birds

Not to be outdone by Rovio's Halloween- and Christmas-themed Angry Birds Seasons, Chillingo just took the wraps off Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift.

That's right: Om Nom is back, still hungry for candy, and still adorable as can be. The game serves up 75 25 new levels and immediately lives up to its name. Holiday Gift is absolutely free. You don't even have to own the original.

Update: My bad. The game has 25 new levels, not 75.

Just in case you don't, Cut the Rope works like this: Little green monster Om Nom has a sweet tooth that rivals, well, mine. In each level, a piece of candy is attached to a series of ropes you slice with your finger.

To complete a level, you need to figure out which ropes to cut, and when, to swing the candy into his mouth--collecting as many stars as possible in the process.

Holiday Gift is packed with Christmassy touches, like stockings that teleport the candy from one spot to another (I won't spoil any of the others). It probably goes without saying that if you liked the first Cut the Rope, you'll love Holiday Gift.… Read more

Angry Birds for Android will soon let you pay to get rid of ads, with the currently undisclosed fee charged directly to your phone bill rather than via Google Checkout. The hugely popular game's Finnish developer, Rovio, wants other Android app makers to use its new system too.

Bad Piggy Bank--which will launch in Finland first, and globally next year--will also let players download the Mighty Eagle cheat. As TechCrunch reports, Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka said the company was "not picking on Android particularly, but I think that the payment method up to now has been less than … Read more

ATLANTA--Not many birds of a feather flocked together for Rovio's official Angry Birds Day meetup yesterday--in Atlanta at least.

Rovio promoted the event, scheduled to mark the first anniversary of the popular game for mobile devices, as a celebration of 3 trillion popped piggies and the chance for fans to meet, play, and compare scores. And while enthusiasts signed up for meetups in 65 countries, poor planning and only a couple of show-ups made the event here in Atlanta seem rather lackluster despite 28 people expressing interest on the meetup site.

Our nest ended up being a brewery just north of downtown that had recently gone through a name change, which probably added to the confusion. (My fellow Crave contributor Matt Hickey reported that no one showed up for the meetup in rainy Seattle, though New York and Los Angeles enjoyed the sight of fans in Angry Birds costumes).

Still, despite the tepid showing here in Georgia, we managed to have some finch-flinging fun. After checking in and grabbing a pint, I came across David Moore (aka Cap'nDave), a mild-mannered thirty-something who secretly moonlights as an Angry Birds enthusiast. He was eager to talk about his passion for the game, and we were comparing scores and strategies after a few minutes.

It wasn't long before he revealed the depth of his superpowers. Moore has completely beat the game with three stars on all levels, has all golden eggs, a 97 percent achievement score, and was one of the top-rated players in the area (according to the built-in leaderboards). I knew I had found the superfan I was looking for. … Read more

Angry Birds creator Rovio is ruffling its feathers and spreading its wings. At an event today touting the game's popularity, the company discussed an in-app payment system it will soon open up to all developers.

Dubbed Bad Piggy Bank, the service is designed to be a "one-touch payment" option for consumers who want to buy goods in-game. Rovio was quick to point out that no registration or credit card is required at the time of purchase. Instead, users will be billed on their monthly phone bill.

Rovio said its decision to launch Bad Piggy Bank is rooted … Read more

Chrome users are all a-twitter over Chromed Bird, the free Google Chrome extension that brings Twitter to your toolbar. It's a safe bet that most people think mobile when they tweet--smartphones, PDAs and such--but most users also access and manage their Twitter accounts from their desktops or laptops. Chrome fans will find that Chromed Bird makes Twitter even easier to use.

We downloaded and installed Chromed Bird, which placed the small Twitter-like Chromed Bird icon on our Chrome toolbar and opened its setup interface in a new tab. We signed in to our Twitter account, and Chromed Bird authorized … Read more

You can thank today's guest Natali Del Morris for the clever show title that incorporates two of Jeff's favorite things: Angry Birds and Hanukkah! Actually, only one of those statements is true.

Topics for today include the arrival of Angry Birds Seasons, Mark Zuckerberg's upcoming interview on "60 Minutes," Michael Jackson's new song release, the top searches in Yahoo Search and Microsoft Bing, a Playboy external hard drive, and a 3D porn channel launching in France. The rundown is packed today, so enjoy the show!

If you're as obsessed with Angry Birds as Wilson, you'll be happy to hear that Rovio, maker of the top-selling smartphone game, plan to release a console version for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii next year. For non-players like Natali and me, here's the gist: the video game tests your accuracy with a slingshot; it's one of the most popular smartphone games right now, with more than 36 million downloads as of November.

Even better, Rovio will also release Angry Birds 2, a follow-up to the original game that will feature more of the same characters but with even more pigs to shoot with a slingshot. No word on whether Angry Birds will support motion control on those consoles, but if you can't wait another year, the holiday expansion pack titled Angry Birds Seasons is now available for your addiction in the App Store.

It's going to be a lot harder to hide this from your partner/parents/roommates, but imagine holding 56 years of Playboy magazines loaded onto an external hard drive. That won't mean much to the kid with a hundred gigs of bootleg skinema buried in a system sub-folder, but surely some of our listeners remember analog porn and will appreciate the entire Playboy catalog in a 2.5-inch portable enclosure!

And while we're on the subject, you should also check out the FleshDrive, a similar peripheral for the more "selective" consumer, and France's new 3D on-demand porn channel.

Just after the break we wish a very happy birthday to Richard from Atlanta, who sent us this video voice mail!

If you'd like to leave a comment for the show, record a YouTube video and send the link to the404(at)cnet(dot)com! You can also leave an audio-only voicemail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638), or just shoot us a note at the404(at)cnet.com!

On today's show, NASA's announcement about training bacteria to exist on arsenic is super cool, and could lead to a great remake of "Toxic Avengers," but it's certainly not the little green men announcement we were hoping for. Plus, why the FTC's "Do Not Track" system is doomed to fail, we launch an angry Angry Birds take-down petition, and Donald "Downer" Bell buzzkills the entire show. --Molly

Everyone's favorite finch-flinging frolic is going festive for both iOS and Android devices (just try saying that five times fast after downing a glass of egg nog).

Rovio Mobile's next big update for Angry Birds, which celebrates Christmas, has been hinted at, detailed, and screenshotted, and now the company has made it official, though we don't have an exact release date yet.

Angry Birds Christmas will be free if you purchased the 99-cent Angry Birds Halloween edition for iOS devices. Rovio had initially tweeted that the Christmas title would only be coming to the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad, but today posted a message that it's flying onto Android too.

Now we're just waiting to hear if Angry Birds fans with MeeGo, WebOS, and Symbian devices will see their Yuletide cheer turn into jeer this holiday. … Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Acer unveils a dual touchscreen laptop called the Iconia

Angry Birds, the popular mobile phone game, will come to a game console near you sometime next year

The U.S. military launches its own version of YouTube called MilTube

Microsoft revamps Bing Movies

Microsoft and Southwest Airlines are bringing Santa to an airport gate near you for picture time

A new social network for readers called Copia launched this week

Facebook is close to scoring a trademark for the word "face"