This week is a week of oddities and unique little gems, especially evident in the top game of the week, McPixel. It's a very strange challenge-based point-and-click adventure game, and it's sure to achieve near-instant cult status. We've also got the latest from Kairosoft, a dungeon crawler from the developers behind Ski Safari, a line-tracing spell-casting battle game, and an auto runner in which you play as the toughest old granny this side of the planet. Here are this week's top Android games.
I really don't know where to begin with this game. It's just so absurd and random, but fantastic at the same time. Essentially, it's a challenge-based point-and-click adventure game from developer SOS. You, as McPixel, have 20 seconds in each scenario to use whatever tools are available to you to stop a massive explosion of some sort and save the day. The actions you can take and the various scenarios are just so ridiculous, from getting a person to jump to their death to throwing yourself into a volcano, but somehow, through the music and the purposely-awful pixel art, this game will win your heart anyway. Definitely check out the lite version first, though.
What more is there to be said about the Kairosoft games that frequent this list? They're always quality titles that try to bring something new to the fold along with that gorgeous pixel art. This time, instead of managing a business, you're managing an entire town, Sim City style. Specifically, an Edo-era town in Japan, full of samurai and that awesome Japanese architecture. To be fair, other than the Edo setting, this is one of the more mundane Kairosoft games, and you might just see it as another city builder, but at least you know it will be a quality mundane city builder! As always, there's a lite version.
Mediocre, the makers of the fun liquid physics puzzler Sprinkle, have just graced us all with the presence of this hilarious auto runner. In it, you play as old Granny Smith who is chasing down an awful little apple thief on some roller skates. She'll hurl herself over huge gaps and blast through walls without a scratch if it means getting her apples back. Just make sure to always land on your feet. You can also use her cane with phone lines and such as zip lines. The simplistic art style is great too. Definitely look into this one if you want a good chuckle or two.
This is a very interesting title, but not necessarily a very good one. There are lots of unique and clever ideas at play, but the execution could have used some work. You play as a mage exploring his world, battling other creatures as he goes. You use spells by selecting the one you want, and tracing the line symbol that the game gives you. The symbols come in fire, water, earth and dream flavors, and there are six of each. Some are faster and weaker, some can be charged by others, and so on. The battles get repetitive rather quickly, but there is a lot of depth and strategy to be found here. Look into this one if you want something different. Other than McPixel, of course.
Coming from Defiant Development, the creators of the excellent Rocket Bunnies and Ski Safari, we had some high expectation s from Heroes Call, a new dungeon crawler from the same studio. This easily had the potential to be game of the week, but unfortunately, some shady freemium business practices bring it down quite a few pegs. The game looks and plays great, but the pushy in-app purchases and very tumultuous porting process have knocked it down a few pegs. It's still easily worth checking out, especially since its free, but you might run into some issues quickly.
In 1984, Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month. Ice cream is one of my favorite things to have, especially on a hot summer night. To honor this grand event, I thought it would be neat to see what sort of games were available on Google Play that involved ice cream. There are quite a few, and these are the ones I found most entertaining.
PoPo is a panda bear that loves ice cream. He awakes one day to find that Uggi, a cheeky gorilla has stolen them. Your job is to help PoPo collect his ice cream. The game is broken out into four locations with a number of levels in each. The graphics in the game are nicely done. In each level, you need to guide PoPo to the hole, picking up the ice cream as you go. You earn ice bonuses which will be used to unlock future levels. The faster you can complete a level, the more points you get. A nice feature of the game is that you can either guide PoPo by swiping with a finger or by tilting your phone. Either way, you need to use a little skill to complete the levels.
Can you ever have too much ice cream? Glutton is simple but frustrating balance game. Your job is to catch the falling scoops of ice cream in the sugar cone and begin stacking. There are numerous flavors of ice cream f alling. To maximize your score you will want to try and catch the same flavor of ice cream in a row. Once you get another flavor, you lose your bonus and begin again. You also have to watch out for tomatoes and onions, get three of those in a row and you are done. You can pause and save games and even post your scores online. This game is supported by ads.
Sundae Maker is a cute little game for those who like t o create. Your job is to make the ice-cream sundae of your dreams. You start off by choosing a dish or cone there are 22 different ones. Next, choose your ice cream there are over 90 different scoops. You can then add syrups, toppings, goodies and extras. Once you select the item, it will appear on the screen and you can arrange it the way you want. There is no limit to how much you can add to your sundae! You can even change the background if you want. When you are done, you can save your creation in the refrigerator, eat it, or share the image with a friend. The game is heavily ad-supported but you remove the ads with an in-app purchase.
There are hungry monsters out there and guess what they want: ice cream! Hungry MonstR is a fast-paced game where you need to flick or drag the different colored monsters to their matching colored tubes in the corners. The graphics and music are very nicely done. The game has two modes: MonstR Frenzy, where you need to keep out three waves within three minutes, and Endless Rainbow, where you go until you cant hold them back any more. If you flick a monster to the wrong corner, it will block that tube until it wiggles out. If you do well, you can earn some bonuses to help you out. The game also keeps stats if you are interested.
Here are three great Android apps to enjoy. TravelerComm combines multiple elements of other travel apps (journaling, maps, guides) into one single offering. Pebble Universe is a cute and colorful physics/puzzler which requires careful timing to succeed. Finally, theres an update to Flickr which adds some much-needed functionality.
Whats it about? TravelerComm allows people to share their travel experiences with friends.
Whats cool? TravelerComm is like having multiple apps in one because it offers distinct sub-applications for notes, a travel guide, maps and the ability to connect with friends. There are maps of cities and well-known locations, as well as recommendations for travelers based on the region or city they are in. 750 maps are included and they work offline. Its easy to connect with your friends, family and relatives if they are also using TravelerComm by sharing your notes complete with geotags.
Who is it for? With numerous apps out there that cater for different aspects of traveling, its nice that TravelerComm kills so many birds with one stone and offers multiple functionality. Theres a free version to try first if youre still on the fence.
Whats it like? Apps like Trip Journal are great for documenting your travels, and of course, there are hundreds of city guides out there alongside apps like TripAdvisor with thousands of reviews and maps.
Whats it about? Pebble Universe is a cute physics/puzzler that will test how good your timing skills really are.
Whats cool? Originally a hit on iOS, Pebble Universe sees a bunch of pebbles attacked by monsters who just love to eat pebble meat. Fortunately, the pebbles discovered their hats explode when smashed together. Now they can fight back, and thats where you come in. The game offers 25 increasingly complex levels for free (with more available via in-app purchase) as well as cute graphics and good production values.
Whos it for? If youre a fan of physics/puzzlers but are growing weary of the usual slingshot dynamic they often utilize, Pebble Universe is worth a look. Its a fresh take on the genre because of the timing element involved.
Whats it like? Though Pebble Universe takes some of its cues from classic physics puzzlers like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, it still offers enough originality to make it worth a look.
Whats it about? The official app from Yahoo!s hugely popular photo-sharing service.
Whats cool? Flickr just got an update to version 1.5 and adds some useful functionality. Now you can explore interesting photos like you can on the website and search has been improved. More crucially for heavy Flickr users, you can now edit details of existing photos and choose any camera app to shoot with. There are also a number of bug fixes. Its disappointing not to see support for Groups yet, but hopefully that will be added soon.
Whos it for? If youre a Flickr pro, the app offers a great way to interact with the site and upload photos directly. There are also filters and enhancements you can add to the photos you shoot before you share them, so the app has multiple functionality, even if its not as powerful as other similar camera apps.
