bird

We're back again with another episode of The 404 Podcast, and for once, Wilson is pissed. It seems the only thing he cares about these days is Angry Birds. Rovio Mobile, creator of the addictive game is introducing a new character into the fold that can be purchased to get players through some of the more difficult levels in the game.

The Mighty Eagle can be purchased in gameplay, but Wilson considers the all-powerful bird an unnecessary cheat that almost ruins the fun of accomplishing an otherwise difficult, but entertaining goal.

For those who play the game, the Mighty Eagle is basically a God-mode trick that lets you clear any one level instantly. Check out Rovio's Mighty Eagle video and judge for yourself.

Moving on to more serious(ly obvious) news, stop using FourSquare and Facebook Places to broadcast your extended absence from home! The recent scourge of location-based check-in services like Facebook, FourSquare, and Twitter are a burglar's dream come true, and that's exactly what a ring of three techy criminals used to rob 18+ homes in New Hampshire.

Fortunately for the homeowners, the criminals were even bigger idiots than the posters- they stole a large amount of fireworks from one of the homes, so police were advised to listen for loud noises around the neighborhood. Sure enough, the criminals couldn't resist lighting off a few explosions, and an off-duty officer pounced on the scene and apprehended the men. The moral of the story, if it weren't clear enough by now, is think before you post, dummy.

So Chattanooga has the fastest Internet in the country now, but nobody really cares except Wilson, so we move onto the next story, a compelling question: Are action video gamers better decision makers?

Researchers at the University of Rochester claim that gamers (of first person shooters) possess extrasensitive "probabilistic inference" qualities that stem from long hours of wandering around deep level mazes and making mundane navigation decisions. So everyone can sleep soundly knowing that there are plenty of folks walking around with exception abilities to make decisions on their aggressive tendencies.

There's a few more stories in today's show rundown, not to mention a bromantic Calls From the Public and more thoughts on the New Jersey Transit quiet cars we brought to your attention yesterday. Great show today!

LONDON--The creator of the popular Angry Birds game for mobile devices is adding a new character--and new profit-making potential along with it.

Rovio Mobile currently offers a limited free version of the game and a constant series of new levels to those who pay for Angry Birds. The new character, an all-powerful bird called the Mighty Eagle, can be bought within the application when players want to blast their way through a level they can't pass with the conventional arsenal, said Rovio CEO Mikael Hed, speaking here at the Nokia World conference.

That means even those who've paid … Read more

Editors' note: When we tested Angry Birds with the HTC Evo running Android version 2.2, the game continually crashed at the title screen. After asking around CNET's New York office, we found that every Evo owner experienced the same bug. Early reports online also confirm the issue.

Stand by Android owners, as you'll be able to get your fix of evil pig-killing suicidal flying birds starting today.

In a blog post, Angry Birds developer Rovio revealed that Angry Birds Lite Beta would be available for anybody to download today. The creators were originally planning to run a … Read more

Facebook is about to get a whole lot creepier. A small group of users are beta-testing a new "subscribe" button located under users' profile pictures that could make Facebook stalking as simple as a single click.

The button is a lot like "following" someone on Twitter and here's how it works: If you click the "subscribe" button, all of that user's activities, from new pictures to status updates to videos and links, will show up in your notifications. Few details have been released so far, but we're interested in knowing if the service will show you who's stalking your profile or if you can subscribe to non-friends, which would take the creep factor up to a solid 10.

Moving on to another creepy story, a school zone in West Vancouver is testing a rather extreme measure to force drivers to slow down in their vehicles.

The experiment places a 3D hologram of a young girl chasing a ball in the middle of the street that drivers will see about 100 feet away, giving them plenty of time to slow down...or have a heart attack and veer off the road. We can see the utility in a 3D cop on the side of the road or a flashing light to alert drivers entering school zones, but this is a little nuts.

To Jeff's delight and Wilson's girlfriend's dislike, Angry Birds is now available on the Android operating system. Granted, it's a "Lite" version in beta and many users (including Jeff) are experiencing random restarts and freezes, but it should tie over your addiction until the official version finally drops. For all the iPhone players out there, don't forget that the Angry Birds Expansion Pack is also available.

Finally, we have a handful of voicemail messages that we haven't gotten to play all week, and today's batch inquires about the infamous "Cheese Stands Alone" episode, voicemail phone numbers, and a rare appearance from everyone's favorite Verbose Asian Guy! Set it on repeat, guys--it ain't happening again! :)

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, chances are you would have come across the game Angry Birds. Aside from the news that the game is now available on Palm's WebOS, Angry Birds is also starting to rear its head (beak?) in real life.

First up, a fan named Laura made a tabletop game dubbed Angry Birds Live. This consisted of a cardboard box tower complete with pigs and various balls painted to look like the birds in the game. Laura even made accompanying slingshots, though she admitted she doesn't really use them, instead choosing to throw … Read more

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and you're not yet playing Angry Birds, you don't know what you're missing.

Angry Birds, which has been downloaded more than 5 million times via iTunes, is a game in which you play an army of titular birds angry at an enemy army of green pigs that have stolen all your eggs. They've made up structures to hide behind, which you destroy by flinging super-powered birds at them, knocking down their walls.

The game is far and away one of the most fun games on the platform. … Read more

Fragger takes the concept of hit-game Angry Birds and adds a special-ops spin by instead having you toss grenades into structures that house enemy soldiers. Even with its similarity to the Angry Birds game mechanic, Fragger manages to offer enough variation in levels and enough of a graphical detachment from the popular game to make it both fun and addictive.

What separates Fragger from Angry Birds is the need to make highly precise shots in certain situations. Sometimes you'll need to bank grenades off of walls to drop them into a bunker, while other times the grenade will serve … Read more

… Read more

One of the big iPhone news items this week revolved around an app I wrote about in the June 11 edition of iPhone apps of the week. Apparently, Taptaptap, developer of Camera+ (not currently available at the App Store) recently added a feature called "VolumeSnap" that would allow users to snap pictures using the iPhone volume controls on the side of the device. Apple pulled Camera+ from the iTunes App Store saying the app violated Apple's developer agreement terms by using one of the main iPhone controls in a "non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion."

I suppose it makes sense to keep things consistent, and of course Apple has the last say in these matters, but I have to agree with the idea that tapping the screen isn't an ideal way to snap pictures. Just about every time you take a picture with an iPhone you're holding it unsteadily in your hand and pressing the screen only moves the iPhone more, sometimes resulting in blurry shots.

Am I asking for another button on the iPhone? I wouldn't go that far, but now that the iPhone 4 has upped the ante with a 5-megapixel camera, it just might be the kind of thing Apple needs to consider. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

This week's apps include a free photography app that makes it easy to share your photos and a demolition type game that offers a unique twist on other popular games in the iTunes App Store.… Read more