Cueboy Quest is an adorable 8-bit style physics game

cueboyquest
Yes, that's right, I said adorable. Because Cueboy Quest really is!

You play an 8-bit cowboy whose goal on each level is to get to the door (and thus to the next level), but the door is often locked. To get it to open, you must shoot at one or more targets, and those targets aren't always in your line of sight. For example, on one level the the target is a balloon which is stuck all the way at the other end of the screen. You must first nudge it free, and then watch it float up and try to shoot it before it floats clear off the screen. Your bullets are chunky pixels that have some weight - the have arcing trajectories, so you don't always hit exactly where you aim.

There's another level where you must jump on the balloon as it floats up, use it as a platform to get to the other end of the screen, and then turn to shoot it very quickly before it flies away. Each level is very short, and most of them are quite easy. And not only are the graphics 8-bit blocky, but they're large too. Simply beautiful!

Cueboy Quest is an adorable 8-bit style physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/22/cueboy-quest-is-an-adorable-8-bit-style-physics-game/

Ingrid Schur Emily Trautmann Charlotte Kadelbach Hugo Ruß

Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5%

Firefox 4 usage share graph
Using some early numbers from both StatCounter and Net Applications, Mozilla's noisiest hominid, Asa Dotzler, has illustrated Firefox 4's meteoric rise to around 5% of Web browser global usage share. Internet Explorer 9, which launched two weeks ago, seems to be enjoying a much more casual stroll in the park with just 1.5% of the global Web usage share.

Interestingly, we can see IE9 dipping between March 20 and 21, just before the 'Important' Windows Update rolled out. It's hard to say whether IE9 is only growing because of the installed-by-default Windows Update, but that small dip definitely sticks out -- did excitement peter out? Did people download IE9, try it out, and summarily uninstall it? Perhaps, given their close proximity, the stats show an attention shift from Microsoft to Mozilla?

Numbers-wise, if the bottom left corner of the graph shows 2.3 million downloads for IE9, we can guesstimate that that it has now been downloaded 5 million times. Firefox is clocking in at 37 million downloads after five days of public availability.

We wonder whether Microsoft knew its release schedule would coincide so closely with Firefox 4. Internet Explorer 9 -- a great browser by almost every metric -- was never going to do well against anything emanating from the maws of Mozilla. The main thing, though, is that Microsoft has now shown that it's serious when it comes to the Open Web. If Internet Explorer 10 is good, and 11 and 12, then we might finally see it compete with the zealous Mozillan horde.

Firefox 4 rockets to 5% global usage share, IE9 wallows at 1.5% originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/firefox-4-rockets-to-5-global-usage-share-ie9-wallows-at-1-5/

Christa Eymann Ingrid Schur Emily Trautmann Charlotte Kadelbach

Apple Unleashes the Lion and Electrifies the Air

Apple released its long-awaited Mac OS X Lion operating system Wednesday, together with a lineup of new MacBook Airs, a refresh to the Mac mini line, and the world's first display using the next-generation Thunderbolt port. Thunderbolt technology will offer up to 10 Gbps of access speed in each direction simultaneously over one cable.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72909.html

Hugo Ruß Edith Hupertz Heinrich Peller Viktoria Barz

The First Netflix-Certified Android Tablets [Tablets]

Lenovo's got three new slates today, and they're going for a scattershot. The IdeaPad K1 is the first Android tablet "certified for Netflix"; the ThinkPad offers a biz-oriented dock (also, Netflix); and the IdeaPad P1. Which, uh, runs Windows 7. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/NLX5Fzicp4s/the-first-android-tablets-that-play-netflix

Benjamin Schötz Johannes Liebl Arne Koller Fiona Brandenburg

Motorola Droid X2 sees its first custom ROM

MinimalX for the Droid X2

Android developer c21johnson has worked up a custom ROM for the Motorola Droid X2.  Minimal X, currently in a beta-release stage, is the first available custom ROM for the X2, which still has a locked bootloader.  Goes to show that keeping phones locked down won't stop dedicated people from hacking at them, and it a huge waste of resources, and I'll stop there before I go off on a whole 'nother tangent.

The ROM itself has been cleared of any useless bloat, and the system and framework have been edited.  As the developer mentions, this makes a great base for some more exotic work to be cooked from, and we expect to see it soon.  Of course you'll have to have root, and ignore the drama and use the bootstrap utility that is floating around out there to install.  Looks like the X2 is following in its older brother's footsteps and has turned out to be a capable, and hackable, piece of gear.  Congrats c21johnson.

