geekosystem

Personal experience may vary, but most of the BlackBerry users I know all cite BlackBerry Messenger as a defense whenever someone says anything negative about BlackBerry. They really seem to love it, but the only people who have been able to use BBM are BlackBerry owners. That's about to change. This summer BlackBerry will launch versions of BBM for iOS and Android. You finally be able to message for free with your one friend who still owns a BlackBerry.

In case you weren't already a bit skint thanks to saving for the inevitable Sony/Microsoft console war that looks like might go down this holiday season, Nvidia's hoping you might want an Android-powered handheld. The Shield, previous Project Shield, is set to ship in June for price of $349. If that seems a bit much to you, you're not alone. We like to see new handhelds as much as the next person, but this seems like poor timing.

This is just a rumor at this point, but GigaOM is reporting that AT&T will be dropping the HTC First due to poor sales. The First was introduced in conjunction with Facebook Home -- which I tried and hated -- and it turns out I wasn't alone. The First had disappointing numbers and was discounted to 99 cents last week, but the word on the street is that AT&T will discontinue it completely.

I had a working cell phone once. In the before time. In the long, long ago. That's all over now. It's Facebook Home launch day for those "lucky" enough to have one of the few handsets it's rolling out for today. I have a Galaxy S III while the other chumps here at Geekosystem have iPhones, so I took one for the team and installed Facebook Home. Like the Borg, my phone has been assimilated and turned into something dark, twisted, and evil. That might be a slight overstatement, but it is quite bad. Who knew I could ever miss Touch Whiz?

During today's presentation by Facebook that unveiled Facebook Home and the HTC First, Mark Zuckerberg and friends seemed pretty proud of themselves that Home runs on an unaltered or "unforked" version of Android. It came up a few times in the presentation, and I laughed every time, because the way Zuckerberg says "forked" made it sound like he was swearing. Despite the multiple mentions to Home's ability to run on Android unaltered, HTC has confirmed that the First is running a modified version of Android to better optimize for Facebook Home. Fork.

Google is continuing to shake up their product line. First, they announced the untimely death of Google Reader. Then it came out they'll be smashing all their chat products together into a single tower of an app known as Babble. Now they've jumped into the note-taking pool to make waves for competitors like Evernote with Google Keep. I installed Keep on my Galaxy S3 last night, and I'm already in love.

It's the Google Play store's first birthday today, but don't feel bad if you forgot to get it anything. Google knows its better to give than receive, so they're celebrating with a huge sale offering free and discounted apps and media. There are even a lot of in-app goodies specially created for some of Android's top games. The designers of those games even put together a special Google Hangout birthday message for the Google Play team.

Back in August, more than 63,000 gaming enthusiasts (with wallets) were heard, because the ambitious little console-that-could, the OUYA, was funded on Kickstarter by more than 9 times their goal, raking in just over $8.5 million. But that's old news. Here's the new: As promised back then, OUYA is shipping out the actual console to backers who pledged $95 or more in March. Specifically, March 28th. The main product -- retailing at $99 -- will be available to the rest of us slackers in June.

One of the biggest reasons that people spoke out against the OUYA, the Android console that came from Kickstarter, is the fact that it would become so quickly outdated. The traditional Android market, and the chips that go in such devices, constantly churns through iterations because the materials keep becoming better and better. Turns out, OUYA's going to follow the same model. CEO Julie Uhrman reportedly told Engadget [t]here will be a a new OUYA every year."

The cyber-security wonks at Kaspersky have raised the alarm on a piece of malware for Android phones. The real target of the virus, though, isn't the phone -- it's the computer users will plug it into. The malware, which was available until recently in the Google Play store, masquerades as simple Android phone clean up apps going by the (slightly ironic) names SuperClean and DroidCleaner. Once the apps made it onto a computer, though, they doesn't clean up so much as clean house, copying sensitive data like photos and contact information to remote servers. That's not unnerving enough for you? Don't worry -- to turn the creep factor up to 11, the malware is also capable of turning on PC microphones to listen in on users and relay along those recordings to its shadowy overlords.

When the ticking clock on Ubuntu's website hit zero and revealed the Ubuntu Phone platform, I got excited. I've used various versions of Ubuntu off and on over the years, and recently started using it as the primary OS on my laptop. I've been impressed and would love to see Ubuntu flow over on to my phone as well. The Ubuntu Phone experience will be even more similar to the desktop version than previously thought, because Ubuntu Phone will have a terminal application, giving users complete control over their phone's system.

"I've been trying to take over Washington Square Park for a little over a week now, but it's overrun with Resistance portals, and I'm not powerful enough to shut them down," is something a crazy person, or someone playing Ingress would say. I wrote about the trailer for Ingress back in November. It's Google's Android augmented reality MMORPG. The game is still in closed beta, but I got an invite a little bit ago and I've been trying it out. I really have been trying to take over Washington Square Park. It will be mine, I tell you. Mine!

Love being able to emulate classic games on your phone but aren't yet sold on the often clumsy control schemes? Well, if you've got some technical know-how, a couple of free hours, and a spare Game Boy from your misspent youth that you don't mind sacrificing on the altar of progress, you can turn that old portable system into a convenient -- and dare we say stylish -- mount for your Android phone that also serves as a controller for all your favorite classic games. Really! There's a video that proves it below.

I think at this point, more people know Blockbuster as a third-string Batman villain than as a video store, but the company still exists and they'd like to remind you of that fact with their new Android app. If you're an Android user with a Blockbuster account, though, don't get too excited. You can't stream movies to your phone with this app. Really. It just manages your queue for their mail service, which I was surprised to find out is still around.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's hardly been two weeks since OUYA development kits reached the hands of prospective and independent game developers everywhere, and already we've seen what may be the zenith of its potential. OUYA owners have been posting gameplay videos on the console's official message boards demonstrating that the console meant to revolutionize the home video game market and provide an outlet for developers is pretty much being used to run emulations of classic games of the past instead, especially titles from the immensely popular Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 systems.