Android – Iphone – Applications

SpongeBob Marbles & Slides (both for the iPhone and the iPad) is surprising. Oftentimes, a game tied to a license like SpongeBob will be weighed down by bad design, development and implementation. A crunch for time, lack of interest and license mandates have a knack of getting directly in the way of the game’s success. And that’s why Marbles & Slides is surprising; it’s a really good game.

Players are given a game board, some marbles sporting the faces of SpongeBob characters, a pipe of ink, some obstacles and a goal. The objective here is to move the marbles to the goal; sometimes all of them or sometimes only a set number. The marbles fall under the influence of gravity and device tilting, so it’s the player’s job to paint the correct path and send the marbles into their pipe.

With that baseline set down, SpongeBob Marbles & Slides works well over the first 60 levels (more packs are promised to come later) to introduce new mechanics that add to the game’s difficulty. Touching goo instantly ends the level, using button controlled magnets change the speed and trajectory of the marbles, tripping switches open shields, avoiding Plankton marbles or freezing time briefly repaints the slides. This laundry list of variety is, again, extremely surprising for a licensed title like SpongeBob Squarepants.

A few physical hiccups keep the gameplay from attaining perfection, however. Specifically, marbles tend to get stuck in odd places and can’t be tilted free. On tougher levels this can be frustrating. The only solution is to restart.

The art direction within the experience is spot on for the SpongeBob franchise. Absolutely pitch perfect design work brings the experience to life through well illustrated menus, characters and, yes, even buttons. The iPhone version suffers a lower resolution (even the iPhone 4) that makes the game a little less attractive, but the overall feel remains intact. The music is great for the license, but it would have been nice to hear some of the characters use their voices at any point, instead of a constant stream of mildly humorous text.

Counting the resolution issue mentioned above, there are only three major differences between the iPad and iPhone version. The iPad’s screen obviously allows for a larger, more inviting and invigorating canvas to play on. That one’s a no-brainer. To the iPad’s detriment, however, is the sensitivity of the tilt controls. Tilting the device forces the marbles to move slowly in a given direction. On the iPad, the tilt is slow to respond and accelerate, making it a last ditch effort rather than a game changing mechanic. On the iPhone, however, the tilt is snappy and responsive.

SpongeBob Marbles & Slides is a great game worthy of attention. The experience is fairly large, and the certain coming of new level packs will convince players to keep the game on their iDevice.

[ SpongeBob Marbles & Slides HD Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by gunturbabu \\ tags: Application, Game, ipad, Iphone, mtv, overall-rating, review, slides, sponge, tilt

I’ll admit to initially looking at ClearCam and thinking “Really? Do I really need another camera related app? Can’t I just stick to the built in app?” I misjudged it and expected it to be really rather gimmicky and pointless. I was clearly quite wrong. ClearCam is inexpensive and perfect for taking a photo if you’ve got a shaky hand or like taking photos of moving objects.

I had two perfect examples of this when testing out the app: my mother and the cat. My mother has a disability which means, amongst other things, she can’t keep her hands as steady as she’d like to. Cue the ability within ClearCam to take 6 images and pick out the best one. This has the added advantage of being great when taking photos of my cat for instance. The cat doesn’t like to stay still when he sees a camera, instead he goes a bit mental and tries to eat it. Don’t ask me why, it’s just one of his quirky ways. ClearCam meant that I could finally get a good photo of him while he was awake – an instant endorsement in my eyes.

Besides its ability to take multiple images in a series, ClearCam also offers the ability to set exposure points and focus points at the tap of a finger. It’s a similar tale with the ability to light up the area with the LED light, again at a (triple) tap of the screen. It’s simple stuff all round and it was quickly evident just how useful enhancing an image is. The app allows you to compare original photos to the enhanced version and it’s clear to see that noise has been reduced and the general quality of the photo is almost always slightly improved.

There’s also the ability to rotate the image and to zoom in as much as you like once the photo is taken. These are all small bonuses that quickly add up to make a very useful package.

As cynical as I was at the beginning, it’s clear to me (pun not intended) that I’ll be using ClearCam regularly instead of the built in Camera app. The quick mode enables me to allow the app to sort out the best photo for me, while the enhanced mode gives me something to fiddle around with if I want to take my time taking a shot. For days when I haven’t got my digital camera around, this’ll make a fantastic replacement for the all too useful snapshot.

[ ClearCam review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by rockingevil \\ tags: digital, enhanced, image, iphone apps and games, overall-rating, photo, photography, time

In the realm of product reviews, there is no better brand name than Consumer Reports. Many people wouldn’t be caught dead buying a vacuum cleaner or the like without making sure that it gets a “best buy” or a “recommended” Consumer Reports badge. As good as their reviews are, though, their mobile app lives and dies on two things: ease of use and organization.

As far as app navigation goes, Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper is a real winner. Its home screen is neatly organized into three panels. There is a large button for barcode scanning (provided by the popular Big In Japan), a scrollable category guide complete with snappy little pictures, and a search bar at the bottom.

Your success with the app really hinges on how you plan on using it. If you are simply going to a store to find the best vacuum cleaner that is on sale, the barcode scanner/ search feature will give you just what you need. After scanning an item, the app sends you straight to a separate page that shows you the Consumer Reports score, as well as a local/ online price quote and a link to other products in the brand line.

