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Angry Birds: full Android version 2-3 weeks away
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg profile secrets revealed!
Amazon has a dig at iPad and tablets with Kindle ad
Stephen Fry launches App Store cash in: will you pay up?
Halo: Reach real jetpack flight video
Acer dual touchscreen laptop leaked
Electricpig appoints Commercial Director: Welcome Ben Oakshott
BBC iPlayer: international version incoming!
Google investing in 3D software startup
Lunchtime Lowdown: Acer Liquid Metal exclusive, iTunes Instant and Halo Reach out tonight

Angry Birds: full Android version 2-3 weeks away

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 08:48 AM PDT

Android users may breathe a sigh of relief, as a full version of Angry Birds is on its way to replace that Lite version of Angry Birds you’ve been plugging away at and completing, in just a couple of weeks. Angry Birds creators Rovio told TalkAndroid: “We are currently working hard to ensure that Angry Birds on Android will offer the best game experience for as many people as possible. The expected release date is within 2-3 weeks.”

[via TalkAndroid]

Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg profile secrets revealed!

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 08:01 AM PDT

While Facebook privacy concerns have never been a massive issue for its creator Mark Zuckerberg but a new profile in the New Yorker still reveals more about the man himself than he's usually let on. So what secrets are lurking behind Mark Zuckerberg's public Facebook profile. Read on for some interesting trivia including just why the site is blue and a fairly shocking admission from the Facebook founder…

Possibly our favourite revelation about the Facebook boss in the New York profile is that Mark Zuckerberg previously listed The West Wing as he favourite TV show on his profile. Now West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin has penned the script for The Social Network aka the Facebook movie, that has been removed.

The article also reveals why Facebook is blue. It turns out the site's colour scheme isn't the result of Google-style pondering over a colour chart desperately seeking the most user-friendly shade. Facebook is blue because Mark Zuckerberg is colour-blind. He tells The New Yorker: "Blue is the richest colour for me. I can see all of blue."

Another intriguing Facebook fact that pops up in the profile is that Facebook conference rooms are named after bad ideas. They include Knife At A Gunfight and Beacon (after the notoriously badly received Facebook feature).

As bad ideas go, the decision by Mark Zuckerberg to reveal that he sent a series of damaging IMs while he was still at college might be set to join the list. In the New Yorker article he admits to a conversation offering up private details of Harvard students to a friend which concludes with him saying: "People just submitted it. They 'trust me'. Dumb f*cks."

To be fair Mark Zuckerberg tells the New Yorker that he regrets the messages and says: "If you're going to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, then you need to be mature, right? I think I've grown and learned a lot." Whether people worried about the power of Facebook will accept that is another matter.

The profile also reveals the Mark Zuckerberg uses an iPhone 4 and one of his earliest programming projects was an instant messaging service his family used to communicate among themselves which they dubbed Zucknet.

Possibly the most revealing bit of information revealed about the Facebook founder in the profile is his favourite book. It's Ender's Game – a tale about a boy who saves the world but doesn't connect well with others and is hated for being successful. Does that sound at all familiar?

Out now | £free | Facebook (via The New Yorker)

Amazon has a dig at iPad and tablets with Kindle ad

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 08:01 AM PDT

Amazon is on the offensive, pushing the pro (it seems there is just one) of the Kindle over the iPad and other tablets. The video points out that you can read the Kindle in the sunshine, whereas screen glare makes this almost impossible on an iPad screen.

Problem is, this might just be the only thing that the Kindle has over and above an iPad or other tablet, apart from the price, which isn’t fair given the differences between the devices. Kindle content pretty much stops at ebooks. If that’s all you want, then fine, but if you’re looking for more than that (email? apps? audio video capabilities?) out of a mobile device, which most people are, then the Kindle is a bit of an expensive investment for what is essentially a one function device.

What do you think? Is £109 a bargain for a device that lets you read in the sun, or is it an expensive indulgence, like this woman’s sunglasses?

[via CrunchGear]

Stephen Fry launches App Store cash in: will you pay up?

