<a href="http://blog.christianebuddy.com/2012/05/the-sandbox-bulkypix/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to The Sandbox – Bulkypix">The Sandbox – Bulkypix</a>

The Sandboxartwork

The Sandbox

Bulkypix



Genre: Games



Release Date: May 15, 2012


The Sandbox is a unique powder game that provides you with your very own “physics sandbox” and gives you god-like powers, right on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad! Imagine creating your own universe (complete with amazing Pixel Art), composing your own music, and much, much more. The universe is yours to create or destroy, and the only limit is your imagination!

Start from scratch with basic building blocks like stone, water and soil. Once you discover mud and sand, you’re on your way!
Grow plants, build walls, and gain access to advanced tools for crafting more and more complex elements.
Before long, you’ll be able to access non-organic elements like metal and light bulbs, allowing you to populate your universe with creations both natural and technological.

MASTER THE ELEMENTS
● Assume the role of a god and master the elements in 24 challenging and entertaining missions
● Watch elements interact with each other and bring life to your universe: water evaporates, stones erode, and plants grow – just like the real world!
● Earn Mana from your actions and unlock tons of new elements and achievements

UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATION
● Millions of possibilities. Infinite landscape designs. Countless different chemical reactions. Nothing is beyond your reach!
● Unleash your inner Pixel Artist to create or recreate amazing masterpieces
● Compose your very own chiptunes melodies within the game

SHARE YOUR CREATIONS WITH THE WORLD
● Create your universe and then share it in The Sandbox’s Online Gallery
● Browse the gallery to see what other players have created
● Rate other players’ worlds, and add elements too

An entire universe in the palm of your hand!

★ COMING SOON: ★

● In Game Localization
● Ability to comment on people's creations
● Search function while browsing the Online Gallery

★ FOLLOW US ★
Twitter: http://twitter.com/thesandboxgame
Facebook: http://facebook.com/thesandboxgame

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What the press is saying
Pixowl is working on the next big thing since… well, I'll just come out and say it… since Minecraft. 148Apps

© © 2012 Pixowl & BulkyPix

<a href="http://blog.christianebuddy.com/2012/05/pollution-teams-with-thunderclouds-to-warm-atmosphere/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Pollution teams with thunderclouds to warm atmosphere">Pollution teams with thunderclouds to warm atmosphere</a>

Pollution is warming the atmosphere through summer thunderstorm clouds, according to a computational study published May 10 in Geophysical Research Letters. How much the warming effect of these clouds offsets the cooling that other clouds provide is not yet clear. To find out, researchers need to incorporate this new-found warming into global climate models.

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<a href="http://blog.christianebuddy.com/2012/05/kickstarter-meet-cordlite-the-light-up-iphone-cable-for-night-owls/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Kickstarter: Meet CordLite, The Light-Up iPhone Cable For Night Owls">Kickstarter: Meet CordLite, The Light-Up iPhone Cable For Night Owls</a>

cordlite

My set ritual before going to bed each night is as follows — turn out the lights, plug in my iPhone, take off my glasses and attempt vainly to nod off. Step two in that process can be a bit of a crapshoot in the dark, but the folks at Scrap Pile Labs have recently kicked off a new Kickstarter campaign for a product called the CordLite that just may come in handy.

As the name sort of implies, the CordLite is a dock connector cable for iDevices that, well, lights up thanks to a pair of forward-facing LEDs. It’s a very simple concept, but the thoughtful execution is what make this project worth keeping an eye on.

Perhaps the niftiest thing about the CordLite is how you actually fire up those lights — the dock connector’s aluminum body is entirely touch-sensitive, so the lights engage whenever someone goes to plug in the cable. Meanwhile, a pair of indicator lights run along the top of the dock connector so there’s never any confusion as to which side is up.

