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Minecraft creator Notch releases mini browser game

Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has created a new free browser game based on typing. Called Drop, it was made instead of a Ludum Dare entry, the regular game making competition with the current theme of Minimalism.

Notch says the game is influenced by the ‘end of Fez‘, and Super Hexagon. These are both amazing games, but Drop will probably remind people of Super Hexagon more. You play the game by typing the words that appear around the center of the screen. It’s fast moving, with an electro soundtrack and graphics that make following the letters appearing a real challenge.

You’ll need touch-typing skills to play Drop, which gives you no time to look for keys! If you’re great at typing, Drop will be a lot of fun. If not: good luck!

Play Drop online. Requires Unity.

BadNews malware discovered in Google Play

Mobile security developer lookout has discovered a family of malware in 32 apps from 4 developer accounts in the Google Play store. Called BadNews, the malware poses as an advertising network which instead of pushing adverts pushes malware and fraud programs.

The BadNews malware sends fake news messages to phones, prompts you to install applications and sends information on your phone to the BadNews servers. Lookout believes it avoided detection because the malware servers delayed any activity until after it had been widely distributed. It’s estimated to have been downloaded between two and nine million times.

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Al Jazeera news app released for Windows Phone 8

The popular news source Al Jazeera has had a range of excellent mobile apps for a while, and now its multimedia news app has come to Windows Phone 8.

Available in English and Arabic versions, the Al Jazeera app features all the news from its websites, as well as streaming 24 hour live TV news and current affairs programming.

It’s a stylish app that fits the Windows Phone 8 feel, and has a ‘My Topics’ feature that means you can follow the specific subjects and stories that interest you easily.

It’s a fully featured news app, that puts Al Jazeera ahead of news rivals like the BBC, whose Windows 8 offerings are much more limited.

Google+ comments now integrated with Blogger, Hangouts mutes typing noise

Google+ users have a couple of exciting updates to look forward to today. Comments from the social network will now be integrated into Blogger with Google+ Comments. Users can share comments they make on Blogger blogs directly with Google+ without having to leave the page. This also means that any comments made on Google+ will show up automatically on your Blogger post. Blogger users will have to enable this feature in their dashboards so Google isn’t forcing Bloggers to use Google+ Comments. Google hopes this will help Blogger users spread their content more easily.

Another update to Google+ is automatic mic muting while you’re typing in a Hangout. Google noticed that it’s hard to hear someone over a Hangout with keyboard clatter since keyboards are usually very close to the mic, especially on laptops. The company has added an automatic muting feature to make Hangouts more seamless. Users will be given a notification at the top of the Hangout window which reads, “Sounds like you’re typing so we muted your mic.” For now, this feature is only enabled for Hangouts with four or more people.

Source: Google+ | Blogger

Yahoo releases beautiful weather, tablet mail apps

Yahoo shows its taking mobile very seriously today by releasing a beautiful weather app and tablet mail apps for iOS and Android.

Yahoo! Weather is an all-new application for the iPhone and it’s beautiful. The app includes high-resolution image that’s pulled from Flickr, a photo-sharing service owned by Yahoo, and overlays weather information. The company decided to come out with an all new weather app because the stock iPhone weather app has been growing stale since it can only be updated when Apple releases a new version of iOS. Yahoo! Weather doesn’t support push notifications but that will be coming in a future update. There’s also no support for a widget in the Notification Center.

Yahoo! Mail has been updated for both iOS and Android, unifying the user experience across devices. The apps have been completely redesigned and are focused on reading emails, rather than responding to them. There’s now a full screen reading mode to expand content to the edges of the screen. Users can also swipe between emails like a magazine. There’s even a little page curl and animation, like in the Kindle or iBooks apps. There are also features added to Yahoo! Mail to make handling email easier. There are new gestures and checkboxes to delete and mark email easily.

You can download Yahoo! Weather for the iPhone here. Yahoo! Mail is available for both iOS and Android. Windows users: don’t feel left out, there’s also a downloadable app of Yahoo! Mail for Windows.

