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Super Bowl ad to contain hidden Angry Birds level code
If you're just hanging out playing Angry Birds in the living room while the Super Bowl is on, be sure to look up while the commercial for the animated film Rio is playing. Hidden in the ad will be a code for a downloadable Angry Birds levels (though it's not been specified if it will be compatible with all versions of the game.) Users who find the code in the ad (which will be available on YouTube later), and then complete the level will be entered to win a trip to the March 22 premiere of Rio -- the same day the Angry Birds Rio promotional game is released. No details about the level itself have been released, but we can confirm it involves slingshotted spheroid birds launched at rickety structures.
Angry Birds doing a movie tie-in as well
Hot on the heels of the announcement that Doodle Jump will be working with Universal to promote the upcoming Hop movie, Angry Birds developer Rovio Mobile confirmed it will be producing a new version of Angry Birds set in Rio. This new version will be used to promote the upcoming movie Rio, which is being produced by 20th Century Fox and developed by the folks behind the popular Ice Age series of animated children's movies. The movie will follow the adventures of two blue macaws, Blu and Jewel, who will also star in the new Angry Birds game. The amusing trailer for the game is included after the break and is worth a look for Angry Birds fans. The game will debut in March and will feature 45 new levels with additional levels available via app updates. This move by Rovio is yet another example of Hollywood eyeing the iOS platform for promotion and profits. This trend was kicked off in a big way when Disney acquired Tapulous, the developer of the popular Tap Tap series of games, and this is probably far from the last we'll see of it. You can check out the movie trailer after the jump. [Via touchArcade]
Best App Ever winners announced, Angry Birds wins big
148Apps' own Jeff Scott just handed me an actual piece of paper here in the Macworld press room, and on it there are all of the Best App Ever winners listed. You can read the full list online in PDF form, but we'll spoil a few of them for you. Best App Ever for 2010? None other than a little app you may have heard of called Angry Birds. Sure, it's not a choice too far off the reservation, but you have to admit that in terms of exposure and playtime, there was no real equal. Chillingo and Clickgamer also walked away with the most wins -- Angry Birds showed up on the list seven times in its various forms, and Cut the Rope also nabbed an award for Best Puzzle Game. Flipboard is the most award-winning non-game app of the bunch, picking up three awards, including Most Innovative App and Best Visual Design on the iPad. And Spacetime Studios' Pocket Legends, a full-featured iOS MMO that has received relatively little press so far, picked up three wins as well. There are lots and lots and lots of excellent apps in the various awards and their runner-ups and honorable mentions -- it's been a terrific year for the App Store, and in its third year running, the Best App Ever awards are a great indicator of what's popular and well-made out there.
Angry Birds: The Slingshot
We don't mean to boar you or sowned like we're swining, but somebody is totally going to shoot their eye out.
Kinect hacks: Playing Angry Birds
You might have heard of KinEmote, software that allows users to control their PCs using Kinect. Previously, we've seen it used to control Boxee and XMBC, but now the folks at KinEmote.net have found a much better use for it: Angry Birds. The setup uses a wireless controller for button inputs and tracks the player's hand for mouse functions. See it in action after the break.
The best Angry Birds birthday cake ever
Although some of the staff here at TUAW have managed to avoid succumbing to the addictive wiles of Angry Birds, many of us have spent countless hours lobbing angry birds at pigs. Readers often send us pictures of Angry Birds birthday cakes, food, clothing, Halloween costumes, and other items showing that they have spent way too much time with the game. With the Angry Birds fever showing no signs of abating, most of these missives end up in our trash can, but one today was so incredible that we had to show you. TUAW reader Adam Riggins recently turned 31, and his girlfriend Melanie decided to treat Adam with an awesome Angry Birds cake. The attention to detail, as seen in the gallery Adam has posted, is incredible. Adam said that under that fun exterior was a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cake. His comment about Melanie? "She's a keeper." We agree wholeheartedly. Watch out, Duff Goldman; there's a new ace in town!
