Tag: Microsoft »

What do kids want Santa to bring them this year? According to battery-maker Duracell, iOS machines sit atop the list. Fourteen percent of tykes want an iPhone 4, while 13 percent are wishing for an iPod Touch and 12 percent opine for an iPad. As a point of comparison, Microsoft's Kinect, the new "controller free" controller, comes in at only six percent.

The survey was conducted with over 2,000 children ages 5-16, and we're hoping that it was the upper tier of ages which tilted the numbers in favor of the iOS devices. While there's plenty of reason for a 16 year-old who wishes nothing more than to be cool to want an iPhone or iPad, the machines should really hold little sway over a kindergartner. Then again, Apple's ubiquitous iOS ads may have made demand transcend age, in which case we can only say kudos to the evil-yet-effective marketing team. Here's the full top-ten list for those who are curious:

01) iPhone 4 (14%)
02) iPod touch (13%)
03) iPad (12%)
04) Kinect (6%)
05) Zhu Zhu Pet Hamsters (5%)
06) Flip Video Camera (4%)
07) Toy Story 3 Jet Pack Buzz Lightyear (4%)
08) PlayStation Move (4%)
09) Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4: The Video Game (3%)
10) Barbie Video Girl (3%)

For those of our readers with kids, how closely does this list align with what your youngsters have been asking for? More importantly, how many of you are thinking about getting your children an iOS machine and how many believe that these are devices really more aimed at adults and should be kept out of the hands of kids? Maybe instead you buy yourself the iPad and let your kids play with it when you put it down -- which is never.

[via CVG]

Angry Birds developer Chillingo may cease to be an indie darling in the near future, as EA has bought the company. Reports put an the deal at $20 million cash, but the future of all the studio's properties are still up in the air.

Chillingo was already a hot commodity after Angry Birds, but the massive success of the recently released Cut the Rope has truly turned the UK developer into a den of rock stars. While companies like Activision, Gameloft and even Intel were vying for the studio, EA was able to close the deal.

"By acquiring Chillingo, EA Mobile is increasing its market leadership on the Apple Platform as well as reaffirming its position as the world's leading wireless entertainment publisher," EA's Holly Rockwood said in a statement.

It sounds like EA wants to keep Chillingo in the mobile space, but we can't help but wonder if the studio will be asked to dabble in consoles and handhelds as well. EA has dabbled with physics games by publishing Boom Blox on the Wii, but the series has stalled and perhaps the company is looking for a new franchise to bring to non-Apple audiences. There's also the distinct possibility EA could request a totally new IP from Chillingo, one which could be backed with a big budget and marketed across all platforms.

Where things may get tricky is in regards to ownership rights of games published under the Chillingo banner. Rovio created Angry Birds, while ZeptoLab made Cut the Rope, and, at least according to Rovio, the development studios still own those properties. A Rovio spokesperson says his company “controls the Angry Birds brand and any future products,” so at least that franchise may remain apart from this deal.

At any rate, let us be among the first to congratulate Chillingo and wish them the best of luck under the new ownership. They've already proven what talented, dedicated people can do when they put their minds to it so they deserve all the success and wealth they've earned. Well done guys, keep up the good work.

[via Mashable]

With iOS4 and the iPhone 4 hitting this week, it's not so surprising that we've seen tons of new apps. This week's Friday Five features a number of big-name efforts, many of which highlight the features of the iPhone 4 and iOS4. Let's get started!

Farmville
The productivity-sucking, Facebook-spawned plague has been unleashed upon the App Store masses. Someone say a prayer for us all. The iOS version is supposed to sync with the Facebook version, so if you already have a farm, don't worry about maintaining two! Just like on Facebook, you "grow" both plants and livestock and earn coins and XP for your troubles. This app also includes in-app purchase options for both coins and premium "Farm Cash."

Eliminate:GunRange
I don't know why Eliminate:GunRange is missing spaces in the title. I can tell you, however, that it's ngmoco's brand-new, iPhone 4-exclusive title. A spin-off of the popular Eliminate FPS series, GunRange is designed to take advantage of the iPhone 4's gyroscope and Retina display. The game drops you into one of three shooting ranges and lets you blast away at targets using any of twelve weapons. Support for the iPhone 3GS and additional content are promised in the future.

Windows Live Messenger
Despite the whole Apple/Microsoft battle, Microsoft has apparently seen fit to release a messenger client for its Windows Live service. It's pretty much your typical IM app, with hooks in most major social networks (Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, MySpace, etc). In addition to chatting and sharing photos, you can access your Hotmail email account from within the app.

NPR Music
NPR is a wonderful, wonderful organization. It's simply incredible how much they give away, for free. NPR Music follows their long-since-released NPR News app and gives you access to NPR's musical selections. Listeners can choose from Classical, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and more. Live streams from over 75 public radio stations are available. Folks with new iPhones can take advantage of backgrounding, listening to music even when the app is closed.

DC Comics
DC makes its iPhone debut with many familiar comics: Batman, Green Lantern, the Justice League, Sandman, and more. The app itself is something like a comic-store, from which you can download individual comics via in-app purchase. Most comics run $1.99 apiece. (A few freebies are available, too.) For viewing comics, there's either a full-page view or a Guided Reading option; with the DC app, all of your comics are contained in one simple app. Comic lovers should at least download the free app and check out the full selection.

I had to do a triple-take on this one. Microsoft Labs has released what they call a tech preview to the iTunes App Store called Seadragon Mobile. Yes, really, Microsoft has released an application for the iPhone.

Seadragon Mobile is an image viewer for large images or a large number of images. The ability to browse hundreds of images in it's collections and zoom into those images to an impressive level of detail is fantastic. Standard pinch-zoom is used to zoom in and out and a slideshow function is available when viewing a collection. Forgetting the Microsoft source, this is a really good image viewer for this kind of content. And except for a few server issues we've had, the app responds really quickly considering the amount of data it is referencing.

Some of the collections available to view include some from Library of Congress, world maps, large scale artwork, and items from Microsoft's Photosynth. Also included is the ability to add your own content from uploaded material at Photosynth, RSS image feeds such as Flickr feeds, and Deep Zoom Content.

Seadragon Mobile is impressive for what it does and it's an interesting demo to play around with. But I have to wonder about it's future.