Angry Birds Fight! fly’s onto the Play Store as Rovio’s latest genre mashup
Rovio has flown a new game onto the Google Play Store, Angry Birds Fight!, which was originally only available in Asian markets. The new title is a “match-3 frenzy” puzzle game, where you can challenge strangers and friends in real-time.
In Angry Birds Fight! you have to match various types of birds to build your birds’ power up. Once time runs out, Angry Birds Fight! drops its Bejewled match-3 theme and turns into an all out Japanese fighting genre. If you win fights, you’ll gain XP and bird coins to accessorize and upgrade your bird.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Angry Birds Fight! is free, for the most part. There’s a bevy of in-app purchases you can make to speed up upgrading your bird if you don’t want to spend countless hours trying to earn XP and its in-game currency, bird coins. If you’re interested in joining the fight in Rovio’s latest Angry Birds adaption, you can do so for free by scanning the QR code or hitting the download link below.
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Twitter’s Dick Costolo leaving company, Jack Dorsey to return as Interim CEO
Twitter’s CEO position will be undergoing a change next month. Earlier, we learned that CEO Dick Costolo plans to depart from the company on July 1 and Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder, has been selected by the Twitter Board of Directors to fill the position on an interim basis.
Costolo commented on the decision to leave Twitter:
“I am tremendously proud of the Twitter team and all that the team has accomplished together during my six years with the Company. We have great leaders who work well together and a clear strategy that informs our objectives and priorities. There is no one better than Jack Dorsey to lead the world as well as a great relationship with Twitter’s leadership team. I am deeply appreciative of the confidence the Board, the management team and the employees have placed in me over the years, and I look forward to supporting Twitter however I can going forward.”
Dorsey, who will remain Square’s CEO during this time, thanked Costolo for his work:
“The future belongs to Twitter thanks in large part to Dick Costolo’s dedication and vision. Dick has put a world-class team in place and created a great foundation from which Twitter can continue to change the world and grow. We have an exciting lineup of products and initiatives coming to market, and I look forward to continuing to execute our strategy while helping facilitate a smooth transition as the Board conducts its search.”
Internally, Twitter employees are reportedly shocked by the move.
Welcome back, @jack !! https://t.co/3papmyUKg0
— dick costolo (@dickc) June 11, 2015
Source: Twitter (PDF)
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Verizon’s Moto E (2nd Gen.) now receiving update to Android 5.1 Lollipop
If you’re the owner of a Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen.) on the Verizon network, you should be in for a sweet treat sometime soon. Big Red has just begun pushing out an update to Android 5.1 Lollipop, carrying build number 23.11.17. This new version of Android brings some user interface improvements including a tweaked quick settings menu and new interruption controls that will help prevent missed alarms. The update also brings notification volume control access and factory reset protection to help stop hackers from stealing your information. It should be noted that the Verizon document doesn’t specify how big the update is, so you’ll probably want to be connected to a Wi-Fi network before downloading.
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The update is rolling out now, but as is the case with most other updates from Verizon, it may take a few days to make its way to your device. To check for the update manually, head to Settings>About phone>System updates>Check for update. Have you received the update yet? If so, let us know how you like it!
Tales from the Borderland episode 3 coming to Android ‘a few days after E3 ends’
Waiting for the next installment of Tales from the Borderlands? Telltale games has now announced episode three ‘Catch a Ride’ is on its way, with a slated launch set for “a few days after E3 2015 ends”. What’s even more exciting is that the Android version will be arriving that same day! In the past the PC, Mac, and console versions were among the first platforms to see episodes arrive, with Android and iOS releases coming a bit later. Thankfully, Telltale has opted for a same-day release for all platforms this time around.
Jumping right into the story, Telltale has released a summary of the events taking place in the latest episode in order to get everyone pumped up and ready for the release:
After a dizzying escape from a very-near-almost-certain-death scenario (involving statuesque buttocks), Rhys and Fiona find themselves looking for another piece of the puzzle that will lead them to the untold riches of Vault key ownership. Lost in the mysterious jungle of an Atlas terraforming facility, Fiona finds help from an unexpected mentor, Rhys continues to share brain-space with the disembodied mind of a dead dictator, and love is in the air. Pursued by the ruthless criminal ‘Queenpin’ Vallory, and with very little help from Vaughn’s accountancy skills (or stellar abs), getting anywhere near the Vault will be entirely up to you.
For those unfamiliar with the Tales from the Borderlands series, the series might take place in the Borderlands universe but its gameplay is Telltale’s iconic point-and-click adventure game style. As with other Telltale games, that means quirky characters, a rich storyline, and a short yet thrilling action adventure.
While be sure to update our readers as soon as the game hits Google Play. For those that have played either the first, second, or both existing episodes — would you recommend the series to newcomers?
