Is there anything more viscerally satisfying than a car chase? Especially a cops-and-robbers chase that ends with the bad guys getting rammed into a concrete median? That's the premise of Smash Cops (iTunes link), a thoroughly engaging new iOS game. You drive the squad car, chase down criminals, then do your best to smash and crash their getaway vehicles. At first blush, Smash Cops ($2.99) resembles other top-down racing games, including Reckless Racing and Reckless Getaway. (The latter is pretty much the polar opposite of this game.) But here the view comes from an overhead TV-news helicopter, ostensibly broadcasting the action as it transpires. It's a neat gimmick, particularly the "breaking news"-style status updates. Another big difference: the controls. Instead of steering your car with an onscreen wheel or left/right arrows or the like, you use a "push" method: you hold your finger behind the squad car to make it go, sliding left or right to steer. There's a more-traditional "joypad" option if you prefer it, but I found the push option ideal for this kind of driving. There's one other control, and that's for ramming your cruiser into the getaway car. This requires nothing more than a tap of the screen--and then a wait while your "ram" meter refills. Thus, you can't just ram the bad guys into oblivion; you have to keep up the chase until you've earned another stab at them. Smash Cops looks gorgeous, especially when viewed large on an iPad (or mirrored to your TV, which you can do on an iPhone 4S or iPad 2). And when you manage a solid ram, the enemy car goes flying in a satisfying slow-motion roll. There are other challenges besides running down criminals. You'll also face obstacle courses, evidence-gathering runs, timed races to crime scenes, and so on. Read More
Shazam Player visualizes song lyrics while you listen. Cool! I'm a sucker for cool visuals, which is why I'm gaga over the new Shazam Player app for iOS. It takes something fairly straightforward--song lyrics--and presents it in a visually stimulating, impossible-to-look-away way. Shazam, of course, is best known for the eponymous app that listens to and identifies the song that's playing on the radio, in the cafe, during that TV commercial, etc. Shazam Player aims to replace the stock iPod app with one that offers a few nifty amenities, starting with LyricPlay, a slick feature that visualizes song lyrics as you listen. For any "compatible" song (more on that in a minute), Shazam Player will stream the lyrics using one of several cool themes. Think karaoke machine, but with fancy fonts and cool transitions. For example, sometimes the lyrics scroll from the bottom of the screen to the top. Sometimes they fly in from the side and then shrink into the distance. There's even a kind of reverse "Star Wars"-style text crawl. The player mixes up its various streaming modes with different fonts, font sizes, and background colors, so it always looks a little different. When it's not in lyric-streaming mode, Shazam Player works like most typical music players. Ads appear at the start and finish of each song, but they're barely a distraction. LyricPlay rocks. I had a blast "watching" some of my favorite songs (and learning the right words along the way). And for anyone who likes to sing along, karaoke-style, Shazam Player makes it a breeze. But it's not perfect. I found that the lyrics shown (or highlighted) weren't always in perfect sync with the song. What's more, when you're in visualization mode, you have no access to player controls. You can't pause or skip tracks without returning Read More
The Detroit News, as seen in PressReader 3's new SmartFlow mode. Call me old-fashioned, but I still like newspapers. Not the papers themselves, mind you, and all their environmental unfriendliness (paper, ink, landfill, etc.), but the layout and design. The big headlines and splashy photos. Even the ads. Newspaper apps may serve you the same news, but they just aren't the same. That's one reason I continue to be a fan of PressReader, an iOS app that delivers more than 2,000 newspapers exactly as they appear in the real world. PressReader is also available for iPhone and iPod Touch, but doesn't offer the new SmartFlow feature. For example, as a Detroit native, I like to read my local paper, The Detroit News. There's an app for that, but, frankly, it isn't very good. It lacks the flavor of the print edition--and some of the content. Same goes for USA Today, a rag I've always enjoyed. PressReader brings the full papers to my iPad. Because the pages are scanned, they look terrific, and you can zoom and scroll as needed to get the view you want. There's also a text-to-speech option--great for eyesight-challenged readers--that is much improved since I first looked at the app nearly two years ago. Just-released version 3 adds a feature called SmartFlow, which converts a paper's contents to something more akin to Flipboard. Now you've got an attractively formatted, side-scrolling collection of articles, complete with copy, print, and share features. SmartFlow is pretty cool, though in my tests on an iPad 1, content was slow to load as I swiped between stories. A little optimization would be useful here. And this mode definitely eliminates the original look and feel of the newspaper, which for me is half the reason to choose PressReader in the first place. The other Read More
