Category: Tech

GameBuilder Studio is a cross-platform tool for creating games. Anyone from a professional game developer to a wannabe can bring their ideas to life using the GameBuilder visual editor. The focus is on building sophisticated casual games and the system allows you to deploy these games across multiple screens, including your mobile devices and the web and these games work with the best gaming processors. GameBuilder allows you to develop once and distribute everywhere, which decreases development costs while increasing your potential customer base. The intuitive and easy-to-use visual editor is extensible by purchasing pre-defined game plugins and assets from the GameBuilder marketplace.

GameBuilder Studio is the first and only “End-to-End”, flash based game editor for professional developers, game studios and educational institutions. It is equipped with the necessary tools for developers to build isometric flash games similar to Farmville & Social City or 3D games like Pokemon Go API and deploy them directly to iPhone, Android, and Facebook, without having to start from the ground up, increasing developer productivity, and cutting down on development time and cost. The simplicity of its user interface allows for in-experienced game developers to jump right in and start creating but provides more experienced game developers with the ability to add enhanced features as needed using the editors plugin API and sell those plugins on the open market place. Online casino company www.c9bets.com/ is the perfect example of a business that helps people find Android and iPhone games.

GameBuilder Studio was created by African-American entrepreneur Lavon Woods, who moved to the Bay Area about six months ago. His startup is one of six companies chosen at LaunchPad Ignition, a startup accelerator program through Launch Pad and in partnership with President Obama’s Startup America initiative. They received $25,000 in seed funding and will also receive seven weeks of intensive training and consulting in preparation for Launch Fest, which brings together investors, mentors, and speakers in New Orleans for a two-day conference on May 4 & 5.

Woods is the real deal, previously working as a Senior Software Engineer at Shutterfly and serving as Founder, CEO, and Lead Architect for GameBuilder Studio. He is also Lead Flex / AS3 Architect & President at Hybrid Mindset, LLC, a company which develops Rich Internet Applications and focuses on bringing technological enhancements to small businesses to help them grow while reducing costs. Your best strategies for winning at slot machine spin games focus on helping you manage your time and money. Don’t fall for any gimmicks or sure fire ways to win. No one has a sure fire way to win.

Hit the site and check out the 60-second time-lapse demo of GameBuilder Studio in action.

Internet Week New York take place in the first week of June. It’s actually a festival which creates a “critical mass of web-focused events that raises the profile of NYC’s industry as a whole, as well as the partners who participate.” They are allowing panel submissions for the main AOL stage, which will be streamed live to an audience of 40,000+ (based on last years views).

Cavaughn Noel, Emerging Digital Media Consultant at Icy Visions, LLC, saw this as an opportunity for the black techies out there to “take over Internet Week (in a positive way).” To that end, he’s submitted for a Black Startups Demo event called “Untapped” to get Minority Tech brands represented at these large events.

Only 12 of the current 208+ submitted panels will make the cut, but we can make a difference by voting. Cavaughn says “this is the perfect opportunity for the Black Start-up voice to be heard in the tech community, so let’s make it happen” and I have to agree. It’s pretty standard practice for the black tech voices to be drowned out in general. We recently saw The Root’s list of 30 black bloggers “you should know” and didn’t list a single tech blog.

Visit VoteBlackStartups.com to cast your vote and use the Twitter Hashtag: #VoteBlackStartups to share the “campaign” with your friends.

Starting Thursday, the Oprah Winfrey Network and Oprah.com will claim an official “Oprah” section on Flipboard, the iPad app that turns your social stream into a magazine.

Based on her Twitter feed, the Oprah section will include content from print sources like O, The Oprah Magazine and OWN, in addition to videos counting down her farewell during this final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah’s content will be featured prominently on Flipboard’s front page, along with the reader’s recommended content from Facebook and Twitter.

It was just a few months ago that Oprah sat down with Hammer and Flipboard CEO Mike McCue to announce the premiere of Hammer’s latest song on Flipboard. While Flipboard is primarily visual, they did include audio for Hammer’s premier along with an exclusive slideshow. Apparently, Oprah was impressed.

Flipboard represenative Marci McCue says the company added Oprah’s content because “her audience is important for the iPad.” Flipboard has no immediate plans to feature any other brand in this way. McCue adds that Flipboard is planning an iPhone app for this summer. I wonder who Flipboard will join forces with next.

via Mashable

At the Mix 11 conference Tuesday, Microsoft surprised attendees by introducing the Internet Explorer 10 platform preview. This comes just weeks after the launch of Internet Explorer 9. Microsoft’s Dean Hachamovitch said during his keynote at Mix 11 that IE10 builds on the native HTML5 support in IE9, which will lead to long-term adoption of HTML5.

