05
Feb
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[New Game] Shapes & Sound Brings Style And Surprising Depth To Asteroids-Type Shooters

Posted by in Games, News

With its monochromatic palette and tinkly music, you might confuse Shapes & Sound for a "chill" game. Not so: it's inspired by the twitchy vector shooters of yore, like Asteroids and Tempest. But while those titles offered no more complexity than a rising difficulty curve, Shapes & Sound combines some simple yet appealing graphics with deep gameplay.

The core of the game is simple: tap around your shape to shoot at those flying towards you. But be selective, because corresponding shapes (of any size) don't hurt you. When you've absorbed enough projectiles, you can unleash a special attack that will usually clear the screen.

07
Dec
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From The Creator Of Tweet Lanes: Chris Lacy's Action Launcher Now In The Play Store

Posted by in Applications, News

Chris Lacy, developer of the gorgeous, widely lauded Tweet Lanes, has finally brought his latest creation to the Play Store – Action Launcher.

As the name would suggest, Action Launcher is a custom launcher with an emphasis on its ever-present action bar. The action bar allows users to quickly open a side-panel app drawer which, in Lacy's words, "aims to allow you to load any app in one second from your home screen." The bar also features Search and Play Store shortcuts, along with an action overflow.

The action bar, as you can see in the video above, is not the only trick Action Launcher has up its sleeve.

28
May
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CyanogenMod Has Now Been Installed On Over 2 Million Devices, Doubles Install Numbers Since January

Posted by in Android OS, News

It's amazing what a new look can do for a platform, isn't it? Back in January, we reported that CyanogenMod, the most popular third-party Android ROM, reached one million unique installs. Now, a little more than four months later, that number has doubled, according to CM's stat tracker. This is huge.

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For those who are curious as to how the stat counter works, here's a more detailed explanation. The short version is that unique hardware is counted, so reflashes and reinstalls don't count towards the total. From CM's site:

"The data sent includes an non-reversible encrypted hash of your IMEI or MEID, allowing us to track unique devices without compromising privacy."

Cyanogenmod has been in development for years and only reached the million install mark, which included official and unofficial installs (KANGs), just a few months ago.

21
Mar
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[Hands On] 4gency Releases Node.Hack, An Awesomely Unique Action Game That Offers Players A Chance To "Hack The World"

Posted by in Games, News

Giving us perhaps one of the most unique games I've ever played, 4gency released Node.Hack to the Play Store today. The game poses the player as "a digital warrior on the front lines, cracking the world's toughest computer systems for profit." Indeed, the object of the game is to hack through individual nodes to accrue thousands upon thousands of dollars and escape before being destroyed by enemy AI.

The first thing I noticed about Node.Hack was of course its visual style. The graphics in this game are obviously very simple, but that simplistic art style is extremely well-suited to the gameplay.