Whats it like? There are numerous photo-sharing se rvices available like 500px, Instagram and Photobucket. In addition, there are plenty of great photo-editing apps offering cool effects and filters like Pixlr-o-matic and PicsArt - Photo Studio.
The Pinterest Android app is a place to plan your dreams. It is a mobile vision board. It is a living document of all your aspirations. Whether you are planning a wedding, a dream home remodel, or simply tonights dinner, the free Pinterest app has a suggestion for you.
You can pin from anywhere on the web or upload your own picture taken with your Android device. Your homepage feed shows all your pins plus pins from people who you follow. This makes it extremely easy to collaborate on big projects such as working with a wedding planner or interior designer. You can create a Pinterest Board to share your inspiration with them. Organize all your pins into custom boards so your dreams are all in order.
Just want to browse around? Pinterest has category feeds for just about any occasion. Need a new tattoo? Looking for an inspirational quote? You name it, it is probably on Pinterest. And these categories a re super easy to browse on the Android version just hit the search button.
Pinterest is the only Android app that I can think of that simultaneously answers the questions: What should I wear and what should I make for dinner tonight? If you arent already addicted to the web version of Pinterest, you definitely have to test out the Android version. And if you already love the web version, what are you waiting for? Download it already its fabulous and so addicting!
After a few years of ridiculous success based on one franchise, Rovio has decided to release something without any Angry Birds in it. That something is Amazing Alex, a Rube Goldberg-style physics-puzzler the likes of which weve seen many, many times before. While it is a very good game with nice polished visuals and charm, its not great and has some uneven design. Its definitely worth playing if youre into these kinds of games, though.
Each level gives you various random goals to accomplish by making absurdly overly complex contraptions. Generally, youre trying to get certain items off the screen or into a basket, things like that. You do this by setting up tables, balls, pipes, mechanical boxing gloves, slingshots, bumpers and many more things. There is a nice variety to the mechanics, but the game design lacks flow. It takes a little too long to really get going, and the difficulty curve of the game is rather erratic.
Amazing Alex is essentially a re-skin of another fairly popular game, Caseys Contraptions. Rovio bought up the rights to it, removed it from the app stores, and put this game out instead. The original game had its flaws as well, and Amazing Alex retains many of them by not changing too much. But this review has been overly negative so far, so now lets hear some praise. Levels are often very cleverly designed and open ended, leaving you with several ways to solve them. The real challenge comes from that one configuration that will let you collect all three stars as well. Some of these puzzles are serious stumpers, and while sometimes I feel there isnt enough direction, it only makes things that much more satisfying when you succeed. On top of all that, Rovios top notch art and music are excellent, and you can expect them to release tons of new levels in future updates. Its not a great game, but its definitely worth playing. Amazing Alex is available for one dollar at the time of this review.
Lookout Starbucks, theres a new app in town. Dunkin Donuts has just launched an Android payment app, looking to encroach on a mobile empire currently ruled by Starbucks. Now you have two options for paying for coffee with your smartphone, using the reloadable, points-tracking Dunkin Donuts app. Also new this week is the WWE app, finally finding a way to offer an official mobile experience. Falcon for Twitter also made a splash this week, debuting a full-screen Android widget for the socially savvy.
The official Dunkin Donuts app has all the perks youd expect, with a payments option, store locator and menu. Rivaling Starbuck s for customer loyalty, the app turns your phone into a payment card, which is scanned during checkout. You can manage and reload your DD Card from the app as well, see updates from DDs Twitter account and receive local offers. There is also an option to send gift cards to friends via text message, email or Facebook, which theyll receive in the form of a DD Card all their own.
Better late than never, WWE has gone mobile with an Android and iOS app launch this week. Youll get all things WWE, including breaking news, video archives (current and classic), thousands of photos and pages for your favorite wrestling superstars. The goal with the WWE app, however, is to act as a companion during live programming. Theres exclusive in-app access to WWE content while watching events, activated during the Monday Night Raw broadcasts.
Most Twitter clients have Android home screen widgets for quick access, but Falcon for Twitter takes things a step further with a full-screen widget that offers all the functionality of a Twitter management tool. Still in beta, the customizable Falcon widget lets you read your timeline without launching a separate app, open links, view images and videos and send replies. Scroll through your feed in standard list format or the Falcon grid, offering a fresh take on your Twitter activity. Of course, you can tweet directly from the widget as well and its easy to set up notifications for @mentions.
Known for free group video calls, ooVoo rolled out a game-changing update to its Android app this week. You can now view four separate video streams concurrently while chatting, enabling you to share more videos with friends without interrupting your chat sessions. Its similar to Google Hangouts, and has also become a clever way to watch programming that isnt easily accessible (think Breaking Bad for Dish Network customers). Additional integration with Google services means you can now see missed OoVoo calls directly in your contact list, receive push notifications and access the app via a home screen widget.
Todays mobile user is all about personalization, and Pops takes things to the next level. The revamped app offers more than just personalized notifications with videos and animations, getting more social and more customizable with new features. Now you can attach a pop for each contact, which will aggregate your incoming messages around the people instead of the app. You can also personalize outgoing messages, so friends see a pop the way you intended. If the recipient doesnt have Pop, theyll get a URL that redirects them to an HTML5 video experience.
Back to school time is often a great opportunity for brands and parents to help raise money for local schools, and Shoparoo makes things easier with a new app that converts your store receipts into school donations. In turn, you earn exclusive rewards, bonuses and coupons. There are no restrictions on the types of products you can purchase, or the sto res from which you shop, but donations will be doubled if you purchase a featured brand. To donate, take a photo of your receipt from your Android device camera and submit. Select the school or charity of your choice and help your local community raise funds.
Here are three great Android apps to enjoy. Pandora Internet Radio got a significant refresh which did more than just fix a few bugs it completely refreshed the app. Eternity Warriors 2 is a great dungeon crawler game with plenty of action. Finally, Facebook received another update to improve its functionality yet further.
Whats it about? Pandoras personalized music radio service preceded the smartphone app explosion, but its still going strong as its latest update demonstrates.
Whats cool? In a world full of younger upstarts, the original Pandora Internet Ra dio app still demonstrates its relevance and charm with a completely refreshed Android app. Its new UI features better navigation and design updates. Listeners can now view their history so they can review or rate older tracks, and while music is playing, full lyrics can be displayed or bios of the individual artists.
Who is it for? Folks whove been using Pandora for a while will love the new enhancements. The app really feels as strong as its peers now, despite previously playing catch-up. If youve never used Pandora, now might be a good time to check it out.
Whats it like? Other streaming music and radio apps like Raditaz, Slacker, TuneIn Radio and IHeartRadio offer great altern atives to Pandora. Spotify, which is primarily a subscription service, offers streaming, personalized radio even for non-subscribers while Songza can match music to your mood.
Whats it about? Eternity Warriors 2 from Glu Mobile is a dungeon-crawling action game with stunning graphics and online cooperative multiplayer.
Whats cool? Following up on the original Eternity Warriors, this sequel sees the battle for Northern Udar raging on 100 years later. Youre task ed with destroying Demon Towers and defeating even deadlier enemies than before. The high-def graphics are impressive and theres plenty of real-time combat against dozens of different monsters. You can even join up with a friend and battle the demons with a fellow warrior!
Whos it for? Fans of fantasy adventure games and the dungeon crawler genre are sure to get a kick out of Eternity Warriors 2. While the game is free to play initially, at the higher levels, battles get particularly intense and in-app purchases will probably be needed to ensure you have the best armor and weapons.
