Recently, Apple signed a deal with Liquidmetal Technologies, a company that makes specialized metal alloys. Liquidmetal is a spin-off of from CalTech and they make molten metal alloys which resemble glass.
Although Apple hasn’t said anything about the deal, we can possibly expect stronger, shinier casing for many Apple products in the future. There are many benefits which come from Liquidmetal alloys.
As mentioned before, the alloys mostly resemble glass, while still retaining a strong structure like steel. Also, these alloys are much more durable than common metals. The alloys don’t require polishing to retain smoothness.
Neither Apple nor Liquidmetal Technologies has released a cost for the deal, but it is expected to be pretty high.
Liquidmetal alloys can be very expensive because they contain exotic material such as Beryllium, and contain large amounts of platinum.
A single ounce of platinum costs around $1,500, which shows how expensive the Liquidmetal alloys could be. The alloys have gone into making luxury watches, phones, medical devices, and skis – it doesn’t seem like they will be made into mass-market materials any time soon. We can only wait and see what Apple will do with this new technology.
We’ve got another Sony Ericsson to talk about, and they’ve brought us a lot of interesting models over the last few months. Will they be able to do anything interesting with the Sony Ericsson W995a? Let’s have a look!
The Sony Ericsson W995a is a slider style cell phone with conference call capability, speakerphone, Wi-Fi, a composer system to make your own music, stereo speakers, direct printing (yes! direct printing! You can actually print stuff off your cell phone by hooking it into a printer!), a hundred and eighteen gigs of memory (which is comparable to some older desktop computers), mobile web, mobile email, video calling services, Java application capability, a variety of downloadable content like games, ring tones and audio and video files, an eight megapixel camera with 16x digital zoom, face detection and automatic focus, alarm clock, calendar, basic calculator, MP3 player, a 3.5 mm headset jack, and a battery capable of yielding nine hours of talk time on one charge.
There’s a lot of good things to say about the Sony Ericsson W995a–there are plenty of features here, the battery life is unbelievably long…in fact, about the only bad thing about it is that the controls were a little tricky to start with. I had a rough time finding my way around, but it didn’t take long to get used to it. And chances are you won’t have too much trouble with it either.
The Sony Ericsson W995a is great phone with lots of options, and though the controls are a little balky to begin with, you won’t have trouble for long. This may not be an iPhone killer, but it’s worth your time to check out.
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3.65 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.26 out of 5 stars
My brain hurts, my eyes hurt, and I’m stuck. No, I’m not trapped in a cave being forced to make a suit of armor for a terrorist organization, I’m playing level 40 of Dropple. Even worse, I was one coin away from beating the level when I finally lost, by millimeters. Disgusting.
Dropple, the app, is a reincarnation of the wildly popular Dropple, the online game. You start each of the 50 levels as a ball that wants to collect all the coins on the map. The problem is that the coins are all on tiny platforms, and different platforms have different characteristics. Some break when you hit them, some move, and some propel you to new heights. The one consistency is that you bounce off of them all like a rubber ball and there is no way to stop.
The key to the game is learning how to control your ball. Unlike the online version with its wonky keyboard movements, Dropple on the iPhone uses the accelerometer, which is the way that it was meant to be done. The accelerometer movement is very accurate in this one, ranging from touchy, quick movements to long throws, where you feel like you are actually launching your ball across the screen.
While all of the levels are well designed, the replay value is hampered by a lack of them. 50 levels may sound like a lot on paper, but after about an hour of play I was up to level 40, and am currently stuck. As I said before, I was one coin away from winning a few minutes ago, but that really doesn’t do me any good. Once I finally beat it, and I will, I’ll move on and eventually beat the game. The issue is that I will never ever ever want to put myself through having to beat these levels again. They were fun the first time, but a second would be tedious.
For the price though, Dropple is a very well made app that will keep you entertained until you beat it. Unless they add more levels, it doesn’t have the everlasting replay value of some bigger games, but it is definitely worth playing if the genre suits you.
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars
Orbital Bombardment is a missile defense game that rids itself from all the pesky rules of missile defense games. There are no pesky towers to watch out for or ammo to deal with, just furious tapping. Missiles come at you in droves, filling up the screen with rock and fire, and it’s up to you to tap and manipulate your way to freedom.
There is also a story, which is a bit odd for the genre. It’s nothing deep (but it is welcomed) and can be summed up in about a sentence or two. The world was full of happiness until a dark force came and sucked up everything that was good, leaving your happy cyclops’s in a state of peril. Then an all-powerful light being comes to protect the cyclops’s, and the ensuing fight is what the game is.
The game is split up into levels, with each level a completely different landscape. You go through a few stages per level (i.e. 4.1, 4.2, 4.2) and then fight a big boss at the end. The stages really don’t have any unique identifier to them, they just get progressively harder as the game goes on. And boy do they get hard.
