Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

story posts

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Snood Redood coming to the iPhone

Fortunately, World of Warcraft didn't exist while I was in school, otherwise I might not have finished my venerable BS degree at the storied Ithaca College at all. But if there was one game that almost kept me from finishing all of those essays and homework... well, it was Civ. But if there were two games, the second was Snood. And now that game is due in iPhone form soon as well.

It features the same creature-matching gameplay (with both new and old graphics, as you can see above), which means it probably has the same addictive quality that kept me playing long after I was supposed to have read those excerpts the professor gave to us in English class, and three gameplay modes, including Story, Classic, and even a Time Attack mode. "Coming soon" is the word on when it'll be out, though the main webpage actually says "play now," so it probably isn't that far off. It's not the only "Bust a Move" style game out on the App Store, but it is Snood, and that itself is enough to take me back to the days of pizza and beer in the dorm room.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software

Braid comes to the Mac


You have to admit: for all of the gaming woes that the Mac faithful has suffered, there's fortunately never been a shortage of great indie games for us to play. Aquaria made it to our platform, World of Goo appeared pretty early on, and now Braid, Jonathan Blow's terrific deconstruction of Super Mario Bros., has appeared on OS X thanks to the kind folks over at Hothead Games. The game has won more awards than you can count, but I can personally tell you it's great, as I played the XBLA release when it first arrived. It's a classic 2D platformer in the vein of Mario with a very important twist: you can reverse, slow, and replay time throughout the various levels. That twist results in an extremely artistic game that takes apart the original Mario story and ends up with something very much more beautiful and sad.

"Artistic"? "Beautiful"? "Sad"? Can I say these things about a videogame? Of course I can -- Braid stands in a class of its own as an experience that uses art and gameplay together to tell quite a story. If you're a fan of innovative games or just great interactive experiences, and haven't played through it yet (it's fairly short, maybe six hours at the most), it's definitely worth a look. The Greenhouse is selling the Mac or PC versions for $14.95.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Multimedia, Odds and ends, iPod classic

Frozen iPod returns from the grave


Andrew sent us this great story -- he found an iPod classic in the melting snow of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. It had apparently been there "since early winter," and was frozen solid... as is the case, we'd imagine, with most things left outside there between September and April.

Incredibly, though, once taken home, cleaned up, and given a warm cup of tomato soup and a grilled cheese, it started right back up again. Everything was completely intact -- he says it even displayed the correct date. Pretty impressive for Apple's little music player (and mine's even stuffed in a Vaja case, so I know it'll always run for me -- assuming I don't drop it in a pile of snow somewhere).

He says there is a name on the iPod, so if you've been around the Whitehorse area and have recently dropped your iPod near a place called Takhini School, leave him a note and he will probably be able to get it back to you. But do it quick -- he's giving things about a week, and then it's finder's keepers. We don't blame him: who wouldn't want an indestructible iPod?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Multimedia, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Star Trek prequel coming to the iPhone


I have no idea how much of this is spoilers, but if you want to walk into this summer's Star Trek movie with a completely blank slate of expectations, you should probably move on to the next post. Spoilers ahead!

Ok then. Apparently J.J. Abrams, who's directing the new Star Trek movie, has worked with some comic book creators to (get this) bring a prequel of the prequel to the small screen before it appears on the big one. Whew. They're releasing a series of iPhone apps, which are actually "mini-comics" telling the pre-story of the movie. And here's where it gets really confusing (and spoilerific): apparently, while the movie is a prequel featuring a young Kirk and Spock, the story's villian is actually a time-traveler from Star Trek: TNG times. Which means the iPhone comics actually star Picard and his TNG crew, and tell the story of the movie's villian, a Romulan named Nero. I originally though the film was a non-canon reboot of the series, but no -- apparently even though we've never seen this era on film before, it is still mean to fit right in the Federation's universe.

Still with us and interested? You actually are a Star Trek fan! (I prefer Star Wars myself.) The comics are going for 99 cents each (you can apparently pick up the same comic in print for $3.99), and are available in the App Store right now.

Filed under: Retail, Apple, Blogs

Ungenius - the other side of the Genius Bar

Beyond a doubt, Apple's retail stores have been and still are making headlines of all kinds - from business magazines hailing the stores' sleek design, to consumer reviews giving the stores high marks for their unique and (ideally) helpful Genius Bar feature. However, as some of you may know - not everyone's trip to the genius bar wraps up with a happy ending, and I'm not just talking about the customers; the Geniuses don't always have it so peachy-keen either.

Hence, Ungenius - a blog by "JC" who apparently has some stories to tell of his adventures "aton[ing] for the sins of a multinational corporation during nearly four years as a Mac Genius". JC delves into all sorts of topics surrounding the world of the Genius including QA, the obvious defects that have made headlines as of late, and even some thoughts as to why Class Actions might be bad for consumers.

Whether you've made a shrine for the last Genius who helped you out of a pickle or you're putting the finishing touches on a Genius Voodoo doll as you read this, Ungenius might be an interesting read from the other side of the cheery Apple retail store fence.

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.


Follow us on Twitter!
 TUAW [Cafepress]

Featured Galleries

DNC Macs
Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Google Earth for iPhone
Podcaster
Storyist 2.0
AT&T Navigator Road Test
Bento for iPhone 1.0
Scrabble for iPhone
Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase
Apple Vanity Plates
Apple booth Macworld 07
WorldVoice Radio
Quickoffice for iPhone 1.1.1
Daylite 3.9 Review
DiscPainter
Mariner Calc for iPhone
2009CupertinoBus
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
MLB.com At Bat 2009
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor

 

More Apple Analysis

AOL Radio TUAW on Stitcher