“We built IE9 from the ground up for HTML5 and for Windows to deliver the most native HTML5 experience and the best Web experience on Windows,” Hachamovitch, corporate vice president for IE, wrote in a blog post. “IE10 continues on IE9′s path, directly using what Windows provides and avoiding abstractions, layers, and libraries that slow down your site and your experience.”

“IE’s approach to emerging standards results in less churn and more progress for developers,” Hachamovitch continued. “IE10 builds on full hardware acceleration and continues our focus on site-ready Web-standards. This combination enables developers to deliver the best performance for their customers on Windows while using the same, Web-standard markup across browsers.”

via PC Magazine, MSDN

In a paper published by Christopher Soghoian, a doctoral candidate at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, he warns that Police and other agencies have “enthusiastically embraced” requesting information from entities like Sprint, Facebook, and, AOL. While law enforcement makes “tens of thousands of requests” for your personal information, there are no U.S. federal laws that require reporting of those requests.

“Unfortunately, there are no reporting requirements for the modern surveillance methods that make up the majority of law enforcement requests to service providers and telephone companies,” Soghoian wrote. “As such, this surveillance largely occurs off the books, with no way for Congress or the general public to know the true scale of such activities.”

While real-time interception of items like your email must be reported and tracked, requests for your information after the fact are easier to manage and cheaper to obtain. Citing a New York Times story from 2006, Soghoian wrote that AOL was receiving 1,000 requests per month. In 2009, Facebook told Newsweek that it received 10 to 20 requests from police per day. Sprint received so many requests for mobile-phone location information that they set up a web interface to give law enforcement direct access. This site was used 8 million times in one year.

“The reason for this widespread secrecy appears to be a fear that such information may scare users and give them reason to fear that their private information is not safe, ” Soghoian wrote.

These numbers are really just the tip of the iceberg given that reporting these requests is not required. While the House of Representatives considered legislation to remedy the situation, the Department of Justice shot it down, saying the reporting requirements would be too time consuming.

Read Christopher Soghoian’s paper, The Law Enforcement Surveillance Reporting Gap, here.

via TechWorld

The folks at HopStop have been busy adding several new features and enhancements to make the navigational service better. HopStop offers free transit and walking directions for cities across the U.S. and Canada. Recent updates to the web interface include:

1. Faster Results – Due to several behind-the-scenes technical enhancements, we now present you with direction results faster than ever.
2. Regional Rail – Sometimes the subway or bus isn’t the only way to go, so we now present you with options to include and exclude regional rail.
3. Private Vehicles – If it’s applicable to your trip, we now allow you to include (or exclude) private busses, ferries and shuttles.

HopStop covers all the bases when it comes to mobile, offering the best apps for iphone as well as a mobile web interface and HopStop launcher for Blackberry. The apps and mobile web interface have also had significant updates:

Recent Android App Updates

• Search by taxi (get taxi cost and travel times)
• Save and view recent routes in MyTrips section
• Get destination addresses easily from your address book
• Send routes to yourself or to friends via email or text message
• Set default city for faster searches

Recent iPhone App Updates

• Updated map search functionality
• Easier to sort through (and search by) contacts
• Set default city for faster searches
• Improved app speed and load time!

Recent Mobile Web Updates

• Easier navigation with separate sections for U.S., Canada, Europe
• Bigger fonts for easier on-screen selections
• Ability to download our Android & iPhone apps via a new splash page.

Grab the Android app here, the iOS app here, or visit the enhanced mobile website at http://m.hopstop.com for download links to both (and the Blackberry launcher).

HopStop now provides directions in Buffalo, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, and Raleigh. In the next few months, look for transit directions in Austin, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and San Diego. If you’re heading north to Canada , HopStop can get you around in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

HopStop definitely has their mobile game together, which seems to be a rare case these days. Check the full list of supported mobile interfaces at http://www.hopstop.com/mobile. Have you ever used HopStop? What do you think?

Adobe has announced a set of development tools today that will allow developers to code once and deploy everywhere. This new software will allow users to develop, test and deploy mobile applications on devices running Android, BlackBerry and Apple’s iOS.

Developers have been able to use Adobe products for more than seven years to build applications in desktop browsers and can soon use the new tools to apply their skills to various mobile platforms, Dave Gruber, group product marketing manager for Adobe, said in an interview.

