Android – Iphone – Applications

If you long for the good old days of Lucasarts point-and-click adventure games, you might want to give Puzzle Agent a try. It’s not exactly the same thing, but the warped, sardonic sense of humor, the stylized graphics and the wide variety of puzzles make it intriguing for anyone who remembers the glory days of Day of the Tentacle.

You play as Nelson Tethers, an FBI agent who serves in the Department of Puzzle Research. From the look of things at the start of the game, Nelson doesn’t do much except sit at his desk and chew gum, but a request to investigate a series of odd occurrences at an eraser factory sends him out into the field and into an oddball small town.

You never know when or where a puzzle is going to appear throughout Puzzle Agent HD. It may be to help you locate your hotel room key or to travel from point A to point B. Puzzles range from decoding to jigsaws, and the early ones are particularly easy. Later in the story, though, expect to be mentally taxed. If you collect wads of gum throughout the game, you can cash them in at various points for hints to help you solve particularly confounding puzzles. It’s a clever design, and it certainly keeps the theme consistent throughout the game. Completing a puzzle is also very gratifying, as you see your solution travel across the country and receive a (hopefully) “Approved” stamp from your supervisor.

If there is a downside to Puzzle Agent HD, it’s that it’s really too short. With as much style and substance as the story and the puzzles pack, you’ll want this game to last a while. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. The actual ending you get in the game isn’t much of an ending at all, as the game abruptly ends. With any luck there will be additional missions or games added to continue and complete this story.

Complaints aside, this is a great-looking game with a compelling storyline, good voice acting and intriguing puzzles. It may not be Monkey Island, but it certainly points the way for iPhone/iPad developers to embrace the best parts of old-school game design.

The advantages of working on an iPad are growing by leaps and bounds everyday. Photographers may like the idea of working on this sleek device, but they question how they might get their photos from their camera to the iPad. Like a good pal meeting you at the bar, the camera connection kit is here to buy you a round. The question is, do you take the drink or do you hail a cab and go home now?

The camera connection kit comes with two different ways for you to get your digital images to the iPad. The first is via an SD card reader. Just plug this card reader into the 30-pin dock connecter slot at the “bottom” of your iPad device, shove your camera’s SD card into the slot, and you’re off to the races.

The second option comes in the form of a USB connector, or “dongle,” if you will. Plug this USB connector into the same dock connector as above and attach the USB cable to your camera. The iPad and camera connection kit will do the rest.

Upon connecting your camera, or memory card, the photo app launches and takes you right to the photos on the attached device. You then have the option to import everything or select only those photos you want to bring in. A prompt to keep the photos on your camera or delete them will appear once the import has finished.

A big question is how well it works with raw files. I shoot with a Nikon D90. My average RAW file size is 11megs. My photos also surpass the 2304 x 1536 size restriction on the iPad. Surprisingly, the camera connection kit had no issue reading my RAW files from my D90. The photos are resized within the iPad photo application, letting me do my work with minimal stress.

*EDIT* A commenter pointed out that the files do import on their native sizes and file types. I tested this, and can verify that photos are stored on the iPad in their native formats and resolutions. The apps that you use are forced to work within the restrictions set by iOS and the iPad. *END EDIT*

The build quality of these little connection devices is pretty good. They are made of the classic Apple white plastic. A dust cover is included for the doc connector as well. These are small enough to fit in your pocket, yet sturdy enough to take daily abuse out in the field.

I really only found two issues with these magical connectors. The main issue for many professionals and skilled amateurs will be the above-mentioned resizing of photos. It is nice to work on photos on the iPad, but if you need to edit full resolution images, you are out of luck. Just remind yourself that this is a trade off for being able to work on photos from such a small and light device.

The second issue is a small one. There is a dust cover for the 30-pin dock connector, but nothing to protect the USB or SD card slot. It would have really upped the quality standard if Apple had included some way to keep these areas clean from debris as well.

Is the camera connection kit worth your hard earned $30? It most certainly is. Despite the image sizing issues, this quickly became my travel companion, beating out my laptop. I can work on photos easily and conveniently, without toting a big, heavy battery consuming monster. I just make sure to let clients know that higher resolution images will be available once I get home to my laptop. If you’re looking for a way to ditch the laptop and work on photos on your iPad, you’ve just found your solution!

[ iPhotographer: Camera Connection Kit Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by rockingevil \\ tags: Apple, Application, image, ipad, keep-the-photos, laptop, native, photo, photography on ios, photos, rating, restrictions, work-on-photos

Sega has taken to unleashing their back catalog of Genesis classics on to the App Store, and they’ve now unleashed their strategy RPG progenitor Shining Force onto the App Store. It sometimes shows its age, but also holds up remarkably well to this day. The story is a typical ‘young warrior leaves home, leads ragtag band of adventurers on quest to destroy ancient evil’ one, but the game is all about relatively uncomplicated strategy-RPG gameplay. You have your hero unit that you must keep alive at all costs, archers who can attack from ranged distances, magicians with powerful spells, centaur paladins who can cover great units (the benefit of being half-man, half-horse), among other standard RPG units. Shining Force lacks not for standard RPG tropes, but don’t let my seeming lackadaisical attitude towards them dissuade you – the game lays a great foundation of strategy RPG gameplay without making things too complicated or difficult for non-RPG diehards to enjoy.

