I was up fairly late last night watching an old episode of Law and Order SVU when one of those Apple spoof commercials from T-Mobile came on. In it, the too-cool-for-himself guy with the excessively yellow-orange hair, the Apple guy, was talking to his family via Facetime when he walked out of his Wi-Fi bubble. As you’d expect, he garbles and gadooks into what is assumed is a “lost connection” image while the half pretty, half odd looking Anne Hathaway knockoff explains that the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G can do video chats from anywhere with its mythical 4G network speed.
Skype then (covertly) launched their 3.0 update which allows for video chats over 3G. I was saying “a-ha!” when Mariska Hargitay was busting some young punk for kidnapping a girl after a party. I’m pretty sure she died, Ice T will sort out the mess I’m sure.
So yes, the iPhone now has the almighty capability of making video chats over its regular network, but the feature sucks up a whopping 3.4 MB/sec. It allows you to talk to your other Skype wielding buddies on any sort of device, and even works in portrait and landscape. Best of all, it runs fairly smooth even if both users are stuck on a 3G network, although nothing, not even Santa Clause, can make 3G work smoothly in certain areas.
With a feature as amazing as this, it comes as a shock that Skype didn’t publicize the launch more. The 3.0 launch could’ve been a big deal, like Super Bowl ad big, had they put some thought into marketing the update. Instead, the update released in the middle of the night, to no fanfare, while I was sitting up in bed watching Law and Order. Silly Skype. Maybe they were too upset about China’s ruling to make the service illegal in their closed off country to remember about this massive update.
Happy video chatting! Be sure to watch that data usage though, the gigabytes will fly by if you don’t watch out.
Note: The youtube video below is about as strange as it gets. Something tells me that Skype wants their service to be the next Chatroulette… if you get my drift.
Developer: MIXTAB INC
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.1
Device Reviewed On: iPad
iPad Integration Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Overall Rating: 2.67 out of 5 stars
Is there space left in the Apple App Store for yet another “innovative” news reader for the iPad? After looking at and using conventional RSS readers like NewsRack and Reeder, visual newsreaders like Flud and Pulse, and game-changers like the singular Flipboard, there doesn’t seem to be much new ground left. Mixtab disagrees, however, and is trying another tactic in the great newsreader war of 2010.
The central element of Mixtab is its use of what it calls “tabs” – groups of feeds compiled by users. Using the Mixtab iPad app, you can browse the wide variety of tabs created (or, in current parlance, curated) by other users and subscribe to them. Thus, a sports fan might subscribe to the NCAA Football tab, or foodies might subscribe to the cooking tab. There really are many, many tabs on many subjects available, but there are a few significant problems with this approach.
First, you cannot search for a particular tab topic from within the app. As a comic book fan, I’d love to subscribe to a comic book tab, but finding one means scrolling through page after page of random tabs. There has to be a better way to handle this. A simple search box would suffice and is absolutely essential for an app like this.
The second major issue is that you as a user cannot create your own tabs from within the app. In order to do this you have to create an account on mixtab.com and create, edit and submit your tabs from there. This is just clunky. The iPad has shown that it can stand alone without the need to be constantly tethered to a PC. Why, then, aren’t these features included in the iPad app?
Visually, the developers of Mixtab do a few new things, like allowing you a large choice of background themes for viewing tabs. This is a good idea, and one that I’d like to see in other readers that typically have a bland white or black background. However, other than this one small innovation, I don’t see anything in this incarnation of Mixtab to warrant recommending it. There are many other apps that do just as much, if not more, with a more elegant design. The “tabs” idea is interesting, but give iPad users more creative control.
Lord of the Rings: Middle-Earth Defense [iTunes Link] was developed by Glu Mobile and was one of the apps that I picked up during the holiday Christmas sale. When I was young I read the book series maybe 3-4 times which made me an instant fan of the movie franchise, so this app was one of those must buys!
From this point I will save myself the trouble and refer it to as LOTR.
LOTR is a tower-defense game that brings the genre to a whole new level. Instead of setting towers along a set path, and watching your enemies run in your defenses, you will follow your heros on their quest to destroy the Ring.
During your quest you will come upon your favorite locations from the movie such as Helms Deep or the Mines of Moria. In addition, towers are replaced with your favorite heroes, which is really awesome for fanboys like me. Characters such as Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli and Gandalf are available as well as your small feeble Hobbits, and other minor characters. And how could I forget those adorable Orcs, Goblins, Nazgul and other huggable creatures… Read More
Developer: DORLING KINDERSLEY LTD
Price: $16.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.2
Device Reviewed On: iPad
iPad Integration Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use Value Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.33 out of 5 stars
The wealth of information contained in any DK Publishing Eyewitness book can be daunting, to say the least, but an Eyewitness Travel book can be even more imposing. DK books are a wonder of design and meticulous detail, and now that experience has been translated to the iPad’s screen with very good results.
DK Eyewitness Travel: Paris is the first of DK’s travel books to make its way to the iPad, and the transition is a solid one. The interface is clean, the design is top-notch and the information provided is deep and relevant. If you don’t mind carrying your iPad on an overseas trip, this app could be much more useful than its print counterpart.
