Hasta La Gadget!

Fresh from putting smiles on the faces of tabletop gaming geeks everywhere, with yesterday’s news that it would be helping to bring Dungeons & Dragons to iOS devices later this year, mobile game publisher Playdek has closed a $3.8 million Series A funding round.

The round was led by Qualcomm Incorporated, via its venture investment arm, Qualcomm Ventures, with IDG Ventures and ff Venture Capital also participating. Existing investors Deep Fork Capital, Greycroft Partners, Jarl Mohn and unnamed angel investors also joined in. The company had previously raised $1.56 million in funding from its seed and Angel rounds — taking its total funding post-Series A to $5.36 million.

Playdek said the new funding will allow it to expand its digital hobby games portfolio with new launches, including its forthcoming app, Agricola, based on the strategy board game of the same name. Flagship existing titles from Playdek include its Ascension series.

The company’s other big plan for the funding is to build a hobby gamer community and online platform for players to meet and hang out, due to launch later this year. It said this platform will “provide the services that hobby gamers value” — so presumably stuff like leaderboards ranking players by score and forums to discuss the merits of different gaming strategies. In a press statement, Joel Goodman, CEO, said it would be about “giving gamers that ‘around the table’ feeling in the digital realm”. The platform will also offer events and tournaments.

Commenting on the funding in a statement, Phil Sanderson, Managing Director, IDG Ventures said: “The market category is poised for growth, and Playdek has proven that it is the expert when it comes to bringing this dedicated audience what they want in mobile gameplay.”

“Playdek gives gamers what they want — compelling online games based on the franchises they know and love.  Playdek allows people to explore these worlds and stories in a compelling new way,” added John Frankel, ff Venture Capital, also in a statement. “We love the team, the strategy, and what they have done to date; we expect great things from them in the future.”

While Gmail for iOS is inching slowly towards it Android counterpart, there are a couple of features missing that would make it perfect, or at least better. One of them was the inability to navigate through emails without first having to return to our inbox. For those who have multiple emails they need to reply on a daily basis, we can only imagine how trouble it gets. Well the good news is that Google has updated its Gmail app for iOS, bumping it up to version 2.1 and along with the update is a new navigational feature that hopefully iOS users will love.

If one were to update their Gmail for iOS app, they will now be able to swipe left and right to navigate within their emails without having to constantly return to their inbox. Google has also made some changes to the menu, bringing icons such as archive and delete to the top when selecting multiple messages. Not the most amazing update ever, but swiping between messages does sound like a bit of a time saver.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Final Fantasy V Coming To iOS Tomorrow, iOS 6.1.3 Users Report Battery Drain, Wi-Fi Connectivity Issues,

Mo apps, mo couch entertainment, right? Well, in order to boost the attributes of its mature gaming console and Xbox Live, Microsoft today announced it’s bringing some additional content to the ever-evolving platform. To go along with the recent inclusion of Redbox Instant, Redmond this week — and just in time for the new season, shall we say — will welcome an MLB.tv app with a redesigned interface and other undisclosed features that, according to the company, should “make watching baseball on Xbox better than ever.” What’s more, Microsoft didn’t just have MLB lovers in mind, and is also giving film buffs, both young and old, something to look forward to with a few new applications, such as IndieFlix, PopcornFlix and Toys R Us movies — oh, and for those who fancy internet-based TV shows, there’s a Revision3 app, to boot. As is often the case, the countries in which they can each be enjoyed will depend on where you live (and a Gold subscription, of course), so now may be a good time to peruse the PR after the break to find out which of these you can expect to see on your Dasboard.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft

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Source: Xbox

Windows Phone users who are yearning for a better Evernote experience on their mobile devices are now in luck. The app just received a major update today that comes with a complete redesign, as well as a slew of new features, including improved tag lists, stack support, and a more user-friendly interface.

The home screen has been redesigned in a way that gives you quick access to the features you’ll most likely need when you boot up the app, including creating a new note and searching through notes. The home screen redesign also includes a small button at the top of the screen that quickly gives you access to your account information.

The update also includes shortcuts, which let you quickly jump to anything in your note collection that you access most frequently. All you have to do is long tap on any item and it will then appear on the home screen of the Evernote app. Currently, shortcuts are only available on OS X, Android, and Windows Phone, and they also sync across platforms.

As for the improved tag system, it’s a lot more compact this time around, which allows you to see more tags on the screen without scrolling up or down. Furthermore, the update includes a quick way for you to jump to tags by the letter they begin with. It cuts down on the amount of scrolling you have to do, and it’s a quicker way to jump to the tag you need.

The update also brings Evernote’s Document Search, which is actually a feature only for Premium users, but it’s available for free to Windows Phone users. It indexes any attached Microsoft Word, iWork, or OpenOffice files so that documents show up in your search results. Other than that, the new update includes Notebook Stacks support, checklist support, and a handful of bugfixes and general performance improvements. Evernote is a free download, and the update is available now in the Windows Phone store.

Evernote for Windows Phone updates with redesign, improved tags, and more is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Google Translate for Android will now offer downloadable offline language packs. So now when you’re staring at a weird sign in a country where you don’t speak the language, your phone will actually be able to help you. More »