If you had to take a guess at what has been at or near the top-grossing spot in the U.S. iPad App Store for the past month without looking, I'd bet a bingo simulator wouldn't be high on your list. But India's BitRhymes has proven that in fact users are interested in playing good old-fashioned bingo on their ultra-modern iPad devices, and revealed to TechCrunch that it's currently tracking to realize an annual run rate of $45 million in revenue on the back of its premiere title, Bingo Bash for Facebook, iPad and iPhone.That one of the best-performing social games on the App Store and Facebook right now isn't from someone like Zynga is a sign that there's still plenty of opportunity to be had in this space, but that it might be best explored by peering into corners that don't immediately seem like winners. Bingo is traditionally seen as a game for octogenarians, but BitRhymes' CEO Sumit Gupta said in an interview that surprisingly, there's been lots of interest from younger demographics, and users have predominantly been women. read more..
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Bingo Simulator-Ipad App Store-Ipad Devices
Friday, 31 August 2012
Aalto University In Finland-Windows Phone-Microsoft-Incubator-Nokia
Next week Nokia and Microsoft are expected to unveil the first handset(s) running on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform, and today comes news about the apps they hope will lure in more users to buy them. AppCampus, an $23 million (€18 million) JV between Microsoft, Nokia and Aalto University in Finland, first announced in May, to foster more app development on the platform, said it has doled out the first $1 million-plus of their budget on 36 developers out of a total of 900 submissions, an average of $30,000 per app, although individual investments over the course of the JV will be between $25,000 and $88,000.Pekka Sivonen, Head of AppCampus, tells me the apps are expected to be coming out starting in October, and will run exclusively on Windows Phone and "other Nokia platforms" for their first six months -- potentially touching some 500 million devices out in the market today. read more..
Monday, 11 June 2012
Native Resolution-720P Resolution-Facepalm-Wii
According to WiiUDaily (and we're confirming), the games shown at E3 are native at 720p resolution, a considerable step down from the 1080p, 3D-pumping action coming out of the 360 and the PS3 in many cases. Although there is no absolute proof that the Wii U launch titles will all be 720p, the site noted that "the representative couldn’t confirm whether the games can be upscaled to 1080p, only that the 'native resolution is 720p for all titles showcased.'" read more..
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Icade-Ipad
Ion Audio, the company behind the iCade Arcade cabinet for the iPad, is shippping its latest product, the iCade Mobile. As its name implies, the iCade Mobile is a Bluetooth game controller for the iPhone and iPod touch. The accessory adds physical buttons and a D-Pad to your iOS device and lets you control games like Temple Run and Frogger Decades. It swivels so you can play in landscape or portrait mode. Also available is the iCade Core, a similarly-designed arcade joystick for the iPad. The iCade Mobile is available for $80, while the iCade Core sells for $100. Both the iCade Mobile and the iCade Core are available now from Toys'r'us and Ion Audio's website. It will also go on sale in the coming weeks at Game Stop and J&R Music. [Via TechCrunch]iPad gaming adapter iCade Mobile now shipping originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Gamestop
GameStop is hurting. Same store sales fell 5%-11% and revenue was down 17% to $2 billion. Profit fell to $72.5 million. Arguably, those are still huge numbers and presumably a new console refresh should push the company out of the doldrums. But what the company has just launched - a new MVNO called GameStop Mobile - is almost inexplicable.GameStop Mobile is, in short, an unlimited data and voice offering for $55 a month (down to $20 a month for pay-as-you-go plans.) Gamestop is just selling SIM cards and service and is running on AT&T's network with some notable dead spots. read more..
Monday, 16 April 2012
Criterion Games-Universal Games-Rockstar Games-Max Payne-App Store
Two high-profile games, one from Rockstar Games and one from Electronics Arts, hit the iOS App Store today. The most anticipated of the two is Max Payne. The third-person shooter was originally created by Remedy Entertainment for the PC, and Rockstar Games then ported it to the major gaming consoles. Now fans of the series can fire up the dark action game on their retina iPad and iPhone. The other major title is Burnout Crash from EA. This is another game in a long-standing series that was originally developed by Criterion Games. The car driving title lets you speed through cities while leaving a wake of destruction in your path. Max Payne Mobile is available for US$2.99, while Burnout Crash will set you back $4.99. Both titles are universal games that'll run on the iPhone and the iPad.Max Payne and Burnout Crash hit the iOS App Store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
The Consumer Watchdog-Consumer Reports-Ipad
A few weeks ago, Consumer Reports caused a stir when it claimed the new iPad ran twelve degrees hotter than its predecessor and reached 116 degrees. Now the consumer watchdog company is back to say the heat problem is not a cause for concern. Consumer Reports acknowledges the iPad gets warm, but says this heating only occurs under select circumstances. The group noted that the heat climbed when the device was used on full brightness while playing a graphics-heavy, CPU-intensive game. Despite the occasional heat issue, Consumer Reports gave the iPad a top rating and said it was impressed with the Retina display and the 4G LTE connectivity on Verizon. [Via Reuters]Consumer Reports puts iPad at top of the list, despite heat issue originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Thursday, 29 March 2012
The Gold Standard-Software Company-Digital Game-Steam Box-Pc Gaming
Valve, creators of (among other things) the Half-Life franchise and Steam, the gold standard for digital game distribution, are said to be getting into the hardware game. If The Verge's tip is to be believed, the company is working with partners to establish a base PC gaming standard to sell as a packaged deal, a sort of set-top box PC that would run Steam or other download services and run most PC games.If true, it would be a major step for Valve, which has always been a software company. They haven't ruled out moving into hardware, but their expertise is in software, so they're more likely to be collaborating with an established gaming PC brand like Alienware. In fact, Alienware's compact X51 system is said to have been designed with a spec like this "Steam Box" in mind. read more..
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Ipads For Kids
When it comes to talking about buying iPads for kids, I'm probably the last person to ask since I have no children. That's why it's a good thing that Wired's Brad Moon wrote a lovely post in which he explains his reasons for purchasing an iPad for each of his three children. For Moon, the decision wasn't made just because the family had moved wholeheartedly into a digital lifestyle -- replacing books with ebooks, cable with Apple TVs and streaming video, traditional photography with digital, and more. His kids are gamers and Moon saw an upgrade to a Nintendo 3DS handheld coming up. As Moon put it, "If three kids were to eventually upgrade, that's $150 each for the 3DS hardware. Cartridges run $20 to $40 apiece and I don't know about your household, but in mine there will be skirmishes over popular titles." OK, so we're now talking about a total close to the cost of a single 16 GB iPad. But Moon and his wife started thinking about the bigger picture. Their family does a lot of driving trips, and the iPad -- with its 10 hour battery life -- is perfect for keeping kids engaged and entertained. Moon notes that every time a new game came out for Nintendo, he needed to spend an average of $30 for a cartridge ... per kid. iPad games are more reasonably priced at $1 to $5, and everyone gets the game with one purchase. The iPads aren't there just for fun. Moon says that he finds many apps that are available for helping his kids learn, including math and French quiz apps. And since there's only one computer available for the Moon kids to use for homework, the individual iPads offer a great way for them to do research and take notes -- anywhere. Lest you think that all writers are loaded with cash, Moon notes that Apple's refurb store is the perfect place to find decent hardware at reasonable prices. As he mentions, a first-generation refurb was available (with a one-year warranty) for $299, and now iPad 2s are available for $399 every day. He also recommends buying the iPad(s) in lieu of other Christmas presents as a way to ease the monetary pain a bit. Have you bought iPads for the kids, or handed down a first or second-generation iPad to the young ones? Do you find that the iPad is a great investment in the future of your children? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below.On buying iPads for your kids originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Android Market-Imagination-Mobile Game-Omgpop-Ceo
Draw Something proves that if you provide an outlet for imagination, the whole world will play. One month after launch, OMGPOP's CEO tells me its Pictionary-style mobile game now has 12 million downloads, around 7.1 million daily active users, and is the #1 free and paid game on both the U.S. App Store and Android Market (Google Play). If Draw Something can hold our attention now that it's got it, the game could become the most popular thing on mobile since those disgruntled birds.To get just how ridiculously popular Draw Something as become, here's how it stacks up against the growth of Temple Run, Words With Friends, Instagram, and Pinterest: read more..
