Browser maker Opera Software has released its latest ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report this morning, which is based on the usage of its Opera Mini browser for mobile phones. They do this every month, and the conclusion is always the same: mobile web usage around the world keeps on growing and growing.
The Norwegian company says Opera Mini has garnered more than 41.7 million users, showing a 5.3 percent jump compared to the previous month and more than 154% compared to November 2008. In addition, Opera claims the number of page-views in November 2009 went up 9.5% and data consumption increased 8.3% compared to the previous month.
Some wood, some knobs, and a ball bearing: the traditional labyrinth game has spawned several digital descendants (including some of the simian sort); considering the iPhone’s accelerometer is very adept at simulating a tilting table or a swaying bridge, it’s no surprise that this genre is quite popular on the App Store. The latest entry in the fun parade, from the developers of the Pano photo app (Debacle Software), is Little Metal Ball [$1.99, iTunes link], available tonight in the App Store. We’ve got an exclusive gameplay trailer above, so you can see that you’ll be piloting your steel BB around and through a wide assortment of obstacles, landscapes and challenges as you try to collect prize stars and finish each level (40 in total) in the minimum amount of time.
While the original Super Monkey Ball was so challenging as to be frustrating for an average twitch gamer like myself (version 2 is a big improvement, according to TJ), I found that the difficulty level on LMB was just about right for me — it takes a little while to get used to the ball jump controls, which are critical for navigating the early levels, but I got the hang of it quickly. The variety of environments keeps it interesting as you progress through the game, and the background music (which calls to mind the Harry Potter film theme) is soothing enough to keep you from throwing your iPhone through the window if you hit a frustrating spot on the course. If I could add one feature, it would be a calibration option so that players could adjust the zero point and not spend the entire game hunched over like a victim of mild food poisoning.
Video language learning website EnglishCentral recently raised a total of $3.5 million, according to an SEC filing. Part of that funding was $1.38 million from a previous convertible debt round, making the amount raised in the current series A financing $2.1 million. EnglishCentral is backed by Google Ventures and Atlas Venture. The fact that Google Ventures was the lead investor in a seed round last October was reported, but the amount invested was never disclosed. Based on the information in the filing, it is possible that that the seed round was in the form of the $1.38 million convertible note and is now converting into equity with the additional $2.1 million investment.
The filing does not say who the invested in the new round, but Rich Miner of Google Ventures is listed as a director of the company. Google Ventures is Google’s venture arm which launched last April with an initial $100 million and can invest in pretty much anything, although mostly it’s been putting money into clean tech startups.
We hope this will provide holiday relief for many iMac owners: Apple just released a firmware update for the graphics chipsets in 27″ iMac models, intended to fix display issues. Apple states this download
Updates the graphics firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards to address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering.
Right on schedule, the Barnes and Noble Nook is kicking out a software update (we rebooted to get the download to start). We’ve heard this will fix some of the issues we had with the unit in our review — but we’ll update you once we’ve had a little time to play around with it.
Some things we’ve noticed so far:
‘Tis the season shop until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few weeks we’ll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com. Each afternoon tune in to TUAW for this handy summary. Keep in mind that while our posts will live on, the deals won’t. Each is lovingly generated by the deal-bot every day, so get ‘em while they’re hot. Enjoy!
MacUpdate Promo: [Home & Hobbies Software] Videobox 2 and MainMenu 2 for Mac downloads for free
Home automation and multiroom A/V remote controls might still be a relatively niche and nascent segment of the electronics market, but that hasn’t stopped Elan from proclaiming its new g! series to be groundbreaking. Then again, its software includes irrigation controls, so what do we know — maybe the company’s talking literally. Building on the software legacy of HomeLogic, the interface is said to be consistent across all platforms, which include an OLED display as part of the hardware package, as well as iPhone, PC and TV integration for a truly flexible control scheme. In terms of pricing, this is aimed at competing with Control4 setups, and we’re told that a “decent” multiroom system could be had for $5,000. Full details are set to be unveiled on January 1, which should give you enough time to decide if you can continue living with an un-automated pool.
Cowon has finally made its latest and greatest PMP official, and the spec sheet does not disappoint. Mixing appealing curves with a 4.8-inch display, the V5 HD offers 720p video playback that can be channeled out via HDMI or Composite outputs. On the software front, there’s the usual litany of wide-ranging file compatibility and basic apps — cortesy of Windows CE 6.0 — as well as a world clock, RSS reader, Flash games, voice recorder, and an optional T-DMB tuner. We still don’t know what’s doing the dirty work under the hood, but you won’t be wanting for storage, with integrated memory options up to 32GB being augmented by SDHC expandability. Battery life is rated at 10 hours of video or 45 hours of music, and the Korean landing date is January 1 with prices starting at 299,000 KRW ($256). Until then, you can check out more pictures after the break.
[Thanks, The DarkSide]
As you may have noticed, we had a chance to get our hands on a fairly interesting little tablet made by ICD dubbed the Ultra. The 7-inch, touchscreen tablet (resistive in the version we saw, but with capacitive versions to come) sports quite an impressive set of specs, including a 1GHz Tegra T20 CPU, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, 4GB of hardwired storage, 2G / 3G radios, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, HDMI out, USB 2.0, and a microSD slot. The device also has an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and 3.5mm headphone jack. The version we had a chance to play with — a prototype running Android 2.0 — was blazingly fast when it came to 1080p playback and web browsing (as you can see in the video), but was pretty incomplete as far as the rest of the software was concerned (though the company says they’re working on optimizing the experience all around). In terms of pricing, ICD reps didn’t have a solid number, though they said they expect the Ultra to sell for somewhere in the $249 price range, with potential for free, subsidized versions depending on what kind of deals they work out with partners. We expect to see a whole slew of devices like this at CES in just a few weeks, but this is nice a taste of things to come. Check out our exclusive hands-on pics in the gallery below!
Gallery: ICD Ultra tablet hands-on
A tipster who has proven to be reliable in the past says that Barnes and Noble’s Nook will get a software update this week — most likely around Tuesday. The update itself looks to be fairly sizeable, in that it looks like it will improve some of the major issues we’ve had with the e-reader — like page refresh rate and a lot of other little speed issues. Our tipster also says they’ve played with an updated unit and that it’s much, much better, so we’re interested to see for ourselves when the update goes down. Until then, check out the list of bugs and fixes (which is only a partial list) we’re hearing the update will include after the break.
Continue reading Barnes & Noble Nook to get an update this week? Sure sounds like it