Oh, Google..
Posted by Michael in General Information, Nerding on May 21, 2010
Sure, I disagree with you vehemently on this whole Flash business, but, gosh darnit, it’s this kind of stuff that makes me swoon.
Yep, it’s entirely playable. The best part is… it’s not Flash!
Happy 30th, Pac-Man! You’ve been around since I was 2. That’s nuts.
App of the Week
Each week I bring you my picks for the best new iPhone app I’ve discovered in the past week. Hopefully I can get an iPad and include those, too, but since I’m not made out of money nor do I possess a goose that lays golden eggs (a surprise given my girth, I’m sure), you’ll just have to wait.
Free App:
Qrank – The Social Quiz Addiction
Qrank is the most addictive game I’ve played on the iPhone since Words with Friends (which I still play religiously). Simply, it’s a fast-paced trivia game where you pick 15 out of 20 available questions to answer, each from a different category and weighted with different score values. The faster you answer the more points you get, and if you uncover a bonus you stand to score even more. You can add friends and compare your score daily to them, and there are in-game achievements that give you bragging rights on Facebook and Twitter.
—
Paid App:
Hipstamatic
Price: $1.99
With the advent of digital photography, pictures have taken on a very crisp, colorful appearance. Those of us who grew up in the late 70s/early 80s remember a time where pictures had a sort of surreal feel to them – our cheap cameras didn’t have the luxuries of auto white-balancing and autofocus, so the colors would often be off and things wouldn’t be quite in focus. It felt very natural and organic, making the photo almost feel alive.
30 years later, a clique of annoying hipsters would discover an old Instamatic at a yard sale, start taking pictures with it, and post the resulting images on Flickr. The technical limitations of the 70s would suddenly become a stylized choice and you wind up with Hipstamatic.
That being said, call me a hipster because there’s just something inherently fun about Hipstamatic. Photos almost always turn out less-than-perfect, but they almost capture the feeling of the pictures we used to have 20 years ago.
There are a ton of in-app purchasable add-ons, like faux flashes, simulated film and lenses, and color filters. I don’t think they’re worth a buck a piece, since they’re basically just post-process filters, but if you think of it as a game with buyable content (and that whole concept doesn’t bother you) then I guess it’s OK. Still, the camera app itself is worth $2 just to play around with. Unless you shop at American Apparel, in which case you’d probably happily pay $40 for it.
If you have a suggestion for an App of the Week, email me at tremorx@me.com.
True Internet Fact #887-00M
High Fructose Corn Syrup, when combined with Yellow #5, creates a compound that can become mildly radioactive when exposed to the acids in one’s stomach. If you add cinnamon, the resulting mixture can cause a person’s urine to glow in the dark for a short period.
No one ever sees it because, come on, who pees in the dark?
Gabe Newell on Mac Games
I can’t say I’m too surprised.
We’ve found that the Mac is 5 times more stable than windows running games. There’s a big opportunity to move performance forward on the Mac… We were surprised, but it’s still so new. It’s interesting to see that the Macs configuration options being so limited is a benefit.
Altitude Free Weekend
I picked up Altitude during the free weekend promo, just to try out the multiplayer elements. This and a few other games are among the first multiplayer games in Valve’s Steam for Mac game platform. I highly recommend it! It’s a lot like Subspace, though it supports fewer players and isn’t quite as complicated. Basically, think of it as sort of like Team Fortress 2, but in 2D and with airplanes.
It’s also 50% off, making it $5. If that doesn’t make you want to at least try it, I don’t know what will.
True Internet Fact #022A
If you hold your tongue between your teeth and say “gullible,” it sounds exactly like you’re saying “orange peel.”
Try it.