5 App Friday – Ep.1
Believe it or not, some mobile games have deep mechanical substance without fluff or cheap psychological manipulations. This series exists to highlight some of these exceptional specimens.
And if you’re wondering, yes, this is an attempt to grab SEO traffic from folks who just got a new mobile device. I make no attempt to hide that. All apps are iOS-friendly. Plus, we’re 3/5 for Android today and we aim to keep that standard.
So without further ado, this is our list for May 17, 2013:
Harvard Student Recreates Power Glove For Final Project
Every year Harvard students show off their tinkering talents in the annual Design & Project Fair at the school of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
There’s remote-control power outlet hacked to connect into a home’s wireless network, a mathematical system for crowdsourcing stock picks, an automatic fish feeder, a one-wheeled self-balancing electric vehicle, you get the picture. But student Tommy Chen had quite a different idea.
Pocket Monkey: A Truly Portable Utility Tool
Last Christmas my mother-in-law got me one of those little utility pocket knifes. For a few days it was really nice to have. It helped me open that pesky shrinkwrap on video games with ease and was an ever trusty bottle opener. As small as it was, after a few days it became a bother annoyance to carry around in my pocket. The other issue was walking out the door and forgetting to put it in my pocket. No matter how portable something is, it’s useless if you don’t have it on you.
What I wanted was something I could carry around at all times without it becoming bothersome. As I was perusing the pavilion o’ internets I happened upon a little device in the works. Pocket Monkey is a credit card sized multi-functional utility tool that’s not only portable but also has some novel additions to the tried and true basic tools.
The Apple iPad Mini: One Too Many
I’m still dumbfounded how Apple gets consumers excited for the same thing over and over again. Alright maybe not the same thing over and over again…it’s the same thing over and over again with minor differences. Regardless of my disdain Apple still knows how to make the tech geeks melt with digital glee. This time it’s the ever popular iPad. The newest addition to the iPad family, the iPad Mini, is being aimed at the 7″ tablet market.
And though I hate to be a party pooper I have to ask why?
Iphone App Ripoffs Show 2-bit Developers aren’t Even Trying
Now before we dive into this, I just want to set the record straight that I really enjoy mobile gaming. I firmly believe that it has a place in today’s gaming climate, and even more so, will help shape the integration of gaming into everyday life.
Now that that is out of the way I would like to take a moment to shine a little light on those gaming atrocities that tend to be the first bit of ammo in any discussion devaluing mobile gaming as a whole. Despite Apple’s rigorous app certification process , many titles still find there way through the cracks that are more on the dishonest end. Whether it be trickery about the app’s actual function, blatant stealing of existing game assets, or just an all around poor appearance, these games come out in droves just hoping to lure some sucker in ( or thousands in many cases).
Today I would like to look at just a few of the different types of ripoff genres and some choice titles therein.
AiTV: How to Charge $100 For A Scrap Wood iPhone Stand
How do you make and iPhone stand that’s worth $100? Easy, market it as an iPhone stand and give it a catchy name hipsters will love like “AiTV”.
But what I want to know is what makes this wondrous device worth $100? This has got to be some pretty slick tech to demand such a high price. Well sit back and be ready to be blow away my friends. Let’s take a look at the product itself from a purely aesthetic point of view.
New Camera Captures Light In Slow Motion!
This is just freaking cool. Ramesh Raskar, an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, shows off what is known as “femto-photography”: a new type of imaging so fast it visualizes the world one trillion frames per second. It’s so detailed it can show light itself in motion. This technology may someday be used to build cameras that can look “around” corners or see inside the body without X-rays.