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 07:15 AM PDT

Stephen Fry has invaded the App Store with two pricey digital add-ons for the second volume of his autobiography The Fry Chronicles. The question is, will you shell out for the Stephen Fry app? Read on for more details…

Stephen Fry, with some help from Penguin, has launched his myFry app in the App Store, priced at £7.99, which is pretty pricey considering it appears to be a book, tagged with a pretty graphic. It's built to be navigated in a non-linear way, and it’s colour coded into four categories: people, subjects, feelings, and 'Fryisms'.

Stephen Fry is also launching an eBook version of his autiobiography o the iBookstore, which has additional videos, a slideshow, and web inks, which is priced at £12.99.

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin’s Digital Publisher, said: "We’ve been waiting for the right book to go to town on. With the latest generation of eBook reading software and a most willing author we could add extra audio-visual material inside the book to illustrate and enhance the text and I’m sure that we will see many more enhanced titles appearing over the coming months.”

The app does look beautiful, as you can see from the video below, but are users prepared to cough up £8-£13 for apps or enhanced eBooks?

Out now | £7.99 and £12.99 | App Store

Will you be snapping up the Stephen Fry app or eBook? Drop us a line in the comments and let us know!

Halo: Reach real jetpack flight video

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 06:56 AM PDT

To mark the launch of Halo: Reach, Microsoft sent someone rocketing around Trafalgar Square in a jetpack at 7am this morning. It looks like there weren’t many folks queued up to watch the Halo: Reach stunt, as most of us are just beginning to wipe the sleep from our eyes and climb zombie-like into the shower at that time. Luckily though, you can click through to watch the video.

Jetpacks are one of the new features of Halo: Reach, hence the stunt. It looks pretty great, even if it does only last for 30 seconds or so…

Acer dual touchscreen laptop leaked

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 06:32 AM PDT

An Acer dual touchscreen laptop has leaked and looks ready to give the Toshiba Libretto W100 a run for its money as the most barmy touchscreen touter in town. The unnamed Acer dual touchscreen laptop is still very much in its prototype stages but details about its twin touchscreen set-up have still hit the web. Read on to ponder this peculiar beast…

Like the Toshiba Libretto W100, the Acer dual touchscreen laptop uses two touchscreens which can display a virtual keyboard and trackpad, be flipped round to use as an ebook reader or customised with more imaginative finger-friendly interfaces. Acer also seems to have built a custom app for getting gesture happy on the prototype device.

The Acer dual touchscreen laptop is reportedly "slow and buggy" right now and Acer is apparently still pondering whether it will ever hit the shelves. If it does make it out of the labs, it reportedly won't be until Autumn 2011. The big issue right now is battery life. It's currently packing a 2.67Ghz Intel Core i5 processor and Windows 7, hardly the best combination for long battery running times.

We're pretty likely to have seen the iPad 2 by the time this Acer dual touchscreen laptop becomes a reality and there'll be battalions of Android tablets to tussle with too. Is there a place for it? Let us know what you make of twin-touchscreen experiments like this? Could you ever see yourself using one?

Out TBC | £TBC | Acer (via TechReviewSource)

Electricpig appoints Commercial Director: Welcome Ben Oakshott

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 06:28 AM PDT

We're delighted to announce we’ve appointed a new Commercial Director at Electricpig, and wanted to introduce him with a welcome post. Everyone say hello to Ben Oakshott!

Over the coming weeks and months Ben will be bringing the world’s most innovative and exciting tech brands (big and small) to Electricpig via exciting promotions and mind-expanding activity.

Regular readers will notice we don't have traditional adverts here at Electricpig (none of that pop-up, rollover, annoying animated stuff here). We ditched those old school ads back in January because many of you told us you didn’t like them, plus we didn't like them as they typically slowed the site down, which sucks for everyone. Instead, we found an effective and inspiring way for the most exciting tech brands on the planet to promote their products to the Electricpig audience in a genuinely valuable and openly credible fashion.

We created Porky Partners: brilliantly engaging, varied and entertaining campaigns that are independently created by the Electricpig editorial team in partnership with brands, bringing must-know information to the site, and promoting some of the most innovative products around in the process. A few highlights including Android Invades with Vodafone, Which smartphone are you? with Samsung Mobile and How to watch the World Cup anywhere with Elgato.

None of our campaigns contain traditional marketing, and are instead finely tailored to the interests of you, the Electricpig readers. These distinct campaigns are also keenly focussed on only the most exciting new products and services out there. We don't accept just anyone as a Porky Partner.

