April
18th
2011Paper Snow

I have fond memories of making snowflakes out of paper as a kid. The application PaperSnow brought back a lot of nostalgia for me. This application lets you create paperless snowflakes so you don’t have to worry about your mother hovering over you to make sure you pick up every little piece of paper scrap that falls on the floor.

You are given the option of folding your circular piece of paper into thirds or fourths. The following paper is made with a larger third. (I wish it would let you do alternate folds too: I used to make really small slivers of paper to make super-intricate designs.)


Drag your finger to create cut lines, then click from point to point to make your cut outs. It takes a little while to get used to the mechanics, especially because the first cut doesn’t start from your fingertip as you would expect. The point is starts from is a little offset from your finger.


When you’re done, your design is unfolded into a beautiful design. Cool!


The visual style of the application is very pretty. Hardwood floors serve as the background, and you can also change the background image to something more festive for the holiday season. (I feel a little strange reviewing this application in spring – but hey, it’s snowing outside the window right now, so why not? Strange Canadian weather…)


The following snowflake was made with fourths. You can point-to-point connect your cuts to make shapes like hearts.


I really enjoyed this application. If you loved making these paper ones as a kid, be sure to try this out!

I would love to see an option to print these out via AirPrint, say with a white background and different coloured-paper options. That would be so cool for decorating purposes!

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March
31st
2011Incase iPad Case Review

When shopping for an iPad case, I looked for ones with several features:

  • I wanted it to cover both the screen and the back of the iPad
  • I wanted it to be able to double as a stand for when watching a movie or doing some word processing with a bluetooth keyboard.
  • I wanted it to look inconspicuous – I should be able to carry it with my school textbooks and have it look like just another book.

I found the Incase Book Jacket which retails for around $50 CAD. I used this case from day one with my iPad, so after a few months of use, here is my opinion of this Incase iPad Jacket:


I liked this one because it looks like a leather (albeit fake leather, haha) portfolio. With the spine face down in my book bag, it doesn’t look like a piece of electronics equipment. I feel comfortable carrying this in my arms on my way home from night school without fearing that I look like I’m carrying something expensive.

It opens and closes easily with an elastic. The iPad easily slips in and out, though I honestly have rarely had an occasion where I wanted to take it out.

The soft interior of the case has kept my screen in perfect condition. It has an interesting texture of dark lines running across the grey fabric.

The case does not provide protection of the iPad’s corners. I dropped my iPad and there is now a dent since there is not a single thing covering it up.


An additional con is that the cover of the jacket has started to bow. Instead of laying flat against the iPad’s screen, it curves up in the centre. This doesn’t seem to actually be negatively impacting the protection of the iPad, but it doesn’t look that great.


Overall, I do like this case for the iPad. Other than the ding on the corner, it’s protected my iPad well. Right now, I’m using this case to prop up my iPad horizontally as I type, but it can also be used to stand it up vertically. It works best on a flat work surface for balance purposes. It works well when paired with Apple’s official bluetooth keyboard.

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March
26th
2011iPad 2 Smart Covers – Colours May Rub Off?

I opened up today’s email from Futureshop since iPad 2 came out today in Canada. I was shocked to read the fine print:


Some colour may rub off leather covers during use.

Are you serious, Apple? Yikes!

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March
21st
2011Do You Keep Track of Your Game Center Stats?

Game Center acts as a hub for the games on your iPad, joining all participating applications under one roof. I have a Game Center account (pangepange), and I always notice when applications say “Welcome back pangepange,” but I rarely ever check out my stats.

Game Center is a great way to compare your achievements and statistics with friends. It’s a nice and easy way to see how many achievements you can earn in a game. The most interesting thing to me is seeing your global rank. The application shows you how many people play the application and where you rank among them. This can really break your illusions of grandeur if you think you are a really awesome player, haha.



I would love to check out this application more often if only more applications would participate in it! There are so many games that have achievements that could participate in this program.

