Swing Copters: More frustrating than Flappy Bird

MANILA - Swing Copters, the much-anticipated new game from Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen, is now available for download.

Much like its predecessor, the free-to-play app again dares you to navigate your way through a series of obstacles, while trying to score as many points as you can.

But rather than guiding a tiny bird sideways, you are now tasked to help a little brown sprite avoid a bunch of swinging hammers blocking its upward flight.

The bug-eyed thing, with a propeller for a hat, moves side-to-side automatically and you will need to tap on the screen to quickly change its direction.

The game is far more quick-paced and frustrating than Flappy Bird, but I personally think it is less addicting, as well. (My high score currently stands at 2)

One factor is the difficulty -- which is now extremely harder thanks to those addition of animated obstacles.

It might turn a lot of casual gamers -- those who play the game just to pass the time -- off the game, but the decision to tone the down the addictive quality may be intentional from Nguyen.

He earlier admitted that the reason he pulled Flappy Bird off app stores, despite reportedly earning him more than $50,000 in ad revenue, was because it was "too addictive."

As of writing, 'Swing Copters' currently sits in the top five most downloaded free app on the local iTunes Store.

It has already spawned quite a cult following on Twitter, with several players posting their high scores. Currently, the number stands at 82.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why Twitter is adding 'mute' button

 

SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter on Monday began letting users "mute" posts from people they are not interested in hearing from at the popular one-to-many messaging service.
The new Mute feature was expected to be rolled out to all Twitter accounts in coming weeks.

"You can now mute users you'd like to hear from less," Twitter product manager Paul Rosania said in a blog post.

"The muted user will not know that you've muted them, and of course you can unmute at any time."

The feature is being added to Twitter iPhone and Android applications as well as at the twitter.com site accessed through computer Web browsers.

Muting someone at Twitter stops any messages they "tweet" at the service from popping up in the timeline of whoever hit the virtual button, according to Rosania.

Push or text messages from muted Twitter accounts will not be delivered.

People will still be able to see, "re-tweet," or comment on Twitter posts of those who have muted them, but the person doing the muting will not be looped into the activity.

"Mute gives you even more control over the content you see on Twitter by letting you remove a user's content from key parts of your Twitter experience," Rosania said.
 

 source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

New apps help people avoid unwanted encounters

Trying to avoid an awkward encounter with an ex? Fearful of an embarrassing meeting after an argument? New apps can help people avoid bumping into others and provide escape routes if they do.

By logging on to Facebook and other social networking sites, users can choose people they do not want to see.

"Everybody has somebody they want to avoid," said Udi Dagan, chief executive officer of Israel-based technology company Split. "For some people, it's their exes; for others, it's their bosses or even relatives that they don't feel like bumping into during their free time."

With Split, a free app for iOS and Android devices, users log on to Facebook and select people from their social network they do not want to meet. The app sends an alert when they are nearby and shows a route on a map to avoid them.

The Cloak app for iOS works in a similar way through Foursquare or Instagram, sending a notification if the person comes from within half a block to 2 miles away.

"You can tap on someone and flag them," said Brian Moore, co-founder of Cloak, a New York-based company. "That means you'll get background notifications whenever they come close to you."

The creators of the apps, which are available worldwide, said all the information was already publicly available and that they were simply aggregating it into one place.

Split and Cloak gather location data from social network updates and check-ins. Photo-sharing network Instagram includes location data whenever a photo is uploaded. Both apps gather data from Foursquare and Instagram, and Split gets additional data from Facebook and Twitter.

The information is as accurate as a person's last update or check-in that contained his or her location.

Split also collects data from people using their app, and allows them to hide their location so others cannot see where they are.

Some people may consider the apps anti-social, but Moore does not.

"Anti-social is when you never want to see anybody," he said. "In reality, everyone has a side where they just want to be alone."

Craig Palli, chief strategy office at Boston-based mobile marketing company Fiksu, said the apps were an inevitable progression in the industry.

"So much of our lives have become open and public," he said." It's the first sign of a trend that people want to break from that."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com