My cousin jut got his first iPhone a few months ago and he’s what I’d call a total noob about it. A couple days ago when we were in Vegas, he asked me how to email a photo he had taken with his iPhone. I couldn’t help laughing at him but I quickly realized that if he didn’t know how to do that, there’s probably other people out there in the same situation, which is why I thought it’d be a good thing to write up a quick tip about this.
Obviously, this is a tip for beginners. If you’ve had an iPhone for a while, you most likely already know how to do that.
In this post, I’ll show you 3 ways to email pictures from your iPhone… Read More
If you’ve played Angry Birds before, you probably wondered a few things about the story behind the game. Who are these birds? Who are these pigs? Why are they stealing birds’ eggs? And maybe more importantly, why can’t these birds fly?
You’re not the only one having questions about Angry Birds. In this video, you’ll see that an Angry Bird himself is wondering about the purpose of this game. It’s funny and really worth 40 seconds of your time… Read More
Developer: Creative Heuristics
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPod Touch
Graphics / Sound Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.94 out of 5 stars
It’s genuinely hard to find new ideas in the world of puzzle games these days, which is what makes apps like Rogo really stand out. While the title may borrow some ideas from other puzzle genres, it combines them all together to make something which is truly new and different. This clever little puzzler is definitely an app worth looking into if you’re a fan of teasing your brain in whole new ways.
Rogo is a sort of odd mash-up of Sudoku, mazes and word finds, all rolled into a delightful little ball. Each stage has a variety of numbers sprinkled around the screen, and players must draw a loop through the numbers which they think will yield the highest score. The trick is there is a very specific limitation on how many squares you can connect, and players aren’t allowed to come in above or below this number. The result is come clever lateral thinking which requires you to approach each stage in unique ways in the hopes of victory. It’s a lot of trial and error, but it’s still very fun.
The game tries its best to be helpful to players, but sometimes this results in some annoying screen clutter and general ugliness. Every loop you draw stays onscreen in a sort of ghosted form, ostensibly so you can see what combinations you’ve already tried. The problem is, if you constantly start in the same part of the game board or use some of the same numbers multiple times it starts to get ugly. Users can shake to clear the screen, but then you lose all your reference points and have to start over. It’s a sort of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” mechanic, but it would be nice to see a more elegant solution in a future update if such a think exists.
Aside from these minor issues Rogo is a fun new puzzle experience that will surely be a hit with both math nuts and those who just genuinely enjoy trying new genres. The sheer number of levels and depth of challenge will keep you busy for quite a while, and we fully expect to see more stages added down the line. The game also features a very nice, mellow soundtrack that does a great job of setting the perfect mood. Despite the fact that this may not be the most polished game ever, it’s still pretty darn good.
Developer: Appocado
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 4
iPhone Integration Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use Value Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
I don’t know any other languages besides English. It’s slightly embarrassing really. While I used to know some German, it all left my head somewhere over the years and now I’m stuck with just the one language. I’d love to learn another language but it’s finding the time and a form of studying that works for me. Spanish Touch Trainer helps hugely with this and it teaches you the correct manner of forming sentences.
It’s an app that, most of all, teaches you verb conjugation. Anyone who’s tried learning a language will know that verb conjugation is a huge problem when you’re just starting out. Spanish Touch Trainer teaches you how to figure this out via the context of real sentences. There’s no sign of silly phrases like ‘my monkey has a hat’ which you’ll never actually use. Instead there are useful phrases like ‘my name is…’ and ‘where do you live?’ The advanced side of the app offers more complex sentences such as ‘although they were very excited, they did not know how to get there,’ which can then be used to formulate your own complex sentences.
Once you’ve completed figuring out what Spanish word matches which English word, you can then listen to a recording of the sentence from a Spanish speaker. This is then handy for you to learn how to say things correctly. Besides the ‘game’ part of the app, there’s also a conjugation section which acts as a very handy reference tool while you’re learning.
Spanish Touch Trainer is a handy learning tool indeed. While it won’t teach you everything you need to know, it helps you out hugely with those pesky verb conjugations and even better, you can do it anywhere you like thanks to the portable nature of the iOS devices. Much more fun than being stuck slaving in front of textbooks.
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Bullet hell… meet accelerometer controls. Welcome to Super Blast 2.
Space shooter games are typically judged by how pretty the light show is in the middle of combat. Sure, being able to avoid incoming waves of enemy fire is great, but you really just want to get weapon upgrades that look cool and seem powerful. Forgoing all machismo, Super Blast 2 scraps all space shooter conventions by packing in accelerometer controls with autofire and keeps the weapon upgrades/parade of lights to a minimum.
I would honestly be a bit happier if there were more whiz-bang effects, but I guess that beggars can’t be choosers. In Super Blast 2, the object is to go through space without letting even one enemy pass you, because if you do it is game over. Using your accelerometer based controls, you must tilt your ship right and left to kill absolutely everything on the map while collecting limited time power ups to make your ship temporarily stronger. As much as it pains me, upgrades are not permanent, so don’t expect crazy weapon effects or glitzy weapon sprays.
Because of the strict objective (kill everything or lose), there aren’t many enemy units on screen at any given time and very few of the units actually shoot at you. You do have a health bar, but the only real threats to kill you are the smattering of “bosses” that come at certain intervals. The bosses do provide a bit more of a traditional bullet hell shooter challenge, but again, there are no glitzy light shows to make the experience grand.
What I would like to see in Super Blast 2 is more action. The threat of losing when a single enemy passes does add a good deal of excitement, but to really take it over the top the weapons need to get bigger (and maybe more permanent… heck, throw some RPG-esque weapon upgrades in after bosses), the enemies should fly in more intricate patterns, and the screen should be zoomed out a bit to fit more on-screen action. I love the graphics, I love the sound (the sound really is amazing), I just want more.
It’s an app that, most of all, teaches you verb conjugation. Anyone who’s tried learning a language will know that verb conjugation is a huge problem when you’re just starting out. Spanish Touch Trainer teaches you how to figure this out via the context of real sentences. There’s no sign of silly phrases like ‘my monkey has a hat’ which you’ll never actually use. Instead there are useful phrases like ‘my name is…’ and ‘where do you live?’ The advanced side of the app offers more complex sentences such as ‘although they were very excited, they did not know how to get there,’ which can then be used to formulate your own complex sentences.
I would honestly be a bit happier if there were more whiz-bang effects, but I guess that beggars can’t be choosers. In Super Blast 2, the object is to go through space without letting even one enemy pass you, because if you do it is game over. Using your accelerometer based controls, you must tilt your ship right and left to kill absolutely everything on the map while collecting limited time power ups to make your ship temporarily stronger. As much as it pains me, upgrades are not permanent, so don’t expect crazy weapon effects or glitzy weapon sprays.
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