Marco Tempest and his Magic Trick with iPods

Marco Tempest has created a wonderful video on 'Deception' using 3 iPods. It's part magic-show, part snazzy graphics woven into a pretty well-done narrative. A neat and original magic show.

Where’s My Water by Disney Mobile: Finally a worthy successor to Angry Birds and Cut the Rope

The surprise of this September (as all of us wait eagerly for the release of iPhone 5) has to be Disney Mobile’s new Puzzle Arcade “Where’s My Water” or WMW (as I’ll refer to it). Released only recently on Sep 22nd and already topping Appstore charts, this app has managed to combine a familiar premise (Bring A to B) in the puzzle arcade genre, an intuitive interface (swiping the finger), and yet it has also introduced sufficiently new elements into the game in order to stand out from the crowd.



In addition, with its rich and cutesy graphics, immersive levels, $0.99 pricing, WMW is definitely set to become one of the all-time greats, following in the footsteps of Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and World of Goo.

The main idea is to swipe and create a tunnel, usually starting from the top of the screen, leading down to the bottom in order to allow a pool of water from the top to flow correctly into a stationary bath tub where a Crocodile (with the name Swampy) is waiting. Cut The Rope fans will be instantly familiar with the game mechanics (guiding A to reach destination B), while World Of Goo fans sense déjà vu (fluid mechanics!). WMW is slightly better designed and suited for the iPhone/iPod compared to the World Of Goo – a wonderful puzzle arcade that I didn’t find playable on anything with screen-sizes smaller than an iPad.



One of the newer game elements introduced by WMW is to have a slider on the left of the screen that increases the challenge by allowing more interesting puzzles which do not necessarily have to follow linearly from top to bottom of the screen.


Slider on the left increases the challenge!

I consider WMw’s peers to be other recent well-made releases like Feed Me Oil, Tiny Wings and Drop the Chicken. However, WMW’s game design is likely to be more enduring than all of those peers, such as Tiny Wings, which has dropped out of our collective radars very quickly when it could not hold our attention. WMW will prove to be $0.99 better value in this regard. Catch the Disney video trailer for the game below, also available on Youtube here.




Disney Mobile (formerly known as Living Mobile based in Munich as reported here) has previously developed other apps that tap on various franchises like Toystory, Baby Einstein, Thor, Cars 2, and also ones that do not, such as Tap Tap Revenge, Kick Buttowski and Jelly Car.



Disney’s acquisition of Living Mobile in 2005 has paid off and they ‘ve hit pay dirt with this one. As reported by Huffington Post here, we could see more of Swampy the Crocodile paraphernalia and Disney movie tie-ups, if WMW continues to stay Number 1 on the Top Paid list at the Appstore. Link here brings you to the WMW Appstore page.

Singapore Army to equip recruits with 8,000 iPads

The Singapore Army has announced plans to purchase 8,000 iPads for new recruits into the army. According to the Defence Chief, General Neo (no relation to Neo of the Matrix-trilogy, but somehow apt…), he claims that adopting the iPad would enable the Armed forces to harness the technological abilities of the youth. With the built-in camera, servicemen are able to snap photos and video clips in the field that can then be uploaded and could come in handy to carry out post-mission debriefing.


(Photo taken from Asiaone website)

There’s more to it obviously, since I think it would be more sensible otherwise to equip all the recruits with cameras, (which would make for a very strange headline indeed). The iPads would presumably also be useful as a learning tool, replacing paper maps, note-taking during mission briefings etc. But I think the iPad would not be sufficiently rugged nor waterproofed to withstand more than a few hours in the field.

I struggled to think of a similar non-violent gadget that had widespread civilian acceptance and that was subsequently adopted by the military. Arguably, running shoes would fall into the same category – no one expects soldiers to go to war wearing running shoes, but during peacetime training, the comfort and ease provided by running shoes for keeping fit in the army camp can be justified. The second example is that using laptops and powerpoint presentations for briefings are pretty much part and parcel of classroom-based learning in many advanced militaries.

Personally, I think the iPod Touch 4G would be a better choice, given that they are more mobile and less unwieldy than iPads.

This story was reported in the local Singapore dailies here and here.

Trip to Hong Kong: survey of Chinese iPhone magazines

I recently took a vacation in Hong Kong with my family and I was pretty excited to check out the iPhone scene over there. There were several Chinese-language magazines that covered only iPhone and iPad related stuff, but what caught my eye was this magazine called ‘iPhone’. I bought the magazine and snapped a photo of the cover here:



If you were wondering, like me, how the lady sitting on the sports car could be related to the iPhone scene, I can tell you: “Plenty!”.

