In the last several Grand Theft Auto video games, working with the gamer behind the control stick to allow them a new level of control and freedom in the in-game environment. Here with Grand Theft Auto v (aka GTA 5), the folks at Rockstar Games have taken things to a whole new level of playing […]
This week the folks at Bump have announced that they’ll be moving to Google, the latter coming having acquired the former in a deal that’ll bring new technology to Android and Chrome (more than likely). The app Bump currently works with Android and iOS devices to provide data transfer from one device o another with […]
Angry Birds has to be one of the most popular mobile games we’ve seen and the developer, Rovio, has pushed out different variants of the game in the past, such as Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Birds Seasons, and etc. However for those who have played the Space version of the game and were looking forward to additional content, well you’re in luck as Rovio has recently released an update for Angry Birds Space called the Cosmic Crystals.
The update is free for download for those who own the game and is expected to add 35 new levels to the game, giving gamers a heck lot more content to go through, not to mention more levels for them to achieve 3-stars. There will be a new Space Eagle level as well, and a boss fight with what Rovio is calling a “crazy mutant Space Pig”. Given that the update is also called Cosmic Crystals, it implies that something can be broken and sure enough there will be planets that gamers will encounter that can explode and shatter upon impact, adding a new dimension to the game play.
For those who don’t have the original game, Angry Birds Space is available on iOS and Android and can be had for $0.99.
Angry Birds Space Gets A Cosmic Crystals Update original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Jolla, the Finnish startup that’s aiming to build a mobile ecosystem around its MeeGo-based OS, Sailfish, has announced the Sailfish OS is now compatible with the Android ecosystem — on both a hardware and a software level.
Incorporating support for Android apps was always on Jolla’s roadmap but today it’s confirmed that Android apps can now run directly on Sailfish without any modifications — crossing off a key requirement as it tries to establish its platform ahead of launching its own hardware starting in Q4.
Jolla has also confirmed Sailfish is now compatible with Android hardware – noting specifically it’s able “to run on common hardware produced for Android, particularly smartphones and tablets”.
On the hardware side, the startup is likely hoping to encourage Chinese OEMs, which are already churning out Android devices by the truck-load, to add a Sailfish line to their range with minimal effort required in terms of tweaking the hardware to run another OS. Piggybacking on Android OEMs is a neat way to lower the barrier to entry for Sailfish device-makers.
Vendors interested to utilize Sailfish OS are now able to develop phones and tablets based on many different chipset and hardware configurations. This new level of compatibility will enable device vendors who use Sailfish OS to fully utilize the existing Android hardware ecosystem.
On the software side, trying to get consumers’ attention in an industry so dominated by Google and Apple is a very big ask — see Microsoft’s Windows Phone, for example — which explains Jolla’s thinking in building in Android app support. It wants developers to build native Sailfish apps too but supporting Android apps means users of its hardware don’t have to wait around to get flagship pieces of software.
Jolla’s CEO Tomi Pienimäki specifically flagged up Instagram, WhatsApp, Spotify and Chinese messaging app WeChat in a statement as “popular apps” that will run on Sailfish from the get-go. By contrast, Windows Phone is still waiting for Instagram to be ported over.
Sailfish OS users “will be able to take full advantage of the Android application ecosystem available through various app stores globally”, Jolla said today, adding: “Jolla will co-operate with leading global app stores to ensure users can seamlessly download Android apps just as they would do on any Android device.”
Also today, the startup said it plans to kick off another pre-sales campaign for its forthcoming smartphone — the €399 handset with the customisable rear, revealed back in May – after closing out its initial pre-order run last month, with up to 50,000 units booked.
It appears that Jolla — which is largely comprised of ex-Nokians, who worked on the MeeGo-based N9 prior to Nokia’s switch to Windows Phone — is hoping to capitalise on anti-Microsoft sentiment in Finland, following the news (earlier this month) that Nokia will be exiting the mobile-making business by selling its devices & services unit to Microsoft.
“After the Microsoft-Nokia announcement the strategic position of Jolla and Sailfish OS has strengthened significantly,” Jolla notes in a press release today.
With a new pre-sales campaign for Jolla-made hardware, Finns looking to express displeasure at the fate of the once mighty mobile maker being brought low by, at least in part, tying its fortunes to Microsoft’s OS will have the chance to buy into an alternative homegrown handset — one not running a made-in-Redmond OS.
“Due to extremely positive feedback and increased demand in the past weeks, we are offering another pre-order opportunity for our second production batch later this week through jolla.com. This will be targeted to Finnish customers who want to express their passion for the Finnish mobile industry,” Pienimäki added in a statement.
Signing something on a smartphone may not feel very legit, but be careful where you squiggle because mobile contracts are for real. And if you’re trying to keep legal fees down, a contracts app like Shake may actually help. Shake’s CEO claims that $1 million worth of contracts have already been signed on the app, which was originally released last year. A significantly updated 2.0 version is out this week.
