TUAW’s Daily App: The Screetch

Filed under: iPhone, App Store

The Screetch is a great game with a funny name. At its heart, it's a match three game; you want to match three of a kind for a certain round gem while you're constantly dropping them from above (Tetris style). The game's namesake is where things get slimy, though. The Screetch is constantly "infecting" gems that are dropped onto the board, and you can only clear it out by matching three gems and putting the slimy, oily dude into a flask.

It sounds complicated, but of course, it starts out simple and builds up from there. As the game progresses, the Screetch moves faster, requiring you to drop gems in the right places quickly. There are also lightning gems that will clear out whole lines of the board and quite a few levels to ramp up the difficulty as you play along. The Screetch element adds a fun, new twist to the standard match three gameplay, and the graphics are pretty well polished to boot.

The game is available on the App Store right now for US $2.99, and the addition of online league play and trophies extends the playability a little bit. If you're a fan of match three games or just want a fun thrill to pick up and play for a few minutes at a time, check it out.

TUAW's Daily App: The Screetch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW's Daily App: The Screetch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft thinks Apple is selling too many iPads

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, under whose watch Office, Windows, and Server profits have soared while mobile has stumbled and faltered, was bombastically candid when addressing Apple’s 3.3 million strong iPad install base:

“they’ve sold certainly more than I’d like them to have sold.”

In response, Microsoft is hard at work on a Windows-based alternative (which is curious given Bill Gates’ almost singular drive to popularize Tablet PC over much of the last decade):

“They’ll be shipping as soon as they are ready,” Ballmer said, offering few details on the products, which he said will come from partners, not Microsoft itself. “It is job one urgency. No one is sleeping at the switch.”

So Microsoft won’t be making their own tablet the way they made their own Zune music player or Xbox gaming console, nor will they be using the panoramic Windows Phone 7, set for release this fall:

“We have got to make things happen,” he said. “We’re in the process of doing that as we speak. We’re working with our hardware partners. We’re tuning Windows 7.”

Apple of course didn’t try to put Mac OS X on the iPad, they went with iOS. HP has gone out and bought Palm webOS, and Google is readying both Android and Chrome OS, and even RIM is showing signs of life. There were tons of Windows-based tablets being touted at CES 2010 back in January, but none have really appeared on the market yet and while Microsoft’s Courier project was interesting but they KIN’ed it pre-launch. 3 months and as many million sales later and iPad pretty much still has the category it created to itself. It needs competition (from more than just the Kindle).

Hey, maybe if they call it WinPad?

[CNET, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Microsoft thinks Apple is selling too many iPads is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Parrot AR.Drone now available for pre-order at Brookstone

Filed under: iPhone, iPad

Good news, everyone! The long-awaited Parrot AR.Drone (as seen being crashed into one of Parrot's PR reps by yours truly) is finally available for pre-order over at Brookstone. And as promised back at E3, the iPhone-controlled quadricopter will be available for US $299.

It's available in a couple of different color schemes, comes with a free "flight bag" (if you're within the first 300 orders), and requires a shipping fee of $10. Unfortunately, there's no shipping outside of the United States, and of course, the iPhone or iPod touch is sold separately. According to the pre-order page, orders are "expected to ship" on September 3rd, 2010; that's just over a month from now.

The $299 sticker price is a little steep if you ask me, but then again, if you have a need for an iPhone-controlled quadricopter with not one but two cameras on board, you probably have a couple hundred bucks to put into it. If you do order one, be sure to keep us updated on when it ships, and let us know what you think of the device. Happy flying!

Parrot AR.Drone now available for pre-order at Brookstone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Parrot AR.Drone now available for pre-order at Brookstone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Validas study finds Verizon smartphones consuming more data than iPhones

You know how we've good reason to believe that Verizon Wireless is at least mulling the switch to capped / tiered data plans? Yeah. An independent Validas research report has found that, between January and May of this year (pre-AT&T caps), Verizon's stable of smartphones collectively averaged more data consumption per month that Apple's iPhone. Of course, this quite literally compares an Apple to every smartphone on Verizon save for BlackBerries, but given how much squalling we've heard from Ma Bell about this rampant iPhone data usage, we're pleased to see a few facts that spin things the other way. The company's full report is due out in September, but investigation of over 20,000 wireless bills found that VZW smartphones "are consuming more wireless data than AT&T iPhones by a ratio of roughly 1.25:1," with the average Verizon user eating up 421MB per month and the average iPhone user consuming 338MB per month. It also points out that "nearly twice as many Verizon Wireless smartphone users are consuming 500MB to 1GB per month compared to AT&T iPhone users." You learn something new everyday, right?

Continue reading Validas study finds Verizon smartphones consuming more data than iPhones

Validas study finds Verizon smartphones consuming more data than iPhones originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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