Whats it like? The game improves on its predecessor significantly. Its similar to PC games like Diablo 3, and within the Android app world, older titles like Legends Arcana and Andors Trail offer a similar dynamic with less graphical flair.
Whats it about? The official app from the hugely popular social network received yet another update.
Whats cool? The latest update to the Facebook app (which continues to suffer massive criticism, rather like its iOS counterpart) includes the ability to batch upload your photos to the network, instead of doing them one at a time. In addition , its now possible to create an event directly from your Android device, including invites and attendee information. Finally, emoji characters are now available to spice up your Messenger conversations.
Whos it for? Clearly, heavy users of Facebook will enjoy this update, and now it offers some features that are not available via the HTML5 mobile site. Interestingly enough, the iOS version despite its brand new refresh, does not include the ability to create events yet, so thats another advantage Android users will enjoy.
Whats it like? Facebook is pretty much its own entity, but if the app still gives you trouble, Friendcaster for Facebook, Seesmic and Tweetdeck are viable alternatives to keep up on your social network activity.
SpaceChem Mobile is a fantastic puzzle game from Zachtronics Industries, full of complexity and solid design along with a very unique premise. The entire game is about chemistry in space. But don't judge this book by its cover or description, as it's actually one of the most original puzzle games to come out in ages, and it's worth a try from any level of puzzle fanatic.
You take on the role as a Reac tion Engineer on an alien planet. It's up to you to combine various elements using reactors, bonding and separating different elements to synthesize various chemical products before shipping them off. You do this with odd, train track like devices called waldos. You'll always have two of them: one red and one blue. You simply draw out the path of the waldos, leaving various nodes wherever they are appropriate. These nodes can bring up or send out elements in their proper zones, grab and drop elements, bind, and unbind them, and even sync the two waldos up with each other. Naturally, any solution that functions will work for a win, but if you want big points you'll have to build as efficient a reaction as possible.
Before long, you have to start using multiple reactors as you synthesize massive and complex products together, and that is where the game starts to really get crazy. This game may not be a completely accurate portrayal of chemistry, but it still feels very smart, whether you're looking at the periodic table provided to you or enjoying the smooth and streamlined art style. The soundtrack is hilariously epic too. It's an odd premise with a fairly steep learning curve, but if you can just push through it, you'll get to play one of the more complex and rewarding puzzle games of this generation. It may be a bit pricey, but it's more than worth it. If you're unconvinced, there is a demo version as well. Definitely give this one a chance.
If you're a PC gamer in the modern era, you probably use Steam and have a bunch of games in your Steam library. It's OK you can admit it; I have plenty of games on there, too. Steam has become an important community for so many user over the past eight years. Thanks to its regular ridiculous sales, we've invested quite a lot of money in it, so it's necessary for us to have access to it on the go. Thankfully, the Steam app for Android does exactly what you need it to do.
The first thing the Steam app does when you load it up is show you which of your friends is online. From there, you can chat with them or look at their profiles or whatever. But I don't usually care about that stuff when I'm not at home, I have something else on my mind when I'm looking at the app. Namely, I'm looking for something to buy.
The full Steam catalog is available through the app for purchase. There is, helpfully, a section in the app that allows you to look at what is on sale, although this section doesn't always have everything. During a big sale, the catalog section changes to highlight the best deals at any given moment. Of course, the mobile catalog also has a search function. When you make your purchases, you will have the option of downloading your games to your computer, if you're logged-in to Steam at home.
The Steam app doesn't do a whole lot of different things, but then again it doesn't have to. It does what it needs to do, and it let me do what I want to do when I start it up, so I have no complaints.
I can only occasionally find myself enjoying a virtual pet game. One I do like, though, is Kawaii Pet Megu for iPhone, because that game lets you play with your pet and go for a walk and buy it a house and furniture and stuff. That game set a high bar, and Hatchi does not get even close to that.
The problem is that Hatchi doesn't really do anything. Yes, you can feed it and make it read a book and bounce a ball, but you don't do those things in any real engaging way. The reading activity just shows a picture of a book for about two seconds, and then it's over. The play activity just shows a ball bouncing for that same span. The Hatchi never actually moves.
I would guess that the appeal of Hatchi is that it will grow up in different ways depending on how you treat it. Yeah, that's fine, but it grows so slowly. I've been playing this game for about three days, and it still is a child. I ts shape has only changed once, and then only slightly. How long do I have to pay attention to this stupid game before I get some payoff?
I'm guessing it will be a while, and unfortunately for my Hatchi I'm not sure I have the patience to keep feeding it. I just wish it would do something! Come on, man.
As our mobile phones become an extension of our personal lives, its only natural that we use them to share and view photos. While Androids own gallery does a fine job, Sonys Million Moments aims to showcase your personal photographs with flair. While Million Moments is certainly beautiful, it presents minor annoyance that keeps it from being great.
Most of us carry albums and albums of photos in our pockets. With smartphone camera quality increasing, any amateur today can take great photographs. Viewing them should just be as easy. Million Moments organizes all your photos in albums presented like books on a shelf. The albums themselves are given book jacket covers, giving the app a very beautiful presentation. Unfortunately, adding your photos becomes incredibly tedious as youll have to manually import your photos each time you take a picture. Heres hoping they add the ability t o monitor folders.
Once in an album, your photos are presented in a magazine-like fashion. You can flip through your album and tapping on a picture lets you add captions, though zooming-in on your photos seems to degrade the quality.
After importing your photographs, organizing them becomes a breeze. By sliding your finger down on a photo you are presented with colored ribbons that allow you to add tags or labels to you picture. Doing so automatically creates a book or album of your labeled photos on the shelf. Deleting albums is another matter. Instead of a single option to remove the albums, users have to go back and remove the labels from each picture. Not much of a problem if, say, you only have 10-15 pictures in a given book. Anything more than that would require you to scroll, tap, scroll, tap, over and over until you've chose n all the photos.
One minor annoyance with Million Moments are three mandatory albums that you cant remove or hide. One album links to the Million Moments blog and two are basically tutorials. While Im not much of a stickler for design, it throws the presentation off. I wish Sony added the option to remove the extra weight.
Tablet owners are also in for a major disappointment. Instead of taking full advantage of the real estate, you are treated to a blown-up phone version. Prepare to find your photos pixelated, blown-up and just plain ugly.
In comparison to competitors, Million Moments falls short on the feature side. Like I stated above, theres no way to automatically monitor assigned folders for n ew photos. Facebook is a welcome addition, but Dropbox users, Picasa and a host of other online services are notably absent. Personal videos also are also ignored by the app.
As it stands, Million Moments is on the verge of greatness. With a couple of more updates, addition of basic functions and a tune up, it could easily be the only gallery you need.
Labor Day is approaching and with the summers final celebration comes back to school jitters. In an increasingly tech-savvy world youll need the right apps to be prepared for classes, whether youre in middle school, high school, college or postgraduate studies. The right selection of Android apps can get you ahead of the class, keep you organized during your studies and save you money on textbooks and supplies.
Khan Academy has taken the academic world by storm, offering a new and highly digital way to learn every subject a student needs. The Khan Academy Player from WidgetLabs lets you browse and watch educational videos from Khan Academy in subjects such as math, physics, chemistry, humanities and more. Theres also sections for test preparation, talks and interviews. You can search videos by category, and can download individual videos and entire playlists for offline viewing.
Dictionary.com is a great reference app and theyve created a helpful study guide that would benefit any student, whether youre preparing for the SATs or want to improve your writing. You can master new words with tailored study programs. Theres over 70K flashcard decks to choose from, all customizable for your grade level, standardized test or subject. You can select your study method as well, with options for audio pronunciation and definition matching. Better yet, you can continue to study flashcards offline.