Waves of bombardment in the game are typically done in clumps. You’ll finish one wave and then 8-9 small asteroids, two large flaming asteroids, and a special object will come down at once. Some falling objects require multiple taps to kill while other require you to remove their shield layer with a quick reverse pinch. Needless to say, the action is pretty frantic. Even though the objects move relatively slow, the game gets really challenging by about level 4.
Graphically, Orbital Bombardment is top notch, with extensive detailing done on just about every object. There are no flat colors in the game, just rich objects. The poor planetary inhabitants on the bottom walk around frantically, the asteroids all have their own personality of sorts, and the bosses are about as menacing as they could be. On a technical level, Orbital Bombardment looks and works better than just about any missile defense game out there.
While some people will tire of the insane amount of “button” mashing that Orbital Bombardment requires, most will find the game to be an excellent missile defense tapper. It has sharp graphics, lots of levels, and is extremely difficult. If saving good cyclopses is your thing, pick this one up today.
Chillingo, the massive game publisher responsible (but not in a negative way) for iDracula, MiniGore, TouchKO, and countless others, has seven new apps that will be published in the remaining “dog days of summer.”
“Although the season may almost be over, the summer sun hasn’t set on our top-quality lineup of releases in every genre,” said Johnny Coghlan, Chillingo’s Head of Publishing. “Our groundbreaking new titles are sure to entertain folks seeking a unique gaming experience, whatever their favorite genre.”
There aren’t any specific release dates on the games, but here they are, in no particular order.
Lamp of Aladdin – iPad – Lamp of Aladdin, based on the video, looks like a typical Match 3 game with a twist. Instead of just providing a board and a bunch of crystals, there seems to be some kind of character involvement within the game itself. The game is said to be very story driven, so look for a blend of character interaction with your puzzles.
Pipe Rush – iPhone, iPod Touch – There aren’t many details, but it sounds like pipe rush will be a typical puzzle game where you have to connect certain shaped pipes to get the water to safely run through.
Great Adventures: Lost in the Mountains – iPad – Never in my life have I see a promo video with such an identity crisis. Chillingo’s description of the game is as follows, “Trapped by a snowstorm in a mountain-top hotel, two friends must solve the mysterious murder of a great scientist and return a stolen invention designed to change the future of humanity.”
From the video, I’d say that Great Adventures is a mystery game meets Diner Dash meets the Sims. Watch the video for yourself and let me know what you think.
Robin Hood: Archer of the Woods – iPhone, iPod Touch – Robin Hood: AoW looks like a archery aiming game where you have to pick off waves of incoming soldiers instead of firing at a single object. To spice things up, there are bonuses for headshots, powerup weapons that give you exploding arrows, and even enemies on wooden Segways (what???). The game obviously has a sense of humor, because the bosses that you fight include, “costumed trolls, dragon cows and Trojan pigs”. I’m sure that we’ll be reviewing this one in the upcoming weeks/months.
Fiona’s Flowers – iPad – Fiona’s flowers is a cross between Diner Dash and Farmville, done in a style that could only be appreciated by a little girl. Given the style, it is definitely an attempt to reign in the female crowd, but the iPad exclusivity is puzzling. I don’t want to say that the iPad is a male (or adult, for that matter) dominated device, but I don’t really see little girls flocking to pick this one up. If I were Chillingo, I would’ve gone with something a bit less shiny and a bit more gender neutral. Who knows though, maybe I’m wrong.
Alien Cab – iPhone, iPod Touch – Alien Cab, to be released from Chillingo’s other title, Clickgamer, is a basic line drawing game based on cabs in space. Like all good line drawing games, you must get “Object A” to “Location A” without having it hit “Object B” while it tries to get to “Location B”. It doesn’t seem to offer anything new to the crowded genre, but if it plays well, it’ll probably be fun
Floe – Universal – Also from Clickgamer, Floe is a puzzle game controlled solely by the accelerometer. By titling your iDevice, you must move objects out of “Floe”s way as he tries to navigate the big block of ice that he’s seemingly stuck on. The success of Floe will entirely depend on how many levels there will be and how challenging the levels are. We’ll see when the app is released.
Again, there’s no word yet on any of the release dates, but they will all be released before the end of summer. Also, be sure to check after the break for screen shots of all the games above. Enjoy!
We’ve got another 
Dropple, the app, is a reincarnation of the wildly popular Dropple, the 
There is also a story, which is a bit odd for the genre. It’s nothing deep (but it is welcomed) and can be summed up in about a sentence or two. The world was full of happiness until a dark force came and sucked up everything that was good, leaving your happy cyclops’s in a state of peril. Then an all-powerful light being comes to protect the cyclops’s, and the ensuing fight is what the game is.
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