In the individual game page, it shows you different stats and where you rank for different aspects of the game. (For example, for the Flower Garden application, it ranks players by Green Thumb points, by bouquets sent, or by pots of flowers grown. (This is pretty much the only Game Center application that I’m doing well in. I’m in the top 5% rankings in all categories, whoo!)


Take a peek into the application if you haven’t given it a try. It’s easy to navigate around, and the visual style reminds me of a casino card game.

Global rankings have never really worried me too much, because I play the games to have fun, not to compete. It’s interesting to see the statistics of how many people are playing the games though. (I’m shocked that Word Quest Lite doesn’t have more players!) Do you look at your statistics once in a while or did you forget all about this application’s existence?

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March
18th
2011Bust a Marble

While playing both Pocket Frogs and Flower Garden, I was recommended Bust a Marble with the promise of incentives. I’m always willing to try a promising sounding free application, so I downloaded it. This game is similar in gameplay to Azkend. In order to clear marbles, drag your finger over any three or more same-coloured marbles that are touching. Touching can be above, below, left, right, or on the immediate diagonals. The longer the line, the better it is!


Each level is a little more difficult than the last. The addition of more colours makes it a little more challenging to make marble chains. Special lightning marbles clear double marbles on the board, while refresh (arrow) marbles rearrange all the marbles on the game board. Time marbles can add an additional 10 seconds to your level time.


Unlike Azkend, you are on a strict time limit, and you really feel the pressure to choose your marbles quickly. The music is intense and adds to the pressure. There is a male voice that congratulates you, but if you dislike it, you have the option to turn it off.


When your game is over due to running out of time, the game over screen is upbeat and positive: “GAME OVER: But you seem to be really good at this!” This game is really enjoyable. When you lose, you do have to start back at level one, which might frustrate some users. Try this one out. I originally downloaded it just for the app promotion incentives, but I’ve been playing it from time to time.

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March
17th
20117Bomb

This game 7Bomb sucks away time like nobody’s business. I often launch this application meaning to play for a few minutes during some downtime, but somehow it always ends up being longer.


It’s an iPhone-sized application, but I still play it on my iPad all the time. First off: style! The game is dark in a scheme of black, grey, red and white. The typography in the game is really creative, such as in the game over screen. The “game is not un over.”

The game board is displayed with a bunch of numbers (1 through 7) arranged randomly, alongside some other circle shapes. Along the top of the screen there are numbers showing you what number you get to drop next.

The goal is to try to clear the board of all the numbers. It’s hard to explain what to do until you play the game yourself and feel the game mechanics. Let’s say that you have a row with four numbers in it. One of those four numbers is number 5. Once you add a fifth number to that row, the number 5 will disappear. Basically, if a row or column has a number that matches how many circles are currently in that row or column, that specific number will be cleared from the board. Phew. Does that make sense? It’s confusing to write, but it works so well.

The filled-in circles and the circles with dots contain hidden numbers. You need to clear a number that is adjacent to the mystery circle to reveal what is hidden. Dot circles need to have one neighbour cleared while filled-in circles need to have a neighbouring circle cleared twice. (A filled-in circle becomes a dot circle after one neighbour is cleared.)

A number with a red circle around it means that it is a bomb. If you clear a neighbouring number, the items above, below, and to the left and right of the bomb will be cleared. It’s a lovely way to clear lots of numbers at once. If the red circle has a dot in it, you need to reveal the hidden number first.


Try it out on easy difficulty level first. This game lets you earn achievements, and the achievements will advise you to move up to the next level when you’re ready. Even for casual play, the hard difficulty level is very fun and addictive.


I truly recommend this one for number and puzzle lovers!

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March
14th
2011iMovie Officially for iPad 2 Only – Work-around?

To celebrate the release of iPad 2, Apple released the applications Garage Band and iMovie. Both applications look amazing, but when I was perusing the application description pages, I was sad to see that only iPad 2 was listed under compatibility for iMovie. I’ve been recording cute cat videos for my Youtube channel Kitties are Fluffy on my iPhone 4, but I wasn’t looking forward to editing on the tiny iPhone screen. I wanted to import to the iPad 1, but unfortunately this process does not look like it’s going to be easy.