“You’ll leverage Adobe Air again, except across iOS, Android and BlackBerry,” he said. “It’s one tool and one framework and one code base.”

The possibility to create common code that only varies in minor details across various mobile platforms is a very powerful ability for developers. They will no longer have to maintain completely separate code for apps on Android and iOS.

Adobe’s Flash runtime tool, called Air 2.6, will use the new Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5. Both will be available in May, which FlashBuilder Standard starting at $249 per seat and Flex 4.5 free and open-source. An update to Flex 4.5 to support the Blackberry Tablet OS, and iOS will be available in June.

Adobe expects 131 million smartphones to have the Flash player installed by the end of the year, including Android, WebOS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, future versions of Windows Phone, and more. While Apple has basically banned Flash in its plugin form, Gruber says the Air runtime software can be compiled into iOS applications to support animations and other design features.

via Computer World

The Blacks at Microsoft (BAM) employee network is offering a $5,000 scholarship for the 2011/12 academic year to outstanding high school seniors pursuing careers in technology. The scholarship is renewable, so the recipient will receive $5,000 annually for up to four years as long as they continue to meet the criteria. There are 2 scholarships available and applications must be received by 5/1/2011. You can apply electronically at the Washington Scholarship Coalition.

Founded in 1989 Blacks at Microsoft (BAM) is a company-sponsored diversity organization dedicated to supporting the continued growth and development of African-American employees of Microsoft Corporation. More than 500 Microsoft employees are members of BAM. In addition to financial assistance scholarship recipients are connected with BAM members for mentoring throughout their college careers. The program has been successful in bringing graduates to Microsoft as employees.

Eligibility Requirements

• Be a high-school senior of African descent (for example, African-American, African, or Ethiopian).
• Plan to attend a four-year college or university in the fall of the year following high-school graduation.
• Plan to pursue a bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, computer information systems, or select business programs (such as finance, business administration, or marketing).
• Demonstrate a passion for technology.
• Demonstrate leadership at school or in the community.
• Have a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher.
• Require financial assistance to attend college.

Application Details

Financial Requirements

• Must demonstrate financial need, Number of family members in household, Number of family dependents attending college, Family income

Instructions & Questions

• Briefly, explain how you have demonstrated a passion for technology.
• Briefly, explain how you have demonstrated leadership either at school or in the community.
• In no more than 500 words, describe how you plan to engage in the technology industry in your future career.
• In no more than 250 words, explain why you need this scholarship.
• Please include two reference letters with your application. These letters should be from people who know you through your academic or employment experience or your community leadership and participation. (Do not include relatives as references.)
• Please submit an unofficial transcript with your online application. Winning students will be required to submit an official transcript.

via Electronic Village source Microsoft

Got Milk? Details on Kevin Rose’s New Company

Weeks after leaving Digg, Kevin Rose released details about his new company: Milk. Rose and a team of five other coders will set out to solve specific old-industry problems related to using the mobile Internet. Rather than following the trends for incubators in Silicon Valley, Milk is taking a different direction. Instead of launching a bunch of smaller ideas within the next year, they aim for a more conservative four to six ideas with huge implications.

This setup plays to Roses’s strengths. The Milk team will be able to throw out ideas quickly and see what sticks. “People talk about pivoting all the time now, but if something isn’t working after four months, we’ll just shoot it in the head and start again,” says Rose.

via TechCrunch

Android Test Market Leaks Honeycomb Apps

Due to some type of odd glitch, one tech blogger at Tech From 10 found his Nexus S had suddenly been “blessed” with the Google Test Market. Most of the apps actually didn’t work, including: a Camera, Gallery, Desk Clock, and Cube Wallpaper. Most of these apps are presumably destined for Android 3.0 Honeycomb, including a slick new version of the default Music app, which seems to work flawlessly. You mileage may vary, but you can dowload the APK’s below.

Download: Camera | Gallery | Desk Clock | Cube Wallpaper | Music

via DroidLife

Motorola Xoom and Atrix Both Duds

While many were excited at the prospect of a high-end Android tablet and a powerful Android phone that doubles as a full-fledged laptop, the Motorola Xoom tablet and the Atrix smartphone haven’t done as well as expected. According to Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette, sell-through trends for both devices “have been disappointing.” He mentions specifically that the iPhone 3GS and HTC Inpspire, both at a $49 price point, kept sales of the Atrix “well below forecast.”