First of all, she introduced the readers to all the possible ways to charge an iPhone or iPad in your car – you know, for those days when you desperately needed to mount and charge your iPhone or iPad in your car, and I’m guessing it’s for that drive from Kowloon to Hong Kong island.



Then, she appeared in the centrefold to let us know the various apps she could use in Hong Kong to (going clockwise): navigate in Hong Kong or Macau, find a parking lot, locate the nearest gas station, check out traffic conditions, sell her car, and find the nearest servicing center.



I was also quite amazed how versatile the iPhone could be. IK Multimedia has managed to develop a system where you could plug in a microphone into the audio jack and karaoke to the tune that is playing on the iPhone!



The game-changer in this app-accessory package, called the iRig Mic, has to be in its ability to recognise the song on your iTunes and display the correct lyrics with the prompter. The package requires users to download the iRig Recorder app or AmpliTube. It is selling for HKD$599. Their website is over here.

Teenager sells kidney to buy iPad 2 and iPhone

I just saw this news from the main Singaporean english daily, The Straits Times, and thought that it was pretty horrifying at so many levels. And if you think about it, such 'horrors' happen everyday - people sacrificing themselves or part of themselves in an irreversible manner for material rewards that a majority of us would deem unnecessary or overextended. In this case, the incident only made the news because an iPad or iPhone was involved.

The article dated 3 June 2011:

A TEENAGER in China reportedly sold one of his kidneys for 22,000 yuan (S$4,185) so he could buy an iPad 2.

The Global Times said the 17-year-old high school student, identified only as Zheng, had confessed to his mother after she noticed the gadget and a deep red scar on his body, which was from the surgery.

Zheng had travelled from his home in Anhui province to the city of Chenzhou without his family's knowledge, where his kidney was removed at a hospital under the supervision of a kidney agent.

The Global Times said Zheng's mother took him back to Chenzhou to report the incident to the authorities, but the contact numbers given by the kidney agents were not working.

Zheng also bought an iPhone and a laptop with the proceeds from the sale of his kidney, his mother said.

The Chenzhou hospital where the boy had his surgery denied any connection with the kidney removal, but admitted that it had contracted out its urology department to a businessman.

Adding Wallpaper to HTC Widget HD using iFile

The default wallpaper for the HTC Widget HD is just a black background. However, you can choose to insert your own wallpaper. This can entirely be performed using iFile:

1. Copy your wallpaper into this location 'var/mobile/Library/Springboard'.

2. Rename your wallpaper as 'HomeBackgroundPortrait.jpg'.

3. Respring.

In my case, I like the default wallpaper '100.png' (the one with the bubbles) and it can be found for my iPhone in the directory 'var/stash/Wallpaper.ajkUws/iPhone'. The screenshot is illustrated here.

Borowitz Report: iPad prevents adultery

New and serious "research" uncovered by the Borowitz Report dated 19 May 2011, says that iPad owners are less likely to commit adultery “because they stop noticing other people altogether.”




The article here, goes on to say that the study, which was conducted on a sample of one thousand iPad owners, found that not only did iPad use make them thoroughly uninterested in extramarital sex, “their nonstop talking about the amazing features and apps on their iPads made them completely unattractive to potential sex partners as well.”

Being an iPad owner, I was both agreeing and offended by the article. Firstly, I thought being less likely to commit adultery was a good thing. However, the article was extremely discriminatory towards iPad owners since it would apply to all Tablet owners, unless, it supposes that potential iPad owners were more sexually promiscuous than the average Tablet owner before they bought the iPad.

Secondly, my wife notices me less when she's checking her facebook updates on her Macbook. So obviously, you become less sexually interested also when you're (1) on facebook and (2)using your Macbook. Although, if you're checking your facebook updates of your ex-girl/boyfriend, that would be very suspicious so this is obviously something very difficult to factor into any experiment or research study.

Thirdly, the sample size of 1000 iPad owners is extremely small, given that there are many more iPad owners than any other tablet in the market. And being an Asian, I suspect that the sample size wasn't reflective of the global ethnic demography. However, having checked the chinese app market, the higher than average rankings of tintillating apps/ebooks suggest that being Flash-unfriendly was definitely necessary in keeping Asian iPad owners on the straight and narrow.

In conclusion, given that Mcdonalds is required to put up warning labels on their paper cups regarding the dangers of hot fluids, there should then be a warning that pops up at 30 minute-intervals of iPad usage, reminding every iPad owner not to forget to spend a few minutes stretching, talking to your wife and kids and petting the family dog.