Roku boxes are all the rage right now, offering cheap and easy streaming of services like HBO Go, Hulu Plus, and Netflix. Of course, another box means another remote, and Roku's clickers are so small they can easily vanish into the couch cushions, never to be seen again. (Well, unless you look.) Here's a handy alternative: Roku for iOS, which brings a full-featured remote to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. (It's coming soon for Android.) The app connects to your box via your home network. I quickly and easily linked my iPhone 4S to an older Roku XR--though judging from some App Store reviews, some users have had trouble with this initial setup. (Check Roku's support page if you encounter a similar problem.) I found Roku for iOS superior to the stock remote in many ways. For one thing, it offers one-tap access to your subscribed channels, which beats the usual method of navigating to the Home screen and scrolling through the list. You can also browse the entire channel library and add/remove channels as desired. Very convenient. As for actual menu navigation, the app relies on swiping in place of left/right and up/down buttons. This works just fine, though it does seem like a bit more work than tapping onscreen buttons would be. It would be nice if Roku let you toggle between swipe and button controls. That said, swiping has one key advantage: you can do it while keeping your eyes on the TV. Buttons would require a lot more glancing down at your phone or tablet. Of course, the real perk here is the app-powered keyboard, which makes searches infinitely easier than navigating the Roku's own keyboard. That alone makes the app a must-have. Indeed, I'd say that if you own a Roku box, you should definitely Read More
If you think this little guy looks cute here, you should see him frolic around your screen. "Game" might not be the right word. Kinectimals simulates adopting and playing with a tiger cub (your choice of five breeds at the beginning, with five more you can unlock). Target audience: 3-year-olds. OK, slightly older kids might enjoy this as well, but Kinectimals is so simplistic that I think anyone over the age of 7 is likely to lose interest pretty quickly. That's not to say this Tamogotchi-style experience is bad, because it's not. Rather, it's cute as the dickens, with frisky tiger cubs who jump and coo and catch (or at least paw at) tennis balls. Soothing new-agey music plays in the background. For the first few minutes, it's not immediately obvious what you're supposed to do with your cub. If you tap him, the camera zooms in and lets you "pet" him. Eventually he'll wander off and get a ball or a jump-rope, both used for kid-friendly mini-games. Tip: tap the trophy icon, which offers challenges (starting with basic tutorials) that earn you experience points and coins you can spend on extra items. Those items can be found by tapping the inventory icon, which also reveals options like Food, Care Items, Trick Mode, and so on. There's even a weird but cute Camera option that sends you to a studio for a photo shoot with your cub. (The snapshots are automatically saved to your iDevice's photo library.) You'd think each photo would show just your pet, but they include the studio surroundings--lights, backdrops, etc.--as well. Like I said: weird. Some of this can be figured out just by tapping around, but I think parents should read the How to Play guide so they can properly instruct kids, who might get frustrated Read More
The vastly improved Netflix 2.0 for iPad. Last month, Android tablet owners were treated to a Netflix interface overhaul, one designed to help users "more easily discover the content they want to watch." Now it's the iPad's turn: just-released Netflix 2.0 brings a refreshed interface to Apple's tablet. The update is available now, and it's a required download: you can no longer run the previous version of the app. According to Netflix Product Manager Zal Bilimoria, "The new app is really a big step forward; it is much more immersive and provides greater focus on our growing catalog by displaying twice as many titles than the previous interface. In addition, through optimization for touch-enabled tablets, Netflix members can now swipe through rows and rows of titles featuring larger artwork." In my mind, the biggest improvement is the Continue Watching carousel, which shows thumbnails of the last six shows you were watching and lets you resume any one of them with just one tap. Previously, the app showed only the most recently viewed video. In other respects, the app comes closer to Netflix's Web interface, with large, scrolling carousels for things like Suspenseful Movies, Emotional Sports Movies, and Newly Added TV Shows. Of course, you can also browse by genre and search the library. The app also seems a lot faster and more responsive. Bottom line: huge improvement. Alas, iPhone and iPod Touch users are stuck with the same mediocre interface, though version 2.0 does at least promise better stability. (It's also newly available to Latin America.) What do you think of Netflix's new look? And what about Netflix in general these days? Still a good deal? (If you want my take, read my recent post: "In defense of Netflix.") Read More
