Rovio

Those Bad Piggies may not be so bad if they can soar to the top of the iOS charts in just a few hours.

Released from its pen earlier today for iOS and Android, the Angry Birds sequel is the most-downloaded paid app among both iPhone and iPad users.

A brand-new game rarely hits the top spot in Apple's App Store so quickly. But being the latest installment in the hot Angry Birds lineup gives Bad Piggies a strong leg (or hoof) up. Game maker Rovio has gotten a lot of mileage out of Angry Birds, but the company … Read more

A new variation of Angry Birds teased by game maker Rovio could find you on the side of the pigs.

A lone red Angry Bird nestled on Rovio's Bad Piggies Web site is innocently minding his own business. But click on that bird, and a torrent of pigges rain down upon him until he's flooded by his green attackers.

Beyond the tagline: "Something PIG is coming," Rovio offers no further clues on the upcoming game. But the video suggests a reverse spin on the familiar concept in which you would instead join forces with the pigs … Read more

Friday's top headlines won't judge you by your megapixels:

The Curiosity Mars rover cost $2.5 billion, so why are the cameras just 2 megapixels? The answer comes down to time: Time the rover was planned, the time it takes NASA to test, and the time it takes to transmit larger file sizes.

As Apple and Samsung duke it out in court over patents and copycat claims, Google isn't sitting back quietly. CNET has learned that Google is quietly helping out it's Android partner Samsung with legal advice.

Not all NASA news this week has been … Read more

Amazing Alex (99 cents) for iPhone or Android is a physics game where you're challenged to create chain reactions with objects to complete objectives. Our hero, Amazing Alex, is a kid who's stuck cleaning his room and tries to get creative with organizing his belongings by building Rube Goldburg-like devices.… Read more

This Thursday, it's time to train your brain to win the gold in multitasking:

Seems to be the season for security breaches. This time, it deals with a subsection of Yahoo, called Yahoo Voices. Hackers posted more than 450,000 login names and passwords of Voices users, and it was said to be done as a wake-up call to Yahoo and others to step up security. The Voices section of Yahoo was slacking in security and did not hash passwords or require complicated strings.

CNET's Declan McCullagh wrote a program to comb through the most frequently used passwords … Read more

After soaring into the PC and mobile world, Angry Birds is flapping into its next arena -- smart TVs.

Samsung today announced the launch of a new Angry Birds app (English translation) designed for certain of its smart TVs.

Tapping into Samsung's Smart Interaction gesture recognition, game players will be able to use gestures and voice commands to target the angry birds in their battle against the pigs.

Due out sometime this month, the Angry Birds app will be compatible with Samsung's smart TVs ES7000, ES8000, and ES9000. Taking advantage of Samsung's newly-updated Smart TV SDK, the … Read more

Rovio's Angry Birds is still the top game in the mobile arena. But now, the company is trying something new.

The developer announced today that it has launched Amazing Alex for iOS and Android. The game will allow players to take control of 35 objects that can be set in motion to create a Rube Goldberg device. The objects can "bounce, pop, ricochet, bash, and crash into each other," Rovio says. The game is launching with 100 levels.

Rovio didn't create the game from scratch. Earlier this year, the company acquired the intellectual property rights to Casey's Contraptions, … Read more

Will Angry Birds fans soon be able to switch sides and play for the pigs?

Game maker Rovio will reportedly twist its popular game later this year with a new version that would let you fire pigs at the birds, according to gadget-enthusiast site Pocket-Lint.

Few details were available, though the game would still feature the same catapults and well-known stone structures.… Read more

If you somehow managed to avoid buying Angry Birds Seasons over the past 20 months, your patience has paid off.

Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Seasons HD (for iPad) are the iTunes free apps of the week. They're normally priced at 99 cents and $1.99, respectively.

Apple's "week" began yesterday (Thursday), so you've got roughly six days to take advantage of this offer.

True to its name, Angry Birds Seasons is a theme-oriented spin-off of the original game -- that theme being, well, seasons. Thus you've got level collections ranging from summer and winter to St. Patrick's Day and Halloween.… Read more