Hasta La Gadget!

Here’s something we weren’t expecting, at least not this soon. Terry Cavanagh, the developer behind VVVVVV and Super Hexagon, has brought his newest creation to BlackBerry’s newest platform. In other words, Super Hexagon is now available from BlackBerry World for BlackBerry 10 devices (only the BlackBerry Z10 at this point).

Cavanagh said that a BlackBerry 10 port actually wasn’t something he had originally lined up, but a friend who helped port the game to Android wanted to do the same for BlackBerry 10, as he maintains the unofficial Blackberry port of openFrameworks. Cavanagh had no qualms of porting the game to yet another device and decided to give it a shot.

Cavanagh also says that a BlackBerry tablet version of the game (read: PlayBook) may come along eventually, but there’s no guarantees. In the meantime, Z10 owners in the UK and Canada can grab the game for $2.99. Users in the US will sadly have to wait until March to get their hands on a new Z10, but that’s just right around the corner.

If you’re not familiar with Super Hexagon, it’s essentially an action game that has you guiding a small cursor through gaps that appear randomly from six sides (hence “Hexagon”), but you have to act quick, since the barriers come at you pretty fast. Just like with VVVVVV, the game is meant to be an incredible challenge. It’s currently available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and of course, BlackBerry 10.

Super Hexagon makes its way to BlackBerry 10 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While us iOS and Android users have been enjoying Spotify for quite a while now, the app just now hit the Windows Phone 8 store. While it’s launching in beta mode, the app is available for everyone, just don’t expect a completely smooth and snappy music app right off the bat, since the dev team is still working on it.

This actually marks the first time that an official Spotify app has become available on the Windows Phone operating system. In the past, Windows Phone 7 had a third-party Spotify app (as well as on BlackBerry), which was actually funded by Microsoft to try and get it on their platform as soon as possible, but now the official Spotify team has released a dedicated app for Windows Phone 8.

Many of the features that you’ll find on the app are the same features that iOS and Android users have been enjoying for a while now. You can do things like create playlists, browse playlists of friends, and even discover new music. The app works in the cloud, but it also has an offline mode that allows you download your library to your device for offline listening.

The app is available for free, with a 30-day free trial to Spotify Premium, which is required in order to take advantage of the mobile app. Premium service costs $9.99 a month, and it allows you sync your Spotify library between devices, including your computer. Computer-only use is free, but you’ll also be treated with ads if you plan to go with that route.

Spotify launches on Windows Phone 8 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apparently, some kind of weather catastrophe is on its way to the NE. I was vaguely aware that we would be getting a winter storm of some kind. Several inches of snow, a foot perhaps. But now I’m scared into a frenzy. Good! That means the system works! More »

Wireless provider FreedomPop, which offers free data to smartphone users, has announced additional funding of $4.3 million in order to bolster up its network and provide customers with more features. Case in point: the company announced that users will now be able share data with one another, whether they’re friends, family members, or just acquaintances.

FreedomPop’s new data sharing program allows you to share or trade megabytes almost like a currency of sorts, and will allow you request megabytes through Facebook or Twitter from users who are willing to hand them over. Purchasing the $99 iPhone/iPod Touch sleeve will get you 500MB per month, but if you need more, your social friends may help you out this time around.

As for the additional funding, the company says that the extra cash will help them continue to come up with new plans and social features that users will enjoy. The company outed the ability to boost the amount of free data each user gets for referring a friend to FreedomPop, a system that will not only reward users, but will also gain customers for FreedomPop.

FreedomPop CEO Stephen Stokols says that the company plans to do “very little” hardware development, and instead will focus on getting more customers and adding new features to their service. Stokols says that “hundreds of thousands” of users have signed up for FreedomPop so far, and the program is still in beta mode, so once the service launches publicly nationwide, we should see a huge surge of users make their way to FreedomPop.

FreedomPop raises $4.3 million in additional funding, lets users share data is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sure, Ubuntu for smartphones is slated to appear as a downloadable image for the Galaxy Nexus late this month, but you’ll have to wait until fall to get your hands on honest-to-goodness Ubuntu phone hardware. According to the Wall Street Journal, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth says Ubuntu handsets will hit two “large geographic markets” in October, and that the open source OS has struck the fancy of carriers, to boot. However, Shuttleworth remained coy regarding which regions will see the devices launch in October and which manufacturers will be serving up hardware.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: CNET

Source: Wall Street Journal