The bird contains two speakers and a subwoofer delivering 30 watts of power. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied

The pig speaker is about the size of a child’s bowling ball. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied

FIRST there was the iPhone game. Then there was the Android game. Then came the cheap rip-off plush toys. Followed by the official plush toys. Then confirmation of the Angry Birds cartoon. And now the Angry Birds speakers.

Angry Birds by gear4 come in three variations – Red Bird, Black Bird and Helmet Pig.

iDevices connect to Red and Black Bird via a cable and supplied dock while Helmet Pig has a built-in dock.

Each bird contains two speakers and a subwoofer delivering 30 watts of power.

The pig speaker is about the size of a child’s bowling ball and stands firmly on a rubber stop and the two helmet straps which double as stands.

It is the ideal size for a bedside stand, a kitchen bench or a bookcase although you might need an extension cord given the power cable is only 1.2m long.

Setup is simple – plug it in, dock your iPhone (or other device via the standard 3.5m AUX port), tap the Music icon and play away.

Sound quality is admirable considering the size of the unit with enough volume, clear treble and a just enough thumping bass for a small room.

It will do the job of providing background music at a small gathering but you wouldn’t want to rely on it to get a large party started.

An included remote control provides volume, track selection, mute and menu selection options although it is quicker to use the iPhone touchscreen.

There is also a bass dial on the back of the unit as well as a standby power switch – you can tell the unit is on when one of the pig’s nostrils is glowing green.

Helmet pig will charge any docked iPhone which also makes it a handy bedroom alarm clock.

Red bird is the cheapest at $119 (doesn’t include a remote control) while Black Bird (will charge a docked iPad) and Helmet Pig (built-in iPhone dock) cost $149.

There are plenty of cheaper iPhone dock speakers of equal quality but this unit is not just about sound.

Obviously the speaker is modelled on the Angry Birds and a lot of effort has gone into replicating the details.

Each speaker ships in a top-quality box designed to look like an Angry Birds crate, making it the perfect gift for fans of the game.

If you’re an Angry Birds fan then this speaker is for you.

Article source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/angry-birds-speakers-give-fans-a-new-reason-to-sound-off/story-e6frfrt9-1226361541914

Get ready for a new, high-speed adventure, Angry Birds Fans. Rovio is planning to launch a new, racing-themed game called Angry Birds Heikki on June 18.

Details of the new game are sparse, except that it will be Web-based. Rovio said it will “feature fun Angry Birds game levels with a racing theme in addition to other bespoke content,” which will launch later this summer. Rovio set up a website teasing Angry Birds Heikki’s launch, with sharing buttons to generate interest for the game on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

The game is part of a partnership between Espoo, Finland-based Rovio and Finnish Formula 1 racing driver Heikki Kovalainen. The partnership will also yield a line of merchandise for both parties.

“It’s the first time that I’ve partnered with a gaming company, and it fits with my larger focus on partnering with unique brands,” Kovalainen said in a statement. “As a Finn, I’m also happy to be backing a Finnish company on a global platform. Most importantly, I’m a big Angry Birds fan!”

Kovalainen will be sporting an Angry Birds-themed helmet at this weekend’s inaugural Formula 1 race in Melbourne, Australia.

“We’re so excited to be working with Heikki on this, the first partnership of its kind in F1,” Harri Koponen, executive vice president of consumer products at Rovio, said in a statement. “The helmet looks amazing, and we think people are really going to enjoy the webgame and merchandise.”

Rovio’s latest game, Angry Birds Space, hit 50 million downloads in just 35 days. Rovio also recently acquired the rights to physics-based puzzle game Casey’s Contraptions, which it plans to re-launch as Amazing Alex over the next few months.

For more, check out PCMag’s review of Angry Birds Space and the slideshow below.

View Slideshow
See all (10) slides

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Article source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404604,00.asp

PARIS — As Silicon Valley prepares for its latest blockbuster initial public offering, a sale of stock that is expected to value Facebook at more than $100 billion, Europe can counter with the David and Goliath tale of Rovio Entertainment.

The company, developer of the “Angry Birds” games, in which players use a digital slingshot to attack egg-stealing pigs, has said it plans its own offering next year. Analysts have said the sale could value Rovio, which is based in Finland, at up to $9 billion — a small fraction of Facebook’s valuation, but huge for a European technology I.P.O.

The recent success of Rovio and a handful of other emerging European Internet companies, including Spotify, the online music streaming service, and SoundCloud, an audio sharing platform, shows that Europe can deliver innovation on a global scale. No longer are European Internet companies merely copying Silicon Valley business models, something for which they were long criticized, especially during the dot-com bubble years.

