He has risen – Matthew 28:6
Happy Easter
March showed no change in BBOS market
A look at the OS distribution on BBOS, showed no change in March, and for the most part almost nothing has changed in the last six months.
While BlackBerry 10 has shown rapid adoption of the newest operating systems, on the classic BBOS only 48.6% of users are running OS 7 (which itself is almost three years old at this point). And despite being launched half a decade ago, OS 5.0 still continues to account for a significant percentage of the market.
This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free BlackBerry strategy game Pixelated. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of March 2013 through the end of March 2014, and does not include BlackBerry 10 or PlayBook devices.
Stuff I Need updated to version 2.4
The Stuff I Need app has been updated to version 2.4 in BlackBerry World. This update displays an additional 60 pixels worth of text for each item, prevents the app from trying to open to a deleted list, and also includes a 1.2% reduction in the overall file size of the app.
About Stuff I Need
Originally conceived as a grocery list app, this minimalistic checklist app can be used to keep track of the stuff you need to get, or the stuff that you need to do. New items can be added to list with the ‘Add’ button on the bottom of the screen. Items on the list can be edited (or deleted) by giving them a long press. Lists can be switched by pulling down on the tab at the top of the screen. This will expose a spinner that shows all of your current lists. New lists can be added by using the “+” button on the right side of the expanded tab. Making use of three or more lists requires the use on a one time in-app purchase. Lists are automatically deleted if you delete all items in a list and restart the app.
Links & Information
Farkle updated for BlackBerry 10
10,000 Farkle has been updated to version 2.4 in BlackBerry World. This new version improves the overall responsiveness of the app, and improves the efficiency with which the app runs.
How to Play Farkle
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.
Links & Information
- 10,000 Farkle at BlackBerry World
- 10,000 Farkle News
- 10,000 Farkle Website
- Ebscer at Facebook
- Ebscer at Twitter
Erie Canal app released
The Erie Canal app has been released as a free download for Android and BlackBerry users. The app is designed to help out those traveling along the Erie Canal by showing the Boat Launches, Locks, Lift Bridges, and Guard Gates along the canal’s path.
The primary view of the app shows a list of all the landmarks along the canal, with their distance along the canal along with a phone number that the app can dial in order to contact the marinas, and locks on the route. In addition to this, there is also a map view that precisely shows the location of everything along the canal’s path. An options page allows you to filter out the types of landmarks that the app shows (on both the list and the map), as well as allowing you to switch the list to an east to west orientation.
This app has been created as part of the AT&T Rochester Civic App Challenge, and is believed to be the first app in BlackBerry World that makes use of the Ionic Framework.
Links & Information
BlackBerry 10 OS distribution
March saw more users continue to adopt OS 10.2.1 which now accounts for 73.7% of Pixelated users and 79.2% of Stuff I Need users. Despite these increases, a disturbing number of users continue to run OS 10.1 which is proving slow to go away. At least part of the blame for this falls on AT&T which has not yet approved any of the 10.2.x updates.
The user base continues to be dominated by the BlackBerry Z10 which accounts for the majority of the market at 59.2% of all devices.
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 March 2013 through the end of March 2014.
10 new levels for Starbeams
Starbeams has been expanded to 160 levels in BlackBerry World and the Windows 8 Store.
About Starbeams
The object of the game is 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.
Links & Information
Who is still using the PlayBook?
The BlackBerry PlayBook has been largely abandoned since the update to OS 2.1 in October 2012, but there still remains a sizable number of users on the platform. Following last week’s release of version 4.9 of Xploding Boxes, I looked at downloads of the app by PlayBook users to get a feel for who is still using this tablet.
There was quite a bit of a shift in the user base from a year ago, when I last looked at the data.
The majority of users (53.2%) are from the United States and Canada, with a plurality of users from the Great White North. The PlayBook has had outsized popularity in Canada since day one, so this is no surprise.
The one demographic that has increased significantly since last year is the number of users from Latin America. The region accounted for 16.5% of all users with Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil all individually exceeding 1% of the user base.
These statistics are generated from PlayBook downloads of the popular strategy game Xploding Boxes, from March 17th, through March 23rd. Data was collected by BlackBerry World at the time of download.
Projectile Physics app updated
The Projectile Physics app has been updated to version 2.1 for both Android and BlackBerry 10. This update is largely a maintenance release, adding better stability for Android 4.x devices and cleaning up some inconsistencies on the BlackBerry version of the app.
About Projectile Physics
This app is a projectile physics calculator designed to solve for all of the components of a typical projectile motion problem. The app solves for both the vertical and horizontal components of the distance traveled, the constant acceleration, the initial and final velocity, as well as the time. These factors are solved for in real time in order to help you get back the factors of the equation quicker.
Links & Information
Update to Xploding Boxes
Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 4.9 with ten brand new levels. Additionally this update also includes a redesigned (and larger) menu button for the Android versions of the app.
About Xploding Boxes
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 a one time 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.
Links & Information
- Xploding Boxes at BlackBerry World
- Xploding Boxes in the Windows 8 Store
- Xploding Boxes for Android at Google Play
- Xploding Boxes for Android at the Amazon App Store
- Xploding Boxes for the Barnes and Noble Nook
- Xploding Boxes Website
- Xploding Boxes RSS
- Ebscer on Twitter
- Ebscer on FaceBook
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BBOS distribution still flat
The classic BlackBerry OS distribution has gone largely unchanged over the past month with OS 7 still having less then half of the overall market share.
This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free BlackBerry strategy game Pixelated. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of February 2013 through the end of February 2014, and does not include BlackBerry 10 or PlayBook devices.
Majority of users on 10.2.1
The month of February showed the majority of BlackBerry 10 users running the newest release of the operating system. As has historically been the trend, users of the Stuff I Need app have been quicker to upgrade than users of Pixelated.
The Stuff I Need checklist app saw 76.7% its downloads from users on OS 10.2.1 which means that it has already caught up to where 10.2.0 was just two months ago. Pixelated users were a bit less likely to upgrade, with only 57.3% of users on the newest OS. Still the upgrade cycle is encouraging as after just one month BlackBerry 10.2.1 has gotten an adoption rate that is better than what BlackBerry 7 has managed to get in two and a half years.
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 February 2013 through the end of February 2014.
Early drawing of Liar’s Dice app
I came across an early sketch for the design of the Liar’s Dice app. While there have been a few changes, you can see that the original idea mostly held true over the years.
Mileage Tracker updated to version 1.6
The Mileage Tracker app has been updated to version 1.6 in BlackBerry World. This update allows you to import data from previously exported .csv data, includes a redesigned menu for switching between different categories, and also includes a reduction in the overall install size of the application.
About Mileage Tracker
Mileage tracker is a free app designed to help you track the miles you drive on each trip, so that you can use this information for 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 also export your data into an Excel compatible .csv format and a pretty (and sortable) .html format.
Links & Information
Three years of Xploding Boxes
This past weekend, Xploding Boxes celebrated its third Birthday.
The game has grown dramatically over the past three years, from a start of 100 levels to the 420 different levels that the game has today. On BlackBerry World the game has 1886 reviews and is averaging four out of five stars. Additionally, while the original version of the game only supported BlackBerry OS, the game has since been rewritten in order to also support the BlackBerry PlayBook, BlackBerry 10, Android, Kindle, Nook, and Windows 8.