Every student needs a word processor app for taking notes or writing term papers. OfficeSuite Pro 6+ lets you view documents teachers have uploaded online, create documents, print and share all sorts of files--including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The app comes with support for PDF files as well. Theres also a File Browser for easy access to documents and integration with several cloud services like Box, DropBox, Google Docs and SugarSync for extended file-management options.
Whether you need textbooks or supplies, Amazon Mobile is the app for you. Search and purchase items directly from the app, and even scan in items youd like to research online. Youre likely to find most things you need on Amazon for a cheaper price, which is good for every student budget. With an e-book loan center, Amazons also a good choice for English Literature majors. Need to stock your dorm regularly with paper towels and Ramen noodles? Set up a Subscribe & Save order for the recurring purchases and save even more.
The TI-89 is no longer the most sophisticated device in your bookbag. If you have an Android smartphone or tablet, then you have a powerful scientific calculator at your disposal. Realcalcs Scientific Calculator app is fully loaded with traditional algebraic or RPN operations, a result history, unit conversions, percentages, Trig functions and much, much more. While the basic version has plenty of functionality and no ads, the full Plus version has even more s upport for conversions and constants with customizable units and other configurations.
With Evernote taking, searching, and sharing notes during and after lecture has never been simpler. It auto-organizes your notes for every class, all searchable by keyword and the text in the notes themselves. You can create a collaborative notebook for study groups with shared notes, bookmarks, links and other media. You can also sync notes from your desktop, email notes and save tweets to Evernote, and download notebooks for offline use. And remember when Facebook was a network for students? Well, if youre feeling nostalgic you can share Evernote noteb ooks directly with Facebook friends as well.
Too lazy to type notes? Turn on the Easy Voice Recorder and let the app do all the hard work. Your professors droning will be converted into an MP4, 3GP or WAVE file, with the option to save your recordings. There is no time-limit on recordings, so you wont have to worry about long lectures using up all your space. The Pro version lets you continue an existing recording, save recordings in folders, boost volume and reduce noise, and switch to the camcorder microphone for better recordings. The app can record in the background, letting you use other apps on your smartphone and tablet during class (hopefully not Angry Birds).
This week we have a pretty decent list, with ports, clones, and freemium adventures in store. Topping the list is Call of Mini - Zombies, a third-person shooter with a unique style and fun gameplay. It's a great place to get your action fix. We also have a paper plane combat simulator, crazy tactical genre blending strategy game, a Glu Mobile sequel, and a simple but charming retro arcade title. Here are this week's top Android games!
The developers over at Triniti Interactive have just released their first Android title, in the form of this iOS port. This is an action packed shoot er with an interesting blocky 3-D cartoon art style. On top of the frantic single player, you can enjoy a cooperative and versus mode online with your friends. Add to that the heavy metal soundtrack and more gore than you can shake a dismembered rotting limb at, and you've got a recipe for an awesome action game. Plus it's free, so I definitely recommend this as a dual time/zombie killing outlet.
The whole idea of an aerial combat game using paper planes has been done several times already, but when I saw the developer of this game, it had my attention. Developed by Chaotic Moon Studios, purveyors of such fine apps as Enigmo and Nanosaur 2, this game makes up for a lack in originality with a polished and smooth gameplay experience. It doesn't boast many features, but the battle mode is solid and the tilt controls work pretty great, though it's always nice to have alternative control schemes. You can also log-in to Facebook to play with your friends list, so that's fun.
This game is rather hard to describe, so I'm going to just use the developers words to start. It's a "line drawing action strategy top down shooter hybrid," and that's a fairly apt description. Developer 10tons is also responsible for Azkend and Sparkle, and while they haven't brought the original Boom Brigade to Android, the sequel is far superior anyway. It's packed with content, from unlockables and different game modes to the substantial campaign mode. You can also choose to play in real time, or pause the action for a more tactical approach. This game gets crazy, and is worth a playthrough.
Ah, Glu Mobile. Your never ending stream of Gun Bros. clones was pretty ridiculous at one point, but you settled down and started cloning other games, too. Now that you've revisited Eternity Warriors, you've also taken some new inspiration on to set the sequel apa rt from the original. Essentially, it's the same basic twin-stick gameplay, only with more of a Dungeon Hunter 3 twist added on. That said, I actually had a lot of fun with this one, and the new and improved visuals and gameplay easily trump the first game, which was just Gun Bros - Melee Edition.
This is an odd little title which encompasses everything that made retro arcade games great. It's got solid pixel art and exciting warbled sound effects, and is based on a simple and abstract idea, delivering a purely skill-based adventure. Your simple goal is to patrol th e surface of Mars across several levels with two difficulties and an endless mode. As you drive along, you'll have to jump over craters or boulders and shoot the numerous alien ships that will be harassing you. It's a free game with somewhat obnoxious ads, but you can pay to get rid of those. Arcade fans should definitely look into this one.
Here are three great Android apps to enjoy. DriveOFF is an app that aims to prevent your Android smartphone from distracting you while driving. Cosmic Colony is a fun simulation game which sees you building an interplanetary society. Weve also got the lowdown on Stick Tennis, a fast-paced tennis game just in time for the U.S. Open which starts later this week.
Whats it about? Mobile devices are distracting, especially when driving. DriveOFF from esure aims to curb this.
Whats cool? DriveOFF will prevent your phone from distracting you. Once your speed reaches 10 mph, the app will automatically swi tch off your Androids smartphone screen. In addition, it turns off all call and message notifications, too, while displaying a screensaver of your choice (the ones bundled with the app are amusingly dull). Its a neat idea, providing it works of course.
Who is it for? According to the apps description, a single beep of a phone diverts motorists gaze away from the road four times longer (2.30 seconds vs 0.48 seconds) compared to standard driving conditions even when unanswered. Clearly, thats enough time for an accident to happen and make this app a worthwhile download.
Whats it like? Your Android may have an in-built car panel app for use in your vehicle, which only shows a few apps with large icons. If not, an app like Car Home Ultra might work. But, while trying not to sound like a fuddy-duddy killjoy, Id probably suggest curtailing any phone use while d riving.
Whats it about? With this new adventure game from Gameloft you can create your very own space colony on a mysterious planet!
Whats cool? Its 2088 AD, apparently. You and your heroic space crew reach a planet called Mochwoi and explore this amazing new world. Youll create and expand a space-age settlement while completing missions and managing your resources so you keep everyone happy. Along the way, there are some exciting mini-games which will see you fighting off space pirates, and youll also face unexpected events like meteorite storms... oh my.
Whos it for? Fans of time- and resource-management games will likely get a kick out Cosmic Colony. It also has a social element (think Zynga games) because you can visit the colonies that your friends create to see how they stack up.
Whats it like? Its a bit like SimCity (but in space, of course) or Kairosofts recently released Kairobotica.
Whats it about? With the U.S. Open beginning today, why not work on your forehan d with this free, fun and frantic tennis game?
Whats cool? The game has simple swipe controls so its very easy to learn. However, the opposition are pretty tough as it all moves pretty quickly. In conjunction with the U.S Open, theres a North American theme and you get to play as your favorite tennis stars. In addition, there are daily challenges to keep you on your toes and keep things fresh. An in-app purchase unlocks the World Domination and full Grand Slam modes.
Whos it for? Despite Stick Tennis being hard to master, casual players should enjoy it, though there is plenty of challenge for hardcore gamers. The controls are intuitive and it demands good reactions to succeed.