Where the app falls short is in the organization department. Let’s say that you aren’t simply scanning or searching for a particular model, but want to know what the highest rated vacuum cleaner of all is. Well now, that is a bit more difficult. After navigating through a handful of menus, (Appliances > Laundry & cleaning > Vacuum Cleaners > Vacuum Cleaner subcategory) you are presented with a list of items that are ranked by score. The highest scores don’t necessarily translate to “recommended” badges though, as they seem to be given at random. I know from personal experience that the ratings are given in price ranges, but that is in no way represented by the app. A simple 1-4 dollar sign rating next to the product would work wonders.

Fans of Consumer Reports ratings will certainly enjoy the mobile app translation, as well as the inclusion of the easy to use barcode scanner. The app really is perfect for people who want to buy the best of what is available at a particular store, and want their information from a trusted source. With the rise of free sites like Consumer Search, however, it’s hard for me to gulp down the $10 asking price, but the Consumer Reports brand does lend a sense of credibility that not many can match.

[ Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by iieevvn \\ tags: consumer-search, Iphone, iphone apps and games, mobile, overall-rating, price, rating, ratings, shopper, utilities, vacuum-cleaner, vacuum-cleaners

Remember the first time you sat down with The Sims oh so long ago? Assuming you liked it, you probably sat in front of your computer for far longer than you ever meant to. Between having secret relationships with all of the neighbors to trying to advance in your career, there was just no way to call it quits.

Unfortunately, the same exact thing happened to me when I started playing Game Dev Story around 11 AM. I figured that I’d cozy up with the game and a cup of coffee and enjoy my morning. What a mistake that was.

Game Dev Story is a game that simulates running a game develpment house, from building the staff to producing the games. As the owner, it is up to you to make all the important decisions, but with none of the technical know how. You hire people, fire people, determine exactly what your workers should do, but never do you have to really do anything. There aren’t any silly mini games or puzzles, Game Dev Story is just straight sim.

The thing that Game Dev Story does ever so well is that it gives you a ton of options throughout but it doesn’t bog you down too much with micromanaging. Take making a game for instance. Instead of just brushing over details, it is up to you to pay for licensing fees of new systems (new systems come out every once in a while in the game, all with close to life names, such as the Playstatus and the Game Kid), determine genres and subgenres, make sure that the right employees are handling the right tasks (based on their skill ratings), pay for different ad schemes, attend trade shows, and of course make sure that your company has enough money to pay for all the employees. There are a ton of things to do, but like the Sims, there is no feeling that you are being rushed. Your employees all work on their own, you just have to make the big decisions.

While the game itself seems like some form of digital crack, the exterior finish isn’t quite as spiffy. Instead of resembling a nice, Sims like game, the graphics (and especially the sound) look and feel more like they belong on a Super Nintendo — or maybe even a Game Boy. What’s worse, though, is that the game only takes up about 3/4 of the screen, giving you black bars on the top and the bottom. The playing area never feels cramped or difficult, but there has to be something that can be done with the wasted screen space.

At the end of the day though, even with the lack of killer graphics, I can safely say that I spent more time with Game Dev Story in one sitting than any other game I’ve played this year. I feel like garbage now knowing that I probably could’ve learned how to make an actual video game in the time that I spent playing Game Dev Story, but in the eyes of many, that’s the pinnacle of gaming success. If you like time-draining sim games, I really don’t think you can find a better option in the App Store.

[ Game Dev Story Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by iieevvn \\ tags: Application, career, employees, game dev story, Games, iphone apps and games, kairosoft, overall-rating, price, quite-as-spiffy, sim, simulation, story, super-nintendo, time

Augmented reality is undoubtedly cool technology, but it really hasn’t been implemented well enough to be considered a killer feature. Up to now, it has been best used for things like location searches, but more often than not it is used for flimsy games with very little playability. ARDefender bucks the trend, and is one of the first augmented reality games that I have played that actually works well. I’m not saying that the game is great, but it is a really cool implementation of the technology.

To play the game, you first have to download a PDF file from ARDefender.com. The PDF file has a page with three different size maps that can be cut out, one for your wallet, one for your desk, and a bigger one for your floor. Each map just shows a little blue tower surrounded by 7 black dots, but when viewed by an iPhone, the map turns into a fully playable battlefield.

Through your screen, the small blue tower becomes a 3D tower that can be viewed at any angle by your iPhone. You can easily change between a birds eye view and an isometric view by simply positioning yourself (your actual body) where you want to be. The playing fields are best used on the ground, but they can also be played right off of the computer screen.

The game itself is a fairly standard castle defense game, where you are the tower and you have to kill all the invading forces. Instead of simple tap to aim though, you have to physically move your target with to where the enemy is and then hit fire. As you progress through the game, the waves get harder and harder, but you also get more and more ammo to fire your special guns (lasers and missiles). On its own, there’s really not too much about the game to gush about, but with the added augmented reality twist, the game is pretty impressive.

After a while though the magic of augmented reality wears thin and the lack of depth becomes grating. ARDefender really just boils down to a fantastic tech demo to show off to your friends. As far as games go, it’s fairly run of the mill.

[ ARDefender Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by popol842 \\ tags: ardefender, augmented-reality, defender-review, fairly-standard, Game, Games, int13, Iphone, iphone apps and games, overall-rating, pdf, price, rating