Survival Lab is a fun pixelated game where dying doesn't matter

Survival Lab
In most games, dying is a bad thing. You have to start all over again, or at least revert to the last save point and lose some progress. Not so in Survival Lab: in this pixelated gem you play as a lone individual pitted against ruthless weapons in a sealed chamber. You have to run, jump and duck, collecting little yellow things (I have no idea what they're called).

For each donut-like yellow thing you pick up, you gain a bit of experience. If you manage to collect several in a row without getting hit, this counts as a combo. You can see my mad combo skills in the screenshot, of course. Collecting combos is a good thing, because a ten-point combo gives you for more experience than just collecting ten dounts one by one (getting hit in-between).

Having experience is useful, because once you die, you get to a screen where you can upgrade your skills. You can learn to run faster, double-jump (and then double-jump higher), and duck. You can also gain more armour so that getting hit won't kill you so quickly.

What makes this simple game so addictive is that when you die, your experience doesn't reset. You just go back to the same level, or another level of your choosing, and keep accumulating more and more experience. Lots of fun, especially if you're into the whole retro-gaming thing.

Survival Lab is a fun pixelated game where dying doesn't matter originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/28/survival-lab-is-a-fun-pixelated-game-where-dying-doesnt-matter/

Viktoria Barz Emma Sauter Rosemarie Ramsauer Jörn Domenighini

Engadget Distro Issue 12 -- Now with more exclusive content!

You asked and we answered. Engadget Distro Issue 12 is here, and it's full of original content. We've got not one, not two, but three never-before-published features for you this week. Michael Gorman takes you on a tour of NASA's next-gen spacecraft, Brad Molen goes behind the scenes at AT&T to reveal what it takes to make a smartphone, and analyst Ross Rubin makes his Distro debut to pose the question: What's next for the nano? This week we'll also bring you our Nokia Lumia 800 and Motorola Droid RAZR reviews and follow HotHardware's Dave Altavilla in his ascent to geekdom. And last, but certainly not least, Box Brown gives you a healthy helping of iPad 3 rumors in the Distro comic. So, pick up that iPad or hit the PDF link below and get ready for a nice long read.

Distro Issue 12 PDF
Distro on the iTunes App Store
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter

Engadget Distro Issue 12 -- Now with more exclusive content! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/11/engadget-distro-issue-12-now-with-more-exclusive-content/

Nathalie Donnerhacke Anna-Lena Baumgärtel Sabine Kinzler Frieda Falkner

Teach Your Lego Robot How To Tweet With A Dexter Industries WiFi Sensor

1-Wifi-From-Dexter-IndustriesWhen I was a wee lad, Lego were dead simple: nearly every piece was a square or a rectangle, and if you were lucky, you could split two pieces off of each other without breaking a finger. Consider my surprise then when the tinkerers over at Dexter Industries managed to create a WiFi sensor for Lego's Mindstorms NXT line of smart blocks. The Mindstorm NXT line, to be brief, is the Lego set you buy for the person in your life who's just a little too obsessed with robots. Essentially, you construct a machine out of the included plastic bits, and use the NXT Intelligent Brick to feed your creation commands and programs.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5w1m1alNmcU/

Christa Eymann Ingrid Schur Emily Trautmann Charlotte Kadelbach

Editorial: the problem with bad product names and what we can learn from it

Product names generally fall into one of four different categories: good, safe, meaningless and bad. There may be better categories to group them in, but we'll use these for the purpose of this editorial. In the first category I'd put something like Kindle, arguably one of the best new product names of the last ten years. iPhone and iPad, and their subsequent suffixed versions, are in the safe category. They're perfectly fine names for a cellphone and a tablet, but they're not as original or distinct as iMac or iPod were, which I'd consider good (iPod nano, shuffle and touch, on the other hand, are all safe names).

In the meaningless category are things like the MSI GT683DXR or ASUS XU6280, one of which I just made up. Some meaningless names can also be good in their simplicity -- like the Nokia N9 or Nikon D3S -- but they are still basically nothing more than differentiators. This is an acceptable option.

The names aren't just bad -- they're noise.

In the bad category are the majority of smartphones released in the past few years. Rezound. Rhyme. Vivid. Epic. Sensation. Thrill. Skyrocket. Conquer. Triumph. Enlighten. Infuse. Prevail. Arrive. Can you name the company behind each phone? And those are just a few examples from this year. The names aren't just bad -- they're noise. Some names might fall into a fifth, slightly murkier okay category, but there are certainly more phones (and, increasingly, tablets) in the bad category than any other, and I'd argue that's a sign of a larger problem.

Continue reading Editorial: the problem with bad product names and what we can learn from it

Editorial: the problem with bad product names and what we can learn from it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/aOfjQhysO6I/

Frederik Faulhaber Svenja Hoferichter Carola Auer Luca Liebe

Windows 8 welcome screen revealed, looks very Metro

windows 8 welcome screen
It's not really a secret the Microsoft had planned on bringing bits of Windows Phone 7's Metro UI to Windows 8, but we haven't seen a lot of really telling evidence. However, with the Windows 8 milestone 3 build now available to Microsoft Connect partners, it was really just a matter of time before we started to get a peek.