Whats it like? There are other cartoony tennis games out there like the old-school Gachinko Tennis and more in-depth simulators like Virtua Tennis Championship from Sega. The folks who make Stick Tennis also make the hugely popular Stick Cricket.
Looking to be a cut above the dozens of Twitter apps on the market, OneLouders Slices for Twitter presents a Holo-themed application chock full of features. Like their previous social network app, Friendcaster, Slices attempts to differentiate itself from the competition with a well-designed UI and loads of tools for social network power users.
Along with tools Twitter users are familiar with (search, reply and direct messages) Slices main draw is the ability to let users create custom categories, or Slices. Slices lets you group together users for easy browsing, similar to the Circles on Google+. Its not at all groundbreaking, but it makes scrolling through your Twitter feed much more manageable, especially if you have tons of followers. The app even automatically categorizes Slices based on tweets.
Across the banner l ies quick shortcuts to your tailored Slices, new tweets, mentions, direct messages, notifications and the ability to post a tweet. It may sound over-populated but thanks to the slick Holo-themed format, the layout is uncluttered and intuitive to use. It seems the developers followed Androids UI guidelines to the letter. Unfortunately theres a banner ad at the bottom of the application, though its a minor nuisance.
Another great feature of Slices is its content discovery capability. The Slices Explore option lets you browse through categories such as news, local, humor, sport, music and other interests. This feature is separate from Slices and is meant to help you discover new users to follow.
Bottom line, Slices is among the top Twitter apps on Google Play. The only drawback facing the app is its lack of tablet support and minor bug s and crashes. Overall, these minor setbacks are easily overlooked thanks in part to great content discovery and user-generated Slices.
Founded in August of 2008, Airbnb is a huge success. Its now the trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world, covering 26,000 cities in 192 countries. Whats more, it can all be done from your Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. In June, the company reached the landmark of 10 million guest nights booked. With some $120 million in venture capital investment, Airbnb continues to grow from strength to strength, and the app was a welcome addition to our best Android Apps of 2012 so far.
In this installment of Developing Minds Want to Know, we talk to Airbnbs mobile platfo rm lead, Andrew Vilcsak who offers insight about how Airbnb was created, what inspires him, how to succeed in the mobile sector and what the future holds.
Key Company Facts
Name & Title: Andrew Vilcsak, Mobile Platform Lead
APPOLICIOUS: What inspired you to become an app creator?
ANDREW VILCSAK: Back in 2008, Apple launched the App Store and I immediately saw an incredible potential. It was a distribution channel to reach an incredible numbe r of people that simply didnt exist before. After hearing stories of dozens of developers striking it big and raking in millions, I set off to learn Objective-C, the computer language used for creating iPhone apps. I shipped handful of titles that got a few million downloads, but it wasnt until I joined Airbnb that I started working on more substantial products.
Heres a video that highlights what went into the making of the Airbnb app:
APPO: How long have you been developing apps, and what is the most significant difference between now and when you began?
AV: My position at Airbnb has enabled me to work on genuinely impactful apps. Our iPhone app is used by hundreds of thousands of users every month. It enables our hosts and guests all around the world to make connections that simply wouldnt havent been possible only a few years ago. For hosts, this means opening up new possibilities with a new source of income, and for our guests, this means opening up completely new travel experiences that cant be found anywhere else.
APPO: What apps (outside of those that you develop) inspire you the most and why?
AV: I think this recent wave of location-based social connection apps is fascinating Highlight (iOS) and Circle (iOS), for example. They did a good job, but its incredibly clear that nobody has yet figured out how a mobile device can help facilitate deep, meaningful offline connections in the real world. I believe the potential here is incredible.
APPO: Where do you see the most innovation in the app sector?
AV: There has been a lot of cool stuff happening around mobile banking and payments with apps like Venmo (Android and iOS) and Simple (iOS). I think we see the most innovation when new companies arent just using apps as an afterthought or a secondary method of accessing information, but rather as a primary means of interacting with the product. In the case of something like Simple, their mobile app is an example of something thats attempting to disrupt a century-old industry.
APPO: How do you harness that innovation in your own titles?
AV: At Airbnb, were fundamentally unlocking a completely new, local travel experience around the world. Bringing this experience to the mobile platform means bringing a wealth of almost a quarter million incredible, unique accommodations that can be booked directly from your phone.
APPO: In such a crowded space, explain how you generate awareness and drive downloads to your applications.
AV: You have one shot to get peoples attention. Make it great.
We wove together our skills as designers and developers and launched a great product. We won awards, we got great reviews both from the press and our users and weve continued to iterate on the experience as we use it ours elves everyday. This sort of attention and drive to your product is what naturally drives awareness and therefore downloads for our app.
APPO: What are the biggest technical constraints that exist today in the app sector?
AV: It might seem a little obvious, but an incredible amount of constraint in mobile devices comes from battery capacity in developing for mobile devices, there is a constant concern of how much computational power (and therefore, battery power) your app is using. Actions like turning on GPS sensors or running expensive graphical computations can burn a phone out in a matter of hours. Especially when traveling, its a constant engineering struggle to optimize ones work as much as possible to
APPO: How do you (or will you) mak e money from your application?
AV: Our mobile apps are an extension of the Airbnb offering, so they make money in the same way our company does. Guests who book on Airbnb pay a small service fee for their reservation, and mobile accounts for about 25 percent of Airbnbs traffic across the entire site.
APPO: What advice do you have to those working on their first applications?
AV: Ship something quickly, but ship something excellent. As I said before, youve got one chance to impress when someone downloads your app from the store even a great idea executed poorly doesnt stand a chance.
APPO: Where do you see the app sector one year from now? Five years from now?
AV: When the app store first launched, consumers viewed it as a source of amusing, transient content. It seems as though in the past year or so, people are now viewing apps as a necessary extension of th eir world: apps that help them stay healthy, manage their finances, explore the world and live a better, more efficient lifestyle. I think weve only scratched the surface of whats possible in a mobile device.
Here are three great Android apps to enjoy. CNN/TIME Convention Floor Pass arrives just in time for political convention season, offering all the news and analysis you need to stay informed. TextGenie is a novel app that is capable of translating the jargon and slang many youngsters use in text messages into something more understandable. Last but not least, weve got the lowdown on the official app for U.S. Open Tennis championship as it gets underway in Flushing Meadow, NY.
Whats it about? With the political convention season under way this election year, the CNN/TIME Convention Floor Pass app offers up the latest insight and analysis.
Whats cool? From Tampa for the Republican convention and Charlotte for the Democratic convention, the app offers a continually updated schedule. Theres also breaking news and commentary plus the latest social buzz from Twitter, foursquare and iReport. Key speeches will all be covered, and theres even a Bump n Find State Badge quest, but frankly, we have no idea what thats about.
Who is it for? Probably just as useful for people attending the conventions as much as for those who wish they were, the schedule of speeches is certainly handy for political buffs. The apps wholehearted focus purely on the conventions means your news stays on focus.
Whats it like? Both CNN and TIME have their own dedicated apps of course, with plenty of political coverage from convention season. The RNC has its own, dedicated Tampa 2012 app, as do the Democrats with DNC 2012.
Whats it about? If you cant fathom the jargon, abbreviations and acronyms youngsters use in their text messages, TextGenie is here to help!
Whats cool? TextGenie is an app that can help confused parents (and other adults) decipher exactly what young people ar e saying in their SMS when they use unusual jargon, abbreviations and odd phrasing. Drawing on a 1,500-word dictionary, the app will translate the text messages and make them understandable again, deciphering slang with aplomb. It even allows parents to build up their own database of additional words.
