Opuss – The Instagram of Literature

#4 top Opuss today Like "wise men"

Love to write? Been trying to get your work noticed by others with no luck? Well now there’s an iPhone application to help you and many others out.

Opuss is a new social application for the iPhone that revolves around user submitted literature. In super short, Opuss was developed in hopes of becoming the Instagram of words or the Twitter for grown ups.

The application itself is beautifully developed, and unlike the many other social applications out there Opuss has possibly the best sign-up process yet. Simply enter a username and password then you’re ready to go, hell it doesn’t require an email address it’s an optional field you can add to your profile later. Thus allowing users to indulge themselves in the application right after installation.

I know most of us skip application tutorials, the majority of the time with good reason. Being said, I highly recommend taking a minute to read the maybe 8 slides that’ll give you an idea of how the application works.

Opuss welcomes a whole crap-load of user literature including: Poetry, Quotes, Blog posts, Short Stories and much, much more.

Personally I believe Opuss has a bright future for those like myself who enjoy writing. If you’re considering the app or have it installed already follow me and I’ll follow back @jessefogarty.

GTA3 Hits iOS and Android Devices Next Week

If you’re in your late teens to mid 20′s (or just a gaming fanatic) you’ve probably taken to the Liberty City streets once or twice, whether to play the missions or unleash mayhem on unsuspecting citizens of Liberty City.

Now if you will, imagine jacking cars, fighting thugs, shooting and all of the GTA fun stuff packed into your mobile device. I guess there’s really no need to imagine – next week will be the official launch of the iOS and Android Grand Theft Auto 3.

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The developers over at Rockstar Games are proud to release the 10th anniversary application on December 15th, 2011 for a measly $5 – which I think we can all agree is a steal.

Now for the downside(in some cases), the application will feature the full Liberty City game – meaning it will be a beast of an application requiring a beast of a phone / tablet.

Below are the devices that GTA3 will be playable on.

iOS: iPad 1 and 2, iPhone 4 and 4S, iPod touch 4th Generation
Android Phones: HTC Rezound, LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy R, T-Mobile G2x
Android Tablets: Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Dell Streak 7, LG Optimus Pad, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, Sony Tablet S, Toshiba Thrive

[Via TechCrunch]

Xbox360 Teams Up With Entertainment Leaders Changing Television

Recently we were introduced to a new Xbox 360 Kinect feature that allows users to speak to their Xbox to find movies and tv shows. Yesterday, Microsoft announced via their news center that they’ve teamed up with select tv and movie providers brining tens of thousands of shows and movies to Xbox users. Users are now be able to ask their console to find and play the latest and greatest Hollywood hits.

Nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K., Telefónica in Spain; Rogers On Demand in Canada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and MediaSet in Italy, will begin rolling out entertainment services to the console this holiday, in more than 20 countries.

“Today’s announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Combining the world’s leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360* and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless.”

Sounds great, but if you knew Rogers as well as my wallet (and many others) do then it’s a pretty save bet to assume your movies won’t come cheap. Speaking from experience when it comes to using Rogers On Demand (not with Xbox) – if you’re looking to rent a just released DVD get ready to pay $5.99+. Hell they even price TV shows at $1.99 an episode… damn.

Upon first reading this story it instantly brought to mind the iTV rumors I had read about a little while back. In these articles we Steve Jobs vision for iTV and where he clearly stated.

No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels

I guess Microsoft beat the new Apple execs to it.

[Source: Microsoft News Center]

Uhoh, Trolls! Apple Runs Into iPad Trademark Troubles

Today I stumbled across an article that after reading left me a little confused and agitated. The article I’m referring to is from 9to5mac where they go into detail regarding Apple’s currently struggle in China over the use of the “iPad” trademark.

Before I start my views on the article I thought I’d give you all the gist of it.

In 2006 Proview struck a deal to sell the global iPad trademark to US-based IP Application Development (IPAD) – which at the time was connected to Apple without Previews knowledge. Apparently though, the Chinese trademarks were left out of the agreement which lead to Apple to suing Proview.

In October the Taiwanese company accused Apple of trademark infringement in regards to the “iPad” name vowing to sue the Cupertino company for damages in the US and China. Thus leading to Apple returning the favour by filling their own suit to gain the rights in China (not included in Proview’s sale of the iPad trademark). According to a report released from Reuters today , a Shenzhen-based Intermediate People’s court has rejected Apple’s lawsuit to gain ownership over the Chinese trademark.

Proview chairman Yang Rongshan had this to say about the case:

“It is arrogant of Apple to just ignore our rights and go ahead selling the iPad in this market, and we will oppose that. Besides that, we are in big financial trouble and the trademarks are a valuable asset that could help us sort out that trouble”

What I heard from Mr. Rongshan’s statement is…

“We’re in deep crap and if Apple went ahead selling their product in our market it would confuse customers looking for our 10 year-old failed attempt at a tablet. And as our last resort we plan on holding onto the Chinese iPad trademark so we can troll money out of Apple to save us.”

As of this October Proview has said to be attempting to seek  $1.5 billion in legal damages from Apple… Damn trolls!

[Via 9to5Mac]

RIM’s Blackberry Bold 9790 Sale Causes Riot

It has only been a week since two RIM execs were found “unruly” and intoxicated on an Air Canada flight that forced flight staff to execute an emergency landing to remove the drunken duo. This little outburst was enough in my eyes for flags to be raised signalling the Canadian company’s demise; though with recent news it seems as though RIM wants their free fall to end with a bang.

RIM announced they’d be selling 1,000 Blackberry Bold 9790 devices for half the price at Pacific Place mall in Jakarta (Indonesia).  When details of the sale got out people rushed to be one of those 1,000 – it just so happened that 5,000 people showed up.