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When Samsung announced its Galaxy S4 earlier this year, it introduced a large number of features that not only helped expand what its users can do with the device through proprietary apps, but they also made some big changes to its camera software. One feature Samsung implemented into its camera software is the ability to take a photo using both the front-facing and rear-facing cameras on its Galaxy S4. We’re sure a number of iOS users are rather envious of this feature being available on the Galaxy S4, but a new iOS app gives you this exact feature, which will hopefully lead to be just a little less envious. (more…)
Frontback For iOS Takes Pictures Using Your Front, Rear Cameras original content from Ubergizmo. 
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There are a ton of mobile browsers that smartphone users can choose from, although given the popularity of Google Chrome for the desktop, we wouldn’t be surprised if mobile users opted for the mobile version of Chrome as well. If you’re using Chrome on your iOS device, the app has recently been updated with several interesting and efficient features. For those who rely on voice search a lot, the app has been updated to allow follow-up questions with pronounces, such as “Who is his wife?” which could be a follow-up question to, “Who is the president of the United States?”
The app has also been made a little “faster”, so if you performed a search and clicked on a link but it did not turn out to be the one you had in mind, hitting the back button will reload the search results instantly as opposed to having to watch for the results to be fetched again. Google has also introduced a new data consumption tracker which also shows off how Chrome is saving your bandwidth (for those on data plans).
For those who have yet to download Chrome, you can do so via the iTunes App Store for free. The app will be able to sync with the desktop version of Chrome, assuming you have a Google account, and will load your history and bookmarks onto the mobile app as well and vice versa.
Chrome For iOS Updated With Better Voice Search Functionality original content from Ubergizmo. 
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We know that BBM for iOS and Android will be arriving and not too long ago the app was demonstrated live during the Toronto International Film Festival, and according to BlackBerry, the app has been submitted at least to Apple’s iTunes App Store about two weeks ago, suggesting that it won’t be long before we see its actual release. In the meantime it looks like Samsung has decided to keep up their advertising efforts of BlackBerry’s BBM app that will be arriving on Android (and thus Galaxy smartphone) devices as you can see in the screenshot above.
This is actually not the first time that we’ve seen Samsung advertise the app and it is probably due to their partnership where BBM will come preloaded on Android phones, although in the past Samsung Ghana did take down their ads, presumably because it might have been a little premature. In any case there’s still no specific release date for BBM, but BlackBerry did state in the past that they planned to release it by the end of summer. We’re not sure how successful the app will be given that there are a ton of other messaging apps out there that already allow for cross-platform messaging, such as WhatsApp, Skype, LINE, Viber, and etc. just to name a few. We’ll keep our eyes peeled so check back with us at a later date for the details.
Samsung Continues Promoting BBM For Android original content from Ubergizmo. 
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When Instagram first introduced its video sharing feature, it was a little jarring at first to scroll through the Instagram news feed and suddenly have a video start playing when you arrived upon it. Granted it does save you some time from clicking on it, and it looks like Facebook is looking to introduce a similar feature to its mobile app as well. Given that Facebook owns Instagram, we guess this isn’t too surprising. In any case Facebook did announce that they were testing out the new system, “Today we’re starting to test an easier way to watch videos on Facebook. Now when you see a video in News Feed, it comes to life and starts playing. Videos initially play silently, and if you want you can tap to play with sound in full screen. Scroll past if you don’t want to watch.”
As Facebook has stated, this will be a new feature that is being tested meaning that not everyone will be able to see it or try it for themselves, but presumably if feedback is good on this new feature, the update should begin to make its way out to everyone. As expected Facebook does have plans on using it as a marketing tool, although they did not state when would be introducing the tool to marketers. If you thought videos playing silently/softly on webpages without you asking for it was annoying, we can only imagine it will be the same on mobile as well.
Facebook Testing Auto Video Playing On Mobile App original content from Ubergizmo. 
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When Apple unveiled their new iPhones, they also had some developers take the stage to show off some new apps that would take advantage of the phones’ new hardware, and unsurprisingly Chair Entertainment made an appearance again, this time with their new Infinity Blade 3 title that is expected to debut on the 18th of September alongside iOS 7. So far from what we’ve heard during Apple’s presentation and based on some initial tests, Apple’s iPhone 5S is no slouch and is actually turning out to be quite a big upgrade over the iPhone 5, at least in terms of processing and graphics power.
To that extent Chair Entertainment’s Donald Mustard revealed his amazement at the power behind the iPhone 5S. Speaking to the folks at Polygon, Mustard was quoted as saying, “I’m not going to mince words here. It was very shocking to me […] I really do think this is a sea change. It’s a sea change from how much of a supercomputer this thing is that we’re holding in our pockets.” The visuals on Infinity Blade 3 have definitely been upgraded and it will be interesting to see how the iPhone 5S handles it, and more importantly how older iPhones, like the iPhone 5, will be able to cope with the newer graphics as well.
Chair Entertainment Pleasantly Shocked By iPhone 5s’ Power original content from Ubergizmo. 
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