As several of you noted in the comments to our post asking for cross-platform iOS/Android games, Words With Friends for Android does not provide the smoothest gaming experience... and that's being rather charitable.
You might be happy to hear that a couple of days ago Zynga released an update which promises to solve many of the Android-specific issues, such as notifications not popping up.
Sadly, installing the update is not a smooth experience; you have to manually uninstall the previous version, and then go to the Android Market and install it. What's nice is that it doesn't lose your saved games - this screenshot shows a game I've started before the update and continued after updating.
How's the new update working out for you? Let us know in the comments!
Not everyone on Facebook is who they claim to be. And while some of the fake info posted on the world's biggest social network is nothing more than a bit of harmless bragging, some of the fakers can be downright dangerous. Enter FB Checker, a free application that is designed to help you identify fake Facebook accounts.
Add up to five photos to FB Checker for analysis.
FB Checker is free. All you have to do to get started is download it and give it permission toaccess your Facebook account. Then, when you come across a Facebook profile you'd like to verify, you launch the app from your system tray. FB Checker works by analyzing photos, so you have to click on a few photos from the account in question to add them to FB Checker. This can be tricky if you haven't accepted a friend request from the account in question and have limited access to their photos, or if the account simply doesn't have that many photos posted.
FB Checker works by analyzing the photos you select, and then searches for duplicates on the Internet. If the photo isn't found on another site, FB Checker believes it is legitimate, but if it is found elsewhere, FB Checker then analyzes that site to see if the photo has the same name attached to it. (This prevents it from identifying photos of celebrities and other public figures as fake simply because they're widely used.) FB Checker labels accounts as fake when a photo is found on several different Web sites, without the name associated with the Facebook account.
The application presents its findings to you in a neatly organized graph that makes it easy to see where on the scale it falls.
The problem lies with the fact that FB Checker relies solely on photos. Sure, some users may grab fake photos and use them to create a phony profile for nefarious purposes. But the truly dangerous criminals may be a bit smarter, using photos that could be real, and more likely to fool an application like FB Checker.
FB Checker was able to identify a few fake accounts for me, but these were accounts I'd already labeled as fake myself. It was unable to identify two fake accounts that were more subtle, though…both of which were created by users who wanted to hide from folks on Facebook. That makes me reluctant to rely on FB Checker to find the real fakes on Facebook.
To some extent, ASUS is a victim of its own success: it gave the budget tablet category a boost with the original Nexus 7, and it now faces a legion of competitors in that space. The company is taking a two-step approach to maintaining its relevance. The new Nexus 7 tackles the higher end, with top-tier specs that include a 1080p display and wireless charging. Right now, though, we're more interested in ASUS' low-end solution, the MeMo Pad HD 7. While it's one of the cheaper name-brand tablets at $150, it promises some of the quality we typically expect from more expensive products. But is the HD 7 good enough to fend off other entry-level tablets? And can it attract customers who'd be willing to pay the premium for a new Nexus 7'? Let's find out.
Yesterday, it was reported that Samsung had rigged the Galaxy S4 to perform better in benchmarks. Today comes Samsung's terse response, which answers some questions, but leaves others flapping in the wind.
You're not the only one irked by iMessage spam -- Apple is too. Cupertino's finally gotten fed up with those pesky spammers and has established an email line to receive reports about them. So, next time your phone beeps and your slumber's rudely interrupted by ads for prescription drugs, take a screenshot of that riffraff and send it to imessage.spam@icloud.com. When shooting off the dispatch to Cook and Co. you'll also have to include the offender's phone number or email address, as well as the date and time you received the unwanted text. It's unclear what effect the tattling will have, but we're sure at least some measure of catharsis is involved. Okay, cheap pharmaceutical peddlers, brace yourselves for some sweet, satisfying justice.
Mountain View's kept itself as the gatekeeper for Google Glass with dev signups at I/O and a social media contest, but now it's letting some users spread the wearable computing love. Google+ is lighting up with reports that Glass Explorers are receiving emails from Page and Co. allowing them to invite a friend to snag a device by joining the program. In order to be eligible, invitees must be a US resident, at least 18 years of age, and willing to pick up the hardware in San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles. Google's told us that a "small subset of Explorers" have received the message in its continuing effort to expand the affair. Earlier today, the search giant announced that it cast a wider net for Explorers by enlisting five film schools to suss out how the contraption can be used for everything from character development to production. Head past the break for the full list of institutions.
We auto-post 4TB USB3 externals for $150, so grabbing one for $130 is about as easy a recommendation as we can make. Use code 0730BTS32 over at Newegg to claim your prize. [Newegg]
Ballmer and Co. have been tight lipped when it comes to Surface sales figures, but they've just opened up a little to Uncle Sam. An SEC filing reveals that the first-party tablet raked in a total of $853 million in revenue between its debut and June 30th, the end of the firm's fiscal year. To put that in perspective, the cash Microsoft managed to rake in is eclipsed by a $900 million hit it took through Surface RT inventory adjustments. To make matters worse, the company spent more on advertising for Windows 8 and Surface ($898 million), than its tablet brought in. Though details on how many slates have shipped or sold are still MIA, price drops make us suspect that those numbers are still too modest for Redmond's taste.
Gordon Smith believes few things are more American than a square meal with peas, carrots and corn. Of course the former senator from Oregon may be biased, since his family supplies much of the nation's frozen veggies.