“Now you’ve got European entrepreneurs that have figured out how to build category leaders, not just clones,” said Jason Whitmire, a partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, which is active in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. “That wasn’t happening 10 years ago.”

Analysts say Rovio’s success may also offer policy makers useful lessons in how to stimulate the Internet and technology scene. In general, however, start-ups in Europe often struggle to get off the ground, finding it harder to raise money at the critical early stages than their American counterparts.

Finland has lagged behind other European countries in putting in place financial incentives, like tax breaks, for start-ups. Other factors, analysts say, have been more important in fostering the growth of high-technology ventures like Rovio.

One is creative destruction of a kind celebrated by the economist Joseph Schumpeter. Rovio is based in the same city, Espoo, as Nokia, the struggling mobile phone maker that used to be the pride of the Finnish high-technology sector. As the company loses market share, it has responded by shedding thousands of jobs — a ready pool of engineering talent for entrepreneurs to tap.

“The important thing is that the way people think has changed, especially young people,” said Artturi Tarjanne, general partner at Nexit Ventures in Helsinki. “They used to dream about going to work for Nokia or McKinsey or something like that. Now they are much more willing to take entrepreneurial risk.”

Another vibrant European startup center, Berlin, also shows it is sometimes the things that policy makers do not do that can be most effective in luring Internet entrepreneurs. While France and Britain, for example, have put in place tax breaks to support venture investments, Germany has not followed suit.

Over the past year, however, U.S. venture capital commitments to Berlin firms have roughly tripled, Mr. Whitmire at Earlybird estimated. Big players in Silicon Valley, like Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers have all made Berlin investments.

Instead of financial incentives, Berlin has benefited from other factors, like an influx of engineers from Eastern Europe. Low rents have helped cash-strapped company founders eke out an existence. Meanwhile, analysts say Berlin has also benefited from tougher immigration rules in Britain, which have made it more difficult for start-ups and technology giants alike to add jobs in London, Berlin’s biggest rival on the European Internet scene.

“While there are certain things that government can do, to a large extent it should stand out of the way,” said Paul Zwillenberg, a partner at Boston Consulting Group.

As for Rovio, it plays down the challenges facing start-ups in Europe, compared with their counterparts in the United States. The company recently attracted a $42 million investment from a group of firms led by a big player in Silicon Valley, Accel Partners.

“You might say that the culture is somewhat different,” said Mikael Hed, chief executive of Rovio, via e-mail. “But at the end of the day dynamic businesses have the ability to attract venture capital no matter where they’re located.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/technology/18iht-rovio18.html

Rovio’s hit game remains the most blacklisted app, according to Zenprise

Mobile device management outfit Zenprise has just released its quarterly cloud report for Q1 2012, in which the firm notes that the number of apps blacklisted by businesses has tripled since the previous quarter.

Interestingly, the Q4 2011 report saw Zenprise’s customers’ blacklisting focus on productivity concerns, with games such as Angry Birds, and time sinks such as Facebook, being the most commonly blocked apps.

Now, however, the most blacklisted apps also have a security, and anti-data leakage, theme; with efforts such as Dropbox and Evernote being placed out of bounds.

For Q1 of this year, Angry Birds is still the top most commonly blocked app, followed by Facebook and Google Play. Dropbox is number four on the hitlist, ahead of YouTube, which is followed by Skype, Evernote and Cydia.

While numbers of blacklisted apps may have tripled, those whitelisted have more than doubled as well. This shows that IT departments aren’t just getting ban-happy, but are honing and maturing their overall device management policies, as you would hope.

Funnily enough Skype, which features in the blacklist top ten, is also the most commonly whitelisted app. It’s followed by Citrix, Adobe and NitroDesk TouchDown.

What Zenprise calls the “undecided list”, apps which made both customer whitelists and blacklists, included not just Skype, but also Citrix, Dropbox, Evernote and Keynote, along with Facebook and Twitter. But not Angry Birds, strangely…

Article source: http://www.itproportal.com/2012/05/17/angry-birds-leading-to-angry-businesses/

It seems that your boss doesn’t want you to launch digital birds at evil green pigs during office hours.

Research released today by mobile device management firm Zenprise found that Angry Birds was the most-blacklisted application among users enrolled in its Zencloud MDM service. Other mobile apps that companies blocked their employees from using at work include Facebook, Google Play, Dropbox, YouTube and Skype, Zenprise found. Interestingly, Zenprise also found that Skype was the most whitelisted app among its customers, thus making it the top app to appear on companies’ blacklists and whitelists.