Angry Birds knocked from Top Free perch by Bubble Ball, made by an eighth grader
If ever there was proof that neither we, the wise sages of Joystiq, or you, the savvy consumers of video game-dom, can ever hope to fully understand the delicate balance of the iPhone App Store ecosystem, this is it: The holiday-themed Angry Birds Seasons Free has been knocked from its perch atop the Top Free Games category by ... Bubble Ball. Which was developed by an eighth grader. Young Robert Nay from Utah developed the game with his mother using the Corona SDK from Ansca Mobile. Making its debut less than three weeks ago, Bubble Ball has been downloaded over 1.5 million times, sending it to the top of the iTunes App Store, and dropping Angry Birds a pitiful three spots to number four. Of course, Angry Birds classic is still the Top Paid game, so it's hard to get too choked up. Speaking of getting paid, the Corona SDK doesn't yet support in-app purchases, so the Nays will have to be content with the knowledge that their creation is bringing joy to hundreds of thousands of bored public commuters (not to mention adding a meaty bullet point to a certain someone's college application). For comparison, take a moment to reflect on how you spent your eighth grade year and then drown your sorrows in some Bubble Ball.
Angry Birds board game coming this May from Mattel
Here's one of CES 2011's less technical, but most awesome, revelations: Mattel is working on a board game adaptation of Rovio's mobile hit, Angry Birds. The game looks like a pretty authentic recreation of its source material; players draw "Mission Cards" depicting structures of bricks and pigs, which they then build using plastic models included in the game. Oh, and then they shoot birds at those structures using a tiny slingshot. That part is pretty integral to the whole experience, apparently. The game will cost $14.99 when it launches worldwide this May. Even if you don't want the board game, $14.99 is a perfectly reasonable price for a tiny catapult. Just think of all the tiny things you can terrorize with a catapult of that size!
Hackers claim to find Mac App Store loophole, pirating Angry Birds
Much like a gaggle of proud seamen, christening the bow of a shiny new ocean liner with a bottle of their most decadent champagne, the computer software pirating community has welcomed the Mac App Store into this world by reportedly discovering loopholes which allow them to plunder its wares for free. According to BBC News, one such loophole -- which only works on certain Apps and includes mobile darling Angry Birds -- simply requires the user to copy and paste the application's in-store purchase code. Why, that doesn't sound very difficult at all. A group of hackers by the collective name of Hackulous also reported to BBC News that its developed a piece of software titled Kickback which can break the copy protection on any App on the store. A representative from the group told BBC, "We're not going to release Kickback until well after the store's been established," as they "don't want to devalue applications and frustrate developers."
Mac App Store live, with Angry Birds topping charts
Apple's Mac App Store has arrived right on time via the Snow Leopard 10.6.6 update, opening up a version of the ludicrously lucrative iOS storefront for Mac desktop and laptop users to peruse. The Store is accessed through its own application (separate from iTunes), but purchases and downloads are tied to an Apple ID, and any credit from iTunes is seamlessly applied to the Mac App Store upon logging in. The Mac App Store is as impeccably tidy as the iOS Store -- it's organized just the same -- and accessing the Games category is just a few clicks away. As of writing, there are 98 games listed in the "Top Paid" ranking (which shows up to 100), led, unsurprisingly, by a $5 (50 percent off "introductory price") version of Angry Birds. In fact, Rovio's phenomenon leads all Mac App Store sales, currently, and is joined by Chopper 2 ($1), Flight Control HD ($5) and The Incident ($3) among the top-ten bestselling apps. No Halo in sight, yet.
Angry Birds bombard PSN Minis today
Say you're on a trip. Your cell phone dies. You need to play Angry Birds. Well, following today's PSN update, you'll be able to carry a backup version of Rovio's runaway hit with you at all times -- on your PSP (you take that everywhere, right?). Of course, if you're at home and get tired of squinting at a portable screen, the Minis release will run on your PS3, which should be easier on the eyes ... as long as your TV isn't a 3-inch LCD. Final pricing for the Minis version of Angry Birds will be revealed once the next PSN update goes live later tonight, but it should be only a few bucks. If you're in China and don't want to wait for the PlayStation Store update, stop by Guangzhou province and play the most realistic (and thoroughly unlicensed) game of Angry Birds ever.
