Category: News

UPDATE #1: BlackBerry stalls BBM for iOS and Android launch

UPDATE #2: BlackBerry Messenger for Android, iOS not launching this week

BlackBerry Messenger for iPhone is finally available. After months of waiting, the popular messaging app gets a little more universal with a release on Apple’s huge mobile platform. The app is now available in the App Store for free. Android users got early access to BBM yesterday.

The application itself is nearly identical to the version we saw on BlackBerry 10. With the app you’ll have access to the following features:

• BBM Chat: start chatting with your friends on BlackBerry, Android, and iPhone. The service sends a notification when a message is received and read. In addition, you can easily share photos and voice messages.
• Group Chat: BBM will allow group conversations with up to 30 of your friends. Group chat allows sending of calendar events and photos. This is a great way to broadcast your message to all your friends at once.
• Update your profile: you can easily change your status or upload a new profile picture from within the app. You can view your friends’ statuses too.
• PIN: for security, each BBM users will be required to have a unique PIN number.
• Video and voice calling coming soon: while this initial iPhone release doesn’t come with video or voice chat, the company said that the features will be included in a future update.

For many years, BlackBerry’s killer messaging app was only available on its own platform but by expanding to iPhone, the company is positioning itself to fight against other messaging applications like WhatsApp and LINE.

What’s your messaging app of choice? Let us know in the comments.

Download BlackBerry Messenger for iPhone.

UPDATE #1: BlackBerry stalls BBM for iOS and Android launch

UPDATE #2: BlackBerry Messenger for Android, iOS not launching this week

BlackBerry Messenger for Android is finally available. After months of waiting, the popular messaging app gets a little more universal with a release on Android’s huge mobile platform. The app is now available in Google Play for free.

The application itself is nearly identical to the version we saw on BlackBerry 10. With the app you’ll have access to the following features:

• BBM Chat: start chatting with your friends on BlackBerry, Android, and iPhone. The service sends a notification when a message is received and read. In addition, you can easily share photos and voice messages.
• Group Chat: BBM will allow group conversations with up to 30 of your friends. Group chat allows sending of calendar events and photos. This is a great way to broadcast your message to all your friends at once.
• Update your profile: you can easily change your status or upload a new profile picture from within the app. You can view your friends’ statuses too.
• PIN: for security, each BBM users will be required to have a unique PIN number.
• Video and voice calling coming soon: while this initial Android release doesn’t come with video or voice chat, the company said that the features will be included in a future update.

For many years, BlackBerry’s killer messaging app was only available on its own platform but by expanding to Android, the company is positioning itself to fight against other messaging applications like WhatsApp and LINE. iPhone users will have to wait one more day to get their hands on BBM.

What’s your messaging app of choice? Let us know in the comments.

Download BlackBerry Messenger for Android.

GTA V has become further proof that for launches at least, video games are the biggest form of entertainment in the world. In its first 24 hours, Rockstar’s violent sandbox clocked up sales of over $800 million, far ahead of Call of Duty Black Ops 2, which managed $500 million.

That gives GTA V still quite a journey if it wants to top the eventual $2 billion that the movie Avatar eventually grossed, but it’s far ahead of anything else for opening sales.

How can an annual release like Activision’s Call of Duty compete? This year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts seems muted compared to the Black Ops 2 launch, while other franchises create much more buzz, like Battlefield 4 and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

But the next time someone tries to belittle the cultural importance of video games, you can remind them that no other form of popular culture has the same impact today.

Read our review of Grand Theft Auto V.

[Source: Forbes]

Dark Souls II will be released on March 11th 2014 on consoles (March 14th in Europe), with the PC version coming soon afterwards the same month.

Talking to Eurogamer, developer From Software said it needed more time to get the PC version ready, in terms of giving players the necessary options to customize the specifications for the game.

When Dark Souls was released on PC in 2012, gamers were in uproar that it had been locked at 1024×720 resolution, the same as the console versions. It was left to a fan to bring out the first fix allowing players to change the resolution to whatever they wanted, and take advantage of superior PC gaming power.

It was a trial by fire for From Software, a Japanese developer with little experience in porting PC games, due to the small PC game market in Japan. It plans not to make such mistakes with Dark Souls II, and the PC version is being developed alongside the console versions.

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If you’re unfamiliar with the series, you can pick up Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition for PC. It’s a brutally unforgiving RPG, and one of the most engrossing and atmospheric video games ever created. The sequel is highly anticipated, despite being developed without the original director Hidetaka Miyazaki.

The recent announcement that it would be virtually impossible to play Dark Souls II online with friends – just with strangers – has angered some fans, despite this being in keeping with the cold, lonely atmosphere of the Dark Souls world.

• Hands on with Dark Souls 2
• Dark Souls 2 ‘not designed for co-op with friends.’
• Dark Souls:Prepare to Die Edition review

[Source: Eurogamer]

The iPhone 5s graphics showpiece that was first announced last week, Infinity Blade III, is available in the app store now.

The last game in a trilogy, Infinity Blade III continues where the last two games left off, with impressive graphics and screen-swiping swordplay. Not a great deal has changed for this third outing – the action is the same, indeed some of the enemies are the same.

Developer Chair has set this game in 8 distinctive worlds, so there is more variety in what you’re looking at while you’re blocking, parrying and hacking away at huge adversaries. It also lets you play with two characters, Siris and the stealthy female assassin Isa.

Infinity Blade is $9.99, can be played on any device running iOS 6, and is optimized for the iPhone 5. It’s fully compatible with iOS 7 too.

Download Infinity Blade III.

Check out Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade II.

The most radical change to Apple’s mobile operating system ever, iOS 7, is being rolled out today. After months of beta tests and last week’s Apple Special Event showcasing the new OS, you’ll be able to get your hands on it very soon.

We don’t know the exact timing of the launch, but keep in mind that your iOS device might ask you to update today. Until then, check out our guide to discovering iOS 7:

• Discovering iOS 7: Safari
• Discovering iOS 7: The Maps app
• Discovering iOS 7: The App Store
• Discovering iOS 7: The Weather app
• Discovering iOS 7: The Calendar
• Discovering iOS 7: The Camera app
• Discovering iOS 7: Video series
• Discovering iOS 7: The Control Center
• Discovering iOS 7: The Notification Center
• Should you upgrade to iOS 7 right away?