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- T-Mobile To Pull The Plug On Sidekicks May 31st
- LG Optimus 2X Launching In Europe In March
- Creator Of Angry Birds’ Physics Engine Calls Out Rovio For Not Giving Him Credit
- Google’s Building 44 Gets Its Honeycomb Statue
- Microsoft Increases The Senseless Limit On How Many Free Apps A Developer Can Submit
- MobileNotifier Does iOS Notifications Right, Will Make You Want To Jailbreak
| T-Mobile To Pull The Plug On Sidekicks May 31st Posted: 28 Feb 2011 10:44 PM PST
The Sidekick is dead. Long live the Sidekick. The phone that pulled oh-so-many a geek into the mobile world by showing them that phones could do so much more (while still looking cool!) has died. T-Mobile released a statement tonight announcing that all Sidekick data services will be terminated as of May 31st, promising anyone still on a ‘Kick “an easy transition… to a new device.” What that entails, exactly, is anyone’s bet for the moment. This wasn’t exactly unforeseeable. In a world where everyone seems to either want a swiss army phone that does everything and anything or an ultra basic handset that serves as little more than a portable rotary phone, there’s not much room for the Sidekick anymore. Doesn’t mean it’s not a bummer.
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| LG Optimus 2X Launching In Europe In March Posted: 28 Feb 2011 06:19 PM PST
LG just sent over a press release titled “LG Optimus 2X to Launch in Key European Markets This Month”. While “this month” is technically still February where we’re sitting, we’re going to go ahead and guess that the person sending these out is on the other side of the world where March is already under way. Friggin’ timezones. As the aforementioned title indicates, LG’s Optimus 2X will finally be ending its exclusive Korean run sometime soon, hitting Europe’s “key markets” (though what markets they consider “key” is still a bit of a mystery) in the next few weeks. Like its Korean counterpart, the European Optimus 2x will launch with Android 2.2, though they promise that the update to 2.3 is on the way. Still no official word when (or if) this thing will hit the ol’ Yankee shores. Need a refresher on the specs? Check’em out after the jump.
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| Creator Of Angry Birds’ Physics Engine Calls Out Rovio For Not Giving Him Credit Posted: 28 Feb 2011 04:19 PM PST
Aaaawkwaaard! I’m not at this week’s Game Developer Conference in San Francisco for various reasons (the main one being that I’ve been covering events non-stop for nearly two months and my body is falling apart), but we’re keeping a pretty close eye on things just in case. We’re hearing that things just got a little dramatic in the “ANGRY BIRDS – An Entertainment Franchise in the Making” panel headed by Rovio’s “Might Eagle” (read: head honcho) Peter Vesterbacka. During the Q&A session, someone from the audience stood up and claimed to have created the physics engine behind Angry Birds, requesting a credit. The audience, we’re told, roared with applause. I’m working to confirm this right now, but I’m almost certain that person would have to be Erin Catto, creator of the open-source Box 2D physics engine. (Update: Yep, folks in the audience have confirmed that it was Erin Catto.) This issue started heating up back in December, after a handful of people in the development community (here’s one) started wondering aloud if Erin should get some financial love from Rovio — or, at the very least, a mention in the credits. Technically, Rovio isn’t at all obligated to compensate Erin, be it with monies, fine jewels, or a passing mention. From Box2D’s license:
Rovio’s lovable characters, near-constant updates, and generally awesome employees have given the company a pretty dang positive public image. They wouldn’t want a dispute with the guy who built a core element of their game (especially when the guy is giving said element away for free) to tarnish that; in this situation, they become David’s Goliath, and that’s a terrible spot to be in. If all the guy is asking for is some credit, giving him that as quick as possible is probably the best thing they could do. The gist of Rovio’s response was pretty straight-forward: if he’d come see them after the panel, they could talk about it.
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| Google’s Building 44 Gets Its Honeycomb Statue Posted: 28 Feb 2011 11:44 AM PST
At this point, it’s pretty much tradition: Google releases a new major build of Android to the public, and a statue themed around that build’s codename (like Froyo, or Donut, or Gingerbread) goes up in its honor at the Android Team’s building (Building 44) across from the Google Campus. The first official Honeycomb (Android 3.0) device, the Motorola Xoom, just hit the shelves last week — and sure enough, the Honeycomb statue just went up. Android Developer Advocate Justin Mattson tweeted out the shot above to celebrate. Rockin’ both the Android robot and a big ol’ nasty lookin’ honeybee, this statue is quite possibly the coolest one yet. Check behind the jump for a shot of all of the other statues kickin’ it.
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| Microsoft Increases The Senseless Limit On How Many Free Apps A Developer Can Submit Posted: 28 Feb 2011 11:01 AM PST
So, let’s say you’re Microsoft. You’ve got this brand new smartphone platform — one that, thanks to the timing and that of the competition, is a bit of an underdog. To be at all competitive, you need to convince developers to not only make applications for your platform, but to make lots of applications for your platform. Now, what’s the one thing you definitely, absolutely, should not do? Limit those that are actually interested in your platform — say, by setting some arbitrarily low limit on the number of apps they can submit. Alas, that’s exactly what Microsoft did. Up until this morning, Microsoft had limited developers to a maximum of 5 free applications. If they wanted to throw any more on the market, they’d either have to charge for the app or cough up $20 bucks for the submission. (Really? Charging the developer for submitting a free app, on top of the $99 yearly fee? Really?!) This cap is now set at a considerably more reasonable level of 100 apps. I understand why they did this. They didn’t want a mountain of crapware filling their store — a totally reasonable desire. But this was probably the silliest possible way they could have gone about it. Deal with crapware developers individually, don’t just throw a wet blanket on everyone. [Via WPCentral]
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| MobileNotifier Does iOS Notifications Right, Will Make You Want To Jailbreak Posted: 28 Feb 2011 10:27 AM PST iOS’ Notifications system sucks. A lot. In the Great Smartphone War, it’s probably the platform’s most inexplicable Achille’s heel. Oh, you’re playing a game? Sorry, Bobby texted you again! PAUSED! Watching a movie? Sorry, the battery is at 10%! PAUSED! Peter Hajas’ MobileNotifier, demoed above, shows us that things don’t have to be this way. Dismissible, nonintrusive notifications? An easily accessible notifications tray? Be still, my heart. The catch: as with anything that modifies the deeper system files, you’ll need to jailbreak to get this working. Our fingers are crossed that Apple will finally be addressing this in iOS 5 — meanwhile, consider us jailbroken. [Via 9to5mac]
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