"Adam West? Sorry, never heard of him." Why did Batman cross his legs? Because he had to go to the bat-room. I know, I know. But that joke kills in a room full of 7-year-olds. Speaking of Batman (you knew I had a reason for the potty humor), there's good news for fans of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, two of the top-rated console games of 2009 and 2011, respectively: the Dark Knight just went mobile. Warner Bros. Entertainment has unveiled Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, an official iOS spinoff of the console version. It's $5.99. Built on the famed Unreal engine, Lockdown is sure to draw comparisons to Infinity Blade II, that other visually thrilling iOS game. But the former is darker, grittier, and much more combat-heavy--just like the Bat himself. Combat consists of a series of one-on-one melees, culminating with a face-off against a familiar villain: Two-Face, the Joker, etc. Warner Bros. declined to let me demo the game, but most of the user reviews in the App Store are positive-bordering-on-gushing. (For those who complained of crashes, see my post, "How to fix 95 percent of iOS app crashes.") And you can get a feel for the gameplay in the promo video below. One especially nice perk: Arkham City Lockdown supports AirPlay, meaning you can wirelessly stream the gameplay from your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 to your HDTV (with an Apple TV, natch). If you've had a chance to try Lockdown yourself, hit the comments and let me know how it compares with the console versions--and with other recently celebrated games like Infinity Blade. Read More
All right, people, I hate to be the bearer of such grave news, but resolution season is almost upon us. If you're wondering how to make 2012 the year you finally shed those extra pounds, start choosing the apple over the fries, floss every day, etc., read on. As of late last night, there's an app for all that--and it's free. Called Macaw, the app for iPhone and Android phones could just be the health and fitness app game changer. Developed by U.S. Preventive Medicine alongside wireless health network provider Qualcomm Life, design firm Fjord (of Flickr fame), and former NFLer Joe Theisman, Macaw sets itself apart from the flock by serving as the central hub for all of one's health-related apps, not to mention connectivity to a series of wireless devices, lab results, and more. It also features built-in GPS for running and cycling tracking, and it allows for the manual inputting of other activities such as swims and climbs, not to mention one's food (and caloric) intake. Through a quick seven-question health assessment (i.e. do you smoke, drink alcohol, exercise moderately 30 minutes five times a week, etc.), Macaw even includes goal-setting and automated screening reminders based on gender and age. "We always think we're bulletproof," said Fred Goldstein, president of U.S. Preventive Medicine, who has been working on Macaw for about eight months, in time to introduce it at the 2011 mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C., this week. "As a young person, I didn't get these screenings, do the lab work, have a family physician. But it's important to know your risks. Knowledge is power." Before we get too excited about the seemingly limitless power of a free app to make all our health dreams come true, there's a catch. And it comes with a $229 annual price Read More
I'm just glad the real Roomba doesn't look like this. Woe unto thee if you're a virtual dust bunny. The wrath of Roomba is coming down from on high, and there ain't no wrath like that of a rampaging robot. iRobot has released Roomba's Revenge, a game for iOS that pits Roomba against the evils of dust bunnies, dirt, and pesky felines. Available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, the game features a cartoonish Roomba that looks like a hockey puck with insane eyes and a rictus. When Roomba sucks up enough dirt, it goes into revenge mode and can destroy all the dust bunnies in the house. If you don't clean up before time runs out, you're told, "You don't suck enough." It's a challenging game, with little time to clear each level. I found Roomba a little hard to maneuver on my iPod Touch, but managed to wipe out a good number of dust bunnies before they could turn into whirlwinds and scatter the dirt everywhere. The full version of the game is 99 cents. Part of the proceeds go to iRobot's SPARK education initiative to encourage students in STEM fields. Read More
The Google+ iOS app now offers built-in search. Google has tweaked its Google+ app for the iPhone to add built-in search and a couple of features previously available only on its Web site. Users of the social network can now search for specific people or posts, just as they can on the Google+ site. A search field appears at the top of the mobile app where one can enter a query by name or keyword. The app can now handle full resolution photographs, so images should retain their higher resolution after they're uploaded. Photos also can now be recommended by tapping the +1 button next to the image. In addition to the above changes, Google said it also threw in some bug fixes and performance improvements, though it wasn't specific about what needed fixing or improving. One improvement yet to surface is iPad optimization. The app continues to be designed for the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod Touch, so iPad users will still need to run it in a small window or in the lower-resolution full-screen window. Read More
