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RollerCoaster Tycoon, originally created by the now-legendary developer Chris Sawyer, was released back in 1999 for Windows 95. The franchise has switched developers and publishers several times over its 17-year history, with seven published titles for PC, the Nintendo 3DS, and smartphones. The latest main entry in the series, RollerCoaster Tycoon World for PC, was a universally-disappointing game that was delayed several times in development.
Earlier this month, the official Twitter mobile apps were updated to support livestreaming without having the separate Periscope app installed. Now the company has added support for 360-degree streams to both the Twitter and Periscope apps.If you've ever watched a 360-degree YouTube video, you should be familiar with how this works. Desktop users can pan around the player with the mouse, and mobile users can tilt their phone to change the video angle. As of yet, there seems to be no support for any VR headsets in the mobile apps. Twitter teamed up with Alex Pettitt, a notable Periscope streamer, to show off the functionality for the first time.
The Nexus 6 is the oldest still-supported Nexus device, after the beloved Nexus 5 was denied an official update to Android 7.0. Although the N6 did receive 7.0, users have been not-so-patiently awaiting Android 7.1.1. Google has been relatively quiet about the reason for the delay, but in response to our query, issued the below statement:
The holiday season is all about giving, and we're teaming up with NVIDIA to give away 43 assorted codes to ten major Android games. Titles up for grabs include Hotlap Heroes, Q*Bert Rebooted: SHIELD Edition, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Mercenary Kings, The Uncertain, Pavilion, Resident Evil 5, Kingdom New Lands, and GoNNER. Keep in mind that most of these games are NVIDIA SHIELD exclusive.
Google has added multiple Easter eggs to Google Assistant, but this one is specifically for the Google Home. Tipster Ronald informed us that when you ask Google Home to "play Christmas music" or "play Hanukkah music," the alternating lights on the Home change colors. For Christmas, it alternates red and green lights, and for Hanukkah, blue and white.
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I'm a huge fan of the Roller Coaster Tycoon series. The original two games, RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2, were created by developer legend Chris Sawyer and published by Hasbro Interactive and Infogrames respectively. Both titles, as well as the third entry, were massively popular - but I think most can agree the series declined after that. The latest entry, RollerCoaster Tycoon World, was an unfinished mess that shifted developers several times and currently has a 'Mostly Negative' rating on Steam.
Instagram, much like Facebook's other applications, has been rapidly gaining features over the past few months. Live video, comment controls, and the ability to bookmark posts are all recent additions. In today's Instagram update, you can now add stickers to your Stories and shoot hands-free video.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution was one of the most influential and important events of the late 20th century. The narrative-driven '1979 Revolution: Black Friday' was originally released for PC on Steam in April, based on real stories from Iran between 1978 and 1981. In this Telltale-esque game, you play as photojournalist Reza, caught between opposing sides of the revolution.
Nova Launcher needs no introduction - it's arguably the most customizable and polished third-party launcher for Android. The base version supports all the usual home screen stuff, as well as icon themes, color controls, multiple app drawer and home screen styles, the ability to import layouts from other launchers, and much more. Nova Launcher Prime (the paid upgrade) goes even further, offering the ability to hide apps, create tabs or folders in the app drawer, unread counts on icons, and more.
Google has added a few entertaining Easter eggs to Google Assistant since its release, including fully interactive quiz games. In the spirit of the season, a few new holiday-related commands have made their way to Google Assistant.
One of the disadvantages of Android Pay is that banks, credit unions, and credit card companies have to support it (as opposed to Google Wallet NFC payments). Thankfully, support has greatly expanded in the past few months, with Chase being the last major holdout in the United States.
If you're looking for new games or applications to try out this weekend, you're in luck. A number of popular applications are on sale for $0.10 (or the local equivalent) on the Play Store. First up is Star Wars Pinball 4, from developer Zen Studios. Not only is the base game $0.10, but all the in-app purchases for additional tables are 50% off as well.
The Moto 360 Sport first showed up in stores in January, at the high price of $299.99 USD. Just four months later, it was removed from the Google Store, and the price has continued to drop since then. Now you can grab the Flame orange model for just $89.99 and the White model for $99.99, a massive $110 and $100 drop respectively from the later $199 MSRP.
The Android application for Google Contacts has mostly been neglected over the years, but back in August, the 1.5 update introduced an updated interface and new abilities. Contacts 1.6 is now available from the Play Store and APKMirror, with a new icon and a few important changes.
The Moto Z is Motorola's flagship this year, and the company's first attempt at a phone with modular add-ons. Unfortunately, the phone didn't get great reviews (including from us). The small internal battery, lack of a headphone jack, and the expensive Moto Mods all hurt the phone's success. However, the Moto Z's performance, software experience, and thinness are hard to beat. Now Amazon is selling the phone (for the next 11 hours at the time of writing) for $499, a whopping $200 off the normal unlocked price.I'm not sure I would recommend this phone, even at $499, but it's there if you want it. Keep in mind that this unlocked version only works with GSM networks; only the Moto Z Droid is compatible with Verizon's network. If you do want to buy it, at least you can rest easy knowing it will have Android 7.0 Nougat.
If you're still putting up with the unoptimized mess that is the Android Snapchat application (unless you have a very speedy phone), you might be excited to hear that the 9.45 update is now available. No, it doesn't make using the app any less painful, but there are some new features to enjoy.
No, #GoLive is not a trending topic about bringing back Adobe GoLive. Instead, it is related to Twitter bringing the full streaming abilities of Periscope to the mobile Twitter apps. Starting today, a new 'Live' button is visible when composing a tweet, which allows you to start a live stream. As far as functionality goes, it is the exact same as starting a stream from the Periscope app.
Instagram has rapidly added new features in the past few months, from Periscope-esque live streaming to Boomerang support. The latest addition to the mobile apps is not a groundbreaking change, but still very useful. Starting with Instagram 10.3 for Android, a new 'Saved' tab is visible on the profile page.
Chrome 55 marked the arrival of many user-side changes, including Chrome's built-in download manager and saving pages for offline reading. Normally I separate posts about Chrome releases into new features for users and new abilities developers can use, but this release (at least in its current form) is almost completely about new APIs.
Google's Project Fi has always been about saving money, as long as you don't consume a lot of data. Now Project Fi customers can "Share the Fi Love" with a new referral credit, accessible via the carrier's website. For each new Fi subscriber that uses the referral code, both the new subscriber and the original subscriber get a $20 Fi credit.