Angry Birds gets real... corporeal (in China, at least)
Let's be honest: you can never get enough of Angry Birds, but for those wandering around Guangzhou, China, you might be able to get your fix at this arcade booth. Like the game itself, there's an actual slingshot for firing your enraged fowls at a bunch of plush doll piggies, except there are no special abilities like explosion or splitting -- maybe the next version will take care of that, unless Rovio Mobile decides it's game over for these guys.
Angry Birds creators: Apple still does mobile apps best
In a recent interview, Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio (the makers, if you haven't heard by now, of Angry Birds) says that from a developer viewpoint, Apple is the platform to go with. "They have gotten so many things right," says Vesterbacka, "and they know what they are doing and they call the shots." He says that Android's issue isn't so much about device fragmentation as it is "ecosystem fragmentation" -- by spreading itself out so much, Google's smartphone OS has "so many different shops, so many different models" running that it's tough for developers to find their own place in all of the chaos. Vesterbacka also makes the point that much of the Angry Birds success has come simply from marketing. His two steps to succeeding on the App Store are first to "create a great app," and then to "get the message out." He repeats that a few times -- Angry Birds itself is definitely a solid game, but part of the reason that Rovio enjoys such success is their effective marketing and reaching the people who are interested in buying their game. You can watch the full video of Vesterbacka's interview with Google after the break. Personally, I think a lot of the success that Angry Birds has had is a "right time, right place" kind of thing. That's not to take anything away from Vesterbacka and Rovio -- his insights are certainly dead-on and he clearly knows what he's doing, and the company deserves all of the success it has earned. But with a platform as big as the iPhone, there was bound to be a killer app at some point, and Angry Birds is definitely one of those. [via 9to5Mac]
The best iOS apps I used in 2010
After looking back over Mac and Mac/iOS hybrid apps, it's time to look at the best iOS apps of 2010. As before, this list comes from my particular experience over the past year with these apps. 1) iCab Mobile (US$1.99, universal) is a replacement for mobile Safari. While it is hindered by the fact that iOS doesn't have anywhere to set a "default browser," and therefore most URLs that you open from the Springboard or email/Twitter/etc... will open in Safari, iCab offers plenty of features that make it worth the effort. It is the first app on my dock, and I much prefer it over Safari. Although it uses the same rendering engine as Safari, it comes with a host of features that Safari doesn't have. iCab Mobile will let you download files, which you can either offload to your computer later or upload to Dropbox from right within the app. Tap and hold an image, and you can save it right to your Dropbox. iCab on the iPad also does "real" tabs, with a visible tab present (it will auto-hide when not needed, if you want). You can set it to open links in new tabs, or open only links to different domains in new tabs. It has content filtering built-in, as well as module support for things like Instapaper, viewing HTML source or even downloading videos from YouTube. It also has a forms manager and a kiosk mode, and as Mike pointed out in November it supports VGA mirroring for presentation use. Web browsing is one of the primary uses of my iPad, and iCab Mobile is well worth the minimal asking price. Find out more at iCab Mobile's website. See the rest of my choices below.
TUAW's Daily App: Burn the Rope
This isn't an iOS port of the great Flash game You Have To Burn the Rope, though an upgraded version of that would be nice to have. Instead, this one is a pretty inventive puzzle title by a company called Big Blue Bubble. The idea is that you touch anywhere along a rope to start up a flame, and then you have to keep that flame burning by tilting your iPhone so that the fire always burns up. It works really well as a physics puzzle game, and each level has certain percentage goals of the rope to burn (and later there are enemies to burn through as well), and whenever your flame splits off at different intersections, you need to watch each side of the flame and make sure it has vertical room to grow. Getting through the levels is not that hard, but burning everything on the screen is both challenging and fun (when you can actually do it). It's a really inventive game. Something only possible on the iPhone, it takes a nice different angle and just iterates on it, similar to popular games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope. That iteration lasts over 80 levels, and the developers promise even more to come. There's no Game Center integration, unfortunately, but there is a silly theme song, and all of those levels make for quite a bit of game. As of this writing, the game is on sale for a buck, but I think it's worth it even for a few bucks. It's too bad there's no lite version to try out, because the concept really is original. But if you like puzzlers like Cut the Rope and Zen Bound, this one will probably scratch that same itch.
