Hasta La Gadget!

Were you raring to go and buy a Wikipad instead of trick-or-treating? You might want to search around for some leftover chocolate bars and potato chips. The gaming tablet maker has postponed its shipments the very day they were meant to start after chances to both to improve the bundled content and make a “minor refinement” to the experience. We’re interpreting that last mention as either a pleasant surprise or an unexpected hiccup. Any delay may be comparatively short when Wikipad says it’s already in the last stage of firming up a new schedule, and it’s vowing a gift in return for maintaining a pre-order — still, the clock is ticking if the company wants to score some mobile gamers before the holidays are over. You can check the full statement for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Wikipad sees last-minute delay for new bundle and ‘refinement’

Filed under: Gaming, Tablets

Wikipad sees last-minute delay for new bundle and ‘refinement’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The green pigs have had their moment in the sun: it’s time for the Angry Birds to come back. Rovio Mobile has posted a teaser of a collaboration between its frustrated avians and Star Wars that will get a grand reveal on October 8th at Toys R Us’ Times Square location in New York City. No clear giveaways exist as to what’s coming, although Rovio is promising animations, comics and other material in the weeks ahead — we imagine it means more than a toy line, as unique as that can be. But does it mean an Angry Birds Space add-on that goes well beyond the Martian landscape, an entirely new game or something else altogether? We’ve asked the company for more details and will let you know if we’re given more information. In the meantime, get ready for what’s likely to be a geek culture explosion.

[Thanks, Jaakko]

Filed under: Gaming

Rovio hints at Angry Birds tie-in with Star Wars on October 8th, Red Bird Five standing by originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Rovio Mobile (Twitter), Joystiq  |  Angry Birds (Tumblr)  | Email this | Comments

Imagine a world where everyone’s evil and wears a goatee, while our avian allies from Angry Birds are actually the villains of the piece. That’s the premise behind Bad Piggies, Rovio’s newest productivity killer, which promises entirely new game mechanics (and no slingshots!). It’ll arrive on iOS, Android and OS X on September 27th, with Windows and Windows Phone 8 versions following shortly afterward.

Continue reading Bad Piggies, the alternate-universe’s answer to Angry Birds, lands September 27th

Filed under: Gaming

Bad Piggies, the alternate-universe’s answer to Angry Birds, lands September 27th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile graphics are clearly setting the agenda at SIGGRAPH this year — ARM’s Mali T600-series parts have just been chased up by a new Khronos Group standard that will likely keep those future video cores well-fed. OpenGL ES 3.0 represents a big leap in textures, introducing “guaranteed support” for more advanced texture effects as well as a new version of ASTC compression that further shrinks texture footprints without a conspicuous visual hit. OpenVL is also coming to give augmented reality apps their own standard. Don’t worry, desktop users still get some love through OpenGL 4.3: it adds the new ASTC tricks, new visual effects (think blur) and support for compute shaders without always needing to use OpenCL. All of the new standards promise a bright future in graphics for those living outside of Microsoft’s Direct3D universe, although we’d advise being patient: there won’t be a full Open GL ES 3.0 testing suite for as long as six months, and any next-generation phones or tablets will still need the graphics hardware to match.

Continue reading OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 4.3 squeeze textures to the limit, bring OpenVL along for the ride

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablet PCs

OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenGL 4.3 squeeze textures to the limit, bring OpenVL along for the ride originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  Khronos Group (OpenGL ES), (OpenGL)  | Email this | Comments

Got some great smartphone game ideas and Flash talent, but no budget and little to no programming savvy? Autodesk’s Scaleform for Mobile Platforms could let you launch those ideas from a catapult, cannon or any game weapon of your choice — all you’ll need is Adobe creation tools and $299. That’s the price per platform (iOS, Android or Windows 8,) giving you tools to convert your Flash assets and animations into a full blown Unity game, as well as the engine necessary for the mobile OS. That would let your creation take full advantage of the latest smartphone graphics and multi-processing capabilities, giving users smoother play and sharper looking games — according to the company. The software is heavily based on the console and PC versions of Scaleform, optimized for the small devices and costing thousands less. So, if you think you’ve got the mad Flash skillz to create the next Infinity Blade, check the PR and video after the break to see how to power up.

Continue reading Autodesk Scaleform lets you use Flash to build high-end portable device games for $299 (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablet PCs, Software

Autodesk Scaleform lets you use Flash to build high-end portable device games for $299 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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