There are always two sides to a story, though. The disappointment hinges on sales of 100,000 units in the first few months and comparisons with iPad 2. I’d assume that, given the choice between an $800 Motorola Xoom and a $500 iPad 2, many consumers opted for the later. Joe Wilcox points out other sales deterrents that the Xoom has overcome and says the 100,000 sales are a success rather than a failure given the Xoom’s positioning.

via Forbes

Larry Page Ties Employee Bonuses to Success of Social

It’s no secret that Google wants in on social. Following their launch of Google +1 and Larry Page stepping in as CEO, a leaked memo now reveals that every Google employee is now responsible for pushing Google’s social initiatives. As much as 25% of employee bonuses will now be based on Google’s ability to succeed in social media. Even employees that have nothing to do with these social projects are bound to help them succeed: “This is a joint effort so it’s important that we all get behind it.” Even encouraging employees to push Google products on their loved ones, saying “When we release products, try them and encourage your family and friends to do the same.”

This year marks the first that HBCUs will be included in the Microsoft Imagine Cup. We covered this earlier this year, but there is a burning question surrounding this event: Why, exactly, is this the first time that HBCUs are participating in a competition which has been held annually for the last eight years?

Last year, The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities called for the engagement and strengthening of HBCUs. According to Tara Walker, academic developer evangelist for Microsoft, HBCUs have long been liberal arts colleges and therefore overlooked in the recruiting process for these competitions. But these highly recognizable schools are producing students in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs. Walker immediately made an effort to reach out to them.

“It’s more about awareness,” said Walker. “It’s not a conscious effort to exclude them.”

Twenty-four teams between six HBCUs–Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Howard University, Johnson C. Smith University and Tuskegee University–competed in both rounds this spring. None of these teams made the finals, but Tuskegee was recognized as having an exceptional entry.

“No matter the outcome, it’s a chance to connect and get opportunities. These are diverse competitions,” said Alfred Avor, a senior at Howard University. “Microsoft is revered. Anyone in this field would love to do something associated with them,” he added. The competition offers real world experience, gives students insight on the day-to-day operations in project management, builds resumes, and even provides an opportunity for student projects to get funding from venture capitalists.

“We have a lot of people who joined Microsoft from participating in the Imagine Cup,” Walker said. “Not many students [have] the initiative and drive to do this, so they already put themselves in a class above when they do.”

On a global scale, the US “lacks a strong impact in technology,” even as more technology jobs become available. It’s important to use all available resources in finding the most qualified students. The US ranks 17th globally in terms of education and is well behind nations like China and India when it comes to churning out degrees in the STEM.

“You can’t leave any ethnic or cultural group out of the US for that,” says Tara Walker. “The number of jobs in the next ten years will be in stem-type fields. We don’t have enough resources nationally to fill those. So it’s important that all colleges are aware of the benefits of being in this industry.”

via Atlanta Post

Google has announced that their Check-in service based on Latitude, launched in Austin last month at SXSW, is now available across the US. This means you can use the Google Latitude app to check-in at locations across the US and unlock deals based on your status. The way it works is pretty simple:

1. Check in. Check in using Latitude to share places with friends when you’re there.
2. Gain status. Keep checking in every time you visit your favorite places to gain status there. You can tap your current status level to see your progress towards the next status level.
3. Unlock offers. Places can make check-in offers available to you at each of their 3 status levels. When you gain higher status, you’ll unlock any available check-in offers.

Many are already asking what the point of all this is. We already have Facebook and Foursquare, among others, for check-ins and deals. It’s well-known that Google isn’t exactly the cream of the crop when it comes to doing social, so why would you bother checking in on Latitude instead of the competition?

Even though Latitude may not be as social as Foursquare or Facebook, there are some of us out there that don’t really care about the social features built into those services. At least, not as far as check-ins go. You may just want the badges and the status. Maybe you’re tired of getting 1 point for check-ins at places you’ve been to before and are looking for a reward system that’s a bit more flexible.

Google Latitude check-ins offers an interesting alternative if you want to share your location and care about getting deals. You can share your location to Twitter and Buzz from the app and I’m sure there is a way to also dump them into Facebook if the social aspect is important to you. Not only do you gain access to new deals based on your status level, but venues can even create their own achievement levels. Become a Champion of Taste at Quiznos or an AE Gold Shopper at American Eagle Outfitters, for instance.

Grab Google Maps for Android (Latitude is a feature of Maps; requires Android 1.6+) or the Latitude app for iPhone and start checking in to unlock deals. What do you think about Google Latitude check-ins? Waste of time or new weapon for your arsenal?

via ReadWriteWeb source Google LatLog

Drum Circle Kids is an app for iPad that allows your child to create unique jam sessions by tapping on five colorfully animated drummers. By toggling the drummers on and off, you can create dozens of possible sound combinations. You can also explore the scenery to discover ambient sounds hidden there.