[RELATED: A quick look: The Angry Birds phenomenon]

[SLIDESHOW: 20 iPad business apps every CIO should want]

Zenprise also notes that companies have gotten a lot busier when it comes to blacklisting apps, as the firm reports “seeing more than three times as many blacklisted apps in Q1 than in our last report” released earlier this year. Zenprise says that companies have been a lot more proactive in blocking apps that pose potential security threats over the past quarter, including Dropbox, Evernote and Cydia.

In addition to its findings on app blacklisting, Zenprise has also found a surge in Windows Mobile users among its North American clients over the past quarter. For the quarter, Windows Mobile devices accounted for 22 percent of devices enrolled in Zencloud on the quarter, up from 13 percent of all devices on the MDM service in the fourth quarter of 2011. The report showed a corresponding decline in Android devices supported on Zencloud as well, as Android phones represented 26 percent of all North American devices on the service in the first quarter of 2012, down from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple‘s iOS held steady quarter-over-quarter as its devices accounted for 52 percent of North American devices on Zencloud in the last quarter, unchanged from the share reported in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Zenprise speculates that the rise of Windows Mobile devices in North American businesses has a lot to do with IT departments’ overall familiarity with both Microsoft and Windows. Specifically, Zenprise says that Windows Mobile devices come better equipped to handle enterprise tasks than competing devices.

“Many of these Windows Mobile devices are ruggedized devices for business process workflow-type apps,” Zenprise writes in its analysis. “The trend of organizations providing company-owned devices for line-of-business applications is occurring even while many of the same customers are pursuing a ‘bring your own device’ program in parallel.”

Read more about anti-malware in Network World’s Anti-malware section.

For more information about enterprise networking, go to NetworkWorld. Story copyright 2011 Network World Inc. All rights reserved.

Would you recommend this story?

YES
NO

• Recommend:
• 0 Comments
• Print

Leave a commentSubmit Comment

Once you click submit you will be asked to sign in or register an account if you are not already a member.

Posting comment …

Trade in your old printer save! A new Xerox ColorQube® can increase print quality and reduce costs. Start saving today.

Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/255663/angry_birds_tops_companies_list_of_banned_apps.html

It seems that your boss doesn’t want you to launch digital birds at evil green pigs during office hours.

Research released today by mobile device management firm Zenprise found that Angry Birds was the most-blacklisted application among users enrolled in its Zencloud MDM service. Other mobile apps that companies blocked their employees from using at work include Facebook, Google Play, Dropbox, YouTube and Skype, Zenprise found. Interestingly, Zenprise also found that Skype was the most whitelisted app among its customers, thus making it the top app to appear on companies’ blacklists and whitelists.

[RELATED: A quick look: The Angry Birds phenomenon]

[SLIDESHOW: 20 iPad business apps every CIO should want]

Zenprise also notes that companies have gotten a lot busier when it comes to blacklisting apps, as the firm reports “seeing more than three times as many blacklisted apps in Q1 than in our last report” released earlier this year. Zenprise says that companies have been a lot more proactive in blocking apps that pose potential security threats over the past quarter, including Dropbox, Evernote and Cydia.

In addition to its findings on app blacklisting, Zenprise has also found a surge in Windows Mobile users among its North American clients over the past quarter. For the quarter, Windows Mobile devices accounted for 22 percent of devices enrolled in Zencloud on the quarter, up from 13 percent of all devices on the MDM service in the fourth quarter of 2011. The report showed a corresponding decline in Android devices supported on Zencloud as well, as Android phones represented 26 percent of all North American devices on the service in the first quarter of 2012, down from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple‘s iOS held steady quarter-over-quarter as its devices accounted for 52 percent of North American devices on Zencloud in the last quarter, unchanged from the share reported in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Zenprise speculates that the rise of Windows Mobile devices in North American businesses has a lot to do with IT departments’ overall familiarity with both Microsoft and Windows. Specifically, Zenprise says that Windows Mobile devices come better equipped to handle enterprise tasks than competing devices.

“Many of these Windows Mobile devices are ruggedized devices for business process workflow-type apps,” Zenprise writes in its analysis. “The trend of organizations providing company-owned devices for line-of-business applications is occurring even while many of the same customers are pursuing a ‘bring your own device’ program in parallel.”

Read more about anti-malware in Network World’s Anti-malware section.

For more information about enterprise networking, go to NetworkWorld. Story copyright 2011 Network World Inc. All rights reserved.