Convert your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge into the Iron Man edition with SlickWraps
By now, you must have heard about the limited edition Iron Man Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and the insane bidding wars on eBay this device has given rise to. Even if you are willing to fork over an unspecified but large amount of money for this version, the device itself is in short supply, with only a 1000 to be made available. If you love the look of this red and gold version though, there is luckily a rather simple and more cost-effective solution available to you, courtesy of SlickWraps.
With their recently released Iron Man skin for devices such as the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, as well as the latest iPhones you can essentially transform your device into an Iron Man edition phone. Is this a viable alternative to getting the real thing? We find out, as we take a quick look at how to convert your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge into the Iron Man edition!
On first hearing about this skin and what it aimed to do, I have to admit that there was some amount of skepticism as to what the quality was going to be like, and how much it’d be able to mimic the actual version. Luckily, I was very pleasantly surprised with the product, which proved to be a very high quality and does look a lot like the real thing, save for the image of the Iron Man mask that is on the back panel on the actual device.
When it comes to installation process, it is recommended that you check out the video guides the company has available on their website. Overall, the installation is quite simple, especially for those already comfortable with installing skins on their devices, with the difficulty ranging from easy to a moderate difficulty. With a lot of components present, however, the process can be somewhat time-consuming and will require your full attention and care, but the final result is certainly worth it.
The various parts include the red front and back pieces, the gold side pieces that go around and cover the metal frame, along with all the smaller components to cover the camera unit, the heart rate monitor, and the physical home button. While installing the various parts, it is recommended that you have a blow dryer to help attach the bits that are being finicky and not wanting to stay stuck. The packaging also includes duplicate pieces for a lot of the smaller components, which is great if you do end up messing up with these parts that are a little harder to install.
Worth a mention is that, while there is a skin available for the home button up front to help maintain the overall style and look, because what you’re essentially doing is putting a sticker on top of the fingerprint sensor it doesn’t work anymore. If you are someone who does use the finger scanner a lot, this a part that you will have to leave out.
As you may have noticed with the original device, there is a special edition wireless charger that is available alongside it, that looks like an arc reactor. SlickWraps has a skin available for your Samsung wireless charger as well, that mimics that look, which you can get your hands for an additional $4 if you buy it as a part of the set, or for $9.50 if you pick it up separately.
As far as the pricing is concerned, you’re certainly not going to have to shell out the hefty premium that you would have with the original device. Instead, the SlickWraps Iron Man Hero Series skin is priced at just $25, with the additional amount mentioned above for the Samsung wireless charger skin. This skin is also available not only for the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6, but for a few other devices as well, including the latest iPhones.
So there you have it for this quick look at converting your Samsung Galaxy S6 to the limited edition Iron Man version! SlickWraps has allowed for a great alternative to the real thing, at only a fraction of the price. The look it results in is absolutely spot on, and the quality is great overall, and the fitting and the cutouts are perfect. If you are an Iron Man fan, this is definitely worth a look. You can find out more about the SlickWraps skin and place an order for it here.
Where’s the Lollipop update for the DROID Turbo?
It looks like someone over at Verizon has made a little bit of a boo boo. When looking at the phone specs for the DROID Turbo, it’s stated that device is running Lollipop. However, the funny thing is, that the Turbo does NOT currently run Lollipop.
This may have just been an honest mistake, or someone at Verizon is putting the cart before the horse. Original rumors were that the DROID Turbo would have been updated to Android Lollipop 5.0.2, this week, however that has yet to happen.
Then Motorola came out and stated that the Turbo would be directly updated to Android 5.1 due to the native VolTE support. However documents from Motorola state that the Turbo WILL be updated to 5.0.2 and won’t skip to my lou all the way to 5.1.
Irregardless of either of these points, the fact of the matter remains that DROID Turbo users are still without Lollipop and are getting frustrated. What does matter is that the combination of Motorola and Verizon need to get on the same page, get the update ready for release, and start sending out the update to Turbo users.
It’s not really known why these “flagship” devices are still waiting for the Android Lollipop update, even though Lollipop has been available for over a year. On top of the fact that the manufacturer of the device, Motorola, used to be owned by the company that created the software, Google. Time will tell if these manufacturers and carriers can get their crap together, but hopefully it will be smooth(er) sailing for when the release of Android M is upon us.
Sooooo, stop taking forever, proving the point of fragmentation, and release the update already.
The post Where’s the Lollipop update for the DROID Turbo? appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Apple Music Pays Industry Standard Subscription Revenue Fees to Record Labels
Apple plans to charge between $9.99 and $14.99 per month for its upcoming on-demand Apple Music service, with 58 percent of its subscription revenues going to record labels. For every $9.99 Apple collects from subscribers in the United States, it will pay out $5.80 to labels. Additionally, Apple pays approximately 12 percent to publishers and/or songwriters, leaving the company with somewhere around 30 percent of the revenue from the Apple Music service.
