Guess the News Review

    Finger Arts makes a huge splash into the Appstore with one of the most creative, addicting, and exciting apps that I have ever seen. Guess the News is not your average word/news app. This game brings a whole new element to the word news. The game is simple you connect to the internet and it will upload hundreds of current news stories. You can then play a game from several news categories such as Nation, International, Entertainment, Sport etc… Once you select the category you want to play you can then play in either two modes Classic and Timed. In each mode you can earn either medals or trophies ranging from bronze to gold.

   The gameplay consists of you trying to figure out the headline of the article. Depending on the difficulty you chose the amount of given letters will be different. You are also given the first sentence or two of the article in a small box at the bottom of the screen to help guide you. Your job is then to guess each word or two separately. The letters of those words are brought to the top of the scrambled letters and highlighted for you to choose. You can then either drag the letter to its proper spot or tap to instantly send it to the next open slot. If you get stuck the letter that you need will start to shake. This really helps if you are in a jam and cannot figure out the word. But be careful in timed mode, you must act fast! In the game the faster you act the more points you gain, as time goes on the score multiplier decreases so it is important to guess the news as fast as you can. Also for hard modes a vowel will be marked with a V in the slot so it makes it a little bit easier since the given letters range from little to none. You will have to solve 6 news puzzles to gain your trophy or medal. After you win or lose the game you can then read each article. You might think to yourself well doesn’t that exit the app? No Finger Arts has made an in game browser so you can view each article in the game itself! This is one of the greatest features of the game. Not only can you have fun but you can learn about current news stories.

   Overall Guess the News is an amazing game that will have you addicted in seconds. You will keep playing and playing to gain trophies and medals as well as high scores. You can also send challenges to your friends via email. The game also features many different languages with current news in those countries and regions. This could also be a great tool for those trying to learn a new language! Guess the News is one of the most surprising and unexpected games in the appstore that I have found. It is a gem that everyone should download and play it is just that amazing. The sound fits the game perfectly with fun sounds that all will enjoy. The graphics are incredible and have a very vintage type feel to them. There is not one thing bad about this game it has everything you could want and more. Please do yourself a favor and at least try the lite version of the game, you will not be sorry! The full version is excellent and only costs $.99

TheLoopBlog gives Guess the News a 5/5 stars!

LITE VERSION: http://itunes.com/apps/guessthenewslite
FULL VERSION: http://itunes.com/apps/guessthenews

Please vist www.fingerarts.com for more information!

YouTube Video link Guess the News

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Interview with Twitter COO, Dick Costolo

Dick Costolo is the founder of Feedburner which was acquired by Google in 2007. He is currently the COO of Twitter. He has also performed in Chicago’s Annoyance Theater and various improv shows and festivals. (via CrunchBase)

TLB:  What was so promising about Twitter back in 2007 that made you join 6 others and invest $5 million in it?

Dick: When I first saw Twitter back in 2008 was like many other people, I didn’t get it, I didn’t really understand it and what it was but when more people started using it and my friends got on I realized how many people using it.  I remember specifically one time I tweeted that I landed in New York and someone in San Francisco said,  “Hey I’m in New York for the week, lets go out to dinner.”  This is something that would never happen on any other social networking platform.

TLB:  How does Twitter generate revenue to keep on running?

Dick: So I think the short answer is there is many, many ways that Twitter can make money.  Paid accounts for businesses, analytics, special profile pages, advertising opportunities with millions of people following them, everything.

TLB: Where do you see the company going in the future?

Dick: So there are a couple different ways to answer that question, our philosophy is all about getting as many people on the service as possible.  As openly as possible.  For example, the Microsoft and Google deals from earlier this week, you’ll be able to find great, cool tweets just from searching for something on Bing! or Google. We are looking to get Twitter distributed as many ways as possible

We see ourself participating in the mobile way as many ways as possible, the mobile phone is such an easy way to use Twitter.  What am I’m doing now, while on the go, not while sitting at my desk.

TLB: Do you ever make fun of Biz Stone because of his name?

Dick: All the time, Biz and I both make fun of each other all the time.  We sit next to each other and he tells me that we need to keep the cost down, because of my name (Costolo), when we go to Starbucks to get a coffee and he says his name is biz, I crack up.

TLB: What made you come back to Twitter to become the COO?

Dick: Well, I was planning on starting another company, Ev was getting ready to have a baby and we started talking, I really wanted to start another company.  I thought about it realized that you don’t get a chance to work at one of the big social networking companies all the time.  The more I thought about it and talked it over with my wife I decided that starting another big company was pretty low and Twitter’s one of those startups that succeed.

Jonah: Whats the new startup?