Ben is the fella responsible for all commercial activity on Electricpig, including Porky Partners, and is here to ensure we can afford to keep our amazing editorial team fed and watered. But first and foremost he’s tasked with creating opportunities and working with brands to help communicate the benefits of their products to you, our brilliant readers, in an independent, relevant and compelling way.

If you’re a regular reader of Electricpig, Ben’s appointment as Commercial Director basically means you’ll be met with even better advertising that's genuinely useful.

If you’re from a brand or an agency and would like to discuss commercial opportunities with Electricpig, please give Ben a shout.

Ben Oakshott
Commercial Director, Electricpig
T: + 44 (0) 759 560 7452
E: ben.oakshott@electricpig.co.uk

BBC iPlayer: international version incoming!

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 06:05 AM PDT

The BBC iPlayer is going international! The Beeb has appointed Mark Smith, who'd previously been acting manager of the UK version of iPlayer, to helm a project that will create an international version. At the Edinburgh International Television Festival two weeks ago, BBC director general Mark Thompson promised an international iPlayer would arrive "within a year". It looks like the BBC really is getting on with it…

While radio shows are accessible through the BBC iPlayer in Ireland (and some other locations), TV shows are restricted to the UK unless you tinker with methods for spoofing your IP address. The appointment of Smith to head up international iPlayer development will mean on-demand TV comes to other territories but it's unlikely to be a free for all.

The BBC currently licenses and sells BBC shows like Top Gear across the world through BBC Worldwide. An international BBC iPlayer is likely to arrive as either a heavily ad-supported service or as a subscription service for foreign users. The glories of a free BBC iPlayer will remain the preserve of UK licence payers.

Thompson said in his Edinburgh International Television Festival speech that the BBC is working to "find a way of letting UK licence fee payers and servicemen and women use a version of the UK public service iPlayer wherever they are in the world." That opens up the exciting prospect of logging in to iPlayer on your holidays.

Smith takes up his role at the end of this month so hopefully we'll hear some more news on plans for the international BBC iPlayer soon. Hit the comments and let us know what you think of the plans. If you're one of the many Electricpig readers in far flung locations, how much would you be willing to pay to get iPlayer where you are?

Out TBC | £TBC | BBC (via Strategy Eye)

Google investing in 3D software startup

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 05:30 AM PDT

Google is set to add another company to it's free flowing roster of acquisitions. Quiksee is a 3D software startup of sorts, whose software means users can port videos and map them as interactive virtual tours resembling 3D panoramas.

Quiksee had no comment, but the sale to Google reportedly went through at $10 million. Speculation says that Quiksee is the missing link in Google Maps and Google Earth, but it's also one more in an ever increasing string of acquisitions on the part of Google, which doesn't appear to be letting up.

Peter Kafka over at AllThingsDigital is calling these Google acquisitions 'acq-hires' – a company is bought and brought into the Google fold. This is what happened to the pre-Foursquare startup Dodgeball, but the founders left after a couple of years and formed Foursquare, after becoming frustrated with the lack of support from Google.

Which leaves a question: are these Google acquisitions tactical, or is Google really looking to integrate services an software like Quiksee into its offering?

What do you think?

Lunchtime Lowdown: Acer Liquid Metal exclusive, iTunes Instant and Halo Reach out tonight

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 05:13 AM PDT

Hungry yet? Even if you’ve scoffed your sandwich already, we’re willing to bet there’s a hole in your stomach only the latest gadget news can fill. It’s all here ready to plug that gap so read on for it all in the lunchtime lowdown!

It’s been a busy morning on the mobile front. Microsoft fans will be pleased to see a new HTC Trophy Windows Phone 7 handset rearing its head, while Android fans should get very excited: we broke the news of Acer’s next flagship smartphone, the Acer Liquid Metal, and it’s out next month.

Online meanwhile, we’ve seen some new tips, tricks and features land: iTunes Instant arrived, while Google kicked off live streaming on YouTube. We also took a look at Virgin Media Player and how it stacks up against IPTV rivals.

Finally, don’t forget that Halo Reach is out today. Will you be lining up for the midnight opening?

Still want more news? Hop on through to the homepage and help yourself to it all as it breaks!