Back in August, Steam announced its plan to expand its online store. The plan was to move beyond selling just games and also offer useful software for your computer. Sticking to that plan, Steam has now added a software section with a handful of apps now available for purchase.

The list of software currently includes GameMaker: Studio, 3D-Coat, ArtRage Studio Pro, 3DMark Vantage, 3DMark 11, CameraBag 2 and Source FilmMaker. Other than the first and the last, all other are paid applications and Steam is offering a 10% off discount for the first week. Read more »

Nokia Germany has released a new ad for the Lumia 920 that follows in the footsteps of the recent Samsung ads and chooses to mock the iPhone as a way of advertising their own phone.

In this particular ad, Nokia chooses to highlight the lack of color options you get on the iPhone 5, compared to the Lumia 920. Read more »

After keeping it in purgatory for a while, Judge Lucy Koh has finally lifted the ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. If you remember, the tablet was banned in the US court after it was found that the device was infringing upon the iPad’s design.

Later on, however, during the recent Apple vs. Samsung legal war, the jury decided that although the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was infringing upon several of Apple’s patents, the design patent wasn’t one of them. And since the ban was due to that particular patent, it would have to be lifted. Read more »

Samsung has released a new, almosty eight minute long video to demonstrate all the new features on the Galaxy Note II. The video showcases the large display, the new multitasking options and the built-in applications that you can use with the stylus.

First of all, we see the new Gallery features Samsung has added to the Note II to take advantage of the bigger display. You have two new Gallery views and can now create folders and drag and drop images between them. Read more »

One of the most important applications on the original iPhone was the Maps application that Steve Jobs demoed with a prank call to Starbucks. But it has now come to light that about a month before the phone was announced, no such application even existed on the device.

According to a story by The New York Times, the maps application was not at all part of the original plans for the phone. Steve Jobs thought of having the application on the phone just weeks before the announcement because he thought it would help show off the multi-touch display better. Read more »

Bad Piggies is a complete departure from Rovio’s award winning Angry Birds series. After letting you play as the birds for almost three years now, you will now get to play as the pigs for the first time.

But you won’t be doing any flinging in this game. Other than the main characters of the game, Bad Piggies shares nothing with Angry Birds and is a complete departure in terms of gameplay. We decided to take a look and see just how bad the piggies really are. Read more »

Yesterday, Tim Cook penned a letter to iOS 6 users, apologizing for the sorry state of their new Maps application and promised that they are working hard to make it better. While most would have stopped at that, Cook went on to suggest alternative mapping services that users can use till Apple Maps becomes usable.

Now, Apple has gone one step ahead and created a section in the App Store that can you can find on your iPhone, titled ‘Find Maps for your iPhone’. Clicking on it will show you a bunch of different mapping services, free and paid, that you can download and install on your iOS device. Read more »

After ASUS started rolling out the Android 4.1 update for its Transformer tablets yesterday, Acer is now following up with a Jelly Bean update of their own for their Iconia Tab A700.

Several users from Germany and US are reporting receiving the update on the xda-developers forum. Most of them are reporting improved performance thanks to Jelly Bean. Read more »

ASUS announced on its Facebook page yesterday that the original Transformer Prime TF201 and the new Transformer Pad Infinity TF700T will be receiving the Android 4.1, Jelly Bean update shortly.

Now sticking to that statement, the company has started rolling out the update to the TF201, as is being reported by Engadget. As for the TF700T, it is yet to get the update but it shouldn’t be long before it too gets to enjoy some of the Jelly Bean goodness. Read more »

Valve announced back in July that they are planning on bringing Steam to the Linux platform, starting with Ubuntu. They have now announced the next steps in this initiative and that includes beta testing priviledges for a few luccky users.

Valve has announced that they will begin internal testing next week and a private external beta test consisting of 1,000 users in October. Read more »

After being exclusive to the Amazon Appstore for a while, the developers of Jetpack Joyride have now released the game on Google’s Play Store. As you’d expect, the game is available free of cost.

In case you’re not aware of this game, Jetpack Joyride is a 2D side-scrolling game where you ride a jetpack and have to go as far as possible, thus getting a higher score. You collect coins during the game, which can be used to upgrade your jetpack and the special vehicles that you get in the game. You also collect spin tokens, which let you spin the slot machine at the end of each game. Read more »

Google has released updates for Chrome across the board with a new version for Windows, OS X and Android respectively. On the desktop, Chrome, now updated to v22, gains the Mouse Lock API, which lets you play games inside the browser window without having to worry about the mouse pointer escaping the window or bumping into the sides. Basically the pointer will be locked to the window of the browser. You can try it out with this demo.

Other changes include additional enhancements for the upcoming Windows 8 and improvements for HiDPI or Retina display users on the new MacBook Pro. Read more »

Google has released an updated version of the Google Play Books application for Android. Some of the biggest complaints with this application were the lack of dictionary, note taking and highlighting abilities and Google has addressed all of them in this update.

As you can guess, you can now add highlights to the text and take notes while reading books. There is also a built-in dictionary now, so you can quickly look up a word. Read more »

Apple Maps in iOS 6 lets you drop a pin and share the location over email, SMS or social networks. The recipient can click on these links and open the point described in the URL. It seems for now, though, Apple is choosing to let people open these links in Google Maps.

This comes as no surprise considering the Apple Maps are only available on iOS 6 devices so it’s better to let people open the link in what is arguably the best and most popular mapping service in the world. If you do have an iOS 6 device, then it would open within the Apple Maps application. Read more »

The mobile gaming category is currently populated by two types of games, those that are meant to give you a “console quality” feel and others that are designed specifically with the touchscreen and the usage case in mind. While it’s nice to have high quality 3D visuals and extensive character and story driven games, in the end, the second category of games is the one that works the best and is the most popular.

HUEBRIX falls in the latter category. It’s a puzzle solving game for iOS and Android where you have to drag out paths and fill the shapes. Sounds simple, but it’s often the simple things that are the most enjoyable. We decided to find out if it that’s the case with this game. Read more »