Kudos to Audible (@audible_com) for rolling out a standalone app for the Android platform. I’ve been a subscriber to Audible for the past 2 years and the experience on the iPod and iPod touch has left me complacent — after installing the public beta version. I used to think that “just listening” was a great experience, but the current build has an easy to use bookmarking feature, the ability to download new books from your library, and a bit of eye candy with the visualizer mode.
Previously with the iPhone, downloading audiobooks required a desktop sync with iTunes. On Android, you can do in-app downloads. With the visualizer mode, you’re basically listening to audio with a screensaver background. This mode activates touch sensitive features allowing to you drag across the screen to rewind and fast forward.
Right now the app suffers from Fragmentation issues as there are so many version of Android installed on many other phone brands so the experiences vary, unlike that of the iPhone. If you’re an Audible subscriber and have an Android-based phone (my copy is running on a Sony Ericsson X10), join the Google Group.
A couple of years ago I downloaded The Ur-Quan masters, a rerelease of a game I used to play heavily in my grade school years on the PC. It had a checklist that fulfilled a sci-fi geek’s wish: lots of ships, lots of aliens, a commentary on man’s struggle against insurmountable odds, explosions, and yes — even more aliens. Star Control II was also unique as it was the first (and maybe only) game that had audio software that simulated a Sound Blaster PC sound card. In other words, even if you were on PC Speaker, you were enjoying 16-bit audio, albeit dumbed down in quality. But still.
Star Control II was nominated as one of the greatest games of all time by both Gamespot and IGN and as i said above, was re-released as an open source community project in 2002. It ran on Linux, Macintosh, XBOX, PSP, and the PC. Wait a minute — if it ran on Linux, there probably would have been a version in development for other iterations of Linux. So I searched for a Maemo version.
There’s no other way to demo this game for the N Gage than to show it. It’s basically a combination of Boogie for the Nintendo Wii and Dance Dance Revolution, all put together on your mobile phone. What makes this game challenging is that there’s no rhythm bar, unlike in the Wii’s Boogie.
There is no multiplayer component so you can’t play with friends but since you’re logged on to the N Gage Arena, you can compare top scores per region and even globally.
Universal’s Cindy Gomez (up and coming artist) is also inside the game as an avatar which you can play. Five of her songs are included as tracks but you can use any music track within your device.
The game uses an achievements-based system to unlock items so leveling up allows you to see more items and use them as apparel for your avatar.
With the first release candidate for Windows 7 due on the 5th of May, the community (yes, even Apple community folks) are impressed with new features such as Windows XP virtualization and play list streaming over the Internet from any computer (it’s like last.fm for Windows Live). To add to the flair, RC1 comes bundled with these awesome default wallpapers to visually reflect the new face of Windows. Click on the photos to scale bigger versions.
Click on for more samples and the download zip link!
With more than 500 seeders, ROHAN Closed Beta is jump starting its way to local shores.
Kiven just announced the opening of ROHAN CLOSED BETA Philippines. I’ve been curious with this particular game franchise as a good number of people have been talking about it – all MMO games are a dime a dozen, especially the ones we franchise into the Philippines. But ROHAN seems to stand out mainly because it is an A+ grade game that’s completely free to play.
Another thing ROHAN permeates into its system is a phenomenon that was actually frowned upon by the industry – although the game is free to play, there is an option to SELL your character once you’ve achieved a desirable level! Hmm another intriguing way to make money online if you aren’t into the blogging or online store gig. In the past, avatar sales from RAN Online and Ragnarok have raked in five digit figures in pesos. Level Up was quick to recognize that this is indeed a lucrative business model – don’t ban it. Encourage it.
