source: The Next Web

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Firefox ‘Australis’ now available for testing

Mozilla’s big redesign for Firefox, codenamed Australis can now be tested via the ‘nightly builds’. It introduces a brand new clean and modern interface that is more in-line with Chrome and Internet Explorer, while maintaining the ‘user first’ philosophy that defines Firefox.

Firefox Nightly builds are ‘for testing only’. They are likely to contain bugs, and be less stable than the official releases. However, anyone is free to try them, and it’s a great way to see what’s coming in Firefox. Australis is interesting because it’s so different. Even recent ‘major’ updates to Firefox have been pretty dull affairs, but Australis changes a lot.

Firefox Australis looks much cleaner than current versions, with smooth round edged tabs, and simplified buttons, as you can see above. It’s supposed to be less cluttered, and focuses on the features most people browse every day.

Firefox wouldn’t be Firefox without customization, and Australis promises to make this easier than ever before. While this version of Firefox looks simpler than we’re used to, you’ll still be able to make it work just as you like as normal.

Download the Firefox Nightly builds for Windows, Mac and Android.

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iOS 7.1 beta released for developer testing

Registered Apple developers can now download and test iOS 7.1 beta, which includes bug fixes, performance enhancements and some new features, including some new personalization.

The main aim of iOS 7.1 is addressing the bugs and performance issues that have been found since 7.0 was released. The most notable new feature is the light/dark keyboard toggle. iOS users have never been able to change anything about the keyboard, and while this doesn’t change the functionality, it’s a surprising development.

You can also further control the transparency and transition animations in iOS 7.1. The latter apparently provoked motion sickness in some users. iPhone 5S users will be able to use an ‘auto HDR’ mode. The Notification Center has been tweaked to make clearing items a bit easier, while the Yahoo! logo has been updated throughout the OS.

To try the iOS 7.1 beta, you need a developer account, which is free, but also membership of the iOS Developer Program, which costs $99 a year. The iOS beta releases are designed to help developers prepare for upcoming changes to the system.

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Play W▲tch Dogs while you wait for Watch Dogs

UbiSoft’s Watch Dogs has been delayed until 2014, but indie developer CNIAngel has jumped in to fill the gap with W▲tch Dogs, his free ‘dog watching simulator.’

Available for Windows, Mac and Linux, this free indie game allows you to sit back and watch an increasing number of bizarre dogs fill the screen. There’s apparently nothing more to it than that, but the developer says he has ‘added a couple more commands for cool people’. So far we haven’t found out what they could be.

W▲tch Dogs obviously has nothing to do with the upcoming open world adventure Watch Dogs. Ubisoft’s hyped game is one of the most anticipated of the year, and its delay is one of the big disappointments of the holiday release schedule.

Download W▲tch Dogs here.

[Source: freeindiegames.com]