In the learn section, kids can swipe from one drum to the next and touch to play each drum while learning fun drum facts. Includes: the American Trap Set, Caribbean Steel Pan, Chinese Drum, Cuban Conga and the West African Djembe with more drums to come! If you are looking to buy a great drum set then check out drumsdude.com.

Intended for toddlers, age 18 month+, the game was developed by Imani Powell-Razat. Imani is a mom and designer/illustrator for Harlem-based Spye Design. Drum Circle Kids, created as a “multicultural celebration of the world’s drums,” was developed using Corona SDK, a cross-platform mobile app development framework.

Not only is it cool to see a mom develop an app, but I’m sure there are grown people who can’t operate an iPad as smoothly as the kid in the video below. Check out the vid and download the app from iTunes.

via @karsh source If It’s Hip, It’s Here

Global human rights organization, Breakthrough, has launched a new Facebook game called 2049. Players actively explore “how the choices and challenges Americans now face will shape the future of the country, its democratic values and how we define ourselves as a nation.”

America 2049 is the first Facebook game to integrate the social networking platform with other resources, both online and off. It includes multimedia and interactive features, clues planted across the Internet and real-life events at leading cultural institutions nationwide. These real-life locations include the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience members, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and the Bosque Redondo Memorial in New Mexico.

America 2049 is literally a game-changer,” said Breakthrough President & CEO Mallika Dutt. “It parachutes us into an alternate reality perhaps not so far from our own, where we find America poised at a crossroads, and where we are asked to make critical decisions about how we truly want to define ourselves as a nation. The game experience allows us to immerse ourselves in a future that could be — but also inspires us to envision, and recommit to, a real America built on pluralism, democracy, dignity, equality and human rights for all.

Breakthrough multimedia director Heidi Boisvert says that, by placing America 2049 on Facebook, “Breakthrough is using one of the Web’s most popular cultural platforms to create the possibility of changing culture itself.” The game also features appearances by Harold Perrineau (LOST), Victor Garber (Alias), Cherry Jones (24), Anthony Rapp (Rent) and Margaret Cho (Notorious C.H.O.), who generously donated their time and talents to help Breakthrough put a human face on complex social issues, people are loving this game just as much as they love to get a victory over full damage champs for their video games with P4rgaming.

“’America 2049’ entertains and enlightens about the real-world issues of acceptance and tolerance,” said Harold Perrineau. “The project resonated with me because I love the idea of people fighting at all costs for their right to pursue the life they choose without fear of persecution. I hope that through playing ‘America 2049,’ young people in particular will be inspired to help stop institutionalized hatred and intolerance — today.”

Breakthrough is definitely hitting a hot spot between online social gaming and social networking and leveraging the largest social network may actually allow them to hit their mark. Play America 2049 on Facebook and tell us what you think.

WSJ reports that Google is looking to revamp YouTube in order to ride the trend of televisions that allow viewers to watch online video. Primarily, the goal is to compete with broadcast and cable television by enticing users to stay on the site longer and attracting advertisers.

The site is planning a series of changes to its home page to highlight sets of “channels” around topics such as arts and sports from batandballgame.com. About 20 or so of those channels will feature several hours of professionally produced original programming a week, some of these people said. Additional channels would be assembled from content already on the site.

Google is looking to carve out their own niche between the amateur content we’re used to seeing on YouTube and the professionally produced content we usually watch on TV. Those familiar with the matter say Google is willing to shell out as much as $100 million to get this low-cost content produced.

While streaming video sites like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon pay license fees to provide professionally produced programs, Google has mostly unwilling to do so. Rather than pay these hefty fees to grab existing content, it seems they believe it would be more cost-effective to create long-form video from scratch.

While YouTube executives have said the site is close to being profitable, Google is obviously attempting to take a bite out of the $70 billion U.S. television-ad market. The world’s No. 3 website for unique visitors, YouTube generated about $544 million last year. They’re expected to generate more than $800 million in net revenue this year, according to Citigroup estimates.

Currently, YouTube visitors spend about 15 minutes on the site each day. Probably watch cat videos or laughing babies. By switching up their content offerings, Google wants to change the perception of YouTube and give visitors a reason to stick around. YouTube executives have said they want people to ”watch YouTube” the same way they “watch TV.”

This is still in the rumor stage at this point, but it would be interesting to see what type of content Google could come up with using this strategy.

via WSJ