MetaSquares Now Available for the iPhone

MetaTools Inc. today announced the availability of its first iPhone game, MetaSquares, a deceptively simple to play, but hard to be expert strategy game, which is now available in Apple Computer’s iTunes App Store.

Noted puzzle and computer game designer Scott Kim, whose puzzles were featured in “Scientific American” magazine, created the initial concept for MetaSquares during the mid 1990s, which generated a huge following on the Mac and Windows America Online platform prior to the emergence of the internet.

MetaSquares players enter an eight by eight board with one goal in mind - create more squares than their opponents. Using game play features such as tapping, double tapping and swiping that are designed specifically for the iPhone, players can go head-to-head with their iPhone toting friends or challenge the progressively more difficult artificial intelligence opponent. MetaSquares offers consumers of all ages and skill levels a quick (games are usually two to three minutes
long), fun and challenging experience.

The MetaSquares team brings together veteran MetaTools team members who have regrouped to develop software that will continue the company's tradition of creating sophisticated applications and plug-ins that are graphically exciting, as well as fun and easy to use. Re-emerging today as a creator of advanced mobile and social gaming applications and plug-ins, MetaTools chose iPhone as the premier platform for MetaSquares.

“We are thrilled to introduce MetaSquares to the millions of iPhone owners who will look to Apple’s mobile platform for entertainment as well as communication,” said Wilczak. “MetaSquares signals our re-entry into this market and will allow our dedicated fans, who found our original products innovative and rewarding, as well as new players the opportunity to play anytime and anywhere, solo or with a friend.”

Returning to MetaTools to lead the MetaSquares team is MetaTools’ Vice President of Business Development John Ray, who previously led the business development and licensing operations for Blue Lava Wireless, owner/licensor of Tetris, to numerous parties/platforms worldwide.

MetaSquares is scheduled to be released in the near future in multiple languages including French, German, Japanese and Spanish. MetaTools is also developing a multiplayer option with access via mobile internet connections.

MetaSquares costs $2.99 on carriers via iPhone or by visiting the MetaTools website, http://www.metatools.com/, and is available on the App Store.

Consumers without iPhones can preview MetaSquares online for free at www.metatools.com/iphonemsq/ on Apple computers or via Firefox Web Browser if accessing from a Windows PC.

Hi5 Launches Mobile Site in 26 Languages

One of the top social networks worldwide, hi5, announced the release of their mobile site today, which while late in the game, is already a notch ahead of the competition.

The new mobile version launched with translations available in all of the 26 different languages already offered on the main site.

"No other social network offers mobile support in as many languages as hi5. This extensive in-language support represents a significant market opportunity for the company," the release boasts.

While you may not have heard of them much here in the U.S., hi5 is one of the fastest growing social networks in the world, according to ComScore, with over 80% of its users outside the US.
Facebook, however, is still number one, but they have had a late start in their translation efforts. And they are hoping to catch up with the resent release of their Translation Application to crowd source the effort in as many languages as possible.

This development by hi5 probably won't attract a new audience here in the U.S., but CEO Ramu Yalamanchi is looking more at the advertising potential.

“As we see the number of users accessing hi5 via their mobile phones increase, it will open up the opportunity to roll out hyper-localized advertising,” he says.

This is all part of the latest effort by all of the networks to expand worldwide as growth in the U.S. wanes.

Source -blog Wired

Spice Mobile launches S-820 music phone

Mobile has launched a music phone, S-820 which has an integrated Yamaha audio amplifier for loud and 3D surround experience. The phone comes preloaded with music content from ‘Singh is King’, movie.

It has a memory of 1 GB. The phone comes with a Bluetooth stereo headset that provides you wireless environment. The phone has FM radio and bluetooth headset and caller block facility, 1.3 mega-pixel camera, WAP and GPRS facilities. It also has a one-touch access for news content of Reuters. The cost of Spice S-820 music phone at Rs 6,599.

Nokia announces two new smartphones: N85, N79

Nokia unleashed plans of launch of two new handsets- N85 and N79, both boasting of navigation features and five-mega pixel cameras.

The Finnish phonemaker’s market share in converged devices plummeted to 41 percent in the second quarter from 51 percent in the pervious year, with increasing competition from Research In Motion Ltd., LG Electronics Co. and Apple Inc.

The two new offerings offer over 10 N-Gage games and allow users to locate where pictures were taken with the device. The N85 handset comes packed with an 8-gigabyte memory card.


Nokia N85

The N85 will be available in only one color version (black), Nokia wants the N79 to be more "color friendly." More exactly, the Finnish company will ship the candybar in two versions, white and silver, each of them coming with 3 Xpress-on smart covers that can be red, brown, green, blue or white.


The N85 features a 2.6 inch TFT display with 16.7 million colors, 320 x 240 pixels, brightness control and ambient light detector, accelerometer for automatic image rotation, secondary camera for video calls, Wi-Fi, GPS, A-GPS, Nokia Maps, Adobe Flash Lite 3.0, Nokia Web browser, Adobe Reader, Nokia Nseries music player (supporting MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ and WMA), 3D stereo speakers, dedicated music keys, a 3.5 mm headset jack, UPnP music streaming, FM radio with RDS, FM transmitter, N-gage gaming controls, digital stereo microphone, text-to-speech and Symbian 9.3 S60 3rd Edition (with Feature Pack 2).

The N85 has only 74MB of internal memory, but an 8GB microSD card is included in the package – enough for about anything you might want to store on the phone.



The Nokia N85 was created to be more than the sum of its parts, offering a complete mobile entertainment package designed for connecting, sharing and discovering. The iconic Nokia Nseries dual slider design has evolved to become smaller and sleeker while integrating the newest features and services to deliver the best mobile experience to date," states Juha-Pekka Sipponen, director, Nokia Nseries.


Nokia N79





The Nokia N79 packs cutting-edge technology into a compact design – a characteristic of the iconic Nseries – that allows people to discover, create and share their passions with others. It has been designed for those who want a device that is as appealing as it is powerful," stated Juha Kokkonen, director, Nokia Nseries.

the N79 is not too different from the N85. The candybar brings the following: a 2.4 inch TFT display with 16 million colors and 240 x 320 pixels, a 5 Megapixel camera with all the characteristics of the one included in the N85, GSM and HSDPA connectivity, GPS and A-GPS, Nokia Maps, Wi-Fi, Music and Video players, a 3.5mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth, TV-out, pre-installed Nseries games and 50MB of built-in memory, "helped" by a 4GB card.





The N79 measures 110 x 49 x 15 millimeters and weighs 97 grams. Although the phone's battery is similar to the one packed in the N85 (a 1200 mAh one), its performance is lower. Thus, the N79 can provide only up to 5.5 hours of GSM talk-time, 3.5 hours of 3G talk-time or up to 24 hours of music playback.

The N85 and N79 will be shipped in October and will be priced at 450 euros and 350 euros.