Super Mario Run a runaway success, still not as habit forming as Pokémon Go

The highly anticipated iOS exclusive mobile game Super Mario Run managed 10 million downloads during the first 24 hours of being made available. The game, which requires a CAD $13.00 fee to unlock all the levels, made US $ 4 million in revenue on its first day. A formidable achievement for sure but one that's failed to exclipse the excitement earlier this year for Pokémon Go.

A report from analytics company App Annie  Super Mario Run, which is a mobile take on the beloved Super Mario franchise from Nintendo, reports that it notched up over 10M downloads and generated more than $4M revenue on its first day. This is great news for Apple and for Nintendo as well as sign to other game companies that mobile ports of long-standing console franchises are where the future of mobile and casual gaming are. Pokémon Go, which was earning upt to $10 million a day for weeks after its initial release (and which had a staggered rollout) is likely the bigger earner long-term. While it is a freemium game, Pokémon Go continues to add features, creatures and more ways to play. 

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Google rebrands Keyboard app on Android

Google switches things up with its Google Keyboard app on Android. Now called Gboard, the app brings with it built-in Google search and easy multilingual typing. Voice and Glide typing is still present on Gboard but with improvements. Google search is within reach on your keyboard now, so when you want to look something up while chatting with someone, just tap on the G icon and start searching. Multilingual typing doesn’t need you manually switching languages this time. It’ll just let you keep typing what you want. There is now also auto-correct for other supported languages (which Google touts as over 100).

Aside from these changes, Google also lets you search for emojis and GIFs with the keyboard app. You just need to type in the emoji or GIF you’re looking for and the suggestions will show up. However, GIF sharing is currently only available on Google Messenger, Allo, and Hangouts.

LEGO Batman celebrates Christmas in a dark and confusingly sexy way

The LEGO Batman Movie promos have always been amusing to us. Now, The movie’s Twitter account shows us how The Caped Crusader celebrates the holidays. It looks to be a bit dark and mildly seductive if we take into account Will Arnett’s scruffy voice for Batman. What we get from the short clip is Arnett’s Batman in a red robe showing his LEGO chest and reading us the end of the holiday classic The Night Before Christmas and ending it with “Happy Holidays to all, and to all a dark knight.” What we would give to see and hear the entire tale told to us by this Dark Knight.

There’s nothing like celebrating the holidays with your butler and over-enthusiastic sidekick. #LEGOBatmanMovie pic.twitter.com/dgxzPBpD58

— LEGO Batman (@LEGOBatmanMovie) December 15, 2016

 

Source: io9

Lenovo rumoured to be working on another Project Tango device

There’s a report coming from Ubergizmo that claims we haven’t seen the last Project Tango device from Lenovo. This Google Project introduced around two years ago makes use of special sensors embedded into mobile devices to map out 3D spaces for augmented reality purposes. Lenovo first introduced a Project Tango-enabled device called the Phab 2 Pro. And it seems that isn’t the last we’ve seen from Lenovo. According to Jeff Merideth, general manager of Android and Chrome at Lenovo, the company plans to launch new Project Tango devices next year. That would put Lenovo ahead of other manufacturers, since this will already be a second-generation device and other makers have yet to introduce their first version.

At the moment, there are only a few dozen apps available that take advantage of the depth-sensing capabilities of Project Tango. But perhaps with more devices coming out, we hope to see more apps.