Dick: I left Google in July and was truly planning on spending the end of Summer and the Fall thinking about what I was going to do next and starting a new startup in the end of the year, so I really didn’t even get a chance to think about it too hard.  I was too busy doing other stuff at Google.  Needed to take some time off and clear my head.

Jonah: If Twitter was an animal, what animal would it be?

Dick: Oh my gosh, I was never really good at these kinds of question, probably a good analogy is lets say, I’ll use an example, its kind of like a herd of animals, Twitter is a popular web service and all these people together, like a herd.  They’re all similar.  They all use the web to tweet, tweet from Tweetie for iPhone, Tweetdeck, all around the same core platform. The goal for Twitter is to become a big successful herd, and not a group of smaller herds.

Jonah: Would you rather be still working at Google or as COO of Twitter? Why?

Dick: I loved working at Google.  Your not going to find smarter people anywhere.  It was an awesome place to work, but my skills are better for a startup like Twitter; putting operations in place, getting things moving where theres no organization, how to set up a working and successful company.  I knew that I was going to still go to a startup, and Twitter is still a startup.

Jonah: What’s your favorite Twitter client?

Dick: I use a bunch of different stuff, search.twitter.com, twitter.com, TweetDeck, and my wife uses Tweetie for iPhone.

Thanks for the interview, Dick!

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Orbit - Exposé for your jailbroken iPhone/iPod touch

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How to enable MMS on 3.1 (AT&T)

Are you really anxious to get MMS working? Can’t wait ’till the 25th? Well I discovered an extremely easy way to enable it.  You must have an iPhone 3G or 3GS running 3.0 or later and a Mac.

1. Quit iTunes

2. Install ipccEnabler on your Mac (http://abciphoneapps.com/ipccEnabler.zip)

3. Open iTunes

4. Click on your phone and hold “option” while clicking “Check for Update”

5. Choose ATT_US.ipcc (http://appstoremod.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ATT_US.ipcc)

6. Once done installing, unplug your iPhone and restart it

7. In Settings> General> Network there should be a “Cellular Data Network” page

8. Install “benmat.mobileconfig” on your iPhone (http://files.me.com/grantjonah/zy6w0h)

From there it should work .  Good luck

(via my Tumblr)

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Enigmo 2 Review

Enigmo 2 would be really boring if it was just more levels to the original Enigmo, as this could be done via an In-App purchase thanks to iPhone OS 3. The new bells and whistles it brings to the table is 3D and new gestures. For the most part, it works quite well.

Now on to controls. Enigmo 2 would have no way utilizing 3D without multitouch. Two fingers are used to pan around the 3D landscape. To add to the usability Pangea added two controls. One being snap to grid, which works excactly how it sounds. The second is one I’m not sure of the name, but you tap an object and depending what axis (x- y- and z-axes) you’re looking at at the time of deploying a puzzle piece, it will line up to the object you tapped earlier. For me, this feature worked at times, and at other times it didn’t.

My biggest complaint about Enigmo 2, one I have not gotten over since the beginning of testing this game, is when I am trying to pan around with one finger, at times, I accidentally move puzzle pieces out of their place, and at time ruining the level for me. Unlike, for example, Rolando and its successor, the sensitivity of the controls are enough. That is a small issue that you learn to adapt to. This particular problem, is not. This has dropped my rating of this game by a full point.

As for the levels, instead of being is a sewer or some type of plumbing system, it is in outer space, complete with planets moving around and revolving on their axis. The app warns that this will drop performance, but in my tests everything was the same. Thismight have to do with the fact I have a 3G S, but nonetheless, it is great.

To some up my review, The Loop Blog give Enigmo 2 an 8.75 out of 10. As I said before, if Pangea found a better way to pan without changing the puzzle pieces, I would have given this app a 9.75. That just goes to show how important usability is (at least to me). Enigmo 2 is available in iTunes (link: http://bit.ly/vhobF ) for $3.99. I am Zalman with The Loop Blog, and I’m out.

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Enigmo 2 Released

Enigmo for iPhone OS finally has a sequel. Keep in mind, Enigmo 1 has had over 3 million downloads. Enigmo 2 from Pangea Software is the sequel to the ever-popular Enigmo. If you don’t remeber, Enigmo is a puzzle game where you have to match up puzzle pieces and get oil, water, and fire in to their respective jugs to finish levels.

What Pangea is bringing new to the table in this version is 3D gameplay. Now, this is real 3D gameplay, not 2.5D gameplay found in Rolando 2 reviewed here a while back. To finish many of the levels, you cannot stay in 2D mode.

Keep in mind, this is just a news story. A full-blown review by Zalman will come out within the week. Below is the official video from Pangea.

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