The Online Magazine Focused on App Design, Branding & Marketing

An Angry Birds movie was inevitable. It’s too big, too popular and full of too many adorable characters to not find a home on the big screen. It feels like we’ve been talking about it for years, but today, it became official: an Angry Birds movie is being planned for 2016 and will be made under the watchful eye of ‘Despicable Me’ producer John Cohen.

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Here’s the thing about Angry Birds: Star Wars — I groaned when I first heard about. However, if the recently released gameplay trailers are any indication, Rovio has delivered. Again.

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(Talksauce is a weekly editorial that represents the opinions of Tapsauce editor-in-chief Jacob Hall, not Rocksauce Studios. If he says something stupid, blame him and him alone.)

When I made the big switch from my Android to an iPhone, certain sacrifices had to be made. Chief among them was the complete and total loss of my mobile game library. Everything I had downloaded from the Google Play store was going to vanish into the ether and I was going to have to rebuild everything from scratch…or I wasn’t. I had a choice: do I re-download all of my old games to have everything I had before, or do I start anew and leave the past behind me, my new smartphone representing a new start.

I ended up splitting the difference.

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We’ve seen plenty of memorable bootleg smartphones over the years (remember the GooPhone I5?), but this is certainly one of the most bizarre. Bought from a street vendor in Brazil for $250, it could easily be mistaken for an iPhone 4S…but it’s a little smaller…and it’s made of plastic instead of metal. However, the iOS similarities end there. Once you turn it on, you’ll find a device powered by Android. Seeing a Droid interface on an iPhone frame is incredibly surreal. The most surprising thing about the “Smartphone” (as it it titled on the back of the case)? It’s apparently not bad!

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As much as we love Bad Piggies, Rovio is company that seems content to live in the sandbox that made them billions rather than go in any truly daring and exciting new directions. It feels inevitable that they’d eventually cross paths with George Lucas and LucasFilm, who built their ‘Star Wars’ empire 35 years ago and haven’t left since. Angry Birds Star Wars will hit the various app stores on November 8. This feels like it demands snark, but who knows? Maybe it’ll be good. Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Space were both well liked…but something about this whole project smells a lot like pandering.

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The Game: Bad Piggies

The Device: The Droid X, still chuggin’ along

The Price: Free (ad-supported) on Google Play, $0.99 for App Store

The Basics: Is there a chance that Angry Birds set the bar too high for Rovio? Without the game no one would know about the Finnish developer, creator of such games as Mole War and Bounce Touch for the super-popular N-Gage. Obviously they’re absolutely massive and successful right now and have raised a ton of money thanks to their ridiculously popular game, but will they ever be able to follow it up with anything nearly as big? As our fearless leader pointed out last week, Amazing Alex wasn’t as successful as hoped. Bad Piggies should be an easier sell- it’s an Angry Birds spinoff that sees you controlling the pigs instead of the birds. Rather than getting back at the birds for their suicide attacks it turns out that the pig are actually great inventors, and love constructing things almost as much as Amazing Alex.

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Sometimes, a client will come to Rocksauce Studios with a great app idea that’s just too big to work. Everyone tends to let their imagination run away with them a bit. When you have an idea, it’s very easy to let that idea grow. When that idea simply lives in your head without any real world constraints, budget or time frame attached to it, it’s easy to let it spiral out of control.

While plenty of people come to us with the seed of an idea that we help cultivate and transform, others come to us with a fully formed idea. For those who come to us with a seed, we can put up some gates and carefully guide them to success. As for the second group…well, I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve said: “That feature is cool, but it’s not the best idea for right now.” When it comes to apps, simpler is always better. At least at the start.

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Here’s the thing about Yelp: despite being one of the most visited sites of its kind on the web, it’s the butt of many well-earned jokes. When you democratize criticism and let anyone with a computer and an internet connection review their local restaurants, you’re bound to get plenty of nutcases writing things that are worthy of your disdain and mockery. However, that doesn’t mean Yelp isn’t actually doing good. In fact, a recent study has shown that even a half star improvement can result in a 19% increase in table reservations. With more people turning to tweets and Facebook for food recommendations, Yelp is becoming more and more vital. Naturally, there is nothing to stop restaurants from falsifying positive reviews, but that’s a bridge that will be crossed in the near future. Hopefully.

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Steve Jobs’ sister, Mona Simpson, presented a moving eulogy at her brother’s funeral. Go ahead and read that first, before we move onto the dumb jokes.

Wait…my local Jason’s Deli doesn’t have Wi-fi but train commuters on the east coast (and soon the west) will soon have internet access while they sit in their antiquated transportation? Foolishness! Foolishness, I say! But that’s only a front to hide my jealously. Because I want to ride on a train. A train that has Wi-fi. A future train.

Life is hard. When you want to stream movies or TV shows from the quiet safety of your home, you have to check Netflix and Amazon and Hulu AND iTunes. Ugh. So much work, Too much work, even. Too much work for one man…but not for CanIStream.It, the new service that lets you enter a movie title and watch while the ancient, mystical magic that is the internet pumps steam into some unknown pipes, turning noisy gears and producing a result…that result being where the movie is available to watch, complete with direct links. As streaming becomes more prevalent — and various rights issues keep films from being available everywhere — this could very well become a useful tool.

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(Welcome to Mobile News Round-up, the weekly column where we tell you about all of the cool stuff that didn’t get is own post during the week.)

Curious which phone carrier provides the fastest service for your iPhone on a state-by-state basis? This map should sort out your inquiries. Spoiler alert: it’s probably AT&T and if it’s not AT&T, it’s Verizon. Sorry, Sprint fans…but at least you’ve got that unlimited data plan, right?

What’s the future of Google+? Are you still on it? Is anyone still on it? Does it still exist? Apparently. The reasonably new social network had its public launch on September 20th and it’s traffic spiked 1,200%, which sounds great, until you hear about the part where it then plummeted 60% in the ensuing weeks. The current traffic levels are slightly higher than they were before the big launch, but a whole lotta’ people got a taste and decided to retreat to the familiar land of Facebook. Can Google+ survive as a niche network? It’s obviously not as big as Google wanted it to be, so how long until Google attempts a reinvention or pulls the plug? Google engineers accidentally letting their negative feelings on the platform known doesn’t help.

Hey there. Yes, you. The monocle and top hat wearing billionaire who also happens to be an Apple enthusiast. Have you seen this gold plated, diamond encrusted MacBook? I think it’s right up your alley.

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