Pledging $25 locks you in for one of the first CordLites to roll off of the assembly line, so you’d best shell out the dough if you’re interested — after the Kickstarter campaign ends, the price will jump up to $35. Not a bad deal for night owls, especially considering that Apple’s own dock connector cable is nearly $20 without a single frill to go with it.

Though the CordLite is Apple-only for now, Android users shouldn’t feel too left out. The team also has a light-up micro-USB cable in the works, though I suspect we won’t be seeing those out in the wild for a little while yet.

<a href="http://blog.christianebuddy.com/2012/05/ice-rage-mountain-sheep/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Ice Rage – Mountain Sheep">Ice Rage – Mountain Sheep</a>

Ice Rageartwork

Ice Rage

Mountain Sheep



Genre: Games



Release Date: December 14, 2011


Download the @FreeAppADay.com Store App and wish for more top rated paid apps like "Ice Rage" to become FREE for a day!

★★★★★ New game from the developers of Bike Baron, Death Rally and Minigore.
★★★★★ Bike Baron, Enviro-Bear and John Gore as guest stars!

#1 Sports Game in US, Canada, Finland and 25 other countries!

Gameplay video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkFP2C512Y4


A Tribute to Hat Trick

Ice Rage brings the classic 8-bit hockey experience to the 21st century! We dare you to take on John Gore, or challenge your friend in the most intense single-device multiplayer you've ever experienced.

There are tons of unique characters to choose from! Try out the Ice Aces, amazing special characters such as lightning fast Santa or heavy-hitting Enviro-Bear. Team up with crazy goalies like Rudolph the Red Wall, and you are sure to get the upper hand.

Music and sound fx from the audio designer of Alan Wake & Max Payne.


FEATURES:

✔ Universal build
✔ Optimized to run at 60 fps on iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and the new iPad

✔ Single-device multiplayer for 2 people
✔ Game Center online leaderboards
✔ Awesome 3d graphics

✔ Customize your matches
✔ Three difficulties: easy, medium and hard
✔ Rage-Off multiplayer mode: Destroy your friend!
✔ Tournament mode: Can you defeat the legendary Skar?


***IMPORTANT***
Compatible Devices: Ice Rage is ONLY compatible with iPod touch 3rd generation (32GB and 64GB models only!), iPod touch 4th generation, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad.
(iPod touch 3rd generation 8GB model is not a real 3rd generation device, and Ice Rage is NOT compatible with it.)

© 2011 Mountain Sheep, Inc.

<a href="http://blog.christianebuddy.com/2012/05/newspaper-attacks-uk-government-for-its-closeness-to-google/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Newspaper Attacks UK Government For Its ‘Closeness’ To Google">Newspaper Attacks UK Government For Its ‘Closeness’ To Google</a>

Screen Shot 2012-05-19 at 14.25.54

UK tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail, has decided to raise the issue of Google’s influence on the UK government, after uncovering the fact that Conservative party ministers have held meetings with Google an average of once a month since the General Election two years ago. There have been 23 meetings between Tory ministers and Google since June 2010, with Prime Minister David Cameron meeting Google three times and George Osborne – who as Chancellor of the Exchequer is supposed to meet with business leaders – four times in two years.

The story need to be a seen in a wider context. The Conservatives (in as has Labour under its tenure) have recently come under fire for having too close a relationship to another powerful entity, News Corporation. A huge inquiry into Press standards has in large part focused on the ties between Rupert Murdoch’s media giant and the Conservatives.

But what the report buries way down in the article, is the number of times the newspaper itself has met with the Government. A Google spokesperson told us: “It’s absolutely right that governments speak with companies about issues that affect their citizens. The British Government makes the list of those meetings publicly available – including the Daily Mail’s 34 meetings over the same period.” In other words, the Daily Mail has met with the Government almost one and a half times a month (on average) since they entered office – that’s quite a bit more than Google has. It’s likely those were high-level meetings, not editorial ones.

