A new poltically themed game from developer Mayonaise Games lets you cast your vote for the U.S. president in a whole new way. The Android game is called Face Chop: Decision 2012, and it lets players "chop" the faces of candidates to earn points and "win the election."

Amazon.com has asked California U.S. District Court judge to dismiss Apple's claim that the online retailer's use of the term "appstore" is a case of false advertising. The request is in response to an Apple lawsuit filed in March 2011 that alleged that that Amazon.com's use of the name "Amazon Appstore" violated its App Store trademark. In November of last year Apple amended the complaint to include allegations that the use of "appstore" amounted to false advertising and would cause consumer confusion.

Digital Entertainment Ventures invites you to "vote with vegetables" in their new iOS and Android game, Mad Humans: Election 2012. In this 3D game you toss vegetables and other objects at world leaders, political mouthpieces and presidential and vice-presidential candidates including Sarah Palin, President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, and even Donald Trump. More characters will be added "soon." The game was developed by Sideline Amusements for both platforms.

Students from various colleges around the United States are helping to design a mobile game for the Department of Energy that promotes and encourages recruitment into the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The students are taking part in a virtual internship to create the app, which is supposed to deliver with challenging puzzles tied to the theme of linking buildings with energy resources. The activities that players partake in are meant to give them a general idea of what the Department of Energy does.

Walmart will no longer carry Amazon's Kindle Fire in its retail stores. The retailer joins Target, who gave up on the Android-based device in May of this year. Walmart is still selling Barnes & Noble’s Nook as well as some other e-reader devices. Some think this move is in response to its own plans to launch its own e-commerce strategy, which it has apparently been working on for awhile. In other words, Amazon.com is a direct competitor and Walmart doesn't want a device tied to a competing e-commerce destination.

The official Kickstarter campaign for iMpulse launched this morning, with the aim of raising some much needed capital for this pocket-sized Bluetooth controller designed specifically for iOS and Android-based gaming.

With all the talk of legalizing the use of marijuana at the state and federal level (for and against), it seems only appropriate that the 70's most iconic stoner comedy team should release an app on Android and iOS. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong have teamed up with developer MEDL Mobile to create and deploy Cheech and Chong's The Fatty. The app is a mix of gags, gameplay and fun but useless utilities for the modern age stoner.

While OnLive has had its share of challenges, it hasn't seemed to have affected the general consensus that cloud-based gaming is a good idea. Casual game maker Big Fish either didn't notice or didn't seem to care about OnLive's stumbles as it launches its Big Fish Unlimited for Android devices. The service is offering more than 100 casual games for free via Google Play.

While Apple may have won a major victory in the United States against Samsung in its ongoing, never-ending patent war, the company has not been so lucky in other parts of the world. Adding to its column of losses is a new ruling in Japan where the courts there sided with Samsung.

The Kindle Fire has literally sold out, according to Amazon, and the Android-based device won't see a new production run. The company said that those who want a Kindle Fire but can't find it at retail will have to wait until later this year when Amazon releases a new version of the device. The device was originally released in November of last year and did pretty well by Amazon's own accounting.

The judge overseeing the aftermath of the Apple v. Samsung patent infringement case (in case you missed it, Apple won) has set a hearing to hear Apple's motion to ban eight Samsung devices in the United States for December 6. Samsung has also asked that the verdict be set aside. A hearing on September 20 will decide if a Samsung motion to have an injunction lifted from the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be approved, now that the tablet has been cleared of infringing on Apple design patents.

As this Techie Buzz story points out, one of the most important things to come out of the Apple v. Samsung decision is the list of devices that Apple wants banned from North American retail shelves. The iOS device maker has listed eight devices it wants to be banned from being sold here in the U.S.

Those devices are the Samsung S 4G, Samsung S2 (on both AT&T and T-Mobile), the Samsung Skyrocket, Droid Charge, Galazy Prevail, Galaxy S Showcase and the Samsung S2 Epic 4G.

There's some debate among financial analysts and patent law experts on what impact (if any) Friday's news that Apple had won a $1 billion verdict against Samsung related to claims that its tablets infringed on various iPad-related patents. This morning various financial analysts offered their two cents including JP Morgan, Barclays, UBS, and Macquarie Equities Research. GIGA OM offers a rundown of comments from various financial analysts, but we offer the bullet points below.

