Roku brings casual gaming to its internet TV platform starting with Angry Birds this summer

Roku’s line of boxes have come a long way from being used only to stream Netflix, and now the company has announced a plan to take its talents to casual gaming. Naturally, the first app out of the gate this summer will be the wildly popular and increasingly ubiquitous Angry Birds. There’s not a lot of details available yet and while we’re told the gaming experience will be available on a new player launching this summer, whether or not the existing Roku hardware will get any gaming action remains to be seen. Roku CEO Anthony Wood is very excited about the company’s gaming prospects saying “Just as we were the first to enable Netflix to stream instantly to the TV, we intend to be the catalyst for transforming the way people play casual games-starting with Angry Birds-on the biggest screen in the home”. While we wouldn’t bet against the upstart media streamer maker, it may be a bit tougher to compete with Xbox 360, PS3 and whatever Nintendo has up its sleeve on their native turf.

Update: Thanks to Dan Rayburn, Anthony Wood has confirmed Angry Birds will not run on existing players. In the inaugural post on the Roku Blog, he mentioned “some of the new games will require more horsepower”.

Continue reading Roku brings casual gaming to its internet TV platform starting with Angry Birds this summer

Roku brings casual gaming to its internet TV platform starting with Angry Birds this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 01:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Robots master delicate art of juggling, prep for clown college (video)

Juggling Bot

Not to be outdone by their flying cousins, some less mobile bots are taking on the challenge of juggling. After the break you’ll find a pair of vids, including one featuring a creation from the Czech Technical Institute in Prague that can launch five balls between its two “hands” with the aide of a high-speed tracking camera. The other clip stars the “Blind Juggler,” a somewhat more impressive machine that has no sensors or cameras. Instead, it relies on mechanical feedback and some fancy math to control the trajectory of the ball and keep it airborne. The Blind Juggler debuted back in 2009, but creators Philipp Reist and Raffaello D’Andrea introduced an interesting wrinkle for version 2.0 by turning the entire thing into a pendulum that passes the ball to itself. Clearly, the next step is face paint and red, foam noses — bringing our most bed-wetting of night terrors to life.

Continue reading Robots master delicate art of juggling, prep for clown college (video)

Robots master delicate art of juggling, prep for clown college (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 01:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Memorex intros Nintendo DS game-changing case, other not-so-game-changing accessories

The Nintendo DS line has had many redesigns up to the present 3DS, but one thing that hasn’t changed are the tiny, easily lost cartridges. Enter Memorex’s $20 Universal Game Selector Case, announced as part of its gaming accessory lineup for E3. The UGSC stores up to three games and hooks up to the cartridge port on any DS, letting you swap between them using a signal routing switch. We’ve seen cases similar to this in the past, but Memorex’s take is the first to support 3DS titles as well. Based on the renders, the unit looks to make for a weird fit and some noticeable extra thickness (10.5mm to be exact), especially on the DSi XL, but hopefully we’ll get a better idea of how it feels in hand at E3. From a functionality perspective, the case does seem rather useful for those with forgetful tendencies, if a bit underwhelming for anybody else. Memorex will also be displaying its new third-party PS3 and Wii motion controllers at the E3, which are viewable in the gallery below, and there’s a press release with details after the break.

Continue reading Memorex intros Nintendo DS game-changing case, other not-so-game-changing accessories

Memorex intros Nintendo DS game-changing case, other not-so-game-changing accessories originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI X370 to be upgraded to AMD E-450 Fusion APU, we go hands-on

AMD is presently detailing a rather extensive overhaul of its Fusion APU line here at Computex, including the promise of Llano-based computers becoming available in the next few weeks. One of the devices that’s set to get the upgrade treatment is MSI’s skinny X370 laptop, a 13-incher with 1366 x 768 resolution and the current-gen 1.6GHz E-350 Zacate processor inside. The intel about its future upgrade to a 1.65GHz E-450 chip came from Notebook Italia and was confirmed for us by folks at both AMD and MSI’s booths here at the show. We don’t yet have the full details on what the next E-450 processor will be like exactly, but we gathered together a gallery of pictures of the X370, which recently started shipping for $579. We were told to expect the refreshed model in either the third or fourth quarter of this year. If your interest has been piqued, jump past the break for some hands-on impressions.