That said, the issue does raise the question of Google’s closeness to the UK government and its ability to grab the ear of the Government on a number of topics. It’s the kind of access a lot of companies would be envious of.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey has met the firm seven times. Culture Secretary boss Jeremy Hunt has held four meetings. In David Cameron’s first months as party leader in 2006 and 2007 (though not yet Prime Minister), he spoke to the annual Google Zeitgeist conference.

Three senior figures have moved between the Tories and Google in the last few years. Rachel Whetstone is Global head of communications and public policy at Google and is married to David Cameron’s former chief of staff, Steve Hilton. Naomi Gummer was formerly adviser to Curlture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, but is now a public policy adviser to Google. Amy Fisher Was a press officer for Google, and is now a special adviser to the Evironment Sectretary Corline Spelman.

On Hilton, the right wing Daily Mail newspaper has rarely missed an opportunity to attack his more radical attempts to shake up government thinking about technology and its affect on society. But it’s more likely that the Conservative – in part driven by Hilton’s thinking – have realised that the world has moved away from the green-screen, big-IT projects which used to fill the coffers of the likes of EDS and others, towards embracing a more open standards approach. On the ground this has fed into attempts to open up government data, and led also the innovative project known as Gov.uk, which is taking a startup approach to government online, employing many of the UK’s best engineers and tech stars.

It’s also quite something to see this sentence describing Hilton as the “shaven-headed son of Hungarian immigrants” – a phrase which betray’s the Mail’s antipathy to alternative thinking.

In March it was announced that Mr Hilton was going to take academic post at Stanford University in California to be near his wife who works at Google. He plans to return next year, though it’s not yet clear whether he will re-join the government.

Of course, back in the real world, these West-Wing-like moves of advisers between big business and governments go on literally all the time. We don’t have the equivalent figures for meetings with Microsoft or Cisco, or Facebook, IBM or other companies, but I’d be amazed there were not similar factoids waiting to scurry forth if someone someone decided to lift a few rocks. Indeed, Microsoft has appeared several times at government’s ‘Tech City’ meetings.

So quite why the Daily Mail has decided to home in on this issue is a little bit of a mystery. It may be that the story was placed as a faux attack by the Labour party. Their health IT scheme to store patients’ records failed spectacularly just before they left office, so they would have smarted at the suggestion by Cameron that a company like Google could probably do a better job.

The newspaper quotes Helen Goodman, Labour’s media spokesman, who says “Of course it is important for ministers to listen to business, but a meeting with Google every month does look like the sort of privileged access that small businesses can only dream of.” Unfortunately, she neglects to mention the numerous tiny tech startups that have been invited to Number 10 Downing Street over the last couple of years as part of the government’s Tech City Initiative, and its purchase of an entire building – Campus London – in East London which is housing small tech startups that have have nothing to do with Google.

Then again, Google doesn’t help it’s own cause. In Europe it does not have a great record on tax. As Goodman points out: “Ministers must disclose what they discussed. Did they challenge Google over their repellent tax avoidance, which was uncovered by the Daily Mail?”

It’s here that criticism could land a big punch. Google has been oft criticised for paying tax on less than a quarter of its UK income. In 2010 it generated £2.1 billion in the UK but with its international operations based Ireland, where corporation tax is much lower than the UK, it escapes a great deal of tax.

And Google hasn’t always helped its own cause.

Last month Google executive Naomi Gummer, until recently a Conservative minister’s political adviser, caused a furore in the press when she implied (not unreasonably?) that it was the job of parents to stop children seeing adult content online, not Internet companies. Currently a debate rages in the UK about creating an ‘off switch’ at ISP level to block porn, allowing parents baffled by content settings or Net Nanny software to just order a ‘clean’ version of the Internet direct from their ISP.

A Conservative Party spokesman told the Mail: “All these meetings have been properly declared and it is normal for relevant ministers to meet with a company of this size.”

