Android – Iphone – Applications

Tango Video Calling by Sgiggle, Inc. (available free in the App Store) is a video-calling app that’s similar to FaceTime, but has a few more features that gives it a definite edge over Apple’s built-in video calls.

The most notable difference?  Tango works over 3G.  This is often the complaint I hear most about FaceTime.  It’s been promised 3G functionality is coming to FaceTime… someday.  We also heard that about tethering and how long did that take? Read More

written by zuzka

The rumor just started going around on the web that infamous iPhone hacker Geohot might be making a come back with a jailbreak for iOS 4.1. The jailbreak will supposedly called LimeRa1n and would be released on 10/11/10, just a day after the GreenPois0n scheduled release date.

We’ve heard about LimeRa1n before, and it all turned out to be just a website with no real purpose. So what’s different now? Is Geohot really coming back? He is, if you believe this image… Read More

written by iqu

Sadistic killing is usually left to sadistic killers, but 505 had different plans for their off the wall rampage game. Instead of letting humans terrorize each other, Naughty Bear has you in control of a revenge seeking bear, intent on killing all the bears that didn’t invite you to the party.

Naughty Bear, once you get down to it, is really just an enhanced version of PAC-MAN. The map is a simple forest setting with paths that go in all sorts of directions. Like PAC-MAN, there are little things to collect while you walk (cupcakes) and killing enemy bears requires you to pick up weapons that last for a set amount of time. Each level has a different requirement, but all boil down to killing X number of bears or collecting X number of cupcakes.

The thrill of the game though isn’t the simple task of killing and collecting, it’s making quality kills. The weapons that you collect are varied in nature, and if you run head-on into an enemy bear or meet it by a special item — for example, the bbq pit– you’ll do a special kill. The kills are all way over the top, sort of reminding me of the ending of Duke Nukem, where he pops off the enemies head and, well, you can look it up.

Even with the over-the-top kills though, it’s hard to not notice the game’s flaws. For one, the controls are pretty clunky. Instead of a D-Pad, Naughty Bear has you just tap in the direction that you’d like your bear to go. It sounds easy enough, but the system is fairly imprecise and could use an overhaul. The other major issue was with the weapon variety. For example, at one point I found a stick to kill bears with, and then found three bears in a line to kill. Because I was using the same weapon, each bear died with the exact same death scene, kind of ruining the whole experience. Naughty Bear could really use either more weapons or some death variations. I like the whole death scene concept, but it has to be changed up every once in a while.

For a quick iPhone romp, Naughty Bear really isn’t a bad selection. It doesn’t have a ton of depth and the whole gameplay aspect is lacking, but it is fairly entertaining.

[ Naughty Bear Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by coetzjoh

I’m not sure how familiar most people are with the game carrom, but it was frequently played in my home when I was a kid. My family would sit around the kitchen table for hours, our index fingers throbbing with pain (we knew nothing of repetitive stress injuries back then), trying to flick disks into one of the four corner pockets on the board. It was my earliest attempt at playing a true dexterity-based game, and I was hooked.

Now, over 30 years later, carrom has returned to my life in the form of Carrom 3D for the iPad. It’s a nicely designed little game, and it definitely shows promise, but the developers have a way to go to capture the true feel of a game that relies on manual dexterity so prominently.

For those who are unfamiliar with the game carrom, it’s an easy game to explain. Using a large, square wooden board with pockets at each corner, players take turn flicking disks at a group of disks in the center, in the hope of “pocketing” some of those disks for points. That’s about it. But like pool, carrom is a game that requires an intuitive sense of geometry, not to mention durable fingers. After reading that description, it should be obvious why carrom would make a great iPad game: a classic dexterity game plus a touch sensitive screen equals gaming nirvana, right? This is a no-brainer, so much so that I wonder why more traditional dexterity games have not made the transition to the iPad.

Unfortunately, many of my hopes for this game were dashed when I started playing it. First and foremost among the disappointments is the fact that you cannot actually flick your pieces across the board. Instead, you must use (for lack of a better term) a “power meter” to control the strength of your move and to execute it. This takes the fun out of carrom, so it’s my hope that the developers quickly remedy what can only be called a serious flaw.

If played against human opponents, options are also limited. There’s no online play support (maybe in a forthcoming update?) and playing against local players requires passing the iPad back and forth. There’s also no AI for a single player to play against, only puzzle-like Challenges and a Time Trial mode.

There’s a potentially great game at the core of Carrom 3D. The graphics are quite nice and the board is well rendered and manipulated. But until the basic flicking mechanic is addressed, it’s best to pass on this one.

[ Carrom 3D for iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by anymbtshoes

Hi5 has announced a new social gaming platform called SocioPath. Hi5 President and CTO Alex St. John said that top game developer companies Playdom, Bigpoint, Digital Chocolate, Portalarium, etc. to jump into Hi5. Currently Hi5 has about 50 million users.

Many game development companies have been complaining about the restrictions Facebook has. “I intend to love their game developers better,” said St. John. Hi5 SocioPath will spread using viral methods similar to Facebook’s News Feeds.

When joining an application on SocioPath, you will be asked if you want to spread the game on your e-mail, instant messenger, Facebook, and Twitter contacts. If you want to save your game progress, you will be asked to register.

[VentureBeat]

written by MinhA18Mumford