The figures come from a leaked document shared by Digital Music News earlier this week. In its article, Digital Music News erroneously suggested Apple was paying less to music labels than other streaming music services like Spotify (after failing to take into account the publisher’s fee), but as it turns out, the 70 percent that Apple pays out to rights holders is on par with the industry standard.
In some circumstances, the fees provided to rights holders can vary, such as when student accounts are involved or when the Apple Music service is provided through a third-party service like Google Play or bundled into a carrier package. During Apple’s three-month free trial period that it provides to all subscribers, it is not required to pay any fees to rights holders.
Profit sharing and value concerns often cause a lot of tension between streaming music services, record labels, artists, and other rights holders. Many artists have complained about the low fees they receive from streaming music services, primarily those with free streaming tiers. Taylor Swift famously pulled all of her music from Spotify last year, claiming that by offering music for free, Spotify was undervaluing her work.
With Beats Music and Rhapsody you have to pay for a premium package in order to access my albums. And that places a perception of value on what I’ve created. On Spotify, they don’t have any settings, or any kind of qualifications for who gets what music. I think that people should feel that there is a value to what musicians have created, and that’s that.
Apple does not offer a free ad-supported tier for its on-demand streaming music service, choosing to supplement instead with an accompanying radio service. Apple has even allegedly urged record labels to cease offering deals to services that do offer free ad-supported listening tiers, like Spotify and YouTube.
Apple’s focus on paid-only music is unsurprising, given the current state of the streaming music industry. Spotify recently announced 75 million users and 20 million paid subscribers, but Spotify continues to operate at a loss. With more than 800 million iTunes accounts with credit cards attached at its disposal, Apple Music could quickly become one of the most profitable streaming services, as long as Apple can draw in customers.
Apple Music launches on June 30 as part of iOS 8.4.
Oculus Touch gives you natural, hand-based VR control
Oculus might be giving you an Xbox One controller to get your virtual reality experience off the ground, but what if you want more natural control? Don’t worry, that’s coming soon. Palmer Luckey and crew just took the wraps off of Oculus Touch, a hand controller system that lets you navigate the virutal world in a more natural way. Each grip includes both motion-based input as well as physical controls and haptic feedback — in some cases, you’ll feel what you touch in the VR space. There’s no mention of pricing or whether Oculus Touch will be ready for the consumer Rift headset’s early 2016 debut, but we’re hoping there isn’t a protracted wait.
Update: We’ve just heard that a development kit version of the Oculus Touch will be available in Q1 2016. It won’t be a consumer-ready version (thus won’t be available with the headset itself), but just an early edition for developers to work on. CEO Brendan Iribe told us that the reason for this is to give developers time to get used to the new controller and incorporate their games around it. Preorders for the Touch will open the same time as the Rift.
Nicole Lee contributed to this report.
Oculus Touch will be shipping H1 2016 – Preorders will open alongside the Rift.
– Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) June 11, 2015
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Oculus
Your next plastic gun won’t make it past metal detectors
Conventional metal detectors — like those employed nearly universally to courthouses and (sigh) schools — are useless against 3D-printed plastic guns. And in light of how comically inept the TSA is, these homebrew weapons pose a real and significant security concern to airports as well. Which is why Congress is once again gearing up to pass legislation making the weapons easier to trace.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) has set forth the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act. Much like a similar bill that failed in 2013, the UFMA requires a metal strip large enough to set off an X-ray or metal detector be embedded in the weapon, plastic or otherwise. Removing the strip would be illegal and punishable by imprisonment. Of course, that’s assuming that the person printing the weapon is a responsible, law-abiding citizen and not some whacko who found the plans online and has decided to listen to his neighbor’s dog for once.
[Image Credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet
Source: The Hill
JXE Streams: Welcome to the ‘Jurassic Park’ extravaganza
Some people saw the trailer for Jurassic World and thought, “That looks stupid. Andy from Parks and Recreation riding a motorcycle alongside a team of velociraptors? What’s become of our beloved movies about dinosaurs trying to eat Jeff Goldblum?” That’s not what we thought here at JXE Streams. We thought, “That looks stupid. Stupidly awesome.” Unable to contain our excitement for the new movie any longer, we’re streaming two old-school Jurassic Park games back to back starting at 3PM ET/12PM PT.
Tune in right here in this post or at Engadget.com/gaming to watch two solid hours of antiquated dinosaur action. Do you want to help us build our very own dino park in Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis for the original Xbox? Then come chat with us at Twitch.tv/Joystiq! Want dinosaurs even more ancient than that? Stick around for Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis afterward.
[We’re streaming retail versions of Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis for Xbox and Jurassic Park for Genesis at 720p through an Elgato HD via OBS.]
AIVAnet 