While Sega’s Genesis emulator can occasionally stutter on less powerful devices, Shining Force’s turn-based nature makes the performance hit largely irrelevant – if you can put up with the reduced framerate, the game is absolutely playable on whatever iOS device you can install it on. The game is also a fantastic value – there’s hours of gameplay in this $2.99 package, and the game still holds up really well, 17 years after its original release. It doesn’t have the complexity of some other games in the strategy RPG genre, but it’s easy to get into and enjoy, with the ability to resume from wherever you leave off when you quit the app.

Sadly, there are some dated quirks with the interface. For example, in scenes after battles where you can find objects laying around the battlefield: walk on every square, hit A to call up the menu, select the examine option, and click through a text prompt telling you what if anything you found. Talking to people is similarly tedious. These kinds of interface issues were fixed in the GBA remake of the game, but this app (and Sega’s other Genesis games) are just about presenting the original experience as best as they can on the iOS. This isn’t a bad thing, especially to the purist, but could be a deal breaker for the uninitiated.

Shining Force is an underappreciated classic, and while its age sometimes shows, it is a good port by Sega to iOS, and a great representation of a strategy RPG worth checking out to this day, at a fair price.

[ Shining Force Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by pietro842 \\ tags: device-reviewed, force, Game, genesis, hero, iphone apps and games, performance, price, purist, rating, rpg, sega, shining force, strategy rpg

There is one great thing about Safari on the iPad for Facebook users – the main website actually works very well on the iPad, without much need for a separate app. Well, if you’re mostly just a lurker who only posts the occasional thing, Facebook via Safari works great. If you’re the type who needs to upload photos, hide or delete posts, or if you need more organization of the features in your Facebook user experience, Social for the iPad is here for you.

Social for the iPad is largely just a wrapper for the Facebook website in app form. All the information appears in similar layout to the website, the only main difference being a different font and some larger buttons. One of the issues remedied by the app is that the main website’s hover over buttons don’t work on iOS Safari devices, so these buttons are now persistent, meaning you can delete your own posts, or hide posts from your main news feed. Tired of seeing your sister constantly post about her Mafia zombies’ crops and can’t wait to get back to a computer to hide them? Fret no longer, good sir or madam.

Social for the iPad does a great job making the Facebook experience on the iPad more complete. It doesn’t alter the experience of using the web site, it only supplements it and gives you handy options to view your messages, notifications, and to make a group of your favorite people to quickly access. As well, when you add someone to your favorites, a prompt comes up with a button that confirms you’ve added them to your favorites, with a button that says “Yay!” to close the box. I appreciate little interface touches like this.

Social for the iPad being largely a wrapper has its problems – often times when you want to pull up something like a profile, a blank page will pop up, and you have to refresh. An issue with the main news feeds not appearing on devices on iOS 3.2.0 was fixed in a recent update, but pages not appearing properly still occurs. Also, this app largely only exists due to the deficiencies of not just Mobile Safari, but Facebook as well: they haven’t updated their web application for iPad compatibility, either. If at least one of these issues gets addressed, and I’m betting on the latter happening first, then Social for the iPad might struggle to have any reason to exist at all.

But until then, the Facebookers of the world need a way to properly use Facebook on their iPad and Social for the iPad goes a long way towards making that experience far more tolerable for the moment. While it needs some work on the technical backend, this is a good choice for iPad Facebook users who need to access a wider set of Facebook features.

[ Social for the iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by tmunzke \\ tags: Application, facebook, facebookers, ipad, ipad apps and games, price, rating, review, sister, social, social for the ipad

Hunting is something that I have no clue about outside of gaming. While I love shooting things in games, I just wuss out when it comes to the real thing. However — shooting dinosaurs? Now there’s something I can get on board with which is why I was rather impressed with Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter.

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter is a port of a PC game from 1998, one that I never played. I’d be surprised if it ever looked as luscious as this iPhone conversion though. It really does look stunning and well detailed. It also offers some of the best AI I’ve seen in recent times on any system, let alone an iPhone.

The object is pretty simple: you have to hunt down dinosaurs in a Jurrassic Park style environment. You start out hunting down herbivores then gradually work your way up to harder foes, eventually having to defeat the almighty T-Rex. It’s not as simple as your regular shooter, though, as this is a hunting sim not an FPS game. You have to ensure that everything from the wind direction to the line of sight is on your side. There are various tools to assist you in this endeavor such as a method to disguise your scent, radar tracking and camouflage. All of these implements reduce the amount of points that you’re able to earn, however, so choose carefully. In the early stages this is your only option if you want to succeed — your weapons are distinctly limited and short range only.

The learning curve does feel a little steep at first. It’s not until you realise that the best bet is to simply get what you can rather than go for the ‘perfect’ kill, that things become easier. Then as you accrue more and more points, you’re able to buy more effective weapons and pursue stronger dinosaurs. Encountering carnivores is where the game shows off just what great AI is available. Carnivores are all too willing to attack on sight but they’re also able to dodge shots and even gang up on you. These creatures are far from dim-witted and patience is frequently required to defeat them.

It’s constantly satisfying, though. An intelligent shooter is hard to come by and Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter serves this purpose well. It might take a while to come to grips with, and admittedly a comprehensive tutorial would have been greatly welcomed, but there’s plenty of reason to persevere here.

If you’re looking for a deep, intelligent hunting sim, Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter is ideal. The added bonus of hunting dinosaurs rather than conventional animals just makes it all the more intriguing a proposition.

[ Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by janyton \\ tags: $2.99, Application, carnivores, dinosaur, Game, Games, Iphone, jurrassic-park, overall-rating, price, rating, shooting, steep-at-first