Source: The Verge

Twitter music service released for iOS and web

Twitter‘s rumored music service has been officially announced. Called Twitter #music it’s an iOS app and web service. It uses Twitter to find out what music people are excited about, what’s popular and what’s emerging. It’s also designed to make following your favorite artists even better and more engaging.

Music on Twitter #music comes from iTunes, Spotify and Rdio. Soundcloud, Vevo and YouTube are not included, contrary to earlier rumors. That’s not great news for smaller artists who don’t distribute their music through labels. Most artists and fans will be perfectly well served by these three services.

Songs are previewed by default, and you can listen to full songs if you log in to your Spotify or Rdio account. Twitter says it is working to include more music services.

Twitter #music lets you listen to the songs your favorite artists are talking about, or other artists they follow. Sharing music you like is also easy, allowing you to tweet any song you enjoy.

The app can be downloaded for iOS in the App Store in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. You can also use the web service at music.twitter.com in these countries. Twitter #music will also be released for Android soon.

The first app for Google Glass appears as API documentation is released

If you’re one of the lucky few to be getting a Google Glass device, you can already download the accompanying Android app MyGlass, and visit the setup wizard web app Glass.

MyGlass lets you manage and configure Google Glass, and allows your phone to work in sync with Glass. The app can access authenticated accounts on your device, send SMS messages, and features location services which are essential to how Glass works. The web app is for first time setup of the device.

The documentation for the ‘Mirror API’, which is what developers will use to write apps for Glass, is interesting. It reveals that currently developers will not be able to charge for apps, nor include advertising. It also adopts an Apple-like approach to its ecosystem: software for Glass will only be distributed through official Google channels, unlike the more free attitude taken with Android.

These two factors, unusual for Google, may change in the future. It’s easy to see how more control over the Glass experience makes sense in its infancy. It’s also hard to imagine that ads will never make their way onto Glass devices.

More Grand Theft Auto V artwork released

Rockstar released the official Grand Theft Auto V cover art a couple of weeks ago and now the company has sent out more detailed artwork called “Cash and Carry.” According to the press release from Rockstar, the two new images show two of the three main characters, Michael and Franklin, “getting things done” in various vehicles.

Franklin is depicted on a dirt bike, riding through the Los Santos equivalent of the Los Angeles River Basin.

Michael, on the other hand, is shown riding on a jet ski, hilariously named, “Speedophile.” The background shows a Ferris wheel on a boardwalk.

The new artwork shows GTA V‘s emphasis on vehicular driving and combat. Rockstar has shown off other vehicles available in the game including the classic BMX bike, sports cars, and a jet fighter.

Be sure to check out all of our other GTA V coverage here.

Pulse Newsreader acquired by LinkedIn for $90 million

LinkedIn confirmed yesterday evening that it purchased the news reading app, Pulse, for $90 million. LinkedIn now joins the ranks of CNN and Yahoo! in purchasing news reading apps. CNN acquired the Zite news reader app, which looks like a hybrid between Flipboard and Pinterest. Yahoo! purchased the mobile news aggregator, Summly, in March of this year. Like the other newsreader acquisitions, it’s not clear how exactly Pulse will be integrated with LinkedIn.

It’s interesting to speculate what LinkedIn will do with Pulse as it evolves beyond a professional social network. While LinkedIn already has its own news feed for industry stories, it’s not as consumer oriented nor as flexible as Pulse. With the death of Google Reader, other news aggregators and news feed apps have taken off. LinkedIn is no doubt riding this resurgence in popularity for news reader.

In the mean time, LinkedIn has reassured Pulse users that the service will stay the same. Of course, this could change in the future.

Source: LinkedIn

Shootmania Storm out now

Shootmania Storm is now available to buy on Maniaplanet and Steam. The fast paced multiplayer first person shooter has had a long beta phase, resulting in an established community of gamers with lots of user created content already out there.

Shootmania Storm takes the philosophy of Trackmania and applies it to the FPS. So it’s fast paced, arcade gameplay with an emphasis on giving players simple tools to create their own maps and objects. In Shootmania, that’s an easy to use map editor, with great tools for making your own weapons and guns.

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