Whos it for? Naturally, its for old-fashioned folks like me who recoil with horror every time they see txt speak anywhere. At the same time, savvy parents could use this on the sly and perhaps even convince their kids that they understand everything theyre writing.
Whats it like? Ive seen a web-based translator, but not an app like this before. There is one called ReadItToMe Lite which vocalizes your text messages I wonder how itd do with the most heinous examples of txt speak?
Whats it about? The U.S. Open began yesterday. Heres the official companion app to to the tournament so you can keep up with all the action.
Whats cool? The app contains constantly-updated live scores while matches are going on, so that could come in useful for tennis fans. Even better, if you happen to be around on Labor Day and Finals Weekend, the app will stream live matches right in the app its just too bad its not every day. There is also news, photos, the schedule of play, radio coverage, and on-demand video of completed matches.
Whos it for? The app is great for tennis addicts who are away from a TV when the matches air. If you find yourself out and about on Labor Day or during the finals themselves, being able to stream the matches live to your Android smartphone is pretty sweet.
Whats it like? There are a few other apps covering the U.S. Open. US Open Tennis Live Scores does exactly what you expect, while something like The Tennis App offers news, rankings and scores from all the tournaments, big and small.
Inotia 4: Assassin of Berkel is the latest in Com2uS's Korean Action RPG franchise. Like its main competition, Zenonia, the series has gone free-to-play with lots of in-app purchase items. The story takes a slightly darker turn than the previous games. Generally the game is very well done, as expected, with small tweaks and improvements on tried and true gameplay mechanics.
This game sets you in the role of Kiyan, a warrior belonging to a tribe of assassins in the city of Berkel. Soon, Kiyan gets himself wrapped up in something much bigger and more important to the world, of course. The story this time around is pretty well done, starting out in a much darker place than you would expect. Gameplay, on the other hand, is exactly what you would expect, not that that's necessarily a complaint.
Under all the story elements and pixel art, this is th e same KRPG that we've been playing for the last several years on these devices. That entails both the bad and the good, as the combat and abilities can be very fun, there is a lot of crafting and party management, and generally solid gameplay. Unfortunately, the game relies on in-app purchases to make a profit, and ups the difficulty accordingly, forcing you to buy resurrection items or to grind a lot just to repair items.
The presentation of this game is excellent as well, with gorgeous pixel art. The color palate is rather subdued this time around, and while the game is still colorful, it's not quite as vibrant. I actually really dig this look. The audio seems fairly lazy, however. The game is awkwardly quiet a lot of the time. and there are often no sound effects played during cut-scenes. Still, with solid gameplay, a decent story, and six different classes to choose from including a dark knight and a warlock, I'd say this is a satisfying KRPG experience.
Some of the greatest time wasters on the PC involve sitting your digital tank on the side of a hill and trying to launch ordinance at the opposing tank on the other hill. Iron Crusade is one of those games, and it's a good one, and I might actually play it again someday.
As I said before, this is a game where you and the computer have tanks and take turns trying to blow each other up. You can move your tank for a better angle or to collect crystals (more on those in a moment). You aim your shot by dragging your finger along the path you want your shell to take. That sounds easy, but it's more challenging than you would think. Combat is fun and engaging, and while its not complicated, youll have to put in some effort if you want to win.
The hook is that as you progress from battle to battle, youll need to upgrade your tank with new guns and armor and stuff, and you do that by collecting them during ba ttles or paying real dollars for them. They arent necessarily just laying around on the battlefield, though. Usually, you have to blow holes in the ground to get to them. So, fights become an attempt to balance gathering crystals and taking out your enemy. Spend too much time gathering and you might just find yourself blown up.
Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer in Iron Crusade. It would have been fun to be able to battle your friends as we did in similar games on the computer, but alas.
Iron Crusade is free if you dont throw down cash for crystals, and its definitely worth the space on your phones hard drive, because itll stick in your head enough that youll want to keep coming back to it.
If you're on of those people who really liked Fruit Ninja but thought it would be so much better if you got to slice up living things, then SushiChop is definitely the game for you. It's not as good as Fruit Ninja, though, as it has some annoying technical issues. Still, you could do worse than to play this game.
The goal of SushiChop is to slice up living sea animals that are thrown up in the air in order to make sushi rolls, meaning it's like Fruit Ninja but with a story. It's a bit more forgiving than Fruit Ninja, though: missing three fishies does not necessarily mean instant death.
It's a good thing it's more forgiving because it has a pair of technical goofs that might lead to some rage otherwise. Goof one: the game is simply not sensitive enough to your touch. You will slice, but it doesn't always detect the slice correctly, leaving things that you sliced fully intact. Goof two: sometimes, the game throws the fish off the screen, making it impossible for you to slice them. This is rather ridiculous, considering I never saw that happen in Fruit Ninja.
SushiChop is a nice diversion for a few minutes, but it quickly becomes apparent that this Fruit Ninja clone is not as good as the real thing. It's not terrible, but it suffers by comparison. Sorry Charlie, maybe updates will fix this in the future, but right now it's sub-par.
When it comes to word games, I am not too good at them. English, specifically spelling, was never one of my strong points in school. So, why do I play them? Because they are a challenge and they make me think. There are plenty of word games out there right now, but the ones below are all pretty good and you might not have heard of them.
In Gravity Words, you need to spell as many words as possible within the time allowed. Letters will fall from the top of the screen, tap on the ones you want and they will be put in your tray. When you have a word, hit submit and then begin again. You keep going until time runs out. The game features some nice retro graphics and sound. There are three modes to the game, Classic mode, Challenge, and Multiplayer. Within the Challenge mode, you can play Word Completion or Word Match. Within the Classic and Challenge mode, you can adjust the difficulty setting. There are a number of in-game achievements you can strive for and share on Facebook. Overall, its a very challenging game. A paid version of the game is also available.
So You Think You Know Words is a very different sort of game. What you have to do is guess (and spell) three different words from the letters provided. Now the words are all somewhat related based on the topic or puzzle pack you choose. If needed, you can turn on the hints to reveal a letter in each wor d or even ask for help via Facebook. The game comes with five different puzzle packs: TV and Movies, Anatomy, Animals, Food, and Synonyms. Within each pack there are close to 100 puzzles. If you were to choose TV and Movies, one puzzle you can chose is Starship Captains. The game will keep track of your progress and indicates more puzzles are coming. A pro version is also available. This is definitely a thinking mans game, plus knowing some trivia does not hurt.
Word to Word is the one word game in this group that does not involve spelling. The object of the game is to find the connection or association between the groups o f words in the list. The game is very simple to pick up and play. To start a game, simply choose the puzzle pack you want to play and go. The game currently has 11 puzzle packs and each pack has 40 levels. There is no time requirement and when you finish a level, it is marked with a star. Overall, it is a fun game but doesnt pack as much of a challenge compared to the others in this list. There is also a free version of the game.
Unolingo is a cool crossword puzzle but has no clues, only letters! Each puzzle is a 10x10 crossword containing up to 25 words in them. Since there are no clues, you need to figure out where the letters go to form the correct words. Now, there are some letters already filled in on the puzzle. If you get stuck, you can hit the hint button. There is also an audit button which will check your answers for you. The game has a nice tips area and a FAQ section to provide some guidance. The game comes with five sections with 30+ puzzles in each, providing plenty of gameplay. Unolingo will keep up with your statistics and does time you. If you enjoy this game, there are more in this series that you can purchase.
