Angry Birds Rio Coming in March

Good news for the millions of Angry Birds fans out there.

20th Century Fox struck a deal to bring the domesticated macaw and other feathered characters from its upcoming big-screen animated film, "Rio," to one of the most popular mobile game applications for the small screen, Angry Birds.

The Finnish creators of Angry Birds will release a version of the game -- Angry Birds Rio -- to coincide with the film's March 22 world premiere in Rio. The movie opens in theaters April 15.

On Friday, Fox Filmed Entertainment co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos announced the partnership with game developer Rovio in a press event on the Fox studio lot in Century City under a tent with giant beach balls and a lot of optimism.  The studio also screened 26 minutes of footage, introduced by director Carlos Saldanha and voice stars Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway and George Lopez.

Fox hopes to tap into the pop-culture phenomenon that is Angry Birds (downloaded some 75 million times and still counting) to build awareness for its latest animated project from Blue Sky Studios, creators of the "Ice Age" blockbusters.

Rovio, meanwhile, gets to introduce a new version of the game (using Blue Sky's intellectual property), and capitalize on the marketing blitz that is planned for the theatrical release.

Looks like a win-win for both companies, not that they needed any help selling their content and products.  Get ready to be invaded by Angrey Birds.

Apple App Store Looking for 10 Billionth Download

Apple's App Store is about to hit 10 billion dowloads, to mark the achievement, Apple said it will award its 10 billionth customer with a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Apple has an App Store download counter on its Apple.com and as of 1:30pm Eastern time, it had registered approximately 9.76 billion downloads and counting.

"As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks," Apple said in a message on its Web site. "Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet."

App Store users are limited to 25 entries or downloads per day, and use of any automated software to improve one's chances are not allowed. The winner must agree to let Apple use their name and likeness for publicity purposes.

A great promotion by Apple, I'm sure some are trying to guess when it will hit the 10 Billion mark.

iPad Free App of the Week: Australian Open 2011

* There also is an iPad only app that is available for about $4 this year.  It looks great, but this is a free Australian Open app that can be used for both the iPhone and iPad.

The Australian Open begins next week and here'a free app that will keep you informed of all the happening for tennis' first Grand Slam event of the year.

This app includes:

Scores
LIVE scoring updates and completed match results.

Draws
Main Draw brackets, updated as matches complete.

Schedule
Daily schedule of play.

News
Latest news updates from the tournament.

Players
Player biographies from the Australian Open.

AO Radio
LIVE radio stream, featuring play-by-play coverage.

Event Guide
A fan's guide to the Australian Open.

Video
On-demand video coverage of the Australian Open, including the latest highlights, player interviews, and exclusive previews of upcoming action.

AO View
Augmented reality navigator for all of the action at the Australian Open: live match scores, nearby food and drink, even the nearest tram stop.

Photos
Photo coverage from the tournament.

Stay up to the minute will all the tennis action from Melbourne, and get this app for free.

Report Says iPad 2 to Ship Soon

The next iPad tablet will start shipping as early as the end of February from electronics maker Foxconn Electronics' factories in China, DigiTimes reported on Tuesday.

The report, wouldn't name sources from Taiwan-based components makers, sbit it aid Apple originally planned to start mass production of the new device, known as iPad 2, in January.

Those plans were postponed since the device's firmware, or set of software instructions that are programmed into the device's hardware, was still being tested, according to the report.

The iPad 2 will mainly be supplied by plants in Shenzhen belonging to Foxconn, the parent company of Hon Hai, DigiTimes reported. An initial shipment of 400,000 to 600,000 units are expected.

As usual, an Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Apple sold 4.19 million iPads in the fiscal fourth quarter. That was lower than markets expected, but analysts expect sales to be strong through the end of December due to holiday sales. 

Google to Launch an "Open" E-book Store

Many were wondering when this was going to happen, and now it looks like it is coming in a matter of days.

Google will debut it's version on an online bookstore in December to rival the digital reading leaders Amazon, Apple and others.

Google Product Manager Scott Dougall told the Wall Street Journal the e-book service will launch in the United States by the end of the year and internationally in the first quarter of next year.

The Journal said Google has signed deals with many major book publishers and will offer hundreds of thousands of titles for purchase and millions of books for free.

It appears Google will offer most of the titles that currently are available in other e-bookstores at launch or shortly after with costs similar to those at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Google told the publication.

Google will allow consumers to access books from retail partners on devices with full Web browsers, including computers, tablets and smartphones.

Google users will buy books online using Google's Checkout system and add them to an online library matched to a Google account.  It has not been revealed what percentage Google will pay its partners.

I'm looking forward to see what new features Google will offer and how they will manage their store compared to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple.  Let's just say this competition is good for readers everywhere.