Source: XDA-DevelopersThanks, Alexander!


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Ce_X2KskrSs/motorola-droid-x2-see-its-first-custom-rom

Dieter Schreiter Monika Kley Heidemarie Frick Maike Beetz

In-app payment support arrives on Android

Right on cue, Google has launched in-app payment support for Android applications. Developer testing began last week, and now many popular apps -- like the ones pictured above -- can begin charging users for add-on functionality, content, or whatever the heck else they feel is worthy of additional bits of your pocket change. If you were wondering, Google will take the same 30% cut that Apple takes from in-app purchases.

At last we can buy individual issues in Comics with minimal fuss!

In-app payment support arrives on Android originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/in-app-payment-support-arrives-on-android/

Arno Zimmerling Jacqueline Kiesel Michel Rohr Hilde Baaden

Google Sweetens the Android Pot With Honeycomb 3.2 SDK

Google Friday announced Android 3.2 and released updated software development kit tools for the platform. Android 3.2 is an incremental release that adds several new capabilities for both users and developers, the Internet giant said. It includes changes to the application programming interface and is optimized for a wider range of tablets than the original Android 3.0 release.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72895.html

Charlotte Kadelbach Hugo Ruß Edith Hupertz Heinrich Peller

CM Storm Sirus gaming headset hands-on

CM Storm Sirus gaming headset hands-on
CM Storm -- Cooler Master's gaming-centric spinoff -- is best known for PC cases, precision mouse-pads, and PC gaming mice with catchy names like "Inferno," and "Sentinel." There's more to PC games than computer towers and input devices however, and CM Storm is ready to try its hand at the personal audio game. Enter the CM Storm Sirus, the outfit's first foray into the world of gaming headsets, available today to the tune of $130. We strapped a pair of these 'muffs to our noggin to give you our honest impressions, ears-on.

Continue reading CM Storm Sirus gaming headset hands-on

CM Storm Sirus gaming headset hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/19/cm-storm-sirus-gaming-headset-hands-on/

Hanna Wohlrab Henrik Brenner Karla Reusch Wilhelm Klassen

Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons

dodge
Space-shooters are usually a fairly fiery affair, with many types of guns, weapon upgrades, power-ups and more. Dodge does away with all of that, while keeping the very essence of a space shooter: Dark background, fast action, and stuff blowing up all over the place.

Your vector-looking spacecraft is the fastest thing on the screen, most of the time. And as the header implies, you have absolutely no weapons; you can't get any, either. All you have is agility and maneuverability.

Your opponents shoot heat-seeking missiles at you; the missiles lock on and start tracking you. The trick is to dodge the missiles while putting them in the path of one of your enemies, thus letting them have a taste of their own medicine.

There are three types of enemies, at least in the first few levels: "simple" spaceships which fire slow projectiles, "tanks" which seem to be more serious and take more hits to destroy, and "circles." The circles simply explode, spewing twenty or thirty very fast projectiles. This sounds dangerous, but is actually great once you learn to use them; they are very destructive for tanks, and can even blow up other circles.

The soundtrack is very techno, but it meshes very well with this type of game. Intense fun!

Dodge is a space-shooter in which you have no weapons originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/01/dodge-is-a-space-shooter-in-which-you-have-no-weapons/

Annika Schäffer Edgar Betz Antonia Koppe Gertrud Hölzl

Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5

torus
As far as Tetris goes, most variations look quite similar. You're usually looking at a "wall" of bricks directly from the front. Torus takes that notion and throws it away; as you might have guessed from the name (or screenshot), this Tetris clone is played on a ring-like 3D surface.

You rotate the ring itself with the arrow keys, while a Tetris-like piece slowly (excruciatingly slowly, in fact) descends from the top. As soon as you make a solid line, it disappears.

Not all pieces are Tetris-like; some of them wouldn't really work with a regular Tetris game but are a good fit for Torus' 3D format.

Torus is ideal for playing at the office, because it has absolutely no soundtrack. The game is dead-quiet. It's also very very slow (slow enough for me to mention it twice in one post) so you can safely look away for a moment and then keep playing. Also, as soon as the game loses focus, it automatically pauses.

Bottom line: It's an impressive demo of the power of HTML5; if it were a bit faster, it would have some serious addictive potential.

Torus is an impressive 3D Tetris game powered by HTML5 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/17/torus-is-an-impressive-3d-tetris-game-powered-by-html5/

Franziska Spanier Erna Van den Hout Laura Pauli Janna Löhnig