Episode 17 of the Super Podcast Action Committee is here and that means more fun with hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight! This week they talk about Apple's patent victory over Samsung, OnLive's CEO Steve Perlman giving a donation to former employees, the results from our latest poll and a whole lot more. An earthquake guest stars, causing Andrew much consternation. We didn't feel a damned thing.

We forgot to mention this yesterday: The latest Humble Bundle - Humble Bundle for Android 3 - has added four new games into the mix: Anomaly: Warzone Earth, EDGE, Osmos, and World of Goo. All four of these games were in the very first Humble Android Bundle so if you didn't get in on the ground floor of that one, consider this an official do-over. As always games in the bundle are DRM-free and you can pay what you want for them. The bonus games require a bit more of a commitment.

The FBI is cracking down on several sites this week that it says have engaged in facilitating Android app piracy. The Department of Justice has seized and locked down the applanet.net, appbucket.net, and snappzmarket.com domains and placed a warning on the sites in question.

If you've longed for using currency that doesn't come at the expense of your credit card on Google Play, then you'll be delighted to hear that Google has officially announced the availability of Google Play gift cards.

Those cards, which come in increments of $10, $25 and $50, will make their way to such retailers as Target, RadioShack and GameStop in the United States over the next few weeks. Google says that these cards will be available on Walmart.com later this month, but not in Walmart stores for some reason.

Organizers of the Humble Bundle have launched a brand new bundle today - Humble Bundle for Android #3. While it might be specifically named for Android-based devices, organizers emphasize that all of the five games in the bundle are also playable on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

As always, those who want to buy this bundle pay what they want for it, giving their cash to the developers or one of two charities: the Electronic Frontier Foundation or Child's Play.

Hot on the heels of yesterday's news that the OUYA console managed to raise nearly $8.6 million from its Kickstarter, the company is now offering a pre-order program on its new web site.

The Kickstarter for the OUYA has ended, with organizers of the crowd funding round raking in a final amount of $8,596,475 from 63,416 backers. Organizers were originally aiming for $900,000.

According to the Kickstarter page for OUYA, Namco Bandai is in active discussions with the company to bring some of its franchises to the Android-powered $99 console.

OUYA has managed to crack the $7 million dollar mark with a little over a day left to go before its crowd funding deadline on Kickstarter ends. As of this writing the $99 console has managed to raise $7,036,309 in funding (it started out with a $950,000 goal) from 52,932 backers. The Kickstarter campaign has 37 more hours to go.

Here's a feel good story for the day - at least for developer Imangi Studios: it's ultra-popular iOS and Android game, Temple Run, is ... ultra-popular. According to a press release issued by the company today, Temple Run has been downloaded over 100 million times in the last year, with over 68 million downloads on iOS devices, and on 32 million Android devices.

Dead Trigger developer Madfinger Games has made the iOS version of the game free, following reports earlier this month that it would make the Android version of its zombie shooter a free downloaded due to "unbelievably high" levels of piracy. Today the company has taken the same action for the iPad and iPhone version of the game, though its claims about piracy on this platform seem to be slightly more subdued.

While Political Machine 2012 is probably the de facto election year strategy game of choice for PC and Mac players right now, those looking to run a campaign on iOS and Android devices can always check out Election Game 2012: Race for the White House. While we can't attest to the quality of this game (we haven't played it personally) developer Lunagames promises a down and dirty political campaign to win the highest office in the land: the presidency.

The party is over for game developers that use "deceptive names or icons" that cause confusion or blatantly trick consumers into believing that a product represents a particular brand on the Google Play Store. Google has updated its developer program policy agreement for its Google Play Android store with a warning to developers trying to trick customers: "Apps must not have names or icons that appear confusingly similar to existing products."

A fake Android version of Chair Entertainment's Infinity Blade 2 has somehow managed to get into the Google Play Store. The fake game went up in the store July 28 as a version 1.0 release. The iTunes App Store lists the version as 1.2 and is a 1.03GB file. Of course the real reason we know it's a fraud is because Chair Entertainment hasn't released Infinity Blade 2 on Android yet.

Cloud-based game streaming service OnLive confirmed today via its official blog that it will be available on the OUYA console. The Android-based $99 console will have the benefit of OnLive's streaming services which will bring a massive library of PC games to OUYA users. The service will be available on day one of the console's launch to boot.