Humble Bundle: Android games for the price of… whatever you want? Posted: 31 Jan 2012 01:47 PM PST We like games, and we like to be able to afford games. Sometimes purchasing game after game can burn a hole in your pocket. Humble Bundle has been a great solution for affordable gaming before. But this is the first time Humble Bundle has hit the Android platform. The bundle offers 3 (4 if you pay more) cross-platform games. This means you could play the games directly from your Windows (via Steam), Mac or Linux computer. And you can choose how much you pay for them. The included games are Anomaly, Osmos and Edge. If you pay more than the “average” you also get World of Goo. The average is currently at about $5.27. It will be going up, so hurry up and get it while it’s still cheap! Anomaly: This game was recently released, so it’s definitely a good deal. It’s basically a “tower offense” game, where you fight through a field against enemy towers. Osmos: This is a very peaceful and relaxing game. The new age music soothes you into the zone. As a molecule, your objective is to become bigger by absorbing smaller molecules and avoiding bigger ones. (Highly recommended by Taylor). Edge: This game is a bit of a trip. You basically navigate a cube in an animated field. The field moves and changes as the game gets more complicated. World of Goo: Most of you probably know this one by now. It’s a bit of a surreal physics/building puzzle game. You can use globs of goo to build all sorts of things, like bridges, structures and even cannon balls. Not only is this an affordable bundle for all the gamers out there, but customers would also be helping out with Child’s Play Charity. When purchasing, you have the option to divide your payment as you wish between the developers, charity and what they call a “Humble Tip.” Humble Tips go straight to Humble Bundle, Inc. Not only can you name your own price, but you can divide your payment to most benefit whoever you see fit. If you’re looking to purchase some games for your spare time, this deal is quite the no-brainer. Go ahead and purchase the bundle straight from their site, and try to support with whatever you can! Who’s getting this Humble Bundle? Have you guys enjoyed these deals before? Let us know what you think, and excuse me, as I will be playing these games for a while.

To pirate, or not to pirate… that is Rovio CEO’s question Posted: 31 Jan 2012 11:35 AM PST We’ve seen the battles the music industry has fought against piracy. Surely, it is a gruesome war, and it not only happens with music. Piracy exists within all content and products; we see it very often in the Android ecosystem. We tend to look down on it, as it is considered stealing. But is it always a bad thing? Rovio CEO Mikael Hed does not think so. We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy.Mikael HedRovio CEO There’s no doubt that the Angry Birds creators would prefer customers buy apps and products legally. But they simply don’t believe it’s worth the millions of dollars and effort to fight against it. Mikael Hed made a rather controversial appearance at the Midem music industry conference in Cannes, talking about how badly the music industry has handled this business. Piracy may not be a bad thing; it can get us more business at the end of the day.Mikael HedRovio CEO In fact, Mikael claims Rovio sees the court route as a pointless solution, with the exception of times when pirated products are harmful to Rovio. But if such unofficial products are not harming the company’s image, Hed mentions it could work as a booster to create a bigger fan base. The idea seems weird, but look at it as “free advertisement” and it should make more sense. The company may not be making any money from pirated products, but more people playing and more people having Angry Birds plushies will make more people aware of the product. This creates a fan base that will help Rovio earn profit in the future. We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have. If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow.Mikael HedRovio CEO Undoubtedly, Rovio has a much different business than the music industry. We’re sure it hasn’t lost as much money, either. But this philosophy may be the answer for many companies out there, because we’re also sure Rovio hasn’t spent even a third of the money music labels have trying to fight piracy. Mikael Hed mentions that they are in fact trying to avoid piracy in other ways. For example, as you may have noticed, they use their own apps as a channel to their store. This might drive more legitimate sells in the future. But they have found a way to use the “bad boys” to their advantage. As for pirating, we suppose you can feel a bit less guilty if you’ve ever illegally downloaded a Rovio app. But we’re not condoning any type of piracy. These guys work hard at what they do, and we believe they deserve the few bucks they ask for. We often see a reverse psychology effect. For example, I tend to be much more dedicated to any assignments when I know the assigner is a bit more open, because there’s some kind of bond created — like a thankful appreciation. That responsibility to do right, because you’ve been treated right. This could be something that Rovio takes seriously. What do you guys think? Should more companies adopt this philosophy? Would it simply bring more chaos?

Nexus S 4G one step closer to official Android 4.0.4 update Posted: 31 Jan 2012 09:35 AM PST If you own the Sprint Nexus S 4G and are waiting on the official update to Android 4.0, then we have some good news for you. A new internal testing ROM was just spotted on Google’s servers that updates the Nexus S 4G to Android version 4.0.4, build number IMM26. The file was quickly pulled after it was spotted, but if you are adventurous you can head over to xda-developers and grab a mirrored copy. I’d normally post a guide with instructions for the manual update, but since the official file has been removed from Google’s servers we just suggest the average user wait it out. Reports suggest that this version was signed with release keys, which likely means it’s we will see the official update in the coming weeks. I’ve been using Android 4.0 on my T-Mobile Nexus S that I gave to a family member and its been running great so far. If you try out this leaked software on your Sprint Nexus S 4G, let us know how it performed in the comments below.

HTC’s thinnest Android phone captured on video Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:34 AM PST Want to catch a glimpse of HTC’s thinnest Android smartphone ahead of Mobile World Congress? A YouTube video just appeared online which reveals the HTC Ville, a device that is rumored to feature a metal unibody design under 8mm thick. Additional details that have been leaked so far include Android 4.0, Sense 4.0, 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 8 MP rear camera, VGA front camera, HSPA+, Bluetooh 4.0, and a 1,650 mAh battery. The dual-core Snapdragon S4 will feature Qualcomm's new Krait CPU core that offers a 60% performance increase compared to the existing Scorpion micro-architecture found in the Snapdragon S1, S2, and S3. A new Adreno 225 GPU will also provide 50% faster graphics performance. In the video we can see the performance lags quite a bit, but this is pre-production software. Hopefully HTC can achieve the same smooth performance that we have seen on the Transformer Prime. HTC is scheduled to hold their MWC press conference on February 26th at 8:30 PM (Barcelona Time) and we will be on-site to check out whatever they announce. Be on the lookout for more details over the coming weeks. Update: The video has been pulled at the request of HTC. We saved a copy, but don’t want to piss off HTC by re-uploading it. A screen capture can be seen below.