By David Ponce

A video game doing phenomenally well is not exactly anything new. Every new release of Modern Warfare breaks the previous records it set itself. But the continued success of Angry Birds is interesting to us because it signals a robust and growing mobile gaming market, and the latest news from Rovio should quiet anyone thinking that this segment will never rival that of traditional consoles. While nowhere near MW3′s billion dollars in 16 days sprint, the Finnish company announced that in 2011 it “made a huge $106.3 million turnover and a whopping $67.6 million in profit (before tax).” It grew from 28 employees to 224 and that their three games (Angry Birds, Seasons and Rio) were downloaded a total of 648 million times. Keep in mind that this doesn’t include Angry Birds in Space, which reached 50 million downloads in 35 days. So yeah, Rovio’s minting it right now and while they can’t play with the big boys just yet, we think it’s just a matter of time until they do.

VIA [ Engadget ]

By David Ponce

If you thought Rovio was doing pretty well for itself, you’d be right. Angry Birds is already a household name, and its latest iteration and simultaneous reinvention has been quite the hit among its avid users. Rovio recently announced that the game had reached 50 million downloads, which it accomplished in 35 days, setting some kind of record. Sure, that number includes free downloads, and is across all platforms, but it’s pretty impressive all the same, especially for a game that has been around in some form or other for quite a lot of time. To thank its users, Rovio recently released 10 new levels, so in the unlikely event that you haven’t touched the game in a while, you might want to check that out.

[ Rovio's Announcement ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By David Ponce

This roll-up travel charger comes with one wall plug and four different charging tips: iPhone®, Mini USB, Micro USB, Samsung. Samsung?… Anyway, yes you can recharge up to four gadgets at once and although it looks like brown leather, it’s actually pleather. This does take away a little from its rugged Indiana Jones-y vibe but we don’t care because we won’t be buying this. We’ve been trying to determine the odds of ever being in a situation where four different devices with four different connector types need to be recharged simultaneously and the numbers don’t look good. Then again, we failed math so don’t take our word for it.

It’s $50.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Wired's Gadget Lab ]

By David Ponce

Some people have large hands, sometimes made up of nothing but thumbs… This is a fact of life. And one can only imagine their dismay at the constant miniaturization of today’s electronics. How are they to communicate? How are they to live? They don’t have to remain dyslexic forever. The iDigitip is a simple accessory that fits at the end of a finger and is tipped with a smaller foam nub that works on touchscreens as well as on actual physical buttons (obviously). They come in packs of two, so you can even double-thumb your way through those texts like a tween in no time.

It’s $20.

[ iDigiTip ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By Gaurav Kheterpal

A few days ago at the 2010 Mobile World Congress, Intel and Nokia announced that they are joining hands to launch a new hybrid mobile operating system named ‘MeeGo’. MeeGo will inherit the best of both worlds from Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Mobilin operating systems and will join the crowded war of mobile operating systems including the likes of Android, Symbian, iPhone OS and the recently launched Windows Phone 7 Series.

LG has announced that its GW990 would be the first ever smartphone to run on the MeeGo platform. For a start, the LG LG990 will be available in Korea during the second half of this year. It is expected to be available in other countries by end of this year.

[ Techtree ] VIA [ Intel ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Back in November of last year we saw that GM was working on a mobile app that would talk to your Chevy Volt. While interesting, the app had limited functionality and wasn’t all that exciting. Well GM teamed up with OnStar here at CES to show us just how much has changed in the last couple of months.

With an actual Chevy Volt in the room, the two teamed up to demonstrate the various functions that would be at your fingertips. The app was able to not only tell us how much of a charge the car has and various statistics about recent mileage, but it gives you remote access to a variety of the car’s functions.

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