Would you recommend this story?

YES
NO

• Recommend:
• 0 Comments
• Print

Leave a commentSubmit Comment

Once you click submit you will be asked to sign in or register an account if you are not already a member.

Posting comment …

Trade in your old printer save! A new Xerox ColorQube® can increase print quality and reduce costs. Start saving today.

Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/255663/angry_birds_tops_companies_list_of_banned_apps.html

Article source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/consumerization/dropbox-and-angry-birds-are-blacklisted-mobile-apps/394

Angry Birds has generated hundreds of millions of downloads for Finnish mobile games firm Rovio Entertainment, but the company’s financial results for 2011 reveal just how lucrative the franchise was that year.

The company has reported total revenues of €75.4m (£60.8m) for 2011, with earnings before tax of €48m (£38.7m).

30% of Rovio’s revenues for the year came from its consumer products business, which includes merchandising and licensing income.

Rovio says that the total number of Angry Birds game downloads reached 648m by the end of 2011, with 200m monthly active users (MAUs) across all platforms.

As context for that figure, social games publisher Zynga had 21m MAUs at the end of March 2012, while also acquiring US developer OMGPOP, whose Draw Something mobile game currently has 33.9m MAUs. Meanwhile, in March developer Outfit7 said it had just over 100m MAUs for its suite of Talking Friends apps.

Rovio grew its headcount from 28 to 224 during the year, as it sought to capitalise on the popularity of Angry Birds by expanding into consumer products and animation.

“The strong growth in revenue clearly demonstrates the popularity of the Angry Birds brand,” said chief executive Mikael Hed in a statement.

“The heavy investments made in 2011 to all business areas will be seen in future products. To ensure continuous success we need to be creative and stay focused on entertaining our millions of fans by continuously developing new and innovative products and services.”

Hed added that Rovio is “very optimistic” about continuing its growth in 2012. The company launched the latest Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Space, in March. It proceeded to rack up 50m downloads in the next 35 days.

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/may/07/angry-birds-rovio-revenues-2011?newsfeed=true

Advertisement

Article source: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/uncharted-s-lead-designer-walks-from-naughty-dogg/095241

China has some very interesting culinary habits some of which folks from the west will find just outright whacky. One slightly normal but definitely strange habit is the Chinese love for pork products, and in particular the ham sausage (火腿肠). Now Rovio and Chinese pork products producer, JoyCome, have partnered together to bring Angry Birds and ham sausages together to create Angry Birds meat snacks.

Originally the partnership between Rovio and Joycome was only promotional, where if you bought some bacon you would get some Angry Birds sausage. Now it appears that they’ve taken the partnership further with an assorted meat pack.

Sold at nearly every convenience store in Beijing (I bought mine at my local 7-11), the Angry Birds snack packs go for about two dollars. What you get in each bag is three packs of what looks like a condom but really is just fatty ham, three packs of fatty ham with a jalapeno, two packs of breakfast sausages, two regular flavored sausages and two packs of black pepper sausages.

Each meat product is individually packaged, once opened it feels like the meat has a thin film of grease covering it. Conventional wisdom tells me that if meat smells weird don’t put it in my mouth, but there is something special about the way the Angry Birds meat smells, a tangy peppery pungent smell of pork, that oddly entices me to consume it.

The “red bird”, jalapeno ham slices, probably is the best tasting of the five. Like a slice of bacon where the fat is on the outside the “red bird” was particularly chewy. Getting past the fatty gelatinous ring and actually hitting the meat, it begins to feel like eating a slice of thick pepperoni. The only downside is how ridiculously spicy the jalapeno is. The “yellow bird”, regular ham slices, on the other hand were just plain old disgusting. Unlike the “red bird” the “yellow bird” slices wasn’t flavored. Without the jalapeno flavoring the gelatinous fat taste gives the meat an oily taste that just tastes sick.

While the ham slices were interesting, the sausages were the star of the whole bag. The “black bird” black pepper sausages were an instant winner. Unlike the bland tasteless original flavor “pig” sausages, the black pepper adds a different dimension, it makes it more like something I would actually eat. It tasted like a good Slim Jim. The “white bird” breakfast links were good too. In fact if the packaging didn’t read pork, I could have sworn it was biting into a chicken/turkey sausage. Eating the sausages gave me a big hankering of eggs.

Now if I only had some eggs, I could finish the rest of the bag.

Article source: http://kotaku.com/5909968/angry-birds-pork-products-how-i-wish-they-came-with-scrambled-eggs/gallery/