Just got an Android phone? The best apps, accessories, and tips
Taking a smartphone out of the box for the first time can elicit a wide spectrum of emotions, starting with unadulterated excitement that can quickly devolve into panic, chaos, and confusion: what do you do now? How do you make it awesome? How do you emanate an air of "cool" on the subway by using apps specifically designed to make you look like a badass? Well, fear not, newly-minted Android smartphone owner: as always, we've got your back. Read on for all the apps, accessories, and tips you should be investigating right this very second.
Alan Wake, Mass Effect 2 and Limbo among Time's best games of 2010
In collating the top ten of everything in 2010 (excluding the top ten recursive jokes about top ten lists), Time has picked some of its favorite video games from the last twelve months. Among the top ten are science fiction stalwarts Halo: Reach and Mass Effect 2, the elegant and creepy Limbo, and iPhone finch fling-em-up, Angry Birds (which just makes it in, having launched at the very end of 2009). Time's top choice is Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake, which is praised by writer Evan Narcisse for its mature craft and metaphoric gameplay. "Its mix of meta-awareness and Hitchcockian suspense make Alan Wake a unique and fun experiment and one of the best games of the year." Alan Wake's devoted fans are likely to agree: Time couldn't have picked a better game, and the game couldn't have picked a worse time.
Angry Birds nets 50 million downloads, still not enough for a three-star rating
And yet the pigs go marching on. Rovio's Angry Birds is just over a year old now, and in that time it's racked up 50 million in downloads, with 10 million of those from Android. An impressive number in its own right, and that puts it in a very elite group of gaming franchises that counts Bejeweled (50m) and Legend of Zelda (59m) among its members. (Membership includes fancy jackets and fezzes.) Our guess is that includes the iOS "Lite" version, which does downplay the milestone, but with new versions coming to PC, Mac, and the big three game consoles still on stores shelves -- as well as a sequel -- we doubt that asterisk will matter for long. Watch your ever-propagating back, Tetris. [Image Credit: Penney Design via Gizmodo]
Apple reveals 2010's most popular iOS games
Do not adjust your computer monitors, friends -- you might think they're acting up, considering how many times the words "Angry Birds" are about to be repeated after the jump. It's not a deja vu-like glitch in the Matrix; Rovio's poultry-flinging casual game made its way into nearly every category of Apple's recently released rankings for the most popular iOS games of the year. These lists are split into the most downloaded free apps, top selling paid apps and top grossing paid apps on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad -- check them all out after the jump. Unfortunately, these lists are ranked alphabetically instead of by actual downloads, but considering some of the repeated victors include Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled 2+ Blitz and Words with Friends, we think we can accurately fudge the numbers: They were all downloaded a spajillion times.
Angry Birds developers to launch 'Bad Piggy Bank' mobile payment system
After millions of downloads of their popular game Angry Birds and a plan to take over the gaming world, Rovio is looking to get a little more from users; they now want to implement a mobile payment system inside the game itself. In an effort to grab a few more bucks from impulsive buyers/gamers they are launching Bad Piggy Bank, which with just a touch of a button will let customers make in-app game purchases without a credit card -- the price of anything they buy will just be added to their monthly cell phone bill. Rovio is based in Helsinki, Finland and is initially putting the payment system in place on Android with Elisa, the country's biggest telecom provider, but expects to roll the service out worldwide sometime in 2011. While Apple allows users to upgrade 'in-app' from free to paid versions and the buying and unlocking of special features, I do question if they would ever allow something like Bad Piggy Bank to purchase other Rovio games without a link going back to the App Store. However, I can say that if it were in place I would probably have bought every version of Angry Birds by now, since I cannot seem to stop playing it.