Thanks to Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, we've now had a glimpse at what the Windows 8 welcome screen will look like. As you can see, the typography is very Metro indeed. Within Windows also mentions that the background image is customizable, and we're wondering if it might not pull from your current Windows 8 theme. This particular shot shows the CTRL + ALT + DELETE login option, but we imagine you'll still be able to log in by clicking your account picture tile as well.

Rivera and Thurrott also mention that the tablet version of the welcome screen will allow you to log in by swiping a pattern on the screen -- as you can on current Android devices.

Windows 8 welcome screen revealed, looks very Metro originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/01/windows-8-welcome-screen-revealed-looks-very-metro/

Erna Van den Hout Laura Pauli Janna Löhnig Gabriela Schnee

One of the Most Important Internet Hubs in the World Is in Manhattan [Video]

Getting data that's generating these words from Gizmodo's servers to your computer, requires a vast global array of networks. And, at one point along its journey, the data will likely pass through the Ethernet switches at 60 Hudson Street, one of the most densly-packed network hubs on the Internet. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7z7w_2yaufQ/one-of-the-most-important-internet-hubs-in-the-world-is-in-manhattan

Gabriela Schnee Rita Imhof Angelika Frey Mika Bernhardt

Apple orders iCab iOS browser to cripple JavaScript modules

The developer of iCab Mobile, a feature-rich alternative to the Safari Web browser on iPad and iPhone, has been ordered by Apple to remove its ability to download and install JavaScript modules.

Presumably it's not the fact that iCab can execute JavaScript that's causing Apple to apoplectically puff and splutter, but rather its ability to download modules. Both Apple and Google frown upon apps that contain market-like functionality, and someone at Apple probably thought that iCab's JavaScript modules looked like a bit too much like discrete apps.

Alexander Clauss, iCab's developer, has rather a lot to say on the matter. "Maybe if I would have called the modules 'smart bookmarks' and would have made installing them much more complicated, Apple would have never asked to remove the ability to download them from the internet. The great user experience of installing modules has probably created a suspicion that these modules are more than just a piece of JavaScript code. From a pure technical point of view, if Apple does not allow to download modules (JavaScript code), Apple would also have to disallow to load web pages in general, because these do also contain JavaScript code."

In conclusion, to circumvent Apple's draconian decree, iCab Mobile now simply comes bundled with some 20 JavaScript modules. The ability to download modules made by third-party developers has been disabled, however -- but even then, Clauss says that you can simply contact him and ask for your module to be bundled with the next version of iCab.

Download iCab Mobile for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch ($1.99)

Apple orders iCab iOS browser to cripple JavaScript modules originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/08/apple-orders-icab-ios-browser-to-cripple-javascript-modules/

Emma Sauter Rosemarie Ramsauer Jörn Domenighini Marion Dallmeyer

Apple releases iOS 5.0.1 to the masses, includes bug fixes for battery life

With the developer build having now been out for a while, and some folks claiming to have already received the update via Apples customer care — Apple has now sent iOS 5.0.1 to the masses. You can either update over-the-air (OTA) right on your iPhone, iPad,...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/AcclETOpGjA/story01.htm

Robin Jones Ingeburg Otte Moritz Beller Gabriela Prell

Nokia Champagne handset spotted on Windows Phone app, dancing the Tango?

Has a Windows Phone app just popped the cork on a new Nokia handset? It very well may have, based on the above image. Extracted from the "I'm a WP7" app and first identified by the folks over at WP Central, this screenshot purports to reveal a Nokia device codenamed "Champagne" -- a rather delectable moniker that, until now, wasn't even on our radar. At this point, little else is known about this mystery phone, though according to WP Central, it's running Windows Phone 7.10.8711 -- suggesting, perhaps, the presence of Tango, the Mango successor for low-end devices. Could this be a mythical, LTE-equipped Lumia 900 / Ace handset for Verizon Wireless? Could we see it at this year's CES? Only time will tell, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear more.

Nokia Champagne handset spotted on Windows Phone app, dancing the Tango? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/11/nokia-champagne-handset-spotted-on-windows-phone-app-dancing-th/

Margarethe Lachner Lutz Yalcin Birte Höß Kerstin Klos

BattlePaint is an addictive geometric shooter game

battlepaint
In BattlePaint, you play a cube. In fact, you're not even a cube -- just a square. But boy, are you fast! And you can shoot in all directions. That's important, because there are baddies coming in from all over the place.

The "baddies" are swarms of other squares, in all sorts of pretty colors. They track you all over the screen, and you run around very quickly and just shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. If that doesn't sound very emotionally deep, it's because it isn't. But it's fun!

After you shoot a baddy, it splashes paint as it disappears. You need to skate across this blob of paint and "eat it up" to get points. This game is fast. It clocked in at around 60-70 FPS on my system, and was loads of fun to play. It does tend to insult you when you die, though, but don't be offended -- I don't think it's personal.

BattlePaint is an addictive geometric shooter game originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/09/battlepaint-is-an-addictive-geometric-shooter-game/

Svenja Hoferichter Carola Auer Luca Liebe Finja Kerkhoff