If you want to install iMovie on your iPad, you can follow the work-around instructions provided here.

Has anyone tried these instructions with success? I’m worried about wasting $4.99 on an application that won’t work well on my iPad 1. (I’m trying to be a penny-pincher.) I have Adobe Premiere Elements on my PC, so I really don’t need iMovie, but I would love the convenience of being able to edit videos while travelling.

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March
14th
2011Mask Oracle

Mask Oracle comes from the same developer as Heart Match Up. I played Heart Match Up first, but I actually enjoyed Mask Oracle much more than Heart Match Up.


Both applications are very similar. You tap on the masks until the randomly generated image matches up. Once you have a match, you’re given a fortune. Depending on how quickly you are able to divine a match, your believability score fluctuates.


I love the style of the masks. They are very bold and graphic, and the faces have a lot of personality.


The fortunes are based on the matching masks’ colour. If you like your fortune, you can share your results on Facebook.


You can keep clicking and clicking and sometimes you won’t get a match. Darn probability. They creatively state that your question is beyond the oracle’s power. I like it.

If you don’t know what the application is up to, it can be difficult to know what is happening. The little information button is tiny and not very obvious. I’d love to see a very brief explanation the first time the application is loaded only.

I really like the design elements of this application. It’s very cohesive and totally matches the premise of the app. Give this one a try! If you were deciding between Heart Match Up and Mask Oracle, I’d go for Mask Oracle.

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March
10th
2011Another Look at Grass

Exactly one month ago, I reviewed an application called Grass. My review was not-so-glowing, mostly due to the lagging movement.

Well, recently this application was updated with optimizations. I decided to give the application a second look. I did say in my previous review: “I could forgive the unrealistic grass and even the aliased edges if the response to touch was faster and smoother.”

Well, the response to touch is faster and smoother. The experience is better than before, but the application still looks like a collection of lines moving instead of blades of grass. I guess my original statement doesn’t really hold water.


When I compared my new screenshot to the old one, it appears there are simply less blades of grass to improve the responsiveness. This works well to improve the effect.

I’m wondering if perhaps the realism could be upped by changing the black background colour to something else like a dark brown or dark green. Rarely do you see such a pitch blackness in your lawn (unless it’s night time and your visibility is really reduced).

If you’re inkling to try this app, now’s a better time to do so than a month ago. It may very well provide you with a minute of amusement.

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March
10th
2011Are You Upgrading to iPad 2?

There’s lots of buzz going around about Apple’s iPad 2, which is being released tomorrow, March 11, in the States. As a Canadian, I have to wait until March 25, 2011.


If you already have an iPad, is there a point in buying an iPad 2?

iPad and iPad 2 are basically the same, except thinner, faster, and lighter. It all depends on how important these improvements are to you. iPad 1 is already quite light, weighing just 0.2lbs heavier than iPad 2. iPad 2 has an A5 chip processor which is advertised as being twice as fast. With the apps I’ve used, I’ve rarely noticed anything slow other than the apps Grass and Bricky. Any slowness tended to be related to my varying 3G connection.

If you already own the original device, do you neeeeeeeeed the new one? What I’m really interested in is the front facing video camera. I was shocked that this feature wasn’t included in the first generation for webcam purposes.

iPad 2′s prices are in line with the original, so if you’ve never purchased an iPad, this is great news. The original one will be dropping in price.

I really want an iPad 2 even though I have only had the original iPad for about half a year. My boyfriend has been reading about using the iPad for optimizing your car: you can mount the iPad in your car’s dash and use monitoring gauges on its screen. Gauges are available using an iPad application like DashCommander ($49.99) When you’re done, you just pop the iPad out and carry it inside. It sounds like a really interesting, albeit a little expensive, use of the iPad.

While I’m dreaming of an iPad 2, I’m going to be waiting a little longer than the release date due to financial reasons.

Will you be purchasing an iPad 2 and/or selling your original iPad? What plans do you have for your device?

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