Continue reading MSI X370 to be upgraded to AMD E-450 Fusion APU, we go hands-on

MSI X370 to be upgraded to AMD E-450 Fusion APU, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 23:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Offers rolling out in Portland, Oregon tomorrow, SF and NYC this summer

If you’ve been watching our liveblog of Eric Schmidt at D9, you’ll know that the Floyd’s Coffee ad above isn’t just a mockup — this evening, the Google chairman announced his company’s Groupon-like Google Offers service will launch in Portland, Oregon tomorrow. We’ll also see it in San Francisco and New York City this summer, delivering daily deals directly to our NFC-equipped Nexus S smartphones.

Google Offers rolling out in Portland, Oregon tomorrow, SF and NYC this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 23:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile announces HTC Sensation 4G launch dates, pricing

T-Mobile announces the upcoming availability and pricing of its latest Android superphone, the HTC Sensation 4G.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

60 Million Apps Downloaded from the App Store

This article was written on August 11, 2008 by CyberNet.

app store logo.pngThe Wall Street Journal recently sat down with Steve Jobs to see how things are going with the newly released App Store. As expected, things are going really well. In the past month that the App Store has been available to iPhone and iPod Touch users, more than 60 million applications have been downloaded. Of course many of those are free, but many have a price tag attached which means developers are making money. Apple is making money too with the 30% that they take, but Steve Jobs pointed out that much of that goes simply towards operating costs.

If we break down the number of apps that have been downloaded, we’ll see that they are slowly declining. Keep in mind that the iPhone 3G will be launching in several new countries on August 22nd which means sales could pick right back-up again.

  • Day one through day 3: 10 million apps downloaded – approximately 3.3 million apps downloaded each day on average
  • Day four through day 10: an additional 15 million apps downloaded – approximately 2.1 million apps downloaded each day on average
  • Day eleven through day thirty: an additional 35 million apps downloaded – 1.75 million apps downloaded each day on average

Paid apps have brought in about $1 million dollars in sales per day. The Wall Street Journal says that if they stay at the current pace, Apple is set to make about $360 million in revenue from the App Store over a year’s time. Developers are making some decent money as well. Probably the best example of a successful game is Super Monkey Ball which has been downloaded over 300,000 times in 20 days. This means Super Monkey Ball alone has brought in $3 million.

Clearly the App Store was a smart move for Apple. During the interview, Steve jobs talked about what has set the iPhone apart from others. He said, “Phone differentiation used to be about radios and antennas and things like that. We think, going forward, the phone of the future will be differentiated by software.” Software has definitely been a big part of what has made the iPhone successful.

It looks as though T-Mobile may see what Steve Jobs does, that the phone of the future will be differentiated by software. Rumor has it that T-Mobile is preparing their own app store for the new phones they will be launching. While Apple’s App Store is only for the iPhone, T-Mobile’s store would be for multiple phones.

Source: Mac Rumors

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Zinio comes to Android tablets, gives you 24 magazine issues for free


The iPad has yet to transform the publishing world as many expected it would, but some healthy competition from Android tablets should help to keep that process in motion. Zinio‘s reader app is now available on select Android 2.2, 2.3, and all 3.0 tablets, bringing Esquire, National Geographic, and 20,000 other magazine titles to the Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and a half dozen other devices. And, to kick off the launch, Zinio is picking up the tab on the most recent issues of 24 top magazines, as long as you download by June 15. Digital subscriptions are still often more expensive than their print counterparts, but at least Android tablet owners will have a safer place to hide their issues of Playboy.

Continue reading Zinio comes to Android tablets, gives you 24 magazine issues for free

Zinio comes to Android tablets, gives you 24 magazine issues for free originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 22:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Sensation available on T-Mobile June 15th for $200, hits Walmart ‘as early as June 12th’

The foremost question in the hive mind of Android power users these days is typically whether to go with HTC’s 1.2GHz, dual-core, 4.3-inch Sensation or the similarly specced Galaxy S II from Samsung. Of course, neither of those is actually out in the US yet, so if patience is not your favorite virtue, T-Mobile just made that decision for you. The carrier has announced it’ll start selling the HTC Sensation from June 12th at Walmart stores, after which it’ll be “exclusively” available on June 15th from T-Mobile retail stores. Pricing is your typical $200 on a two-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate. Samsung’s superphone shouldn’t be too far behind, but it does look like T-Mo subscribers will get a good few weeks to familiarize themselves with Sense 3.0 before having to hear any gloating about Super AMOLED Plus displays and 8.49mm slimness. PR after the break.

Continue reading HTC Sensation available on T-Mobile June 15th for $200, hits Walmart ‘as early as June 12th’

HTC Sensation available on T-Mobile June 15th for $200, hits Walmart ‘as early as June 12th’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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