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.
 |  |
 |  |
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.
In the first three months of 2013, the strategy game Xploding Boxes was downloaded by BlackBerry PlayBook users in 142 different countries. As in the past most users are from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The biggest change from three months ago, is the increase in UK users, which is now up to 27.7% of PlayBook users. However, for the most part the distribution of countries being represented is very consistent with what it previously has been.
These statistics are generated from PlayBook downloads of the popular strategy game Xploding Boxes, from January 1st, through March 31st. Data was collected by BlackBerry World at the time of download.
I may not be Polish, but I am from Buffalo…
Perhaps the most cleverly named of all holidays, it is not always readily obvious how the death and humiliation of God is good. Yet it is by the actions of this day that God’s grace is granted to all of us. Though often unmarked, this day is more relevant than Easter…
This would have been much funnier if I had thought of it two months ago…
My apps have gotten a lot of attention in the past week from a variety of sites, so I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for writing about my apps.
First BlackBerry Cool and Berry Review wrote up reviews of the new BlackBerry 10 game, Starbeams.
The Stuff I Need app also got some attention, with N4BB calling it a ‘must have BlackBerry 10 app’, and CrackBerry also giving the app a favorable review. A video from CrackBerry’s James Richardson is embedded below.
Finally NerdBerry noted the release of the most recent update to Xploding Boxes which is now up to 370 levels.
The BlackBerry 10 app, Mileage Tracker has been updated to version 1.2 in BlackBerry World. This new version now automatically fills in your start odometer reading with your most recent end odometer reading in order to make your use of the app more efficient and quicker than ever. This update also adds support for the upcoming BlackBerry Q10 in addition to some optimizations to the code of the app itself.
Mileage tracker is a free app designed to help you track the miles you drive on each trip for use on tax deductions, accounting, or employee reimbursements. Instead of keeping this information charted on your computer, it makes much more sense to be able to track this directly on your phone, which you normally would have with you in the car already.
Trips can be grouped into categories, and edited (or deleted) at a later date. Following a one time in-app payment you can export your data into an Excel compatible .csv format and a pretty (and sortable) .html format.