Saturday, 10 March 2012
Html5-Ios
AllThingsD reports that Spaceport.io, which makes a cross-platform gaming SDK, has tested the speed of HTML5 rendering on iOS and Android. The results show that iOS is faster by far. Spaceport used its own benchmark, called the "PerfMark," which counts the number of moving images on a screen at 30 frames per second, a rate that provides a near-native user experience. The group demonstrated that HTML5 games ran significantly faster on iOS 5 vs. the Android devices tested. Specifically, iPhone 4S scored 252 PerfMarks and the iPad 2 scored 327. In comparison, the newer Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone scored 147 and the Kindle Fire scored only 25. You'll find more details at VentureBeat. As for tablets, the iPad 2 beat every Android device it was pitted against. "HTML5 is getting faster over time, as seen in the latest OS updates across Android and iOS," said Spaceport.io founder Ben Savage. "Although this is a welcome trend, there is still a long way to go." Several companies are jumping on the HTML5 bandwagon, hoping to create a game that will run on many platforms. It will be interesting to see how the next-generation iPad, "iPad 3" if you will, would score on Spaceport's test.Report: iOS beats Android at HTML5 rendering originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Monday, 27 February 2012
Multiplayer Game-Photos Of Nature-Photo Cards-Instamatch
Are you a fan of Instagram? I often find myself taking snaps with the app, adding some special effects, and then posting them for close friends and complete strangers to enjoy. Now the folks at Tiny Hearts, the developers of the fun Pocket Zoo app I reviewed last year, have come up with Instamatch -- a US$1.99 universal iOS app (on sale for $0.99 for a limited time) released today that turns those awesome Instagram photos into a fun and challenging matching game. Instamatch is a variation on the old "Concentration" matching game that has contestants matching similar Instagram photos. There are several ways to play -- you can either select photos from your own Instagram account, in which case you match two identical copies of photos until all photos are matched, or from a selection of photos of Nature, Food, Animals, Cities, or World Wonders. With the latter, you match similar photos of the same subject, like two different photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. There's also a search mode, so you can find and match photos of just about any subject under the sun. Gallery: Instamatch To get a high score, you need to match all of the photo pairs as quickly as possible. It's also helpful to be lucky enough to match two photos without looking at them first -- the combos give you extra points that really add up. On the iPhone, the game can be played with one or two players, and there are three levels of difficulty -- Easy, with 12 photo cards; Normal, with 20 cards; and Hard, with 20 moving cards. For the iPad, up to four players can vie for the high score, and the Normal and Hard difficulty levels jump up to 30 cards. In multiplayer game play, the players take turns in succession so that a sharp-eyed player can watch for clues and then rack up extra points. There's Game Center support built into the app for shouting out your bragging rights for high Instamatch scores. I find Instamatch to be a fun time-killer. Individual games don't take that long, so it's the perfect game to play while you're waiting in a line and need to waste some time. An internet connection is required in order to grab the Instagram photos, so this isn't a game that you'd be able to play on an airplane unless it's equipped with Wi-Fi. The multiplayer game, especially on the iPad with 30 cards, throws a bit of strategy into play. The user interface is easy to understand and is beautifully designed, both of which add value to Instamatch. Especially at the 99¢ introductory price, Instamatch is a gotta-buy app for game lovers of any age.Instamatch turns Instagram into an engaging iOS game originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..