iPhone Game Review - Parachute Panic

I was poking around the iTunes AppStore this week and took a $.99 chance on a recently launched game from FDG Entertainment called Parachute Panic.

This fun casual game requires you to successfully land a host of parachutists into passing boats while trying to avoid obstacles such as helicopters, U.F.O´s, sharks and thunder clouds.

The game play is reminiscent of the vintage Nintendo Game & Watch handheld parachute game that I used to love to play back in the early 80's.

The game has very cool hand drawn graphics, smooth animations, catchy music and awesome sound effects. The game has been getting good reviews in the App Store and I have to agree - it is very well done and lots of fun.

Check out a video of the game here.

The only slightly negative comment I will make is that this game is not easy. It takes a little while to get used to the controls and even after mastering the techniques, the action picks up fast and furious. My 7 year old lost interest pretty quickly as it was too hard, but personally, I love the game, and for a buck it's well worth it. Click here to get it now.

How to Stop -- Or Live With -- Global Warming

According to research at Princeton, current technologies are capable of stopping (or at least slowing) the rate of global warming by 2050 if properly applied. Using a mix-and-match approach, students who participated in a game-like experiment found that the current portfolio of energy-saving policies and technologies (flourescent bulbs, nuclear power, wind turbines, reducing deforestation, etc.) could indeed keep global greenhouse gases constant over the next 50 years. The trick is to apply these solutions to developing countries, where rapid industrial growth will put them on track to overtake the developed world in greenhouse gas output within the next several decades.

Meanwhile, Live Science has a top-10 list of side effects of global warming, such as more severe allergies, more sinkholes from permafrost melting, a less dense upper atmosphere that will affect how satellites orbit the earth, more forest fires and rapid deterioration of ancient ruins. Perhaps the strangest prediction of all: mountains that lose their glaciers and permanent snow caps will actually 'grow' as the weight on them decreases.

How to Stop -- Or Live With -- Global Warming

According to research at Princeton, current technologies are capable of stopping (or at least slowing) the rate of global warming by 2050 if properly applied. Using a mix-and-match approach, students who participated in a game-like experiment found that the current portfolio of energy-saving policies and technologies (flourescent bulbs, nuclear power, wind turbines, reducing deforestation, etc.) could indeed keep global greenhouse gases constant over the next 50 years. The trick is to apply these solutions to developing countries, where rapid industrial growth will put them on track to overtake the developed world in greenhouse gas output within the next several decades.

Meanwhile, Live Science has a top-10 list of side effects of global warming, such as more severe allergies, more sinkholes from permafrost melting, a less dense upper atmosphere that will affect how satellites orbit the earth, more forest fires and rapid deterioration of ancient ruins. Perhaps the strangest prediction of all: mountains that lose their glaciers and permanent snow caps will actually 'grow' as the weight on them decreases.

The Risks of Autonomous Robots

Anyone familiar with the Terminator or Matrix movies has an idea of the dangers of intelligent machines running amok. But as scientists develop ever more autonomous robots, such warnings are moving from speculation to reality very quickly.

Samsung, for example, has developed an armed robotic sentry for use in patrolling the tense border between North and South Korea. Such military applications alarm robotic ethicists, who suggest that society is not ready to confront the consequences of autonomous robots designed to kill. They are also concerned about the growing use of robots to care for the elderly, particularly in Japan. Is society, they ask, truly ready to entrust its most frail members to these machines, particularly since our experience with them is relatively limited? Or, could an automated, autonomous nursing home prove to be a 'dumping ground' for those whose care is too inconvenient?

Source: BBC

iPhone Game Review - Bed Bugs

My wife and I both have iPhones and this weekend she was mentioning that she has yet to find a game that she 'just loves to play'. Now, to be fair, she doesn't have a lot of time to surf through the thousands of games in the App Store but I have found quite a few that she likes, just none that she is addicted too.

Well, I may have found one tonight in Bed Bugs. Developed by Igloo Games Bed Bugs is highly addictive and very fun. You play the role of a sleepwalker who climbs out of bed and is bombarded by all different types of Bed Bugs that are doing their best to wake him up. At each level (I made it through 9) a new Bed Bug is introduced and each of them have to be handled differently.

Some you can't touch. Others you have to touch multiple times and in the latest level, some you touch once but you better not touch them again.

The game starts out pretty easy but gets progressively more difficult as the new Bed Bugs get introduced and you have to keep your fingers moving to keep your Sleepwalker asleep.

This is a game that is simply perfect for the iPhone and iPod touch and everything about the game is done extremely well: the sound, the graphics, the controls and the game concept are fantastic.

This is Igloo's second iPhone game. Dizzy Bee was the first and although I have personally not played it, it has gotten tremendous reviews so it's no surprise that these guys have nailed it again with Bed Bugs.

This is a game for all ages and I'm excited to show my kids this one as well. It is currently selling for $1.99 in iTunes and I highly recommend downloading it now.

Capcom Mobile Launches KENKEN for iPhone

Capcom Mobile, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, and NEXTOY today announced the launch of the hit puzzle game KENKEN on the Apple App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. KENKEN: Train Your Brain!, features stunning graphics, intuitive controls and 250 new puzzles to challenge puzzle masters and casual gamers alike.

KENKEN has become a certified phenomenon with more that 1.5 million puzzle books sold and regular puzzles appearing in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Detroit Free Press, Readers Digest and on NYTimes.com.

The brainchild of Japanese Math teacher Tetsuya Miyamoto and made famous by puzzle master Will Shortz, KENKEN requires simple arithmetic calculations and logic to decipher the ingenious puzzles. Translated as 'wisdom squared' in Japanese, KENKEN involves addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

With difficulty levels from beginner to advanced, KENKEN puzzles improve logical thinking, concentration and perseverance.

If you've never played KENKEN it is in the same category as Sudoku but with a different twist. You can try it out online here and see what you think, or you can watch a how to play video here.

KENKEN: Train Your Brain is available from iTunes for $4.99.

IBM's 'Five in Five'

IBM has released a report outlining 'five innovations that will change our lives over the next five years.' The 'big five' concepts -- though not completely new -- are:

• We will be able to access healthcare remotely, from just about anywhere in the world
• Real-time speech translation-once a vision only in science fiction-will become the norm
• There will be a 3-D Internet
• Technologies the size of a few atoms will address areas of environmental importance
• Our mobile phones will come close to reading our minds