birds

Amazon putting finishing touches on app store

The Android Market is about to face stiff competition in the next few weeks once the Amazon's app store goes live. In fact, the long awaited application distribution center may be the biggest competitor to the Google store, even more so than GetJar.

Earlier this week, Android users found that they could navigate their browser to amazon.com/apps where they would see a short list of apps and games. As initially discovered by AndroidNews, the Amazon store offered a few titles at prices lower than the Android Market, some as much as 40 percent less.

While most apps … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1424: BOL.xxx (podcast)

Between computer love and our frustration at Apple's capricious review-unit shenanigans, today's show ends up a tiny bit off the rails. However, in the straight dish, Kinect is the fastest-selling consumer device, Safari falls to hackers in record time, AOL has some brutal layoffs, and Discovery lands safely and is headed for the museum. Sniff. --Molly

Angry Birds celebrates St. Patrick with free update

St. Patrick's Day traditions: wearing green-colored clothes, drinking green beer, celebrating the Irish, and, now, flinging birds at pigs. (Kinda fits, don't you think?)

That's right: Rovio just rolled out a St. Patrick's Day-themed update to Angry Birds Seasons, with 15 new levels, two Golden Eggs, a "St. Paddy's Day surprise," and St. Patrick's Day greeting cards you can send to friends via Facebook.

(The above link takes you to the iPhone version. It's also available for iPad, and Android users can get the update starting tomorrow, March 11.)

The "… Read more

Angry Birds maker lands $42 million in funding

Rovio, the company behind the Angry Birds phenomenon, is suddenly flush with cash.

The company announced today that it secured $42 million in a Series A round of funding led by venture-capital firms Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures. Accel Partners is best known for investing in Facebook, Groupon, and AdMob. Atomico Ventures was started by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, who is joining Rovio's board of directors.

Rovio's success with the Angry Birds franchise has been downright impressive. The game, which lets players slingshot birds at pigs, currently has more than 40 million monthly active users and sits at … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1423: No joy in Zynga-ville (podcast)

Zynga tries to trademark the use of -ville as a suffix in everything from games (including the games it shamelessly ripped off) to clothing stores. Won't someone stop the madness? Please? Also, Goldman Sachs states from its highly compromised position that Facebook could be a credible threat to Netflix, and credulous reporters and shareholders eat it up. Plus, HP makes a SERIOUS move: putting WebOS on all new PCs. --Molly

Report: Angry Birds coming to Facebook in May

Angry Birds won't be making its way to Facebook anytime soon, a new report claims.

According to The Next Web, which says it spoke with Rovio's Peter Vesterbecka, the wildly popular game won't be available on Facebook until May, two months after it was expected to launch on the social network.

Last week, Rovio announced that Angry Birds would be coming to Facebook and said it would launch in March. Vesterbecka reportedly told The Next Web that he was "not sure how the March date got in there."

Rovio did not immediately respond to request … Read more

New ads link Angry Birds back story to Bing

A new set of advertisements portrays the bad guys in one of the most popular mobile video games as using Microsoft's search engine to do their dirty work.

Bing has sponsored four animated video advertisements that join the Angry Birds series' existing story. The ad spots feature the pigs, the villains of the game, who make use of Bing on a smartphone to search out bird eggs and have off with them. Two of those 15-second ad spots are up this morning, with the other two to be released later on down the line.

This is not the first … Read more

A camera you can sit on

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

The iPad 2 has a faster processor and updated specs.

RIM's BlackBerry Playbook is rumored to come out next month.

Nintendo 3DS gets Netflix.

Mobile editing in Google Docs now supports 45 languages.

The Olympus TOUGH TG-810 is crushproof at up to 220 pounds.

National iPad 2 day

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Apple gets ready to announce the iPad 2

Verizon's unlimited data plan will end this summer

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize

Facebook purchases a group messaging system

Lenovo shows off an eyeball-controlled laptop

Amazon threatens to shut down California affiliates based on a proposed tax law

Angry Birds St. Patrick's Day will launch March 22

St. Patrick's Day to get Angry Birds treatment

Did you know that my birthday is on St. Patrick's Day? It is; it's true. And did you know that my favorite iPhone game (though it's on other platforms now) is Angry Birds? Also true. I was hoping that Rovio, makers of the game, would continue the holiday theme it's been on lately with Angry Birds Seasons and publish a St. Pat's version of the game for my birthday. And The Unofficial Apple Weblog says that, according to Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka, it's doing just that.

Vesterbacka said the game should be "very … Read more