The home screen provides a sliding visual menu at the bottom of the screen (the app only functions in landscape mode) showcasing top attractions, area by area breakdowns of Paris, a history of Paris and more. Of these, the top attractions are is a particular treat, as it provides a visual list of major Parisian tourist attractions (say, for example, Notre-Dame cathedral). Clicking one of these images pulls up a larger cutaway drawing of the location, complete with tappable hotspots that provide definitions, history, images among other information. It’s all very intuitive, and the illustrations showcase the well-known DK-style of cutaway art.
Clicking the “Show Menu” button at the top left corner of the home screen provides a more conventional menu of areas available in the app. Of these, the “Travellers’ Needs” section is essential for anyone planning a trip to Paris. Within this section, the “Where to Stay” sub-menu calls up a good overview of information needed before booking a hotel in Paris, but this is further enhanced by a feature that allows you to choose the area where you would like to stay. This, in turn, generates a nicely-detailed overhead map of the chosen area, along with suggested hotels, complete with phone numbers, website information, price range, and a link to the hotel in Google Maps. Again, the menus are deep, but they are amazingly intuitive and credit must be given to the developer for enhancing a paper travel guide so thoroughly.
DK Eyewitness Travel: Paris is not an inexpensive app. It’s $16.99, but that is the same list price of the paper travel guide. While you may get much of the same information in both editions, the iPad version is clearly easier to navigate. It remains to be seen if DK Publishing will update this guide as time progresses, or force users to buy new guides. I would hope the former rather than the latter, but for the moment this is the pinnacle of travel guides on the iPad and it’s hard not to recommend it.
Developer: NTT Resonant
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.15 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.23 out of 5 stars
Berzerk Ball discovered something long ago in the Flash gaming world that most iOS developers haven’t quite caught on to: games don’t have to do a whole lot to be fun. As much as people like games that have you going crazy with accelerometer based controls and have you fumbling with all sorts of buttons, real casual gamers just want to perform a simple task and then see the fruits of their labor.
Sporting one of the simplest gaming elements out there, Berzerk Ball has you hitting an object (a “geek” in this case) as far as you can. As the geek flies, he randomly hits all sorts of things that will make him go further, such as missile launching robots, giant cannons, and random critters flying in the sky. There is a bit of skill involved in hitting the speed and accuracy gauges right off the bat, but past that it’s mostly a watch and enjoy kind of experience.
To keep the game moving and the interest high, you collect money, gems, new players to play with, and EXP as you go. WIth this, you can upgrade your character and buy new items to create the baddest of all characters, able to slam your geek into lower orbit at will. If simple RPG elements aren’t enough, there are also a load of achievements and trophies to gain.
Surprisingly, in the simplest of simple games, Berzerk Ball really does have a lot going for it. Its idea really isn’t new or original, but the implementation of the simplistic game type is fantastic. This one deserves a thumbs up for sure.
I was up fairly late last night watching an old episode of Law and Order SVU when one of those Apple spoof commercials from T-Mobile came on. In it, the too-cool-for-himself guy with the excessively yellow-orange hair, the Apple guy, was talking to his family via Facetime when he walked out of his Wi-Fi bubble. As you’d expect, he garbles and gadooks into what is assumed is a “lost connection” image while the half pretty, half odd looking Anne Hathaway knockoff explains that the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G can do video chats from anywhere with its mythical 4G network speed.
Is there space left in the Apple App Store for yet another “innovative” news reader for the iPad? After looking at and using conventional RSS readers like NewsRack and Reeder, visual newsreaders like Flud and Pulse, and game-changers like the singular Flipboard, there doesn’t seem to be much new ground left. Mixtab disagrees, however, and is trying another tactic in the great newsreader war of 2010.
The second major issue is that you as a user cannot create your own tabs from within the app. In order to do this you have to create an account on mixtab.com and create, edit and submit your tabs from there. This is just clunky. The iPad has shown that it can stand alone without the need to be constantly tethered to a PC. Why, then, aren’t these features included in the iPad app?
The wealth of information contained in any DK Publishing Eyewitness book can be daunting, to say the least, but an Eyewitness Travel book can be even more imposing. DK books are a wonder of design and meticulous detail, and now that experience has been translated to the iPad’s screen with very good results.
The home screen provides a sliding visual menu at the bottom of the screen (the app only functions in landscape mode) showcasing top attractions, area by area breakdowns of Paris, a history of Paris and more. Of these, the top attractions are is a particular treat, as it provides a visual list of major Parisian tourist attractions (say, for example, Notre-Dame cathedral). Clicking one of these images pulls up a larger cutaway drawing of the location, complete with tappable hotspots that provide definitions, history, images among other information. It’s all very intuitive, and the illustrations showcase the well-known DK-style of cutaway art. 
Sporting one of the simplest gaming elements out there, Berzerk Ball has you hitting an object (a “geek” in this case) as far as you can. As the geek flies, he randomly hits all sorts of things that will make him go further, such as missile launching robots, giant cannons, and random critters flying in the sky. There is a bit of skill involved in hitting the speed and accuracy gauges right off the bat, but past that it’s mostly a watch and enjoy kind of experience.
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