The Mail’s story does raise questions of perceptions over-all but as a major UK tech player, it would be extremely odd for it not to meet with whoever was in power fairly regularly. Neither Facebook not Twitter, for instance, have anything like the huge engineering bases and offices Google has in the UK. Do we want our politicians remain in a world view of tech dominated by the desktop and ‘licenses’ or one where developers, startups and apps can thrive? I’d hazard not.

<a href="http://blog.christianebuddy.com/2012/05/new-silicon-memory-chip-developed/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to New silicon memory chip developed">New silicon memory chip developed</a>

The first purely silicon oxide-based ‘Resistive RAM’ memory chip that can operate in ambient conditions — opening up the possibility of new super-fast memory — has been developed by researchers at UCL.

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<a href="http://blog.christianebuddy.com/2012/05/clarityray-battles-ad-blockers-with-500k-in-funding/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to ClarityRay Battles Ad Blockers With $500K In Funding">ClarityRay Battles Ad Blockers With $500K In Funding</a>

ClarityRay-White500

Some of you are probably reading this post with ad blocker right now — and to be honest, I don’t blame you. Sure, there’s the occasional amusing or genuinely useful ad, but not terribly often, so why not install a plugin and avoid the whole mess? Of course, those ads make money, so if ad blockers become widespread enough, it could be a real problem for online publishers (who have enough problems already).

Israeli startup ClarityRay says it’s not something looming in the misty future — it’s happening now, and it’s only going to get worse.

In a recent study, the company claims to have looked at “over 100 million impressions across several top-tier publishers in the US and Europe” finding that 9.26 percent of all impressions were blocked. The likelihood that someone is using an ad blocker varies significantly by browser — Firefox users are the most likely to use a blocker, followed by Safari (the desktop version) and then Chrome. The report goes on:

The combined market share of Chrome and Firefox is only increasing. Moreover, the great popularity of ad-blockers points to a strong public need; as awareness increases, a free, widely available solution that is one-click away on every platform is bound to increase its consumer adoption. It is, therefore, our estimate that ad-blocking will double within 20 months.

The company’s logic, at least as presented here, didn’t quite convince me that ad blocking will double, but I’m not debating the larger points. Naturally, ClarityRay is offering a solution.

“We believe ad-blocking today is a lot like how pirate MP3′s were before iTunes: they point to a valid consumer need, but do so in an unsustainable manner business wise,” says co-founder and CEO Ido Yablonka.

In other words, Yablonka wants to provide an alternative that addresses the complaints of the “ad intolerant” while allowing publishers to make money. To that end, the company offers two complementary products — one that bypasses ad blockers, and another that allows publishers to offer subscriptions for an ad-free version of the site. So if you’ve installed and ad blocker and you visit a ClarityRay customer, you’ll still see a single ad, Yablonka says. Don’t want to see it? Then pay.

At the same time, Yablonka acknowledges that each publisher has its own audience and its own needs, and he says ClarityRay customizes the program for customer based on crowd analysis.

Even though the company hasn’t received much coverage from the press, Yablonka says it’s already live with several large publishers, totaling 1 million unique monthly visitors. (I’ve asked him to point me to a customer site that we can see the technology in action, and I’ll update if he does.) ClarityRay has also raised $500,000 in funding from Saar Wilf, who sold his company Fraud Sciences to eBay for $169 million, and is now serving as the company’s chairman.

<a href="http://blog.christianebuddy.com/2012/05/dea-proposes-tracking-all-cars-on-utah-highway-is-your-street-next/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to DEA proposes tracking all cars on Utah highway – is your street next?">DEA proposes tracking all cars on Utah highway – is your street next?</a>

Law enforcement officials have been systematically tracking license plates for a long time — at the border, for instance. But a DEA project in Utah may be overstepping the bounds of good governance, tracking and sharing licenses on a national level.Law enforcement officials have been systematically tracking license plates for a long time — at the border, for instance. But a DEA project in Utah may be overstepping the bounds of good governance, tracking and sharing licenses on a national level.






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