Dabble is a spelling game where you race against the clock. You begin with five rows of letters, two on the top, then three, four, five and six in the following rows. You job is to figure out what word goes in each row. There are no hints or help: is it better to start with the largest word and then work your way down? Good question. As you play you will be forming words, but are they the words the game will accept? There are in-game achievements you can earn. Dabble is available as an award-winning board game and you can also play it on Facebook.
Last week, we brought you a list of apps that are perfect for beer fans and homebrew enthusiasts. This week, were turning our attention to the humble grape and offering you a selection of handy Android apps which will not only assist the aspiring winemaker, but also help you find the best vineyards and wine near you.
Before you even consider making your own wine, its valuable to analyze what you are already drinking and keep taking notes and data on your favorites. Wine - List, Ratings & Cellar can help because it enables you to keep a journal containing data like quantity, vintage, drink by date, and location. You can also read wine reviews and picks that others have shared or add interesting wines you'd like to try to your wis h list. Wine Notes Free performs a similar function and is worth a look, too.
One of the most popular wine apps on Android, Hello Vino is a valuable resource if you find yourself in a local wine store and dont know what to purchase. The app helps you pick the perfect wine for various occasions, whether it be dinner, gifts, holidays or simply personal taste preference. There are also numerous wine and food pairings, holiday gift ideas, wine reviews and ratings.
Now that you have been keeping notes and discovering your favorite varietals and vintages, its probably time to visit some local wineries and see how the pros do it. There are plenty of apps for specific wine-growing areas (like Napa/Sonoma in California or Victoria in Australia) but Winerypedia provides real-time distances via GPS to wineries all over the world, or you can simply search for them. Winerypedia contains an ever-expanding database of 5,800 wineries so far across more than 13 countries.
The Wine Making Talk website and its related forum are popular spots for winemaking enthusiasts to read-up and discuss their art. This straightforward app brings the forum directly to your Android device. It could prove very useful if youre out in the garage away from your laptop, or at a local store looking to purchase the necessary items you require to make your winemaking exploits a success.
For two bucks, Winemakers Toolbox offers an awful lot, and will be invaluable to the home winemaker or even the professional vintner. It allows you to make all the calculations and conversions necessary, directly from your Android device, including potential alcohol, required sugar, fortification formulae, sulphur dioxide additions, acidity calculations and more. Chec k out the free Winemakers PA Calculator app if you only want to estimate the amount of alcohol in your wine both pre- and post-fermentation.
Here are three great Android apps to enjoy. Lyft is an app that enables ridesharing on-demand. While its limited to just San Francisco for now, its an encouraging development. SkyDrive finally found its way onto Android devices, and adds its wealth of features to the already-crowded cloud storage app market. As for games, weve got Juggernaut Revenge of Sovering, a hybrid RPG/action/fighting game with some pretty impressive graphics.
Zimride, recently went public in the iTunes App Store, too. It works simply and effectively: You download the app, set your pick up location, request a Lyft then wait for your driver to show up. Once you arrive at your destination, you make a donation and have the ability to rate your driver.
Who is it for? The service is only available in San Francisco right now, unfortunately, but its a great alternative to public transit, cabs or driving yourself in heavy traffic. Lets hope it spreads to other metropolitan areas soon. The full Zimride service (where people volunteer rides for payment) covers SF, New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Whats it like? Other ridesharing apps exist in Googl e Play, but they appear to be for non-U.S. natives like CarPal (France), Podorozhiniki (Russia) and carpooling.co.uk (UK and Europe). As an alternative, car sharing services like Zipcar are beginning to gain more traction in the U.S.
Whats it about? Microsofts cloud storage solution finally has a dedicated Android app. It took its time the iOS one emerged late last year, and naturally, its been on Windows phones for a while.
Whats cool? SkyDrive works on Android 2.3 and above and promises access to all your SkyDrive content and stuff thats shared with you. You can view recently used documents, upload multiple photos or videos from your Android smartphone, share your files easily, open SkyDrive files in other Android apps and manage, delete or move whats already there.
Whos it for? For signed-up users of Microsofts SkyDrive already, this app is a no-brainer. If youve never used SkyDrive, you might be interested to know that it gives you 7GB of space for free. Its cross-compatibility across multiple devices and operating systems makes it an appealing option.
Whats it like? Yikes, how long have we got? Theres a m ultitude of cloud services available these days like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Cubby, Hojoki and many, many more.
Whats it about? This action-packed role-playing games will see you venture into a 3-D world slaying terrifying beasts and embarking on perilous quests.
Whats cool? Well, for a start, those graphics are pretty sweet. Juggernaut is a fantasy/action hybrid and the fighting mechanics are unusual because you can use tap, swipe or combo-hit controls and battles are turn-based with plenty of unique twists. There are even in-fight mini-games. You can choose to play as one of six customizable warriors, there are 12 armor classes, four schools of magic and 12 fighting spells to employ.
Whos it for? It seems like Juggernaut Revenge of Sovering is supposed to appeal to fans of fighting/action games and also to lovers of in-depth RPG as it seems to contain elements of both. The developers claim 30+ hours of gameplay within 15 different locations, but like most freemium games, youre likely to need to fork out some cash to get the best weapons and armor.
Whats it like? The game has a bit of a Blood & Glory hack-and-slash vibe to it, but it also resembles RPGs like the classic Pocket Legends. Its a tad disappointing that the game isnt compatible with every device out there just yet. Hopefully that will be corrected with future updates.
Who among us in the younger generations can honestly say they don't fondly remember playing The Oregon Trail on the school computers when we were children and such? It was a challenging, educational and mostly memorable gaming experience. Organ Trail: Director's Cut is practically the same game, only zombified, and its extremely cool. It was developed by the cleverly-named studio, The Men Who Wear Many Hats.
Instead of heading west to settle down, you're heading west to find a supposed military safe haven from the undead hordes. You bring along your friends or family and head off in an honest-to-god wagon. A station wagon, that is! Instead of hunting animals for food, you'll be scavenging for food and goods while fighting off zombies. In between cities and landmarks, you'll have to deal with weather, large zombie hordes, groups of bandits, and even stampedes of zomb ified animals.
Once you get to a town, you can buy and sell, trade with people, take on jobs for extra resources, repair your car, rest up, and so on. For some reason, people still accept money as a viable currency, but I suspect it was kept more for game economy balancing than anything. You'll have to keep an eye on your supplies and the local zombie activity closely, and make sure not to do anything reckless. The further west you get, the harder things get, with food, ammo, fuel and car parts becoming more scarce while the hordes seem to get bigger. No doubt one of your group will be infected at some point, and you might just have to put them down.
This isn't the only Oregon Trail experience on mobile, though there are very few. Gameloft a lso released two games with the property's name. The first, The Oregon Trail, was more similar to the classic, but ruined things with their mission systems. The second, Oregon Trail: Settler, was received much better, but was more of a FrontierVille clone than anything else.
This zombie filled adventure is the only game to really retain the spirit of the original, with similar design, great retro art, and the like. The splash pages for each town are even full of zombie media references, and I cackled louder than I should have when the first guy you meet gets a certain disease. This game is worth every penny, and I highly recommend it.
Top people search company WhitePages is attempting to put an end to the fragmented user experience of switching from app to app to stay connected. They recently launched an Android app called Current Caller ID. It combines social networking with call and text ID into a single free app.
Alongside their existing WhitePages and Localicious apps, the company continues to be a leading provider of contact information for people and businesses in the U.S. In this installment of Developing Minds Want to Know, we talk to Lori Roth, Director of Mobile Products for WhitePages about the inspiration behind the comp anys suite of apps, what inspires and motivates her, and what the future holds.
