Today Google announced that Video and Voice “chat” is coming to Google Talk on Android. I just got an Acer Iconia Android tablet yesterday, and it already supports this. Understand what this means - you’ll be able to call and video chat with other Android phones, tables, and anything that can run GMail & GTalk in the browser. No need for a phone carrier. All that you need is network connectivity, which could come in the form of ubiquitous wifi. [Read More]

I was enthused about the announcement of the Android Market Licensing Service. This is a step in the right direction to fight rampant piracy. You can actually now use a pirated version as an opportunity to sell your app. If someone downloads a pirated version, you can use the licensing service to detect it and direct them to buy the paid version. However, there are a couple of problems. First of all, the generic version of the licensing code has been cracked. [Read More]

Any time you put an additional step in the sales process, you gain an opportunity to lose a customer. Such is the case with Free and Paid apps. It’s a common freemium pattern in the Google Android Market and Apple App Store. You’re familiar with the pattern - there’s a Free version of the app that’s restricted and then there’s a Paid version that has all of the features. As a developer, the problem is that you have to maintain two versions of the same app. [Read More]

I must give many thanks to my wife and kids for putting up with my long hours and lack of attention while I was completing our new game Syrious Blasts and launching our new brand Syrious Games. Your patience with me is greatly appreciated!

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Archived Comments

Tina - Sep 6, 2010

You are very welcome. It is fascinating to see you create such magic! You are a true genius.

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We have made our first release of Syrious Blasts!^®, an addicting fast-paced puzzle game for Android devices. The Lite version is free and the Full version is on sale right now for $.99.

Go and grab yours before the price goes up!

We have renamed our popular “AlphaMixr” game to Syrious Scramble^®. This aligns with our new Syrious Games^® branding.

New name - same addicting game!

Minor configuration update.

AlphaMixr 1.3.0 Full & Lite were released today. AlphaMixr Lite now contains 100 games instead of 20. The time bonus issue has been fixed in both versions.

Here’s another Intellectual Property follow-up. This time it’s a very interesting TED video. It’s well worth watching.

Johanna Blakely: Lessons from fashion’s free culture:

My Dell Studio 15z (Windows 7) has been waking up by itself at night for some reason which I haven’t determined yet. It’s not waking for virus scans. The bad part is it doesn’t shut itself back down. The other night I had it hibernated and it was not plugged in. When I got up in the morning, the battery was dead. After some searching, I found that it’s a Windows 7 thing. [Read More]