Back in February, we talked about BlackBerry’s plans to release premium stickers in its BBM service. The feature was initially released as part of the limited external beta app but is now available for all users on all the platforms where the service is available.

The stickers need to be downloaded from the official store from within the app and most of them are paid. I’m not sure how interested users will be in paying for stickers, that too on BBM, but BlackBerry clearly thinks it is doing the right thing here. Read more »

Surgeon Simulator for iPad is a port of the popular game that was released on Steam last year. Although the game claims to be a simulator, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The game had you performing hilarious operations on an unsuspecting patient in ways that would send an actual surgeon or patient reeling in horror.

Now the same game has been ported over completely to the iPad, which is the only platform right now other than the desktop PC to have the game. We picked up our scalpel and decided to get our hands dirty before Bob’s anesthesia wore off. Read more »

Yesterday, Microsoft finally announced the Office suite of apps for the iPad, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. But along with the new announcement, Microsoft also made a quiet change to its existing Android app.

Just like its iOS counterparts, the Android version of the Office Mobile app required an Office 365 subscription to actually be used to create and edit documents. Surprisingly, Microsoft has dropped that requirement now, which means you can access the app fully without having to spend a dime. Read more »

Taking a page from Facebook (pun definitely intended), Twitter has added two new features to its service regarding the way you upload and share features. Now you can tag people in photos and also upload up to four at once.

Before, you had to manually add usernames in a tweet to tag people, which took up precious characters (some of which were already taken by the photo). Now, you can tag up to 10 people in a photo without using any additional characters for the usernames, leaving more room for your tweet. Read more »

NVIDIA has revealed that Valve will be releasing an Android version of the highly popular Portal game for the NVIDIA SHIELD console. Although you could play the game before on your SHIELD by streaming it from your PC this is a native Android version that probably won’t look as good but can be played anywhere without the need for an internet connection.

What we don’t know for sure if the game will be available exclusively for SHIELD, for other Tegra devices as well, on all Android devices or also on other platforms such as iOS. Read more »

NVIDIA has announced some great new things for existing and future owners of their Android-based handheld gaming console, SHIELD. This includes stuff like remote streaming, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse support, wider PC game support, improved gamepad mapping, Android 4.4.2 KitKat update and a limited time lower price.

One of the cool features of the NVIDIA SHIELD was the ability to stream PC games from your desktop PC running select NVIDIA GPU to the console over a local network. With the new remote streaming feature, you will now be able to stream PC games to the SHIELD from anywhere in the world. The feature, arriving in beta, will let you wake up your PC from sleep remotely and also log into it if it’s locked. Read more »

Facebook has announced plans to acquire Oculus VR, the company behind the much hyped and highly anticipated Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Facebook will be spending approximately $2 billion to complete the deal, out of which $400 million would be in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook valued at around $1.6 billion currently.

The Facebook-Oculus deal comes out of nowhere and is at odds at what the two companies do. Yet, CEO of Facebook mark Zuckerberg assured on his Facebook post that the two companies share the same vision and that this acquisition will change the way we communicate and interact with each other. Read more »

After Samsung’s recent benchmark boosting situation came to light, a lot was talked about how it made the process of benchmarking devices and comparing scores with other handsets irrelevant. But out of all the benchmark software developers out there, Futuremark, developers of 3DMark, were the only ones who delisted the offending Samsung devices from their benchmark scores to keep things fair.

However, in the latest Android 4.4.2 update issued to the Galaxy S4 and the Note 3, Samsung removed the code that allowed the benchmarking apps to run faster than any other normal app on the device. Following this decision, Futuremark has decided to relist the Samsung devices that are running the latest update. Read more »

Ubisoft has announced the latest game in the long running Assassin’s Creed series of games, Assassin’s Creed Unity. The game is arriving later this year on the PS4, Xbox One and PC.

The video gives a quick look at the visuals of the game by showing some of the environments and a sneak peek at the main character in the game. The game will take place in Paris during the French Revolution featuring an assassin named Arno. The video looks like it’s in-game and is absolutely fantastic but you never know if the final game will look this good, especially on the consoles. Read more »

Apple is considering new ways to takes its iTunes music collection to users, and also to some new users. According to the sources at Billboard, Apple is considering releasing a on-demand music streaming service that will compete with Spotify and the new Beats Music service. Apple is currently in talks with senior label executives regarding this move.

More intriguingly perhaps, is Apple’s decision to take the iTunes store to Android. The same sources have also revealed that Apple is considering releasing an iTunes app on Android, that will allow existing and new iTunes users to access Apple’s vast library of music. Read more »

According to a report by The Wrap, Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale is being considered to play the role of the late Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic.

The screenplay of the movie is written by Aaron Sorkin for Sony Pictures Entertainment and is based on the book ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Isaacson and will be directed by David Fincher. Sorkin and Fincher have previously worked together on the biopic on Mark Zuckerberg’s life – The Social Network. Read more »

About a year ago, Twitter announced their #music service that allowed users to stream music from the dedicated #music iOS app and follow your favorite artists on Twitter.

After a lukewarm response from users and prolonged lack of development on the app side, Twitter finally announced that they are killing the service. The app has been pulled from the App Store and those who downloaded it will be able to use it till April 18, which is when the service completes its first and final year. Read more »

After a bout of simpler, more product-focused commercials, Samsung is back to bashing the competition in its latest commercial for the Galaxy Pro series of tablets.

In this latest video, Samsung goes after not one or two but three devices, namely the Apple iPad, Microsoft Surface and Amazon Kindle. The iPad is mocked for not letting you do more than one thing at a time and for having lower resolution, the Microsoft Surface is called a laptop because it comes with a keyboard dock and the Kindle for just letting you read books. Read more »

Google has added two new voice commands to the Search app on Android that will let you launch the camera on your phone or tablet using just your voice.

If you need to take a picture, all you have to do is hit the microphone button or say “Ok Google” and then say the voice command “Take a picture”. If you want to record a video, say “Record a video” instead. If you think this is not very useful, then you are absolutely right. Read more »

Sony has revealed a new virtual reality system, called ‘Project Morpheus’, exclusively for use with the PlayStation 4 console. Project Morpheus, which has been in development for over three years, is similar in concept to the Oculus Rift and will immerse the players in the game world by strapping a pair of screens to their eyes and tracking their head movements.

Morpheus has two 960 x 1080 displays inside, one for each eye, which add up to 1920 x 1080 resolution for both eyes with a 90 degree field of view. Just like the Oculus Rift, these stereoscopic displays help enhance the 3D experience and make you feel part of the game. Read more »