Key Company Facts:
Name & Title: Lori Roth, Director of Mobile Products
Company: WhitePages
Location: Seattle, WA, and New York, NY
Size (Revenue and/or Employees): 100 employees, 15 of whom are on our mobile team.
Primary Apps/Platforms: WhitePages has a Top 50 mobile website and popular apps on Android (including WhitePages and Current Caller ID), iOS, BlackBerry, webOS and Windows 7 that have been downloaded more than 25 million times and have over 8 million total active monthly users.
APPOLICIOUS: What inspired you to become an app creator?
LORI ROTH: WhitePages is the largest online provider of contact information on the web, providing consumers with access to 300 million landline and cell phone numbers. While certainly there is a strong use case for accessing this information on a desktop (as 40 million unique users do each month), we realized early on that there was perhaps an even bigger one in mobile, where calling and/or texting is one click away.We expanded into the mobile world in 2005 and have continually built off our core web offering to create unique experiences. The possibilities are endless, which inspires our team to conceptualize, create and build, build, build!
APPO: How long have you been developing apps, and what is the most significant difference between now and when you began?
LR: We were in the iOS App Store from the very beginning in 2008, and that same year became one of the first brand-name publishers to develop for Android when it was still quite small. The evolution and improvement in both the iOS and Android app stores has become key factor for developers to distribute and market their apps at mass scale. The next big leap came when platforms allowed in-app billing which gave developers the tools to monetize their apps, generating a rich revenue stream for all platforms.
In addition, the recent emergence of mobile platform APIs such as Facebook, Foursquare, Google+, etc. has opened doors to endless possibilities for developers, as well as consumers. Finally, the evolution of operating systems has allowed for apps to become considerably more focused on providing a great experience for users. As an example, we have always loved developing for Android because of the openness of the platform and the ability to plan and execute a marketing strategy. With the launch of Ice Cream Sandwich, we were thrilled by the huge leap forward in design and UI introduced by Google, which we then leveraged to develop Current Caller ID.
APPO: What apps (outside of those that you develop) inspire you the most and why?
LR: Inspiring apps are innovative, have a clear value for the user, limit barriers to use, and ALSO have a beautiful user interface. Developing an app that is successful with all of these is incredibly difficult. Some apps that we view as innovation leaders are Glympse, Pocket, Flipboard and Instagram.
APPO: Where do you see the most innovation in the app sector?
LR: There are many innovations taking place right now, from voice to photo sharing to social network integration. However, one of the most innovative areas has been location. When it was introduced, location was one of those new technologies whereby t he technology itself became the holy grail and yet no one could really figure out how to deliver a great user experience with location silently powering it in the background. Remember that classic example of receiving a coupon just as you walk by a Starbucks? Its only been recently that app developers started flipping the paradigm, thinking instead about leading with a great experience, first and foremost, and then leveraging the technology to power it.
Foursquare began this disruption of thought within the app world, which led to an explosive growth in apps that have great value propositions supported by location technology - everything from mapping to traffic crowdsourcing, to family safety, social tracing, and nearby content. Location is now beginning to meet the expectation of the many years of hype.
APPO: How do yo u harness that innovation in your own titles?
LR: Incorporating location technology into our user experience has been a focus for WhitePages for some time. All of our search apps, including WhitePages and Localicious, were launched using location to provide easier access to maps and directions for people and business search results. Building on this notion, we launched our Localicious app on Android last year, which combined neighborhood data and Foursquare functionality to help users find all the best restaurants and shops in their neighborhood, or any other. We were really excited when this app was recently recognized as a Webby Award Honoree for Best Use of GPS or Location Technology.
Our recent WhitePages for iOS upgrade also focused on location aware features. Our Nearby featur e makes a great example. Imagine you want to pick up a bottle of wine on your way to dinner at a friends house in an unknown city. You can simply search for your friend; find a nearby wine shop, and directions to both, with just a few taps.
For our most recent app, Current Caller ID, we incorporate location by surfacing the city and state where the caller is located and display news and weather to help users be in the know on topics relevant to the person they are communicating with. Going forward, we know there will be many other ways to evolve the use of location data within the app!
APPO: In such a crowded space, explain how you generate awareness and drive downloads to your applications.
LR: We take a very integrated approach to marketing our apps. This includes public relations, social media, mobile advertising, PPC and app store SEO. We are fortunate w e can also leverage our top 40 website WhitePages.com and our various mobile properties to promote our new apps and drive downloads.
APPO: What are the biggest technical constraints that exist today in the app sector?
LR: The two most predominant constraints that we run into are the closed functionality of iOS which limits the services we can offer on that platform and Androids fragmentation which makes it difficult to offer a consistent experience for our user base across devices. As an example, while we would like to provide Current Caller ID for iPhone users, we are unable to because Apple does not allow developer access to the calls and texts of phones, which prevents us from identifying calls as they come in.
APPO: How do you (or will you) make money from your application?
LR: WhitePages has a great track record of making money with our free apps by offering optional premium features and through advertising. With Current Caller ID, we are hyper focused on user adoption and so are offering it for free. However, there are a variety of premium features that we can offer in the future to generate revenue once we grow the base of users.
APPO: What advice do you have to those working on their first applications?
LR: Three thoughts: (1) Think broad: In order to give yourself the biggest opportunity for distribution you have to think beyond a single app on a single platform. Start with the consumer need, and how you are going to meet that across multiple platforms including devices, sms, social networks, and mobile or desktop web. (2) Think distribution: Create your app with app store SEO in mind and incorporate ways for users to soci ally share or interact with each other using your app. These two things are the cornerstones of your distribution especially if you have zero or little marketing dollars. (3) Think money: Plan up front your monetization strategy even if you are launching a free app to gain distribution.
APPO: Where do you see the app sector one year from now? Five years from now?
LR: In thinking back on how the app sector has changed since 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone, I would just say hang on for the wild ride ahead. Given the pace of evolving technologies including such things as tablet penetration, machine learning, cloud based storage, location, social, voice recognition, photo technology, and more, there is a wealth of opportunity out there. We at WhitePages are excited about taking full advantage of these technology innovations to help people find, be found and connect with one another!
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Whats it about? Eternity Warriors 2 from Glu Mobile is a dungeon-crawling action game with stunning graphics and online cooperative multiplayer.
Founded in August of 2008, 
AV: I think this recent wave of location-based social connection apps is fascinating 
AV: It might seem a little obvious, but an incredible amount of constraint in mobile devices comes from battery capacity in developing for mobile devices, there is a constant concern of how much computational power (and therefore, battery power) your app is using. Actions like turning on GPS sensors or running expensive graphical computations can burn a phone out in a matter of hours. Especially when traveling, its a constant engineering struggle to optimize ones work as much as possible to
Zimride
Top people search company WhitePages is attempting to put an end to the fragmented user experience of switching from app to app to stay connected. They recently launched an Android app called 
LR: Inspiring apps are innovative, have a clear value for the user, limit barriers to use, and ALSO have a beautiful user interface. Developing an app that is successful with all of these is incredibly difficult. Some apps that we view as innovation leaders are 
LR: The two most predominant constraints that we run into are the closed functionality of iOS which limits the services we can offer on that platform and Androids fragmentation which makes it difficult to offer a consistent experience for our user base across devices. As an example, while we would like to provide Current Caller ID for iPhone users, we are unable to because Apple does not allow developer access to the calls and texts of phones, which prevents us from identifying calls as they come in.
