The date count down app Twinkle is now available for BlackBerry 10, with support for both the Z10 and the Q10.
Twinkle is an app that allows you to set and keep track of upcoming and past events. Twinkle will tell you how far away an event is, and share it with a friends through social networks. The app includes an number of options for sorting or filtering your views in order to allow you to easily be able to manage a large number of different events.
The Simple Dice app has been updated in BlackBerry World to support the Q10 which is launching within the next week in Canada and the UK. This free app is exactly what it sounds like, just a virtual die that you can roll to get a random number between one and six.
The app can also be downloaded from BlackBerry AppWorld for older touchscreen BlackBerry phones. These versions have also been updated, now giving the option of removing the ads from the application through the use of a $1 in-app purchase.
Liar’s Dice has been updated in BlackBerry World to version 2.1 in order to add support for the BlackBerry Q10 which is launching this weekend.
This is a classic dice game of strategy and deception in which seeing only your own dice you must bet on the combined dice in play without getting caught in a lie.
The object of the game is to catch your opponent (the computer) betting too high. Bets are placed on both your own dice which you can see, and your opponent’s dice which are hidden from you. You begin each round by making a bet. The computer then has an opportunity to either call your bet a lie, or to bet higher then you. Then it is once again your turn to call your opponent’s bet or to bet even higher. This continues until eventually a bet is called. Then if the bet is too high the caller wins, or if the bet is not a lie, the bettor wins the round.
The game has two main game modes. The “High Score” mode is the default mode, points are awarded for each round, and the first to gain a given number of points wins. The number of points required to win a game can be configured on the options page in order to allow for shorter or longer games.
The other option is for an “Elimination” mode in which the loser of each round loses one dice for the following rounds, and the last player with any dice left is the winner. This game is more dynamic as there are a different number of dice in play each round. Additionally games in this mode typically play faster than high score games.
Pixelated and Pixelated Plus have been updated to version 3.4 for all BlackBerry 10 phones. This version adds support for the BlackBerry Q10, adds a second leaderboard for scores posted in the past 24 hours, integrates with BBM profile boxes, and improves the options for sharing your best scores in the app to social networks.
Pixelated is an addictive puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win. The game is controlled by the large colored blocks on the side of the screen.
This update to Pixelated adds support for showing a leaderboard (powered by Scoreloop) for not only the top scores of all time, but also the best scores over the past 24 hours. Also new in this version is the ability to see a preview of each color scheme inside the color changer on the options page. Additionally there have been improvements made to the sharing options for the app. The app now lists the actual new score when sharing a new high score message, or the number of earned achievements when using a generic share, while the BlackBerry 10 version of the app now also updates BBM profile boxes just like you get on previous BlackBerry OS versions.
10,000 Farkle has been updated in BlackBerry AppWorld to version 2.2 in order to support the soon to be launched BlackBerry Q10. This update also includes a few tweaks to the code in order to make it more efficient for both Q10 and Z10 owners.
Farkle gives you six dice to roll and awards points for a straight, three pairs or three or more of the same number. Fewer points ares also awarded for each individual 1 and 5. Any dice that do not score can be re-rolled for additional points. If all 6 dice can be scored, then all of the dice can be re-rolled on the same turn.
The skill in this game comes from knowing how far to push your luck, and which scoring combinations to take, and when to re-roll.
The default game mode gives you 10 turns to score as many points as you can. The 10,000 point mode gives you unlimited turns to reach 10,000 points. The two competitive game modes both use the traditional format of racing to 10,000 points.
The following batch script is what I use to automatically deploy the most recently created .bar file in a folder to either a PlayBook or BlackBerry 10 phone.
@echo off
for /f "delims=" %%x in ('dir /od /a-d /b *.bar') do set recent=%%x
@echo on
call blackberry-deploy -installApp -launchApp -device <device-ip-address> -package %recent% -password <device-password>
Just replace <device-ip-address> and <device-password> with your actual ip address and password.
In a little less than two hours I will be attending the Rochester location of NASA’s Space Apps Challenge. This is a hack-a-thon focused on both hardware and software that runs for tonight and tomorrow.
Hopefully it will be a chance to but together something cool. I hope to see you there…
Tomorrow is BarCamp Rochester on the RIT campus. Last year I gave a talk on the internationalization of the business of selling apps. This year, I will be giving a (non-technical) talk titled Daryl Dixon or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombie Apocalypse. If you see me there, please stop to chat. I would be more than happy to take some time to talk about BlackBerry, mobile, zombies, or really anything…
Update: The slides for my presentation are now posted online.
Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 4.4 in BlackBerry World, Google Play, the Amazon AppStore, the Nook Bookstore, and the Windows 8 store. This new version adds an additional 10 levels to the game, as well as improving the sharing options on BlackBerry 10, and improving the in-app payment system for the Google Play store.
Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry, Android, Nook, Windows 8, and BlackBerry 10 where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve.
The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while an in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while maintaining your progress from the free levels.
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After being released for BlackBerry 10 a month ago, Starbeams is now also available on Windows 8. The game has 100 levels, and requires you to assign colors to each star in order to ensure that none of the stars are connected to another star of the same color. The game starts off easy, but quickly gets more complex, adding more colors and seven pointed stars that can not be changed.
As with the BlackBerry 10 version of the game, the first 25 levels of the game are free, while the full game can be purchased through a one time in-app purchase of $2.99USD. Currently Starbeams boasts 100 levels, but that number is sure to grow as the game is updated in the coming months.
The Animal Sounds app for BlackBerry 10, has been updated to version 1.1 in BlackBerry World. This new version adds support for the soon to be released BlackBerry Q10, as well as adding precautions to prevent accidentally triggering any of the animal sounds.
This past week I have had two posts over at the Gadget Masters with an explanation on Why the Facebook Phone is Doomed, as well as a look how PlayBook upgrade rates may help predict How quickly Z10 owners will update to OS 10.1 on their new phones.
Yesterday I also posted on BerryReview about The Amazing Resiliency of the 8350i. A Nextel branded phone from 2008 on the iDEN network, that stubbornly continues to persist in the monthly download logs for my games.
BlackBerry has not launched an OS update for the PlayBook since last October, and given that pretty much all users were already on the newest OS for the past three months now, it isn’t much of a surprise for almost all users to also be on the newest version of the OS in the month of March either.
This data was collected by BlackBerry World at the time of download, for the popular PlayBook strategy game Pixelated. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of March 2012 through the end of March 2013.
After being flat for two straight months, February say a 3.65% increase in the the percentage of users running OS 6.0 or higher. The percentage of users on the newest version of the OS is also up slightly to 35.1% of BlackBerry OS users.
This data was taken from downloads of the free BlackBerry strategy game Pixelated. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of March 2012 through the end of March 2013, and does not include BlackBerry 10 or PlayBook devices.
The Stuff I Need checklist app has now been released for free on Windows Phones. This is a minimalistic app that allows you to either list the stuff that you need to buy, or the stuff that you need to do. Previously, this app has already been very well received on BlackBerry 10, where it has thousands of downloads and an average rating of four and a half stars.
This app was originally designed as a grocery list app, but is flexible enough to be used for any purpose. Existing items can be edited or deleted after giving them a long press.