Monthly Archives: May 2016

Head Words game updated

ShapeItAppThe BlackBerry 10 game Head Words has been updated to version 1.3 in BlackBerry App World. This update includes the new Comic Books category, and also includes some supplemental items to the existing categories.

About Head Words

Head Words is a native multi-player guessing game similar to Celebrity, Hedbanz, and Heads Up. After selecting a category, one player places the phone on their forehead while the other players give clues. With one minute to guess as many words as possible, the player can tilt the phone down for each correct answer, or tilt the phone up to pass. At the end of round a word list will show what was guessed right and wrong. The swipe down menu provides an option to turn the sound on or off.

The game includes five categories for free, and the option to purchase access to ten additional categories for a dollar each.

Links & Information

480X

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Head Words

Smartphones have gotten boring

Last week Google hosted their I/O conference for developers. For those of us who develop Android apps for phones and tablets there was very little announced. Android was mentioned often, but more for use in watches and virtual reality than for phones. And when phones were mentioned it was as a platform for Google’s own messaging apps. The biggest new item for developers is the Vulkan API, which as a low level graphics processor is not something most developers are going to use directly anyhow.

It is not just Android, but rather that the smartphone market has matured. It has become boring. Despite being an enthusiast, there is a reason that I am ok with using a two and a half year old phone running a dead operating system. Things are not changing as quick as they once were.

Furthermore new platforms such as wearables, virtual reality, and the internet of things lack the standardized platforms (and stores) that once made phones so exciting.

Android, BlackBerry

Preventing Windows 10 updates from rebooting your computer

By default Windows will download and install updates on your computer without any required interaction. This is great, but the problem is that it will also reboot on its own, closing anything you may have been in the middle of working on. No idea why Microsoft approved of this terrible user experience, but fortunately there is a (very hidden) way of preventing it from happening.

First from the start menu, search and open “gpedit.msc”. Then in the application go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update. Then select the option “No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations”, then click “Enable”, and then “Apply”.

This will ensure that your Windows 10 machine will only restart when you want it to.

code, Windows

BB10 distribution still flat

Use of BlackBerry 10.3.X and 10.3.2 remain the same as they have for the last few months. Despite OS 10.3 being out for a long while now, there are still a decent number of users still running OS 10.2.1 on their devices.

2016Apr-Pixelated-BB10OSVersions

2016Apr-StuffINeed-BB10OSVersions

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free strategy game Pixelated and the free checklist app Stuff I Need. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of April 2015 through the end of April 2016.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics