| Rovio brings on the Halloween spirit with Zombie Pigs invasions Oct 23rd 2013, 07:04, by Juan Carlos Torres It’s that time of year again for scary, spooky, and sometimes downright hilarious antics and gimmicks. And who better to bring about such foul mayhem than Angry Birds creator Rovio, whose horde of living dead swine will be creeping out from their graves into your mobile games. 
Tusk ’til Dawn is a new update to the Bad Piggies that rolled out last October 17. The title adds 30 new levels to the game featuring a bunch of Zombie Pigs in search of the King Pig’s stash of candy. The levels also feature Rovio’s official Halloween 2013 single, Shuffle & Spawn, which can also be purchased from Amazon. Here’s a short trailer of Tusk ’til Dawn’s deadly and death-defying new maps. But the undead pigs aren’t content to stay in their own world. Zombie Pigs will also be out for revenge in Angry Birds Friends starting October 23. But fear not for the brave avians as new custom slingshots with special powers will be available, for a price, of course. Slingshots can be changed per bird and will become available permanently once purchased. Here’s a peek at the Angry Birds Friends tournament, Halloween style. Outside of its games, Rovio will also be extending its claws into Angry Birds Toons with a strip called Night of the Living Pork, a comics tie-in to Tusk ’til Dawn featuring King Pig and his attempts to protect his candy from the zombies. Item collectors will also be getting a treat as Rovio makes available a vinyl edition of Shuffle & Spawn from its Angry Birds shop. SOURCE: Rovio |  | HTC suspends major manufacturing line, considers outsourcing Oct 23rd 2013, 06:16, by Juan Carlos Torres One facility in Taoyuan near Taipei sits silent and dark as HTC decided to temporarily shutter one of its four main manufacturing lines. This may be a sign of the company’s growing woes as its cash flow problems deepen and demand for its smartphones slump. 
HTC is going through rough times as it faces not only internal issues but as well as a steadily declining market share. Despite garnering positive reviews for its HTC One smartphone, demand for the company’s devices have not met expectations, leading to somewhat drastic means to keep itself afloat. Latest reports indicate that HTC has halted operations of the Building H facility, one of two production lines at Taoyuan, merging productions into the remaining TY5 facility. This effectively reduces the company’s output to 1 million smartphones a month instead of 2.5 million at that site. Sources also indicate that HTC’s Shanghai assembly lines are also out of production. The company also seems to be considering outsourcing its smartphone production as it tries to cut down on costs. The company was said to have met with a number of contract manufacturers, including FIH Mobile Ltd., a unit of popular manufacturer Foxconn. There is even talk of HTC selling its unused facilities in China and Taiwan, perhaps to generate additional revenue. While outsourcing production is not unheard of in the mobile technology business, this could still be seen as a company’s desperate measure to keep itself in the game. Of course, HTC is still keeping up a tough face, even in light of reports of CEO Peter Chou shedding of some of his duties to focus on bringing back innovation into the company. HTC Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho decline to confirm reports but says that such actions would simply be part of any manufacturer’s attempt to optimize its production. The company is quite confident in its financial stability and will share the details when it makes its earnings call to investors soon. SOURCE: Reuters, Wall Street Journal | | LG G Flex curved smartphone makes an appearance in actual photos Oct 23rd 2013, 05:42, by Juan Carlos Torres Perhaps the flood of new devices from Nokia and Apple has made you forget the latest, and somewhat strange, trend battle going on in the Android smartphone world, but LG certainly hasn’t. Now appearing for the first time are actual photos of the device maker’s own version of the curved smartphone, the LG G Flex. 
From eyewear, to timepieces, to flexible electronics, there will always be new and at times insane trends that capture manufacturers’ imagination. After smart glasses and smart watches, the next fashionable design seems to be heading towards smartphones with curved bodies, with Samsung firing the opening salvo with its Galaxy Round earlier this month. Of course, its compatriot and rival LG will not be satisfied unless it puts out something similar and at the same time different, giving birth to talk about the G Flex. While the final form of LG’s curved smartphone is almost all but confirmed, so far we’ve only been able to see diagrams or press renders at best. This time, however, we’re getting treated to a set of photos showing the actual device in someone’s hands, on someone’s desk. As expected, the G Flex curves left to right in contrast to Samsung’s smartphone. The curve isn’t so pronounced as to be very noticeable at first glance, but place it on a flat surface and watch that thing rock. There are still no exact details on the LG G Flex’s specs, but it would be no surprise if it came with exactly the same hardware as the company’s G2 flagship. It’s also still unknown if LG has some tricks that will take advantage of the smartphone’s curved body. Interested parties will just have to wait a bit longer as LG is expected to unveil the device next month, at least for Korea. SOURCE: Telefe Noticias, Federico Ini
VIA: The Verge      | |
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